Fic Talk > General Discussion
The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
nicksgal:
It's been raining for like three days and it finally stopped, and now my writing mojo is gone, lol.
While I was perusing the fanfic reddit Julie mentioned the other day, I saw a lot of posts that were akin to "I started writing my first longfic! Send me well wishes!" And I can't remember ever starting with short stories before moving on to novels with chapters. I mean, clearly I wouldn't call 300 words a "chapter" now by any means, but I certainly considered it a chapter of a novel when I started writing fanfics, lol. (I checked out of curiosity and a short/snappy Nick and Brian conversation I wrote today was that long. This clearly means I've finished another chapter, lol.) Then it got me thinking. Did everyone else start off thinking, "I'm writing a story it has multiple chapters" or did anyone here start with short stories and move into novels (or novellas) with chapters? Is this a new thing in fanfic to write a bunch of different short stories rather than focus on writing one long one? I'm curious why this is...
I also stumbled on a post that was like "how long is too long for a chapter?" and some people were saying they'd read chapters that were 10k words. And that gave me hives. That's clearly three chapters, lol. I'm a firm believer that a chapter ends when a chapter ends, so I guess if it needed to be 10k words, I would accept that. Although personally, when they inch closer to 5k or 6k, I do my best to split them up into two chapters instead of one really long one because they just feel incredibly verbose at that point.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 09, 2021, 10:31:59 PM ---Perfect! You don't have to write a tour scene and everybody gets to spend a chapter watching the show, lol. I'm glad this worked out. ;)
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Hehe. Well, I finally hit the four-digit mark in my chapter, so I guess it's going a little better. I just watched this video of Show Me the Meaning from the Unbreakable tour like five times in a row: https://youtu.be/0spith0Ir6w So good! Still haven't gotten around to watching the whole tour video yet.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 09, 2021, 10:31:59 PM ---Okay, but what class is each Boy when they sail the Titanic? Who gets the love story? Are any of them fighting over the same woman? Or man? Is Nick the "Rose-type" character? Does Kevin save the day historically like Molly? I would read this, lol.
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All I decided for sure was that Nick would definitely be in steerage like Jack Dawson, since he grew up as poor white trash. I also thought Howie might come from a family of Irish immigrants. Brian would probably be in first class, since he (his wife) likes the finer things in life. Not sure about Kevin and AJ. I feel like there used to be fanfics about BSB on the Titanic. I remember a humor story that just made fun of them, but I think there were serious ones too. I'm a Titanic buff, so if I ever felt like doing a historical fic, it could be a fun concept.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 09, 2021, 10:31:59 PM ---lmao! I am not, but you must have been reading my mind while I was posting last night. I didn't type it, but I definitely thought "It might be a good idea to have some hand sanitizer handy when the day finally comes to meet them. Just in case."
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Hehe, I have actually started a collection of BSB hand sanitizers. It started with the "I'm Taking Off Nick's Germs" sanitizer I made in 2011. https://twitter.com/ForeverRebel/status/709707297618993153 There is also a Brian Ebola edition from 2014 and a Howie one from... 2017? Next up is going to be a Kevin COVID edition for when the DNA tour finally resumes.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 09, 2021, 10:31:59 PM ---Same, I have said something like that to myself many times, then I come here and say "well, we've reached a whole new level of dark and depressing here," lol.
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LOL Does anyone else feel like they subconsciously (or deliberately) try to one-up themselves when it comes to dark and depressing? I've written things in the last few years that would have horrified me back when I was just chopping off Nick's leg, and it hardly fazes me now.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 11, 2021, 09:11:18 PM ---It's been raining for like three days and it finally stopped, and now my writing mojo is gone, lol.
While I was perusing the fanfic reddit Julie mentioned the other day, I saw a lot of posts that were akin to "I started writing my first longfic! Send me well wishes!" And I can't remember ever starting with short stories before moving on to novels with chapters. I mean, clearly I wouldn't call 300 words a "chapter" now by any means, but I certainly considered it a chapter of a novel when I started writing fanfics, lol. (I checked out of curiosity and a short/snappy Nick and Brian conversation I wrote today was that long. This clearly means I've finished another chapter, lol.) Then it got me thinking. Did everyone else start off thinking, "I'm writing a story it has multiple chapters" or did anyone here start with short stories and more into novels (or novellas) with chapters? Is this a new thing in fanfic to write a bunch of different short stories rather than focus on writing one long one? I'm curious why this is...
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Oh noes! Come back, rain!
I imagine most of the posters on the Fanfiction section of Reddit are teenagers. They sound really young. It does seem like one-shots/short stories are the big thing now instead of "longfics"/novels. I've noticed that on AO3 too. I think a lot of that has to do with the emphasis on pairings/ships and smut over actual plot and character development, but to each their own. Personally, I started the same way you did - with multi-chapter "novels" (which were really more novellas, some of which were the same length as short stories I would write today LOL). I wrote the occasional one-shot too, but I've always preferred writing longer stories. They just have more substance and depth.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 11, 2021, 09:11:18 PM ---I also stumbled on a post that was like "how long is too long for a chapter?" and some people were saying they'd read chapters that were 10k words. And that gave me hives. That's clearly three chapters, lol. I'm a firm believer that a chapter ends when a chapter ends, so I guess if it needed to be 10k words, I would accept that. Although personally, when they inch closer to 5k or 6k, I do my best to split them up into two chapters instead of one really long one because they just feel incredibly verbose at that point.
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10k does seem long, although I'm like you - a chapter ends when a chapter ends. I have written 10k-word chapters when there's one long scene that doesn't have a natural breaking point, but that is definitely not my norm. I'm usually in the 2500-5000 word range. As a reader, I don't really pay attention to the word count of chapters unless it feels really long. Then I'm like, "When is this going to end??" So if it's a super long chapter, it better be a good one! Personally, the chapters of mine that get that long tend to be the intense, dramatic ones, so hopefully they feel exciting instead of long-winded and boring LOL.
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 11, 2021, 09:39:44 PM ---Hehe. Well, I finally hit the four-digit mark in my chapter, so I guess it's going a little better. I just watched this video of Show Me the Meaning from the Unbreakable tour like five times in a row: https://youtu.be/0spith0Ir6w So good! Still haven't gotten around to watching the whole tour video yet.
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Four digits! Glad it's going better; I knew it would eventually. :) Ah, SMTMOBL is always fantastic. I was thinking that in my car today that if IGBY didn't break up Millennium 1-3 and 5-8, that would be seven of the best songs in a row. Not that I don't like IGBY, but you know. Maybe the whole tour video is your reward when you finish the chapter. Unless you need it for inspiration, of course.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 11, 2021, 09:39:44 PM ---All I decided for sure was that Nick would definitely be in steerage like Jack Dawson, since he grew up as poor white trash. I also thought Howie might come from a family of Irish immigrants. Brian would probably be in first class, since he (his wife) likes the finer things in life. Not sure about Kevin and AJ. I feel like there used to be fanfics about BSB on the Titanic. I remember a humor story that just made fun of them, but I think there were serious ones too. I'm a Titanic buff, so if I ever felt like doing a historical fic, it could be a fun concept.
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I see you still sending your love to Nowie in steerage, lol. Unless Brian is Rose and Nick is Jack, lol. I mean, I can't blame Leighanne for enjoying nice things; nice things are awesome! I say that as I sit here in the same little pink desk chair I've had since college that couldn't have been more than $100 if even that. I can't imagine that they wouldn't have existed because I feel like the center part of the venn diagram for "likes Titanic" and "likes the Backstreet Boys" would include a lot of people. Plus whatever the "and writes fanfic about it" chunk looks like. I think historical fiction is awesome and I love history, but "names and dates" were always the hardest part of history for me and I feel like that's a big part of historical fiction.
On a Titanic side note, the amount of times I've been to Molly Brown's house is astronomical.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 11, 2021, 09:39:44 PM ---Hehe, I have actually started a collection of BSB hand sanitizers. It started with the "I'm Taking Off Nick's Germs" sanitizer I made in 2011. https://twitter.com/ForeverRebel/status/709707297618993153 There is also a Brian Ebola edition from 2014 and a Howie one from... 2017? Next up is going to be a Kevin COVID edition for when the DNA tour finally resumes.
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LMFAO! Of course Nick hand sanitizer would be first. That picture was hilarious.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 11, 2021, 09:39:44 PM ---LOL Does anyone else feel like they subconsciously (or deliberately) try to one-up themselves when it comes to dark and depressing? I've written things in the last few years that would have horrified me back when I was just chopping off Nick's leg, and it hardly fazes me now.
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I don't think I try, I think my threshold for dark and depressing has expanded over the years. I think I mentioned that I preemptively added my PBox warnings to PNecklace, just so everyone knew it wasn't lighter and fluffier and I still haven't used any of them. It makes me miss my fantastical graphic violence a little bit... Because my one part that would have had graphic violence already was my "nope, kids" line. Oh well.
On the plus side, I feel like Broken Nick was pretty shaken up about having his leg chopped off, so he still thought it was dark and depressing then and probably would now if you asked him, lol.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 09, 2021, 11:10:34 PM ---Interesting! I would say that I think so based on the fact that you've talked about your favorites, I've talked about my favorites, and there's a whole reddit thread where no one disagrees with the original poster. At least for every story the author is personally invested in.
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I definitely have had "The Scene" for most, if not all of my stories. Is it bad that I can't think of what that scene would be for my current story? LOL There are definitely scenes I'm looking forward to, but not really one big one in particular. The drama starts right at the end of Chapter 1, though, so there's not the same build-up to a big reveal or pivotal moment like I'm used to writing.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 09, 2021, 11:10:34 PM ---Speaking of sex scenes, though, lol. I ended up deep scrolling through that reddit page and was reading a post about sex scenes and had an epiphany, like "Ah yes, this is why my sex scene was not bad, but felt very porny instead of sweet and sentimental for the characters. Because the 'camera' was just too far out from their heads and feelings." So I spent part of today fixing that for longer than I should have so it still had some time to sit before I ultimately decided what to do with it come that update week, lol. There's more head hopping than I like, but it felt right? To be honest, even the porny version felt fine compared to how much I thought I hated it when I wrote it, so I'll probably just end up keeping this rewritten version in the story when the time comes.
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Hm, that's an interesting epiphany! That makes sense that it would feel more "porny" if you focus more on their actions than feelings. I am definitely not an expert on writing sex scenes. I'm like you in that I don't hate the ones I've written, but I also don't know if any of them are good. I would need someone who is more prolific at writing them to critique mine and let me know LOL. I'm glad you don't hate either version of yours and were able to revise it to make it even better. Keep it!
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 09, 2021, 11:10:34 PM ---I've mentioned it many times, but PBox's "Chapter Forty-Four: Disciple" was my one true love and the scene I dreamed about for as long I was writing the story. I don't know if anyone else would call it a "signature scene," but it probably remains my favorite, for sure of PBox, but possibly in the whole series.
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I love those scenes that you dream about the whole time you're writing the story, whether they become a signature scene for readers or not.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 09, 2021, 11:10:34 PM ---Do we have a version of the opposite? One we didn't think was a The Scene, but we've come to love afterward? Because the second scene in Chapter Fourteen: Soul comes to mind as that. I love that one so much after having written it down. Again, no links, see above.
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I don't know if there's an official term for it, but yes! "The Scene" tends to be a big moment in the story, but there are also those little moments that become hidden gems. For me, those scenes tend to be the ones with great conversations between the boys. Nothing big necessarily happens, but they flow well and are just sweet/cute/funny/touching. I had that happen with my ER crossover, Heroic Measures. "The Scene" for me was always going to be Chapter 5, which is a big dramatic resuscitation scene. But my favorite scene in that story end up being a conversation between AJ and Nick in Chapter 9. It's one of the least dramatic/action-packed scenes in the whole story, but I love their banter and the way the tone shifts over the course of the chapter.
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