Fic Talk > General Discussion
The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 06:41:03 PM ---All that makes sense. Sounds like it was the perfect blend of time plus inspiration with a bit of nostalgia thrown in. All the elements you need to go back to writing fanfic!
That's interesting that Gobosei and Beta Sigma Beta feel like opposites when it comes to compelling characters vs. a compelling storyline. I wish there was a way you could marry the two ideas by using Beta's characters with ideas from Gobosei, but they may be too different from each other. They were also fully enough formed ideas for you to start posting them. I think combining ideas works better when you have ideas that may not be compelling enough on their own that could work with other ideas. But hopefully you can revise Gobosei to give it a different feel from PBox while keeping the things you find compelling about it. (Although, if it helps, no one has ever complained about me writing stories with similar plots.)
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Definitely nostalgia was a requirement to pick up fanfic again for sure! I think it also helped that I had at least attempted NaNo in 2019 so I just didn't go from writing nothing to suddenly thinking I could write 50,000 words in a month, lol.
Wouldn't that be nice? But yeah, they're probably just too different. You're right, it's probably easier to combine ideas when they're less formed like how you put your "I want to do an ARok something" going into your "disaster survival" to get Bethlehem. Although in a rewrite, maybe it's worth it to try writing in first person for a hot minute and see if I can find what makes Gobosei Nick breathe like PBox Nick breathe. Then again, I did start writing Beta Sigma Beta after PBox and Gobosei before, so maybe going into a rewrite of Gobosei without PBox's strict editing rules would just solve the problem on its own having gotten better at compelling characters since starting Gobosei. LOL! It may turn out to still need to be grimdark too. I'll see when I actually look at it to get back into it.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 06:41:03 PM ---Yeah. Here's [one of] the problem(s) with Guilty Roads. It was a manufactured idea based on The Lion King. I'm basically stuck in the part of the story where Simba (Nick) is chilling with Timon and Pumbaa (the Amish), while everyone else thinks he's dead. I want to keep Nick in Amish country because that was supposed to be a major part of the story, but I've always struggled to come up with reasons for him to stay instead of going back to the rest of the Boys. Turns out I also dislike writing about the Amish, so I should just have him go back... but then my plan for the rest of the story falls apart, and the introduction of the Amish characters seems pointless. It's definitely a situation where I, as a plot-driven writer, have come up with a plot that doesn't make the most sense with my main character, and I'm trying to force him to do what I want, and he's fighting me on it. Maybe I should let him do what makes sense and see where else he can take the story, but I don't even want to open that can of worms right now and risk derailing MBK. So we'll see... maybe I'll explore that more when I'm between novels again. I should probably just have him go back and promptly get diagnosed with cancer because then I would have no problem finishing the story LOL.
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Hmmm... Here's my first thought, when and if the time feels right to go back into it, have you thought about rereading Hamlet? The Lion King is almost Hamlet with lions, so it might give you some new ideas. There's also the thought about whether he could do something instead of hanging out with the Amish. Accidentally get sucked into a cult? Take up hippie lifestyle? All three? Something totally different that seems more like a Nick thing to get distracted by? Playing World of Warcraft for six months? lol Unless it's the Amish specifically that need to be in the plot for a reason other than that they're already there. I guess my question is what would drive Nick (who has apparently taken up coding now as well) who loves technology into an environment defined by it's lack of technology (among other things). I'm guessing it's not a robot uprising that murdered his loved ones, but I'm sure there's something more realistic that would do that, I'm just not really sure what it is.
My other thought would be... well is it that bad if he does decide to go back? I know Simba is gone for a long time in the Lion King, but does Nick need to be? But, yeah, you're on a roll, definitely think about these things later! Get any of this that seems worth thinking about into your outline and then ignore it.
LMAO! "No! The technology that I love has once again diagnosed me with cancer! I should have stayed with the Amish! Why does this keep happening to me?!"
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 06:41:03 PM ---Ew! I hate mushrooms, so that sounds disgusting. Not sure why mushrooms are better for you than coffee beans. They're both natural! And to my knowledge, mushrooms don't contain caffeine, which is the whole point of coffee.
Thanks for the recommendation s! I don't think I've tried the LaCroix brand, so I will have to give that a try.
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I love mushrooms, but they don't make sense as a beverage! Caffeine, being warm, being delicious, and smelling great. I don't know if mushrooms contain caffeine either, but it was not very good.
Any time! Here to chat writing, life, and bubbly water, lol.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 29, 2021, 06:32:37 PM ---You're almost ready to start posting your next backdated novel if you're getting through both of these! It's good sometimes to have something that feels productive, but requires less brain power. It must be nice to have those update blurbs with dates. I think I have four from the original posting of PBox where I know one chapter was specifically updated on 06/06/06 because I mentioned it vaguely and others that cement themselves as "this month," but who knows when in that month until the update thread board got added here. I don't have my old laptop either to have any vague idea of when I wrote those chapters either; not even sure 2005-2008 word would tell me that.
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Yep! I probably will start posting SAMS soon. I do like having little projects that take time but not a lot of mental or physical effort. That's why I started posting my stuff on AO3 last year in the first place - it gave me something to do while I had to be on the computer anyway monitoring my Google Classroom while school was shut down. I couldn't focus enough to write during the "school day," but I could copy and paste chapters.
I love that you can go back into the version history on Google Docs to find out exactly what you wrote when. Word didn't do that, and even the dates for when my files were supposedly created are wrong from me moving them from computer to computer over the years or recreating them after losing everything in hard drive crashes. I don't even have Word anymore since getting my new computer for Christmas. I downloaded Open Office so I can open the .doc files I have saved on my computer if I need to, but I have moved to doing everything on Google.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 29, 2021, 06:32:37 PM ---I wonder why we're more prone to typos in our old works. Were we typing too fast and not looking back over it enough? Was grammar and spell check worse at catching mistakes back then? And I agree, on a repost, typos are sure something to fix.
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In my case, I still make plenty of typos, but I'm more likely to catch them because I hang on to chapters longer and read them more times before posting than I used to. I posted Broken and BMS chapters as I finished them, sometimes with only one quick read-through right after finishing, so I missed a lot. I also never had the grammar check on Word turned on because it was usually wrong, and the blue squiggles annoyed me, but that may have helped me catch missing words and stuff like that. It's been helpful since I turned it back on on Docs, except I've noticed it will miss things and then catch them weeks later in old chapters I've already posted, and then I have to go fix them three more times.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 29, 2021, 06:32:37 PM ---It feels weird to call the cancer in Broken a spoiler, because it just feels like so much a part of our community and fandom narrative, but it's probably not everywhere. Especially since you said you have newer fans (or fan) reading along with MBK. It feels like it would be nice to be able to go back, read, and connect with something with the same feelings from the first time.
If you came up with the Broken idea now, what do you think you would change about the beginning? Hypothetically .
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I know, but it's so old at this point, I bet most of the writers on AO3 haven't read it. It also doesn't have any anal sex in it, so I'm not sure they'd want to read it anyway LOL.
I would ditch the Leah the Gold-digging Stripper storyline from the beginning of Broken and get to the point within the first 5-10 chapters instead of taking 18 to get there. I originally wanted to disguise it as a Nick romance, thinking I would attract more readers that way, but Leah was completely unlikable as Nick's early romantic interest, so that didn't really work. I actually got more readers through word of mouth once the cancer storyline came into play. I should know better because, as a reader, I wouldn't have stuck with Broken unless I knew what it was really about. The beginning sucks, but it gets better as it goes along.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 29, 2021, 06:32:37 PM ---Five or six is still a lot to hold on to for the way we used to write! I specifically remember saying I was going to keep the last chapter of PBox for a while and then decided I couldn't do it anymore. I think I got four days, lol.
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It is! I made myself wait because I had literally just started posting Guilty Roads like three weeks before I got the idea for Curtain Call and didn't want to post a new novel unless I knew it was going well. The end of Chapter 5 is where you find out Nick is sick (see, I learned from Broken LOL), so I told myself if I got that far and felt it was going well, I would start posting it.
I think it's a lot harder to hold on to last chapters. I waited at least a week after finishing to post the end of BMS so I could put it up on Nick's birthday, which was when I had posted the beginning of Broken five years earlier, and it was hard to sit on those chapters too. The only reason I hang on to chapters once a story is finished now is to give myself more time to get started on a new story so I can keep up with weekly updates as long as possible.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 29, 2021, 06:32:37 PM ---I did see your post from yesterday this morning and I told myself that no matter how writing went today, I should check in. And continue our conversation on transitions, because I still had thoughts, I just couldn't form them in brain, lol.
Glad you prepped your writing room! Sometimes I think clutter can affect how my brain works, so every now and again, I have moments of "I just need to take care of this thing no matter how long it takes." I have a little more of that I need to do this weekend, but I woke up (eventually) and felt like I had a solid point to start writing from. I have a bunch of things in our closet that I've been meaning to donate, but haven't. I need to do that this summer at some point.
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I'm glad you checked in! I was starting to worry something had happened just because you've been on every day, but I looked at your Nano goal and saw that you had added to it yesterday, so I knew you were still around.
That's so true about the clutter. I'm the same way. I could have never written in that room with stuff lying around everywhere. I've written in every room downstairs instead LOL. I did get a new desk, chair, and computer last year for my downstairs office/den, so it has been more pleasant to write there than it used to be, but my upstairs room feels more like an escape.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 29, 2021, 06:32:37 PM ---Glad you're almost done! Is the exciting part next then if you've reached the end of the tour?
I should be productive again, but I also feel like I should take a shower, even though it's late, haha. I got distracted this afternoon by Nick's instagram live and his reassurance that he's investing his own money killed me. Like, sure, Nick, you invest $1,000 but if I invested $1,000 back when I was living paycheck to paycheck, it would not have gone well for me. Hypothetical $1,000 here, he did not name a specific amount. I swear, I end up on his instagram lives when I feel ho-hum about the content and his good ones are when I'm not available. Shower and then back to writing! That's my plan.
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Yeah, I'm almost to the heart of the story, or at least the heart of my original idea. I'm looking forward to that section.
I did not watch Nick's live. I don't care to watch him talk about cryptocurrency . Did he talk about anything else worth watching? I haven't watched his Twitch yet either. Sometimes I enjoy just watching him mess around, but other times I get bored watching him play video games or his own songs and feel like there are better things I could be doing. (You know, like discussing fanfic on this forum, obviously LOL.) I wish he would sing his songs live when he's streaming instead of just playing the album versions. We can listen to those any old time, Nick.
Go shower! And then go write! I need to get back to writing and finish this chapter at some point too.
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 06:56:32 PM ---Yep. It should even out when I get past this section and get both main characters together again.
LOL The other boys would kill me if I gave Nick a TBI on top of what Kevin's been dealing with. Nick is supposed to be the uninjured one in this story!
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That'll feel exciting! Soon!
They'd be like "Gosh darnit, Nick! can't you let someone else be the dramatic injured one just one time?!" I'm sure Nick wants that too. Don't listen to my ideas on how to spice up concert scenes, lol!
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 06:56:32 PM ---Absolutely! I have gotten better at that, as well as just not writing pointless stuff in the first place, but it's still hard to cut whole scenes you spent time writing.
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I have also enjoyed getting to a point where I feel like I haven't spent too much time on something that felt pointless later. Almost. I'll be honest, getting to the end of this story, I look back at the beginning and feel like chapter four did not need to be posted, but I still needed to write it for me. It's a very confusing feeling, haha.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 06:56:32 PM ---LOL! Yes!
Yeah, I'm not trying to disorient the readers. If anything, I'm trying to reorient them to the world as it was in early 2008. I made myself laugh in my last chapter when I was writing some chitchat between AJ and Kevin to lead into the more serious conversation they needed to have, and AJ was talking about missing new episodes of "Big Brother" while he was out of the country.
2008 does not seem like that long ago, but it was before streaming TV shows was a thing, and smartphones were brand new. The first iPhone came out in the summer of 2007. So I'm having to factcheck myself a lot on anything related to technology.
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Always here to make good jokes. ;D
OMG, that's hilarious! You're right, it's crazy to think that being worried about missing new episodes of a show was an issue! Technology has really flown in the past decade. 1999 doesn't even feel that long ago to me either, but it'll be thirty years ago before we know it. It's crazy we lived through it and still have to fact check things like that.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 29, 2021, 07:24:41 PM ---Definitely nostalgia was a requirement to pick up fanfic again for sure! I think it also helped that I had at least attempted NaNo in 2019 so I just didn't go from writing nothing to suddenly thinking I could write 50,000 words in a month, lol.
Wouldn't that be nice? But yeah, they're probably just too different. You're right, it's probably easier to combine ideas when they're less formed like how you put your "I want to do an ARok something" going into your "disaster survival" to get Bethlehem. Although in a rewrite, maybe it's worth it to try writing in first person for a hot minute and see if I can find what makes Gobosei Nick breathe like PBox Nick breathe. Then again, I did start writing Beta Sigma Beta after PBox and Gobosei before, so maybe going into a rewrite of Gobosei without PBox's strict editing rules would just solve the problem on its own having gotten better at compelling characters since starting Gobosei. LOL! It may turn out to still need to be grimdark too. I'll see when I actually look at it to get back into it.
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It wouldn't hurt to try rewriting Gobosei either in first person POV or in third person and see what happens. Maybe that will help you get back into it and beef up your characters. It's definitely okay if it still needs to be grimdark. We here on Team Dark like darkness!
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 29, 2021, 07:24:41 PM ---Hmmm... Here's my first thought, when and if the time feels right to go back into it, have you thought about rereading Hamlet? The Lion King is almost Hamlet with lions, so it might give you some new ideas. There's also the thought about whether he could do something instead of hanging out with the Amish. Accidentally get sucked into a cult? Take up hippie lifestyle? All three? Something totally different that seems more like a Nick thing to get distracted by? Playing World of Warcraft for six months? lol Unless it's the Amish specifically that need to be in the plot for a reason other than that they're already there. I guess my question is what would drive Nick (who has apparently taken up coding now as well) who loves technology into an environment defined by it's lack of technology (among other things). I'm guessing it's not a robot uprising that murdered his loved ones, but I'm sure there's something more realistic that would do that, I'm just not really sure what it is.
My other thought would be... well is it that bad if he does decide to go back? I know Simba is gone for a long time in the Lion King, but does Nick need to be? But, yeah, you're on a roll, definitely think about these things later! Get any of this that seems worth thinking about into your outline and then ignore it.
LMAO! "No! The technology that I love has once again diagnosed me with cancer! I should have stayed with the Amish! Why does this keep happening to me?!"
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I've had that thought too. I've never actually read Hamlet (I only read Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth in high school), but I know Lion King is based on it. It may help to see how a human character acts, although the circumstances are different. How Nick came to be living among the Amish is fairly cliched and convoluted as well, but there is a suspense storyline that got him in that situation, and I'm using fear to keep him there. I don't think it would make sense for him to do something totally different, so it's either stay or go back... but if he goes back now, the story is basically over. And while that would solve my problem of leaving it unfinished, I don't think I would feel satisfied. I have hurried stories along to finish them because I was tired of writing them before, and it shows. I would almost rather leave it unfinished and be happy with what I have written (which I am for the most part) than slap a half-assed, rushed ending on it and call it done. Technically I already did slap a half-assed, rushed ending on it for my April Fool's joke one year, but that doesn't count LOL. Although maybe it does count because it's still posted as Chapter 17 of the story on my actual site, so anyone who goes to read it now will read that chapter. It has an author's note at the end saying it's not a real ending, but may be the only ending I ever write for it. Nick doesn't get cancer, but he does die in that version LOL.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 29, 2021, 07:35:14 PM ---That'll feel exciting! Soon!
They'd be like "Gosh darnit, Nick! can't you let someone else be the dramatic injured one just one time?!" I'm sure Nick wants that too. Don't listen to my ideas on how to spice up concert scenes, lol!
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LOL Poor Nick. It's just a good thing this is the Unbreakable tour and not the Millennium tour, or I may be tempted. But I just finished my last concert scene (for now) with no injuries, so Nick is safe for now.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 29, 2021, 07:35:14 PM ---I have also enjoyed getting to a point where I feel like I haven't spent too much time on something that felt pointless later. Almost. I'll be honest, getting to the end of this story, I look back at the beginning and feel like chapter four did not need to be posted, but I still needed to write it for me. It's a very confusing feeling, haha.
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Eh, you're allowed to be self-indulgent. That's the fun of fanfic - you can write whatever you want!
--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 29, 2021, 07:35:14 PM ---OMG, that's hilarious! You're right, it's crazy to think that being worried about missing new episodes of a show was an issue! Technology has really flown in the past decade. 1999 doesn't even feel that long ago to me either, but it'll be thirty years ago before we know it. It's crazy we lived through it and still have to fact check things like that.
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It's almost easier to write stories set in 1999 because I feel like I remember what we did and didn't have back then better, as weird as that sounds. Both my long-unfinished stories (Guilty Roads and my Harry Potter crossover) are set in 1999, and I don't think I had to do as much fact-checking for technology things for those. (The fact that neither the Amish, nor the Wizarding world really uses technology helps LOL.) But the mid-2000s are more of a blur.
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 07:29:18 PM ---Yep! I probably will start posting SAMS soon. I do like having little projects that take time but not a lot of mental or physical effort. That's why I started posting my stuff on AO3 last year in the first place - it gave me something to do while I had to be on the computer anyway monitoring my Google Classroom while school was shut down. I couldn't focus enough to write during the "school day," but I could copy and paste chapters.
I love that you can go back into the version history on Google Docs to find out exactly what you wrote when. Word didn't do that, and even the dates for when my files were supposedly created are wrong from me moving them from computer to computer over the years or recreating them after losing everything in hard drive crashes. I don't even have Word anymore since getting my new computer for Christmas. I downloaded Open Office so I can open the .doc files I have saved on my computer if I need to, but I have moved to doing everything on Google.
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Same! Backdating PBox will probably be my next one as nothing else is complete enough to cross post for fun, or it is, but it's so old that I just can't bring myself to do it, lol. It's easy enough to copy and paste when you're multi-tasking. Actually writing would make you less available for your students... or your boss.
Same! The version history has saved me. Equally great is that you can name the versions in case you want to track specific things too. It helps me quickly find when I wrote specific chapters. Yeah same. The oldest version of PBox I have definitely says it's from 2012 or something like that. Clearly not. Open office is a savior for that. I'm glad it exists.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 07:29:18 PM ---In my case, I still make plenty of typos, but I'm more likely to catch them because I hang on to chapters longer and read them more times before posting than I used to. I posted Broken and BMS chapters as I finished them, sometimes with only one quick read-through right after finishing, so I missed a lot. I also never had the grammar check on Word turned on because it was usually wrong, and the blue squiggles annoyed me, but that may have helped me catch missing words and stuff like that. It's been helpful since I turned it back on on Docs, except I've noticed it will miss things and then catch them weeks later in old chapters I've already posted, and then I have to go fix them three more times.
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You're probably right. I think I'm the same. I know I have an upcoming chapter in it with a couple typos, but just haven't bothered to fix them yet since I'm so close to editing it anyway. I just leave it turned on because of that, though I've noticed with longer documents, it does sometimes take it longer to catch them. Word was hit or miss on how well it caught grammar mistakes. That's the one thing that's been nice about being on a different schedule here and on AO3, I'll usually catch a mistake before posting the next chapter there and only have to go back and edit it here. Oh well, seven more weeks to enjoy that! lol
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 07:29:18 PM ---I know, but it's so old at this point, I bet most of the writers on AO3 haven't read it. It also doesn't have any anal sex in it, so I'm not sure they'd want to read it anyway LOL.
I would ditch the Leah the Gold-digging Stripper storyline from the beginning of Broken and get to the point within the first 5-10 chapters instead of taking 18 to get there. I originally wanted to disguise it as a Nick romance, thinking I would attract more readers that way, but Leah was completely unlikable as Nick's early romantic interest, so that didn't really work. I actually got more readers through word of mouth once the cancer storyline came into play. I should know better because, as a reader, I wouldn't have stuck with Broken unless I knew what it was really about. The beginning sucks, but it gets better as it goes along.
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You're probably right on the age, but stop selling yourself short. Choppage is just as interesting as anal sex, lol.
See, I see you calling her Leah, but I'm pretty sure you mean Willaford, lol. While accurate, I feel like none of us read a Backstreet Boy romance to see them with an unlikable love interest. I think that's a good thing to want to change, especially since the cancer was the important part and the romance was not... yet.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 07:29:18 PM ---It is! I made myself wait because I had literally just started posting Guilty Roads like three weeks before I got the idea for Curtain Call and didn't want to post a new novel unless I knew it was going well. The end of Chapter 5 is where you find out Nick is sick (see, I learned from Broken LOL), so I told myself if I got that far and felt it was going well, I would start posting it.
I think it's a lot harder to hold on to last chapters. I waited at least a week after finishing to post the end of BMS so I could put it up on Nick's birthday, which was when I had posted the beginning of Broken five years earlier, and it was hard to sit on those chapters too. The only reason I hang on to chapters once a story is finished now is to give myself more time to get started on a new story so I can keep up with weekly updates as long as possible.
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That makes sense why you would hoard then if you were trying to work on Guilty Roads. No fake love interest and getting to the point, good. That's a clear testament to you learning and growing as an author. In the beginning, did it feel like you started it too close to finishing BMS?
Aw, what a cute full-circle thing. I always wanted to finish PBox in fall too, since that's when I had started writing it originally, I think. So I guess, how fitting that I hit my stride for PNecklace in November as well. Think I can finish the third one by November? lol
If you get started on a new story quicker, do you stop hanging on to them or do you keep your weekly update schedule through the end of the novel?
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 07:29:18 PM ---I'm glad you checked in! I was starting to worry something had happened just because you've been on every day, but I looked at your Nano goal and saw that you had added to it yesterday, so I knew you were still around.
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I appreciate that! Sorry for worrying you and missing our weekly "we want to be involved in our writing, but not in the actual writing it part" chat on Thursdays. I'm still here and still writing! Although, now that it's summer for you, does that tend to happen as much where you get burnt out by the end of the week?
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 07:29:18 PM ---That's so true about the clutter. I'm the same way. I could have never written in that room with stuff lying around everywhere. I've written in every room downstairs instead LOL. I did get a new desk, chair, and computer last year for my downstairs office/den, so it has been more pleasant to write there than it used to be, but my upstairs room feels more like an escape.
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Maybe that's my "blah" feeling up here in the office... Hubs would be happy if I started meticulously going through it again. I'm choosing to ignore it by keeping it behind me and focusing on my happy desk, lol. It's good that you have multiple places that are more conducive to writing with desks, chairs, and computers. Do you have a desktop downstairs and upstairs, or just in the den?
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 07:29:18 PM ---Yeah, I'm almost to the heart of the story, or at least the heart of my original idea. I'm looking forward to that section.
I did not watch Nick's live. I don't care to watch him talk about cryptocurrency . Did he talk about anything else worth watching? I haven't watched his Twitch yet either. Sometimes I enjoy just watching him mess around, but other times I get bored watching him play video games or his own songs and feel like there are better things I could be doing. (You know, like discussing fanfic on this forum, obviously LOL.) I wish he would sing his songs live when he's streaming instead of just playing the album versions. We can listen to those any old time, Nick.
Go shower! And then go write! I need to get back to writing and finish this chapter at some point too.
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You've got this! Keep writing!
Nope. The people watching halved after his initial hellos to people commenting in the chat, but you'll be glad to know he's figured out how to add people to his instagram lives, lol. He said once he figured out his coding, he'd play video games on twitch again. He should sing live; I can't imagine everyone watching him actually wants to watch him play video games. Do more fan interactive things, Nick! And yes, clearly discussing fanfic here is a better thing to do than listen to a pitch for cryptocurrency or watch someone play video games, lol.
I showered! I wrote! I finished a new chapter! Six left to go!
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 09:12:04 PM ---It wouldn't hurt to try rewriting Gobosei either in first person POV or in third person and see what happens. Maybe that will help you get back into it and beef up your characters. It's definitely okay if it still needs to be grimdark. We here on Team Dark like darkness!
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Definitely agree, I think it would be fun to try a couple of things. They need some beef, lol; I'll figure it out. I know, I feel like I'm betraying Team Dark by saying it doesn't need to be grimdark, lol. Although, I call PBox&Co "grimdark" and by definition it's not, it's the opposite. Grimdark really means there's no hope now nor any chance of hope ever, whereas one of the major themes of PBox is that there's always hope. I don't think I could write a true grimdark story, to be honest.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 09:12:04 PM ---I've had that thought too. I've never actually read Hamlet (I only read Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth in high school), but I know Lion King is based on it. It may help to see how a human character acts, although the circumstances are different. How Nick came to be living among the Amish is fairly cliched and convoluted as well, but there is a suspense storyline that got him in that situation, and I'm using fear to keep him there. I don't think it would make sense for him to do something totally different, so it's either stay or go back... but if he goes back now, the story is basically over. And while that would solve my problem of leaving it unfinished, I don't think I would feel satisfied. I have hurried stories along to finish them because I was tired of writing them before, and it shows. I would almost rather leave it unfinished and be happy with what I have written (which I am for the most part) than slap a half-assed, rushed ending on it and call it done. Technically I already did slap a half-assed, rushed ending on it for my April Fool's joke one year, but that doesn't count LOL. Although maybe it does count because it's still posted as Chapter 17 of the story on my actual site, so anyone who goes to read it now will read that chapter. It has an author's note at the end saying it's not a real ending, but may be the only ending I ever write for it. Nick doesn't get cancer, but he does die in that version LOL.
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You should definitely read it at some point. Hamlet's my favorite Shakespeare tragedy (Twelfth Night is the best one overall). I feel like Hamlet's probably a lot more introspective and over-analyzing than Nick or Simba though, lol.
Fear is a powerful emotion. Is there a way to amp up the feeling of fear a little more prior to that and still keep the parts you like? I could see Nick staying somewhere longer than he would want to because of fear as a driving force. Maybe he tries to leave and something happens that stops him. I get not wanting to find an ending just finish it when you don't feel like it's ready to end. You're right, sometimes it's better to appreciate what's there and what it felt like writing it the first time.
Haha, how did it feel to turn it into an April Fool's joke? And he can't always die of cancer. Sometimes other things have to kill him, lol.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 09:12:04 PM ---LOL Poor Nick. It's just a good thing this is the Unbreakable tour and not the Millennium tour, or I may be tempted. But I just finished my last concert scene (for now) with no injuries, so Nick is safe for now.
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"Nick, where did you get that hoverboard? This is the wrong tour... Just... just don't do anything drastic to show off... Oh no..." lol Glad Nick can continue remaining uninjured with the concert scenes over.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 09:12:04 PM ---Eh, you're allowed to be self-indulgent. That's the fun of fanfic - you can write whatever you want!
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So true! What's the most self-indulgent thing you've written recently?
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 29, 2021, 09:12:04 PM ---It's almost easier to write stories set in 1999 because I feel like I remember what we did and didn't have back then better, as weird as that sounds. Both my long-unfinished stories (Guilty Roads and my Harry Potter crossover) are set in 1999, and I don't think I had to do as much fact-checking for technology things for those. (The fact that neither the Amish, nor the Wizarding world really uses technology helps LOL.) But the mid-2000s are more of a blur.
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It's because technology felt like it moved a little slower unless video game counsels were your thing. The Nokia brick didn't even exist back then, crazy enough! Like when did wifi become a thing? Kids today are so lucky that they don't have to listen to the dial-up sound.
You know I love a good loophole, lol. "Doesn't use technology, so I don't have to bother" is a great one.
Glad we finally condensed these into one long chat, lol.
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