9962 réponses à ce sujet

[Icyflare]

MacNasty wrote...

 Two questions.

A- When you right a fic how long does it usually take for a chapter.

2- Do you usually edit? And if so, how long does that take usually.

1) No idea. I think it's at least a few days, longer if I've got no idea where I'm taking the story.

2) ALL THE TIME. Editing can take at least a couple of hours for me. I like to edit when I can't spew forth new words. My time spent over a chapter is currently 50% writing, 50% editing.

[Lilivati]

MacNasty wrote...

 Two questions.

A- When you right a fic how long does it usually take for a chapter.

2- Do you usually edit? And if so, how long does that take usually.

1) Typically about three days, assuming the rest of my life is proceeding normally.  Lately work has been kicking my ass and my last chapter is 2-3 times normal length, so it took a lot longer.

2) I will over-edit if I let myself.  I try to finish a chapter before I allow myself to re-write or edit or I'd never finish anything.  Typically this is another day.  Then I usually let a chapter marinate for a day, look over a final time with fresh eyes, and then post.

Obviously though, some stories write themselves and others are like pulling teeth.

[Sweawm]

On the loose plot lines thing, I agree that without the right plan, it can get totally out of hand.

A Reviewer recently asked me why I introduced some new group in the first Chapter of my fic, when they never appear again throughout the entire story, despite having some expected plot relevance. My answer: a giant plot thread that I never tied. A few more exist throughout that fic, with a hell of a lot of foreshadowing but never being mentioned again.
I at least have made some recent attempts to tie up these plot threads, but its all kind of fallen flat. I made them, then forgot them and left them in the dust at some point.

When I'm done the final chapter and Epilogue on Twenty Nine, Seventy One: I'm going to post a giant trivia page on the giant amount of cut and modified chapters/events in the story, things that never were, some lore explanation, and the fact that I wish I could erase Chapter 12 out of existence...
Anyone else here have a certain part of their Fics that they could go back and retcon?

[superchevy999]

fluffywalrus wrote...

MacNasty wrote...

 Two questions.

A- When you right a fic how long does it usually take for a chapter.

2- Do you usually edit? And if so, how long does that take usually.

I normally take 3 days to write a chapter. Well, a few hours across those 3 days.
I edit after every session, normally for 30 minutes tops, if I do any editing at all. I'm a very deliberate writer (which is why I'm so slow at it), and it usually ensures I don't make many errors as I'm writing.
When I finish my last section in the chapter, I do a quick edit and vocal reading of everything, and then I publish it.

I try to keep my chapters smaller so i can get them done on a daily basis.  I find that as long as they don't get over 4000 words i can usually complete them in a couple hours. 

I found that i am just not a very good editor so i actually got a friend of mine to do it for me after the first couple chapters.  seems to be working really well since i can just spend a couple hours a day on writing and she will edit for me.

[Obsidian Gryphon]

MacNasty wrote...

 Two questions.

A- When you right a fic how long does it usually take for a chapter.

2- Do you usually edit? And if so, how long does that take usually.

1 - I usually work a few hours a day on a chapter. Depending on how much crock I want to put into it, it usuall takes four days.

2 - I often do it after it's published. Or when I discovered a lore error (haha, ppl didn't catch it because no one mentioned it) when I looked over previous chapters to make sure whatever's written correlate with the new chapter.

[hot_heart]

My writing and editing go hand-in-hand, and I write sporadically. Some days I'm just too knackered from work to get myself in the mood (and mindset) to write, and this story seems to be a very involved process. Other days, I might get bitten by the writing bug and spend a whole evening working on something.

If I had to guess, a chapter might take about six-eight hours altogether, with countless interruptions (damn, I am sloooow). For me, editing after the fact, unless to fix minor errors, feels a little disrespectful to readers so I'd like to try and minimise it as much as possible.

[Spiritwolf1]

I'm pretty chaotic as well. I try to write a little bit every day and I usually edit as I go along but editing is not really my strong suit.

As for those that have read my story. I have noticed an interesting trend, I get more hits and visitors when I do a chapter with Liara then I do with Lissa, I wasn't aware she was boring. Just wondering if maybe theres something wrong with the character

[Mavqt]

I think that goes without saying really. People are more interested in the main characters. (Not including Shep) My guess is they search for Liara or Garrus, not Shepard and X. Well unless people like reading about other versions of Shep, like me.

[fluffywalrus]

Spiritwolf1 wrote...

I'm pretty chaotic as well. I try to write a little bit every day and I usually edit as I go along but editing is not really my strong suit.

As for those that have read my story. I have noticed an interesting trend, I get more hits and visitors when I do a chapter with Liara then I do with Lissa, I wasn't aware she was boring. Just wondering if maybe theres something wrong with the character

Hrm? As a reader, I don't find Lissa any less boring than Liara. However, I can understand why some would visit Liara chapters more (if that's even possible)...people like familiar characters, and more tension between her and Lissa seems to happen in the Liara chapters, where the Lissa chapters usually focus more on the cerberus hunting Kai Leng bit...which is interesting for sure, but not as...hrm, how do I put it..."juicy".

I severely doubt it's that Lissa, as a character, is lacking. Mayhaps more people are interested in Shepard's disappearance and Liara's reactions to what's going on around her? I mean, I don't see why viewership would shift due to that, as people would have to read a chapter before making such a judgement, and I highly doubt there's enough word of mouth about any fanfic to ward people away. COuld it be that you've posted some chapters at different times than others? When I post chapters late at night, they get less visitors and fall to the 2nd or 3rd page quickly. When I post in the morning, I tend to get more visitors.

Anywho, every reader has their preferences, but the whole of the story remains important. For instance, in tayg's Uncommon Bonds, I'll admit (as something of a hopeless romantic) Shep and Liara's courtship bit was the most intriguing bit of the fic, but that said, it wouldn't be the same without chapters dealing more with Tali and Traynor and Oriana.

mavqt wrote...

I think that goes without saying really.
People are more interested in the main characters. (Not including Shep)
My guess is they search for Liara or Garrus, not Shepard and X. Well
unless people like reading about other versions of Shep, like
me.

Aye, OCs often lag behind canon characters in popularity/draw.

Though, in regards to searches...I tend to enter Fshep first (nothing against male shep, but I don't have the time to scour through the hordes of those fics, and it's easier to visualize femsheps, personally) and then a major character if I'm looking for something specific, unless I'm looking for a specific non shep fic and know which characters to use in the search.
Like, if there was an Aethyta/Blasto fic where they had awesome adventures. (if only...)

Modifié par fluffywalrus, 30 juillet 2012 - 04:45 .

[Spiritwolf1]

fluffywalrus wrote...


Could it be that you've posted some chapters at different times than others? When I post chapters late at night, they get less visitors and fall to the 2nd or 3rd page quickly. When I post in the morning, I tend to get more visitors.

I did once and that time I thought it was for that reason but then it happened each time...Ill keep an eye on it

[lillitheris]

Aethyta/Blasto seems like one of those things that I’d hate just on principle. One’s a fictional character, and the other is a fictional fictional character. They can’t coexist!

…

Depending on the number discrepancy, it could simply be that those aren’t revisited, although that would tentatively support the favorite argument.

Also, since it’s been probably at least 100 pages since it was last broached: on FFN, Visitors is the stat you want to look at. It’s the number of unique visitors in the last 24 hours—so if one person goes to read a chapter and reloads it 5 times the same day, you have 1 Visitor, but 5 Views (or Hits, if that name still shows somewhere). That, of course, still leaves those who come back to the chapter days or weeks later, and will show up as ‘duplicate’ Visitors. Apparently a few people do that (Edit: I actually don’t understand at all why there are 4-5x Hits vs. Visitors. I don’t see why you’d reload the page. Dunno.

I also still suspect that all Visitors might not be getting added for short chapters because of some kind of a timer…but can’t verify. I just see some dips in the shorter ones in comparison to their predecessor and successor. This could also be people not revisiting those chapters as much as the longer ones, too, so.

Modifié par lillitheris, 30 juillet 2012 - 05:53 .

[hot_heart]

I know it's probably paltry compared to you guys, but I was quite pleased with seeing over 1k visitors for my story this month.

[Mavqt]

I started posting my first fic 11 days ago, 500 views so far. Then again I'm not really doing this for views. It's more for myself, but if it can please others, then why the hell not.

[Spiritwolf1]

And it builds confidence

[lillitheris]

hot_heart wrote...

I know it's probably paltry compared to you guys, but I was quite pleased with seeing over 1k visitors for my story this month.

You should be! It’s great to know you have a sizeable number of people interested!

(I still like reviews/PMs myself…intellectually I know that the people who keep reading chapters probably aren’t doing it just because they have nothing better to do with their time, but it’s not quite as visceral—and I dig the interaction.)

[fluffywalrus]

lillitheris wrote...

Aethyta/Blasto seems like one of those things that I’d hate just on principle. One’s a fictional character, and the other is a fictional fictional character. They can’t coexist!

Heck, even Aethyta watching a Blasto vid with some some unlucky guest or two would be a fun one-shot.

I'll freely admit though, I have an unsatiable yearning for Blasto content as well as Aethyta content. Merging the two is like killing two pyjaks with one stone, for me.

[Spiritwolf1]

Well crap dammit, have you ever written a whole bunch of stuff and been so envoloved in it that you forgot to save and then the computer just like crashed on you. *Cries*

[hot_heart]

Damn. No automatic back-up feature at all?

On the plus side...that can be a good thing, sometimes, as you may remember the most significant parts and find a better flow. It's not the same, but I find hacking away large chunks or just putting a dodgy paragraph aside and attempting another run can be useful.

Same went for writing parts for songs. If I hadn't played them in so long, I might forget little bits here and there but when I get into a groove I can figure out something better.

Chin up!

[Spiritwolf1]

*sighs* No, no automated back up features. Half a chapter gone. I can only hope that something better comes out of it.

[MacNasty]

fluffywalrus wrote...

Like, if there was an Aethyta/Blasto fic where they had awesome adventures.

Hmm....

---

I really need to focus. I've been working on this single chapter for over a week now...  Too many distractions.

[lillitheris]

Spiritwolf1 wrote...

Well crap dammit, have you ever written a whole bunch of stuff and been so envoloved in it that you forgot to save and then the computer just like crashed on you. *Cries*

Mac now has an autosave feature, anyway, but my editor has two (or actually three) modes, one of which is the writing mode…whenever I exit that and go into normal/navigation mode—which is every few sentences—I have it set up to save the file. Plus I have a neurosis of saving it occasionally anyway.

Can’t stress the importance of 1. finding out if/how your editor supports automatic saving and 2. finding a new editor if it doesn’t.

In addition to that, if at all possible, automatic backups are a wonderful thing…external hard drive and an incremental backup at least every 2-3 hours. I’ve got a Time Capsule, so  I get hourly backups.

[JadeDragonMTR]

fluffywalrus wrote...

lillitheris wrote...

Aethyta/Blasto seems like one of those things that I’d hate just on principle. One’s a fictional character, and the other is a fictional fictional character. They can’t coexist!

Heck, even Aethyta watching a Blasto vid with some some unlucky guest or two would be a fun one-shot.

I'll freely admit though, I have an unsatiable yearning for Blasto content as well as Aethyta content. Merging the two is like killing two pyjaks with one stone, for me.

BTW, I added that Blasto joke in my last chapter for you, fluffy! For all your hard work! 

[JadeDragonMTR]

lillitheris wrote...

Spiritwolf1 wrote...

Well crap dammit, have you ever written a whole bunch of stuff and been so envoloved in it that you forgot to save and then the computer just like crashed on you. *Cries*

Mac now has an autosave feature, anyway, but my editor has two (or actually three) modes, one of which is the writing mode…whenever I exit that and go into normal/navigation mode—which is every few sentences—I have it set up to save the file. Plus I have a neurosis of saving it occasionally anyway.

Can’t stress the importance of 1. finding out if/how your editor supports automatic saving and 2. finding a new editor if it doesn’t.

In addition to that, if at all possible, automatic backups are a wonderful thing…external hard drive and an incremental backup at least every 2-3 hours. I’ve got a Time Capsule, so  I get hourly backups.

I think MS Word on the Mac has the autosave feature, and even if your machine completely crashes, it will save your document even if you didn't hit "save" just before the crash.

[xIxDarkWolfxIx]

@Hot_heart. Your story is coming along nicely. It always feels to short, probably a good thing. Leads me to wanting more, haha.

@Everyone. Can I get some advice for writing Liara? I am about to have the meeting aboard the SB Ship, this will be the second/maybe third time aboard. It will be before the chat on the Normandy and they are not romanced. If you need further info read my fic.
Anyway, any advice on how to write her would be appreciated. Mainly little querks she has. Normally I would just write what I feel, but Liara has a huge, incredibly loyal following. I don't want to alienate people by screwing it up. =P

Danke. =)

[hot_heart]

xIxDarkWolfxIx wrote...
@Hot_heart. Your story is coming along nicely. It always feels to short, probably a good thing. Leads me to wanting more, haha.

Thanks! And, yeah, sorry. I'm not overly verbose, plus I'm trying to work within the constraints of what the game has.

I didn't even intend to include so much of a plot but it just kinda grew as it went. If I'd planned it all from the start, maybe it would've been a bit more fleshed out. I dunno...

I do kinda like the brisk pace it has, since it's like the noir fiction I was inspired by, but it can leave things a bit dry.

Wish I could help with the Liara stuff but I'm sure plenty of people here will know better.

Modifié par hot_heart, 30 juillet 2012 - 09:53 .