cruiscin_lan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cruiscin_lan) wrote2009-12-22 04:03 pm
cruiscin_lan) wrote2009-12-22 04:03 pm
Entry tags:
Hey writers. Let me poll your brains.
Man. I've got writer's block like whoa right now. I can't write anything smutty, and I can't write anything even remotely humorous that doesn't turn to crack instantly. The only thing I can write right now is angst, and that is not working out with my ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
heroes_exchange prompt.
So you know what I'm going to do instead of write? I'm going to do a poll. I love polls.
For anyone who has ever written before, this one's for you. We'll be playing it fast and loose with definitions, so don't stress it too much. I'm just wondering what you write, why, and how. Ticky box poll so you can check as many boxes as you need!
[Poll #1502315]
What
I think, for me, most of these poll questions would depend on the fandom I'm writing for. I haven't written much for Veronica Mars, but what I have written leans towards angst/romance. Glee lends itself more to cracky or funny fics. I've written so much for Heroes that it probably relies more on the characters or pairings (i.e. Mohinder/Elle tends to be fluffy and silly, whereas Sylar/Claire is really dark and angsty).
Why
As far as why I write what I write is concerned, lately much of my output has been generated by prompts. I would even say that I prefer working with prompts for one primary reason: I like to know that someone's going to read what I've come up with. Normally the length or genre is dictated by the prompt or challenge, so that's taken care of for me. When I choose prompts, it's often determined more by what seems feasible than anything else. I tend to stick close to canon when I can.
How
My writing process right now is kind of ridiculous. For some reason when I write a scene I always start by writing the dialogue first, and then I go back and fill in all the action and description. While it's really useful to do this a lot of the time, it's not the best way way to go about writing scenes that don't require a lot of dialogue, like a really smutty scene, or a scene driven only by one character. I very rarely do any outlining, unless it's a really, really long fic or I'm trying to make sure it fits a specific prompt; otherwise my stories develop pretty much organically. I don't write from beginning to end, though - I normally start with one or two scenes and then fill in scenes around them as I feel necessary.
Okay, flist. Tell me about how you do things.
heroes_exchange prompt.So you know what I'm going to do instead of write? I'm going to do a poll. I love polls.
For anyone who has ever written before, this one's for you. We'll be playing it fast and loose with definitions, so don't stress it too much. I'm just wondering what you write, why, and how. Ticky box poll so you can check as many boxes as you need!
[Poll #1502315]
What
I think, for me, most of these poll questions would depend on the fandom I'm writing for. I haven't written much for Veronica Mars, but what I have written leans towards angst/romance. Glee lends itself more to cracky or funny fics. I've written so much for Heroes that it probably relies more on the characters or pairings (i.e. Mohinder/Elle tends to be fluffy and silly, whereas Sylar/Claire is really dark and angsty).
Why
As far as why I write what I write is concerned, lately much of my output has been generated by prompts. I would even say that I prefer working with prompts for one primary reason: I like to know that someone's going to read what I've come up with. Normally the length or genre is dictated by the prompt or challenge, so that's taken care of for me. When I choose prompts, it's often determined more by what seems feasible than anything else. I tend to stick close to canon when I can.
How
My writing process right now is kind of ridiculous. For some reason when I write a scene I always start by writing the dialogue first, and then I go back and fill in all the action and description. While it's really useful to do this a lot of the time, it's not the best way way to go about writing scenes that don't require a lot of dialogue, like a really smutty scene, or a scene driven only by one character. I very rarely do any outlining, unless it's a really, really long fic or I'm trying to make sure it fits a specific prompt; otherwise my stories develop pretty much organically. I don't write from beginning to end, though - I normally start with one or two scenes and then fill in scenes around them as I feel necessary.
Okay, flist. Tell me about how you do things.
no subject
I think I do the same thing (all the fandoms I belong to are TV shows, so yeah, imagining scenes is pretty much how it goes). I think I just write down the dialogue first because otherwise I have to mentally rewind and catch it all again... or maybe my brain is just broken...
I don't know how much interest there will be since it's small fandom and I have an OC, but I'm not posting any of it until it's finished.
A little bit off-topic from the rest of the discussion, but I will tell you that I am weird about reading stories with OCs. I have no problem with OCs in general - sometimes you need to make up characters to keep the plot going - but the larger the role they have, the more resistant I am to them. Like, yeah, if it's a minor character that Sylar needs to kill, that's fine. If it's the latest scumbag that Veronica Mars is investigating, that's okay too. But when they become a main character's romantic interest or something, I'm not interested.
I also have been avoiding OCs in Glee fics like they are the plague, because every time I've given one a chance they've turned out to be a total Mary Sue.
I don't know if that's at all reassuring or not...
no subject
Ha. Well, even though I'm doing my best not to make her Mary Sue-ish (and my beta is helping with that), this is exactly what she is. My favorite character in the movie didn't have a girlfriend, and I wanted to give him one *shrugs* I understand, though. At least 98% of romantic-interest OCs are Mary Sues.
I doubt you'd want to read a fic from The Covenant anyway. I only like it for the pretty boys, and my OTP in this fandom is a slash pairing (they're in my icon). I only read slashfic in this fandom. I'm weird to be writing het with an OC, but it's what my muse wanted :)
no subject
Even worse is when the OC is the child of the OTP. Especially if it's a slash OTP. It doesn't get any more Mary Sue than that.