Writing woes

[ratherastory]

Dear Self,

I thought we had learned our lesson after the last writing disaster? No matter how cool a fic exchange looks, we do not want to sign up. Lacking control over the prompts we get is BAD, and leads to boring fiction.

So STOP IT. Do not go and poke at the sign-up post. Besides, you already have a ton of things you want/have to write.

No love,

Me

*

I obviously need a Chuck icon that says "Writing is hard." :P


*

So I have several days off this week. This is exciting, because I'm going to do a lot of writing! At least, that's the plan. We all know how well that usually goes. :P

For my own purposes, I'm going to list what I've got either started or simmering at the back of my mind:


1- BigBang. Holy shit, is this one a beast. I had this one idea, and was totally going to write that, and then I had an epiphany on the bus and now I'm writing something totally different. Of course, now that I'm writing that the plot has kind of escaped me, and I have to find a baseball bat and whack it for a while and hope it'll behave. *sigh* Right now I'm about 2,500 words in.

2- My Deaf!Dean fic, which has a working title of "Never Go Home." I was doing a re-tell of the Pilot, but I think it's a little too... close to the episode, apart from the flashbacks. I want to go back and maybe think things over a bit. Currently at 21,000 words.

3- "Take a Sad Song," which started as a quick response to a prompt after 5.13 and instead became a fic about Missouri. Currently at about 500 words while I try to "find" Missouri's voice. It's a little hard with only one episode to go on. It's too easy to turn her into a cliché, and since it's her POV I want to do her justice. Also, it's Missouri 25 years ago, so she's really not the same person at all.

4- This is unwritten, but in my head I'm calling it the "Never Happened" 'verse. Right now it's percolating, but I think it's going to end up as a series of vignettes about what I've been calling the Five Years That Never Happened. Basically the alternate future of 5.04, with vignettes from Dean's perspective, Castiel's perspective, and Sam's perspective. I think "Where Angels Fear To Tread" could be considered part of it, although I didn't write it with that in mind.

I also have one tiny vignette in mind from Sarah Palin's perspective (and I forget who on LJ mentioned that, but thank you!) because who DOESN'T want to know how she came to be President in that alternate reality? I'm thinking a reappearance by Crowley is in order. /o\ IDEK.

This was the original BigBang idea, but I realized it works better as a series of vignettes rather than a fully-fledged novella.

5- A tag/coda/something to 5.03. I am kind of sad that we never saw Lindsey again. She was smart and insightful and assertive, and I think she would have been good for Sam. So I have a shameless h/c thing in mind, in which I'm just going to inflict the 'flu on Sam before he gets back together with Dean, just so he and Lindsey can get together one more time, and maybe Sam'll get a moment's respite in which he realizes people won't automatically hate him when they find out what he's done. So there.

6- A few prompts from the Sam h/c comment-fic meme and the horror comment-fic meme that are still nagging at me. No idea if/when I'll get to them, but they're still calling to me. I also haven't beat up on Dean properly since "Devil's Trap," so I may have to remedy that. ;)

7- That sequel to "Ex Crucio" that people are bugging me about. It's nagging at the back of my mind. I think there might have to be a case fic, maybe à la "Wheelchair Detective." I don't know yet. God. Why do I do this to myself?

8- Those two crossovers that have been also nagging at me. "Dresden Files" and "Lie To Me." Also casefics. Gah.


So, in short, I have more projects than time, as usual. I also keep thinking that I'm forgetting some other ideas I had in mind.

Comments

[blubird-pie.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, and I thought I had too many drafts hanging around! I'm super into the Palin one and the "never happened" vignettes. And the Missouri one! Good thing that you've got a bit more time, with all this on your plate, right? ;)

re: fic exchanges- Never tried one myself, and you make a good case for keeping it that way, lol. I really enjoyed writing out someone else's idea for the Sam comment fic meme, but choosing the prompts that sparked me was a big part of that.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have four whole days to get all this either written or started. Gah. Not that I have errands or anything else to do, of course.

*headdesk*

The fic exchange was a near-disaster, although pkwench saved me by giving me a helpful twist on the prompt I had. :)

[blubird-pie.livejournal.com]

Four days, eh? *sympathy wince* I have something for spnpromptcake in 5 that I haven't exactly started, but there weren't even official sign-ups this round, so the only person I'd be disappointing is myself. And if i can't do 800 words in 5 days, I think I deserve to be disappointed.

It's awesome that pkwench helped you pull through on the other fic! Sometimes having a friend to come up with new ideas and bounce things around with works wonders. That's why I really enjoy beta-ing, you know? Being part of a creative process without all that work actually making decisions and writing! Eh-hem. /laziness.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I love beta-work for the same reason, although I'm not sure it's that much less work than writing, in some ways. It's less time-consuming, that's for sure.

[blubird-pie.livejournal.com]

Yeah- more a different kind of work I guess.

[chiiyo86.livejournal.com]

Well, it seems like you have enough to keep you busy! I want more of deaf!Dean! But if you think it's too close to the episode, give it time, because episode re-tell can easily become boring. I will just have to wait patiently for it. :)

Good luck with all your fics, especially with big bang! We all need a "Writing is hard" icon.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I'm really excited about the Deaf!Dean story, but somewhere along the way it got far too close to the pilot, and I'm not sure how to pull it away from that.

So I'll poke at it tomorrow and see what happens.

[primrose-1.livejournal.com]

Yes, writing is hard. BUT, looking at your list, reading is not hard at all, and I will happily read everything on that list if you do the hard part and write it!

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

LOL

Well, umm, good. I'm glad there will be readers for it, when I manage to get it all written. ;)

[pkwench.livejournal.com]

I want to read all of these & you're awesome, but I think you already knew that. :D

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

*blushes madly*

I want to write them all, too! Dammit, I need to be independently wealthy so I can stay home and write fanfic all day. ;)

[pkwench.livejournal.com]

If you manage that, then you can hire me as your spectacularly lazy and overpaid PA and then I can write all day when you're not nagging me to pay your bills or trim the cats' claws or whatever other tasks you set out, you slave driver.

Mostly? Yeah, I wish I was independently wealthy too. Think of all of the spectacular things I could get up to.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

If I ever become independently wealthy, consider it done. You'll have to be a live-in PA, though. Don't worry, you'll get your own wing of the house. ;)

[pkwench.livejournal.com]

Done - so long as it's not an east facing wing. The morning sun and I have broken up!

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

w00t!

No problem, I like the morning sun. You can have any of the other wings. :)

[zoemathemata.livejournal.com]

Writing is hard! The pay sucks and the hours are bad.

And when it's all over you get to sit back and berate yourself for all the things you wish you did different.

But the plus side is you get to be God of your tiny little world.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Precisely.

Why do we do this to ourselves again?

Oh, right. God of our tiny worlds. ;)