Thoughts on Writing.
Nov. 22nd, 2009 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagas_isaMostly concerns LG type ficcage, but meta is delicious and stupid meta no matter what the fandom.
I've lowered the "published works" to "unpublished works" ratio by a lot. Until Liar Game, I really can't think of a fic that I've finished, or at least worked a good way towards finishing, that I looked at and decided not to post. Also my amount of "false starts " to finished product has also skyrocketed.
That's not an entirely bad thing, productivity-wise. It means I'm writing a lot more, for one thing. Six months of fandom, and I probably have about 7 published fics, and about the same amount in unpublished fics (And the unpublished ones tend to be the longer ones).
It's also separating the "writing for myself" and "writing for an audience" fics. It doesn't mean that one is necessarily less personal, just that the "writing for myself" fics, I think a lot less about logical consistency and focus more on my particular resonances (of both the porn, and non-porn varieties). Although weirdly, all the porn I've written for Liar Game falls too far in the "writing for myself" variety to ever post. >.> Actually, that would apply to all the porn I write. *sigh*
I've also started trying to take the ideas that "work" off the stories that don't work. The situation in "Hopeless Moves" was taken off the ending of a story with Nao and Fukunaga going over to Akiyama's place to celebrate his birthday. But since the original story was supposed to be fun and light hearted, so the situation in "Hopeless Moves" would have been the totally wrong way to end the story.
Style, style.
I'm going much towards the minimalistic end of things. I don't know if that's a matter of the visual art style of the manga, as compared to the much more visually lush worlds of Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy (but then I have never been strong at description of the violet variety). My descriptions always seem to be more of the internal/thought variety, and the actions more facial expression/body language. Either way, my word count has definitely shrunk.
Third person present is definitely the most-used PoV of mine. Present tense mostly comes from the same reason why I write fics at night, or from a point where people are more vulnerable than normal. More of story as experience than story as recollection. The third person narrative, honestly, it's find all/replace away from being first person. Third person just gives the characters a much more 'solid' presence, plus I think it allows for a little bit of the 'unspoken' to come out. With the first person, there's really a tie to the character's own consciousness that makes portraying ideas that the character is at best vaugely aware of, more difficult.
Which leads into, I love writing one on one interactions. Love doing conversations where something is felt but not said, and then after that, little introspective pieces. Okay, I have a hard time coming up with plots as plots, like the classing exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion. Plus, I can finish short stories. Longer stories, even if there's a definite endpoint, I find myself falling off very fast. Though I have finished a 20,000 word LG fic, it's just not good.
Oh! Music. I was just thinking...I don't do songfic so much anymore. I used to write a lot of stories with a particular song in mind when I started writing. I really don't do that anymore. Sometimes, just after finishing a fic, I'll find a song that fits it perfectly, or at least the emotional tone. But it happens after I write the fic, not before. "What Is and What Should Never Be" sort of resonated with Kerli's "Bulletproof" (though not on the same topic), and on a happer note, the last part of "The Secrets of the Foolishly Honest" could have been written to La Oreja de Van Gogh's "Jueves" although it's better that it wasn't.
I've also discovered myself to not to crave reviews. You know how some (lesser) people might hold a chapter or story hostage until they get more reviews. I've been tempted to do the same, but until other people decide to write more stories. It's not terribly fun to be that one person who is writing all the fic. I like feedback, and it's kind of gratifying to see that people like what I'm doing, but I'd trade that to see more fic (and a wider variety of fic, not just Aki x Nao, as much as it is OTP love).
I've always thought of myself more as a 'writer' than a 'reader' of fic, but finding a fandom where i'm by and large the most prolific writer, it's really lonely. There's always that sense that I'm writing too much that I'm too involved (and yeah, I am), but you know, a similar output in a larger fandom would hardly be noticed, except by those who love/hate my writing.
I've lowered the "published works" to "unpublished works" ratio by a lot. Until Liar Game, I really can't think of a fic that I've finished, or at least worked a good way towards finishing, that I looked at and decided not to post. Also my amount of "false starts " to finished product has also skyrocketed.
That's not an entirely bad thing, productivity-wise. It means I'm writing a lot more, for one thing. Six months of fandom, and I probably have about 7 published fics, and about the same amount in unpublished fics (And the unpublished ones tend to be the longer ones).
It's also separating the "writing for myself" and "writing for an audience" fics. It doesn't mean that one is necessarily less personal, just that the "writing for myself" fics, I think a lot less about logical consistency and focus more on my particular resonances (of both the porn, and non-porn varieties). Although weirdly, all the porn I've written for Liar Game falls too far in the "writing for myself" variety to ever post. >.> Actually, that would apply to all the porn I write. *sigh*
I've also started trying to take the ideas that "work" off the stories that don't work. The situation in "Hopeless Moves" was taken off the ending of a story with Nao and Fukunaga going over to Akiyama's place to celebrate his birthday. But since the original story was supposed to be fun and light hearted, so the situation in "Hopeless Moves" would have been the totally wrong way to end the story.
Style, style.
I'm going much towards the minimalistic end of things. I don't know if that's a matter of the visual art style of the manga, as compared to the much more visually lush worlds of Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy (but then I have never been strong at description of the violet variety). My descriptions always seem to be more of the internal/thought variety, and the actions more facial expression/body language. Either way, my word count has definitely shrunk.
Third person present is definitely the most-used PoV of mine. Present tense mostly comes from the same reason why I write fics at night, or from a point where people are more vulnerable than normal. More of story as experience than story as recollection. The third person narrative, honestly, it's find all/replace away from being first person. Third person just gives the characters a much more 'solid' presence, plus I think it allows for a little bit of the 'unspoken' to come out. With the first person, there's really a tie to the character's own consciousness that makes portraying ideas that the character is at best vaugely aware of, more difficult.
Which leads into, I love writing one on one interactions. Love doing conversations where something is felt but not said, and then after that, little introspective pieces. Okay, I have a hard time coming up with plots as plots, like the classing exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion. Plus, I can finish short stories. Longer stories, even if there's a definite endpoint, I find myself falling off very fast. Though I have finished a 20,000 word LG fic, it's just not good.
Oh! Music. I was just thinking...I don't do songfic so much anymore. I used to write a lot of stories with a particular song in mind when I started writing. I really don't do that anymore. Sometimes, just after finishing a fic, I'll find a song that fits it perfectly, or at least the emotional tone. But it happens after I write the fic, not before. "What Is and What Should Never Be" sort of resonated with Kerli's "Bulletproof" (though not on the same topic), and on a happer note, the last part of "The Secrets of the Foolishly Honest" could have been written to La Oreja de Van Gogh's "Jueves" although it's better that it wasn't.
I've also discovered myself to not to crave reviews. You know how some (lesser) people might hold a chapter or story hostage until they get more reviews. I've been tempted to do the same, but until other people decide to write more stories. It's not terribly fun to be that one person who is writing all the fic. I like feedback, and it's kind of gratifying to see that people like what I'm doing, but I'd trade that to see more fic (and a wider variety of fic, not just Aki x Nao, as much as it is OTP love).
I've always thought of myself more as a 'writer' than a 'reader' of fic, but finding a fandom where i'm by and large the most prolific writer, it's really lonely. There's always that sense that I'm writing too much that I'm too involved (and yeah, I am), but you know, a similar output in a larger fandom would hardly be noticed, except by those who love/hate my writing.
