Fic Talk > General Discussion
Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on July 08, 2021, 09:50:56 PM ---So I'm backdating PBox right now (I'm trying to avoid laundry, shhhh...) and I found I can access my old reviews even though you can't leave reviews on AC and it's helping me backdate, for the most part. But I apparently had a stretch where I updated every single day from June 1st to at least June 7th back in 2006. Every. Single. Day. Why would I do this? That's seven weeks of solid updates right there! I think it was the reviewer shouting "More" at me. I'd forgotten I'd had one, lol.
(after a couple more backdates...)
Apparently I had a couple. I would be ecstatic about this these days, lol. I should go back to 2006 and tell me how things end up in a few years. "You thought you had no readers in 2006, just wait until you take a six month hiatus from PBox... and then a 10 year hiatus from fanfic at all." Past me would hate me so much, lol.
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I'm glad the reviews are still saved and accessible! I've lost all the old feedback emails I used to save because I switched from Hotmail to Yahoo to Gmail over the years, and Hotmail and Yahoo delete everything when your account is inactive too long - sad panda. So it's nice to be able to go back and look at AC reviews if I want to.
It's nice that you have old PBox reviews to look back at. I wonder what happened to those readers.
There's a good question for everyone: If you could go back and tell your younger self something, what would it be? You can answer in terms of fanfic, the fandom, or whatever you want.
nicksgal:
I have officially finished backdating PBox and decided to add these additional tags to it: Families of Choice, Demons, Mythology References, Worldbuilding, Character Development
I feel like those accurately describe PBox. There's probably more I could add, but I'm not ready to go tag-crazy yet... Now let's see if adding additional tags does anything for the views. I love a good science experiment.
As for current writing... Y'all ever sit down to write and then write something, either ridiculously funny or poignantly beautiful or horrifically scary or whatever and it's only a paragraph or a couple exchanges of dialogue, but your brain says "Ah yes, this is excellent writing. We've done our job for the day." And then you're like, "What? No. Brain... we were just getting started." This is where I am today again... Why does this keep happening? lol
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on July 09, 2021, 12:22:05 AM ---Yes, I agree with everything you said as well. They should be considered tips or guidelines rather than hard and fast rules. There is valid reasoning behind each one, but there are also occasions when it's perfectly reasonable to go against them and do something different.
I get the idea behind starting with short stories before attempting to write a novel. A short story is a good opportunity to practice the basics of writing fiction, such as character development and plot structure, without the commitment of a novel. But I definitely don't think you have to start out that way. Realistically, we probably all started out writing short stories as kids before we ever attempted a novel, fanfic or otherwise, but as far as fanfics go, I wrote 8 "novels" before my first one-shot. Granted, they would probably be considered novellas in terms of word count, but they were multi-chapter stories nonetheless. I learned more about writing from those than I did my short stories.
That's neat that Grammarly has different settings depending on the formality of the writing. I think what we do would be considered "casual" writing. As long as you're not overusing ellipses to the point that it gets annoying, you're fine. Ellipses help set the tone of your writing.
I agree about the readable formatting, too. Giant walls of text with no punctuation, capital letters, or line breaks... not cool, unless it's meant to represent a character's stream of consciousness while they're locked in the mental ward or something. See, even then, rules can be broken LOL.
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I think they became "rules" at some point because there's some idea out there that if anyone doesn't understand why it's a "rule," then they shouldn't be breaking it. But then I ask, well, how else is anyone supposed to learn how to execute these things effectively without trying it out? It's the same thing you were saying about all of us starting to write shorter stories as kids. Once we realized we liked writing, how did we start writing longer stories? Well, we tried things out and figured out what worked and what didn't. I honestly think that's better than just avoiding everything because it's a "rule." I honestly think I needed my purple prose phase to get better. Cerulean orbs and all.
As for short stories, I agree. Though all stories have the same inherent structure, there's something more bare bones about a short story. And I think the ultimate goal of a short story is "I can do all these things and finish in a timely manner." A novel is definitely more time consuming and easier to get burnt out on, I think.
I mean, I love me a good ellipses, lol. There's probably some times when I overuse them, but I just don't care at this point. I thought that too, but then it didn't really have a lot to say except a couple times when it was like, "Yo, the general audience you're aiming for might find this sentence confusing." And I was like "Yes, I see what you mean. I do not have a good alternative right now." I also had fun checking it for plagiarism and you will all be happy to know that it did not find AC on the internet, because it would have told me "Hey, this is 100% the same text" and it did not.
"Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words Words words words words words words words words words words words words words words AHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHH!!!!..." <--- Done. Clearly I could not think of anything in particular to write. lol. I hope everyone enjoyed the ellipses abuse at the end.
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on July 09, 2021, 12:28:49 AM ---Good for you. That takes some of the pressure off. Yay for finishing the first chapter though! Sometimes the first one is the hardest. I hope they get easier from here.
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After writing that, I ended up shuffling some things around and did end up cracking 1000 words. So maybe all I needed was to make my goal a little smaller, lol. It felt a little daunting expecting a PBox&Co level of output with a story that's only been bopping around in my head for a few months, especially when the output didn't match at the beginning. I also keep writing the most hilarious jokes and wanting to share them with you all, but also not wanting to spoil the hilarity of them in an actual read through. It's sad now, but that may get me to finish the story faster, lol.
Other things I figured out yesterday were: the title, probably, "Come What May" (the line from Time) is what I'm percolating right now; exactly how many chapters it is, only fifteen unless Nick does something crazy in the middle like refusing to die and spoiling my plans (this is a PBox reference, I'm not planning on killing any of the Boys off in this one); and that I had to include Leighanne as a periphery character for Brian to have the character arc he needed (boooooo...). And that's where we are! I've been writing a little PDemons on the side, hoping to get at least ten (fifteen is better) chapters complete by the last week of PNecklace posting. If I get that far and finish this one, then I'll post this story while I'm still posting PNecklace. Right now, instead of just writing something every day, I'm writing whatever strikes me and at least a little of this story.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on July 09, 2021, 12:28:49 AM ---I may have to do the same with mine. I was out with friends until almost midnight and literally had to open my story on my phone and discreetly write a 9-word sentence (that I probably won't even keep) to keep my streak alive. I have no plans tomorrow or this weekend, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get back on track. I think part of my problem is that I haven't followed the routine that works for me at all in the last week - I haven't stayed in bed with coffee or gone upstairs to my writing room, which are the two places I tend to be most productive. I just haven't felt like it. I'm not sure if it's because I finally hit a wall with my story and am feeling burnt out, or if it's because I started binge-watching Schitt's Creek and would rather do that. We'll see how this next week goes.
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I've done that before too. I also deleted it, lol. I get how getting off a routine is hard. I've been sleeping in a lot this week and showering after lunch and I've definitely felt less productive. Hopefully with three days of time to yourself, you'll be able to get back on track. Or, fully binge Schitt's Creek. Whichever seems more fun. I tried to get into it recently, but didn't get past the first episode. The last two shows I binge-watched were Brooklyn 99 and The Good Place. If you're burned out, I think it's okay to give yourself some grace and still keep the streak alive little by little.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on July 09, 2021, 12:28:49 AM ---LOL I'm sure there are some interesting threads on that subreddit. I wonder if that reply was referring to the continent or the human LOL.
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Yeah, when they're not critique ones, they're usually gold. I found one a while ago that was discussing clothing for winged characters and I was like "I relate to this so much."
LMAO. Those are even funnier. However, since that poster's response to "Assuming they beat their wings 24 times per minute..." was "Exactly," I'm guessing it was the pterodactyl, lol.
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on July 09, 2021, 12:33:51 AM ---I'm glad the reviews are still saved and accessible! I've lost all the old feedback emails I used to save because I switched from Hotmail to Yahoo to Gmail over the years, and Hotmail and Yahoo delete everything when your account is inactive too long - sad panda. So it's nice to be able to go back and look at AC reviews if I want to.
It's nice that you have old PBox reviews to look back at. I wonder what happened to those readers.
There's a good question for everyone: If you could go back and tell your younger self something, what would it be? You can answer in terms of fanfic, the fandom, or whatever you want.
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Aw, I didn't know they started deleting things. Alas, I can never go back to being "nicksgalbsbrul es," lol. If only you could go back and save them in a more permanent spot.
It was nice to look at them again. And well, if they're subscribed to me and still use their old emails, then they got a nice little note that I returned from the dead, lol. I do wonder what some of the oldies are up to whenever I peruse old threads. Anyone else look at the front page lately? I saw the Lenni posted something (another blast from the past) and someone else I don't recognize updated something from 2015. Maybe a little resurgence is slowly starting. I hope they come say hello.
I joke, and have joked before, but in all reality I feel like I'd do it all again (for the most part) since I wouldn't have all this wisdom now if I hadn't done whatever in the first place. Fandom-wise, maybe I would tell myself to actually come back the one time I'd considered it in 2011. Then I could have gone on a cruise with everyone with the money I didn't have, lol.
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