Musing over PETS

[velvet_mace]

Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about that fic. It bothers me that I never finished it quite a bit. Part of me still wants to complete the plot - yes I did have a plot. The problem is that I no longer have the interest in exploring the other things I was using PETS to explore

Comments

[winhall]

Not finishing something that in one's mind still holds potential can be so frustrating. I don't have any projects that rival PETS in complexity, but I think I know the feeling. And writing something while most of your readers don't care for the whole thing but for parts of it isn't the most, well, rewarding thing to do either (especially if said parts are what makes the story unique in your eyes or what posed to biggest challenge to you as a writer).
I'm not saying I'm not one of these readers. I did enjoy PETS (gods, did I ever), but I did favor certain pairings (some I only discovered through PETS) and ignored some. I definitely enjoyed the plot though and if you ever chose to continue, rest assured I will be there to read it. =)
However, I can see why you might never finish it. The original motivation is gone and unless a new motor powers the interest in seeing it through, it might just stay the way it is now, unfinished forever. =/ Unsatisfying to say the least, especially for you as the author.

[velvet_mace]

It really is frustrating, which is why I'm so reluctant to actually say I'm totally done. It just hangs there, taunting me.

[anat_astarte]

*_* I see myself so much in this! I too, wanted to challenge myself, to develop my writing skills, to break through my own inhibitions, and develop ways to write a wide variety of pairings! FMA was my first experience with fanfic writing- I read fic for other fandoms, but the timing and the characters of FMA made a good fit and I decided it was the right time for me to take that step and try my hand.

it occurred to me that being able to write a sex scene would be a damn useful writing skill, and this was probably the best opportunity to actually see if I could do it.Same here, especially after my first rough financial situation. I started exploring writing more seriously as a means of additional income, and I was pretty amazed at how much literature there is (if one searches hard enough) and even more amazed that the quality of many fanfictions are so much better than the majority of the hard and softcovers I've read! :DD

[velvet_mace]

Smart plots never get old. Though I'm totally ditching porn. A good, well justified porn scene in the midst of a plot is hot indeed. But I can hardly motivate myself to read PWP anymore, much less write it.

[anat_astarte]

I'm heading this way as well. I'm really liking some non-porn fics I am finding, very smart and very polished stuff ♥

[highflyinkiller]

Putting in my two cents, but porn itself has no interest for me alone. I need the plot.

And it is weird for me to say it because I used to feel the opposite was true.

[highflyinkiller]

Well thanks for answering my question so thoroughly. I do enjoy good feedback

[velvet_mace]

Ah GAFF... brings back memories. You know there really are things that are truly godawful about fics -- and I found quite a few extremely hilarious fics through them. But the vast majority of sporks were for mediocre fics. For every Legolas by Laura there was some pedestrian sue fic which was badly written, but in a very typical way. Not the creme de la crap, but rather something totally unmemorable.

I did enjoy reading the meta forums though. And I got a certain masochistic pleasure in butting heads with the chicks who seemed to think that anything that didn't personally appeal to them was automatically GAFF worthy, as though their tastes were the gold standard. And the inevitable lists of pairings which could never ever be done well, I took for a personal challenge.

I haven't been to GAFF in a while. I don't know if it still exists. Fanficrants basically scratches the same itch and it's more convenient.

Actually it's a huge compliment that my work was memorable enough that you'd still look in on it! Thank you!

[highflyinkiller]

It is real
http://www.whygodwhy.org/

When I first joined GAFF I thought they were very mature and would help my writing. As the years went by, I realized they weren't as mature as I thought they were, and that they were actually stifiling my creativity with their set up of all their arbitrary rules about what makes good writing.

I'm glad to see you challenged that.

[velvet_mace]

Nah, you definitely had to sift and question. But I did find out what the tolerances and expectations of fandom were -- whether these were good things or not is subject to debate. It made for very interesting conversations.

*looks at link*

[mikkeneko]

I can totally sympathize with porn becoming boring after a while. Although I've written quite a bit of porn in my body of work, all of them shared a common factor that I was unable to write them unless something about that particular set up -- not just a pairing, but a situation, a mechanic, a theme -- was new and different. Otherwise there was just no motivation.

As for the other matter, the frustration over having plots that just hang there and the unwillingness to let them go forever -- I can totally sympathize. I wish I could offer some useful advice or consoling reflections but I never really found a way to deal with it myself, either.

[velvet_mace]

I still think about Temperance from time to time...

Yeah, I need things fresh as well, though not as fresh as you do. There are certain themes that I'm able to repeat on. But things got old pretty fast for me too.

[maxxim_huzzah]

It's understandable if you decide not to finish PETS. I enjoyed it for the porn, of course XD--but also because you actually incorporated plot into the story. Stories can go without porn eventually, but they can't continue living as stories without PLOT.

I'm a little sad that you're totally ditching porn, because I hold your stories as the gold standard as to "How to write a believable sex scene without sacrificing the rest of the story". But choosing not to write more to protect your RL self and (hopefully future!) books is first priority.