lettered: (Default)
It's Lion Turtles all the way down ([personal profile] lettered) wrote2006-06-21 01:30 pm

The Fic That Ate My Brain.

B. I use words to get the thoughts out of my head. They just keep coming and coming and don't make sense or feel real--sometimes I don't feel like a real person--until I write it down. So if I've got a story or idea, I need to write it just so it will go away. But that means if I write something down, it will go away, like Dumbledore's memories into a Pensieve. So in general I hate writing outlines/plans for stories/essays, for fear I'll waste the idea of what I want to write in the form of an outline instead of a story, and so never be able to write the story itself. How bout you? Like writing outlines? Thoughts, notes, ideas? Hate it? Why?

R. On another level, I sometimes feel like saying something will make something real, which will of course jinx it and make it unreal. For instance, I don't like to talk about it with my friends if I'm sort of seeing someone, trying to get a job, trying to publish a story. I always want to wait until I've already done it, or until after I've failed, and say, "look, see?" The thing is, it's not about needing to be successful; it's about hating the limbo, but being able to stand it better if I don't admit it's limbo and just wait for the outcome. The point? Is once again that I don't, or usually don't, talk about, or feel the need to talk about, things I'm writing. If I talk about it something unfinished it makes me a little crazy, because I don't know whether I'm going to finish or like the outcome. If I decide to abandon, or hate the outcome, I failed, but I don't mind talking about it then--it's the interim. This is why I have difficulty discussing and bouncing ideas around with friends/betas. I've rarely tried and when I do it makes me intensely uncomfortable. I know lots of people discuss fic they're writing with betas--why do you do it, how does it affect your process, do you ever feel you lose anything in doing it?

A. The point? The real point this time? I'm writing a fic which is EATING MY BRAIN and I want to talk about it because my BRAIN IS GONE. It's 150,000 words and it just keeps growing. I finally did write a bit of an outline for it, but parts that I think are going to be a measly 5,000 words jump to 30,000 words, and it keeps going ON AND ON. I feel like it's mauling me, seriously. (ETA: I feel the need to add I don't actually want to talk about it in an I'm having trouble with it kind of way, but in an I need to complain about it kind of way, which was really the point of this whole post. That is, IT ATE MY BRAIN AND NOW IT'S GONE. That was the point, really.)

I. And I just wrote slash. It was supposed to be a B/A fic! Okay, it still is, but one slash scene turned into 3, and 2 of them are pairings I never saw myself writing, and the other is turning into those 30,000 words. I don't understand. Stop it, fic, you're hurting me.

N. Now we cut the whining and get on to the important stuff. Which would be more entertaining: dubbing Spartacus so that it has dude after dude standing up and saying, "I'm Charlotte Lennox! No, I'm Charlottle Lennox!" or dubbing Spartacus so that it has dude after dude saying, "I'm MsScribe! And I'm Ms Scribe! In fact, we're all Ms Scribe!"? Who's with me on crossing out all the "Who is John Galt"s graffiteed everywhere and writing "Charlottle Lennox" instead? And lastly: tkp, I know who you are.

S. I saw that Keenau Sandra Bullock movie today. God, it was stupid. Someone explain to me why I thought it might be good?
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[identity profile] tkp.livejournal.com 2006-06-22 04:08 pm (UTC)(link)
It's this fic about Angel going nuts. It has a pretty lame premise. A really lame premise; this fic wouldn't happen on the show. But the ultimate point is to drive Angel gray, then dark, then darker, then completely mad, then get him out again on the other side. Which is possibly why it's taking so long. It was supposed to be a big B/A shipper fic, and it kind of is, and there's lots of B/A and schmoopy B/A and then schmoopy B/A porn and then really really unschmooopy B/A, but then suddenly there's Angel/Doyle too, and I don't know where that came from, and now I'm writing A/S, and IT JUST KEEPS GOING, it could be a fic in itself, Spike always steals the show. I don't know what happened.

It's possible I made this whole post in order to stall. When you talk is it just telling about what's going to happen, or are you more bouncing the ideas off your betas to see what they think?

[identity profile] kita0610.livejournal.com 2006-06-22 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
A bit of both, depending. Like say, if Connor is in the fic, and I'm unsure about characterization of something I have planned, I'd ask Fod, who is happy to smack me if I do him wrong.

If it's something I'm really excited about, I just wanna talk about it, I'll do that too.

Man, I love fic where Angel fucks everyone. My oldest BtVS-verse heroine was named Maayan. She's long since gone off to other fandoms, but her entire raison d'etre was: To write stories wherein Angel is slashed with every guy I can come up with, yet still make the fic B/A. She did it.

So can you. I can't wait to read this fic.
ext_7189: (Default)

[identity profile] tkp.livejournal.com 2006-06-23 01:13 am (UTC)(link)
Now that I think about it, it's possible that I don't talk about it because I don't want to get smacked. If I get smacked AFTER I write it, I'm okay, even pleased, because then I can just go fix it, and of course I want it to be good. But getting smacked while still caught up in the process would hurt my ickle feelings.

Man, I love fic where Angel fucks everyone.

Dude, well phrased. That's exactly what's happening. It's crazy.

To write stories wherein Angel is slashed with every guy I can come up with, yet still make the fic B/A.

Nice! I'd like to read some of that.

And thanks. It's nice to know people are interested.