(no subject)
First of all, thanks to wonderfulchild for pimping me and getting me four friends in under five minutes. That's love, there, especially 'cause I'm not that great.
If you didn't know it yet, she sent me a chapter and I beta'ed it. And sent it back. And despite what she says, it's good, so don't listen to her whinging, ;) Nessie sent me a chapter (she posts a fic that she's translating for someone at OWL) that I still haven't beta'ed.... *hides* The AU fic I was talking about? The author sent me some of chapter two. I'll be poking that later on tonight. An author I haven't heard from in a while finally sent me chapter 7 of Falling In, a lovely dark, angsty fic you can find at Ashwinder. Erm, I wouldn't recommend it if you're squeamish to fetishes, self-injury or graphic abuse/violence/rape stuff. Especially chapter seven. It's pretty hard core. But very well-written, and she did try to keep it as general as possible. She should post it relatively soon. Her name is either gothic_girl82 or gothicgirl_82. I can never remember where the underscore goes. If I forgot anyone, I'll add you once I check my email again.
Now, for the point of this post. A pep talk! *gets out green and silver pom poms*
Okay, so listen up, all of you crazy people who signed up for the sshg_exchange thinger because you enjoy that type of self-masochism because you like writing for other people's bunnies...
You WILL finish. It is not in the nature of 98.5% of you to not finish, even if it means staying up all night dosed up on your favorite caffeinated beverage of choice and blaring headphones. You will finish. I've read at least one thing by most of the authors there. You are all very talented writers. I have no doubt that the people you are writing for will love what you send them. And you all have betas. I volunteered my services to the exchange to beta for three fics (not including Wonderful, 'cause I dibs on anything she writes, biatches, so hands off), as have plenty of others, so it's not like you can't request one if you don't have one. And the exchange wouldn't offer up a sucktastic beta to a writer. So you have someone to help you out, in any case. And give you a more personalized pep talk. Honestly, they really do help out, so tell your beta to give you one ;) One asked for is just as good as one not asked for. 'Cause all of the words are true, just ask Wonderful.
Anyway. What I'm saying is, you stressing will not help you out. I know that an outline is a dirty word for a lot of authors, but writing your bunny on paper might help you a bit, with your main plot turns listed. That way you have a list instead of a jumble in your head. And the best thing I can tell you is to just pick a piece and begin to write. Nobody says you have to start at the beginning. You'll bring it all together in the end. More people have finished novellas in this time period over at NaNoWriMo. 1700 words a day, you beat the word count of 50000. It's not nearly as hard as one thinks. I've written essays longer than that in under an hour.
And if I can write boring essays like that and get high grades on them, then you can write a fic that you actually want to do, too.
So quit worrying. Just write. Write anything. Anything can lead to something.
And I promise, it WILL be good. You wouldn't let it be anything less, you damned perfectionists.
PS -- Wonderful finds IMing me the entire plot in sporadic bursts rather helpful. You should try it on your beta. (No offense, Wonderful, love, you know I always oblige you ;) )
Update: This is so completely off-topic, but I bought a new box of Prismacolor colored pencils today, and there really is nothing better than the smell of a freshly-opened box of colored pencils x] /end update
If you didn't know it yet, she sent me a chapter and I beta'ed it. And sent it back. And despite what she says, it's good, so don't listen to her whinging, ;) Nessie sent me a chapter (she posts a fic that she's translating for someone at OWL) that I still haven't beta'ed.... *hides* The AU fic I was talking about? The author sent me some of chapter two. I'll be poking that later on tonight. An author I haven't heard from in a while finally sent me chapter 7 of Falling In, a lovely dark, angsty fic you can find at Ashwinder. Erm, I wouldn't recommend it if you're squeamish to fetishes, self-injury or graphic abuse/violence/rape stuff. Especially chapter seven. It's pretty hard core. But very well-written, and she did try to keep it as general as possible. She should post it relatively soon. Her name is either gothic_girl82 or gothicgirl_82. I can never remember where the underscore goes. If I forgot anyone, I'll add you once I check my email again.
Now, for the point of this post. A pep talk! *gets out green and silver pom poms*
Okay, so listen up, all of you crazy people who signed up for the sshg_exchange thinger because you enjoy that type of self-masochism because you like writing for other people's bunnies...
You WILL finish. It is not in the nature of 98.5% of you to not finish, even if it means staying up all night dosed up on your favorite caffeinated beverage of choice and blaring headphones. You will finish. I've read at least one thing by most of the authors there. You are all very talented writers. I have no doubt that the people you are writing for will love what you send them. And you all have betas. I volunteered my services to the exchange to beta for three fics (not including Wonderful, 'cause I dibs on anything she writes, biatches, so hands off), as have plenty of others, so it's not like you can't request one if you don't have one. And the exchange wouldn't offer up a sucktastic beta to a writer. So you have someone to help you out, in any case. And give you a more personalized pep talk. Honestly, they really do help out, so tell your beta to give you one ;) One asked for is just as good as one not asked for. 'Cause all of the words are true, just ask Wonderful.
Anyway. What I'm saying is, you stressing will not help you out. I know that an outline is a dirty word for a lot of authors, but writing your bunny on paper might help you a bit, with your main plot turns listed. That way you have a list instead of a jumble in your head. And the best thing I can tell you is to just pick a piece and begin to write. Nobody says you have to start at the beginning. You'll bring it all together in the end. More people have finished novellas in this time period over at NaNoWriMo. 1700 words a day, you beat the word count of 50000. It's not nearly as hard as one thinks. I've written essays longer than that in under an hour.
And if I can write boring essays like that and get high grades on them, then you can write a fic that you actually want to do, too.
So quit worrying. Just write. Write anything. Anything can lead to something.
And I promise, it WILL be good. You wouldn't let it be anything less, you damned perfectionists.
PS -- Wonderful finds IMing me the entire plot in sporadic bursts rather helpful. You should try it on your beta. (No offense, Wonderful, love, you know I always oblige you ;) )
Update: This is so completely off-topic, but I bought a new box of Prismacolor colored pencils today, and there really is nothing better than the smell of a freshly-opened box of colored pencils x] /end update