Refuge From Shadow: Notes combined with some Writing Log.
Author’s notes and credits: Refuge From Shadow
Writing log: pov, plotting, et al
1. Acknowledgements:
Jaiden betad this twice round in 2008 and 2009 between our various respective stories and attempted to get me to show both characters evenly and suggested I provide more story at the end. I’m grateful she stayed with it so long and for her time and her comments.
Ost-in-Edhil: The story cannot reflect all the wonderful detail of lj conversations about elves and city living in Ost-in-Edhil that happened when I asked but thank you to all those who took part. I met morethmusing and pandemonium_213 The discussion was interesting, enjoyable and fully answered my questions about the Ost-in-Edhil context for Refuge. It travelled from my lj here to Pandemonium's lj here.
I’m grateful to Malinornë for names and to Enide for trying to persuade me to do the orcs more orcishly.
2. Orcs: I always wanted to write an orc story and in January 2008 this arrived at my door - I accepted it with a promissory note when time allowed.
3. Glorestor 2008: I planned to write Refuge for Glorestor and the timing proved tight - no edits or beta (which I would not, in courtesy, do again - we live and learn) but I very much enjoyed taking part. Thank you, Mawgy and Glorestor Community.
4. Practicing pov: After asking about the mystery of ‘pov’, I tried learning by doing a single-pov story, The Price of Honesty, and an alternating pov story, Refuge from Shadow. It has opened a world of realization about how cleverly people write when they tell stories effectively using these outlooks.
I can also now identify a fine general tradition of roving pov style, Heyer and Pratchett being two rich examples. Which is rather fortunate for me…
5. Plotting and editing: Plotting is something I began vaguely practicing, before arriving in lotr fanfic, because it was eluding me. Could I (can I) learn to plot? How? How to spot plot-holes before writing and doing all that editing?
In connection with the problem of too much focus on editing, while being unable to finish the actual story, one author mentioned the idea of writing all the way through to the end without editing, to see what happened. I tried this out in writing Refuge. I would definitely try it again, but next time would add other tools, too, as preliminary steps.
One of those would be identifying in two lines what the chapter is going to tell. Maybe I can outline a whole story that way. Maybe not, I’ve never done that and my brain does not play ball when I try.
By what I hear, writers evolve plot in many different ways - one American only starts his stories when he knows the ending - not necessarily the middle. He’s a big literary name - just written a book that starts with logging in Canada or the northern US - who writes long, famous books. I’ll find out who he is and come back and edit this. (Irving Welch, is the one who might be who I mean. Note to follow. 13th Feb.)
6. Refuge, timing and orcs: In part, the plot of Refuge evolved from the discovery that orcs in Imladris were likely only in one time-frame. I found this a surprise. Fanon AU is my major reading background and there seemed to be plenty of orcs around. The nature of fanfic (I came into fanfic drawn by Erestor, Glorfindel and Imladris) decided me (after some thought) to continue the orc story in its vaguely canon suggested outline while confining description largely to the needs of the plot.
7. Finishing wips: I’m pleased to be crossing off Refuge as the third wip on my list.
General ramble about writing:
For me, ideas about writing came up very early on in lj and in conversations. With each story I try some of them out.
Writing what you want, because you can’t necessarily write what other people will like, is one that made me laugh and has stayed with me from my first lj entry, I think.
It still puzzles me a bit because it seems to me that a lot of editing is about what the reader will be experiencing.
Having actual readers has been strange. Staying grounded and focused while participating in lj is very much a learned skill, I would say.
I’ve seen all sorts of people who wrote in fandoms on lj before going on to write original fic or publish stories; it makes a challenging connection between the publishing world where I read and the lj world where I read fanfic and write.
***
Postscript:
By the by, I shall never, ever write an alternating pov story again. Ever. As in, shoot me first, do… (*laughs* Painfully!)
Writing log: pov, plotting, et al
1. Acknowledgements:
Jaiden betad this twice round in 2008 and 2009 between our various respective stories and attempted to get me to show both characters evenly and suggested I provide more story at the end. I’m grateful she stayed with it so long and for her time and her comments.
Ost-in-Edhil: The story cannot reflect all the wonderful detail of lj conversations about elves and city living in Ost-in-Edhil that happened when I asked but thank you to all those who took part. I met morethmusing and pandemonium_213 The discussion was interesting, enjoyable and fully answered my questions about the Ost-in-Edhil context for Refuge. It travelled from my lj here to Pandemonium's lj here.
I’m grateful to Malinornë for names and to Enide for trying to persuade me to do the orcs more orcishly.
2. Orcs: I always wanted to write an orc story and in January 2008 this arrived at my door - I accepted it with a promissory note when time allowed.
3. Glorestor 2008: I planned to write Refuge for Glorestor and the timing proved tight - no edits or beta (which I would not, in courtesy, do again - we live and learn) but I very much enjoyed taking part. Thank you, Mawgy and Glorestor Community.
4. Practicing pov: After asking about the mystery of ‘pov’, I tried learning by doing a single-pov story, The Price of Honesty, and an alternating pov story, Refuge from Shadow. It has opened a world of realization about how cleverly people write when they tell stories effectively using these outlooks.
I can also now identify a fine general tradition of roving pov style, Heyer and Pratchett being two rich examples. Which is rather fortunate for me…
5. Plotting and editing: Plotting is something I began vaguely practicing, before arriving in lotr fanfic, because it was eluding me. Could I (can I) learn to plot? How? How to spot plot-holes before writing and doing all that editing?
In connection with the problem of too much focus on editing, while being unable to finish the actual story, one author mentioned the idea of writing all the way through to the end without editing, to see what happened. I tried this out in writing Refuge. I would definitely try it again, but next time would add other tools, too, as preliminary steps.
One of those would be identifying in two lines what the chapter is going to tell. Maybe I can outline a whole story that way. Maybe not, I’ve never done that and my brain does not play ball when I try.
By what I hear, writers evolve plot in many different ways - one American only starts his stories when he knows the ending - not necessarily the middle. He’s a big literary name - just written a book that starts with logging in Canada or the northern US - who writes long, famous books. I’ll find out who he is and come back and edit this. (Irving Welch, is the one who might be who I mean. Note to follow. 13th Feb.)
6. Refuge, timing and orcs: In part, the plot of Refuge evolved from the discovery that orcs in Imladris were likely only in one time-frame. I found this a surprise. Fanon AU is my major reading background and there seemed to be plenty of orcs around. The nature of fanfic (I came into fanfic drawn by Erestor, Glorfindel and Imladris) decided me (after some thought) to continue the orc story in its vaguely canon suggested outline while confining description largely to the needs of the plot.
7. Finishing wips: I’m pleased to be crossing off Refuge as the third wip on my list.
General ramble about writing:
For me, ideas about writing came up very early on in lj and in conversations. With each story I try some of them out.
Writing what you want, because you can’t necessarily write what other people will like, is one that made me laugh and has stayed with me from my first lj entry, I think.
It still puzzles me a bit because it seems to me that a lot of editing is about what the reader will be experiencing.
Having actual readers has been strange. Staying grounded and focused while participating in lj is very much a learned skill, I would say.
I’ve seen all sorts of people who wrote in fandoms on lj before going on to write original fic or publish stories; it makes a challenging connection between the publishing world where I read and the lj world where I read fanfic and write.
***
Postscript:
By the by, I shall never, ever write an alternating pov story again. Ever. As in, shoot me first, do… (*laughs* Painfully!)