On writing

[angel_grace]

In a previous post, I made of the mention of the fact that perhaps watching CMM on OTH would inspire me to finally remember some of my Tristan-love and finish off "Unholy Alliance." Rather to my surprise, this was met with rousing approval by more than one person

Comments

[rhienelleth]

I have news for you - 80,000 words is not almost anything, it IS a full length novel. Especially these days, when publishers want something 70-100K long from first time authors.

I think to find motivation, you have to have a story, a character or characters, that you really want to tell. It can be daunting, making the move from fic to original work, but if you can write an 80K word fic, you can write a novel. Maybe think of it as coming up with your own premise for a TV show you'd love to watch and fic about. Except it would be a book. :)

[angel_grace]

I'm not sure if it's depressing or encouraging that it's full length. :)

The funny thing is, I started writing poetry when I was ten, and fiction when I was in high school. I started more "novels" that I can recall, but I never was much good with follow-through. And then I got into fanfic, and my "real" writing fell by the wayside. Years of clinical depression and too much "real life" crap didn't help. :P But I still truly believe that I have a book in me somewhere. It's just...finding it. One character, one plot point, even a single sentence, is often all it takes to send me off and running. I just haven't been inspired in longer than I care to admit. Perhaps I shall make a belated New Year's resolution to try and write something, anything original at least once a week, and see what comes of that... It can't hurt, right?

[rhienelleth]

Wow. Our histories are eerily similar. I, too, started with original fiction, then discovered fanfic. Some not so good stuff happened, and I didn't write anything solely "mine" for something like three years. And then one day, I wrote a scene. And that scene ended up becoming a novel.

The thing is, I don't think that novel ever would have been written without my experience writing fanfic. Writing the Illusions series actually taught me more about structuring a novel than all of original attempts put together.

I have complete faith that you can do this! Maybe start with a scene in your head, an idea or emotion you want to convey through a character or characters, and see where it takes you. Try something different until you find the idea that won't let you go. :)

[angel_grace]

I do think I've learned some things from writing fanfic. For one, I believe I'm a lot better at writing dialogue than I once was. :) And really, I think it's important that I have continued to put words to paper, even if those words were about someone else's characters. But it's definitely been a while since I wrote something that was "mine," at least of the fictional variety.

Thank you so much for the encouraging, words, though. It gives me a bit more hope.

[advo]

Well if you do finish Unholy Alliance, I want to read it. It's definitely one of the better Trory WIPs, I really loved it. On the whole, none of the new Trory writers (are there any left) can really write like the oldies used to.

[advo]

Ahhh, I just noticed Rhienelleth IS the Rhienelleth who wrote the amazing Illusions series. I think the same can be applied to the Sarkney writers. I just re-read Illusions last night, and I still love it.