Craig <fanfic@magister.apana.org.au> wrote:
After becoming stalled time and again with all four (now including DC)
writing projects on which I'm currently working, I've come to the conclusion
that for me at least, trying to write and edit simultaneously or abandoning
something for more than a week with the intention of getting back to it is
almost a certain formula either for complete failure or the work progressing
at a snail's pace.
But sometimes it helps to drop the story for a bit and come back to it
fresh. Lessens story burn-out, although it *does* tend to increase
story-incompletitis
<snip>
I
mention this only because I've noticed what I sense might be the same tendency
with some others (at least concerning 'fics posted to the RAAC archive and not
withstanding the current hiatus) although perhaps for very different reasons,
I.E. someone begins what looks to be an excellent idea, writes a (sometimes)
huge chunk of story, posts it and then seems to give up. Several examples
come to mind; `Prisoner Of War' (BGC),
Believe it or not, I have it direct from the author that this one is
finished (and I got that word about a week after the completed version of it
hit RAAS). She has no current intention of going back to it, although she
hasn't totally ruled out the possiblity. That's why it's titled the way it is.
<snip>
Still others; E.G. `We Just Want to Help You' (BGC) start with
the promise of a fascinating tale and then simply stop. Whether this is
usually a symptom of taking too long initially to do too little, an attack of
anxiety concerning how the story will be accepted, indefinite procrastination,
authorial intent or a lack of C&C I've no idea.
Good Lord, I have *got* to add a prelude to this thing, since very few
people seem to get it. I can speak with great authority about "Help You"
since I wrote it.
There was never any intention to go any further. That's the end of the
story. It's a parody (and obviously not a very good one) of insertion fics.
The person got zapped to MegaTokyo, finds the KS in about 30 seconds flat
(why can't Genom manage to do that? everybody else seems to), and, having an
engineering background (option2 is having a computer background) asks Sylia
to join up. [This happens in *way* to many BGC 'fics anymore. (Bubblegum
Zone 1 set me off on the subject).]
Problem *is*, the person got zapped to MegaTokyo in the WRONG UNIVERSE --
there *aren't* any Knight Sabers in that universe, no Genom, no Boomers...
Sylia only knows Linna because Linna works for her at the Silky Doll outlet
she manages. Sylia doesn't know Nene, but the owner of the Silky Doll
chain, Irene Chang, *does* know Nene... as a shrink. None of them know
Priss at all, except as a Mariah Carey-esque up-and-coming singer being
considered to open for Vision.
The person who got zapped to the wrong universe's MT gets hauled off to the
looney bin for ranting and raving about Knight Sabers, Genom, Boomers, Irene
being dead, etc etc etc. End of Story. (and the end of the story *does*
say 'the end' = 'owari') I guess I need to add a subtitle "Boy, Did *I* Get
the Wrong Alternate Universe"
<snip>
I can only say that it can be
*unbelievably* infuriating to read a 300K fanfic only to discover that there
is no end in sight and the last update was in late 1994.
I hate that too. I really think it's a good idea for people to finish their
stories before they post them. The other story I wrote, "True Love" (BGC),
I was all set to send it off to RAAS, until one of my pre-readers verbally
beat me about the head and shoulders until I agreed to take it back for
re-writes. I ended up re-writing almost the entire last 1/3 of the story,
add a few scenes here and there in the rest, totally scrapped the ending...
and I'm *much* more happy with the redone version than the initial one.
My point is, if I'd been sending the story in pieces to RAAS before it was
finished I wouldn't have *been* able to make all those changes because it
would have been too late. And if I'd ultimately decided to abandon the
project, I would have embarrassed myself for having an incomplete and
abandoned fic out on the net.
<snip>
Whew! All that turned out longer than I'd intended. I'm not really
certain why I started this, save that I'm dead tired, in a quandary about how
to end DC Ch-3,
OK, you're stuck. Can you move on to Ch-4 without finishing Ch-3? If so,
do it. You can always go back and finish Chapter 3 later, and maybe you'll
have better ideas then. Another trick - write the story backwards. No, not
the ending at the top of the fic, but write from the ending backwards to the
beginning. I read an interview once with a SF writer (whose name escapes me
right now) who says he has to have a starting point and and ending point or
he can't write. So he writes the beginning, then he writes the ending, then
he works backward to the beginning again...
So if your stuck, try something different. There's no *one* way to write,
and maybe something new will shake you loose.
furious at my own past procrastinations (which have probably
cost me the chance to publish my own work years ago), interested in what
others have to say and *really* disappointed that I'll probably never see more
of some of the 'fics mentioned above.
Well, you won't of "Help You" ; )
IMO they really shouldn't be consigned
to the `might have beens' - they deserve far better than that.
Craig(who will finish DC and find it a decent name if it kills him :) )
PS. On a totally unrelated note; how do you avoid the [FFML] in the
Subject:? I noticed that some posts don't have it and am curious about that
too (Gods, I must be tired! :-) )
It's supposed to be automaticly added by the system so people can easily
identify mail from this list.
Jeanne Hedge
jhedge@waterw.com ==================== 75512.1214@compuserve.com
"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea
of any man I ever met." - Abraham Lincoln
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