Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Does this Sound Crazy/Is it Just Me?

This is a combined response to this thread and to Hazel's 'condensed writing' thread. Both have been very interesitng to read, and so thanks for starting them.

So ... condensed writing:
Yes, I had to write precises in high school, and good for my verbose soul they were. I used way too many words in my stories. I tried to get rid of them, sometimes even succeeded in deleting a few during revision, but was too undisciplinesd to carry through what I knew should have been done. Strange Visitors is ok though - it's very short.

I sometimes think that I should write only haikus - i so admire their clean elegance.

ok thread 2: Crazy:
Yes! - Oh that refers to writing. <g>
I'm not really sure how I approached writing - I guess it varied. I do feel the characters' emotions, and that has sometimes been a starting point, not just the emotions of Lois or Clark, but also of secondary characters. That influences me as a reader too.
Sometimes, though, it was a character appearing whom I didn't know or quite understand and so i had to follow that character and find out what s/he was about.
Linear? Sometimes, yes, except for when i started with a scene in the middle of the story and then had to build a story around it.

I have no idea! Help, Timmy!

CCMalo

I generally get ideas at the most inconvenient times, like when I'm at work or in the car and driving. If I'm at work, I can e-mail myself a reminder of the idea (if my boss isn't hanging over my shoulder.) Then the plot bunnies niggle me until I get a chance to sit down and write something. If the writing doesn't make sense, I'll revise it later on. The main thing for me is to get the general scene down.

I can usually see & hear the characters as I'm writing or reading fanfic. A well-written story that flows properly will do that for me, even original fiction.

Coming in here, late as usual. Let's see. How do I get ideas, and how do I get started writing? I try to be a storyteller, and I get ideas any way and anywhere I can. I've had a complete vignette come to me while I was asleep, and all I had to do was wake up and write it down. Another vignette idea came to me in my sleep along with the entire opening paragraph. Would they were all that easy. The first long story I wrote, I intended to write another story but created a frame for it because I was afraid it wouldn't be long enough. I got hooked on the frame, and the original story ended ups as a device in a few paragraphs to help Lois determine her true feelings and what she really wanted to do. I've used the 'what if' question about an episode and gone from there. A couple of movies sent me in different directions, and reminiscing with my children brought another idea. Right now, I'm stuck because I realized I was going in the wrong direction with a story I need to get written, and now I have no clue where to go with it. Well, I have a clue, but no particulars.

How do I start writing? There's the real problem. I can't start anything, until I have a beginning and an ending in my head, and at least some vague idea of how to get from one to the other. Outlining is a sure story-killer for me. Because I have to create my L&C world in my mind and then go there to put words on paper, I usually write the beginning and end scenes first. And that's the way I think about what I write, as a story told in scenes. I don't write linear-ly and often move complete scenes around to find the best place for them to help tell the story.

And I re-write and re-write. I can spend the writing time of two or three days trying to get one piece of dialogue to sound right, or one bit of description to look right or one nfic scene to be emotional but not ridiculously ludicrous. After I post on the boards, I respond to suggestions and do more re-writing until I finally have to submit the story, usually because of a deadline or because I'm sick to death of it. If you read my story on the boards, you should read it again when it's archived because it's probably changed quite a bit.

Getting ready to write is painful and worrisome. Once I start, I'm blissfully compulsive about it, but getting started is always the hardest part. When I'm finished, the writing has to sound right and feel right. It has to sing. Sometimes I get that. Sometimes, I don't. But each new story is an opportunity to try again.

Jude

There are two main ways I start writing. (Gosh that sounds like a grammar school sentence when we first started writing paragraphs ) Anywho, more often then not a single sentence of dialogue pops in my head, and it nags at me and nags at me and nags at me oh for the love of God I start writing just to get it out of my head!!!

Mixed in a lot with that is my second idea-haven, which is real life. I tend to feel drunk when I'm sick. Throw in a bunch of NyQuil, and I'm passed out on the bed for days at a time, waking up to blow my nose, eat, and occasionally moan. And I occasionally write fic somewhere in there, so that's where Robitussin came from. (Plus I wrote a NyQuil song at some point, too. )

Jen

Thanks for starting this thread, CC! It's been a fun read.

Most of my RL writing is "made to order," even the fiction; other than ghost-writing or translating/adapting, I've mostly written according to the publishing company's outline. ("Chapter One. X,Y, and Z argue about such-and-such, but W convinces them to work on the school paper instead. Chapter Two. They go out for pizza." :rolleyes: ) So I actually fall into the "just one or two stories" category.

Aside from the stories inspired by challenges or lack of sleep (aka Escape From Krypton?), I've found myself picturing a scene or two and then trying to write a story to make that scene happen. With my first T,A? rewrite, I flashed on a single scene, which unfortunately was the last one. With the second, it was the "frame" of the story: Lana staring out the window in utter misery. (I will pause while many of you applaud that vision. ) I found myself needing to write *why* she was so unhappy, and quite frankly, it was scary how much I came to sympathize with her POV before CPOV finally ended.

I think that's what prods me the most, actually: when the characters come alive in my head and start speaking with their own voices. I might need a scene to prod me into starting, but if the characters don't start dragging me down paths I'd never intended in the first place, the story usually isn't doing too well!

/me serves CC with a Shared Custody order. Give him up nice now. Don't make me go all legal on your butt. How about, you have him for six months in the summer and I'll take winter?

I'd prefer to work out a negotiated settlement here. Aside from the obvious court costs, do you know how much Ninjas charge by the hour? Plus, they're hanging around here eating my snacks and frightening the dog. Don't make me have to use 'em!


LabRat

I really think we need to be thinking in Timmy's best interests here.

A houseful of Ninjas, Lab? Might scare the creative beeswax out of the poor thing...

Besides, it's immaterial, I have it on good authority that "Dibs" is rock-solid International Law, can't be challenged.

CC (feeling smug, going to see if Timmy would like another hot chocolate on this snowy day!)

Sadly, I fear you may be working to US rules here, CC. Me, I'm working to the universal Tank rules of custody: stuff the kid's interests...hand him over.

It is true that possession is nine tenths of the law, of course. However, a dirty great big sword in the hands of a Ninja trumps possession every time....

LabRat (who notes, ominously, that her house is now Ninja free...wonder where they can have gone...? )

EEE! What are all these ninja's doing in my garage?!

You there, put that down! Don't make me---eh? What? Timmy who? NO, No no! You have the wrong address; there's no Timmy here! Now SCRAM!

Ooops, sorry Mary - one of them was holding the map upside down apparently. :rolleyes:

Think I've got them orientated in the right direction now...

LabRat (telling those who know how great she is at geography to shut up and stop laughing...)

uhm, if posession is 9/10ths of the law, then doesn't that mean I get custody? :p

as for ninjas, little does labby know that timmy has been playing around with defending a fortress against a ninja horde for years. no idea why, but it's one of his little amusements. i keep telling him it's silly, but what can you do? kids these days...

also, i should warn you that the vast wilderness near timmy's attic can be fairly dangerous. he's okay with it, but others tend to find it a rather scary place...

just think about some of the ideas that have come out of there, and you'll probably see what i mean.

Paul

Gasp! You mean...CC lied? Who was she feeding all that hot chocolate to?

LabRat (trying to contact several Ninjas in an effort to redirect them to the proper location...)

Busted.

I confess: I've been feeding all the chocolate to Tank's magic gremlin, grumpy little thing...

By the way, Lab, the Ninjas? Instead of Timmy, they keep demanding an epilogue...?

I so don't get it.

Also, some silliness has broken out on my very serious thread.

CC

Sorry, CC - they don't speak English too well. When they said epilogue, I'm pretty sure that what they really meant was...sequel...

Almost certain. The two words are kind of similar, you see, in Ninja-speak. So you can understand why they'd get confused.

LabRat

A silliness break-out? Sounds like a job for Superman. I'm pretty certain he does break-outs, doesn't he?

Yvonne

Has anyone seen my little magic gremlin? He seems to be missing. He answers to the name Curmudgy.

Tank (who isn't worried since he's retired now and doesn't really need the little bugger any more)

I'm pretty sure that Superman also deals with cajoling reluctant authors into tweaking and posting sequels... Sure he does. And if he doesn't, he ought to.

LabRat (denying all knowledge of the whereabouts of missing gremlins...get back under that desk you and don't come out again till...yes, you'll get fed later...if you work har...ahem...just...talking to the dog here. Yes, the dog. That's it...)

Great question, CC. Usually, I write in a completely linear fashion. This forces me to write the parts I don't really feel like writing. Then I get to write the scenes I'm looking forward to as a reward. I'm pretty disciplined about this. At the worst, I write a scene, thinking it belongs next in the story, and then later move it. Otherwise, I write in a linear fashion.

Also, as Lynn said, I often feel particularly inspired to write by music. It so happens, however, that I've recently been playing my Evanescence CD, and just like Wendy and Helene, I can listen to "My Immortal" on infinite repeat (and have been doing so for quite a while now). As a result, I just *had* to write several scenes from the third story in my "The Longest Road" series. I'm not even halfway done with the second story and I never do this sort of thing, but there the scenes were, demanding I write them down before I forget them.

To be honest, I've charted the story out and I've had some ideas for scenes in the third story, but until two days ago, I resisted writing them. Of course, I've gotten myself in the mess of writing two irreconcilable scenes. Only one of them can be used, so I'll have to make a choice. I hope that unlike Labbie, I can escape this with my skin in tact. I'll probably harvest bits of the scene that gets scrapped because frankly, I like them both. Nevertheless, they cannot both exist in the same story (kinda like matter and anti-matter, I guess).

Rac

Oh, absolutely, Rac! When I said it kills me to make a choice I was definitely only meaning in the context of whatever WIP I'm working on. But I never lose anything entirely. I dump what I can't use for that particular story into a holding file and check it regularly to see if there's anything in there suitable for the next WIP.

It's a very rare case when what I have to cut out of one story is so pertinent to it that I can't use it anywhere else. I think that's only happened once, that I recall.

In the main though, definitely, the watchword is recycle!! And hold onto everything you write - because it will come in handy one day without a doubt. <g>

LabRat