Thinky thinky thinky.

[niamaea]

First of all, for starting_gate, princessofg, redbyrd_sgcfic, and zats_clear: as the fic currently NOT in your inbox will attest to, I will apparently be belaying that call for hand-holding, as upon review I have discovered that I am still at the 'aiiiiiiiieeee, this story is the devil!' stage. I will check back in with you guys when I upgrade to 'I do not currently want to kill this story and

Comments

[abyssinia4077]

Oh, I so, so, so understand what you mean about stories either coming all at once or not coming at all and seeing all the things people intend when they write and not knowing how to do that.

I'm not sure how to fix things, but I'd definitely be interested in following your process.

[niamaea]

I have a feeling my process is going to have to be write, write, write, write even when I really don't want to or don't have anything to say. Which I know already I'm going to so drag my heels on. Woe! Where's the easy button? ;)

[boosette]

I'll have to ping you sometime in the near future re: this 'cause the deluge/drought thing is pretty much how I swing, too.

I'm not sure how to fix it, although deadlines help (nano-style) as well as "someone's depending on me personally to write them a story (secret santa-style). A part of me wants to call the thing where the story won't come til it's ready lack of practice, or an immature writing process, but another part wants to say that that's just how it roles.

It feels ... not worth it? ... to sit down and only write five hundred words.

(For me, reading the meta posts about writing is in large part trying to figure out how my own brain ticks: how to strikes a balance between the hyperdetailed outline and the seat of my pants, how to get the story to just flow [like I've been poking the "nirrti had open access to the sgc" apocalypse kree prompt since I saw it a couple months ago, lonely and unwritten] and, ah, this appears to have devolved to me talking about myself

[niamaea]

and, ah, this appears to have devolved to me talking about myself.

Talk, talk!

Definitely agree with you on the benefit of having someone depending on you for a story - deadlines don't help me so much unless there's a person I'm writing for and then I buckle down. With much flailing and teeth gnashing to whichever poor person catches me on AIM.

And speaking OF - I added both your SNs, but I'm wondering if I'm having some AIM issues - you registered as having been online for about three seconds both times and then vanished and haven't shown up since, and there are a few other names I haven't seen in ages, and apparently at least two or three people don't see me when I'm online. SO, if you ever see me on please say hi, and I'll keep an eye out for you. (I think I gave you my sn over in your journal, right?)

[boosette]

You're added and I see you; I've just been out all weekend (buying stuff I don't need and lusting after the complete series and generally being away from the computer. But I shall ping you in the near future!)

[gigerisgod]

I'm just going to wave hello and get in line and say, "Yeah, what she said."

I don't think about the meta behind the writing as I'm putting a story together (this could be my problem) until afterwards. Like alot of other folks, I write according to my whims, but examine little during the actual process. From one lazy writer to another : )

[niamaea]

Well, I'm very glad to know other people can make the non-process work. Hope! :)

[redbyrd_sgfic]

You might find it interesting to read synecdochic's post about the 'writing brain vs editing brain'. She says herself that she can't edit while writing, and if she tries too hard, she can shut down the story completely. (And if someone as prolific as she is makes it work...!)

But that's rather the way I am too, at least in short fiction. And in longer stuff, I tend to break it down into 'scenes', each one of which is rather short-story-like.

And when you go back and look at it afterward, each scene should be accomplishing something toward the purpose of the story. That's how you decide whether it's working, whether it needs to be refined or whether it needs to be cut. With longer stuff, I've quite often got 'orphan scenes'- bits that I wrote and like, but which don't really fit powhere they were written. So they get moved into a notes file, or float out at the end of the story until I either find a place to use them or conclude they're not needed.

[pepper_field]

Your writing process sounds a lot like mine. Lack of process. I don't know that it's a completely bad thing, because there's something magical about stories that are just there, in your head - but I think, in the writing of long, plotty stuff, it can be a huge problem. It's why I'm having issues with my apocafic: too much planning

[niamaea]

Hah, icon!

I think you're right on the non-process process maybe lending itself more to relatively shorter stories compared to the plotty ones.

I find if I can write a story out in one or two sittings then I love it more, and it's much more coherent, than something I've spent weeks over.

Me too! I think I know just what you're talking about here.

Very cool prompt - although the phrase "the Goa'uld equivilent of McKay" may give me nightmares.

[surreallis]

I hear you. I don't really think about my writing process either while writing. I mean, I think consciously about the order in which I write things, and I think consciously about dialogue and imagery and some set up, to a certain extent. But I'm always amazed by the writing meta out there in which someone dissects their own story and makes it sound as if every single detail is a well-thought out, well-placed idea. I just... I'm amazed by that, because I don't think about it much at all. And then I get people reviewing my fic and saying they love how I did X and Y and it all related to Z, and I'm like 'wait. I did what?' And when I re-read it, I see it, but it wasn't something I consciously thought about while writing. And then I feel a little guilty for taking credit because I'm not sure who did all that, but it wasn't me. (To make this sound less sickingly humble, when I mention this to friends they tell me to just suck it up. That regardless of conscious thought, it was my writer brain that set it all up and obviously it isn't half

[niamaea]

And then I feel a little guilty for taking credit because I'm not sure who did all that, but it wasn't me.

Ooooh, I know just what you're talking about here - but, right, there's never really a good way to phrase it that doesn't kinda sound like false modesty even though that's really what it DOES feel like.

I think one of the things I like about reading other people's writing meta so much is checking out all the different ways that people get to the same end... the people who seem to have such control over what goes into their stories are baffling, though.