In which I am daunted by the enormity of the task before me:

[verhalten]

I've been considering for a while now taking a crack at proper fanfiction, complete with a plot and an arc and possibly a moral and actual events. There's this AU plot I've been toying around with forever and it's finally started to pour out of me, the way stories do when I finally find a voice and a rhythm and a direction. (Seems like that's

Comments

[sangueuk]

I wouldn't put myself up as any great expert but I wanted to offer you encouragement. I tend to just start writing but the times that I then stop myself and make a few notes, a grid of what's going to happen stage by stage makes a real difference to the story and how it works. Also, don't rush to post. Have something short on the go too so you can keep the buzz of posting going but don't post a wip too quickly. See, if you wait till you've written the whole thing then go back over the previous parts, it makes such a difference to the quality: you can do foreshadowing and develop themes etc.

Anyway, good luck with it!

Get an excellent beta too - mine kicked my ass over my big_bang fic.

[awarrington]

mine kicked my ass over my big_bang fic.

I think you mean startrekbigbang and I didn't think I kicked, more patted and stroked. :-)

[sangueuk]

You see? What the hell would I do without you? *hugs you hard*

[verhalten]

No, I most certainly will not post this as a WIP. (In fact, I'm against it in principle, and Angst o' Doom was really just a fluke and I shan't be making that mistake again.)

Thank you so much for the encouragement, though. I don't have many other short plots rattling around in my skull right now, but maybe I'll work something up so I don't go insane.

Excellent beta. Noted. Thanks so much!

[sororexitium]

My personal theory on long fanfiction is along the same as sangueuk's. Try to get it all done, or at least mostly done before posting. It makes all the difference (esp. for someone like me...who is a little flaky). But my personal thing with writing stories, especially in finding certain voices (which may seem really weird) is that I talk out loud to myself. I do certain dialogue and certain paragraphs aloud to make sure they flow properly. I don't know why it helps, but it just gets me excited about the story. Probably stupid, and I'm probably the only one who does it...but give it a try

[verhalten]

I also map out, but if I find that I'm looking forward to writing a certain scene I'll write my favorite line from that scene so that I have encouragement to get forward and actually write, if you know what I mean.

Oh God, do I know what you mean. I'm the absolute worst when it comes to marrying myself to a certain scene and writing everything out of continuity. I may give this method a shot and see if it helps. :)

[awarrington]

I completely concur with what SangueUK's just said - definitely resist posting a WIP until the second edit. You can get your encouragement from your beta - if Thalia's up to it, the feedback you get will hopefully keep you going if you find yourself losing the will to live

[verhalten]

if you find yourself losing the will to live.

Ha ha, how did you know?

I appreciate this. I've been a longtime reader of fanfiction. Okay, maybe not SO longtime, but for nearly a decade now. But I was always strictly a reader and not really inside the culture that springs up around it. So there are a lot of things that might seem obvious to more experienced writers, but I'm left wondering if I'm being a weirdo about them.

It's cool to know people, I guess is what I'm saying. So thanks.

[awarrington]

From what I can gather, talking to other writers, pretty much everyone has their own idiosyncratic way of writing and I'm guessing you're probably already finding things that work for you. When we do anything, we tend to play to our strengths, so it's good to figure out what yours are

[verhalten]

My initial instinct was to use your method, I must say. Write things sequentially with an idea of where I'm going. But since two of you wonderful LJers have now pointed out that I can write whatever I want whenever I want, I just write what I'm inspired to write at the time.

It's going SO much better. I don't know why my brain wouldn't allow me to do this before now, why I needed some oddball form of permission from somebody else, but I will save that for later introspection.

For now, just know you have totally helped.

[thalialunacy]

Solution: contact Thalia for cheerleading purposes.

SEE HOW EASY THAT WAS.

♥