Behind the Curtain

[primsong]

I find it interesting how the different writers I know deal with the creative process of having a work-in-progress. The enjoyment I get out of reading of their writing blocks, travails, agonies over rough draft issues and chapter by chapter "this one is done, now how will I ever manage the other?" posts in some ways make me feel like a hypocrite, for if their writing transparency is such an encouragement to me as I also struggle along, why don't I do the same?

I seem to be one of those who holes up like a hermit and likes to keep the work of art hidden under a cloth until I can do a Great Reveal at the end. Most of it, upon pondering, isn't from secretiveness or perfectionism so much as fear of disappointing people. If I ramble about "maybe X will happen" and someone gets hopeful they will enjoy a read about X and then I decide "Naahhh... doesn't really fit. Z will happen instead," it seems I've let them down. Every tale is so filled with potential cul-de-sacs and abandoned alternate routes and dead-ends, sometimes they transmogrify into something entirely different than I first expected.

Probably has something to do with why I freeze up if someone watches over my shoulder while I'm typing, too.

Are you a 'share every agony of the road' writer, or a 'ta-da! This is why I've been missing for the past two months' writer? Or somewhere in-between? Is your Muse a loner or a socialite?

Comments

[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!

[primsong.livejournal.com]

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.

[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...)