Fic Talk > General Discussion
The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 22, 2021, 09:31:25 PM ---Today's Camp Nano Care Package:
"Read what's being published in the genre you're writing. Read old books and new. Get a good feel for what your genre is. This will help with your writing and it also might help you when pitching your book to agents/publishers."
--- End quote ---
Does anyone else struggle to find quality fiction (fanfic or original) in their favorite genre? I have read some great BSB medical dramas over the years, but most of them are really old at this point - I haven't come across many recent examples. In the world of published fiction, I haven't found many good books written for adults in this genre either. I've read a handful over the years, but even some of those were more YA books, like The Fault in Our Stars. I guess the "crying and dying" books are more of a YA trend.
I have turned to true stories - memoirs - for inspiration for MBK because there aren't a lot of novels about the topic I'm writing about. The most well-known one is universally hated by people in the situation I've put Kevin in, so while I enjoyed reading that particular book years ago, I have not used it as a source for research or inspiration. Not having a lot of fictional examples to emulate forces me to be more original and figure things out for myself, but it would be nice to be able to read more of the stuff I like to write. It's a good thing I'm not trying to pitch a novel to a publisher because medical drama storylines must not be popular outside of fanfic and YA fiction.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 22, 2021, 09:31:25 PM ---If you're feeling stuck, jot down a list of a few of the tropes, characters, or situations that usually show up in the genre you're currently writing. Which ones do you love, and which ones do you find annoying? Use these as a jumping off point to write a scene featuring one of those things!
--- End quote ---
We've talked a lot about tropes, but I had to laugh at this because I was watching this week's episode of The Resident earlier and rolled my eyes at the use of the Incurable Cough of Death/Blood from the Mouth trope. A character had just been discharged from the ER with a clean bill of health after her labs came back normal, only to start coughing up blood just outside the door, which of course meant that she was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in the next scene. So predictable. I miss ER.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on April 22, 2021, 09:37:37 PM ---I'm glad yours has too! Today I wrote two different little bits so far, the start of my next chapter this afternoon and the start of the next book this morning. As usual, I continue to be all over the place, lol. I think you passed your tiredness on to me because I have been exhausted this whole week. I don't know if it's the off and on snow or what, but so tired.
I thought about taking a nap today! But I had that Thursday training again, so I decided to write a little before it started. I'm hoping I can jump back in where I left off. :)
I hope the ER reunion was worth skipping the nap for. ;D Just make sure that you don't sleep deprive yourself next week.
--- End quote ---
Hey, at least you're writing multiple times a day, even if it is all over the place. I hope you can settle into one part of the story so you feel like you're making progress, even though every little bit counts.
Ugh, we had spring snow earlier this week too, but thankfully it didn't stick. I saw Mare got a decent amount too! I do think the weather being all over the place makes us all out of sorts. Hopefully we can all catch up on sleep again this weekend!
The ER reunion was totally worth staying up for! Two hours of pure joy. I started crying the moment Anthony Edwards appeared on the screen. What a dork. But they were all getting each other teary-eyed with nostalgia, too! It's on YouTube if anyone else wants to watch: https://youtu.be/q32KZI_3ohI
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on April 22, 2021, 09:47:39 PM ---Anyone else ever feel that way? You write and write in one genre and then think "if I even look at x genre, I'm going to hurl"? Anyone know why? Psychology school me, basically, lol!
--- End quote ---
I always think I'm going to feel that way after finishing a particularly intense medical drama, but I inevitably end up coming back for more. I feel that way more about writing than reading, though. I've never gotten burnt out on reading well-written medical drama by other authors - like I said earlier, I wish there was more of it out there.
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 22, 2021, 10:04:37 PM ---Does anyone else struggle to find quality fiction (fanfic or original) in their favorite genre? I have read some great BSB medical dramas over the years, but most of them are really old at this point - I haven't come across many recent examples. In the world of published fiction, I haven't found many good books written for adults in this genre either. I've read a handful over the years, but even some of those were more YA books, like The Fault in Our Stars. I guess the "crying and dying" books are more of a YA trend.
--- End quote ---
I probably need to be better about reading fantasy novels again; I've gotten out of reading for a little while here. There was never much BSB fanfic in fantasy, but it's definitely out there in traditional publishing. Though I've been avoiding it right now as I write just because I'm too spongey. I did have an "oh no" moment about a month ago where I was looking over a list of newly published YA fantasy books. (My aside got too long, so I had to edit how I was writing this.)
I think that's what PBox is demographic-wise since I don't know that I'd call it a "coming of age" novel necessarily, but it's definitely in there fairly prevalently -- especially with Nick and Minako sharing a lot of the POV role and being utterly clueless about their place in the world (at least they have each other). Awkwardly enough, it's a bit of a continuity snarl since it was very much written to be a Never Gone-era fanfic, but reading back over it, I've always felt like Nick read 18 more than 25, lol. And now as I keep going on the story, I'm just leaning into that? Definitely in the OF version (deciding between 16 and 17 at this point), but even in PNecklace. In the edit, I made the timeline in the fantasy part to be a lot more vague intentionally to reflect that feeling. Really all of the Boys except for maybe Kevin read more early twenties than late twenties/early thirties. I don't know if that was due to my age at the time or what. (See, I told you that this aside got long).
Anyway... so I was looking over a list of newly published YA Books and was like, alright fairies, vampires, werewolves, yup, ooh a couple with demons. But then one of them had a main character named Nick and I went "oh no!" I googled into it and the premises are really different and the character seems really different, but I had a heart attack for a long time as I googled. It also made me think on my novel's DEI with a cast full of mostly white pretty boys since they were all based on actual boy bands originally.
I wonder why "crying and dying" is more YA. Is it too real of an adult fear for adult fiction? Just like we say in our fanfic circles, if it's not out there then that's all the more reason to put it out there.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 22, 2021, 10:04:37 PM ---I have turned to true stories - memoirs - for inspiration for MBK because there aren't a lot of novels about the topic I'm writing about. The most well-known one is universally hated by people in the situation I've put Kevin in, so while I enjoyed reading that particular book years ago, I have not used it as a source for research or inspiration. Not having a lot of fictional examples to emulate forces me to be more original and figure things out for myself, but it would be nice to be able to read more of the stuff I like to write. It's a good thing I'm not trying to pitch a novel to a publisher because medical drama storylines must not be popular outside of fanfic and YA fiction.
--- End quote ---
I tried to think of universally hated books and my mind went to A Million Little Pieces, lol. Is that it? I think it's good to balance fiction and non-fiction as much as you can for inspiration. It's different angles on the same subject. Are you reading thick memoirs or are they more excerpts?
My next aside, pitching seems like a difficult thing to do for a verbose person who sucks at summaries, lol. The only real intel I've gathered is that "standalone with series potential" may be my bread and butter in this department.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 22, 2021, 10:04:37 PM ---We've talked a lot about tropes, but I had to laugh at this because I was watching this week's episode of The Resident earlier and rolled my eyes at the use of the Incurable Cough of Death/Blood from the Mouth trope. A character had just been discharged from the ER with a clean bill of health after her labs came back normal, only to start coughing up blood just outside the door, which of course meant that she was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in the next scene. So predictable. I miss ER.
--- End quote ---
Not the Incurable Cough of Death! Not after all the labs came back normal! I feel like that doesn't happen! lol.
Aw man, the last fantasy thing I watched was the Dark Crystal miniseries on Netflix. And it definitely had many of the standard fantasy tropes, but I can't remember one where I thought "oh no, not this again." It's been a while, lol.
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 22, 2021, 10:11:24 PM ---Hey, at least you're writing multiple times a day, even if it is all over the place. I hope you can settle into one part of the story so you feel like you're making progress, even though every little bit counts.
Ugh, we had spring snow earlier this week too, but thankfully it didn't stick. I saw Mare got a decent amount too! I do think the weather being all over the place makes us all out of sorts. Hopefully we can all catch up on sleep again this weekend!
The ER reunion was totally worth staying up for! Two hours of pure joy. I started crying the moment Anthony Edwards appeared on the screen. What a dork. But they were all getting each other teary-eyed with nostalgia, too! It's on YouTube if anyone else wants to watch: https://youtu.be/q32KZI_3ohI
--- End quote ---
I have convinced myself to take advantage of the available little spurts instead of avoiding them. I'm embracing the self-cliff hanger, lol. I'm making progress somewhere. I'll get to the end of this one and go, well, since this next one is fairly written, I may as well just finish it, lol. NaNo says at my current pace, I will finish PNecklace in May, so 3/4 of a year is not bad for finishing a novel. At least according to my track record on finishing novels, lol. I think I'll feel better once I get these last two chapters finished before the divergent bit. I always get a little nervous as I get down to only ten chapters ahead of my updates.
I was hoping ours would stick so I could have a snow day. It's been basically every other day: snow, nice, snow, nice, snow, nice. It's exhausting! Catch up on sleep and feel inspired to write pages upon pages of prose!
Aw! Glad you had a great two-hours, cried, and lived the nostalgia. :)
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