On Writing!

[zeitgeistic]

Finished my do-me-veela fic and came in at 12k which is AMAZING for me. The only thing that saved this from turning into 50k of me fucking around is the fact that it has absolutely zero plot.

Okay let's talk about fic/fiction writing strategyI've gotten 4 inquiries on my writing process for Azoth now, which is just mind-blowing to me since I never felt like

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[eidheann_writes]

I feel kinda redundant with this... XD

1-- Title: Sometimes it comes to me in the first bit of writing, but often the result of whining to friends and last-minute flailing and panic. My Remix had a title almost from the first brainstorming session, and my two owlposts came easy... but my minifest, I am pretty sure I spent more time banging my head into my desk trying to come up with a title than I did on the writing process otherwise.

2-- Ending: Sometimes I know the ending so well I do it first. I'm a fairly linear writer, I tend to like beginning to end just so I don't lose track of what I'm talking about. But what I often end up doing is write while it's easy, then when it gets hard, jump to the end and write that, then go back. I only have one fic I feel I truly jumped around a lot on (A Dream of Waking) as opposed to simply skipping over smut and leaving any sex scenes to do at the end. And I didn't like the feeling of that, I felt too scattered and like I made it more difficult since I lost my flow of story. But then, it's the fic I always say is my favorite, so I dunno.

3-- Editing: I edit the crap out of my words as I go. I am *BAD* at anything other than spag-level rewrites, though. As I'm going through, I'm constantly picking at whatever section I'm working on until that section is complete. Clarifications, misused words, rephrasings are all kosher. Adding entire sections is fine. But needing to do large-scale delete/rewrite makes me twitch.

4-- POV: I am locked in a fairly near 3rd person pov, with a single focus character. I don't do POV switches EVER. If a story starts with Harry's perspective, you can be certain you're going to be in Harry's head until the end with no jumps, be it 1k or 20k. It's not anything I have against switching POV, I just have no idea how you do it. My brain just... locks in on a specific character at a specific time with a specific story and that's what my brain does. (Attempting something from the "wrong" pov just causes me to flail around and get no useable words and have to start over again. Which was my big problem with hd_hols XD)

5-- Planning: Um, I kinda plan. Maybe. *cough* Some things have pages of notes of backstory that never actually is important but is THERE to make sure I am consistent in what I'm doing, even if the story itself has no outline (*cough* In Flight *cough*). Some things have a basic scene list. Nothing really specific, but a general "this happens then this happens then this happens" that summarizes a 15k fic in 5 sentences. Some things don't have any planning at all, but those are usually the super-shorties. Hard to have an outline on 1000 words.

6-- Monogamy: haha. I am fic-monogamous. If I get sidetracked for too long from something *eyes her months-hiatus'd WIP* it takes WEEKS to get back in the groove of what I was doing. I tried with Remix to dabble in Hurtfest when I was feeling stuck in hopes that it would allow me to come back with a fresh perspective... But it actually just made things worse, and I felt MORE stuck and frustrated with Remix after. So, yeah. Serial Monogamy here.

7-- Prereader: capitu must be mentioned, because I think I've lost the ability to follow through with anything if I don't have her emailing me asking why I haven't updated X yet. So I consider that one of my writing processes.

[sophie_french]

POV: I am locked in a fairly near 3rd person pov, with a single focus character. I don't do POV switches EVER. If a story starts with Harry's perspective, you can be certain you're going to be in Harry's head until the end with no jumps, be it 1k or 20k. It's not anything I have against switching POV, I just have no idea how you do it.

This is all so interesting!!! I'm the kind who likes changing POV, it even saves me somtimes! (except for the short fics).

For The Greyest Eyes, I was stuck with one of my character, until I decided to write in his POV. And after that it was much easier, because it had helped me understand his motives (even if I totally disagreed on his views!)

As for Pre-readers, yes, they are very important!

[zeitgeistic]

Not redundant! You are the first person to mention needing a capitu! Although I do agree with you that having a pre-reader really helps. Sometimes it sparks new ideas for me.

I also feel really scattered (that's a good way to put it) when I end up jumping around for some reason. I have to remind myself that it doesn't matter how blocked I'm feeling with Scene X, it's better than I'd be feeling if I wrote the ending, came back to Scene X, and realized that I'd have to completely re-write everything that followed it once I finished Scene X.

Interesting that you can't do POV switches. IDK if I'm better at one or multiple. I've written extensively from multi-POVs before in a single fic, but I've also written several fics all from Harry's POV. I think when it comes down to it, I just have to write ONLY Harry's POV or Harry+Others. I can never write just from Draco's.

[eidheann_writes]

I feel I'm a pretty even split between Harry-POV fics and Draco-POV fics. If you asked me which was easier, I'd probably say I find Draco-POV generally easier... but again, it entirely depends on the story.

So maybe I just have an easier time with the stories that happen to be Draco-POV. Don't even know XD