WIPs and feedback

[namasteyoga]

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’

Comments

[sy_dedalus]

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.

Funny, until I read this, I hadn't considered the WIP as a format in and of itself, or that the purpose of feedback was (in part) to direct the course of the fic. However, the numerous WIPs I've got going are evidence that I don't think much as it is, although I did begin each one with a clear idea of where I wanted it to end - in terms of small character changes if not also plot. I'm just taking my time getting there. I think it relates to my reading habits. I can't sit down and read a book straight through without picking up another book first. I like to read four or five at a time. This is because I like spending time with a text and having a break from it. It follows that I'd write fic this way - and since I tend to write the same fic (even the same scenes) over and over again, it also makes sense that I'd want to play with alternatives to the part of one WIP or another that I'm trying to focus on. Of course, it is easy to fall into the trap of never finishing a WIP, as you point out. An end of some sort should be in sight from fairly early on.

Interesting comments on the form and use of a WIP. And I'm glad that little comment was so helpful. I do adore TT.

[namasteyoga]

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.