Fic Talk > General Discussion
The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 19, 2021, 07:01:04 PM ---I was doing the same, but most of the ones I've seen pop up anywhere are all things we've discussed.
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Yep, and most of the fanfiction subreddit just seems to be threads about ships, kudos, and comments. Not as much actual writing talk there, whereas the writing subreddit focuses more on writing craft and habits, but leans toward original fiction and publishing.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 19, 2021, 07:01:04 PM ---Team wordiness! Like you, I feel like I am wordy already. I don't think I make it through a whole chapter before I start editing it. If I stop writing in the middle of a chapter, I always go back and reread anything I'd written before continuing. As far as major revisions... It's a little bit of both. Sometimes I add and sometimes I hack. I think which one I do varies based on how I'm feeling about the chapter when I go to edit it. Being able to let the chapters sit for... what... five months for this week's update? I feel like it helps take away some of the freshness and gives me a different feeling for it. The earlier ones I posted were a lot less removed, but the removal has only grown over time.
This doesn't mean that my hacks don't turn into hacking and replacing, because they do that also. I'd say in general, my chapters do get slightly longer after an edit, but usually in the 50-200 word range more than major additions after the fact.
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I do think that feeling of removal is important for really being able to revise. It allows you to look at your writing with fresh eyes and see more of the big picture. Part of the reason I don't hack as much as I add or replace is that it's hard to just delete something I spent time writing, unless I absolutely hate it. But when it's not newly written, it's easier to take a step back, look at it more objectively, and make changes where they're needed.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 19, 2021, 07:06:57 PM ---Sorry you got sick! But I'm glad it wasn't majorly sick that you could still write and catch up on sleep! That's awesome that you're inching toward 3000 words for the two days! I always consider that a productive weekend. And now you get a whole other potentially productive weekend ahead of you. Congrats!
But... did you pass your slump on to me? haha I wrote about 400 words on Monday, which isn't too bad, but lower than the average Monday. And then only three words yesterday. I wrote a little this morning (about 62 words), so the streak lives, but I'm hoping to be semi-productive either now or after the Masked Singer tonight. However, as you all know, I'm pretty useless on update day. On the plus side, my writing speed is now eight words per minute, lol. And I'm just shy of two weeks ahead of myself, so... baby steps. Nano says I'll be done on June 8th, but I doubt that's true. I see this chapter taking a little longer, so at best, I'll be finished around June 20th or so. Which is still good.
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Thanks! Now if I could just stop violently sneezing and needing to blow my nose, that would be great. Other than that, I feel fine.
I hope I didn't pass my slump on to you! 400 words on a weeknight really isn't bad. In a normal week, I tend to write less each day until I hit the weekend and catch up on sleep. Your writing speed is still more than double mine - I got mine up from 2 words a minute to 3 LOL. Are you at a tough part of the story like I was last week, or are you just feeling uninspired? It's so frustrating when the latter happens and you don't know why, but it was bound to happen to both of us at some point. I hope you'll have a productive weekend!
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 19, 2021, 10:52:29 PM ---Yep, and most of the fanfiction subreddit just seems to be threads about ships, kudos, and comments. Not as much actual writing talk there, whereas the writing subreddit focuses more on writing craft and habits, but leans toward original fiction and publishing.
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I feel like the focus on ships is so weird, but I don't know if that's because ships didn't used to be as big, or probably more realistically because we write in a fandom that doesn't really have ships... as much anyway.
Imagine if you had to find an agent to post fanfic on the internet, haha. I guess Ash is our publishing house?
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 19, 2021, 10:52:29 PM ---I do think that feeling of removal is important for really being able to revise. It allows you to look at your writing with fresh eyes and see more of the big picture. Part of the reason I don't hack as much as I add or replace is that it's hard to just delete something I spent time writing, unless I absolutely hate it. But when it's not newly written, it's easier to take a step back, look at it more objectively, and make changes where they're needed.
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Exactly! Part of me wishes that I had been a little more removed from writing the beginning chapters as there's a couple of things I would change now that I didn't back then and couldn't at this point.
I think hacking doesn't bother me as much because if I truly want to hack, then I feel like it's unnecessary. I probably do more hack and replace than true hacking, but I'll let you all know after I edit next week's chapter. I'll keep track of what I got rid of too, just to experiment.
I love my update schedule, but I've been thinking of trying to catch AO3's posting up to where AC is, but I'm not sure how to do that... Post twice a week for a hot second? Post two chapters a week when it makes sense? I don't know. Anyone have thoughts?
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 19, 2021, 10:52:29 PM ---Thanks! Now if I could just stop violently sneezing and needing to blow my nose, that would be great. Other than that, I feel fine.
I hope I didn't pass my slump on to you! 400 words on a weeknight really isn't bad. In a normal week, I tend to write less each day until I hit the weekend and catch up on sleep. Your writing speed is still more than double mine - I got mine up from 2 words a minute to 3 LOL. Are you at a tough part of the story like I was last week, or are you just feeling uninspired? It's so frustrating when the latter happens and you don't know why, but it was bound to happen to both of us at some point. I hope you'll have a productive weekend!
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Have you stopped violently sneezing and needing to to blow your nose as of today? Did you end up going back to work today? How was it? Did you get lot more written yesterday and feel inspired today still?
I think it's okay. I ended up leaving myself a note last night to the effect of "Brian in the Everybody video" and then wrote about 450 words this morning, so I'm feeling a bit better about it! I think I was just really exhausted and needed to give my brain a break so it could continue to brain. But the streak is still alive and I've made it halfway to my goal (in word count anyway)! Yay!
I'm not sure how my writing speed is eight words per minute. It definitely does not feel like it! lol Oooh, up a whole word per minute. Celebration!
It's not really a tough part necessarily, I just had inspiration on Sunday, then lost it over the last three days. :shrug: That was kind of a bummer. I hope we both have productive weekends! I'm glad you got through your slump and hopefully mine is over too! ;D
Edited to add: In the most unexciting fashion, my 23,000th word was "can't," lol! However, I think we should all take a moment and be proud of me that it wasn't "Nick." ;)
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 20, 2021, 06:13:23 PM ---I feel like the focus on ships is so weird, but I don't know if that's because ships didn't used to be as big, or probably more realistically because we write in a fandom that doesn't really have ships... as much anyway.
Imagine if you had to find an agent to post fanfic on the internet, haha. I guess Ash is our publishing house?
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Yeah, it's hard to relate to a lot of the threads on the Fanfic subreddit because our real person fandom is different in so many ways. Although I did come across a thread wondering if fanfic awards were still a thing, and that was relatable - apparently awards cause drama across all fandoms LOL. I do miss the Felix Awards though. Mare and Julilly always did a great job running them.
LOL I guess he is! I do remember the days when you had to find someone to host your fanfic. I don't know when ff.net was created, but it wasn't on my radar yet when I started reading and writing fanfic. Everything I read was on smaller, personal websites. I remember how nerve-racking it was to submit my first story to be hosted on one. I guess that's the fanfic equivalent of finding an agent or publisher LOL. It's nice we can just self-publish everything on these archives now, although I do still enjoy maintaining my own site.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 20, 2021, 06:13:23 PM ---I love my update schedule, but I've been thinking of trying to catch AO3's posting up to where AC is, but I'm not sure how to do that... Post twice a week for a hot second? Post two chapters a week when it makes sense? I don't know. Anyone have thoughts?
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I think it would be better post twice a week for a while, one chapter at a time, then post two chapters at once. It would be easy for someone who was reading your weekly updates to click to the last chapter and miss the one before it.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 20, 2021, 06:13:23 PM ---Have you stopped violently sneezing and needing to to blow your nose as of today? Did you end up going back to work today? How was it? Did you get lot more written yesterday and feel inspired today still?
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I feel so much better today! I busted out the big guns to go back to work today: meth-making generic Sudafed. That stuff always does the trick. I had a good day. My kids were excited to see me back, which was nice. I did not write any more yesterday after posting here, but I did write a little bit before school this morning. I am exhausted, but hopefully will get a bit more written tonight. I'm in the middle of a conversation, which is usually a good place to leave off because it's easy to pick it back up.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 20, 2021, 06:13:23 PM ---I think it's okay. I ended up leaving myself a note last night to the effect of "Brian in the Everybody video" and then wrote about 450 words this morning, so I'm feeling a bit better about it! I think I was just really exhausted and needed to give my brain a break so it could continue to brain. But the streak is still alive and I've made it halfway to my goal (in word count anyway)! Yay!
I'm not sure how my writing speed is eight words per minute. It definitely does not feel like it! lol Oooh, up a whole word per minute. Celebration!
It's not really a tough part necessarily, I just had inspiration on Sunday, then lost it over the last three days. :shrug: That was kind of a bummer. I hope we both have productive weekends! I'm glad you got through your slump and hopefully mine is over too! ;D
Edited to add: In the most unexciting fashion, my 23,000th word was "can't," lol! However, I think we should all take a moment and be proud of me that it wasn't "Nick." ;)
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450 words this morning! What a great start!
The post-Sunday slump happens to me almost every week. I'm usually still pretty inspired on Monday, but then the work week wears me down and the inspiration dies until I can fire it back up again the following weekend. I think it's just a part of adulting and having a day job that isn't writing, unfortunately. But I hope yours is over too. It's almost the weekend again!
Aww... "can't." Sad trombone. "Nick" is a much better word. But congrats on hitting 23,000 words!
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 20, 2021, 06:46:18 PM ---Yeah, it's hard to relate to a lot of the threads on the Fanfic subreddit because our real person fandom is different in so many ways. Although I did come across a thread wondering if fanfic awards were still a thing, and that was relatable - apparently awards cause drama across all fandoms LOL. I do miss the Felix Awards though. Mare and Julilly always did a great job running them.
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I even find the kudos posts hard to relate to, haha. I miss when the most complicated thing here was the star rating system, lol. After that, it was just easy. Aw, the Felix Awards. I always wish I'd won one, but I was happy just to be nominated. :) Mare and Julilly are great mods; they've done a great job taking care of this place, especially when they're not writing anymore. :-*
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 20, 2021, 06:46:18 PM ---LOL I guess he is! I do remember the days when you had to find someone to host your fanfic. I don't know when ff.net was created, but it wasn't on my radar yet when I started reading and writing fanfic. Everything I read was on smaller, personal websites. I remember how nerve-racking it was to submit my first story to be hosted on one. I guess that's the fanfic equivalent of finding an agent or publisher LOL. It's nice we can just self-publish everything on these archives now, although I do still enjoy maintaining my own site.
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Yes! It was so nerve-wracking! I feel like ff.net was early, but I never ended up over there either. It was just asking to be hosted, then stumbling onto AC and going, "Oh, I can manage my own stuff? Okay great." Then I never looked back! ;D
I do enjoy your little update blogs you've shared over here. What's your favorite part of still maintaining your site?
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 20, 2021, 06:46:18 PM ---I think it would be better post twice a week for a while, one chapter at a time, then post two chapters at once. It would be easy for someone who was reading your weekly updates to click to the last chapter and miss the one before it.
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Good point! Maybe I'll make it like a "sizzling seven weeks of summer" type thing, lol. Here's my other one. So on AO3, you can say the story is "___ of ____ chapters" pretty much from the beginning. If you're all updating weekly, but you finish writing it, do you change the second number to the total chapters or leave it as the question mark until you post the last chapter?
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 20, 2021, 06:46:18 PM ---I feel so much better today! I busted out the big guns to go back to work today: meth-making generic Sudafed. That stuff always does the trick. I had a good day. My kids were excited to see me back, which was nice. I did not write any more yesterday after posting here, but I did write a little bit before school this morning. I am exhausted, but hopefully will get a bit more written tonight. I'm in the middle of a conversation, which is usually a good place to leave off because it's easy to pick it back up.
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Glad you're feeling better! Hubs swears by sudafed too when he's feeling under the weather and will just preemptively take it the first day and just continue carrying on. Glad the kids were excited to see you. Sending you good writing vibes! Hopefully you can write a little more this evening! :)
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 20, 2021, 06:46:18 PM ---450 words this morning! What a great start!
The post-Sunday slump happens to me almost every week. I'm usually still pretty inspired on Monday, but then the work week wears me down and the inspiration dies until I can fire it back up again the following weekend. I think it's just a part of adulting and having a day job that isn't writing, unfortunately. But I hope yours is over too. It's almost the weekend again!
Aww... "can't." Sad trombone. "Nick" is a much better word. But congrats on hitting 23,000 words!
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I was pretty excited. I had like half an hour to myself this morning and a good flow going.
Yeah, that's probably exactly it. If only we could get paid to write. I feel like I usually don't hit the slump until post-updating on Wednesday, but I had a really long day on Tuesday. We can make it to Saturday! Drink our coffee! Go nowhere! lol
Don't worry, "Nick" was my 23,109th word, so I continue to be predictable as always, lol.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 20, 2021, 08:41:45 PM ---I even find the kudos posts hard to relate to, haha. I miss when the most complicated thing here was the star rating system, lol. After that, it was just easy. Aw, the Felix Awards. I always wish I'd won one, but I was happy just to be nominated. :) Mare and Julilly are great mods; they've done a great job taking care of this place, especially when they're not writing anymore. :-*
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LOL Same. I clicked on one yesterday with a poll about how many subscriptions your longfic had. The choices ranged from under 10 to over 200. I looked up my stats, and the most subscriptions any of my stories had was 6. And that was my ER crossover, so it was across two fandoms LOL. I felt better when I saw that the most popular choice on the poll results was under 10, but the third most popular choice was over 200. What a range! I'm sure that has a lot to do with what fandom you write for and what "ships" you're writing.
Technically you did win a Felix Award for 00Carter. But I know what you mean... it's nice to win one for a solo story too!
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 20, 2021, 08:41:45 PM ---Yes! It was so nerve-wracking! I feel like ff.net was early, but I never ended up over there either. It was just asking to be hosted, then stumbling onto AC and going, "Oh, I can manage my own stuff? Okay great." Then I never looked back! ;D
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I don't remember visiting ff.net until 2001. I think I had just started posting my stories there when the real person fanfic purge happened. I read more Harry Potter fanfic there than BSB... which was not much, but that was at the beginning of my HP obsession, so I did give it a try. I even have the beginning of a Harry Potter fic posted there under a different account I created for the HP fic I thought I was going to write. But that only lasted a few days before I lost interest. I just looked up my HP account, and OMG... I sound just as weird and obnoxious as the teenagers on Reddit LOL. https://www.fanfiction.net/u/202471/Luscious-Lucius I was also still in the "I just got a story idea and sat down and wrote a chapter without any sort of outline or plan, and now I'm going to post it!" phase, which is probably why said story only has two chapters LOL.
I also looked my BSB account there, and it says I joined in March 2001. So yep. I have exactly two stories favorited, both of which are Voldemort humor stories. That was about as far as I got into HP fanfic - Voldemort humor stories and Marauder MSTs. I'm cracking up at one of them, "Voldemort Goes to Zimbabwe." https://www.fanfiction.net/s/601906/1/Voldemort-Goes-to-Zimbabwe Take a look at this... is this not Dr. Rough or what?! This was written in 2002, so well before 00Carter's conception, but I've always said my Dr. Rough is inspired by Voldemort, and there it is LOL.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 20, 2021, 08:41:45 PM ---I do enjoy your little update blogs you've shared over here. What's your favorite part of still maintaining your site?
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Thanks! I like having my own little corner of the web to post my stuff and make it look the way I want it. I like being able to share more about my stories through the little update blurbs and author's notes I post there, which I don't usually post other places.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 20, 2021, 08:41:45 PM ---Good point! Maybe I'll make it like a "sizzling seven weeks of summer" type thing, lol. Here's my other one. So on AO3, you can say the story is "___ of ____ chapters" pretty much from the beginning. If you're all updating weekly, but you finish writing it, do you change the second number to the total chapters or leave it as the question mark until you post the last chapter?
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Perfect!
Hm... I know when I started posting old novels that were finished years ago, I did set the number of chapters from the beginning, hoping it would help people realize the story was already finished and would be posted in its entirety. I can't remember if I changed it once I finished Bethlehem and Heroic Measures, or if I left it as a question mark until the last chapter. I wanna say I did change it, but I'm not positive.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 20, 2021, 08:41:45 PM ---Glad you're feeling better! Hubs swears by sudafed too when he's feeling under the weather and will just preemptively take it the first day and just continue carrying on. Glad the kids were excited to see you. Sending you good writing vibes! Hopefully you can write a little more this evening! :)
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It really does work the best! And it has to be the real kind you can only get from the pharmacy counter, not the PE crap. I've learned it is worth signing my life away and risking being put on some kind of watch list to have a box on hand when I need it. I'm about out of my stash, so I need to get some more.
I have not written anything this evening. I meant to, but then I sat down at the computer and came here instead LOL. Good thing I wrote some this morning.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 20, 2021, 08:41:45 PM ---Yeah, that's probably exactly it. If only we could get paid to write. I feel like I usually don't hit the slump until post-updating on Wednesday, but I had a really long day on Tuesday. We can make it to Saturday! Drink our coffee! Go nowhere! lol
Don't worry, "Nick" was my 23,109th word, so I continue to be predictable as always, lol.
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I wish! But would that make it feel like work? I don't ever want writing fanfic to feel like work.
One more day! We've got this!
LOL I'm relieved Nick's name came up soon.
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