I've been ill the past few weeks & stressed as a result, & it's properly screwed with my ability to daydream & write to the extent that yesterday I had been fully convinced I had lost writing as an interest (the hyperfixations giveth & the hyperfixations taketh away 😭). It really made me sad, especially as I was nearing the end of a long-fic before I became ill & I really want to finish it.
Today I realised I had started randomly composing a nice little scene in my head. Not for the next chapter but for a few chapters down the line. Never been so happy for a random daydream to suddenly appear. 😍
I came across a list of recommendations for good ND representation in fanfic & one of them was this fic centred on autistic Julian Bashir in Star Trek DS9 & oh my, it's very good. I had sympathetic stress when reading the chapter about the surprise party. 😭
What's up with this weekend, folks? I'm doing the usual. I have a bit of a buffer, but I want to pad it even further if I can in preparation for some upcoming busy times....
No buffer as of yesterday's posted chapter & I'm halfway through the next chapter so I think I won't be posting for a couple of weeks. Gonna grab a couple of hours tomorrow to finish the WIP chapter & maybe start (or at least plan) the next one.
Getting close to the end of this story & I think I might be unconsciously dragging it out because once I'm done with it, I have no excuse not to move onto other ones. I have a couple of big life changes coming my way over the next few months & while taking a little time off from planning to write is definitely the break I need, right now the thought of starting a new story feels a little like another project I just don't have the bandwidth for. Need to keep reminding myself that the plan for future stories is no posting any of it until it's all finished!
Haha, we'll see how good my resolution re not posting until it's all written goes! On the plus side, I have a few shorter stories (3-6 chapters) that I can write & post while I'm working away at the next long-fic, so I reckon that'll help.
Thinking that I wouldn't mind writing a trashy Christmas romance this year but acknowledging that I won't have time for it, only to find that I wrote 80% of one last year that I have a cute little idea for the ending of now. 🥳
I have a series (2 stories at the mo) that's very fluffy slice of life romantic. Early this year, shortly after starting the 2nd story, I came up with a bonkers idea for the 3rd story. AU/multiverse, paranormal weirdness from the fandom that I just ignore in my series up til now, dragging bits from the original 2 stories & reusing the characters (& angsting the crap out of one of them).
And it has been killlling me that I had to finish the 2nd story before I could start on the 3rd. At one point I had to comfort-write a couple of chapters just to break writer's block on story 2. I reckon I've got less than half a dozen chapters of story 2 to go & then I am launching myself bodily at story 3. 😅
Yeah, I can kinda balance it out if it's a one-shot or short multi-chapter story competing with a long-fic. But 2 long-fics (& in the same series)? Lord, give me strength!
I like a well rounded, realistic character, as I do with my protagonists to be fair. No 2-dimensional mustache-twirling "I'm just evil 'cos I'm evil" unless there's a real good reason behind it or it's hella fun (think Andrew Scott's Moriarty). I don't need them to think they're doing good by being in opposition to the protagonist but I want them to at least be a sufficiently well written character that I could believe that they'd have an opinion on the matter & ideally feel some little bit of conflict over it like a real person would.
Does anyone read fics that are centred around OCs at the expense of canon characters? Like a story about an OCxOC pairing where the canon characters are only on the side or background to the core pairing?...
😂 I was starting to think the lack of responses was the answer in itself to my question (i.e. no-one likes OC-centric or OC/OC pairings).
I totally get the love for OC-centric stories so long as there's a core character in the mix, as I tend to be there myself, but I do think I'd have to stretch myself to take a chance on OC/OC with no canon characters in the main pairing or group. That said, the fandom I want to write it in (Star Trek TNG-adjacent) has no characters that work for my idea & really has none I'm interested in writing as core characters. So I guess I might just be writing this one for myself if other people aren't willing to take a chance (& I can't blame them because I know exactly where they're coming from). 🤷♀️
I had a chat with another author in the broader Star Trek fandom after reading their OC/OC fic & based on how that got received, I'm not getting my hopes up. I'll still write it though (& probably post it regardless). And it will have some canon characters as secondary characters (& it'll be set on the Enterprise) so it won't be completely unknown to fans.
Love that your 99% OC story got so big! 😁 There's hope for OC-centric stories yet. Pity about the unfriendly community atmosphere though - like, you don't like the premise, don't read it. No need to give grief to the authors about it. 🤷♀️
I need to get back into happy rabbit-hole mode. The last one I went on was trying to figure out the length of time a side character would go to jail for a specific crime in a specific US state in the 1970s/80s. And then I didn't even bother mentioning it in my story.
I find trying to maintain a posting schedule has kind of killed my ability to deep-dive on research as my buffer of chapters has fallen away. Yet another reason I'm never going to start posting a multi-chapter fic before I finish it again!
I was replying to a comment elsewhere and said I was "saving a fic for a special occasion." Does anyone else feel this way or do this???
Sometimes a fic Feels Different and I have to consume it in a way that's somehow elevated from the usual short snatches of reading I'm forced to take because of real life obligations.
Often this means that I'll have a really good fic saved in my MFL for months (if not longer) because I'm waiting for The Right Time 😂
@inloveweverything If it's a new fic (or chapter) from a writer I know & really like, & I know I'm not immediately able to give it the attention it deserves, yeah, I'll save it for later. Then once I've got time & space & I've set myself up all comfy, I'll savour it. 😍
Woo! A productive weekend that means I have multiple chapters lined up to post while I'm traveling over the coming weeks. 🥳 For once, not being able to write in the regular order may have worked out for me as I just had to sort out one link in the chain in order to expand my buffer.
It has also made me realise that I probably only have half a dozen chapters left to write for this story before I'm done. So double-woo!, I guess! Or not, if my inspiration abandons me after that.
I do not mean SPAG issues or things you consider bad writing/storytelling. What is something which is not actually a problem that you just don't enjoy to the point where you would drop a fic you were enjoying?...
Massive OOC turns for established characters, or sudden tone shifts that don't make sense in the context of the story. I don't often mind OOC in the context of the source material but if it's OOC in relation to the rest of the story, that's a hard nope from me.
A sudden disappearance of any & all smut in an M- or E-rated story once a relationship is established. Gah!
Likewise, when pregnancy/children are portrayed as the pinnacle of a romantic relationship. I'm fine with babies/kids being part of the story but when they're suddenly pushed as the focus, my tokophobia & childfreedom start showing.
Apart from those, it's mostly ongoing obvious SPAG issues.
And sometimes poor tagging, although this is usually the case when I'm already finding that I don't like the story. If I've already been happily engaged with it, I don't really care so much about the tags by that point.
Oh, conversations about what people want from relationships, be they friendship, romantic, family, are great! I think they tend to come up more in non-traditional relationships IRL, whereas the run of the mill "heteronormative romance equalling marriage plus kids" dynamic tends to have very little introspection/interrogation of assumptions (this is totally my opinion). It's great to see when writers/creators bring those often ignored conversations into more traditional relationships on the page imo because they're inextricably linked to consent.
I view Simple Misunderstandings, especially for stupid reasons amongst characters who are smart enough to know better, to be in the Idiot Ball realm of bad writing. Although, funnily enough I think I find them more often in non-fanfic writing, e.g. TV shows. Such a lazy trope.
One of my readers wanted to practice bookbinding. They asked me if they could use one of my stories. I said yes and... I can't believe it, but here it is!
Obviously this phenomenon isn't limited to fanfiction or even writing, but it seems to me that there are (at least) two styles to long writing projects:...
So, I'm one of those people who tends to hop from hobby to hobby. Tbh writing fanfiction is probably the one I've been most consistent with since I started a year ago, & I'm kind of terrified I'll end up dropping it because I really enjoy it! It definitely feels like a hyperfixation for me & I worry one day I'll wake up & that focus will be gone. It's also the one that's most freeform creative so I think that may be linked to my worry (I'm usually much more of a consumer than a creative).
I guess if someone is at peace with hopping between hobbies & concluding a project & then they're done with the whole hobby, then that's not sad. But where I am at the moment, I feel I'd mourn it a bit. But then I guess I'd forget about it because I have terribly poor autobiographical memory... 🤷♀️
Thanks! To be fair, it's not an awful worry to have in the grand scheme of things 😅 but now that I've found something I really like, I want to stick with it (at least that's the way I feel at the moment). And yeah, maybe if I do bounce, it'll only be as far as another fandom (which is a pleasant thought!).
😂 So long as it's a better Hellsite than Twitter, I'd be happy. The only thing I'm wondering about it is whether it will suit me as I don't do original or fan art - all my creative stuff is writing. I guess I'll see how it goes.
Odd re not being able to see a bunch of accounts. Sounds like a weird glitch!
I'm starting to understand the affectionate hellsite attitude. Although I feel like I'm in the honeymoon phase with Tumblr right now & this comment is going to bite me in the ass in a month's time when it turns out it's an actual hellsite.
To beta read? Or to die like men instead?
Do you have a beta read your fics before you publish them? Or do you prefer to do your own checking & hope that's good enough?...
Friday Roundup! What Are You Doing This Weekend? (10/20)
What's up with this weekend, folks? I'm doing the usual. I have a bit of a buffer, but I want to pad it even further if I can in preparation for some upcoming busy times....
What is an idea you've been kicking around for a while and would really like to start...
Every fanfic writer I know has one....
What Makes For A Good Antagonist?
For stories with an antagonist, what do you like to see? What antagonists, canon or fanfic, do you enjoy?...
OC focussed fics or pairings?
Does anyone read fics that are centred around OCs at the expense of canon characters? Like a story about an OCxOC pairing where the canon characters are only on the side or background to the core pairing?...
Research and Writing
What is something you have researched lately for your fic(s)? Or something you learnt a long time ago for one which you still find fascinating?...
What Makes You Drop A Fic?
I do not mean SPAG issues or things you consider bad writing/storytelling. What is something which is not actually a problem that you just don't enjoy to the point where you would drop a fic you were enjoying?...
Completing a long story vs moving on to something new and shiny
Obviously this phenomenon isn't limited to fanfiction or even writing, but it seems to me that there are (at least) two styles to long writing projects:...
Where Do You Connect With Your Fandom?
Or are you like me and (for the most part) don't?...