On examining writing from the past
So I've recently gotten back into writing fanfiction after a hugeass stint of not doing it (RP involvement and fanfiction writing seem to be somewhat inversely related) and it feels pretty good to actually be writing a multi-chaptered thing in a format that I may actually be able to complete.
So, the other day, for whatever reason, I decided to go back on skim through all my older stories on my fanfiction.net account.
Fortunately, the results were not as cringeworthy as it could have been (in fact, most of the cringing doesn't come from the writing but the Author Notes, which show I sure was a pretentious prick back then!), but it's interesting to see the change over the years. Most of my early stories have been labelled as Discontinued, mostly because I'd get all these ideas for these stories but lack the direction and perseverance to see the vast majority of them to the end. It's interesting to see the change from primarily writing (or attempting to write, at least) multi-chaptered stories to one-shots.
It's also interesting to see that I used to write a (relatively) huge volume of content, while now I often struggle to make 2k words of story, though my quality has certainly improved a lot. There's a noticeable jump in quality when I made the switch from past tense to present, though that's also accompanied by a less... stuck up attitude? Or a more confidence with regards to my writing.
But surprisingly, I still like a lot of the stuff I wrote for the years I started writing for the World Ends With You, so... most of the stuff in the last 4-5 years. And in some ways, I think some of that writing is a lot more powerful than what I'm doing now with my Xenoblade story; quite a number of the TWEWY stories are still a punch in the heart.
Let's back track (forward track?) a little to the Xenoblade story I'm writing right now.
This Xenoblade story is basically a series of one-shots arranged somewhat temporally in an overarching 'plot' to follow Shulk's life as a child in Colony 9 to post-canon. It's basically a slice-of-life story that has progression as well as headcanon consistency (the TWEWY collection of one-shots does not have this), which I think is the format of narrative writing that best suits me. I think I've sufficiently demonstrated that I find it hard to hold big stories; I tend to prefer to do things in small, self-contained, bite size pieces, which also lets me take a rather leisurely, ambling pace to things.
However, if you look at the purpose in which I write the TWEWY one-shots versus the purpose for the Xenoblade stories, the difference in the writing between the two doesn't seem so unusual. The TWEWY one-shots are written to express a particular idea or feeling, and I'm just writing in an attempt to capture these fleeting emotions, so the writing is a lot more emotionally driven. In general, there's a certain 'feel' that runs through each of these one-shots, because the one-shot is specifically constructed around this feeling, which also means that usually the chapters are vague like vague things.
The Xenoblade chapters, though, I'm trying to depict events rather than the emotions behind them, so it's a lot more heavy on specific descriptions than the TWEWY one-shots, and has a lot less jumping around. Where I'd normally just do a break and jump to the next scene in my one-shots, for the Xenoblade chapters, I'm actually making the effort to at least briefly describe what happened in between. So, in a way, the Xenoblade chapters are a lot more solid and tangible than the TWEWY one-shots, making them far easier for the reader to feel like they can 'see' the events I'm describing, while the TWEWY-one shots are... well I guess it's best way to describe them is that they're usually more dream-like. The longer ones are less so, but that's how it is.
I don't know if I'd say my writing has improved over the last 2 years (though it definitely has compared to the things I was writing 8 years ago), but I do know it's different, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
FUNNILY ENOUGH, it's like I've come back full circle; the early multi-chapter intended stories I wrote were written for the same purpose as my Xenoblade story, which was to depict events. It's good to see that I can do the same thing much, much, better now.
This entry was originally posted at http://tenshinoakuma.dreamwidth.org/217433.html.
So, the other day, for whatever reason, I decided to go back on skim through all my older stories on my fanfiction.net account.
Fortunately, the results were not as cringeworthy as it could have been (in fact, most of the cringing doesn't come from the writing but the Author Notes, which show I sure was a pretentious prick back then!), but it's interesting to see the change over the years. Most of my early stories have been labelled as Discontinued, mostly because I'd get all these ideas for these stories but lack the direction and perseverance to see the vast majority of them to the end. It's interesting to see the change from primarily writing (or attempting to write, at least) multi-chaptered stories to one-shots.
It's also interesting to see that I used to write a (relatively) huge volume of content, while now I often struggle to make 2k words of story, though my quality has certainly improved a lot. There's a noticeable jump in quality when I made the switch from past tense to present, though that's also accompanied by a less... stuck up attitude? Or a more confidence with regards to my writing.
But surprisingly, I still like a lot of the stuff I wrote for the years I started writing for the World Ends With You, so... most of the stuff in the last 4-5 years. And in some ways, I think some of that writing is a lot more powerful than what I'm doing now with my Xenoblade story; quite a number of the TWEWY stories are still a punch in the heart.
Let's back track (forward track?) a little to the Xenoblade story I'm writing right now.
This Xenoblade story is basically a series of one-shots arranged somewhat temporally in an overarching 'plot' to follow Shulk's life as a child in Colony 9 to post-canon. It's basically a slice-of-life story that has progression as well as headcanon consistency (the TWEWY collection of one-shots does not have this), which I think is the format of narrative writing that best suits me. I think I've sufficiently demonstrated that I find it hard to hold big stories; I tend to prefer to do things in small, self-contained, bite size pieces, which also lets me take a rather leisurely, ambling pace to things.
However, if you look at the purpose in which I write the TWEWY one-shots versus the purpose for the Xenoblade stories, the difference in the writing between the two doesn't seem so unusual. The TWEWY one-shots are written to express a particular idea or feeling, and I'm just writing in an attempt to capture these fleeting emotions, so the writing is a lot more emotionally driven. In general, there's a certain 'feel' that runs through each of these one-shots, because the one-shot is specifically constructed around this feeling, which also means that usually the chapters are vague like vague things.
The Xenoblade chapters, though, I'm trying to depict events rather than the emotions behind them, so it's a lot more heavy on specific descriptions than the TWEWY one-shots, and has a lot less jumping around. Where I'd normally just do a break and jump to the next scene in my one-shots, for the Xenoblade chapters, I'm actually making the effort to at least briefly describe what happened in between. So, in a way, the Xenoblade chapters are a lot more solid and tangible than the TWEWY one-shots, making them far easier for the reader to feel like they can 'see' the events I'm describing, while the TWEWY-one shots are... well I guess it's best way to describe them is that they're usually more dream-like. The longer ones are less so, but that's how it is.
I don't know if I'd say my writing has improved over the last 2 years (though it definitely has compared to the things I was writing 8 years ago), but I do know it's different, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
FUNNILY ENOUGH, it's like I've come back full circle; the early multi-chapter intended stories I wrote were written for the same purpose as my Xenoblade story, which was to depict events. It's good to see that I can do the same thing much, much, better now.
This entry was originally posted at http://tenshinoakuma.dreamwidth.org/217433.html.