I can’t stop the researching for my NaNo fic even though I know I should be getting back to Path. I worked out the precise timeline and the sequel covers two freaking years. From whirlwind fling to actual relationship building, all because I wanted my OTP to bone.
For the sake of fic, I just designed a freaking apartment building.
I needed a solid floor plan so any descriptions wouldn’t accidentally contradict each other, and nothing I found online was just right. Too big, or too complicated or the windows on the wrong side. So I spent the better part of two afternoons worth of ‘fic time’ fiddling with layouts and googling bed and couch sizes to see what would fit. And I accidentally designed the whole damn building, because it’s just a repeating pattern of the same floor plan, and it’s perfect. For fic, anyway, no idea if it would meet any real life construction codes. Good thing this is a fantasy world.
I’ve been looking at old notes and outlines and I figure I was about two-thirds done with Path when I stopped. The stopping wasn’t even intentional, I just couldn’t gather the right mood and energy for the upcoming part of the story while I was in med school and ended up writing The Mission instead.
I’m still a bit surprised at the extended plot my subconscious cooked up while my back was turned, so maybe the break was for the best, but now the fight is to write with speed. Which, given NaNo, I know I can do. But I’ve got to do proper editing now, not the scant spelling-and-grammar check I did before when I labored over every word and had each sentence in final form from the start. Great way to write an essay for examinations, not suitable for long stories. It’s taken me way too long to figure that out. But the editing, oh, the editing, I’ve got a day job and other obligations, and the editing stretches before me like a road going ever on and on.
I’m finding duplicate scenes in my two NaNo drafts, things to merge or delete depending on which version works better. I have another NaNo’s worth of interspersed scenes still to be written. There are useless details to be left out, useful or fun details to be put in, sequences of events to rearrange and tighten up, this nuance and that subplot and that other far off hint to weave into the narrative in an understated fashion. And that’s just the sequel, not even Path itself, since I’m treating the original fic like an extended draft to build on.
I’m walking the line between excited and terrified. Let’s see where I am in a year.
past me: canon is sacred I must carefully fact-check everything to make sure it is canon-compliant
present me: canon is a box of scraps in a cave I’m gonna tear that shit apart throw away 90% of it and out of the good bits build something absolutely beautiful and amazing
Coming off writing rest mode after NaNo but not up to epic length brain levels yet. Short options are a Turk fic, a Wutai fic or something Marriageverse. I’m in the mood for laughs
I ended up integrating my two NaNo documents instead and taking stock of what scenes are left to complete the story. Long fic is long, word count already well over 100k. Also rough draft quality in need of much refining, but a framework to build on is easier than doing it all from scratch. Took a look at this fic and my life and what needs to be done.
New goals:
1. Finish the Path rewrite in 2018.
2. Finish the sequel next NaNo.
3. Prequel in 2019
4. Wrap it all up by 2020.
Ambitious perhaps, but so much of my life has been slow rpg-style grinding in pursuit of a far off goal. Gotta have a plan.
I forgot that thing about rough drafts. ‘Just sit down and write it’ is a great approach for getting them done, but to polish the things up you actually have to do all the work that gets skipped over in the writing. Now I have to go do the background research to fill in the places where I have things like [insert medieval pheasant recipe here], and settle on names for characters who ended up with two or three placeholder names each because I couldn’t remember later down what their first placeholder name was. It’s editing of the Stop, Think and Read About It kind. It doesn’t feel like writing. It doesn’t feel like progress. But it is necessary.
Coming off writing rest mode after NaNo but not up to epic length brain levels yet. Short options are a Turk fic, a Wutai fic or something Marriageverse. I’m in the mood for laughs
I ended up integrating my two NaNo documents instead and taking stock of what scenes are left to complete the story. Long fic is long, word count already well over 100k. Also rough draft quality in need of much refining, but a framework to build on is easier than doing it all from scratch. Took a look at this fic and my life and what needs to be done.
New goals:
1. Finish the Path rewrite in 2018.
2. Finish the sequel next NaNo.
3. Prequel in 2019
4. Wrap it all up by 2020.
Ambitious perhaps, but so much of my life has been slow rpg-style grinding in pursuit of a far off goal. Gotta have a plan.
Coming off writing rest mode after NaNo but not up to epic length brain levels yet. Short options are a Turk fic, a Wutai fic or something Marriageverse. I’m in the mood for laughs
It’s been big switch for me to try writing or rewriting whole multichapter fics before posting a single word. So far I like being able to go back and smooth things out at will, change details or add some in, tweak the foreshadowing as much as I please, and incorporate ideas that come late in the game. But I miss the excitement of uploading and the gleeful shrieking with readers who are as excited as I am, and also being able to discuss things with people as I go. Spoilers for one. Also being that insufferable ass of an aspiring author who can only talk about their upcoming novel when it’s been weeks and they ain’t wrote shit.
Did it. 50227 words and still so many more to go. But I can wait here a bit. There is other work to be done.
And here’s my graph, pretty cyclic pattern of push-and-plateau.
In that last big push the fic grew not necessarily new subplots but a couple new threads in the weave, things that might add depth and flavor and interest. Sometimes I love this story so much I could eat it.
Whatever you think of your fic I am still chomping at the bit to read
it, man!! There needs to be all sorts of stories out there – political,
domestic, angst, fluff – and there will always be a place and an
audience for what you write!! ❤ Also I am pretty sure you’ve evolved
a ton as a writer, too, so the changes are bound to be interesting + to
tighten up your original fic. 😀
There’s only so much domestic fluff and angst I’d expect people to stand tbh, even hungry as we can be for our rarepair OTP. I know I better just write it all now and get it done before another decade goes by and I hate my writing again but I’m not certain the changes will prove interesting in their own right or just a different kind of maudlin. And it doesn’t look like anything is being ‘tightened up’. Of course all this might just be the mid-NaNo slump, or the lingering effects of a Really Bad Day last week. I’m sure I’ll perk up and be back to writing because I love it no matter who else does once I cross a couple other hurdles that are looming.
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