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Author Topic: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)  (Read 93885 times)

nicksgal

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #150 on: July 05, 2021, 11:07:35 PM »

Very true!  I am the same way about writing vs. reading.  I do enjoy reading, and I know it's important to read a lot if you want to be a good writer, but when my time is limited and the inspiration is there, I would rather devote it to writing than reading.

I think if I really want to be better about it, I'll have to look at it as a habit, like I did when I started writing again. Realistically, I could be better about reading a book before bed (for instance), rather than crawling into bed and staring at the tiny internet on my phone, lol.


Yeah, it was a music-through-the-decades kind of thing, and of course my immediate suggestion for the 90s section was boybands.  We pulled it together in a few days practicing after school.

Love it! No better suggestion for the 90s than boybands, plus the dances are just iconic. I'm impressed! Only a few days! Was it several teachers or just a few? Anyone else know the choreography already?


LOL Yep; I think I finished with like 30 minutes to spare in April.

I am off to a terrible start with this month's goal, but it's been a busy holiday weekend.  My routine is all messed up, and I haven't had a good long writing session yet this month.  I've kept the streak alive, but only barely.  Hopefully I'll get back on track tomorrow.

No shame in lowering your goal, especially since you're working on a new story.  I still don't know how people do 50,000.  I could lock myself in a room for a month straight and still not hit 50,000 words.

You still finished your chapter each time and that's what counts. :) I also like to fly by the seat of my pants, lol.

Holidays are hard, there's always a lot more going on that doesn't usually fit with "sit and write for an extended period of time." We were at two of our friends' house for the past day or so and sitting in the sun all day, so I managed the quick scene "[Brian takes a phone call]" when we got back today, lol. I totally get it. But we've still got plenty of time! :)

I think I'm being overly hard on myself and it's too early to say it definitely needs to be lowered. I'm still not sure how I did it on PNecklace, but I can confirm that it is possible, lol.


Absolutely!  I am not someone who likes to talk about my feelings, so writing is a great outlet for me.  I haven't kept a journal in a long time, so I don't usually write about my own personal stuff, but I find fiction to be a great way to channel feelings and experiences, whether consciously or subconsciously .

Writing is also a great distraction.  If I can get my mind to focus on someone else's fictional problems instead of my own for a while, awesome!  And when the writing goes well, it puts me in a better mood.

It's been a while since I kept a journal as well. My old blog was probably the closest I've been to a journal or diary in a while. I bought one of those "line a day" journals to try and get back into it, but didn't keep up with it.

I think that channeling feelings works out better for me in the cathartic sense. I tended to meander when it was too close to personal experience. And I agree completely about the distraction; I'd forgotten how much writing used to get me out of "feelings spirals." (probably because writing itself became a feelings spiral, lol.)


Yay!  Nostalgia for the win!  Glad you're getting into a groove with it.

That is quite a conundrum with wanting to write the story in Nick's POV without making him the main character.  But I think you're onto something with the Gatsby reference.  Nick can narrate, but still focus on what the other guys are doing more so than what he himself is doing.  It could be his reaction to the plot unfolding around him and events happening to the others.

The holiday derailed me for sure, but here's hoping for tomorrow. I think I might skip around a bit and see if that helps too. It feels like my main problem might be that my "Nick voice" is the strongest of all the Boys, so it just inherently feels more interesting. I honestly might be using it as a crutch, since I already know I can spin the story to Nick's POV and it will be entertaining. I think I want to tackle the first Howie chapter tomorrow rather than continuing on with this Brian one, though, so we'll see how Howie goes. :)

I also doesn't help that I've totally distracted myself with both that World Anvil thing I was talking about and Grammarly, lol. It doesn't point out everything I hoped it would, but it has been helpful with suggesting sentences that may need clarity for a general audience. World Anvil, meanwhile, might be the biggest rabbit hole I've ever jumped into; I think it will help, but it is a monstrosity.
« Last Edit: July 05, 2021, 11:23:12 PM by nicksgal »
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~*Dee*~

People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

nicksgal

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #151 on: July 05, 2021, 11:12:25 PM »

You know I think jumping back into 00Carter might be the best thing for me. Because y'all know how I am with collaborating. I push myself harder cause I don't like letting anyone down. Guilt lol. My schedule fluctuates but I'm ready to dive back in.

If a collaboration helps get your writing mojo going again, I am here for it! No guilt though!

I'm here for it!  I think we should start slow and give each other plenty of grace, knowing that none of us has written on it in years.  We should probably find somewhere else to talk about it so we're not spamming up the forum with 00Carter stuff again LOL.

Bolded for agreement.

What?! But spamming the forum with 00Carter is classic AC FicTalk content! LOL!

Any ideas of where we wanna talk 00Carter? And oh yeah we'll definitely all need patience. I'm just very self critical lol.

Aren't we all?

Google has a chat feature.  That might be a nice replacement for good old Yahoo Messenger, and I know we all use Google already.  Dee, what is your gmail?

We had also talked about trying to do a live reading via Google Meet to catch up - might be funny.

That was going to be my suggestion, GChat or maybe GroupMe. Though it would be easier to archive the chat into a google doc.

I'm deciding which one to use, lol. I'll PM y'all.

I see your "might," but I'm pretty sure you mean would be hilarious.
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~*Dee*~

People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

nicksgal

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #152 on: July 05, 2021, 11:12:40 PM »

Happy birthday, Tracy! :)
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~*Dee*~

People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

RokofAges75

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #153 on: July 05, 2021, 11:49:38 PM »

That's why I hate textured paint also, lol. Hubs loves it and looks at me like I'm crazy every time I say, "but it's terrible for hanging things!" lol! See, I've broken many a wall with them, so I'd rather patch a hole at this point. I blame the wall more than me.

What color did you decide to go with? And I get it, holiday weekends are always busy.

Ah yes, textured paint probably makes it harder for the strips to stick.  They usually work fine for me, but I had a hell of a time hanging my framed Millennium record.  I framed the DNA record and hung it up with Command strips, and it stayed fine.  Then, months later, I tried to hang Millennium on the same wall with the same kind of album frame, and it kept falling down, breaking the glass and taking some of the paint and dry wall with it.  I think it was too humid, and the strips wouldn't fuse to the wall right.  I finally gave up and waited until it was cooler to try again, and then I was able to get it to stick.  It's now hiding the damaged part of the wall LOL.

I'm getting a color called "olive white."  It's a really light, subtle olive green - almost beige/gray.  I think it will compliment the 70s orange, red, and brown of the shower curtain, and it's a nod to the green bathroom in room 237 without being full on seafoam green.  I'm also going to paint the back of the door an antique white to make REDRUM stand out more.


I feel like they'd never admit it though? lol I wonder who's on autopilot the most.

Kevin and Howie definitely have the most opportunities to be on autopilot, with all the songs they have no solos on.


I think if I really want to be better about it, I'll have to look at it as a habit, like I did when I started writing again. Realistically, I could be better about reading a book before bed (for instance), rather than crawling into bed and staring at the tiny internet on my phone, lol.

Very true.  I do most of my reading in bed, too, and it's definitely easier with a physical book or on a tablet with a larger screen than on my phone.  I don't like leaving reviews on my phone either just because it takes longer.  If I'm reading an entire story, I'll read on my tablet or Chromebook in a comfy place, but if I'm following a story as it's written, I try to make myself read and review the latest chapter before I open my own story to write.


Love it! No better suggestion for the 90s than boybands, plus the dances are just iconic. I'm impressed! Only a few days! Was it several teachers or just a few? Anyone else know the choreography already?

I teach in a big school, so we had ten of us for the boyband part!  We made shirts that said BSB for five of us and shirts that spelled out NSYNC for the other five.  Of course, I was a Backstreet Boy.  None of the others knew the choreography, so I ended up being the one to teach the rest of them.


I think that channeling feelings works out better for me in the cathartic sense. I tended to meander when it was too close to personal experience. And I agree completely about the distraction; I'd forgotten how much writing used to get me out of "feelings spirals." (probably because writing itself became a feelings spiral, lol.)

That's exactly it - it's cathartic to write (and read) about other people's (fictional) problems, which are usually worse than mine.  I think that's why I've always preferred drama.


The holiday derailed me for sure, but here's hoping for tomorrow. I think I might skip around a bit and see if that helps too. It feels like my main problem might be that my "Nick voice" is the strongest of all the Boys, so it just inherently feels more interesting. I honestly might be using it as a crutch, since I already know I can spin the story to Nick's POV and it will be entertaining. I think I want to tackle the first Howie chapter tomorrow rather than continuing on with this Brian one, though, so we'll see how Howie goes. :)

I also doesn't help that I've totally distracted myself with both that World Anvil thing I was talking about and Grammarly, lol. It doesn't point out everything I hoped it would, but it has been helpful with suggesting sentences that may need clarity for a general audience. World Anvil, meanwhile, might be the biggest rabbit hole I've ever jumped into; I think it will help, but it is a monstrosity.

It definitely derailed me too.  Unlike the previous chapter, I know exactly how this chapter is going to go, and oddly enough, I think that's part of what is making me procrastinate on it.  I'm like, "Eh, I can write this any time; I'll wait till I feel like it to really sit down and hammer it out."  But that hasn't happened yet this month; I just keep writing a few sentences at a time to keep the streak alive and then moving on to something else - whoops.

You could always experiment with trying to write a scene in one of the other guys' POV and then write the same scene in Nick's and see which you like better.  If it helps, you'll probably get more readers if it seems like a Nick story. ;)

Ooh, new toys!  I don't know anything about World Anvil except for what you said here, but it does seem like it would be time-consuming.  Hopefully worth it in the long run!  Have fun playing with it!
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~Julie

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RokofAges75

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #154 on: July 05, 2021, 11:51:41 PM »

What?! But spamming the forum with 00Carter is classic AC FicTalk content! LOL!

That was going to be my suggestion, GChat or maybe GroupMe. Though it would be easier to archive the chat into a google doc.

I'm deciding which one to use, lol. I'll PM y'all.

I see your "might," but I'm pretty sure you mean would be hilarious.

LOL Very true.

I haven't used either, but it seems like the Google one would be easier to streamline with Docs.

It definitely would be hilarious, especially if we drink while we do it!
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~Julie

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #155 on: July 06, 2021, 12:17:57 AM »

Happy birthday, Tracy! :)

Thank you!!
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nicksgal

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #156 on: July 06, 2021, 12:29:29 AM »

Ah yes, textured paint probably makes it harder for the strips to stick.  They usually work fine for me, but I had a hell of a time hanging my framed Millennium record.  I framed the DNA record and hung it up with Command strips, and it stayed fine.  Then, months later, I tried to hang Millennium on the same wall with the same kind of album frame, and it kept falling down, breaking the glass and taking some of the paint and dry wall with it.  I think it was too humid, and the strips wouldn't fuse to the wall right.  I finally gave up and waited until it was cooler to try again, and then I was able to get it to stick.  It's now hiding the damaged part of the wall LOL.

I'm getting a color called "olive white."  It's a really light, subtle olive green - almost beige/gray.  I think it will compliment the 70s orange, red, and brown of the shower curtain, and it's a nod to the green bathroom in room 237 without being full on seafoam green.  I'm also going to paint the back of the door an antique white to make REDRUM stand out more.

Poor Millennium! Glad the actual record seems to be okay and only the wall/frame were casualties, lol. When I lived in my sorority house, they painted one summer as part of renovations and when we moved back in, I hung a white board calendar with command strips next to my desk. At the end of the year, nothing I could do would remove it from the wall... until I managed to rip it down, with a 3" x 2" chunk of the newly painted wall, lol. Oops!

Seafoam would clash with those colors, so I think the subtler nod is a good choice. Are you keeping the front of the door the stained wood then? That's a good compromise! :)


Kevin and Howie definitely have the most opportunities to be on autopilot, with all the songs they have no solos on.

The beginning of Kevin's hiatus must have been an adjustment for Howie, lol. Suddenly un-autopilot would be a learning curve.


Very true.  I do most of my reading in bed, too, and it's definitely easier with a physical book or on a tablet with a larger screen than on my phone.  I don't like leaving reviews on my phone either just because it takes longer.  If I'm reading an entire story, I'll read on my tablet or Chromebook in a comfy place, but if I'm following a story as it's written, I try to make myself read and review the latest chapter before I open my own story to write.

Everything takes such a long time on a phone unless there's an app. This forum is the most frustrating on a phone. I tried in the beginning, but then these monster-sized posts just made it impossible, lol.

That's a good plan! I need to be better about doing that, since I've done the opposite: open my own stuff, then maybe get around to reading in the wee hours of the morning if I can... Leads to a lot less reading and reviewing.


I teach in a big school, so we had ten of us for the boyband part!  We made shirts that said BSB for five of us and shirts that spelled out NSYNC for the other five.  Of course, I was a Backstreet Boy.  None of the others knew the choreography, so I ended up being the one to teach the rest of them.

That is a big school! One for each BackSync member makes sense; I figured you were not just one of the Boys, but Brian, lol. I assume you still had Backstreet's Back memorized, but did you have to brush up on Bye Bye Bye?


That's exactly it - it's cathartic to write (and read) about other people's (fictional) problems, which are usually worse than mine.  I think that's why I've always preferred drama.

That makes sense that catharsis would be why you lean toward drama. Now if only we could figure out why I lean toward sword stabbing, lol.


It definitely derailed me too.  Unlike the previous chapter, I know exactly how this chapter is going to go, and oddly enough, I think that's part of what is making me procrastinate on it.  I'm like, "Eh, I can write this any time; I'll wait till I feel like it to really sit down and hammer it out."  But that hasn't happened yet this month; I just keep writing a few sentences at a time to keep the streak alive and then moving on to something else - whoops.

Those always get me too! I don't know what it is about knowing what happens that makes me procrastinate. .. I think it's because I spend such a long time mulling over the best way to write "what exactly happens." Hopefully now that the holidays are over, your motivation returns. :)


You could always experiment with trying to write a scene in one of the other guys' POV and then write the same scene in Nick's and see which you like better.  If it helps, you'll probably get more readers if it seems like a Nick story. ;)

Ooh, new toys!  I don't know anything about World Anvil except for what you said here, but it does seem like it would be time-consuming.  Hopefully worth it in the long run!  Have fun playing with it!

I was thinking about that for the AJ one coming up. It felt like a good way to test it more than some of these other ones where Nick's not there the entire time for whatever reason.

I started with Nick, since that seemed like an easy place to start, and just filling in their "prompt" information they ask to get you started (stuff like related groups, places, etcetera), I already have ten other related "articles" to fill in. So, as it turns out, not easy! lol
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~*Dee*~

People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

nicksgal

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #157 on: July 06, 2021, 12:31:56 AM »

LOL Very true.

I haven't used either, but it seems like the Google one would be easier to streamline with Docs.

It definitely would be hilarious, especially if we drink while we do it!

GChat is fairly similar to the simpler aspects of YIM. GroupMe is like a slightly fancier group text.

Would we be drinking 00Carter signature drinks? Wasn't it chocolate milk, shaken, not stirred? lmao
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~*Dee*~

People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

nicksgal

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #158 on: July 06, 2021, 12:32:28 AM »

Thank you!!

What did you do to celebrate? :)
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~*Dee*~

People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #159 on: July 06, 2021, 12:55:37 AM »

Not a whole lot. I had a virtual birthday party on Saturday, Sunday I went to dinner at a pizzeria in town with a friend before we went to see fireworks. Then today I went and ran som errands with my dad, who bought me pizza so I had pizza for dinner again. We also went to Starbucks so I could get my free birthday drink coupon that was in my app redeemed. My dad paid for those too. We came home, ate dinner and then I watched Big Bang Theory for about an hour before I went in the pool for a while. Then I sat out on the patio in the backyard, watched the sun go down and listened to Elton John on my iPad. I went inside, watched a couple movies and cuddled my cat to end the night. Also Nick tweeted me today so that was nice.

I did get another chapter posted on Saturday before the birthday party started so that was nice. I didn’t get much writing done after that. We were on video chat for 5 hours and I got drunk so definitely wasn’t going to write LOL
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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #160 on: July 06, 2021, 07:20:32 AM »

Google has a chat feature.  That might be a nice replacement for good old Yahoo Messenger, and I know we all use Google already.  Dee, what is your gmail?

We had also talked about trying to do a live reading via Google Meet to catch up - might be funny.

That would be hilarious lol
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nicksgal

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #161 on: July 06, 2021, 12:59:58 PM »

Not a whole lot. I had a virtual birthday party on Saturday, Sunday I went to dinner at a pizzeria in town with a friend before we went to see fireworks. Then today I went and ran som errands with my dad, who bought me pizza so I had pizza for dinner again. We also went to Starbucks so I could get my free birthday drink coupon that was in my app redeemed. My dad paid for those too. We came home, ate dinner and then I watched Big Bang Theory for about an hour before I went in the pool for a while. Then I sat out on the patio in the backyard, watched the sun go down and listened to Elton John on my iPad. I went inside, watched a couple movies and cuddled my cat to end the night. Also Nick tweeted me today so that was nice.

I did get another chapter posted on Saturday before the birthday party started so that was nice. I didn’t get much writing done after that. We were on video chat for 5 hours and I got drunk so definitely wasn’t going to write LOL

That all sounds fun! (Although like a lot of pizza, lol.) It's nice to be able to relax a little on the actual day and do the more "party" event another time, especially when your birthday is right around a busy holiday (I can relate).

I'm happy you were able to get some writing in before the celebrations. :) It's definitely hard to write after long video calls and drunken shenanigans. Hopefully this next week's writing goes well!
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~*Dee*~

People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

nicksgal

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #162 on: July 06, 2021, 11:47:38 PM »

Today I am useless. I got about 300 words in, wrote the most hilarious joke ever and just don't think I can top it, so I stalled on that project. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon researching growing seasons to name my months. So... now Nick's birthday is officially in "the month of almonding." Why am I like this? lol

Hope writing is going much better for everyone else!
« Last Edit: July 06, 2021, 11:53:44 PM by nicksgal »
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~*Dee*~

People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

nicksgal

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #163 on: July 07, 2021, 09:04:30 PM »

Found a fun writing question on r/writing: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/obpzey/writing_rules_that_are_stupid_and_meant_to_be/

So what are writing "rules" that you think should be breakable? And are there any writing "rules" that feel less like rules in fanfic?
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~*Dee*~

People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

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Re: Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
« Reply #164 on: July 07, 2021, 11:35:42 PM »

Hm... I'm with the majority of posters in that thread who basically said "rules" are meant to be broken.  I've never even heard the one about not starting with dialogue, but I don't see why not, as long as you eventually provide some context.  I'm also clearly not a fan of "write what you know" because that's what the internet is for - use your resources and find out what you don't know before you write it.  And although I am a grammar Nazi when it comes to academic writing, I acknowledge that, in fiction writing, some conventions can be broken for the sake of style and flow, such as using fragments, starting sentences with conjunctions, and ending sentences with prepositions.  Sometimes it just sounds better that way, especially in dialogue.

I think with fanfic in particular, anything goes.  We're all publishing for free on the internet, so there are no agents or editors telling us what to do or not to do, and we're not scamming anyone out of money by putting out poorly-written stories.  Even poorly-written fanfic can be entertaining, and at the end of the day, that's the whole point:  entertainment.
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~Julie

"Sometimes writers and sociopaths are hard to tell apart." -J.K. Rowling
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