Fic Talk > General Discussion
Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on June 20, 2021, 11:05:10 PM ---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?
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Haha, I love that thread!
I don't use a lot of symbolism and that sort of stuff that gets analyzed in English class, but when I do, I like when it gets noticed. I do use a fair amount of foreshadowing, which doesn't usually get mentioned in feedback from people who are reading for the first time because they wouldn't necessarily know it's foreshadowing. But I hope it would be recognized and appreciated on rereads.
I would get a kick out of them overanalyzing the little Easter eggs I throw in for my own amusement and making them seem deeper than they really are. "Why did she name the doctor the German word for 'platypus'? Was that meant to represent the enigma of rare cancers, or was it a commentary on how xenophobic Americans view foreigners as strange and unusual?" No, I actually had just been discussing platypuses with Rose and thought it was funny.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on June 20, 2021, 11:05:10 PM ---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)
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All great points. Plantsing is the best of both worlds because then you have a rough path to follow, with the freedom to divert from it and forge a different path to your planned destination - or maybe a different one! It's okay to change your mind in the middle or even at the end, as long as it makes sense. Like you said, ideally you would stay true to the plot and characters at the same time. But yeah, if you can get a character to plausibly do something they normally wouldn't do and then hate themselves for it, thus becoming a more believably flawed character, even better!
--- Quote from: nicksgal on June 20, 2021, 11:05:10 PM ---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. :)
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Yeah, I agree, it would be fun to combine the reading challenge with the Fanfic of the Month feature we used to do and discuss stories we want to revisit or read for the first time. Then we could have some of those deeper, English-class style discussions without worrying about spoilers.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on June 20, 2021, 11:05:10 PM ---Also, you should have called me out on mistyping "angels" when I obviously meant "angles," lol!
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Haha, I don't correct spelling on the forum. We all have times when we type too fast too late at night and make mistakes.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on June 20, 2021, 11:05:10 PM ---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!
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Yep, I agree. It would be nice to be able to see a breakdown of hits per chapter on AO3. I have no idea if the hits on AC are actually even real readers or just spambots. If yours is usually in the 0-2 range for your most recent chapter, that gives me hope that more of mine are actual readers than what I thought, but who knows. It just always seems like the site is dead, but without the review option, it's hard to tell.
I'm looking at my chapter stats on AC now, and yeah, it's interesting how some of those random chapters spike it. Sometimes they are chapters where something big happened that maybe readers would want to revisit, but other times they seem totally random. The same thing happens on my site where certain chapters or posts seem to get a lot of clicks and/or spam comments. I don't know if it's because they had certain words that made them come up in search results or what. I noticed my third pandaskunk story that I posted early last year has more "reads" per chapter than my last three serious stories, which definitely does not match with the very minimal amount of feedback I got for it compared to what I've gotten for my dramas. Not sure what to make of that, but I take it all with a grain of salt because I know the site has a big spam problem.
nicksgal:
Ugh! Y'all, I was so excited to do some WADD today and what did I do? Wrote about 500 words of the first chapter of PDemons! I'm so annoyed at myself. :( At least I made it to day 100!
Mare, I need a facepalm emoji stat, lol.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: FrickingKaos on June 21, 2021, 12:00:16 AM ---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.
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I'm glad you were able to update it after so long! That's a positive sign!
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on June 21, 2021, 10:39:33 PM ---Ugh! Y'all, I was so excited to do some WADD today and what did I do? Wrote about 500 words of the first chapter of PDemons! I'm so annoyed at myself. :( At least I made it to day 100!
Mare, I need a facepalm emoji stat, lol.
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Wow! Good for you! Take it from me, WADDing is more frustrating than fun LOL. Sometimes it's a necessary evil in order to come up with new ideas, but I'd much rather just write consistently on one story.
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 17, 2021, 12:12:09 AM ---I had a really good writing day Monday! I was up till sunrise and then wrote again later in the day and stayed up till sunrise again. Definitely fueled by caffeine. I think Monday night/Tuesday morning is the day I didn't go to bed until like 7 a.m. LOL. Of course, that messed me up so much that the rest of the day yesterday was much less productive. I did watch The Butterfly Effect though. I hadn't seen it in years, and I enjoyed it just as much as I remember enjoying it back in the day.
Today I made myself get up in the morning so I could mow the lawn before it got too hot, and then I went out for dinner and drinks with some friends tonight, so it has not been productive at all, but I'm up in here my writing room and have written about 200 words so far. Enough to keep the streak alive, at least. I'm tired, so we'll see how late I make it tonight.
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Wow! Two sunrise days in a row! You've definitely been productive as you get into your nocturnal groove! But yeah, when I stay up later, it always gets me the next day and I feel useless. But at least you got to revisit The Butterfly Effect on a less productive day! I'm glad it holds up. I always worry that nostalgic things won't hold up.
At least your lawn is mowed! Is that a once a week chore? Two times a month? I always picture you chopping grass and bodies on a riding lawnmower, but I feel like that's inaccurate, lol. It's good you had a fun day and still made time to write! That was me last week, just trying to keep the streak alive.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 17, 2021, 12:12:09 AM ---I also think writing a children's book is probably harder than it sounds. You have to put even more thought into word choice and packing more meaning into fewer words. I'm right there with you on being verbose LOL. It also seems like there would be more rules and/or formulas to follow for it to be considered publishable. I hope they do their research!
Remember when Nick said last year he wanted to write a children's book? I wonder if anything's actually happening with that. They all say a lot of things, but every once in a while, they actually deliver on one of those ideas. Nick did write a memoir and a movie, so I could see him writing a children's book. Who ever thought Nick would turn out to be the writer in the group? LOL
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Yes! I appreciate the methodicalness? (Can't think of alternatives; I'm going with that). I appreciate the methodicalness in word choice, but I think it would take me even longer to write a children's book than a fantasy epic because I would have an extremely hard time choosing the precise best words. And oh, I'm sure! I've looked a little into fantasy publishing (not extensively, just skimmed), but I feel like children's book publishers are even more picky.
I do remember that. I feel like whenever Nick has said "I want to do 'creative thing'," he typically ends up doing it eventually. I buy Nick being the writer. Entertainer has several parallels with story teller, especially in the historically oratory context of stories. If I remember correctly, his original BSP plan was meticulous... six chapters or something?
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 17, 2021, 12:12:09 AM ---I did have fun, thanks!
That's nice of you to offer! I don't think I would be able to write or study sitting right next to someone else; I would get too distracted. I need quiet and privacy.
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I only offered because she said she wanted human contact without any of the pesky interactive and planning pieces, lol.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 17, 2021, 12:12:09 AM ---I'm glad you had a good time on your staycation! Aww, you should have taken the rest of the week. It's always harder to go back to work after extra days off. 1600 words over three days on vacation isn't bad! If you stuck to the plan to only write an hour a day, that's really not bad at all!
It's nice to just take some time to think and visualize upcoming scenes before you write them. I hope you get some clarity so you can write these next few parts!
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I really should have. They were happy to have me back, but on a whole, I was pretty useless, lol. Thankfully, most of my workload was catching up on paperwork. Sunday, I wrote a little longer, but yeah, it was pretty much just an hour every day. I did some editing on my phone a couple times when it was too hot to sleep though, lol.
It went quick after I decided to switch what a couple of the characters were doing from what I'd originally written. Not too bad (clearly).
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