It's a MONSTER!!!!
Jan. 7th, 2007 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteMy god, part of me really, really hates WDKY right now.
Not because I don't like any part of what I've already written/posted, or the concept behind it, or how much I've planned it out (okay, maybe that a LITTLE bit), but really, it's a freaking MONSTER of a fic. Every five chapters or so, I just have one of these chapters that is SO DAMN IMPOSSIBLE to write. I can have it planned out to the nth degree, but it just doesn't want to go from script/planned-out form to PROSE. It doesn't want to sound NATURAL. It just seems like typographical SLOP.
Like Chapter 25. It's both a filler chapter (it's not part of a particular arc) and an important plot chapter (because it closes some loose ends, reminds you of important things, and sets the stage for the upcoming arc). A while ago, I was so super-confident-- I was writing, I was writing-- I was on a ROLL! It was getting done! But then I got to the mucky steam part, and my engine died on me.
Writing steam/sex/any derivative thereof seems to be like eating fish for me: I know I can do it, I know there's nothing wrong with it, but something in my brain just runs screaming in the other direction when I even make the attempt. I gag. I choke. I quit.
That's not so much the issue anymore. But WDKY as a whole is one of those fics where I try to blend the canon (magical card games) with the realistic (romance troubles, friendship woes, school issues, money problems). I try to make the characters three dimensional, as characters you can relate to, sympathize with, or at the very least UNDERSTAND (the why of their actions). So obviously the steam scene has consequences on the characters and the story at large, and I've been getting a few ideas this weekend and trying to write them into the chapter... but they're not coming out as prose.
I've got paragraph after paragraph of "planner text" which is basically like "So and so did this, so and so said this" but it's all very flat, boring. All "tell" and no "show." And I still feel like I'm missing or forgetting something, or maybe trivializing something that should be important, and placing too much emphasis on something that's not. I don't want to be repetitive (saying things I've already said in that chapter, or in past chapters).
It seems like the chapter that would never end, but it's only 88KB so far! That's shorter than a lot of the bigger, heavier chapters that have been so much harder to write! So I don't really know what's wrong with me, other than me choking up before this big important arc that I've SO been looking forward to writing (and as it turns out, writing things out of order is very bad for me, and screws the story up, which is why I'm not just "skipping ahead" to write Chs. 26-28). I think it's like Airplane Syndrome-- you have a big long flight tomorrow morning, and you know you should rest so you can get to the airport on time, but you JUST CAN'T SLEEP. Except in this case, I've got this great arc I want to work on, and make sure it's sufficiently built-up and understandable (coming in when and how it does), but I'm STUCK on this thing that's "just" filler.
ARGH!!!!! Maybe I should go back and re-read past chapters of WDKY, instead of thinking solely about future chapters and sequels. I don't know. HELP!
ETA: I'm sorting through all my tags and getting rid of the duplicate tags. For example, why have "fanfics" when "fanfiction" is just fine, and I tagged [almost] all the entries with both, anyway? Well, apparently ONE entry had "fanfics" and not "fanfiction" but for the life of me, I couldn't find it. And I'm having the same issue with TWO entris tagged with "azureshipping" and not "seto x anzu". I want to get rid of the "azureshipping" tag, since "seto x anzu" works just as well, and fits the pattern I've used for other fandoms. I've already tried viewing all the entries with the tag, but I just don't see the two entries in question. Can anyone help me figure out how to find those lost two entries? Is there a way to search an entry by the tags it DOES and DOES NOT use (i.e. search by exclusion)?
Not because I don't like any part of what I've already written/posted, or the concept behind it, or how much I've planned it out (okay, maybe that a LITTLE bit), but really, it's a freaking MONSTER of a fic. Every five chapters or so, I just have one of these chapters that is SO DAMN IMPOSSIBLE to write. I can have it planned out to the nth degree, but it just doesn't want to go from script/planned-out form to PROSE. It doesn't want to sound NATURAL. It just seems like typographical SLOP.
Like Chapter 25. It's both a filler chapter (it's not part of a particular arc) and an important plot chapter (because it closes some loose ends, reminds you of important things, and sets the stage for the upcoming arc). A while ago, I was so super-confident-- I was writing, I was writing-- I was on a ROLL! It was getting done! But then I got to the mucky steam part, and my engine died on me.
Writing steam/sex/any derivative thereof seems to be like eating fish for me: I know I can do it, I know there's nothing wrong with it, but something in my brain just runs screaming in the other direction when I even make the attempt. I gag. I choke. I quit.
That's not so much the issue anymore. But WDKY as a whole is one of those fics where I try to blend the canon (magical card games) with the realistic (romance troubles, friendship woes, school issues, money problems). I try to make the characters three dimensional, as characters you can relate to, sympathize with, or at the very least UNDERSTAND (the why of their actions). So obviously the steam scene has consequences on the characters and the story at large, and I've been getting a few ideas this weekend and trying to write them into the chapter... but they're not coming out as prose.
I've got paragraph after paragraph of "planner text" which is basically like "So and so did this, so and so said this" but it's all very flat, boring. All "tell" and no "show." And I still feel like I'm missing or forgetting something, or maybe trivializing something that should be important, and placing too much emphasis on something that's not. I don't want to be repetitive (saying things I've already said in that chapter, or in past chapters).
It seems like the chapter that would never end, but it's only 88KB so far! That's shorter than a lot of the bigger, heavier chapters that have been so much harder to write! So I don't really know what's wrong with me, other than me choking up before this big important arc that I've SO been looking forward to writing (and as it turns out, writing things out of order is very bad for me, and screws the story up, which is why I'm not just "skipping ahead" to write Chs. 26-28). I think it's like Airplane Syndrome-- you have a big long flight tomorrow morning, and you know you should rest so you can get to the airport on time, but you JUST CAN'T SLEEP. Except in this case, I've got this great arc I want to work on, and make sure it's sufficiently built-up and understandable (coming in when and how it does), but I'm STUCK on this thing that's "just" filler.
ARGH!!!!! Maybe I should go back and re-read past chapters of WDKY, instead of thinking solely about future chapters and sequels. I don't know. HELP!
ETA: I'm sorting through all my tags and getting rid of the duplicate tags. For example, why have "fanfics" when "fanfiction" is just fine, and I tagged [almost] all the entries with both, anyway? Well, apparently ONE entry had "fanfics" and not "fanfiction" but for the life of me, I couldn't find it. And I'm having the same issue with TWO entris tagged with "azureshipping" and not "seto x anzu". I want to get rid of the "azureshipping" tag, since "seto x anzu" works just as well, and fits the pattern I've used for other fandoms. I've already tried viewing all the entries with the tag, but I just don't see the two entries in question. Can anyone help me figure out how to find those lost two entries? Is there a way to search an entry by the tags it DOES and DOES NOT use (i.e. search by exclusion)?
