[Writing] Compare and contrast
Aug. 11th, 2016 10:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennariaCurrent writing: arguing with a scene wherein two characters are talking at cross purposes, and things do not get resolved. This is not helped by the part where the viewpoint character (Sarah, for those who've read the original novel which precedes this one) is Not Socially Acute, so even when we're talking about her girlfriend, she misses things. Have been avoiding writing it for, uh, several weeks now. Not helped by the suspicion that Previous Scene should have had something else added (or else Other Character's actions in current scene don't make sense), and so Previous Scene might require revision before I can go on.
(I used to read all the books about How To Write, and several of those authors would suggest to skip scenes when you're stuck. Just keep writing, they said, that's the important thing. I tried that, and then when I went back, I invariably discovered that Key Emotional Detail appeared in the missing scene, or Important Plot Point changed, and now I had to re-write everything else. On the other hand, I've seen any number of people who write scenes like puzzle pieces, and fit them together afterwards, so clearly it does work for certain kinds of writers. I'm just not one of them.)
Old writing: went digging for an old (Phantom of the Opera) story I'd written, and discovered I wrote it even longer ago than previously realized (back in 2004). Am debating the relative merits of polishing it up and posting it. It would require a lot of polishing, and also I am so not in Phandom any more. On the other hand (third hand?), it's readable. Also it's NC-17, and if decades in fandom have taught me nothing else, there's always a readership for pr0n. On the (fourth?) hand (oh dear), I'm pretty sure that polishing up the story is as much me avoiding Current Writing as it is actual desire to post the story. :rueful:
The one bright side: the story in question isn't nearly as painfully, uh, young as some of my other Phantom fanfic. And not because/in spite of the pr0n: just that my first Phantom story was written when I was 18, and a not very mature 18 at that, and dear lord did it show.
(I used to read all the books about How To Write, and several of those authors would suggest to skip scenes when you're stuck. Just keep writing, they said, that's the important thing. I tried that, and then when I went back, I invariably discovered that Key Emotional Detail appeared in the missing scene, or Important Plot Point changed, and now I had to re-write everything else. On the other hand, I've seen any number of people who write scenes like puzzle pieces, and fit them together afterwards, so clearly it does work for certain kinds of writers. I'm just not one of them.)
Old writing: went digging for an old (Phantom of the Opera) story I'd written, and discovered I wrote it even longer ago than previously realized (back in 2004). Am debating the relative merits of polishing it up and posting it. It would require a lot of polishing, and also I am so not in Phandom any more. On the other hand (third hand?), it's readable. Also it's NC-17, and if decades in fandom have taught me nothing else, there's always a readership for pr0n. On the (fourth?) hand (oh dear), I'm pretty sure that polishing up the story is as much me avoiding Current Writing as it is actual desire to post the story. :rueful:
The one bright side: the story in question isn't nearly as painfully, uh, young as some of my other Phantom fanfic. And not because/in spite of the pr0n: just that my first Phantom story was written when I was 18, and a not very mature 18 at that, and dear lord did it show.