Writing about writing meme

[pensnest]

Well, it's a meme about writing, so I can't resist.

Comment with any of these words and I'll answer the question for them!

monday: do you struggle with the 'boring' parts of writing?
tuesday: name a fic you have posted which you think is overrated?
wednesday: name a fic which you have posted which you think is underrated?
thursday: have you ever written a high fantasy concept?
friday: most self-indulgent fic you have ever posted?
saturday: what gets you excited whilst writing?
sunday: how frequently do you take requests or prompts, if at all?
fortnight: what wip do you plan on posting next, if at all?
january: what was the first fic you posted this year?
february: have you ever written and/or a holiday-centric fic?
march: do you listen to music while writing?
april: have you ever written and/or posted a crackfic?
may: a fic you have regretted posting?
june: have you ever written and/or posted a marriage fic?
july: what’s the hottest fic you have written and/or posted if you write smut at all?
august: are any of your fics associated with certain genres/artists/songs/etc?
september: share a comment or review which still warms your heart?
october: name the darkest or angstiest fic you have written and/or posted
november: do you have any rituals or requirements for getting in the mood for writing?
december: have you ever gifted a fic to someone?
recent: the most recent fic you have posted online?
ancient: the first fic you ever posted online?
seconds: shortest completed fic?
minutes: how long does it normally take you to complete a fic?
hours: longest wip or completed fic?
tomorrow: favourite ways to write fluff?
yesterday: favourite way to write angst?
today: have you made any progress in any wips today?
calendar: do you have a schedule for posting?
forever: do you balance fic writing with original concept stuff?

As I was at leisure and can't quite face going through the yearbooks yet, or going to Sainsburys, I have written out my answers already. Though I have to admit, there are a few questions I don't understand.

Comments

[sperrywink]

August!

[pensnest]

Well, I have to admit, I'm not really sure what this means...

I guess, Show You The Shape Of My What? is associated with The Full Monty (the stage musical rather than the film, really). There are various song lyrics used as titles. Um.

Nope, not really sure what this question is looking for! But if you have an interpretation of it, I'd be happy to have another go.

[sperrywink]

I interpreted it as just what you said for the Full Monty, or even a bit more general. I tend to listen to music while writing, so certain songs or artists are associated with certain of my stories even if the link isn't so obviously direct.

[pensnest]

Ah - I know quite a few people have a playlist for stories they're writing. I don't think I could work like that, or at least, I haven't done so far. Perhaps I should give it a try!

[dine]

november, please

[pensnest]

Rituals... no, I don't think so. I like to be reasonably quiet, but that's about it. If there was anything that would reliably get me in the mood for writing, I seem to have forgotten it. /anguish

[dine]

so no turning in circles three times, lighting a black candle and putting on *special* music to set the scene for you? good to know. that probably makes it a bit easier to jot down words sometimes

[pensnest]

Oh, I dunno - if I could think of an incantation that would summon the words... yep, I'd probably go for that!

[stultiloquentia]

September. :)

[pensnest]

Ah, this is a cute question!

"Thank you so much for this beautiful story! *_*
It was everything that I wanted and I really enjoyed it!
Thank you for writing it for me!"

This was the response to the story I wrote for Make The Yuletide Gay 2016, from its recipient. I've generally had very pleasing responses to my Secret Santa gift fics (could have used several as responses), but I didn't really know this recipient and seem to have got it perfect for her.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>monday: do you struggle with the 'boring' parts of writing? <<

I actually try to skip as many of those as possible. If it bores the writer, it usually bores the reader.

Re: Well ...

[pensnest]

There are times when I have to get somewhere, and I don't know what the story is, and that can be a struggle. I need to get to—oh, say, the arrival of Brad at Lance's house for a threesome with Lance and Adam, and there isn't really anything to say until he gets there. But I had to set it up. That's a struggle. That kind of thing—the bits I have to get through to get to the bits I want to write, that's a struggle.

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I usually write the parts clearest in my head first, then go back and connect the dots. It's easier to see what needs to happen that way. But most people seem to write chronologically.

Re: Well ...

[pensnest]

Ah, if I have "that scene" in my head I *have* to do the work of writing the story that leads up to it, because once I've written "that scene" I loste the incentive to write the rest.

Or, quite often, I really don't know what's going to happen until I write it, and I have to write chronologically. Scenes may get added, deleted or reorganised later, but to get the basic story down it has to go in order. (Except 'Shade', which I wrote from end to beginning, but as the story is presented backwards, that's kinda cheating.)

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

It's interesting to hear how other writers work. :D

Re: Well ...

[pensnest]

I'm always impressed/amazed by the ones who plan everything first and then write it. Admittedly, there have been times when I've struggled like mad to finish a story, and having a plan in place would mean that shouldn't happen, but overall it just isn't how I work at all.

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I can't do it either. The closest I come to outlining is:

* when I get lots of scenes skipping around a story and put them in order before connecting the dots

* writing down ideas for future stories in a series

* making a list of topics to cover for an article so I can just go down the subtitles and write them out.

I tried outlining stories for class assignments. I imagine it works much better for authors who make things up. For authors who write things down ... well, my characters ran laughing into the underbrush. I got tired of that, so I stopped setting myself up.

Re: Well ...

[pensnest]

Back when I was writing regular essays at school and university, I used to note down a bunch of things I wanted to include, give them numbers, and that was the shape of the essay. When twenty years later I started having to write essays again for a belated English Lit A-Level, I found it incredibly hard to structure the essays—I had much more to say, but getting it all under control took about six months. Had to do the essays on the computer so that I could shove paragraphs around—but eventually I started writing them out longhand to prepare for the eventual exams.

Stories are easier, in that there is (or ought to be) a logical progression. I think I'd be inclined to write the scenes and then figure out if they needed shuffling!

[frausorge]

hours?

[pensnest]

My longest single story is, I think, either Dragon Country or Wanna Tell Me About It, except Dragon Country has an immediate sequel (which definitely takes the word count way up, but the sequel is more about JC and Chris than about Lance and Adam), and I really want to rewrite and extend the end of Wanna Tell Me About It, because there's more but not really enough for a sequel. Or there are The Chronicles of Lancyn and Ser Chrisfer, which add up to quite a lot of words and which as yet still lack the final two chapters. (It's a sequence of short stories rather than a single long story in chapters, so each bit is complete. I'd call it an 'episodic'.)

[frausorge]

So what I'm getting is that you may still beat your own record. :)

[pensnest]

I truly do mean to write more Chronicles...

[brandywine28]

Wednesday and/or Friday?

[pensnest]

Wednesday: Ahaha. I think I'd have to nominate 'Dragon Country' and its followup, 'Perceptions of Reality'. It was well received, but not by very many people, and as I'm very proud of both stories, this makes me sad. Bring me readers, Universe!

These days - by which I think I mean the last ten years or so - popslash stories don't tend to get many readers, which is fair (I guess), but I'm particularly proud of the quality of Dragon Country.

Although, I realise I'm interpreting 'underrated' as 'under-appreciated'. So it mun be.

[brandywine28]

But then, I'd consider that series under-appreciated no matter how much praise it got. :)

[pensnest]

Awww! *beams*

[pensnest]

Oops, meant to do Friday as well: I really don't know… I mean, to some extent they are all self-indulgent! Possibly The First Step. Or, for very different reasons, The Song of Chris Kirkpatrick and the retelling of The Lava Lamp story in blank verse.

[brandywine28]

That may have been an unfair question, though. You're completely right -- if you're not indulging yourself, why are you even writing this?? What's the point??

[pensnest]

It's funny, though, when you start to notice the self-indulgent bits one way or another. I mean, I didn't write The Scene which inspired The White Room, because the writer/editor in me said it wasn't necessary, even though it would have (probably) made some fannish souls happy.

And have you ever read/listened to Dorothy L Sayers' description of Lord Peter Wimsey playing cricket? I mean, that's fangirling par excellence.

[turps]

I was tempted by the crackfic question, but, May!

[pensnest]

Heh. Well, a couple of my responses to fic_requests prompts weren't really up to standard. I'm thinking particularly of Oops and Ripples, where I was trying to find JoeC but didn't really manage it. Otherwise, probably the Winnie-the-Pooh/Legolas fisting with honey. And the Lava Lamp story in blank verse. Because, well.

Perhaps I should have nominated the gratuitous Joshtin kink pwp, but actually, I'm quite proud of that one. *laughs like Muttley*

[turps]

I'm sorry, but anything that included the Lava Lamp story is instantly amazing. So that can't count at all!

Okay, so I've been looking through your site for the gratuitous Joshtin kink pwp and you should be proud. That's amazing, also slightly scarring, but so in character for a Joshtin.

However, I then saw this

Terri asked for: The one where JC has an intimate relationship with a silver space bull, and how he describes how he got rust on his dick.

Of course I did. Of course. Stuff like this is why I will forever love popslash.

[pensnest]

That was an awesome post, as I recall. That little 'I will attempt to write a snippet of one of them' post generated the gratuitous Joshtin kink pwp, Kevin and Eminem as FBI agents, the intimate relationship with a silver space bull, *and* the story where AJ lays eggs and JC wants to hatch them. Hm, I suppose I only got round to the 'wants to hatch them' part in the sequel.

YAY CRACK!!!