Yeah, it takes time to know what your gut's telling you, but it usually knows what it's talking about. I mean, I've been writing for ten years now, and I think I've really only started writing decent stuff in the last few years. But I've gotten better at listening to my gut. Knowing when to kill a character and when you can get away with saving them is an important thing to learn as well. Sometimes, the plot and the characters are convinced that's the way it has to be, and no amount of pleading changes that, no matter how much you might hate it.
I've mostly given up trying to force stories to be what I want them to be, since they nearly always go off-track and go somewhere I didn't want them to go. Another reason I haven't got a detailed plot for NaNo as I'm certain it'll go off-track if I plan it too much. I've had several stories do that to me. I have all these great plans, then the characters take them and dump them and take me somewhere else, leaving me sitting there thinking, "Why are we going this way? I didn't want you going this way." And that comment by Kate Grenville: yeah, that totally makes sense. I'd never thought about writer's block that way.
Yeah, I can see slash in anything too, but the prompts just add that extra challenge. Challenge is important so you don't get stuck in a rut. It forces you to be creative, as opposed to just writing whatever down. I've done challenges where we had an opening line and three items to include in them, and all within 1000 words. It's actually a lot of fun doing that. And two of the pieces I wrote ended up in my huge Admish fic, albeit edited and changed a bit so they made sense. There are times whenI hate my writing too, but I think every writer is like that. And with some prompts, you just have to sit back and let the characters take over. They'll tell you what to write.
And yes, I'm probably insane for taking on four challenges at once, but it's fun, and it means I've always got somethng to work on, so if I get stuck on one fic, I have something to work on to get my brain into gear. It's very useful for that. And I get to have fun rewriting Master Tom, as I decided to use that for my 50kinkyways challenge, so I have to change the first seven chapters to fit the prompts, but it's good. I quite like that fic.
Well, why do what everyone else is doing? I want my fics to stand out fromeveryone else's. Anyone can write 'OMG, I went to bed a man, and woke up a woman.' But, how many people would approach the prompt genderswap with an actual sex-change in mind? I think that's what a good writer should do, to be able to make their readers see things in a different way than usual. Another reason why I'm so in love with ambiguous characters, because it's never clear what's going to happen, and motives are often not as straight forward as they appear. I just love messing with people's heads. Having typical 'good guys' and 'bad guys' is boring. You know where everyone stands, and everyone's so one-sided that they're too 'perfect' as characters. Real people aren't like that. Real people have all these shades of grey, all these little things that make them do what they do, how they relate to other people. Real people have a complexity that's difficult to put on paper.
You want a challenge? I think you might enjoy the wtf27 challenge. The prompts there might be a good place to start, and there's only 27 of them. Take a look at it at any rate. Might be a good way to shake you out of your comfort zone. Otherwise, there's plenty of other fic challenges on LJ.
Hehe, yeah, yay for long comments. :P And now I'll go have my coffee and watch some TV. Yay!
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-14 06:07 am (UTC)I've mostly given up trying to force stories to be what I want them to be, since they nearly always go off-track and go somewhere I didn't want them to go. Another reason I haven't got a detailed plot for NaNo as I'm certain it'll go off-track if I plan it too much. I've had several stories do that to me. I have all these great plans, then the characters take them and dump them and take me somewhere else, leaving me sitting there thinking, "Why are we going this way? I didn't want you going this way." And that comment by Kate Grenville: yeah, that totally makes sense. I'd never thought about writer's block that way.
Yeah, I can see slash in anything too, but the prompts just add that extra challenge. Challenge is important so you don't get stuck in a rut. It forces you to be creative, as opposed to just writing whatever down. I've done challenges where we had an opening line and three items to include in them, and all within 1000 words. It's actually a lot of fun doing that. And two of the pieces I wrote ended up in my huge Admish fic, albeit edited and changed a bit so they made sense. There are times whenI hate my writing too, but I think every writer is like that. And with some prompts, you just have to sit back and let the characters take over. They'll tell you what to write.
And yes, I'm probably insane for taking on four challenges at once, but it's fun, and it means I've always got somethng to work on, so if I get stuck on one fic, I have something to work on to get my brain into gear. It's very useful for that. And I get to have fun rewriting Master Tom, as I decided to use that for my
Well, why do what everyone else is doing? I want my fics to stand out fromeveryone else's. Anyone can write 'OMG, I went to bed a man, and woke up a woman.' But, how many people would approach the prompt genderswap with an actual sex-change in mind? I think that's what a good writer should do, to be able to make their readers see things in a different way than usual. Another reason why I'm so in love with ambiguous characters, because it's never clear what's going to happen, and motives are often not as straight forward as they appear. I just love messing with people's heads. Having typical 'good guys' and 'bad guys' is boring. You know where everyone stands, and everyone's so one-sided that they're too 'perfect' as characters. Real people aren't like that. Real people have all these shades of grey, all these little things that make them do what they do, how they relate to other people. Real people have a complexity that's difficult to put on paper.
You want a challenge? I think you might enjoy the
Hehe, yeah, yay for long comments. :P And now I'll go have my coffee and watch some TV. Yay!