No.541
>>539Kek anon I fear and respect you. I'm afraid I don't have the type of dedication you do though. I'm just going to hope my readers don't know shit about horse betting and won't catch on to any inconsistencies in my fic. Fingers crossed.
No.542
>>540I'm totally serious, it was pretty stupid but I lived and now I can write it accurately. So eh.
>>541They probably won't know shit about betting. You're safe nonna.
No.543
>>538I did something similar but for a gangster setting and I ended up developing a genuine interest in noir cinema and crime flicks, also the sopranos is very good.
No.558
>>549I'm not because I'm sure I'll never make it. I'm way too slow of a typer. Have you done it before Nonna, how was the pace?
No.559
>>549I didn't even know this existed until you mentioned it anon. I might give it a go since it seems like an interesting challenge.
I've been binge reading old novels from my dad's bookshelf this past couple of months. I just finished reading Crime and Punishment, and I think I'm ready for some media deprivation. So basically no reading books, watching anime/TV shows/movies, playing video games, listening to podcasts, and obviously no social media for one week. It sounds like hell but I'm so looking forward to it. I've tried it once in the past and it did wonders for my productivity. When you stop constantly feeding your brain creative input it has no choice but to produce creative output. I'm hoping a week away from all that noise will help me get back on track and start writing again. Wish me luck nonnas.
No.561
Anyone else participating in nanowrimo, or a similar writing challenge this month? I've already written a lot, which makes me pround.
No.574
Writer anons who've written longfic before, any tips for someone who's only ever written oneshots? I'd like to try my hand at writing a longfic and I have a rough idea of what i want to write about as well, but I've only ever written extremely short oneshots. The longest fic I've ever written barely reaches 2k words and even then I felt like I was writing too much. Is there any way to combat this feeling? How do you stretch out a story across multiple chapters without feeling like you're dragging things out?
No.575
>>574I'm also mainly a oneshot writer and I managed to complete a longer fic recently. I don't know how you work best but my tips would be
-Never post it wip as you go. NEVER. I've only managed to complete longer fic by writing my entire draft beforehand. However, I did manage to get by with editing my wip chapters on a schedule before posting. I couldn't always stick to my schedule and had month long gaps inbetween some though, so if you have issues with sticking to a schedule, play it safe.
-Outline what happens in each chapter but don't plan in extreme detail because it can kill your motivation.
-Don't be afraid to cut plot points that don't work when you're planning your story. If something is blocking your way of working the plot out then it might be best to find out another route.
-Don't blab to anybody about the plot of your fic too much or you'll kill your motivation.
No.576
>>574I tend to write longfics. Honestly, I don't know if this counts as advice, but basically what I do is get an idea in my head that I really want to expand upon. Accept the fact that you are probably going to have to diverge from canon at this point, and then just go for it. For example, I like to imagine how character A would react if character B died. What would happen? How would he cope? What would the others around him do? Writing alternate endings also leads to longer fics.
But with all that being said, I wouldn't force a fic to be longer just for the sake of being longer. If you don't have anything else to add, then that's fine. Sometimes I feel like people add too much filler (I'm people, I add too much filler).
No.577
>>575Seconding never posting a WIP or anything like that. For me forcing myself to finish the fic before posting is a huge motivating factor
I disagree with blabbing about the plot though, I find having someone to chat with about the story and test screen scenes is great for helping my confidence about how stuff panning out tone/plot wise, especially since I'm going to post it all at once.
My tips would be: Why are you writing a longfic? It's probably because you have a multichaptered plot in your head. So start at the endpoint and map out the steps you NEED to do to get to that ending, then write the scenes that you WANT to include. As someone who started mostly with 3k oneshots I find it best to think of longfics as a series of connected stories. Segmenting them and breaking them into smaller bits can really make it more manageable. Also don't be afraid to cut stuff! There is no reason to leave in part that aren't working. Flow > wordcount.
No.583
>>582i’m the opposite, kek. i’m so picky that half the time when i’m reading, it just makes me want to write my own fic because the other authors aren’t doing it right. although, i have been in phases before where i tried to keep my ideas “untainted” from the rest of canon. but the end result was still caving in, going to that ship’s ao3 tag, and then immediately retreating fo write my own fic because none of them were writing the pair the way i wanted to see them written.
that’s just me, though. and congrats on charting new territory with the newly-written ship, nonna! ♥
No.584
>>582I love kinda being the sole person writing fics for a ship because that way I'm in full control of it and those who end up liking it, end up liking it because of ME.
Although at the same time, the opposite may happen.
This is a bit in general, but I do feel a bit afraid if someone writes something that I was planning on writing but does it with a pair I hate. Like, "I thought about this before them but now everyone will think I copied them" feel.
No.585
>>582As a writer, I'm always scared of writing the same thing as someone else, but as a reader I actually like to read the same idea written by different people. It's actually pretty interesting how differently two people might write the same concept.
No.586
how do you guys avoid the pitfall of endless editing? it’s the main thing that holds me back from posting. i’ll just keep editing and rewriting and refining and it takes ages for me to finally just think “fuck it” and throw it out to the world.
No.587
>>586Honestly by just accepting I'm going to miss something and uploading it anyway. I never post the night I finish a work. I wait a day, re-read and proofread, and then post.
I've re-read years old works and cringed at some obvious errors, but it's not a published work and I'm writing for fun at the end of the day.
No.588
>>587frightened when I saw that I wrote this because I couldn't remember writing it. Ack that bug sure does spook ya
No.589
>>588I've never had that happen to me though I've seen others talk about it. Wonder if there are some people within the same IP range? Fujo meet-up when? jk.
>>583I've got to respect the attitude of someone who doesn't just complain, but gets in there and writes the ship content they want to see. You go nonna!
No.590
>>589damn imagine we're all in the same neighborhood. Your neighbor is into shota and [ex]
No.591
>>587thanks for the advice. i might just have to make a rule with myself that when a fic’s done, it’s done, and any desire to heavily rewrite it should be channeled into a new fic altogether. it’s not easy, because i just wish every project could be the best it could be. but i’ll try to emulate your very admirable attitude, nonna.
>>590if i found out my neighbor was that based, i would drop down on one knee and propose to her on the spot.
No.592
>>589For me it always happens to posts immediately after my own and the subsequent posts by the same nona that night.
>>587I have a habit of uploading and then going to sleep on it so I can't run in and delete/edit it any more.
No.593
>>592I always need a good hour or more to double check anything I've posted to make sure there's no last minute errors I didn't catch, so I can never do it right before sleeping. There's almost always something 99% of the time and the few times I haven't followed this rule, I regretted it hard.
No.594
>>592i’ve posted right before sleeping a few times. on one hand, it makes it harder to sleep as i get antsy and want to check my stats/proofread again throughout the whole gd night. but on the other hand, i get to wake up to kudos (hopefully) and comments (rarely, but a girl can dream).
>>593>the few times I haven't followed this rule, I regretted it hard.this is what i fear even when posting during daylight hours.
No.640
>>629https://justpaste.it/atoqq (6k)
Well, it's not January, but it's done, kek. I've looked it over so I'll probably dump it on Ao3 sometime tomorrow after one last check, but if anyone wants to be another pair of eyes, here it is!
It's been a while since I've consumed any Jojo so I hope everything's alright. I'm not even sure how to tl;dr it, honestly. Dio pretends to be nice but also keeps kissing Jonathan unprompted. Jonathan gets frustrated/embarrassed and avoids him, but ends up feeling bad bc he starts believing he was just being sweet/familial. Ends with Dio jumping his bones. Nothing outright explicit, though.
No.641
>>640Looks like the story is private? I'd love to read it if I can figure out how. Good job on getting your January story done, mine is just sitting unfinished still lol.
No.642
>>641Incredible, I really used the incorrect link. Sorry!
https://justpaste.it/ls/atoqq/o5mfjx2z65yxnqvy
>Mine is just sitting unfinishedGood luck, dude. I have an earlier Jan fic that I sidelined for this one, so it's not all great on my end lmao.
No.683
>>536Thanks so much nonna. Apologies for my delayed response.
Basically I haven't worked on the fic at all since then because I developed a severe anxious reaction to even thinking about it. It's genuinely mental illness. It fucks me up when I remember it's still up there and I accidentally glimpsed a comment asking how I am in my ao3 emails. I get panic attacks over this shit, wtf is wrong with me. I still want to finish it and I still feel an obligation to it/my readers but I'm at a total standstill and shut it out from my mind. I'm in a really bad place
No.709
>>708Speaking as someone who occasionally looks up nostalgic fics I remember reading ages ago, I think it'd be a nice surprise!
This is exactly why I personally refuse to chapter my reases though, it's either all being posted at once or it's sitting in my folder. I don't trust myself to not finish it and I need the motivation to assure I'm completing it.
No.710
>>708Do it
If someone new to the fandom reads it they won't care about the 10 years hiatus and if someone who used to read you will they might get even happier just to see an update of something they used to or also still like
No.716
Do you guys have a tense preference? I'm messing around with the idea of a sequel to a fic and the og is in present tense, so I figured I'd do the sequel in present as well. I wrote up a little bit but looking over it, I dunno. I think I'm going to use past, instead. I've only used present for like, two fics, I believe, and everything after them has been past. Weird noticing it, now.
No.717
>>716I write almost everything in past tense automatically since that's what I was used to back in college, but it's something I need to be more aware of since I think it makes my fiction sound too formal.
Which veiwpoint do you write from nonna? I think present tense sounds most natural in a first person story.
No.718
>>716Present tense is "Ao3 house style" to me, for better or worse.
No.719
>>717I write from third person limited! Or at least try and keep it from entering omniscient. Totally agree with present working well with first person, rare as it seems to be on Ao3.
No.721
>>720I'm feeling this hard at the moment, nona. Although I get less disappointed when rarepair fic doesn't do well because my expectations were lower, but when something in a more popular fandom flops, my motivation will take a hit for ages.
No.722
>>719NTA. I also tend to use third person limited, although I can do third person omnipotent from time to time if I'm doing something with a lot of characters.
>>720Also, I can understand being sad that your most popular stories aren't the ones you care about the most. This also happens with fanart I spend a lot of time on not doing so well. However, I also am the one who's written the most fanfictions for one specific pairing on A03, and I think I just reached a point where I had to acknowledge that no one was as obsessed with the pairing as I was. And then I also found some comfort in it as well. Like, the it's kind of cozy knowing that there's only a few of the same people who like my super autistic pairing, lol.
Pinc unrel.
No.723
>>721>something in a more popular fandom flops, my motivation will take a hit for ages.Mean girl post incoming: my extremely petty copium for this is that in popular fandoms the most viewed/kudos works in a tag are usually tropey AU shipping fics that were posted in the fandom's boom. Way back when I was dumb and would sort by kudos I got tricked into reading half of a 100k work (and skimming the last 50k wondering when it would actually get good enough to warrant the TEN THOUSAND kudos) because I hadn't really internalized the "ship+trope+timing" math that leads to these mid fics getting so many kudos.
No.738
Sometimes I look back at something I wrote and cringe at obvious errors. I wish I wasn't so shy that I could find a beta reader.
No.743
>>738Late as fuck reply, but I can relate to this a lot. I also have dyslexia (not self diagnosed if it matters), and long story short, I make so many mistakes it sometimes is embarrassing. I've gotten a lot better at it in the age of better spell checking services, and I spend a lot of time rereading my works slowly but some stuff still slips through the cracks. With that being said, I also try to be more understanding of other spelling and grammar issues in other people's work as long as the story's interesting.
No.744
>>743Yeah I try to be forgiving of minor errors too. Some things I can't get over like all lowercase or frequent spelling errors, but if it's infrequent or minor grammatical errors I can overlook it if the story is interesting/in character. After all, most fanfiction is the work of love from a single person and its to be expected.
Granted I'm way harsher on myself than other people, what do you use to double check your work nonna? I use Word and it's good at catching spelling errors but not much else.
No.745
>>744I've used both word and Google docs to catch grammar mistakes. Something else I do is sometimes I change my font or the word coloring so that the text looks different and then reread my fanfic. Changing the font to something different looking is supposed to have a psychological effect where your eyes have to adjust again, so it's like you're looking at the text for the first time and not just glossing over potential mistakes… I guess it's kinda like mirroring your art when you are drawing and realizing things look weird, kek.
Other than that, I used to use a website called editminion for editing, but the website has gone down since then to my knowledge. Which is a shame because I used to love strunk the edit minion.
No.791
>>790I think there has to be a point where you stop deliberating for 20mins over a sentence as you're writing it. Like a tolerance for whatever quality you've made just to get on with the belief you can fix it later. I always have that problem that I don't reach the scenes I want to write because I got hung up on getting there, and as much as I know to do either end and bridge the gap later my perceived inadequacies make it hard to press on.
I know of a fanfic author who writes literally 30k a week easy, completes whole fics before even uploading chapter 1. They're like a cryptid to me, but I know they've been at this for a decade straight as a Writing Person who is constantly writing. They believe in what they're doing and they trust that nothing bad comes from putting it out there.
No.792
>>790I'm the same way, so it feels stupid to even give advice (takes me months to write even one fic; been working on the same 3k for around 3 months; some take even longer because I need time away to let the words ~marinate~ lmao I hate myself).
But
>>791 is right, the best thing you can do is just write it. Set a timer, write with no distractions for 20-30 minutes. Don't think too much about the flow, the style, or the words at all. Just get it out, then revise later. If you use discord, I really like the sprinto bot for this.