I've been writting a lot of little snippets of characterization/character studies/extra dialogue for my DA Warden and Inquisitor, because it's been my current obsession, but nothing i can show to other people with any amount of pride. Other than that, I keep fiddling with That Thing I Keep Meaning To Write, my ten-years-in-development-hell-and-still-not-actually-titled YA fantasy trilogy. it's about a bunch of young adults living in city-estates built in an effort to recolonize a continent that remained a magical wasteland for five hundred years, and while i have a ton of ideas for setting and characters, it's still lacking in actual plot. which is like, my biggest weakness as a writer ever. i also have a magic-and-science in CYBERSPACE IN SPACE Matrixy idea that i really like, but i don't have much experience writing sci-fi.
Yeah, I struggle with plot too … trying to overcome that by concentrating on what conflicts would arise from things.
I have been kinda sorta trying to plan a novel for a little while. I have a basic end game and idea about the universe, and the character it focuses on is just absolutely my favorite. A lot of people who I have babbled about her with love her. Even my therapist is like "what you've told me would make such an interesting book!" I am just having a hard time articulating a plot that is coherent enough to give the character the needed personality attributes and sort of follows along with what I want.... SIGH. Urban fantasy is so hard to write sometimes.
I hear that! Trying to edit Urban Fantasy NaNo thing right now, and keep procrastinating on it. Wheeee...
haa, ive never talked to my therapist about any of my writing that wasn't college papers frizzing my brain and making me suicidal. i've been in treatment for like, three years and i dont think she knows i write.
I pretty much tell my therapist about everything, she's very helpful about anything bothering me in my life. Heh, and on days when I don't have a whole lot wrong and I have an appointment anyways, we just sorta chat about things I want to do.
Plot's definitely the hardest part about writing. That and pacing. The way I've been working it is to just write whatever comes to mind with the intention of coming back later and smoothing it out. Dunno how well it's gonna work. I've got a tendency to bounce around from scene to scene and story to story, so I imagine it's all pretty tonally inconsistent. It'd probably help to have someone else to talk things over with, but. That'd be embarrassing, yeah?
Alright, blugh. Anyone willing to glance over a little less than 6k words and tell me what I'm doing wrong? I know I've fucked up somehow, but every time I try and narrow down what, it feels like there's a void behind my eyes where my brain should be. Sorry if this isn't what this should be used for.
PM me a link and I can do a basic look over at some point today? Can't promise an all-in edit or anything, but that doesn't sound like what you're asking about. Also, generally, I don't think you should worry too much about talking ideas through with folks if you have the chance. It's an important step in some people's process.
Alright, I'll bite. Here's some of my Homestuck fic. I'm only linking to the stuff I still like, so...yeah. Spoiler: Human Females Sure Are Weird!: A Period Piece Title: Human Females Sure Are Weird! Alternate title: A Period Piece Warnings: Constant menstruation mentions Ships: Mild Sollux<3Aradia, mild Kanaya<3Rose Summary: Jade is on her period, and Dave warns the trolls. Might've been better if he'd given them more accurate information, though... Notes: Written for a prompt thing. This is the first HS fanfic I wrote that I'm still pretty happy with. There's a lot I'd change if I'd written it today, and some of it is a bit OOC, but it still has some scenes I'm proud of. It's also no longer canon-compliant in any way (though it more or less was at the time it was written), but it was written during Act 5 so that's understandable. Also, while it's posted as a four-chapter fic, it's more of a one-shot in practice, so I've linked to a full view thing. Spoiler: >Meteor Crew: Fondly Regard Halloween Title: >Meteor Crew: Fondly Regard Halloween Warnings: Frequent discussion of sexual stuff (nothing explicit though) Ships: Implied Dave<3Terezi, mild Kanaya<3Rose Summary: Dave and Rose teach their troll comrades about the human celebration known as Halloween. Notes: I wrote this for Halloween last year, and I think it's possibly my best fic so far, especially in terms of IC-ness. (In particular, I've been told that my Dave is quite good.) Also, mad props to my mom for helping me with some of the history stuff. Spoiler: Eggnog Title: Eggnog Warnings: Mild references to alcoholism Ships: John<3Roxy, John<>Karkat Summary: John introduces his girlfriend and his moirail to a delicious holiday beverage. Notes: Set in a hypothetical post-game happy ending kinda world. This was a Secret Santa gift--my recipient liked it a lot! It's very much just fluff and cuteness. Spoiler: Selected one-shots from Keep It Short And Sweet These are all part of a collection of unrelated one-shots, which I, for whatever reason, posted as a single fic. Note that the collection is listed as being rated E, because there are some fics in there that are definitely NSFW, but most of it is M at the very most. Title: Trick Or Treat Warnings: None Ships: Sollux<3Aradia Summary: Aradia drags her boyfriend out to go trick-or-treating. Notes: Humanstuck. Just cute fluff about nerds. Title: Overdose Warnings: Suicide (that's the main theme here), mentions of sex and drugs and the like Ships: Past Rufioh<3Damara Summary: Damara decided to end things once and for all. Notes: Humanstuck. Probably a bit OOC and based largely on personal interpretation. Title: First Time Warnings: Explicit sexual content, potentially-underage sex Ships: Sollux<3Aradia Summary: Sollux and Aradia decide to consummate their matespritship. Notes: For all it's NSFW and based entirely around sex, this is actually more fluff than smut. Title: Wants And Needs Warnings: Mentioned charater death, suicidal ideation Ships: Terezi<>Sollux Summary: Terezi contemplates her moirallegiance with Sollux. Notes: Oh hey, this one is actually canon-compliant! Title: The Adventures Of Akwete Purrmusk Warnings: None that I can think of Ships: None Summary: Dave and Nepeta collaborate on a comic about furries. Notes: Pure crack, let's be real here. Title: Coming Out Warnings: Alcohol abuse Ships: Kanaya<3Rose Summary: Rose comes out of the closet. Notes: You can't tell me the main part of this fic never happened okay. Title: Falling Out Warnings: Character death, implied sex Ships: Past Eridan<>Feferi, one-sided Eridan<3Feferi, implied Sollux<3Feferi Summary: Eridan muses about his feelings. Notes: Canon-compliant from what we know. Title: Missing Warnings: Implied character death, mentions of alcoholism Ships: None, more or less Summary: Roxy tries to get ahold of Calliope. Notes: Canon-compliant. I think I did a pretty good Roxy here. Title: Hella Duende Warnings: Implied incestuous feelings Ships: None Summary: Dave gets way too invested in Rose's book. Notes: Post-canon. I had too much fun with this one. Title: Lemon-Stealing Whores Warnings: Explicit sexual content, dubious consent Ships: Jade<3<Vriska Summary: Vriska is a whore who steals Jade's lemons. Jade does not approve. Notes: This is based on an actual porno. No, really. And yes, this is a crack fic to the extreme. Title: Art School Blues Warnings: None Ships: Kanaya<3Vriska Summary: Kanaya tries to recruit her roommate-slash-girlfriend for a school project. Notes: Humanstuck. I went to art school for a while so I hope I managed to portray the soul-crushing horror accurately. Title: Fine Warnings: Abusive relationships, character death, substance abuse, attempted suicide, mild sexual content Ships: Gamzee<3<Terezi, past Dave<3Terezi, possible Terezi<3Vriska Summary: Terezi thinks about what she had to do. Notes: Probably canon-compliant. Also, dark as hell. You have been warned. Title: For The Bible Tells Me So Warnings: Implied sexual content, homophobia Ships: Implied Dave<3Jade Summary: Bro is a Bible-thumper, and he has some advice for Dave. Notes: Total crack. Intentionally OOC Bro, but hopefully Dave is fairly IC. So uh yeah, enjoy! :D
My brain kicked me in the inspiration for my original work for the first time in months today, maybe I'll actually go back to it... #but first I'll probably windup rereading daemorphing again #it's a lay in bed with fanfiction kind of day
I am honestly so frustrated because my brain refuses to work in any way that helps me develop the plot and universe for my original story. I have a great character but I can't shove her in where I want her!
Feel like going into more detail? Might help to talk it out. Then again, you did mention telling your therapist and friends and junk about it, so maybe not.
Well the problem is I don't even know where to start, or what exactly I want to do. It's kind of frustrating. Everyone loves the character and I kinda have to form fit her because ex-roleplay character but just. Augh. Frustration. Every idea I have kinda slips through my fingers like sand.
I've felt that way before, and it always helps me to just say 'fuck it' and write it down stream of consciousness-like. Don't pay attention to constancy or whatever, just word vom all over a doc and come back to it later. Seeing it all out there in writing helps give me an idea of what will work and what will not. Also what I actually want to do with it, and what just sounds good in my head. If it helps, the process itself always feels super frustrating and futile, like no matter what you're doing it's wrong, but just getting it off your chest might help.
I've found the rambling mess of a story I wrote for the 2009 NaNoWriMo, and while it's a long way from anything worth publishing, I find that it seems fresh and alive and it deserves some love and a decent rewrite and fleshing out. I particularly found myself liking this passage, An Elevated Ride, so I stuck it up on Tumblr ... it's kinda dieselpunk fantasy with F/F romance.
I've drabbled in original fic for a long time... My first fanfics were of Bionicle (heh), when I was 12-15 ish. Then that tapered off, I RPed for a while through high school, and then I started writing Mass Effect fanfic in university. I'm Istie on FFN and AO3 if anyone wants to look me up (on mobile rn so linking is a pain). I stopped writing original fic in high school/uni as I was struggling significantly with depression, and most of my non-fic writing was journaling to stop feeling so damn empty. I've got a few original ideas bouncing around my head (oh! I just remembered the trilogy I planned out in high school. I should rework that - it involved a century-old conspiracy to train one young impressionable person per generation inyo the smartest and wisest one on earth, who then advised all world leaders...and then the latest one says no thanks to all of that. It had liberal amounts of the Bourne series feel in it...), but most are in world-building stage. I have one fantasy universe that's near plot creation point, and a brand new one that I made to test out my DMing skills on my unsuspecting siblings. >:D
The one I'm DMing is really fun and kinda silly. I got my siblings to brainstorm me some ideas. There are a bunch of humanoid races - mantises, spiders, butterflies, cats, birds, fae, naiads, dryads, diurnal and nocturnal child people, and plant people. They live on four continents, and as a result of a recent war, there are two major nations, each spanning a hemisphere. One is very democratic, the other very dictatorial. Magic is commonplace (everyone has an innate ability to manipulate atomic forces; this can be trained), and technology and science, while at modern levels, is entirely clockwork/magic-based. Every race's creation myth involves unknowable beings molding the universe: these beings are much like horrorterrors, influencing from afar and not much caring on the whole. Society went from a largely animistic belief system (resulting in strong environmentalist and conservationist values) to a paganistic system (what with the innate world-manipulation) to mainly atheism (as magic has been increasingly understood in scientific terms). There has never been a central religious figure of any kind...until about three centuries ago, when someone stumbled out of the most dangerous forest on the planet, proclaiming the gospel of the beings beyond the veil. This person has since created a small country beyond said forest. Shit's about to go down when my siblings will start their campaign. also, dragons are the size of hummingbirds, except for one huge one, which is called the Jabberwocky. universe two: centaurs, naiads/dryads, merpeople, humans, elves, dwarf-goblins. Merpeople are sole users of magic and currently control all the other races; there was a catastrophic global event that threatened to make all the other races go extinct via the sea level rising, and the merpeople held it back. This event is also believed to have caused the disappearance of the elves and the dwarves. The humans, split between the mountain folk and the desert folk, live peacable lives as farmers and artisans. The centaurs hunt the plains. The dryads avoid everyone if they can, and the merpeople think they know what the naiads want all the time. Political strife go! I haven't found a story in universe 2 yet. It's very ASOIAF inspired, so I'm fairly certain it will involve political discourse and probably war, as well as the threat that everyone's forgotten about suddenly getting really really important. EDIT: both universes have fairly detailed explorations of gender, sexuality, cultural traditions, and religion/belief systems. If I got into everything in universe 2 right now I think my thumbs would fall off!
i'm writing the scenes i want to write, but it bothers me so much that i don't have a plot planned out so i dont know where things are going. and the plot i do have doesn't make me as excited as my characters do, so it's really a bit of a fiasco.
