cruiscin_lan | Hey writers. Let me poll your brains.

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you talk too much

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

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.

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beta, what now?

1) I LOVE OUTLINING. OUTLINING IS FUN. THERE SHOULD BE OUTLINING PARTIES, XD

2) I tend to write in universes. Like a lot of my STXI fic right now is all in the same universe - a bunch of gen, character-centric stuff to flesh out characters and do some world-building, and then there's the later multi-chaptered fics that take place in the same universe. I do it constantly, don't know why, and can't stop.

3) I love betas BUT THEY DO NOT LOVE ME. They have a habit of taking my stuff, promising good responses and then going poof on me and I'm always in need of a good beta who can catch me on some of my big flaws and has some idea of canon issues and also, hey, HELP ME NOT USE THE SAME WORD FIVE MILLION TIMES IN ONESHOTS. Gidget is my go-to beta because she fits all those awesome requirements but her life is cooler than mine so she's often busy. AND I AM HAPPY FOR HER BUT ALSO FILLED WITH WOE. Because I am THAT SCARY WRITER WHO JUMPS DOWN BETAS' THROAT FOR CRITIQUING HER MISSPELLINGS, I SWEAR, OKAY?

/has wounded heart issues regarding betas

It depends on the pairing but mostly I tend to write either drama with hardly any sex, or sex with hardly any plot XD

I prefer prompts, when I have no prompt I get stuck and start writing aimless crap.

I feel like my answers pretty much sum up my writing process, ie: a complete mess. Generally I open up my word processor and just go with whatever comes to me. I'm basically doing that for

heroes_exchange, which is probably why it's knocking on 2,000 words and has no ending in sight. At the moment I pretty much only work off prompts as well, because I don't know any of my new fandoms well enough to write for, and Heroes hasn't been giving me a lot to work with.

And I also don't use a beta except for when I have to for a challenge...

You know, a fish.

Or someone who reads your story with a critical eye before you post it online, whichever.

I want a fish who can do that. PERFECT BETA, HI. Also, angels.

I LOVE OUTLINING. OUTLINING IS FUN. THERE SHOULD BE OUTLINING PARTIES, XD
I would come to these parties, but I would get nothing done. I'd be the drunk girl wearing the lampshade declaring it "NO PANTS O'CLOCK" who'd then pass out in the bathroom. It's not that I hate outlining, it's that I love parties...

I tend to write in universes.
I think some of the stuff I've written could feasibly been set in the same universe (particularly all those alternate future Heroes fics) but I don't do it intentionally. Every story, as far as I know, is different.

Whoa. Your beta issues. You have shown me them. I feel very lucky in that I have not had any real issues with betas (and I hope I haven't been an issue as a beta, either... eek). I have a few friends I can rely on (depending on fandom/character/pairing preferences) and they've all been awesome.

It depends on the pairing but mostly I tend to write either drama with hardly any sex, or sex with hardly any plot XD
LOL.

I hate my aimless crap. If I don't have a prompt then I end up having a half-written draft just clogging up space on my hard drive. :(

TRUE FACT.

I'm apparently a ship fic whore. I've actually been slammed in comments for writing almost only shipper fics for certain pairings/shows. It's not my fault! I start writing one thing and it just goes there.

Angst is really my thing, for some reason. I try crack and I fail. I'm having a huge porn block myself - and I hate it. I used to be able to write so-called "awesome" smut in my sleep - that was 4 years ago. The worst review my porn fics got then were "too many adjectives" - I'll take that comment over anything that could be said about my recent ones I'm too chickenshit to even post 'cause I know they suck and not in the way they're meant to.

I'd write more crossovers but I can never figure out how to end them :le sigh:

All of my VM fics have been written in one sitting. They're all also Logan/Veronica with not much angst, which is easier to write for me because I'm so familiar with those characters.

I've only written for two other fandoms besides that, and one of them is a WIP that I'm currently writing. 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.

For the WIP (which is an AU of a movie), I imagine all the scenes in my head as I'm writing. Since my source material is a movie, it's pretty easy for me to do. I normally write several scenes each night, and I'm now up to five chapters. This is my first WIP, and while I don't have an outline, I know everything that I want to happen. It's just a matter of fleshing out the scenes.

I'm actually having trouble writing my vm_santa fic because I'm so immersed in this WIP. It's eating my brain, but that's where my muse is right now.

I don't know if *any* of this was helpful, but there ya go.

I'm basically doing that for heroes_exchange, which is probably why it's knocking on 2,000 words and has no ending in sight.

Right now I have two 7k fics written - one with no end and one with no middle. Fortunately neither of them are for the exchange, but honestly I don't know which is worse.

And I also don't use a beta except for when I have to for a challenge...

I don't always use a beta. If it's something I've written for a kink meme and I'm just reposting it to my own journal, most of the time I don't worry about it. But there are some things I need a beta for - mostly reigning in my own sanity when I've been staring at a word doc for too long.

I've actually been slammed in comments for writing almost only shipper fics for certain pairings/shows.

Why the slamming? There's nothing wrong with sticking to what you're good at. I hereby declare those commenters JEALOUS.

I try crack and I fail.

It's worse when you try writing something serious, and all the comments you get are "This was a great crack fic." It's like... what the hell did I write?

And what makes one smut awesome and one smut... not so awesome? I guess I'd have to join

weeping_cock to know for certain.

*looks at comment again*

Oh god, I meant I am NOT that scary writer who jumps down betas' throats for critiquing her misspellings, I swear, okay?

I swear, ask any of the few people who have stepped out to help me out, I ONLY get hinky when people are like, YOUR STYLE IS WEIRD AND YOU NEED LESS SENTENCES FRAGMENTS because I like using sentence fragments in some things in regards to tone, character, length, etc. and how I write some things and I need help with the spelling, grammar, canon holes, making things too dense, MY HORRIBLE HABIT OF USING THE SAME WORD FIVE BILLION TIMES AFTER I USE IT ONCE AND THINK, HAI, SHINY NEW WORD, XD and, you know, basic stuff.

Do I project a scary vibe or something?

Is it the capslock?

/is obsessing over this, as you can tell, because it just happened AGAIN two days ago, got a beta, they went poof on me and left me standing with a :| face

I imagine all the scenes in my head as I'm writing. Since my source material is a movie, it's pretty easy for me to do.
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...

LOL. It was probably reading comprehension fail on my part. I have a hard time parsing verbal irony on the internet.

P.S. If you ever write any more Knox/Claire (or weren't you working on an epic Elle/Claire/maybeSylar? thing a while ago) I will beta the fucking shit out of it because I want to read it so bad.

But when they become a main character's romantic interest or something, I'm not interested.

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 :)

Well THANK YOU!! They just don't like my pairings, so yeah... Fandom can be a cruel, cruel place. Kinda backfired on them though so I like that lol.

True, true. I blame the interwebz - since it's not always easy to have what you mean show up on screen (no matter how many ways you try to describe how it's "supposed to be").

And you now made of more win than before by linking me to that comm. Thank you!! I'm LOL'ing.

At least 98% of romantic-interest OCs are Mary Sues.

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.

Generally when I write one of two things happens: either it comes out of me all at once (hurr hurr that's what she said), or I lose interest, go and do something else, then regain interest and come back, and that can happen anywhere between one or ten times, usually.

Generally, the fandom I'm writing for doesn't matter so much. I mean, if I'm writing for Heroes or Supernatural or Fringe, I'm more likely to write serious stuff. As far as genre goes, I lean towards drama, but not full-blown angst, because when I write angst I make myself cry and it sucks. It's easier for me to write scenes that are tense, but not tear-jerky. I also like humor and romance, though I probably imagine I'm funnier than I actually am, lol. Not so much ship-fics, because I don't adhere to specific pairings. There are some I write more than others, but if I get the idea to write Noah/Luke then I go with it. :)

The why is pretty easy. Mostly I get ideas right when I'm about to go asleep, so I have to get up out of bed and write them down otherwise I'll forget. I can work with prompts, but those normally make me produce things that are shorter in length, which is something I'm working on.

I think, for me, most of these poll questions would depend on the fandom I'm writing for.

Yeah, I definitely agree there, particularly with the pairings. Some of it is dictated by length, since it's pretty much impossible for me to be funny for more than five thousand words and then best you'll get out of me then is a neutral tone with some kind of action plot if it goes much longer than that. A lot of it is also my favorite character being Peter and the characters interacting with him influence a lot of the tone of the story -- if it's Daphne, it'll be light and funny, but if it's nearly anyone else, they'll get sucked into his issues.

The actual writing process is ... eh, none of the options really cover it. I only wish that it took two or three writing sessions. I realize that while I feel it takes forever, though, writing ten thousand words in a couple of weeks isn't actually that bad. I just usually have to open the document every day and add a little bit, or revise a little. Usually I write the most on weekends or days I've been to the gym, so I've had a lot of brainstorming time where I could not actually write that instant.

I must write chronologically, too, which sucks at times. I've tried going out of order or just doing a sketchy version and then filling it in later, but that mostly results in me not bothering to finish anything since it seems "done enough." Which, again, sucks because it means that I get hung up on single lines of dialogue in scenes that I really want to move past, but can't until I don't hate them. Leaving the story to sit and ignoring it for days until I don't hate it as much is a big part of my process. :/

When I write for memes and stuff, I tend to do it all at once, otherwise the excitement is lost. Otherwise I'll do the go-and-come-back-10-times thing.

Sometimes I'm not sure what the difference is between drama and angst. I conflate the two a lot...

Man, if I started using my sleep-associated ideas I'd have some really surreal stories.

it's pretty much impossible for me to be funny for more than five thousand words

I would extend that to apply to almost everybody. It takes extreme talent to maintain the humor, and sometimes I question even the abilities of pro writers and comedians to do this.

I realize that while I feel it takes forever, though, writing ten thousand words in a couple of weeks isn't actually that bad.

It isn't? Because I tend to get frustrated after just a few days. Fortunately, though, I don't try to write chronologically most of the time, but I do have to ignore my stories every so often just so I can look at them again with a fresh mind.

It isn't? Because I tend to get frustrated after just a few days.

*shrugs* Sometimes it feels like a gigantic slog, but then I turn around and realize I've written a lot relatively quickly. It really depends on how much I've already got in my head and the kind of story it is, though. Chaptered stories tend to be easier, because the writing is a less dense, less meaningful sort. I'm hitting plot points, and the sheer length will carry it through. Short fic that takes more than a week drives me absolutely mad (hello there, exchange fic!), because it feels like I'm picking over every single word I chose and everything has to be perfect and it's never going to get there.

I pretty much just write porn.

Someone actually gave me props on my angst in a recent meme which confused the hell out of me because I am the worst at angst and I hardly ever touch the genre... I like my fanfic to make things better for characters, not worse. And if it's better because they're getting laid, well, that just happens sometimes. Most of the time. >.>

Usually if I don't finish writing something within three or four days, it's going to languish forever on my desktop. I currently have five projects I haven't touched since... September, I think? Just staring me down every time I look at the desktop. I should probably just delete them because looking at them makes me feel worse.

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