Saturday blatherings

[selenay]

I was thinking about writing something intelligent. Then my brain got mushed by spending two hours coding up new fanfic reviews for the website and all intelligence trickeled away. Possibly I need to eat Chinese food to restore brain ability.

One thing I spotted today was this. Read the comments, too, because there are some interesting extras in there. The poster seems to be planning a British/American confusion dictionary to add to her site so that Harry Potter fanficcers can find out that writing Snape wandering into a lesson in just pants is wildly inappropriate. And, y'know, some of these Americans might writing some convincing British swearing without ending up sounding like Kirk and Spock attempting to learnt to swear in Star Trek IV.

::wanders off to peruse the Chinese take-out menu::

Comments

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

No idea what you're on about--exactly, as I haven't looked at the HP link and don't plan to (not my cup, blah blah *g*)--but your post cracked me up...ironically, as I crack myself up whenever I gripe about US/Brit dictionaries/language differences, and do so while committing typoes.... *bfg*

Can I have some of that Chinese? Yummmmmy. ::whine:: I miss Chinese. I wish I had a car to go get some. Sadly, they don't deliver where I am. You either go get it or you're out of luck. ::sighs:: So...okay. It's a chicken and noodle dinner, an iced double espresso drink, and some terribly filthy writing--sooner or later. Right now, I'm actually attempting at something resembling a plotline. We'll see. ;-)

So...how's the writing coming for the original novel? You know, the one that's driving you nuts? Or should I ask? ;-)

[selenay]

but your post cracked me up

Thank you :-)

Can I have some of that Chinese?

No, but it was very yummy [/torment]

So...how's the writing coming for the original novel?

It's coming along well :-) Still interupting my fanfic writing schedule, but I've given in to it. I didn't get as much time to write as I'd planned this weekend, but hopefully I'll find time this week and spend most of next weekend buried in it. The characters are still whispering in my ear and, if they shut up for a few minutes, I've got lots of handwritten stuff to type up and edit.

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

The characters are still whispering in my ear and, if they shut up for a few minutes, I've got lots of handwritten stuff to type up and edit.


::waves hand in the air::
I've done that!

Er, but now I don't. Every single time I've written down scenes and dialogue for the supposedly straight and narrow sci-fi story I've been *trying* to write, then get to the keyboard and transfer...the little bugger deviates like a broken septum and I end up going far off the page. ::sighs:: Of course, the same happens whenever I've written out a piece of fanfic so it's probably my inability to stick to what I write. Always changing, editing, revising...

Have tried to write this weekend, and have the day off today for a holiday. I spent all day Saturday and most of yesterday revising the plot that I'd written three times as I wasn't satisfied with it. I know where I'm heading, and there're scenes already noted down, waiting to be filled out, but it's the getting to them, you know? It's trying to make the plot sound slightly credible--even within the parameters of this fandom, and that's saying something. At one point, I felt I was turning Daniel into a Marty Sue and had to backtrack and rewrite, refigure, re-edit. ::sighs again:: But, I'm committed (or should *be* committed) to finishing this thing.

I'm so glad the characters are whispering for you. :-) Buggers seem to be screaming at me. *smirk* And I think they want Chinese. ;-p

[selenay]

:-) The Chinese food was lovely (as always *g*) and I've been too exhausted over the past couple of days to do anything other than work on a very dull paper for college *pout*

Always changing, editing, revising...

*g* For the past couple of years I've been handwriting most of my stuff before typing it up on the computer and it's working suprisingly well for me. Usually I know where a story is going and the editing that I do as I type doesn't change the shape of the story much. It might change the POV of a scene, remove or add a character, delete or expand on sections and polish the language a bit, but the basics don't change too much. I think that's because I usually have scenes planned in my head for at least a couple of weeks before writing them down. The only ones that get difficult are the 'linking' scenes to connect the stuff I've really thought hard about - those are the ones where I sit with my pen and doodle in the margins, maybe getting a hundred words out in an hour. And then they have to be revised a lot when typed up.

Basically, I start out with a broad outline of where a story is going and who needs to do what. Then I flesh it out as I go, taking into account some surprises that may appear on the way (minor characters turning out to be not so minor, that kind of thing), and end up with something (hopefully) that follows that broad outline I had at the beginning. Otherwise the fic ends up being a complete mess because I've deviated so far from the plot that it gets tangled up beyond salvaging :-)

There was a point there, somewhere...

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

I saw the point. Explaining how you write a story. I liked that. I sometimes do the same as you, only it's on the computer, rarely handwritten now. I tried that and travelling with a 'teeny tiny' notebook didn't work. A bigger one would always get crumpled. I'd never hand-write at home. I'd have to do it at my little desk, and since my computer's there, I type instead. *g* A lot of the plots will get written in an outline, then some will get the more detailed outline and others will be written out completely in some mad writing spree. Then I'd spend the next week or so re-editing and adding. That's such a screwy way to write. *g*

[selenay]

But it's also a much faster way to write than mine :-) And you still manage to produce very good writing. My way takes a long time to get things finished and I still end up doing a lot of editing, polishing, beta-ing and re-editing at the end to drag things out even further.

I have a desk for my computer and another one to write on - student :-) Can't survive without a good surface for taking notes and spreading out books and journals as I write papers. I think better when I have a pen in my hand rather than staring at a scary blank page on the computer. Of course, I also doodle a lot when I'm thinking. You can tell how easy something was to write by the amount of doodling in the margins. Clean pages = easy writing.

Writing by hand so much means that I can take my big notepad with me when I go away to write in, although I still take my laptop if I'm going to be away for more than a couple of days. I need to be able to refer to the typed version of a story, particularly if I've made significant changes when typig, and it's often easier to take the laptop along rather than printing it all. I also sometimes get stuck when I know that something in the handwritten version needs changing and I can't progress until I've typed that section and finalised what is happening and how. Sometimes it's just changing a POV, but sometimes I'm changing the order of two or three scenes and that has a big impact on how I write later stuff.

I used to be a completely non-linear writer, but the handwriting thing has changed that. I still tend to know what the final couple of scenes in a fic will be (and usually write them down long before I get to them), but the rest of it tends to be written in order. I filled three 150 page notepads when writing Serpents and it's all in the right order, except for writing the epilogue at the end of one of the notepads when I just had to get that down on paper. Of course, there are sections of that initial draft that look quite different to what you read, but essentially it's all there and in the order you read. The original novel is being written in the same format (except that I may be doing a rough draft of the final couple of scenes soon *g*) and already more than half fills one of my notepads.

And again I rambled. But hopefully the point is apparent :-)

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

As always, your point is apparent. You love to write, even if it drives you crazy. :-)

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

And my bad (am forgetting to complete my thoughts which means it's time for bed) - I meant to add that when *you* take your time and use patience, the result is always well worth waiting for. :-)))

Always. So...the fic will be done next month right? ;-p

[selenay]

;-p~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am so mature :-)

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

LOLOL no more'n me. ;-)