Comments | housefic_pens: WIPs and feedback

namasteyoga in housefic_pens

WIPs and feedback

Mar 25, 2006 16:53

Extrabitter did an essay over on housefic_meta looking at creating the series “Knots,” and I thought I’d essay a bit here myself. Hopefully some of this will be worthwhile, but I wanted to address a little bit about writing a longer story as a Work In Progress, and also how reader feedback can influence that WIP, or at least how it impacted what I’ ( Read more... )

reference, discussion

Comments 10

extrabitter March 26 2006, 02:46:17 UTC

As one of the people who had a chance to see and comment on some of the early drafts, I love the way 'Eight Days' has evolved. The pacing and the style of writing are perfect for posting chapters one at a time because each could stand alone. In defining the time structure through the title, and thereby limiting the scope of the piece, you've avoided annoying cliffhangers. A reader who has been watching House knows what's going to happen by the end, but not how you're going to flesh out the bare bones of the plot that exists in canon ( ... )

namasteyoga March 28 2006, 01:10:19 UTC

Well, this has been a case in which feedback impacts the story. You're not the first person to bring up the "anger" issue -- which I definitely was going to address. The comments help to figure out much to emphasize it, though.

auditrixlectrix March 27 2006, 13:00:17 UTC

In the case of this story, I’m trying to make an unliked character -- Stacy -- somewhat more sympathetic, while our loyalty is still to House at the end. The feedback lets me know if I’m pulling that off to a more general audience on a part-by-part basis.

Laughing out loud thinking of some of my more terse Stacy commentary in recent chapters ("I HATE YOU STACY")

sy_dedalus March 28 2006, 03:50:49 UTC

No, I didn't know that little piece of feedback had such an impact. I'm glad it did because "Tracking Time" is one of my all time favorites. I enjoyed watching it emerge on the board - which is a great place to get one's start as a writer, since I got my start there too. I never got a sense that you didn't have TT planned out, actually, because it was written with such authority. Kudos ( ... )

namasteyoga March 28 2006, 16:05:38 UTC

I've always been amazed that you can carry on multiple WIPs. When I'm working on something, it's all I can concentrate on. I may have an idea for a future chapter and sketch that out, but for the most part I've got to deal with what's in front of me first and finish it before I can move on.

Interestingly enough, though, it has gotten to the point that as soon as I finish one story, the genesis of the next one pops into my head -- as if my subconscious was developing it the whole time. The first line of "Come True" popped into my head fully formed the night after I posted "Declarations of Independence," along with the format I used on it. I couldn't even get to sleep until I wrote it down.

logastellus March 28 2006, 13:29:26 UTC

Thanks for contributing the essay, Namaste! It's a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the creation of what turned out to be a Housefic classic. I had no idea how deeply the piece had been influence by reader feedback along the way.

That is maybe what fascinates me the most about the whole internet fandom thing, and with WIPs in particular -- the way everything is changed by instant communication, instant feedback; the opportunity for an immediate exchange of ideas between author and readers.

You've also published some pretty long pieces as complete works (I'm thinking in particular of "Declarations of Independence"). Would you comment on how the experience of writing that differs from your WIPs?

namasteyoga March 28 2006, 16:12:37 UTC

To a certain extent, I approach standalone stories such as "Declarations" the same as I would for the chapter within a WIP. As a matter of fact, "Declarations" is only slightly longer than some of the chapters in "TT."

What I do, however, is rely much more heavily on Auditrix' mad beta skillz to help me fine tune what I'm doing. I use her as representative of the readers. She's very good at telling me what works and what doesn't. For "Declarations" she may have betaed three different versions of the story before it went up on the web.

"Declarations" is also an example of something I never would have attempted without past positive comments on my writing. I was really nervous about whether I could pull it off without taking House and/or Wilson out of character or over-emphasizing the angst and taking it into a simple hurt/comfort fic.

extrabitter March 28 2006, 22:43:30 UTC

One aspect of working on a WIP, especially one without an outilne, is that you can go into a tailspin and lose your story. That's my main reason for not liking to work/post that way. If I don't know exactly where I'm going, I am going to get lost. Whether I can find my way back is sort of up to fate and my mood at the time, and I hate to depend on that.

When I started posting a three-parter that was my second House story, it was almost done when I began posting. In the process of editing part two, I realized that my part three didn't work at all. I had to scrap it and go in a different direction, even though it had some really nice writing that I later posted as outtakes under a separate title. It wasn't feedback that flipped the switch for me, though; it was the added time with the story that made me choose a different ending.