(no subject)
I hit another small obstacle in this long fic I'm trying to write, and now I want to talk about writing, writing challenges and wincest.
I often quote or paraphrase Stephen King, because when it comes to writing advice, Stephen King is the boss of me (along with Dan Simmons and Neil Gaiman). So allow me another example. Mr. King had this great advice about starting a story with a situation, not a plot, and then he went on to compare this process of unfolding a story from a single situation to the process of unearthing dinosaur bones. I love that advice and that comparison. Whenever I managed to let the story tell itself, that's when my favorite fics happened. When I was seventeen and in love with mysticism, I believed that it was because ghosts came to me and told me stories, which I needed to write down truthfully. These days, I believe that it's because only a small fraction of what's going on in our heads (including storytelling) actually passes the conscious filter. You know how you go through your own writing months later, and suddenly see where a certain seemingly random piece came from, and you had no idea as you were writing it? Well.
I wrote "Alive and Well" like that, seeing maybe two scenes ahead but no more than that, with a vague idea for an ending in mind, and let everything else happen in between. "Tornado Warning" was like that, too, and made no sense all the way until I realized that Danny Broflovski wasn't some random name but was a connection, which was about the same time Dean realized it. On the other hand, there's "T Wears a Top Hat" and "Watching Fires", which, OMG, the worst writing torture ever under the pressure of an exchange challenge, all ideas (no plot, as they were pretty short) and no inspiration or interesting situations.
This is all well, but sooner or later, I hit a point where something needs to happen, but it's a bitch to write. And then the question is: do I struggle because I don't believe in this particular turn of events, or because some things just require practice to write them well?
At some early point, used to be, I wanted to write drama, so I tried and tried, and eventually got really good (which actually translated to terrible) at tear-jerking, star-crossed, rape-and-suicide-as-plot-devices drama. The moral of the story is, drama is good in moderation. In very serious moderation. (A side note, because I has strong opinions about all the attempted-suicide tear-jerker teenage angst bullshit in SPN fic. They have guns, and they know how to use them. That should be the end of your attempted suicide plot right there.) Then I wanted to write humor, and after some trial and error, got decent at it. And I'm still working on action scenes. But THEN somebody somewhere got me on the subject of horror, I tried aaaand... fell on my ass. Turns out, I'm too much of a chicken to write horror, and trying wasn't even fun. So I stuck to "creepy" and "terror" and worked in that direction.
Wincest is like horror, too. It's something I really, really want to write - not for readership, not for comments, but because it's a cool, interesting subject and something I wholly believe in about these characters. Only I don't want to do porn like I don't want to do torture-permanent-damage-all-is-lost horror. Fine, so part of it is fear of writing something spectacularly idiotic in a sex scene, then suffering slow death by mortification when the beta goes, LOL wut? But unintentional stupidity aside, porn possibly takes a certain writing style or personality, and some people do it extremely well, and I'm just not one of those people. Porn is fine, porn is good, but others do it better than I, so let them carry on, and I'll just read. But, but I still want to write at least R-rated wincest!
Wincest is my current problem. GodDAMN, how can it not work when I believe in it so much, no shipper goggles needed? It worked in "Love as a Hole in the Ground" and in "Little Monsters" but fell flat in "Tornado Warning", which was gen in its little heart. Now, I'm talking about my own perspective of a story, not about how it actually looked. (And not fishing for
compliments, honest). So there's this new, still untitled long fic, which I'm trying to let unfold on its own, without pushing scenes which I think need to be there but which actually cripple the story. It's going like this:
- Tiger happily vomits out the first 8K with a wincesty setup, which feels genuine. End of chapter.
- There needs to be creepy underage UST, right? And feels. You know, a followup! There is that initial plan to be considered!
- Nothing happens. Tiger broods.
- Since nothing else interesting is happening anyway, Tiger starts happily typing up a completely unrelated plot for chapter 2. It takes place a few years later and is a modified version of some horror flick dreamed this past Halloween. Because it was a dream, it has a Ridiculous Detail. The detail almost gets rearranged into something less kooky, but in the end is left as it is. Lo and behold, two scenes later the Ridiculous Detail is key to the plot and has connected to chapter 1.
- Wincesty subplot gets poked at. But shit, it's creepy and one-sided. If there is to be wincest, Sam needs to feel things, or do things, or to otherwise whip out incestuous whumpage.
- Sam rides a bike, grows out of his clothes and engages in non-erotic drama and self-righteousness.
- Wincest is very well buried and still creepy, which, okay, was the point, but I want to write feeeelings! And incestuous drama. And all these sorts of wonderful high-intensity non-porny things that I always want to reread in old favorite 40K fics when I'm at work at two in the morning with a half-dead battery and can't reread the entire 40K. FEELINGS, why can't I write them, why??
With the current track record of wincest scene that need to be dragged kicking and screaming on the page, I'm worried that if I let this thing run its course, Sam will continue in his blissful ignorance, Dean will continue in his mortified, repressed suffering, all the way until they defeat the Big Bad, THE END. Or, if I push it, I'll get me another gen story that really wants to be wincest but lacks the inappropriate drama in its little heart.
So. You guys, those of you who write things (or draw things, which probably gives you the same problems), do you have these types of plots or scenes that you currently work on? Do you have these moments when you believe that you fall flat on your ass half the time? How's the struggle going? I want to know it all!
I often quote or paraphrase Stephen King, because when it comes to writing advice, Stephen King is the boss of me (along with Dan Simmons and Neil Gaiman). So allow me another example. Mr. King had this great advice about starting a story with a situation, not a plot, and then he went on to compare this process of unfolding a story from a single situation to the process of unearthing dinosaur bones. I love that advice and that comparison. Whenever I managed to let the story tell itself, that's when my favorite fics happened. When I was seventeen and in love with mysticism, I believed that it was because ghosts came to me and told me stories, which I needed to write down truthfully. These days, I believe that it's because only a small fraction of what's going on in our heads (including storytelling) actually passes the conscious filter. You know how you go through your own writing months later, and suddenly see where a certain seemingly random piece came from, and you had no idea as you were writing it? Well.
I wrote "Alive and Well" like that, seeing maybe two scenes ahead but no more than that, with a vague idea for an ending in mind, and let everything else happen in between. "Tornado Warning" was like that, too, and made no sense all the way until I realized that Danny Broflovski wasn't some random name but was a connection, which was about the same time Dean realized it. On the other hand, there's "T Wears a Top Hat" and "Watching Fires", which, OMG, the worst writing torture ever under the pressure of an exchange challenge, all ideas (no plot, as they were pretty short) and no inspiration or interesting situations.
This is all well, but sooner or later, I hit a point where something needs to happen, but it's a bitch to write. And then the question is: do I struggle because I don't believe in this particular turn of events, or because some things just require practice to write them well?
At some early point, used to be, I wanted to write drama, so I tried and tried, and eventually got really good (which actually translated to terrible) at tear-jerking, star-crossed, rape-and-suicide-as-plot-devices drama. The moral of the story is, drama is good in moderation. In very serious moderation. (A side note, because I has strong opinions about all the attempted-suicide tear-jerker teenage angst bullshit in SPN fic. They have guns, and they know how to use them. That should be the end of your attempted suicide plot right there.) Then I wanted to write humor, and after some trial and error, got decent at it. And I'm still working on action scenes. But THEN somebody somewhere got me on the subject of horror, I tried aaaand... fell on my ass. Turns out, I'm too much of a chicken to write horror, and trying wasn't even fun. So I stuck to "creepy" and "terror" and worked in that direction.
Wincest is like horror, too. It's something I really, really want to write - not for readership, not for comments, but because it's a cool, interesting subject and something I wholly believe in about these characters. Only I don't want to do porn like I don't want to do torture-permanent-damage-all-is-lost horror. Fine, so part of it is fear of writing something spectacularly idiotic in a sex scene, then suffering slow death by mortification when the beta goes, LOL wut? But unintentional stupidity aside, porn possibly takes a certain writing style or personality, and some people do it extremely well, and I'm just not one of those people. Porn is fine, porn is good, but others do it better than I, so let them carry on, and I'll just read. But, but I still want to write at least R-rated wincest!
Wincest is my current problem. GodDAMN, how can it not work when I believe in it so much, no shipper goggles needed? It worked in "Love as a Hole in the Ground" and in "Little Monsters" but fell flat in "Tornado Warning", which was gen in its little heart. Now, I'm talking about my own perspective of a story, not about how it actually looked. (And not fishing for
compliments, honest). So there's this new, still untitled long fic, which I'm trying to let unfold on its own, without pushing scenes which I think need to be there but which actually cripple the story. It's going like this:
- Tiger happily vomits out the first 8K with a wincesty setup, which feels genuine. End of chapter.
- There needs to be creepy underage UST, right? And feels. You know, a followup! There is that initial plan to be considered!
- Nothing happens. Tiger broods.
- Since nothing else interesting is happening anyway, Tiger starts happily typing up a completely unrelated plot for chapter 2. It takes place a few years later and is a modified version of some horror flick dreamed this past Halloween. Because it was a dream, it has a Ridiculous Detail. The detail almost gets rearranged into something less kooky, but in the end is left as it is. Lo and behold, two scenes later the Ridiculous Detail is key to the plot and has connected to chapter 1.
- Wincesty subplot gets poked at. But shit, it's creepy and one-sided. If there is to be wincest, Sam needs to feel things, or do things, or to otherwise whip out incestuous whumpage.
- Sam rides a bike, grows out of his clothes and engages in non-erotic drama and self-righteousness.
- Wincest is very well buried and still creepy, which, okay, was the point, but I want to write feeeelings! And incestuous drama. And all these sorts of wonderful high-intensity non-porny things that I always want to reread in old favorite 40K fics when I'm at work at two in the morning with a half-dead battery and can't reread the entire 40K. FEELINGS, why can't I write them, why??
With the current track record of wincest scene that need to be dragged kicking and screaming on the page, I'm worried that if I let this thing run its course, Sam will continue in his blissful ignorance, Dean will continue in his mortified, repressed suffering, all the way until they defeat the Big Bad, THE END. Or, if I push it, I'll get me another gen story that really wants to be wincest but lacks the inappropriate drama in its little heart.
So. You guys, those of you who write things (or draw things, which probably gives you the same problems), do you have these types of plots or scenes that you currently work on? Do you have these moments when you believe that you fall flat on your ass half the time? How's the struggle going? I want to know it all!