9961 réponses à ce sujet

[Ignis Mors]

sH0tgUn jUliA wrote...

Thanks for the information, Fluffy.

I keep my chapters in the 5-6k range. It's fast reading. I've been told that I'm pretty good with suspense and dialogue. I'm a character writer. Characters hate to be ignored. They get bent out of shape. I know I'm not a literary genius so I make no pretense at it. I want you to turn pages. What takes me a lot of time is going through and reading all of the dialogue aloud. If dialogue doesn't flow well spoken it gets edited until it does. This can be a pain in the butt, however it's worth it. Then I'll proof read it myself. Then I'll see if I can get someone else to proof it who isn't close to the story.

I typically keep mine in that range too, but a couple have ended up being longer. And some have ended up being really short, too.

[Efvie]

Seracen wrote...


I just find it odd that I am crafting scenes which don't intend to publish, and will remain for myself alone. I suppose I COULD release it, but I realize that, thematically, it would be jarring to release it as part of the main story.

Anyhoo, anybody else do stuff like this? Just write something they'd like to see for fun, even though it doesn't REALLY fit?

Not quite. I have a separate story, “Coherence”, which is just a collection of tiny scenes. Well, had. It never got to much apart from more background-y scenes, but the idea was to shove also concurrent scenes in there.

I know some do like to write lots ‘in reserve’, some even cut and splice scenes together from pieces discarded long ago. That I don’t really do myself—and am probably the poorer writer for it—but that’s another approach worth considering…

[MrStoob]

Efvie wrote...

Seracen wrote...


I just find it odd that I am crafting scenes which don't intend to publish, and will remain for myself alone. I suppose I COULD release it, but I realize that, thematically, it would be jarring to release it as part of the main story.

Anyhoo, anybody else do stuff like this? Just write something they'd like to see for fun, even though it doesn't REALLY fit?

Not quite. I have a separate story, “Coherence”, which is just a collection of tiny scenes. Well, had. It never got to much apart from more background-y scenes, but the idea was to shove also concurrent scenes in there.

I know some do like to write lots ‘in reserve’, some even cut and splice scenes together from pieces discarded long ago. That I don’t really do myself—and am probably the poorer writer for it—but that’s another approach worth considering…

Any ideas that would jar with the current main tale (silly or ponderous stuff usually), I do oneshots for that sorta run parallel in their own collection.  Works for me anyway.

Modifié par MrStoob, 28 janvier 2014 - 10:44 .

[Seracen]

MrStoob wrote...

Any ideas that would jar with the current main tale (silly or ponderous stuff usually), I do oneshots for that sorta run parallel in their own collection.  Works for me anyway.

Do not know why, but I've not generally done one-shots.  For some reason, I either cannot summon the passion for it, or I turn them into longer stories.  The exception is when I do "epilogues" that I deem to be a canonical addendum to a story.

It's an art I wish I had.  Case in point: I was challenged to write a "lemon" fic by my primary beta reader.  I ended up creating a larger story that had such sequences in them.  I had to keep myself from actually continuing the story, since I ended up creating an entire plotline in my head.

[fluffywalrus]

Seracen wrote...

MrStoob wrote...

Any ideas that would jar with the current main tale (silly or ponderous stuff usually), I do oneshots for that sorta run parallel in their own collection.  Works for me anyway.

Do not know why, but I've not generally done one-shots.  For some reason, I either cannot summon the passion for it, or I turn them into longer stories.  The exception is when I do "epilogues" that I deem to be a canonical addendum to a story.

It's an art I wish I had.  Case in point: I was challenged to write a "lemon" fic by my primary beta reader.  I ended up creating a larger story that had such sequences in them.  I had to keep myself from actually continuing the story, since I ended up creating an entire plotline in my head.

Yeah, one-shots require a different sort of skills and way of thinking, and certainly a level of restraint.
Like your example, I was given a certain prompt by one of my friends (who happens to read my stuff, oddly enough), and every time I started character building, I kept thinking "Hrm, what if X happens in the future? It could totally lead to Y, and then...crap, I'm doing it again."

It's something that almost always happens when I'm doing outlines for prompts or whatever. Even if I can keep things short, they almost always become incredibly long for one-shots, or a short multi-chapter fic/string of related one-shots. A twenty word prompt inspired by some thread on reddit unravels into a 11k word outline about two roommates with peculiar kinks. I'm not entirely sure how I do it, but I have this heinously massive "One shot" notepad file (seriously, it's just outlines, and it's 113k) where I list my ideas for those sorts of fics...and half of the entries end up becoming multi-chapter outlines. XD When I get a good idea, I'm like a dog with a bone, and I just keep going and expanding and working at it until it's ridiculously far from being one-shot material.

Like...sometimes I can pull them off, but those ones are usually a sort of character study with only a minor sort of plot, and usually just a character reflecting on a situation and progressing through it.

Modifié par fluffywalrus, 28 janvier 2014 - 02:49 .

[BronzTrooper]

I can't get into the state of mind to do random one-shots, and the one time I tried to do a collection of one-shots on FF.net, I ended up making it into an entire story with a plot and everything. But, one-shots seem to be fairly rare on FF.net (unless it's around christmas, then they show up everywhere) so I guess that either a) more people like writing entire stories, or most people simply can't write one-shots. Personally, I can't stop writing a story unless I utterly lose interest in it.

[MrStoob]

Some of my oneshots are the basis of a much larger idea that I know I won't get around to writing but the general premise is portrayed fully enough in a oneshot, some are just silly scenes. At times, I've done one-shots that were an afterthought to a section of a main story that it's too late to include, but I want to relate anyway. Some of these transfer into the main if I'm doing a re-write.

To be honest, I find one-shots okay to write but probably because I'm lazy haha. Some of them are well short, literally just a few hundred words. It would seem though, that if the idea/writing has merit, regardless of the length of the piece, readers are interested.

@Fluffy: Dunno if you recall but some of the one-shots I did about Liara becoming an Information Broker and descending into the darker underworld which were one-shots, I've now included in the main Blue tale that now I've uploaded to AO3. Made the Samara/Liara dynamic more interesting for the sequel, if you recall that particular incident on Thessia when Liara returns home after Shep's death.

I did a Skyrim one-shot of Lydia wandering up to Dragonsreach to meet her new Thane, and that grew into 8 chapts. So a one-shot doesn't have to remain so if further ideas come.

[hot_heart]

I was going to say one-shots aren't really my thing...but I did write one for fun, it's in my sig. Stupid self. I do wish I were better at short story ideas in general.

I prefer to work on larger pieces, so even that one-shot was a sort of tester for a silly buddy cop Jack/Miranda thing. Though I doubt I'll ever write a whole story from it. I might make some treatments for a few story ideas and see which I think will work best.

[YurigirlzCrush]

I don't think I could ever do a one-shot. *sigh* I like to read them if the idea is interesting, so there's definitely an audience for them (unless I'm just really weird), but I'm struggling just with the chapter length for the two fics I'm working on. I wanted to try for 5-6K words, but just single scenes in both stories keep extending into the 4K range. every chapter I've finished so far has hit 7, and I fear after I go back end rewrite them for my editing process, they'll easily surpass 8. if I ever tried to encapsulate an entire story idea into a one-shot, it would totes end up at like 20K words or something! I'm just not good at brevity.

[Fatiguesdualism]

[Waves forlornly]

On the subject of one-shots -I've tried- with frankly dubious results. I suspect brevity may be a pretty mandatory trait.

As a question - has anyone else find they need to be in a specific location to write, as in the actual putting of 'words to paper' and not just concepts and such? I'm only asking because due to a recent (Sunday Morning ) cut in electricity supply I've tried in a couple of different locations (local library and a friend's house) and it was like bouncing my head against a wall - utterly pointless, nothing happened. Admittedly I couldn't use my own machine - but I did have a fairly recent printout of what I'd done.

Anyway rant over (sorry about that) I'll try and catch up with everything that's happened when the leccy returns; maybe Saturday - maybe. Hopefully.  [Whimpers]

Modifié par Fatiguesdualism, 29 janvier 2014 - 06:59 .

[BronzTrooper]

Fatiguesdualism wrote...

As a question - has anyone else find they need to be in a specific location to write, as in the actual putting of 'words to paper' and not just concepts and such?

Well, despite the fact that I have almost all of my stories on my flash drive (never know what can happen to your files when you aren't looking at them), I only really type at home.  The reason being that I don't like people watching me type.  I mean, if I'm on BSN or some other social site, I don't really care because I'm not thinking about what I want to type for hours.  But, if I'm typing up a chapter for one of my fanfics and someone walks into the room, I minimize the page and make it look like I'm doing something else.  When I type my fanfics, I'm pretty personal about them and I don't want to talk about them.  But, maybe I'm just weird like that.  Not sure how many other people are like that... 

[Seracen]

Fatiguesdualism wrote...

[Waves forlornly]

On the subject of one-shots -I've tried- with frankly dubious results. I suspect brevity may be a pretty mandatory trait.

As a question - has anyone else find they need to be in a specific location to write, as in the actual putting of 'words to paper' and not just concepts and such? I'm only asking because due to a recent (Sunday Morning ) cut in electricity supply I've tried in a couple of different locations (local library and a friend's house) and it was like bouncing my head against a wall - utterly pointless, nothing happened. Admittedly I couldn't use my own machine - but I did have a fairly recent printout of what I'd done.

Anyway rant over (sorry about that) I'll try and catch up with everything that's happened when the leccy returns; maybe Saturday - maybe. Hopefully.  [Whimpers]

I agree with Gamer.  Writing is extremely personal for me.  I don't mind sharing afterwards, but the process is a very intimate thing, regarless of what I am writing, and I don't enjoy company during the process.

I find that there are a few conditions which must be met, in order for me to properly write.  I prefer being in my room, with only the lamp light on.  I used to prefer writing on my desktop, but I transfer to my laptop nowadays.  I got used to the laptop due to carting around all over the place.

I've said this before, but for some reason, I prefer writing at night as well.  So yeah, there are a few malleable factors, yet others which I prefer remain constant.

[MrStoob]

I currently only write on my desktop, which is located in the back room under the stairs.  Nice little cubby hole, out of the way, with few distractions (apart from occasional through-traffic of housemate/friends).  I don't think I could write in a library or whatever, too many distractions.  I need QUIET!!! 

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Well, thanks to reading this thread, I was reminded of being diligent and backing up my hard work.

I did a one shot that ended up around 20,000 words. The only thing that I've done that's brief are what we've called "Mac Attacks" in our "Role Play" with the random Bloodpack band. You do know that when you revive a vorcha and he yells "I LIVE" a kitten dies. Thank you Mark Meer. Oh and the other one was when the Geth drop ship dropped off needed reinforcements all speaking digital of course.

But I need quiet to write. And I get creative around 10 pm.

[fluffywalrus]

sH0tgUn jUliA wrote...

But I need quiet to write. And I get creative around 10 pm.

I tend to need music to write (though sometimes I need silence to focus if a scene is dialogue heavy and intense).
But I do about 90% of my writing between the hours of 8pm and 4am. I usually can't get the will to write in the morning or afternoon hours unless I'm visiting my parents' place, and even then, I'm not very productive.

[BronzTrooper]

fluffywalrus wrote...

sH0tgUn jUliA wrote...

But I need quiet to write. And I get creative around 10 pm.

I tend to need music to write (though sometimes I need silence to focus if a scene is dialogue heavy and intense).
But I do about 90% of my writing between the hours of 8pm and 4am. I usually can't get the will to write in the morning or afternoon hours unless I'm visiting my parents' place, and even then, I'm not very productive.

I always have my headphones on with Linkin Park blasting when I type so that I wont get distracted by anything around me and I can focus.  It also helps me type too, though sometimes I find myself typing to the beat of the music, lol. 

[hot_heart]

I definitely need to be at my PC in order to write fully. I tried with my laptop but eventually my sitting position becomes uncomfortable so I can't concentrate.

However, I will often find myself sketching out scenes/notes/dialogue on scraps of paper while at work, or at home if I want to make 'scene cards' and swap things round. The latter is definitely more of a script thing, though.

And I need my music, definitely. It makes for a nice background and actually tends to prevent me from getting distracted by clicky clicky internet things. REM and Idlewild are pretty good accompaniment, but
lately I've found myself listening to the Firefly and Serenity
soundtracks. Love that main theme for the film (of course everyone loves the show's main theme).

[YurigirlzCrush]

*waves*

I can tell which of you all live in homes without younger siblings! quiet? privacy? seriously? would I like privacy and/or quiet when I'm writing? yes! do I ever get it? no! case in point! as I am attempting to write this, my baby sister is sitting on the other end of my bed, watching Labyrinth in my room. so after I finish this post and start trying to write, I'll be doing it with a movie playing in the background (loudly) and probably with someone singing along at some point (that someone may or may not be me). *shakes head*

@Lagoona: I'm not sure about other opinions, but I have just started writing my first fanfic, and I have to say that I would probably find it more than a little irritating and sketchy if someone else came along and tried to finish my work while I was on hiatus. I'm sure the author would appreciate your enthusiasm for your story, but you never know what's going on in their life. one of my favorite authors recently posted an update to a story that has been untouched for 2-1/2 years saying that a bunch of personal stuff happened to keep them away, but they are still working on it and expect to turn out new chapters by years' end, etc. etc.

tl;dr: It's up to you whether to hijack someone else's story ideas and characters and write an ending, but without the author's permission, I'd say it's very sketchy. no offense, but I know that I personally would feel a bit plagiarized and cheated if someone did it to me. even if I never intended to actually finish. I mean, it's basically like stealing someone's idea and taking credit, even if you credit them.

plus, if they actually do intend to finish someday, they would be coming back and essentially competing with someone who stole their idea and wrote the ending first. (even if stealing it wasn't your intent, which it sounds like it's not)

[Seracen]

LagoonaLahaana wrote...

Is it unethical to attempt to continue a story using another author's character and plot, if the author is no longer active or answering emails and has left a story in limbo?

I am new to fanfiction and would like to continue a story I am obsessing over, but the original author has been inactive since 2010.

Speaking for myself, I would consider it flattery, if someone continues my work.  However, I would also call it plagiarism if they didn't credit me.

Personally, I have actually created branch off works of other people's fiction before, but I did so for a website which allowed such things, so long as proper credit was given.  Moreover, most people who submitted their work knew that it might be re-appropriated with credit given.

As for your case, I don't see it as unethical, so long as respect and credit is given.  However, it would make me uncomfortable to write it without permission from the original author, as there's no way of knowing how (s)he'd react.

If possible, you could just do your take on the story, citing the original work as your inspiration.  I imagine it wouldn't be that hard to rewrite something you were passionate about.  I've always found editing to be easier than generating new content.

So yeah. personally, I'd write my own version of the story, citing the original work heavily (without copy-pasting obviously), and credit the original.

EDIT: Yuri raises some valid points.  I was only considering my unfinished work that's posted (which I will likely never revisit).  It would be quite something else for someone to write an ending for my current ME fic (which, although I've not posted for over a year, I've been working on).

Yep, it's a tricky gray area.  Like I said, I think you'd be better served creating an original work that was inspired, and cite the original author.  That's more or less what I did with my own "ME3 ending" fic.  Someone else's work got my juices flowing (although granted, in that case, I generated completely different content).

Modifié par Seracen, 31 janvier 2014 - 04:04 .

[Seracen]

LagoonaLahaana wrote...

@Yuri and @Seracen Thank you for the responses. I did have a bit of a negative feeling about it given that the author might return, and I am certainly not the only one who would like the story to continue. That being said it is his/her Commander Shepard I am absolutely in love with and well the thing is she (this Shepard) is unique both in looks, personality, and backstory (which I want to see a continuation with); but you are correct, it would be wrong for me to take liberties with said character without the writer's permission, even if I gave credit because for all I know that Shepard may be an extension of the author's own self. So, i'll wait and hope that the author comes back. But thank you all for the nudge in the right direction .

Most welcome mate!  Meanwhile, you should us the opportunity to craft a story of your own.  You might even surprise yourself!

[fluffywalrus]

LagoonaLahaana wrote...

Is it unethical to attempt to continue a story using another author's character and plot, if the author is no longer active or answering emails and has left a story in limbo?

I am new to fanfiction and would like to continue a story I am obsessing over, but the original author has been inactive since 2010.

I personally don't think I could continue another author's worth without direct permission from them, honestly. I know a lot of authors go into hiatus, and then return to post new chapters. I know that over the past months, many thought my mass effect fic wasn't going to be updated, but I'm still working on it...I just don't have much time to write, and I'm usually less motivated to work on it than other stories I have going on. But despite the fact that my last regular update was last march, I've still got the rest of the story pretty much outlined with great detail, with some unpublished 99% finished chapters hanging around. If someone started writing additional chapters for my story because they got impatient, I'd be pretty miffed, and I'd probably flag them before anything else. But that said, I'm still an active author, so I suppose that is a difference between me and the peson you're referencing. If someone asked me if they could continue my story, I'd probably say no, unless I knew I had no motivation to finish the story at all, and even then it'd be a coin-toss depending on the story.

Though, even if the author isn't answering any forms of communication...I'd still probably just write a fic that was inspired by it, rather than continue it. it's the safer bet, and it'd be a better creative endeavour.

It sucks when a story gets inactive and you feel it'll never be continued...I've come across a lot of stories like that and I always want to know what happened next. But the safer bet is to just write a new story and take the one you liked as inspiration.

@Yuri: YES! Labyrinth is such a fantastic movie Anything David Bowie = excellent. Although the odd way they really played up his bulge in the film was a bit...well, I can't help but laugh everytime I watch the movie because of it. That one scene where it's like an MC Escher art piece, and he goes from walking on the bottom of the platfor to the top of it, and his bulge is the first thing you see for a frame or two when he'sswinging up...there are no words. Excellent movie...but now I have the urge to watch it and The Neverending Story

I thankfully live outside of my home, though I do have roommates. Including one who is a fighting game fanatic with an inconsistent sleep schedule, who often wakes me up at 4AM yelling about some lag in his game, or botching a combo, or whatever. And another roommate loves to sing loudly, but is very much tonedeaf. It makes for some interesting times. XD Good luck with your writing!

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

LagoonaLahaana wrote...

@Yuri and @Seracen Thank you for the responses. I did have a bit of a negative feeling about it given that the author might return, and I am certainly not the only one who would like the story to continue. That being said it is his/her Commander Shepard I am absolutely in love with and well the thing is she (this Shepard) is unique both in looks, personality, and backstory (which I want to see a continuation with); but you are correct, it would be wrong for me to take liberties with said character without the writer's permission, even if I gave credit because for all I know that Shepard may be an extension of the author's own self. So, i'll wait and hope that the author comes back. But thank you all for the nudge in the right direction .

Is it really any different than say taking the ME universe and picking up the story at the end of say the Suicide Mission and writing a different plot from there on, ignoring everything from that time point onward? Let's look at this for example. What was in these stories? Well, we have to include "Arrival" since that was available right after Horizon. Now the full Reaper lore wasn't available until Leviathan so, do we have to use it? No, but there are many aspects of it that can be used. Synthetics vs. Organics? We don't need to take that theme. Dark Energy? We don't need that one either. We just need to foreshadow something else in a proper manner..., or do we need to give them a reason? Does the reader need to know why they do this? No, the reader does not. There does not need to be an information dump. It just depends upon how you want the story to end. 

Doing this is a major task in itself, and is different because the story has already been written. This is an AU story.

Finishing someone else's story? Honestly, I'd ask the author first if they intend to finish it, and if they don't, ask them if it would be okay for you to finish it. If they say "no," then don't do it. Create your own Shepard and write your own story. 

Now, I'll enlighten a number of you to perhaps Mozart's most popular work: The Requiem. What is ironic about this work is Mozart only completed it through the Dies Irae, and had started a few other sections before he died. He's sketched out a few other sections. His wife, not wanting to return the retainer to the count because she needed the money to survive secretly brought the work to Joseph von Eybler who completed from the Dies to the Lacrimosa. von Eybler at least looked at Mozart's notes for other sections before writing them and did quite a fair job of it. After that he felt overwhelmed and returned the manuscript. Then the manuscript went to Sussmayr who completed the work. Other composers are suspected of helping Sussmayr. The ending is quite heavy-handed. So Mozart's most popular work really wasn't mostly written by Mozart at all which I find quite ironic. His wife collected the full commission for the work, and paid the composers. The secret was kept for years. I don't think Sussmayr recycled enough of Mozart's previous works - namely some of his minor key symphonies, choral works, and minor key masses. Mozart was noted for self paraphrasing. So the Requiem comes off as a nice piece of musical fan fiction. 

For real Mozart, check out his Piano Concertos, and one of my favorite operas, Don Giovanni.

[BronzTrooper]

YurigirlzCrush wrote...
I can tell which of you all live in homes without younger siblings! quiet? privacy? seriously? would I like privacy and/or quiet when I'm writing? yes! do I ever get it? no! case in point! as I am attempting to write this, my baby sister is sitting on the other end of my bed, watching Labyrinth in my room. so after I finish this post and start trying to write, I'll be doing it with a movie playing in the background (loudly) and probably with someone singing along at some point (that someone may or may not be me). *shakes head*

I have a younger sister and she can be very annoying.  Especially since she has gotten into online MMOs like Animal Jam and this show called 'Monster High.'

That's the reason why I blast Linkin Park on my headphones: so I don't have to listen to her!  <_<