Writing Process Meme by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dmitchell1985
Aug. 18th, 2006 01:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tj_roweI'm supposed to be listing ten facts about my writing process, and then tagging ten of you, so, um... Here we go!
10. My best plotbunnies have been for pairings that I hate. I shudder at the thought of, say, Beast Boy/Terra or Katnappé/Kimiko, and am eventually asked to defend my veiw. A qualifier is used, I say that there may be an instance where I would like it, and suddenly the plotbunny won't get out of my head.
I still hold that YinYang: How it could have been was my best Teen Titans fic, even if it does have emoangst!Raven and A Single Tear. XD 'The Other Dream Stalker' is a work in progress that's mostly smut, so I can't really comment on that one. ^_~
9. I write at least a page and a half of A4 of the next chapter before posting the last. back when I was still writing Herbal Tea, I eventually got so far ahead of myself that I was hating the chapter I was typing because the 'current' one was so much better. Steep learning curve, with that fic.
8. The page+half used to be three notebook pages, but now it tends to be a page and a half on OO, or 'until I'm scrolling a fair bit' on Wordpad. Laptops make insta-fic easier - unless it's smut, in which case it goes into the notebook and stays there. You have no idea how many times I've re-written the first Rai/Jack smut scene of 4. Xiaolin Past, or jumped into the middle of 'Mala Mala'.
7. I can't write anything good before 2130. I can sit at the laptop and type from about 0100, or notebook-write lying in bed from when it's properly dark. Any other time? I may note down a plotbunny or odd line, but I shan't do any writing. Most writing occures right after I have switched out the lights - the plotbunny always picks that moment to strike.
6. The Fortnight Rule. With one-shots especially, I try to sit on fic for a fortnight before going through and proofreading it. This usually fails, as I am way too impatient - that or works too well, as evidenced by 'Don't Say It', which was sat on for about a year. This often ties into point 8.
5. I stick a mechanical pencil in my hand and I am in Maths Mode; I stick a blue ballpoint in my hand and I am in fic-plotting mode. It's awesome - unless I've lost my pencil and am trying to do lessons in ficwriting mode.
4. When I want to write m/m smut onto the screen, I listen to Rammstein. When I want to write girlslash of any stripe, I listen to Seth Lakeman.
3. The proof-reading process consists of changing 'she's to 'he's (I don't know where the extra 's' comes from - and it's always in reference to Jack Spicer, too), 'g's to 'd's and vv, 'they's to 'the's and 'the's to whatever they were supposed to be, making characters more kickarse (a recent addition) and inserting subtext.
2. Plotfics come to me gradually - if I write down odd scenes when they come, they eventually form a picture that I can manipulate. Plotty scenes with dramatics generally take care of the manipulation for me. XD
1. An Author is a god to characters who don't believe in gods. Remembering that I can use deus ex mechena in moderation is helpful - there are such things are external forces, and a lot of the time characters are not in a Closed Circle, no matter how fanficcers tend to think of them being in one.
That's what I think about it, anyway. *shrug*
I would tag, but my brain is dead, I need sleep, and would need to look at my flist to make sure these people have me friended. Cuz, y'know, it defies the point of tagging if they never see the post.
As a start:
1.muniyeka, because I actually want to know. ^_~
10. My best plotbunnies have been for pairings that I hate. I shudder at the thought of, say, Beast Boy/Terra or Katnappé/Kimiko, and am eventually asked to defend my veiw. A qualifier is used, I say that there may be an instance where I would like it, and suddenly the plotbunny won't get out of my head.
I still hold that YinYang: How it could have been was my best Teen Titans fic, even if it does have emoangst!Raven and A Single Tear. XD 'The Other Dream Stalker' is a work in progress that's mostly smut, so I can't really comment on that one. ^_~
9. I write at least a page and a half of A4 of the next chapter before posting the last. back when I was still writing Herbal Tea, I eventually got so far ahead of myself that I was hating the chapter I was typing because the 'current' one was so much better. Steep learning curve, with that fic.
8. The page+half used to be three notebook pages, but now it tends to be a page and a half on OO, or 'until I'm scrolling a fair bit' on Wordpad. Laptops make insta-fic easier - unless it's smut, in which case it goes into the notebook and stays there. You have no idea how many times I've re-written the first Rai/Jack smut scene of 4. Xiaolin Past, or jumped into the middle of 'Mala Mala'.
7. I can't write anything good before 2130. I can sit at the laptop and type from about 0100, or notebook-write lying in bed from when it's properly dark. Any other time? I may note down a plotbunny or odd line, but I shan't do any writing. Most writing occures right after I have switched out the lights - the plotbunny always picks that moment to strike.
6. The Fortnight Rule. With one-shots especially, I try to sit on fic for a fortnight before going through and proofreading it. This usually fails, as I am way too impatient - that or works too well, as evidenced by 'Don't Say It', which was sat on for about a year. This often ties into point 8.
5. I stick a mechanical pencil in my hand and I am in Maths Mode; I stick a blue ballpoint in my hand and I am in fic-plotting mode. It's awesome - unless I've lost my pencil and am trying to do lessons in ficwriting mode.
4. When I want to write m/m smut onto the screen, I listen to Rammstein. When I want to write girlslash of any stripe, I listen to Seth Lakeman.
3. The proof-reading process consists of changing 'she's to 'he's (I don't know where the extra 's' comes from - and it's always in reference to Jack Spicer, too), 'g's to 'd's and vv, 'they's to 'the's and 'the's to whatever they were supposed to be, making characters more kickarse (a recent addition) and inserting subtext.
2. Plotfics come to me gradually - if I write down odd scenes when they come, they eventually form a picture that I can manipulate. Plotty scenes with dramatics generally take care of the manipulation for me. XD
1. An Author is a god to characters who don't believe in gods. Remembering that I can use deus ex mechena in moderation is helpful - there are such things are external forces, and a lot of the time characters are not in a Closed Circle, no matter how fanficcers tend to think of them being in one.
That's what I think about it, anyway. *shrug*
I would tag, but my brain is dead, I need sleep, and would need to look at my flist to make sure these people have me friended. Cuz, y'know, it defies the point of tagging if they never see the post.
As a start:
1.
muniyeka, because I actually want to know. ^_~
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-24 01:45 am (UTC)I am the same way about pens only being used to write. It's a habit that was programmed into from my school days. I hate writing fiction by hand with anything other than a proper ink pen.
That part about "she's" always being connected to Jack made me laugh. Freudian Slip, I say.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-24 02:09 am (UTC)Heh, I only started using pens at age 9 - and ball points last year. Up 'till then it was just pencil and then Fountain (cartridge) Pen. XD
no subject
Date: 2006-08-24 06:37 pm (UTC)Ahh. It was taught to us in school from a very young age. You needed a pencil to Math, and Math only. All other classroom works, ESPECIALLY English had to be in standard blue or black ink. That habit is still with me today. *sighs*
no subject
Date: 2006-08-24 09:08 pm (UTC)... Which meant I had to have catch-up lessons when I moved into independant schooling, but that's another story. -_-;;
no subject
Date: 2006-08-25 06:50 pm (UTC)Ahh. I thought that everyone went through that process. It was really common in the schools I went to.
Interesting. Catch up lessons can be a pain when you're trying to cram everything in at once/quickly.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-25 08:02 pm (UTC)..Yeah, my first school was crap. Maths, chess and local-ness was about all it was good for.
The one I moved to was fairly good, though - and that one had the pen rule too, now that I think.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-29 12:40 am (UTC)Ah, well I am glad that your later schools were better about teaching you proper lessons to help prepare you for life after school.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 12:27 pm (UTC)We never had worship in the State School I was at (yay for breaking stupid laws!), so there was no reason for me to know it until I went to the Woodard - even if my best friends were a Vicar's daughter and a Jehova's Witness, and the only book I actually owned was an illustrated Bible. XD
The first school was better for the silly little things - Origami books, watercolours, planting trees - even if it did skimp on writing and geography. When we got to secondary school, most of the independant school students had no clue.
And now I'm reminiscing when I should be coding. Damn. XD
no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 12:08 am (UTC)Ahh. I see. It was taught to me in the home and at the churchs my family made me go to. So many people say the Loird's Prayer here, that it doesn't matter that prayer is not required in schools. I would be pissed if it were, to be truthful.
OHHH!!! That first school sounds like quite a bit of fun. I wonder if they'll let me swing by to paint trees and such.
Pfft. Forgot that old coding. It's much more fun to waste time on LJ with me. = D
Speaking of LJ roaming, I tried to email you to let you know that I put your down as my HP Slash Not Smut contact, but the email came back to me. Is it okay that I put you down as my contact? If not, I think that I might be able to find someone else to fill that space.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 08:28 pm (UTC)Sure, I'll be your contact. Make sure that it's tamerterra at vodafone dot net as the email address, though - I doubt if I'll be able to access my profile email address once term starts.
Good luck! ^_^
no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-03 06:02 pm (UTC)Yeah, there was another challenge. I only barely managed to sign up before the cut off date. I've got my assignment, and it looks like it going to be, urhm, a real credit to the name of "challenge."