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Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)

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nicksgal:
This overplayed joke continues! I know you're all sooo excited.  :-* To recap the last thread, we were most recently discussing feedback, finishing projects, and had just recently started discussing writing prompts.

I will now add my two cents.

nicksgal:

--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 11, 2021, 12:14:17 AM ---No writer discussion group, but it was perfect because her story couldn't have been more different from mine.  It was more of a bucket list type story, and you don't find out about the cancer till the second half, but my cancer story radar was pinging from the first couple chapters.  I just had a feeling that's where it was heading, and sure enough...  It was a great story!
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It's good that they were pretty different, it gives readers who enjoy medical drama two different takes on the same subject matter. lol! I love that you have cancer story radar. I'm sure by now you could look at any medical drama and say "I know exactly where this is going." Although, if the cancer was a late reveal, what vibe/theme pinged you the most?



--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 11, 2021, 12:14:17 AM ---LMAO!  Dominant Firm of BSB Medical Dramas.  I love that!!  I would welcome some "competition" though, which I wouldn't even see as competition.  There's room for all medical drama writers, the more the merrier!  Just do your research first!

Oh, that is always interesting where you find a movie or book with a seemingly similar idea to one of your stories.  Usually it turns out to be not that similar.  Have you ever come across something that was really similar to your work that you had no idea about when you were writing it (maybe because it didn't exist yet)?  I had something similar happen the other day; I watched a new movie that was trending on Netflix because, again, it made me radar ping and reminded me of something I'd written, and sure enough... I found it very predictable, probably because I wrote a novel with a similar premise, although mine went a totally different direction.
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It was the attention to detail that made it the most fun! lol At this point, the reader base for BSB fanfic is probably a lot smaller than it used to be, so more for readers to enjoy is good for everyone. And maybe if someone enjoys another author's medical drama, they'll stumble on yours too. :)

I think if you boil any media down to a sentence, it's really easy for works to start sounding similar. It's just the line where the details come in that determines how similar. Something like "Young male protagonist gets thrust into a world of magic where he's always belonged" could fit both Harry Potter and Star Wars, but obviously they're both very different in the details (and realistically, it could be 100 other media properties, I just can't think of another one right now). Whereas something like... "A group of friends navigate their twenties and relationships in NYC" is a little more specific, so it narrows it down a bit more... but that's still the basic premise of Friends and How I Met Your Mother.

I did talk about this in one of my author talks, and in this thread before, I think. But I was initially very disappointed to find that PBox was similar to a manga called Fushigi Yugi that was long since published before PBox existed:


--- Quote from: nicksgal on May 05, 2021, 08:26:11 PM ---Well, I showed the beginning of PBox to a friend and they said something to the effect of “Oh, man, I think you’ll love this” and handed me a little manga from the 90s called Fushigi Yuugi. And I had two thoughts: First: Absolutely. I do love this. Second: Darnit. A story where a random girl ends up in a mysterious land and the characters have origins in the Four Gods and constellation ties? Well, crud. And there’s two groups going against each other with two more in the backstory? Double crud. Oh and three of our first introduced characters from this world are a love interest, a king, and a general in addition to these two girl rivals who are friends (there’s also a priest and a doctor introduced later). Triple crud. There are no new stories basically, lol.
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I love your little ping radar and how it alerts you to things you'll enjoy. How often does that happen?



--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 11, 2021, 12:14:17 AM ---LOL I would be mortified if any of them ever read one of mine.  So yeah, "BSB Reacts to Fanfic" is probably not a good idea.

I will link the video because it's easy to find: https://youtu.be/Gyv2X0BqxBI?t=54  Basically, Nick thinks fanfic has "a lot of gossip" (??), until Kevin informs him that the two of them hook up in fanfic and calls it "freaky."  Kevin has clearly read some slash LOL.  Nick clearly does not know what he's talking about, which, again, is probably a good thing.
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I think I said way back when that I would let Nick read PBox. I lied. I would let Nick read PBox once it didn't feature a Nick running around with a Howie, Brian, Kevin, and AJ if he stumbled on it himself, lol. I just couldn't live with his face once he realized that he has a horrid backstory and gets stabbed a lot, lol.

LOL! Hang on, I can parse together Nick speak from my years of adoration... He thinks that fanfic plays up stereotypes and "fanon" (widely held fan opinions of canon) often reflects things that aren't true, but could be grounds for character defamation lawsuits. What a nuanced opinion, Nick, lol. I'm kidding, his "What, really?!?" shows that he only has a basic understanding of "fans write stories about us and stories aren't always true." (I think that's realistically more what he means by gossip "Stories, like gossip, aren't always true. Since fanfics are stories, they are equivalent to gossip.") But now I'm dying to know how far Kevin got in reading that slash fanfic, lol! I suppose I'm not surprised that they aren't fans of our little hobby, especially if they think it's full of gossip and sex with each other that they're not into.



--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 11, 2021, 12:14:17 AM ---You are so prolific!!  That's awesome that you keep upping your word count goal and are still on track to finish in time.  A staycation, that sounds nice!  And that'll be perfect if you do your writing while he's at the gym.  An hour a day is enough to keep the streak alive, at least.

I hope Tracy does join us!  She'll need to decide on a new project too, since History is almost done.  Tracy, do you have any more thoughts on what you'll write next?

LOL True story - last time I did a VIP was during their Vegas residency, and I insisted on standing next to Howie for the photo because I felt so guilty about brutally killing him ten days earlier and just wanted to give him a big hug.  Thankfully, he did not know that.
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I need to stop being so wordy. Or stop including my editing words in my word count. But realistically, some days, that's all I write, so if I didn't include the editing, the streak would not be alive. We're not sure how to be tourists in our hometown, so it should be interesting, lol! Exactly. That's all I need at this point.

Join us, Tracy!

LMFAO! I laughed so hard at that on Thursday, but was too tired to piece together a response at the time. Howie definitely deserved a big hug after being brutally killed, but good thing he didn't know about that gossip, lol. ;D



--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 11, 2021, 12:14:17 AM ---Not a novel-length sequel to another novel.  Technically SAMS is a sequel to a one-shot, but I don't really count that one.  I think of it more as Unsuspecting Sunday being a prequel to SAMS.  There's also my pandaskunk stories, but those are novellas.  I swore I would never write another sequel because I don't have a good track record for finishing them, but I have no regrets about writing BMS.  I guess I would consider writing another one with the right idea and inspiration.  I feel like the basic idea is there; it just needs some development.

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Did you write SAMS first or Unsuspecting Sunday first? Oh right, I guess I did know that you had the Pandaskunk series. Not sure why I asked, lol! We talked about it a while ago, but sequels are hard, especially if it wasn't a thing where the sequel was planned from the beginning. I totally get the hesitation, in general. Always good to mull it around in your mind until the time to finish MBK comes. :)

nicksgal:

--- Quote from: FrickingKaos on June 11, 2021, 01:06:22 AM ---In answer to your question Dee, yeah I did end up choosing something. I think it works a lot better than what I was going to go with originally so I think these last two chapters should come easily. I dunno what I'm writing after this. I've got nothing. I have a list of some ideas but nothing solid.

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Yay! I saw you updated twice this week, that's awesome! I'm glad you're getting back into the groove. Is the next chapter going just as well?


--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 12, 2021, 07:58:02 PM ---I love what you went with, Tracy!  It was perfect.  Let us know if you want any feedback on your new story ideas.
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--- Quote from: FrickingKaos on June 12, 2021, 09:00:04 PM ---I had some stuff written in that notebook that I told you about. There was an original handwritten draft of the first few chapters of Take Me Home, and two paragraphs of something that I was playing with. I keep going back to this idea with aliens or something.

In the notebook that I hadn't looked at in about three years I found it was interesting I was playing with a hunger games type of thing, but there were a lot of references to other stuff Iike that Malaysia airlines flight that went missing and some other conspiracy theories. I had an idea for a story to be centered around NYC during a blackout too. I don't know where I was going with any of it, I guess at the time I wrote it down anyway.
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--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 12, 2021, 09:23:17 PM ---Ooh, all those ideas sound intriguing.  You could probably combine some of them, too.  An alien invasion could be the cause of a plane disappearing and a widescale blackout.  A Hunger Games type fic could be interesting, too.
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--- Quote from: FrickingKaos on June 12, 2021, 09:50:15 PM ---I really do love the alien invasion one lol. I think I'm gonna see if I can finish Take Me Home or something before I work on anything new yet, because I kind of want to go and complete it. There's that Brian story that I was playing with that's a spin off of Nick and Amanda. I also have that storm chasing one that I was going to redo as well. Lots of ideas floating around. Nothing fully formed yet. There's the unfinished one shot too.
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What's Take Me Home about, Tracy? I don't think I've seen you mention that idea before. I might be making your story too big trying to combine ideas like Julie, but what if aliens are the cause of all those conspiracy theories (black out, missing planes, etcetera) and when the plane goes missing, it ends up in a weird place (could be a remote island, could be a different planet), then the survivors do Hunger Games-esque things? I think it's great that you have this notebook to draw ideas from! You're both really good at keeping track of all your ideas; it makes me want to be better about it too! In the meantime, the random times I make jokes about things on this forum will have to suffice, lol. I would love to see another speculative fiction on AO3, so I'll put in a vote for team aliens, but write what makes you happiest obviously.

How often would you say you go for new ideas versus going to incomplete or already pondered ones? I see your unfinished one shot and that's most of why my immediate post-PNecklace plan is to finish death by snail, so I can say "look, another thing done." I wish I had ideas for more shorter stories, it must feel really nice to write 10k or less of several things and then get to say "all done" so many times. Though I say this, and I wonder if the authors who are prolific with short stories look at the novels and think the opposite. Feel free to answer this too, Julie, but I think we already discussed it at one point?



--- Quote from: FrickingKaos on June 12, 2021, 09:50:15 PM ---I actually was googling writing prompts the other night to see if anything interested me. There was a time travel one I found interesting too.

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--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 12, 2021, 10:29:10 PM ---Ooh, time travel.  That always intrigues me, but it seems like it would be tough to write.  It makes my head hurt.  But I like the concept.  What kind of time travel would you be most interested in writing?  Like, would they go far back in time or into the future?  Or into the recent past to try to change something from their own history, like in The Butterfly Effect?  That is one of my favorite time travel movies.

Has anyone else used writing prompts to get an idea?  I don't think I have, other than the monthly challenges here.

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I am also fascinated by time travel, but can never come up with a unique twist on it that I like! What would the Boys change in their recent history? I also love The Butterfly Effect, that idea that really small things can make a huge impact.

Is there a specific place you go for writing prompts, Tracy, or just random googling? I am terrible at looking at a prompt and using it for an idea, that's why I never did the challenges here -- I couldn't think of anything that would have a whole plot (or snippet of a plot) in the allotted time! I could probably do it with more time and less limitations, but... I definitely shied away from them due to lack of inspiration. Though this was also during the peak of my "stare at blank page" days, so maybe I would be able to do it now if I poked into old threads.

I much prefer the "challenges" they do in the Camp NaNo inspiration emails that can fit into any story rather than trying to think of a new short story. Like the "use a trope you hate from your genre" one that we talked about or those "fit this line into your narrative" type ones. I find those easier to tackle. Could be a fun challenge for all of us at some point. I'm thinking something like "include an old fanfic stereotype, but give it a twist."

nicksgal:

--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 12, 2021, 07:58:02 PM ---I also got two comments right off the bat on today's update, which was really nice, especially considering I didn't get any feedback on last week's chapter.  It's funny because last week's chapter was probably my favorite one in the entire story up to that point, but it didn't have Nick, Brian, AJ, or Howie in it, only Kevin.  This week's had all five.  I wonder if that was the difference in how it was received by readers.  Does that ever happen to you, where parts you love get no reaction, and the parts that do get commented on are ones you don't consider to be all that special?

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--- Quote from: FrickingKaos on June 12, 2021, 09:00:04 PM ---I've been disappointed by feedback on something before. There were a few times where this has happened for whatever and since I overthink a lot I tend to think it means that it sucked. Which I used to be in that mind set a lot, but thankfully I don't think that way for the most part anymore. It's perfectly fine to be disappointed though especially since you worked so hard on it.

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--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 12, 2021, 09:23:17 PM ---No worries!  I wasn't fishing for feedback, just commenting on how it can vary chapter to chapter.  I don't assume that a chapter or story that doesn't get any feedback sucks, just that maybe it doesn't resonate with readers as much as it did with me.  That, or people are just busy and haven't gotten around to reading yet or can't think of what to comment on.  It is a little disappointing when you work hard on something and don't get any kind of feedback on it, but it happens.  As long as I'm happy with what I wrote, I don't let it bother me.  I have also gotten better at not overthinking or worrying about what other people think.

Another thing to remember is that there are a lot of "silent readers" out there - people who read every chapter and never say a word.  Some people, especially those who don't write themselves, just don't feel comfortable leaving reviews.  I don't remember ever really emailing writers with feedback until I started writing and posting stories myself.  Then I realized how much people appreciate hearing that someone enjoyed their story, so I started saying so.  Major kudos to the readers who don't write themselves and still take the time to leave comments.

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I don't think anyone loves parts I love as much as I do, haha. But we've already discussed how I often feel like I'm shouting into the void. I think I have a lot of those "silent reader" types.

I think in fanfic, it can be intimidating to leave reviews when you don't look at it with the mindset of "just about anything I say will bring some joy to the person writing it." Which is easy for other writers because I'm sure we all think, "I know I would be happy to hear any of this, so they will be too." Although, I think that can be a bit of a double-edged sword as well, because we probably all have varying degrees of what we would be "happy to hear." I think that's where concrit falls, like I know I would want to hear the point where someone lost interest in whatever I was writing, for instance, in case I could go back to look at it and say "oh, yes, this is very boring; I will adjust," but that's probably not a universal opinion (and people don't usually say things like that anyway, they just stop reading, lol).

As for other comments, I wonder if it's the degree of removal that's intimidating. Like someone could love Harry Potter, go online, and gush about it with other Harry Potter fans, but even if they dmed JK Rowling, the chances she would reply, or even see it, could vary. But that same Harry Potter fan could go online, read a Harry Potter fanfic and love it, comment and the author would not only see it right away, but also probably get notified that the comment is there and be able to respond. Which we all love, but there's definitely a difference between discussing something you love with other fans versus a creator. Like, I'd talk to you all about my joy and history with the Boys forever, but if I ever get to tell them, I would be really anxious about it the whole time leading up to that moment. And it's one thing to be anxious in line at some sort of meet and greet where you could leave, but you've already paid for it and you're already there, versus being on the other side of a computer screen reading a story where if the anxiousness gets overwhelming, you can just click away and you're still on your computer/phone wherever you were before (and it was free to begin with).

There's also those stories with lots of comments where once you get there, you think "do I really have anything to add that isn't already here?" Yes, I like to read other peoples' comments on stories as well. Does anyone else do this? lol For fanfics, I know that even a "this was awesome" is appreciated, but I think about it kind of like discussions for class. I often wouldn't say things then because I had nothing to add other than "I agree." So I assume some readers might feel the same way about our stories, even if they loved it.

This is my 10 cents about comments, lol.

nicksgal:

--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 12, 2021, 07:58:02 PM ---How's everyone's weekend going?

I am slowly but surely making my way through my Nick chapter.  It feels like I'm not even to the heart of the chapter yet, but I just checked my word count, and it's already over 3,000 words... so I'm thinking this may be another long one.  I guess that'll balance out the monster Kevin chapter I wrote last week.
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Glad you're making some progress on it and at least you don't need to worry anymore about if it feels long enough to be a chapter yet. Is it going well today too? It's interesting that you were worried about it not having enough to match the Kevin chapter and now they're both equally lengthy. Apparently, Nick had some things to say too! lol

It is... not going as well as I wanted? I was really tired on Friday since I ended up having to sub in one our classrooms, so I didn't get much written like I was hoping and ended up deleting what I wrote when I started writing yesterday. We haven't left for our little staycation yet, but my plan was to stare at my computer yesterday until my eyes bled and write as much as I could before then. But, one of my friends is about to move for grad school and is finishing closing on his condo, so he wanted to have a little pub crawl for one of his last weekends in town (he's probably not moving for another month or so, but he'll be living with family and getting into town will be slightly less convenient/involve more driving). We've been friends for almost a decade, so obviously I couldn't deny him his pub crawl for writing, lol. One of our other friends was busy when he wanted to start, so he pushed it back a couple hours, so I thought "okay, while I try to do some laundry at our other friend's house, I can get some solid writing done." (Can't wait until our washer and dryer are installed later this week!) But of course, I finally got into the groove when the last load was done and just had to abandon writing to go. I did get almost 1,000 words written, but had to keep going back and getting back into it every time I stopped for laundry. I think I would have been super productive if I had been able to keep to my original plan of staring at the computer all day, lol. So, we'll see how this morning goes! But I wanted to make sure I checked in/didn't get too far behind on our writing discussions. :)

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