On writing: fandom version
Jan. 3rd, 2012 12:45 pmIt's a week for writing meta to me. First ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kittydesade talks about her Yuletide writing behind the scene. Then ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lireavue writes the companion Yuletide Beta Behind the Scenes Post. Finally valtyr and jazzypom talk about their different writing style here and there respectively, which make me think about my writing.
Usually when I write short fic, I start with an idea neat to me (Space mermaid/werewolf mpreg! Cave fic!) and I write everything according to it. I saw somewhere they were called "high premise" fic. If you like the idea, you'll like it. Otherwise, you may not. Because they often come in the form of plot idea, they can be interesting, but my characterization can be flat. They are often a snippet out of an unwritten story.
When I write longer fic, the initial idea tends to be an uncontrolled mess. I want to squeeze in so much idea that it's overly convoluted.This's the time my beta said to me, "You have an idea beyond yourself. Cut it down."
To use my currently longest fic as example, it initially had bodyguard!Steve, metallic dragons, and alternative lgbt history, which might be neat but not necessary to the main premise: Steve discovered things about the darker side of the government and dealt with it, with Tony's help. And it had to be Ultimates, no argument. They were all reluctantly cut off, under my beta's advice. (Though there are still traces of Cthlhu mythos, which at the time I was obsessed with). I wrote like playing with building blocks. I built on a foundation, but I was always distracted by shiny things.. "Keep it simple" was my challenge in the plot conception.
However, when I started writing, I wrote like a construction worker setting up a bamboo scaffolding. I had an premise. I knew how it would end. I had a framework. But there were a lot of holes to fill in. I set part of the story in Hong Kong and the description in my first draft was challenged to be bland, because I didn't have an eye for details. I discovered that I often knew more than my characters, and sometimes I forgot to let my readers in. To illustrate how much details I could be missing, my second draft was bumped from ~12K to 25K, all to fill in the details missing. I often make leaps of logical steps too. My next writing goal is to keep it simple yet descriptive, to produce more polished work and make it logical.
Enough about me. What's your writing style?
kittydesade talks about her Yuletide writing behind the scene. Then lireavue writes the companion Yuletide Beta Behind the Scenes Post. Finally valtyr and jazzypom talk about their different writing style here and there respectively, which make me think about my writing. Usually when I write short fic, I start with an idea neat to me (Space mermaid/werewolf mpreg! Cave fic!) and I write everything according to it. I saw somewhere they were called "high premise" fic. If you like the idea, you'll like it. Otherwise, you may not. Because they often come in the form of plot idea, they can be interesting, but my characterization can be flat. They are often a snippet out of an unwritten story.
When I write longer fic, the initial idea tends to be an uncontrolled mess. I want to squeeze in so much idea that it's overly convoluted.This's the time my beta said to me, "You have an idea beyond yourself. Cut it down."
To use my currently longest fic as example, it initially had bodyguard!Steve, metallic dragons, and alternative lgbt history, which might be neat but not necessary to the main premise: Steve discovered things about the darker side of the government and dealt with it, with Tony's help. And it had to be Ultimates, no argument. They were all reluctantly cut off, under my beta's advice. (Though there are still traces of Cthlhu mythos, which at the time I was obsessed with). I wrote like playing with building blocks. I built on a foundation, but I was always distracted by shiny things.. "Keep it simple" was my challenge in the plot conception.
However, when I started writing, I wrote like a construction worker setting up a bamboo scaffolding. I had an premise. I knew how it would end. I had a framework. But there were a lot of holes to fill in. I set part of the story in Hong Kong and the description in my first draft was challenged to be bland, because I didn't have an eye for details. I discovered that I often knew more than my characters, and sometimes I forgot to let my readers in. To illustrate how much details I could be missing, my second draft was bumped from ~12K to 25K, all to fill in the details missing. I often make leaps of logical steps too. My next writing goal is to keep it simple yet descriptive, to produce more polished work and make it logical.
Enough about me. What's your writing style?
