They always seem to appear just when you think you've managed to dodge them.
Case in point, my current HP crossover one-shots. Both of them are so close to getting done (actually have been like that for a long while now), but both of them have something missing.
Something is always missing. And no matter how many times I read over what I have, I can't figure out what's missing. I just know something is (but why can't I figure out what is?).
A part of me just wants to leave them be for now and do some writing work on other unrelated things until I figure out what's missing. I usually do this and end up with lots more incomplete writing so I'm not keen on listening to this part.
The part of me that is very insistent that I finish them reminds me of scary school teachers but even so, it's not very effective in making me find the missing parts and finish my stories.
Funnily enough I've managed to resist the evil plot-bunny in me, even though I got introduced to a new game fandom (that allows for tons of crazy ideas, believe me).
I've tried reading other things instead of writing for the past few days. That hasn't helped with the writing but it does keep my frustration at bay for the most part.
So what have you guys been up to during the summer? Found some new fandoms to haunt? Found some awesome stories to read?
Polar
I've always found making lists a good way of jarring my memory. Maybe making a barebone's list of everything that happens in the fic? List of techniques, list of relationships, list of clues, list of events, list of character's like and dislikes, list of characters rolls within the fic etc etc etc Whatever seems to be important basically.
ReplyDeleteAlso writing a mini essays on how you believe important characters in the fics are suppost to act towards each other might help.
Of coarse going back and reading the origional canon stuff always helps, at least for me. *ponders*
As for what I've been up too this summer ..... I've finally updated my fic that I've been writing for practice. Apparently my "grammar is absolutely atrocious" according to a reviewer... Yeah I feel better about my writting now. Thank you random reviewer I feel so much better knowing what I've been working so hard on is atrocious.
I don't think they even read the AN saying the whole thing is practice. They kept insisting I get a beta reader (I don't believe in having someone coming in and fixing my writing. Defeats the whole purpose of writing practice for me)... At least they like the storyline.
I'm a big fan of lists. I tend to write out a lot of things in the list and those act as reminders of everything I need to write. But for these stories they're rather unhelpful since I've written out everything needed on the list.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'll definitely try the mini-essay method. Maybe I just don't understand an aspect of the character enough-- entirely plausible since Harry Potter is not the main character.
On FFnet, I think it's expected that if you're putting something on
there, you've spent a good amount of time editing it. That's the reason
I put most of my unedited writing on this blog instead of ffnet- my crossover dump on ffnet also gets edited before being published- not as much as AtO's chapters but definitely more than anything on this blog.
Anyway, since the reviewer was just talking about the grammar, I don't think you should take it to mean your writing is bad especially if they liked the storyline.
Even though English is my first language, I'm still horrid at many things. I think everyone's grammar/spelling is a bit spotty at times but improving your grammar improves your writing monumentally.
Beta readers- I've never really worked with one for AtO but I consider most of my reviewers as such. Having other people look at your writing and tell you what's wrong from a reader's PoV makes you to improve faster.
My reviewers kept sending me to language sites to improve my
punctuation use- something that was rather embarrassing but it helped. I
haven't had any complaints about my punctuation recently.
On a related note, I think most people on ffnet ignore A/Ns unless they're super short.