[WIP Wednesday] 2019-12-04

[thrillingdetectivetales]

It's that time again, nerds! Welcome to
WIP WEDNESDAY!



Feel free to share bits of what you're working on, ask for feedback or advice from your fandom fellows, gush about a project you're starting, whatever! Let's keep this good good HBOWar content train chugging along!

Comments

Re: Output, oh output. Wherefore art thou, output?

[muccamukk]

I mean, a reasonable amount of free time is my current answer.

However, I used to write this much/more when I had a long hours job with a fair amount of stress, and back then I think the answer was just that I found writing a stress relief. I'd keep notes on breaks at work, and then go home and just write until I blew off the stress. It was kind of snatching a couple hours of solid writing time in the evenings, and maybe half an hour in the morning.

But that was the upswing of a new fandom, so I was sort of mentally writing in my head ALL THE TIME? Like for the issue of momentum on long fic, I think it's less getting long blocks of time to write as keeping the story going in your head when you're not able to actually type words on a screen, if that makes sense. So the momentum didn't get broken up, because I was always kind of picking away at how to put things, even if I didn't always remember everything I thought of later, the impetus to work on it carried over.

Re: Output, oh output. Wherefore art thou, output?

[thrillingdetectivetales]

/sigh If I could in any way ensure myself a reasonable amount of free time, I would. Unfortunately working in a creative field doesn't leave a tremendous amount of time to work on one's own personal passions.

And yeah, I mean, I'm definitely also writing in my head all the time. Like, even beyond just trying to get a general feel for where a story's going to go, I'll start to craft actual sentences I want to put down on paper, so to speak, the next time I have a moment. This does not, of course, mean that I always know where a story will go but I think getting stuck on plot development is a separate issue from what I'm trying to get after here.

I'm with you on the whole, "writing as stress relief" thing, which I used to do at my last job—it was terrible and I was so wildly depressed that I was writing like 5K a day just to be able to dissociate from life for awhile, but that's obviously not sustainable for a multitude of reasons. I still write for stress relief a little bit, but I think as I've started to approach writing as a thing I might want to actually do as an eventual career my confidence has taken a slight downswing because I'm coming at it from too serious an angle? I guess maybe I need to get my head on straight about that bit, but in the meantime I don't know if I ought to try a schedule or something?

Part of the issue, I think, is maintaining my enthusiasm for a current story when I already know how it ends in my head and I keep stumbling into other exciting ideas courtesy sources like the prompt meme or chatting with folks like yourself. Anyway, I feel like I'm just whining and navel-gazing about it now, so I'll stop.

I'm sure it's a surmountable goal in one way or another, and I appreciate your feedback and advice, friend~ <3

Re: Output, oh output. Wherefore art thou, output?

[muccamukk]

Yeah, magically having more time isn't usually a choice. If you could do that, you'd have done that.

Nenya, the other day, ran into a meme that said something like: The key to good writing is to find the most idtastic terrible idea that no one else in the world except is ever going to write, and then to write that.

I mean, I don't know, I've never thought of going pro with this because OMG that sounds so stressful, but that also seems to be the angle a lot of my author friends take? You're having fun talking to the people in your head. Sometimes it's stressful, and drudgy work, but the end goal is the story only you want to exist. Until someone else reads it and goes, "Yes. That." At which point you have communicated.

I did take panel notes on mental health and creative fields panel at world con: https://muccamukk.dreamwidth.org/1154703.html

(I'm admittedly better at finishing things when I'm not playing the points game. There's irony: Colonel Kink might actually be LOWERING my productivity.)

Re: Output, oh output. Wherefore art thou, output?

[thrillingdetectivetales]

I feel like I should clarify that when I say I want to write professionally what I mean is that I want to write scripts, specifically, and pad my income with mediocre genre fiction, lol. I don't know how realistically likely that is to happen, which is a constant source of anxiety, but it's still a dream~

I think it's good on the one hand that I'm not looking to write the next great American novel or what have you, because low standards, but on the other my "id" mostly wants me to write stories about people being snarky assholes to each other and making bad choices. Which, I suppose is in line with the bits of advice you've mentioned—which I really, really like and plan to revisit in the future when I'm getting down on myself about not being able to do plots, btw—but also makes me feel kind of like a one-trick pony at the end of the day.

I'll have to give those notes of yours a look when I get home. And re: the points game, I'm so, so with you on that. The level of anxiety I have knowing that I'm not only missing a deadline but missing a deadline in a way where I lose a thing, even if it's a point that doesn't really mean much, is killer. May or may not be why I haven't worked my way successfully through many Col. Kink prompts, lol.

Why is writing haaaaard??

Re: Output, oh output. Wherefore art thou, output?

[lt_aldo_raine]

THIS: Part of the issue, I think, is maintaining my enthusiasm for a current story when I already know how it ends in my head and I keep stumbling into other exciting ideas courtesy sources like the prompt meme or chatting with folks like yourself.

The most relatable content.

Re: Output, oh output. Wherefore art thou, output?

[thrillingdetectivetales]

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