Fic Talk > General Discussion
Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
RokofAges75:
Yay, congratulation s!!! What an amazing accomplishment, especially considering you came back to this series after so many years! Take time to breathe and bask in the glow of your success.
nicksgal:
It definitely feels like end of novel adrenaline washing away; it's been a long time since I've had this feeling. I will bask, breathe, and take a nap. I earned it. ;)
Now, everyone make sure that I stick to my update schedule. Don't let me upload it all at once out of excitement, lol! At least until I have enough of something else started to keep an update schedule going. :)
I'm proud of all of us currently writing. We all finished a story this year! :)
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 16, 2021, 11:49:02 PM ---So true! The feedback I do leave is often just my reactions as a reader more than anything super deep and insightful, and sometimes I don't even have much of a reaction to share. But anything is better than nothing.
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I would love if someone talked to me about deep and insightful things like my themes in a review, but let's be honest, that's an English class reaction and not a reading a story for fun reaction, lol!
Speaking of this, I found a funny thread on the fanfic reddit that addresses exactly that: https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/o2m5o6/english_teachers_in_the_future_are_using_your_fic/
Same question to you all. What would like English teachers of the future to discuss in your stories?
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 16, 2021, 11:49:02 PM ---I love the two minute rule of thumb. That's so true. Quick corrections on typos or grammatical errors that can be easily fixed are one thing. I hope no one would get annoyed by that, as long as that's not the only kind of feedback you're giving - then it might come across as nitpicky if you're not in a betareader role. Personally, I appreciate having this type of thing pointed out so I can fix it. It may annoy me that I made the error and didn't catch it before posting, but I want to fix it. Issues that affect the whole story and would be almost impossible to fix without a lot of revising/rewriting are a different matter. Some writers will welcome this type of concrit, too, and others will just be overwhelmed and/or discouraged by it. For me personally, once a story is posted, I'm not going to go back and make any major changes to it, so I would mostly welcome concrit or advice that could help me out with future stories.
The most concrit I've ever gotten for a story was about Claire's behavior in BMS. At the time, I was kinda bummed about readers turning against her, but looking back, I was able to learn a lesson from it about letting the characters guide the story and not sacrificing them for the sake of the plot by forcing them to do things they wouldn't really do. I'm not going to rewrite BMS, but I feel like I've been able to apply that lesson to the stories I've written since and not make that mistake again.
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All of that makes sense. This is realistically fanfic's version of publishing (as we've said many times) and I imagine it's not often that published books get pulled for major edits, then republished. Nitty gritty concrit is definitely better served for a beta reader role, so it can be caught before posting, like you said.
That's one that's always good to learn! I've definitely had that problem too. I think other than PBox coming along, that's a lot of what stalled Gobosei. I think I called it "a lack of characters that breathe life into the plot," if memory serves me correctly. That's most of why I like being a bit of a pantser, I don't get stuck on a plot plan as much anymore because I know I'll inevitably change my mind on the details at some point. I did it in PNecklace too, changing some grouping dynamics up from my original plans, which were honestly pretty repetitive if I'd left them the initial way. It worked out for the best. But, I also think there are ways to be true to a vision for the plot and the characters simultaneously . At that point it's figuring out how far they can be pushed until they do the thing you want them to do. And then bonus points if they hate themselves for it afterward. (Team Dark! lol)
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 16, 2021, 11:49:02 PM ---Yeah, I think the reading challenge died as the forum and BSB fanfic in general were dying down. I know I didn't participate the last summer or two we did it because I was taking summer classes for my master's program and already had too much on my plate, and by the time I was ready to participate again, we had stopped doing it.
What about something where we each pick a fic that's been talked about here, but we've never personally read? For example, I never read Mare's Why I'd Do It All Again. I don't know why; I've read a lot of her stories, but I either missed that one or just didn't get it into it. I honestly don't even remember trying to read it, but it's an older story, so who knows. I've also never read PBox in its entirety. I think I read the beginning once, but I don't remember much about it besides what I know from reading your posts here. I haven't read Tracy's Nick and Amanda series either, which would make me reluctant to read a Brian spin-off of it. So it might be nice to catch up on something like that.
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That makes sense. It's hard to keep something like that up when it's only a couple of people wanting to participate. At least we're all doing our due diligence now to try and bring back a little resurgence in BSB fanficland, or at least sustain it.
I love that! That was my personal mission when asking for recommendation s in The Reading Thread, to catch up on good things. It would be fun if it was something several other people had read at some point so it could be both the reading challenge with some of the book club type aspects of the featured story.
You should read Why I'd Do It All Again. It was great.
The beginning of PBox is probably the worst part to read, lol. If I could do it all again, I'd start from Chapter Two. I am not selling myself here. :-X I'd love it if anyone read it, missteps and all. :)
Now that I don't have a magnum opus to focus on for the moment, I feel prepared to delve into some more reading than I have been. I'm in for this little reading challenge. :)
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 16, 2021, 11:49:02 PM ---Yeah, it was a few years ago.
I love your pumpkin! That's awesome that Howie saw it and liked it!
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Thanks! I squeed during Sunday Night Football and nearly gave hubby a heart attack, lol.
Also, you should have called me out on mistyping "angels" when I obviously meant "angles," lol!
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 16, 2021, 11:49:02 PM ---Yep, that's how I take them too. I agree; it would be nice to have the option to leave kudos on individual chapters without it skewing the overall story's kudos count.
Something else I realized about AO3's stats compared to AC's is that AO3 records hits based on the IP address, whereas AC's read count is based purely on clicks. On AO3, a reader who starts a story and reads ten chapters in a row will only be recorded as one hit, and if you click on your own work, it doesn't count as a hit. On AC, every time you click on a chapter of your own story, it adds one to the read count, so reading ten chapters of your own story would add ten to the read count. You could jack up your own read count by simply refreshing a chapter of your story over and over again. Combine that with the spambot problem on AC, and it's always going to look like your stories are getting read a lot more on AC than on AO3, but AO3's hit count is more accurate.
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I love that they don't count you clicking on the chapters as a hit. If you're logged in, you should always be able to check your stories without skewing the stats. It would be nice if AO3 could provide some more detailed information, like what chapters the IP hits are on. But I imagine it works the same if you go to the first chapter and then the most recent chapter. That's why I like AC's table of contents section, to go right to the chapter I left off on. I do like knowing the accurate hit count, but it would be nice to have some way to see if they're people reading along or just a bunch of people clicking the first chapter and noping out really quickly.
I do check PBox and PNecklace's stats on AC with a method that feels more accurate. For PBox, I check the chapter in the forties with the lowest read count that isn't Disciple (since it was the same chapter as Wishes before I split them, so its stats have always been lower). Rather than the weird numbers some of the chapters get, this feels more accurate for a lifetime read count, which is around 700. For PNecklace, I only look at the newest chapter prior to posting. It's usually in the 0-2 range, and again, I feel like 0-2 is entirely reasonable for the story. As opposed to random chapters that spike up in both of them, to which I laugh and say "there's no way." There is a big drop after the big reveal I worried that I did too early, though, which tells me that it was probably too early. Oh well!
FrickingKaos:
It feels so weird to not write on History anymore. But I'm working on Take Me Home now. I want to figure some things out like how I was going to end it because I don't remember lol. The last time I updated that story was in January of 2019. So it's been a minute. I am determined to try to finish it though because the story itself is pretty interesting.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on June 20, 2021, 10:17:26 PM ---It definitely feels like end of novel adrenaline washing away; it's been a long time since I've had this feeling. I will bask, breathe, and take a nap. I earned it. ;)
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Absolutely you earned it! I know what you mean about the adrenaline washing away, though; it's a weird feeling. You feel accomplished, but also kind of empty, like, "Now what?" Good thing you have 9 days to come up with a new project for Camp Nano... no pressure! ;)
--- Quote from: nicksgal on June 20, 2021, 10:17:26 PM ---Now, everyone make sure that I stick to my update schedule. Don't let me upload it all at once out of excitement, lol! At least until I have enough of something else started to keep an update schedule going. :)
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We'll hold you to it! You'll be glad you stuck with it if it can take you all the way to the point of posting something new.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on June 20, 2021, 10:17:26 PM ---I'm proud of all of us currently writing. We all finished a story this year! :)
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Yes!! Go us!
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