Comments | dodger_winslow: Update for To Everything A Season

dodger_winslow

Update for To Everything A Season

Aug 15, 2006 01:56

A little piece of good advice: Never post a fanfic until you're finished.

Okay, so here's where we are. I'm so screwed. Did I mention to y'all that this story completely detonated on me as I was getting ready to post it? Maybe I mentioned it, but I'm not sure I actually COMMUNICATED it, so here's what I consider a detonation.

When I posted the first ( Read more... )

Comments 39

apieceofcake August 15 2006, 08:05:35 UTC

Sorry it's giving you a hard time but it is good news for us readers. I love them long, the longer the better and I can wait *g*

And to be honest I really don't mind that you are going to wait to finish before you start posting. I've been reading some really good WIP's that have gone too long between updates and you have to go back and re-read everytime to remind yourself what has happened. Or you are left wondering if they are going to be finished.
When you read alot like I do, that can get really frustrating.
And just so we are clear none of that applies to you :-)

dodger_winslow August 15 2006, 17:18:30 UTC

LOL. Just to be clear, eh? :D

I, myself, almost never read WIPs just for the reason that, if I'm enjoying it, I want to keep going, so it is frustrating to have to wait for someone to write the next installment. And yet I don't want them posting it pre-maturely, before it is properly finished (nothing I hate more than a great setup killed by a slap-dash resolution).

I have to wait for Carol to write her next book and have no control over when in the fuck she will get around to doing so, so I figure she's my life-quota of WIP, even if she's writing them full novels at a time. But I get just that antsy about her not having published for however long, so that's enough sitting at home waiting by the phone for me. :D

vaznetti August 15 2006, 08:22:28 UTC

Ah, the mid-story replot, when the whole thing explodes in your face. I have vague memories of that, back when I dealt in plot. I'm very pleased to hear that the whole thing is going forward, though, and will be waiting eagerly to see how it turns out. Also, more text from you is always a good thing.

I'll be interested to see the alternate ending (can it be considered a deleted scene? because since the story continues past that point, I'm guessing, it becomes irrelevant as an ending.) Endings are funny, though, aren't they? you can think you have the right one, and then find that actually, the story won't go there after all.

dodger_winslow August 15 2006, 17:24:11 UTC

Thanks!

Yeah, this particular one turned out to be much more of a pain in the ass than I anticipated. The alternate ending or deleted scene, whichever you want to call it, isn't ever rendered irrelevant by any of the additions I made. Everything that added itself did so between the half way point and the ned, so the actual end could have stayed the same if I'd wanted to let it. I just changed some of the character dynamics in such a way that what made sense originally (it was actually the reason I chose the title I did) would just be mean for the sake of being mean now.

I used to make my editor nuts because I always told her I was "tightening" a story and would then send her something twice as long as the original. When she'd bitch about it, I'd just grin and say hey, I was just adding stuff into the cracks until it swelled up fit tighter in its skin. She spent years trying to "teach" me that wasn't the way the rest of the world viewed the term "tightening" when it comes to writing. LOL

vaznetti August 15 2006, 20:54:48 UTC

Well, I have to admit that I'm relieved that we're not going to get the full doom-death-and-misery treatment; it didn't seem inevitable at the point you left us, but of course anything can happen with these things. A little suffering I can handle; mean for the sake of it is just, well, mean.

And no, I don't think that's what most editors imagine when you start talking about "tightening."

(The comment has been removed)

dodger_winslow August 15 2006, 17:26:42 UTC

180K, eh? Damn!

Truthfully though, I tend to write much longer fanfic than I've been writing for Supernatural, so the length isn't the problem for me so much as the fact that it was a fully actualized story at 18.5K, so I can't imagine what crawled into my head to expand it this much from what, originally, wasn't this comprehensive of a story.

Ah well. As my mentor is always telling me, let the story tell itself to you. I'm going to remind him of that when he's bitching at me for not getting his stuff to him ... because I've been letting this story tell itself to me instead. *snerk*

lady_octavia August 15 2006, 09:13:25 UTC

:D I almost freaked thinking you posted the end and I was going to have to go to work and not read it until tonight!!

*hee* so not getting lynched is good! and bonus alternate endings are good too. Can't wait to see the rest (but glad it isn't going to be sitting on my friend's page while I'm at work, that would be too cruel!)

why John and Dean and Sam were so totally not cooperating in the end I wanted to write. Evidently, they didn't like that end HAHAHA, good boys! They just don't want to see you hurt! ;)

dodger_winslow August 15 2006, 17:28:33 UTC

Ha! Having to wait until evening when you know something is sitting there taunting you is murder, isn't it? :D

LOL @ them not wanting to see ME hurt. I think they didn't want to see THEMSELVES hurt and thus were lobbying for a MUCH nicer ending than they originally had. And Dean can be very persuasive when he wants to be ...

:D

lady_octavia August 16 2006, 02:45:12 UTC

LOL @ them not wanting to see ME hurt. I think they didn't want to see THEMSELVES hurt and thus were lobbying for a MUCH nicer ending than they originally had. :D I think they've probably given up hope of coming out of fics without some collateral damage at least, and how will they get put back together again if you aren't around to do it?!

And Dean can be very persuasive when he wants to be ... HAHA I really think it should cause concern that I am (almost) equally tickled by the two sides suggested by 'persuasion' (but come on was that *in DT of Meg* not the sexiest interrogation ever!?)

I'm not sure how I'll cope if the boys (Johnny included) pull through - I mean I've be preparing myself mentally for a serious angst-a-thon and major physical and psychological damage! But if they have to a nicer ending then I guess I'll manage. ;)

(besides I was reading interviews about the opening of S3 of BSG and I think maybe I need a happy ending ... man and I thought SN fans were sadistic, they've got nothing on the writers over there

eloise_bright August 15 2006, 11:58:42 UTC

Oh sweetie!

I pompously like to imagine it was our pathetic pleading that tempted you to change the ending to the less likely to be lynched variety. *g*

Now I'm intrigued as to the lynching ending. I'm looking forward to that post. *sharpens pike staff and hauls lynching rope out of the closet*

dodger_winslow August 15 2006, 17:33:57 UTC

Actually, to be perfectly honest, much of the feedback I've gotten on my John fic in general (the stuff that also has led me to meta) and on this fic in specific did influence the way the story went in dramatic ways. That and a few well placed comments by my wonderful beta phantomas, who has this great capacity to say, like, one sentance and inspire me to a whole new way of thinking on something ( ... )