The TAR Challenge, Week Five
Our penultimate week! I think.
And if you haven't been paying attention before, the TAR (Ten-Aino-Ray) Challenge is for the three of us to write a certain number of words a day, culminating in a certain number of words per week. If you do not meet your goal, there is BATSU!-penance for the writer to do. Each Saturday, we write up a report of our week's activities, including any funny asides and (in my case) about nine paragraphs of writing babble.
Word Count: 13, 692
Caveat: Not counting words produced in chat with Kitten
Second caveat: Or any plotting done this week, even if it was done in dialogue.
Stories worked on: "Jim Kirk Babbles With Nurse Chapel," Their Song, and the alternate ending to "Skills and Rumors."
Stories worked on in my head: Jim Kirk, ROMANCE NOVELIST and "Inbetweens," the PWP for Pea.
Medium used: Lappie still coming in strong, with word processor + MSN chat an excellent way to get words out.
Music of the week: "Neon Moon" by Brooks and Dunn is an awfully good song to write to. I also used some Killers, "Greater Lights" again, "There, There," by Radiohead, other random songs. Oh, and last week Mari introduced me and Pea to the song "Southern Manners" by The Watson Twins, which in association with McCoy and Chapel has become UNBEARABLY SEXY. It's not an exact fit, but the chorus has lines that just work. I am saving it for "Inbetweens" porn.
Plotting has kicked my ass this week.
Backing up--on Monday, I wrote out a post of plots for the nuTrek stories I've been working on, in vaguely chronological order, detailing their plots or possible plot beats. This was revelatory in a few ways; for instance, the first PWP I started turned out to be not a PWP at ALL, which Kitten seems quite annoyed about. ;) But in that post I left the cut tag under "Kirk + Chapel and Life Debts" blank, even though the point was sorta to sketch out that 'fic in more detail. It's the 'fic I've been consistently working on, so I should have some idea of where it's going, right?
Oh so WRONG. I sat up that night with 'Pea until the wee hours of the morning, trying to sketch it out in total. I got quite a ways--and then she pointed out that it had fallen to pieces. So I had to back up and move it a little slower, laying out a few of the big emotional moments to come. But after those emotional moments--void. Last night while talking to Mari, I unintentionally started plotting it again, moving at that slower pace, and we pushed it out a little farther--but then, again, void. VOID AND DARKNESS.
I can understand the reasons. The 'fic idea was originally a fluffy one--"Kirk wants to repay Bones, does so by getting him and Chapel together"--but then I started writing it and it's shifted. It's become more of an examination of Kirk as Captain as well as Kirk as friend, and how he plays off the little relationship drama between Chapel and McCoy. It also started as a 'fic intending to be Chapel/McCoy, and has morphed into something Chapel/Kirk/McCoy-ish. Even though Kirk is remarkably dense about his relationships!
Their Song went through a similar morph from short to EPIC, but in that case the ending remained clear: Kunzite and Venus would get together. In this case, I am having a hard time figuring out how to introduce the OT3 and then justifying it, even though there is an excellent basis for it on the Kirk/Bones side (as shown by how popular that 'ship is!) and I was pretty sure that Kirk and Chapel were gonna have sexual tension along the way anyways. So I've got all three of my sides, but it's like the damn things are drawn in invisible ink, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make them solid. It's all there, so WHY CAN'T I GET IT TO WORK? All I see is VOID. DARKNESS.
The Ladiez have been remarkably helpful and patient with me. Pea has pushed for more Bones, and she's absolutely right; I've trapped myself in Kirk's POV here, so if I want all three of them to be involved, then I have to make Bones more than just a nebulous, scowling presence. Mari helped me out when I was like, "OKAY SO I NEED TO HURT SOMEONE I THINK" by pointing out that I didn't need that cliché, there were other ways to get things across. She also helped me define Chapel's psyche and where a flaw could be, and Bones psyche in regards to his feelings about Roger Korby and for Chapel. Roger Korby is not coming off well, but then again, he wasn't exactly a prize in canon, either. (I also have a feeling he has more to do with this story, but hell if I know what!) Kitten dropped in to point out that I had to watch how convuluted I got with the plot. They've been really sweet and patient as I've essentially frothed at the mouth in chat, and I really owe them a great deal of thanks and <3333s. Writing is a lonely business; it is awesome to have understanding friends who are willing to help and amazing at it.
I used to be much more of a stickler about pre-plotting than I am now; I saved pages of old outlines because it amuses me how much I loved working on those. Nowadays I feel I can be more cavalier about it, because I know I am gonna have to go back and do a rewrite of it anyways. And usually I don't have a problem plotting as I write; story tends to slot itself naturally into my head. In this case, though, I am learning that not knowing what the end will be will fuck my shit up. So my goal for this week is to find the natural end of this 'fic. And well, keep writing out those emotional moments I know and see if I get any clues from that.
*siiigh*
And randomly, a picture I made for Mari to show what I meant by Bones's little box. And Kirk having a total crush on him:
Writing Thought for the Coming Week - Find your ending. It'll turn your VOID into a tunnel with a light at the end. (It'd better.)
And if you haven't been paying attention before, the TAR (Ten-Aino-Ray) Challenge is for the three of us to write a certain number of words a day, culminating in a certain number of words per week. If you do not meet your goal, there is BATSU!-penance for the writer to do. Each Saturday, we write up a report of our week's activities, including any funny asides and (in my case) about nine paragraphs of writing babble.
Word Count: 13, 692
Caveat: Not counting words produced in chat with Kitten
Second caveat: Or any plotting done this week, even if it was done in dialogue.
Stories worked on: "Jim Kirk Babbles With Nurse Chapel," Their Song, and the alternate ending to "Skills and Rumors."
Stories worked on in my head: Jim Kirk, ROMANCE NOVELIST and "Inbetweens," the PWP for Pea.
Medium used: Lappie still coming in strong, with word processor + MSN chat an excellent way to get words out.
Music of the week: "Neon Moon" by Brooks and Dunn is an awfully good song to write to. I also used some Killers, "Greater Lights" again, "There, There," by Radiohead, other random songs. Oh, and last week Mari introduced me and Pea to the song "Southern Manners" by The Watson Twins, which in association with McCoy and Chapel has become UNBEARABLY SEXY. It's not an exact fit, but the chorus has lines that just work. I am saving it for "Inbetweens" porn.
Plotting has kicked my ass this week.
Backing up--on Monday, I wrote out a post of plots for the nuTrek stories I've been working on, in vaguely chronological order, detailing their plots or possible plot beats. This was revelatory in a few ways; for instance, the first PWP I started turned out to be not a PWP at ALL, which Kitten seems quite annoyed about. ;) But in that post I left the cut tag under "Kirk + Chapel and Life Debts" blank, even though the point was sorta to sketch out that 'fic in more detail. It's the 'fic I've been consistently working on, so I should have some idea of where it's going, right?
Oh so WRONG. I sat up that night with 'Pea until the wee hours of the morning, trying to sketch it out in total. I got quite a ways--and then she pointed out that it had fallen to pieces. So I had to back up and move it a little slower, laying out a few of the big emotional moments to come. But after those emotional moments--void. Last night while talking to Mari, I unintentionally started plotting it again, moving at that slower pace, and we pushed it out a little farther--but then, again, void. VOID AND DARKNESS.
I can understand the reasons. The 'fic idea was originally a fluffy one--"Kirk wants to repay Bones, does so by getting him and Chapel together"--but then I started writing it and it's shifted. It's become more of an examination of Kirk as Captain as well as Kirk as friend, and how he plays off the little relationship drama between Chapel and McCoy. It also started as a 'fic intending to be Chapel/McCoy, and has morphed into something Chapel/Kirk/McCoy-ish. Even though Kirk is remarkably dense about his relationships!
Their Song went through a similar morph from short to EPIC, but in that case the ending remained clear: Kunzite and Venus would get together. In this case, I am having a hard time figuring out how to introduce the OT3 and then justifying it, even though there is an excellent basis for it on the Kirk/Bones side (as shown by how popular that 'ship is!) and I was pretty sure that Kirk and Chapel were gonna have sexual tension along the way anyways. So I've got all three of my sides, but it's like the damn things are drawn in invisible ink, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make them solid. It's all there, so WHY CAN'T I GET IT TO WORK? All I see is VOID. DARKNESS.
The Ladiez have been remarkably helpful and patient with me. Pea has pushed for more Bones, and she's absolutely right; I've trapped myself in Kirk's POV here, so if I want all three of them to be involved, then I have to make Bones more than just a nebulous, scowling presence. Mari helped me out when I was like, "OKAY SO I NEED TO HURT SOMEONE I THINK" by pointing out that I didn't need that cliché, there were other ways to get things across. She also helped me define Chapel's psyche and where a flaw could be, and Bones psyche in regards to his feelings about Roger Korby and for Chapel. Roger Korby is not coming off well, but then again, he wasn't exactly a prize in canon, either. (I also have a feeling he has more to do with this story, but hell if I know what!) Kitten dropped in to point out that I had to watch how convuluted I got with the plot. They've been really sweet and patient as I've essentially frothed at the mouth in chat, and I really owe them a great deal of thanks and <3333s. Writing is a lonely business; it is awesome to have understanding friends who are willing to help and amazing at it.
I used to be much more of a stickler about pre-plotting than I am now; I saved pages of old outlines because it amuses me how much I loved working on those. Nowadays I feel I can be more cavalier about it, because I know I am gonna have to go back and do a rewrite of it anyways. And usually I don't have a problem plotting as I write; story tends to slot itself naturally into my head. In this case, though, I am learning that not knowing what the end will be will fuck my shit up. So my goal for this week is to find the natural end of this 'fic. And well, keep writing out those emotional moments I know and see if I get any clues from that.
*siiigh*
And randomly, a picture I made for Mari to show what I meant by Bones's little box. And Kirk having a total crush on him:
Writing Thought for the Coming Week - Find your ending. It'll turn your VOID into a tunnel with a light at the end. (It'd better.)