Snowflake Challenge Day 11
Jan. 12th, 2019 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meridian_roseDay 11 - In your own space, talk about your creative process(es) — anything from the initial inspiration to how you feel after something’s done. Do you struggle with motivation or is it a smooth process? Do you have any tricks up your sleeve to pull out when a fanwork isn’t cooperating? What is your level of planning to pantsing/winging it?
Generally I am a non-linear writer, except for short fic. The longer the fic, the less likely I am to begin at the start and write my way through.
For very long works I like to use Scrivener because you can rearrange scenes, duplicate scenes before you attempt to edit or rewrite them, and add in or remove a scene easily.
Often the scenes I have problems with are the middle ones. They're sometimes the scenes I most wanted to write but also ones I feel most embarrassed about. You'd think for all the hurt/comfort, whump, and angst, I've read and written and watched over the years I'd be past that, but the closer to my own kinks the thing is, the more difficult I find to write it.
Despite this I have sometimes managed to write some things that hit my kinks and that I posted and am proud of. Just not as many as I'd like.
I'm a panster , hence the problematic middles. I do sometimes try and outline a little more but for me too much of an outline takes away the fun of writing, the pleasure of discovery. It's special when you're writing and key piece of detail comes to you (when you say things like "Character told me A Thing") and it changes everything to makes everything fall in place.
I outlined extensively for a Small Fandom Bang Da Vinci's Demons fic called The Count's Secret. The fic was written quickly, edited, and posted by the deadline and I got beautiful, amazing artwork for it. (Please do check out the artwork and remember this is a show set in the 15th century with art made for a regency AU so the manips are incredible)
And there's nothing wrong with the fic and there's some scenes I like. But it has never felt like something I truly worked on, and I don't feel the same affection for it as other works because I never got that joy of discovery; it felt like "write by numbers".
I also avoid all those "beat sheets" templates and the like because again, the story should flow naturally rather than be shoehorned into "and now the Angst Reveal" at exactly 1500 words into a 3000 word fic.
When I have an idea and follow through on it, when the words just flow, that's one of the best feelings in the world.
I was just reading someone else's entry and like them, I usually see the fiction as a movie first and foremost; though from reading at Fandom Secrets not everyone experiences the audio or visual as other writers do. I'm stunned by the idea of not "hearing" a character's voice when I read or write.
It feels different when I actually write The Thing, though I'm more likely to write The Thing if I've already 'watched' it in my head.
Of course there are problems when I watch the thing so often I don't actually write it, or when I watch it once and then can't remember the details when I want to write it – especially annoying when I had perfect line of dialogue in my head while showering or almost asleep only to forget it later!
Last year I vowed to write down more things so I wouldn't forget them. I wasn't entirely successful but I have got a lot of additions to the spreadsheet I keep with entries in like "fanfic, fandom, keyword, brief outline including any special notes or dialogue" and "fanvid, fandom, song, any particular scenes and lyric matching".
I do also tend to have these random snippets in various places (google docs, Internet Typewriter, my bullet journal etc) and have to make an effort to add them all to the spreadsheet so I can find them again!
My strongest points in writing are dialogue and characterisation. My weaker points are descriptions and finishing things ;)
Generally I am a non-linear writer, except for short fic. The longer the fic, the less likely I am to begin at the start and write my way through.
For very long works I like to use Scrivener because you can rearrange scenes, duplicate scenes before you attempt to edit or rewrite them, and add in or remove a scene easily.
Often the scenes I have problems with are the middle ones. They're sometimes the scenes I most wanted to write but also ones I feel most embarrassed about. You'd think for all the hurt/comfort, whump, and angst, I've read and written and watched over the years I'd be past that, but the closer to my own kinks the thing is, the more difficult I find to write it.
Despite this I have sometimes managed to write some things that hit my kinks and that I posted and am proud of. Just not as many as I'd like.
I'm a panster , hence the problematic middles. I do sometimes try and outline a little more but for me too much of an outline takes away the fun of writing, the pleasure of discovery. It's special when you're writing and key piece of detail comes to you (when you say things like "Character told me A Thing") and it changes everything to makes everything fall in place.
I outlined extensively for a Small Fandom Bang Da Vinci's Demons fic called The Count's Secret. The fic was written quickly, edited, and posted by the deadline and I got beautiful, amazing artwork for it. (Please do check out the artwork and remember this is a show set in the 15th century with art made for a regency AU so the manips are incredible)
And there's nothing wrong with the fic and there's some scenes I like. But it has never felt like something I truly worked on, and I don't feel the same affection for it as other works because I never got that joy of discovery; it felt like "write by numbers".
I also avoid all those "beat sheets" templates and the like because again, the story should flow naturally rather than be shoehorned into "and now the Angst Reveal" at exactly 1500 words into a 3000 word fic.
When I have an idea and follow through on it, when the words just flow, that's one of the best feelings in the world.
I was just reading someone else's entry and like them, I usually see the fiction as a movie first and foremost; though from reading at Fandom Secrets not everyone experiences the audio or visual as other writers do. I'm stunned by the idea of not "hearing" a character's voice when I read or write.
It feels different when I actually write The Thing, though I'm more likely to write The Thing if I've already 'watched' it in my head.
Of course there are problems when I watch the thing so often I don't actually write it, or when I watch it once and then can't remember the details when I want to write it – especially annoying when I had perfect line of dialogue in my head while showering or almost asleep only to forget it later!
Last year I vowed to write down more things so I wouldn't forget them. I wasn't entirely successful but I have got a lot of additions to the spreadsheet I keep with entries in like "fanfic, fandom, keyword, brief outline including any special notes or dialogue" and "fanvid, fandom, song, any particular scenes and lyric matching".
I do also tend to have these random snippets in various places (google docs, Internet Typewriter, my bullet journal etc) and have to make an effort to add them all to the spreadsheet so I can find them again!
My strongest points in writing are dialogue and characterisation. My weaker points are descriptions and finishing things ;)
