Friday Check-in

[inkdust]

Hi everybody! It's been a while.

I'm putting off continuing my work for the moment because I'm stuck on one part of the last line of this scene & chapter (12, yay, halfway there!) that needs something to make the sentence feel complete. I have a gift for sitting on one piece of one line. So I figured I'd stare at something else for a minute and ask how all you fine people have been.

What's new? What's old that you want to be rid of? What's good, and what feels more like dragging a dead zebra behind a bicycle?


(No zebras were harmed in this mental interlude)

Comments

[ayumidah]

I just finished two short stories right before my self-imposed deadline for them, so I'm happy! I'm also in the process of fixing up my very first NaNoWriMo from six years ago, and it's not as terrible as I thought it'd be.

I probably won't be writing much the next few weeks though because I have a friend (Who I actually met through some fics I wrote) coming over for a visit soon. :D

[inkdust]

That all sounds awesome! In a way, meeting self-imposed deadlines is more satisfying than meeting someone else's. And I love discovering old writing that isn't as awful as I imagined. And I love friends visiting! I've been trying to get in touch with my friend in Germany the past couple weeks, and it's been so hard to actually set up a time to Skype :(

[ayumidah]

Yeah, I started rereading the six year old NaNo and at first it was like, *peeking through fingers* "Oh God this is terrible, what was I thinking, this-- ... hey, this actually isn't too bad... The first couple of paragraphs, maybe but the rest... Hmm." Haha, I was so relieved!

Hope you get to talk to your friend soon! Timezones are horrible.

[siofrabunnies]

Good thing: I got Scrivener, and it's wonderful! So nice having all my research and notes in the same file as the writing, and being able to keep chapters in sub-documents. Much tidier, and less pre-work before getting back into a story.

Bad thing: Being organized is certainly helpful, but it didn't actually get me to write. I have less of a barrier, but this story just isn't coming together. I think I need to try writing scenes out of order, and fill in the brain-freezy ones later.

[inkdust]

Scrivener is the BEST. Sometimes I wish it could also do the actual writing part for me.

The first time I ever wrote scenes out of order was after I started using it and I was writing the first draft of my current story. I was trying to get out of a really stuck place from my last story so I just started on the scene that grabbed me the most and worked through it that way. Like they say about camping - always eat your best food first, that way you're always eating your best food. Doesn't work for everyone and I wasn't sure it would work for me, but now I'm going through chronologically with revisions and I have to say it got the job done.

[ljwrites]

Yay new Scrivener! *does Scrivener dance, whatever that looks like*

Haha, I remember my own disappointment that being organized to the hilt didn't get me any further along in the story. At least it removes one of the barriers, though.

[inkdust]

After an excessive time spent doing other things, I returned to the line and finally found the right piece: "inhaling the sharp smell of mint." So I'll call it a good day over here.

[graychalk]

Hurray for finding just the words you wanted! That certainly classifies as a good day. (I have quite a bit of talent for sitting on pieces of a line as well.)

[caecilia]

Good - I made myself an official author website and I'm planning on getting cards because I went to a writer's group picnic and everyone had cards.

Bad - I've been so bogged down by school and work that I haven't written that much and I'm on my way to urgent care because I just got home to find my mother had burned her foot :\ but hey maybe I can write in the waiting room

[inkdust]

I hope your mom's foot isn't too hurt! I'm struggling with trying to build an official "presence," as they say. I tried to keep a blog for a while but I still didn't list it under my name/pen name and I only seem inclined to update it when my work isn't going well. I need to find some sort of writer's group in the area, but that's intimidating too. I always feel so young and pretending.

[splinteredstar]

Seconding the hope that she's okay!

I have no idea how to create an Official Presence, so you're making more progress than I at that!

[splinteredstar]

I've mostly been working on a monster of a fanfiction, the main section of which is little over 22k. (There's a secondary section but I have no idea how to integrate it. Might ask the comm about that in a bit.) It has involved a lot of backwork, brainstorming, and threatening my main character with a brick.

You know how it goes.

Making progress, though. Currently scribbling unrelated things as a form of stress release, just to make sure I don't actually hit anything with a brick.

I have also written entirely too much meta about Bravely Default.

[inkdust]

It's all fun and games until someone gets hit with a brick. I can never decide which is more work, putting the actual words on the page or everything that comes before/intermittently during that. Usually depends on which I'm doing at the time. I'm always happy to bounce ideas around if you get stuck on that secondary section.

(And your worldbuilding message, it weighs on me! I never actually got to reading it because I started editing again and didn't want to distract myself with that story, but the longer it sits there the more the pressure builds! I'm so silly, I need to just open it.)

[splinteredstar]

In the case, the backwork is much worse. It's fanfiction, so I have canon to work from - it's just that the canon is kind of sparse, so I have to essentially construct 3/4 of a character and make sure that it matches up with the 1/4 of the character that I actually have. I've had to do this in varying degrees for four characters so far.

It's been a fascinating lesson in character creation. Will probably come in very handy for my original work, honestly. Thank you for the offer! I have an excellent beta/sounding board/partner-in-crime, but I might take you up on that sometime.

(Don't worry, it won't bite! I mostly just ramble about information infrastructure and cold war era spying. Nothing threatening.)