Garden of Thought

In that case, it sounds like it definitely fits your style - I have a difficult time in the push-pull between being accomodating and changing what I *really* want to do just to please someone else - I'm a terrible people-pleaser, but then sometimes resent it later. On the other hand, more Sam is always a good thing, isn't it? Who could complain about that?

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everloyal.livejournal.com

My muse is an overbearing director who can never get the actors to listen to him. He'll state loudly what story he's working on and tell everyone about how wonderful the end production will be, but when it comes down to it, he's usually left standing with nothing but a script in his hand and an audience waiting for a show that will never happen.

Kind of tragic, really. :D

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I think that's my big fear - that I'll have an audience waiting for a nonexistent or uncooperative show. Sounds like your muse would be a great partner for someone who needs more of that 'director' added in. ;-)

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dbskyler.livejournal.com

I'm a "share the agony" writer -- I do post about my writing travails, and I would post more except for a worry that going on and on too much about WIPs is boring, especially when I don't have much to say other than "yep, still having trouble." I also think there's a line between "let's talk about how hard it is to write something" and "let's talk about my story that I'm currently writing-- MY STORY -- aren't you all just incredibly interested in every single detail about MY STORY????" which I try very hard not to cross. So, I try to limit myself to brief updates except for when I feel I have something actually interesting to say about my writing process.

On the other hand, I don't think you're a hypocrite at all for enjoying those posts without doing them in return. When I do post about a WIP, it's for very selfish reasons -- because it helps me to articulate the issues I'm having, or because I want to get out a frustration, or because if I publicly proclaim that I'm going to work on something, I'm more likely to actually do it. If your writing process is more private, there's nothing wrong with that.

Of course, if you really do want to share, you can always do like I do with my "first draft" posts and give us a retrospective on the writing process after the story is finished. That might feel uncomfortable to you too, but if it doesn't, I for one would love to see that for one of your stories. : )

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I love the sharing the agony posts - they so often seem to verbalize what I myself am feeling but not saying. It's encouraging to know others struggle along through the same sorts of potholes and sticking points and talkative characters suddenly going mute. I get the worry about being a bore too - though I thankfully have a family that lets me bounce weird ideas off of them to help with such moments so I guess I do have an outlet of sorts.

I like the idea of the 'retrospective' - I'll have to consider it. I'm up to my ears in a half-done tale now, so it may be a prime candidate.

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I also think there's a line between "let's talk about how hard it is to write something" and "let's talk about my story that I'm currently writing-- MY STORY -- aren't you all just incredibly interested in every single detail about MY STORY????" which I try very hard not to cross.

Oh, dear, you made me giggle hard, cos you capture that story-obsessed feeling very well. ("What, I posted it and the world didn't change? And nobody even read it?" :lol:) I hope I@ve never crossed the line, too, but you summed it up so well there!

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I agree! Writing can be so obsessive and consuming, especially if you're near to finishing something, it seems everyone should be lining up to buy tickets to get to read it first... I've probably stuck my toe over that line myself in the past, though I try not to. :-D

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This is, of course, also true. It's why I try to restrain myself from thrusting my stories under people's noses at the slightest provocation. I don't always succeed, mind...

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I'm somewhere in between. I will post bits of WIPs in response to memes and say "I have these fics in the pipeline" but I usually only make comments when I'm done.

Except the

tardis_gen one where I was dying to ask someone for advice about the Arthurian story (and get them to admire my name for the Master, and couldn't, because it was all secret.)

But someone looking over your shoulder? *shudders* Sometimes it's bad enough when there's someone in the room, or even the house...

I like reading people's posts though. And mostly I don't do the same, but then sometimes I do. And by the time I'm posting parts of / mentioning a fic, it's outline is pretty much fixed (ish). Except when it isn't. :lol:

And I'll talk about my 1980s UNIT folk to anyone who will listen, at the moment. ;-D (I probably owe

jjpor an apology for how much that is true.)

I don't think I'd mind at all if you posted progress and changed your mind. I find the process interesting in itself. What has to go and why, and how X was originally going to be Y. But if you work as a hermit, then work as a hermit. As long as we do, from time to time, get some more of your wonderful fics and sparklingly pointed drabbles.

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I think your bits and snatches of 'editing room floor' endings are partly to blame for this even coming up - I've enjoyed seeing the alternative ideas and where they led, though most of my 'cuts' are simply deleted or get no farther than barely readable scribbles in a notebook, you make me consider keeping them about. It's a bit like playing with the leftover cookie dough after the cookies are in the oven.

I never seem to have a fixed outline, I used to think I could but now I'm resigned to the fact they change and flex and grow and shoot off ninety degrees to the right without warning. I started a short story about a stormy day and now I'm seven chapters into it and it's exceedingly changed from what it started off as... which makes me grateful I didn't post something about "I'm writing a story about THIS" because now it isn't that at all.

(though I may tap you for a beta whenever it's done, if you have time)

By all means, do keep talking about UNIT - most enjoyable to see what you've done with them and how they cope in a Doctorless environment.

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This is a one off - my bits I didn't write are indeed, usually scribbles and left out for a reason. Because I never intended a) that Tilly should exist in any way shape or form, or that Nat should survive his first story or b) to write a sequel, and then found that I could hardly not, I just ended up with all these random scenes. Some naturally became the following two stories, one way or another, but some didn't fit, but the whole thing in my head is this big, untidy UNIT 1980s novel and the missing bits niggle at me - some of them are very much underlying what happened in Stardust.

When I say I have an outline, I mean, I've written up enough longhand (and typed it up beyond the first chapter) and am confident enough that I know where it's going and that I'm not going to have to abandon it other than temporarily. Sometimes it still stats growing and then I wish I had kept a lid on it (Between Times is the worst one, and then Stardust). Looking at John's comments below, I know what he means about murder mysteries, as I did a spoof Agatha Christie with Harry Sullivan as narrator and I didn't post any of that until I had the penultimate chapter written for the same reason.

So my fics do go off at odd angles, too, but I'm beyond that point by the time I risk posting - although sometimes I still regret my haste!! I'm just never that restrained and the serial aspect can be quite fun, too & I can incorprate good suggestions from people.

I'm very intrigued by the sound of your fic - and glad you do have something on its way. (And if you need a beta, just give me a shout. I'll admire your descritive passage and Britpick like nobody's business!! ;-D)

Thank you. I haven't quite done with them yet, but nearly now.

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You're my Official Britpicker, a high and honourable office. And it's become a Three and Brig seaside dish with a tossed Silurian salad on the side, so it's a fun ride.

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Cool! It sounds very intriguing. :-) Do I get a badge? :lol:

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curuchamion.livejournal.com

Loner. Definitely. Partly because, if I say something's going to happen, I then wind up doing a complete rethink; partly because I worry about boring people to death analyzing my own writing process (which I do a frightful lot of in my head, but manage not to post).

Also, I write such short pieces (so far), there's not really much "process" to share. And I'm a perfectionist, so having someone waiting eagerly for a specific piece makes me nervous. (OTOH, having a flist who are interested in my writing in general has been the best thing that's ever happened to me as a writer so far.)

I'd love to hear about how you come up with some of your stuff, though!

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First, I love your icon!

I sometimes feel my process more closely resembles a pachinko machine than anything else. My outlines are in fragments and sort of grow together into a story as I fill in the gaps with vignettes, which are then occasionally uprooted and plonked into an entirely different part of the tale.

I completely agree about the flist - that and finding other writers online in places like Death by Aspirin have been a huge encouragement to continue. I started off with poetry, it was nerve-wracking to try a story for the first time, but now I've been going along for some ten years between Tolkien and Who, what a lot of words that is.

How do I come up with stuff? I have no idea! The weirdest things will sometimes germinate a tale... a recent little fic I did for Ian and Barbara, "Blue Moon" started from a ridiculous little alien icon - for some reason I could just see the reaction if it were looking over Ian's shoulder. My mind tends to run a touch 'outside the box' at times.

Et tu?

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curuchamion.livejournal.com

First, I love your icon!

Thanks!

(What's a pachinko machine?)

My writing process... basically I get an idea, I let it percolate for a while, then I sit down and write it. There's seldom an outline - at most, a mental image or set of images that I know I'm aiming for. "Plot points", kind of. Once it's written, I generally do at least six rewrites, mostly minor word changes and such.

When I get blocked, I often change media - copy a typed story out by hand or type up a new copy of a handwritten one - to get back into the headspace. Or write a drabble on a totally different theme to give myself a break.

As for where I get my ideas, I've no more notion than you. They just pop into my head - images, feelings, even Elvish poetry or an inability to sleep can inspire a story. My latest piece, the Sapphire & Steel drabble "Insensitive", was inspired by a random phrase I said to myself while novelizing the show in my head (like I do).

Sort of wildly tangential: I've been wanting to thank you for introducing me to Three with "Snowbound". He literally saved my sanity during the mess that spawned "Liberation" (and more recently "Point of View"), so I owe you. Thanks!

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I haven't seen "Point of View" - where is it published? Or is it still in process? I loved your Liberation piece - and thank you for your kind words on "Snowbound", I'm not a big shipper, but Three and Jo are just too cute to pass up.

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curuchamion.livejournal.com

"Point of View" is only posted on my LJ yet, because I can't decide what fandom to list it under on FFnet. It's definitely not Who - it seems to be Man From UNCLE in the details, unless it turns out to be a fandom I haven't yet discovered (that happens to me sometimes, it's weird) - but really it's kind of a "varied applicability" thing.

I'm glad you liked "Liberation" so much!

(Not to sound fishing-for-comments or anything, but I've just put up another Who piece, "One More Time", on my journal and I think you'd find it funny...)

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estellye.livejournal.com

TaDa, all the way, lol. I sometimes write about the trevails after the fact, though. I enjoy reading about other's writing journeys, too. Definitely!

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Perhaps I should start small by writing the 'debriefing' phase if I ever want to inch into sharing a bit more. On the other hand, there's a certain fun in getting to do a big "Voila!" when something is completed.

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I'm secretive by nature, and moreover tend to bear in mind something one of my schoolteachers told me, that you shouldn't make promises unless you're sure you can keep them. What that means when I'm writing fic is that I don't post part 1 until I've got all the parts at least drafted, and I don't tell anyone what I'm doing until part 1 gets posted.

This has led to at least one situation where I've posted fic over a year after the original comment that inspired it :-)

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Bingo - I think you hit the nail on the head, keeping promises - that really resonates. I don't want to promise anything that I'm not sure I can keep, it's definitely a factor. I've done the 'post it as I write it' thing in the past and found the pressure from the 'waiting audience' was difficult as well as the wishing I could go back and change something that had already been put out for public consumption. Now I do as you said - write it all ahead and then post it in sections.

I like your writing, so I'm glad you're going ahead with it, no matter how it gets done.

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Going back and wanting to change something is another very good reason to sit on everything, particularly if (like my current Zoë story) it's a mystery and you need to make sure the clues in earlier parts match up with the witnesses' accounts in later parts and the explanation at the end. That's one of the things that impresses me about Wilkie Collins: not only did he write The Moonstone, but he wrote and published it as a serial, so he couldn't go back and change the early bits, and it still all dovetails together beautifully (though I suppose he could have revised it when it was published as a book).

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This has led to at least one situation where I've posted fic over a year after the original comment that inspired it :-)

Oh, and what would that be? :lol:

I always admire your restraint. I get everything roughed out, two or three chapters typed up and then start posting. (But I know what you mean about it being like a promise to finish once you have - I feel that, too).

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Oh, and what would that be?

I haven't the least idea :-)

But I know what you mean about it being like a promise to finish once you have

Now I've written and (at least partly) posted three of my original four hostages to fortune, the fourth one — the TTR murder mystery evening — still nags at me.

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Hey, looky! A mystery! I'll have to add this to my pile of things to read this next month. Looks fun. :-)

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TTR Murder mystery evening? Well that sounds cool.

And I still have the one with the stolen elephant and the last Fitz story. I've been useless at TTR stuff lately.

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