You know, maybe I'm trying too hard.

[sethgray]

These past few days I have spent my time lounging in bed reading a variety of web serials that I never have read before, and probably would have turned my nose up at them even a few weeks ago. In the process of doing so, I have discovered something. I am working way too hard about about conjuring grand schemes and epic details and not doing enough actual fingers-to-keyboard pay off. The serials I've been reading lately aren't high literature; hell, sometimes they barely describe the main characters, and usually that kills any enjoyment I may have gained from the story. But you know what? I've enjoyed the hell out of myself anyway.


This is, I believe, what they call an epiphany, aka: pulling one's head out, aka: going to the dollar store and buying a clue, aka: a blinding revelation of "no, shit, really?", aka: well, you get the idea.

Every little detail doesn't need to be planned out in advance, but I can't just whip an epic master plan in my head and hit go either. Instead of the dumb ass shit I've been doing, I should have been sitting down and putting what I do have in my head down on paper. Outlines, character details, what plot points I do have already, all of this stuff I've been avoiding because it isn't fun. A master plan is all well and good, but keeping it in my head until everything has "percolated," as I like to call it, is really, really dumb.

I think in the future I'm going to put a sticky by my computer this sticky is going to say, "Forget epic. Just WRITE!"


Uh-oh, is that maturity sneaking up on me? *flicks hands* Shoo!



Oh, in case anyone's curious, here's the two pieces mainly responsible for my little change of heart:

(Shadow of the Templar)

(100 Candles)

Comments

[softbluebuddy.livejournal.com]

I think in the future I'm going to put a sticky by my computer this sticky is going to say, "Forget epic. Just WRITE!"

I think you totally have something here. I'm not much of a writer myself, meaning I have been writing for less than a year, and am self taught based on my history of reading, but not actually knowing anything technical about the process of writing.

One thing that I have noted is that when I do the thing you say about

I should have been sitting down and putting what I do have in my head down on paper

stuff kind of just flows out of me that I didn't even plan but seem really consistent with the characters that I had developed.

Good luck, and I would definitely put the sticky note on your computer.

[jupiterrhode.livejournal.com]

Wow, and I thought you were impressive before. If you've only been writing for a year than my hat off to you sir ma'am!

[softbluebuddy.livejournal.com]

Thank you for thinking that is impressive. I actually never posted anything until maybe April this year. I have about 50,000 words of something that I started a year ago and need to finish so that I can post it. Probably another 4 or 5 chapters.

I sent it to my beta, after I had been sitting on it for 10 months and she loved it. Which is a big *go me* and said that I needed to keep writing because she wanted to know what happens next. :)

I enjoy writing. It is what I now do for fun. I try to get better every time. My beta has been instrumental in that regard. I am very lucky to have her.

I actually wrote her a birthday fic the other day in her preferred fandom, Spangel which is Buffy 'verse Spike and Angel. It was pretty schmoopy and I surprised her because I'd never actually written that pairing before.

I think last week I was kind of schizophrenic since I posted f/f, the Spangel thing, the Dean/Sam things you shouldn't do with fruit thing and then a bunch of drabbles too.

Maybe I should pick one and stick with it. LOL

Thanks. I appreciate your kind words.

btw-to your point in your original entry, one of my friends posted something yesterday. When I commented she thanked me and said that I had picked up on all of the things she was trying to accomplish with the piece, but she said that when she sat down to write what came out of her fingers was NOT what she had planned. I think that goes to your point of doing rather than thinking about the doing. You may surprise yourself, and pleasantly.

I like you and I hope you don't mind the extra long comment from hell. :)

[jupiterrhode.livejournal.com]

Oh, no not all. The longer the better, as they say. Okay, they don't say it, but they should.

Anyway, when I'm writing I routinely find out that what I thought was going to happen isn't actually the way it's going down. My friend and I used to say it was more like we were telling it as it was happening, rather than making it happen.

[yahrlan.livejournal.com]

Uh-oh, is that maturity sneaking up on me? *flicks hands* Shoo!

Lol, 'maturity' is totally relative as you should already know, Seth, dear.
*Sends little monkey-bat-shaped 'maturities' at Mr.Gray* :P

Get a neon green sticky for "Forget epic. Just WRITE!"

[jupiterrhode.livejournal.com]

Noooo! *flees*

As cool as a neon green sticky would be, it would kinda defeat the point if I couldn't, you know, read it. ;)

[meilin-miranda.livejournal.com]

There is a middle ground, you know. I have the "grand arc" plotted out for my serial, and I start each book with a "where the characters are now and where they need to be when we end" sheet. I also have an arc for each book's story-in-story. But I don't know the details until I actually sit down and start writing.

Another writer friend told me once that "any process is a good process, as long as no one puts an eye out." And I subscribe to that philosophy. :)

[jupiterrhode.livejournal.com]

...OMG! You just posted on my journal! You!

*faints*

Ahem, now that I'm done fanboying, I get what you're saying. See, I do all of that, I just do it in my head. I'm too dumb to just sit down and make myself write it out.

What I need to do it not worry about the nitty-gritty and just write down what I already know. But I don't like doing that because it takes the "magic" out of the process. Of course, when I don't do that it ends up an incoherent mess, but hey.

God, I still can't get over you posting on my journal. Hee!

[meilin-miranda.livejournal.com]

I can't get over you being excited about my posting on your LJ. :)

I only write out some of it. Things are getting complicated enough, considering I'm going to be doing this for the rest of my life it looks like (no joke), that I'm auditioning project management software, specifically Scrivener. We'll see. I'm getting tired of chasing all the little notes I have scribbled everywhere. If I didn't have the wiki already, boy, the story would be a REAL mess.

[jupiterrhode.livejournal.com]

*Toes dirt*

Well, c'mon. You're you and I'm me. Why wouldn't I be excited?

[meilin-miranda.livejournal.com]

Oh, you may be as excited as you like; it's very flattering and let's face it, I have an ego the size of a house. :) But there's really no call for it. Hardly anyone outside the small web fiction community knows who I am. Yet. I'm working on that. I'm discovering that half or more of the job of a writer, self-published or no, is self-promotion. But, you know, see ego, size of domicile. :)

[jupiterrhode.livejournal.com]

*lulz*

There's certainly call for it. You write an interesting, engaging, professional work that I regularly "tune in" for. You have a name among the web serial community. That's plenty star power for me. ~_^