9960 réponses à ce sujet

[Ken_Scades]

Well, If you've got so many difficulties with it, I've got a few tips that could(not necessarily will, writing is very subject to personal differences) help you ease the strain. 

First of all, don't concern yourself with timetables so much. Sure, you should write in earnest, but even listening to readers who pressure you into releasing anything anytime sooner than you feel comfortable with is simply not necessary. You're not getting paid for this, so do it for your enjoyment. If the story takes forever, then so be it. I for example have been working on my own original novel for the last seven years and only now I am finally at a point where I am able to finish it.(That is an extreme case, though in original stories it isn't as rare as one would think. just look at the humonguos amount of material tolkien wrote before he even touched the hobbit.) 

Secondly, Write down the plot in notes so that you can keep the overview, especially if it is this large. You could also use the "snowflake"method, which basically consists of starting with one sentence that characterizes what happens to the main character, that isn't larger than 15 words. Then elaborate sentence for sentence by first writing two sentences circling around dramatic events and one describing the way it ends. Then you gradually elaborate on every sentence by repeating the same base process of turning one sentence into four. Repeat until you are satisfied. Also do it with your characters. And let the story time to develop. great things take long, sometimes. 

When you've written down the plot or followed the snowflake method to an extent that you just can't continue anymore, comes the most important part. You say you can't decide on what to do? Just start writing and think about it when the problem actually presents itself. I can guarantee you that so much is going to change during the actual writing progress, that it's just lost time to constantly obsess about the plan. There is a balance to be held.

Again, if the way things turn out don't please you even after all that preparation, then you can do two things, I believe. You can either screw it and simply begin to rewrite from a point where you find it necessary, or you can start redeveloping the plot on the side and simply continue to write until you are at a point where you can put an end to the story and then do a clean rewrite. I recommend the latter, because you're only going to improve if you finish a story. Anything abandoned won't help you in the least. Maybe it will help you a bit in the case of Works in progress, where you heavily edit your single chapters individually, but even then, you're going to learn much more if you just finish the story. In that case you don't even need to polish the already damned story. Nor do you "need" to upload it since there is no need to do so from the beginning. Just finish the story, feel good because you actually managed what most people don't, regardless of the extent of their work. And start again. 

All this is of course strongly subective, but I do hope providing my own opinion and viewpoint on your situation is going to help you out.

[BronzTrooper]

Honestly, what I do is quite different.

 

I tend to jump all over the place with what I want to happen in my fanfics.  I constantly think well ahead of the next chapter, essentially having the bare-bones of the plot set up in my head.  I expand a bit off of that before I get to that, but since my thinking is far from linear, I'm always adding, tweaking, moving around, and getting rid of ideas I have as I continue with the story.  I've got 3 fanfics going right now, but I've started at least 10.  The ones I'm not working on atm are either on hiatus until I have more time to work on them, I've abandoned completely (only abandoned 1 fanfic) or I haven't published on FF.net.  That's not even counting the one-shots I've done, though I've only done a small handful and started working on a few others.

 

The benefit of my non-linear thinking is that I can work on multiple stories with multiple characters and plots at once.  I'm pretty sure I have well over a dozen or so characters of my own that I have to mentally juggle, not to mention their interactions with established characters and/or other characters I created.  Basically, my mind's a mess, but when I get working on the next chapter for one of my fanfics, I'm able to separate the characters and plot that exist in that from the other characters and plots floating around in my mind.

 

However, it's not without downsides.  I've gotten myself into literary dead-ends with some of the ideas I've had multiple times, and those dead-ends could get rather... complex.  Especially with my bigger fanfics, TLFW and my SI fanfic.  I get ideas and sometimes I get carried away with them, trying to force them to fit into my fanfics despite the fact that they might not even in that moment in the story, or maybe not at all.  I do see ideas I like in other fanfics I read or movies/TV shows I watch and I want to figure out a way to implement them in my fanfics, but most never give far.

 

At least I have the benefit I not having to plan out every single chapter beforehand.  I just pull up Word and getting typing, though sometimes it takes a bit.  Writer's block and all that.

 

Honestly, I don't even jot down my ideas anywhere, so it's all in my head.  Adds more to the chaos that is my thought process, but it allows my ideas to be more flexible.  It also saves on paper and data storage.  

 

Not saying it works for everyone, but it works for me..... somehow.

 

............. is anyone else this chaotic while planning out and working on their fanfics, or is it just me?

[Ken_Scades]

Well, I guess I'm just a lot more planned out than I thought. I honestly doubt you'd be able to make a living as an author if you write like that, but luckily, you don't need to. And if you do or plan to, well, then I'm impressed. I couldn't write like that. Not that i didn't try. 

[BronzTrooper]

I don't really plan to make a living as an author.  I know I suffer with descriptions, but I can't figure out a way to help myself improve with it.  Meh, I just do fanfiction because I enjoy it.  That's what matters, right?

 

As I said, it probably wouldn't work for everyone, but it somehow works for me.  If I get an idea I just can't get out of my head, I jot it down somewhere so I can not think about it as much.  Only had that happen once or twice, though.  At the very least, it allows me to be very flexible with my fanfics.  If I do something I wasn't originally planning to do with the plot, I can usually figure out a way to work with or around it, depending on how it works out.

 

Honestly, I've given my characters some quirks that I hadn't planned out originally, not to mention a few rivalries.  In my main fanfic, TLFW, I made it so that my f!Amell Warden has a bit of a thing for nobles and my m!Tabris and m!Cousland have a bit of an aggressive rivalry going (punches may or may not have been thrown, insults may of may not have been spoken, and threats may or may not have been made  ), not to mention that my f!Brosca ended up playing match-maker with my f!Surana and Alistair and I made my m!Aeducan the unspoken leader of the group.  None of that was planned, but it just happened that way.  At the very least, it added to the characters and their interactions with each other.  

[Seracen]

Heh, I was born in the Southern US, but all this talk of universe merging reminds me of a culinary term from my parents' culture.  There's this dish called kichuri (usually lentils and rice) which is basically a mishmash of various food and spices (often whatever is left in the fridge/cupboard).  The closest American equivalent would be meatloaf made from leftovers (as opposed to scratch).

 

Anyhoo, whenever I would make a random casserole of leftovers, my parents would say I was "making kichuri" out of it.  I suppose that's what we do when we make these multiverse fictions.  That isn't to say the end result can't still taste good! 

[Ken_Scades]

 

Well, that certainly has a special appeal, Seracen. ^^

Reminds me of solyanka, an originally slavic, red soup made from left overs that has gotten popular in Germany as well. You throw in everything you've got left as well, and it always tastes yummy.

[ftkerns]

Holy crap. Sorry I've been absent for so long. Just been having a long string of really, really bad stuff happening, including some medical issues. Severe back problems that make it hard to stand/walk for more than a few minutes at a time, and a hernia that's in a really bad state...the doc said I need emergency surgery, but they're still not operating until I have insurance. Can't afford insurance (haven't ever been able to afford it), having a hell of a time getting insurance started--which is why the hernia got so bad in the first place. Someone at the hospital got the ball rolling, but now it'll take at least another month just for them to process the application. So I'm not sure when I'll finally be able to get this taken care of. The whole thing is both frustrating and discouraging.

 

Anyway. In the midst of that and all the other bad crap dropping on me almost on a daily basis, I've just tried to focus on writing as much as I can. Specifically concentrating on a couple of stories that I might actually have a shot at making some money with. I was almost finished with a novelette titled Game Over when the Kindle Scout program started, so I gave it a shot. I know there's a down side, but every other attempt to get published the traditional way failed, except one, and it's been almost two years since I signed the contract and the book's still not published. The $1,500 advance was what really sold me on the idea. I'm having such a hard time financially that I had to give this a shot. At least it only takes a month or so to find out if it actually worked or not. There's only nine days left in the campaign, and I don't think it's gotten enough votes to be reviewed. But there's a fairly big chunk of the first chapter as a sample, and I've been putting the link to it wherever I can slip it in. I'm not optimistic, though.

 

The other thing is the GI Joe story for Kindle Worlds. I finished the final draft last night and am waiting for a reply. I'm still feeling iffy about the idea of monetizing fanfiction, but honestly, I'm in such desperate need of money that I'm giving it a shot. Who knows, one of these new, non-traditional-publishing things might actually work, and if nothing else, maybe it'll draw more attention to my other work. And I honestly think I managed to write a story that's worth reading, so I'm holding out slight hope on this.

 

One other project I finished recently was a huge-ass blog post. One of my friends and a fellow writer asked me a while back to teach her how to write action scenes. I'm still trying to figure out how to go about it, but one of my ideas was to take the Freelancers one-shot I wrote a few months ago and do a scene-by-scene breakdown, adding comments into the text where relevant, and see if it actually turns out to be useful.

 

Well, at least this won't turn into another gigantic post. There's some recent stuff I want to weigh in on, but I need to start getting ready to head off to work soon, so hopefully in a couple days or so. I'll do my best not to vanish for several more months, this time.

 

[Edited]

 

Huh. I'll be damned. Kindle Worlds actually published it.   Probably won't sell any copies, though....

[Ken_Scades]

Wow. Hey.

Congratulation on living in the US ...I sometimes wonder how a healthsystem this bad can actually survive. but of course, money is the answer.

I tried to  nominate you, bad sadly, I'm not from the US, so I'm shunned yet again by the overall "USA-is-better-than-anyone" opinion that so many business execs and politicains over on your side of  the globe don't seem to be able to even think about giving it up ....

I did look at your story though. And it's not bad. Just propably really not what's wanted right now. And with the shot up book market in the USA it's no wonder you don't find a publisher. Except you did, so I have to warn you. you should be aware of running into legal problems, since you already sold the rights to publish the book, if I understand your post correctly.

 

I'm gonna have a look at that blog post. maybe I'll learn something.

 

SO long,

Phil Scades.

[ftkerns]

Yeah, the healthcare system here is completely screwed up, just like many other things here. This isn't the first time I've run into these sorts of problems with medical treatment.

 

I don't get the publishing and book market thing either. It sucks that you're not allowed to nominate a book in that program just because you don't live here. But thanks for trying. 

 

To clarify, the book that's actually been accepted for publication is a different one. The contract was signed in February 2013, but still hasn't made much progress toward actual release yet. Last update I got from the publisher a couple months ago, we were going back and forth about the cover (basically, me objecting to the cobbled-together, half-assed, stock-photo cover they wanted to slap on it). The one in Kindle Scout is a different story (more of a novelette) I finished writing a week or two after the Scout program launched. And the one in Kindle Worlds is fanfiction, so it's a totally separate thing.

 

And now I've run into a bit more frustration. For a long time I was posting some of my stuff on Textnovel.com to try to draw in new readers, but had to put it on the back burner for a few months while all this recent crap was going on. I just resumed posting stuff there two days ago, and a few hours later, I couldn't get the site to load anymore. It remained down all day yesterday...except, last night, a reader voted for the sample of Game Over (rough draft, not the polished version, which is okay according to the Kindle Scout guidelines). So, I thought, the site's back up. I tried to load it, and it's still down. Or, at least, I can't get any page on the site at all to load. And it's still happening this morning. So, it looks like other people can access the site because someone voted for my book ... but I can't. I can't even get the Contact Us page to load.

 

How utterly typical of the way my luck works. (Bleh...haven't had my morning coffee yet, so I'm just cranky.)

[Seracen]

Yeah, the healthcare system here is completely screwed up, just like many other things here. This isn't the first time I've run into these sorts of problems with medical treatment.

 

I don't get the publishing and book market thing either. It sucks that you're not allowed to nominate a book in that program just because you don't live here. But thanks for trying. 

 

To clarify, the book that's actually been accepted for publication is a different one. The contract was signed in February 2013, but still hasn't made much progress toward actual release yet. Last update I got from the publisher a couple months ago, we were going back and forth about the cover (basically, me objecting to the cobbled-together, half-assed, stock-photo cover they wanted to slap on it). The one in Kindle Scout is a different story (more of a novelette) I finished writing a week or two after the Scout program launched. And the one in Kindle Worlds is fanfiction, so it's a totally separate thing.

 

And now I've run into a bit more frustration. For a long time I was posting some of my stuff on Textnovel.com to try to draw in new readers, but had to put it on the back burner for a few months while all this recent crap was going on. I just resumed posting stuff there two days ago, and a few hours later, I couldn't get the site to load anymore. It remained down all day yesterday...except, last night, a reader voted for the sample of Game Over (rough draft, not the polished version, which is okay according to the Kindle Scout guidelines). So, I thought, the site's back up. I tried to load it, and it's still down. Or, at least, I can't get any page on the site at all to load. And it's still happening this morning. So, it looks like other people can access the site because someone voted for my book ... but I can't. I can't even get the Contact Us page to load.

 

How utterly typical of the way my luck works. (Bleh...haven't had my morning coffee yet, so I'm just cranky.)

 

Sorry to hear about the troubles man.  I've been without healthcare for...man...years and years now.  My only blessing is that since my family doesn't qualify for certain policies, we aren't delinquent for not having it, thus won't have to pay the fee.

 

As for accessing the site, have you tried from another PC?  It could be your firewall/antivirus settings messing it up.  I have a filter (cookies and whatnot) that prevents some webpages from loading if I don't disable it or scale it down (sometimes rebooting PC or LAN is also needed).  I've totally tried to access websites that seemed to only be down for me before, could just be your ISP or local lines.

[ftkerns]

Sorry to hear about the troubles man.  I've been without healthcare for...man...years and years now.  My only blessing is that since my family doesn't qualify for certain policies, we aren't delinquent for not having it, thus won't have to pay the fee.

 

As for accessing the site, have you tried from another PC?  It could be your firewall/antivirus settings messing it up.  I have a filter (cookies and whatnot) that prevents some webpages from loading if I don't disable it or scale it down (sometimes rebooting PC or LAN is also needed).  I've totally tried to access websites that seemed to only be down for me before, could just be your ISP or local lines.

 

Thanks. Glad you at least won't have to pay that fee. Which is another head-scratcher -- someone doesn't have enough money to pay for health insurance, therefore gets hit with a huge fee. Basically, being punished for not having any money. I tried and tried to get insurance, but the lowest price I could find was $145/month. Then, insurance through my employer became available ... but that was $80/month. Considering my last paycheck was $130 ... um, no. So, if this current attempt doesn't work out, I'll be stuck with a $97 ding on my tax refund, plus I won't be able to get the emergency surgery the doctor said I needed.

 

As for said attempt at insurance ... I just got a letter from the department processing my application stating that they can't process it because of some laws that went into effect back in January, and it's been forwarded to another department. So it'll probably end up taking twice as long. And the way my luck works, I'll be very surprised if it's not denied anyway.

 

As for the website thing, I haven't had an opportunity to try from another PC. I managed to get the site to load on my phone, but since I haven't been able to find a free word-processing app that works with RTF files (every time I use DOC, it screws up the text formatting massively when posting chapters on sites like FanStory and AO3), I haven't been able to post any updates. On my tablet, I couldn't get the site to load. Every other site I visit loads without any trouble. Just appears to be that one site. I tried different browsers, and managed to access it and sign in, but the connection times out several times before a page finally loads. So it might be an actual problem with the site. The reader who voted for my sample chapters might've just barely managed to slip in while the site was accessible for a few seconds.

 

Right now, I'm trying to get in with Firefox, since that's the one that I've had any measure of luck with, and have had the connection time out three or four times already, when trying to get to the Game Over page so I can add more chapters. The last attempt managed to load part of the page, so I guess that's progress. If this keeps up, the Scout campaign will end before I can post any more samples ....

[Seracen]

World of Thedas still holds me strong, when classes aren't destroying me, lol!  Figured I'd drop in and just say hello!

 

Off-Topic PSA: you might want to hold off on patching the game until Patch Version 3 is out.  Even with the hotfix for Patch 2, my characters don't look QUITE as SEXAY as they once did (apparently the patch messes around with the textures, which has caused some people to wish they could revisit the character creator).  Nothing too serious, but there you are...

 

On-Topic: having some WILD dreams that feature crossovers between DA: Inquisition and Mass Effect, haha!  While I refuse to do a crossover between those two particular games (genres are far too different for me to enjoy writing it), it is providing nice fodder for various plot points!

 

Which brings to mind a question to all the multiple Universe Crossover Specialists...what criteria do you use to determine what fandoms you will mix?  For me, I can usually explain a great many things with magic/time-travel/immortality/etc, but I am loath to fall back on such things if I can help it.

[ftkerns]

Argh, almost let RL stuff derail me again. Time to do some catching up.

 

I received a much-needed emotional boost a couple days ago. I've recently finished doing a minor rewrite of Freelancers (just a few small tweaks here and there) and updating each chapter on FFnet. Currently in the middle of updating the chapters on AO3. And I also started adding the revised version to Wattpad. The stuff I posted on Wattpad wasn't getting much attention, then a couple days ago, one reader spent an entire day reading the story and voting for each chapter, and posted the following comment on the newest chapter:

 

 

"NOOOOO!! Whyyyyy?!?!? Please update this story... It's indescribably fantastic!!! Please post more soon!!"

 

Haha, I have to admit, that put a huge smile on my face.   Especially after all the horrible stuff I've been going through in the past few months.

 

Finally got started on the next chapter a few days ago. It'll need a lot of work when I start editing it. The first scene is too long -- it goes on for six pages. D: I'll have to either cut a huge chunk of it out, or split it into two separate scenes and insert another scene between them. And I did that thing again ... introduced yet another new character who will end up making at least semi-regular appearances. I've already got too many characters to juggle, but I can't stop tossing new ones in. Having said that, though, I think she'll be a fun character with some interesting stuff in her past ....

 

 

Most asari were slender and elegant, even those who worked for the military or merc corporations, but Rhoa was quite unlike any other he'd ever met. She was tall and broad-shouldered, with a thick waist, biceps nearly as big as his head, and thighs that looked like they could shatter a coconut. She'd always been fairly buff, but had started working extra hard to build up her muscles over the last couple of years. He wondered – not for the first time – if she'd started it after finding out he was attracted to muscular women

 

She's an Eclipse merc, and has recently started to regret some of her actions, particularly the murder she had to commit to get into Eclipse in the first place. Playing with the idea that she's changed a lot in the last couple of years, since landing a cushy gig that doesn't put her in combat situations, allowing her to really pause and reflect on the good things around her for the first time in centuries. Think I'll get a good amount of mileage out of that.

 

Also dealing with some of the fallout from the bit of business with Aria finding some dirt on Sparatus and Tevos and using it to coerce them into cooperating with Shepard. Still feel like I should've played that out a bit longer, but on the other hand, their stubbornness was a major factor in ME2, so really, enough already.  Since ME3 didn't really happen (   ), I figured it was time for them to get a reality check and just move forward from there. Heh.

 

Not that I'm throwing out everything from ME3. It did have a few good ideas, some executed better than others. And some good plot threads that were dropped from the final game. Particularly the little arc with Daro'Xen. I don't remember how it panned out from the leaked script, so I'll end up working out my own ideas for it. Starting with ... what if Daro the lunatic got her hands on the schematics for the Normandy SR2, and then acquired the resources she needed ...? Heh. Think I'm gonna be having some fun with that subplot. 

 

Anyway, on to some recent topics.

 

I'd forgotten all about the bizarre reviews thing, until this article reminded me. I mean ... "Such gathering, much dongers so naked 10/10 good game." Just ... what?

 

Vega, Allers, etc. I actually didn't mind Vega, most of the time. He usually came across as a pretty decent guy. He just should've had a better reason for being in the game -- an actual pivotal role to play, instead of being the character who has things explained to him so players can begin the series with the final installment. And Allers ... well, it should've been Emily Wong on the Normandy. Also, once the people making the game saw what the model ended up looking like, they really missed an opportunity for humor by not having one of the characters ask Allers if she was having some sort of allergic reaction because her face seemed permanently puffed-up.

 

Hahah ... oh, I just thought of something horrible. Think I mentioned a long while back that, when Freelancers gets into the Reaper war, Wong will be embedded on the Normandy, and my Freelancers characters will be stuck with Allers. I literally just now had an idea that they always aim their eyes at her chest because of the way she dresses, and when she finally says, "Hey, my eyes are up here," someone will reply, "Yeah, but your rack is the only part of you worth looking at."

 

I feel mildly terrible for laughing at that. XD

 

Kai Leng ... I probably mentioned this before, but he was a contemptible character for all the wrong reasons (as opposed to Saren, who you hate for all the right reasons). Which made his death in Freelancers one of the most satisfying scenes I've ever written. I did kind of add in some retroactive creepiness by having another character commenting on Leng displaying indoctrination symptoms and planning to usurp the Illusive Man. Leng can be the mustache-twirler. TIM's much more interesting if he's ambiguous like he was in ME2.

 

Major character deaths ... I really don't like doing a lot of those. At least, I feel like it should be a matter of the death needing to happen for the story to move forward or have a meaningful effect on the other characters. It shouldn't be done because, "Well, it's time for another character to get knocked off!" or just for shock value. Also, it probably loses some of its impact if it happens too often. (Also, for me as a reader/viewer, if main characters are killed off too frequently, I actually find it off-putting and I'll stop reading/watching.) If all the main characters survive everything that gets thrown at them for a long time, then suddenly one of them dies, it's more of a gut-punch.

 

I also tend not to kill off characters just for spite. Kai Leng is the only one I've ever done that to, as far as I can recall. But he had it coming. Bwahaha!

 

I do have one specific character death planned out, after Freelancers gets into the Reaper war ... not saying it's the only one (not saying it isn't, either ), but it's one I'm especially likely to follow through on. Hoping it'll come as a surprise, and will actually have meaning for the story. But I can't say more than that. 

 

I'm probably forgetting other stuff I wanted to comment on. But it's probably best if I keep this post shorter than my typical ones. 

 

Back to work on the current chapter ....

[ftkerns]

Hmm. Couple of quick updates. First, Textnovel is finally back. No idea what happened, but I couldn't get it to load at all anymore, even from my phone, over the last several days, but this morning it's working again. So now I'm scrambling to get as much of the rough draft of Game Over posted as I can, because the Scout campaign has only one more day left. I don't think it'll make any difference, though. I just have a feeling the book won't get enough nominations no matter what. Just the way these things always work for me. I get a lot of people telling me they enjoy what I write, but when it comes to things that actually have a chance of bringing in a few dollars, it always falls flat. Or takes forever to go anywhere, like the novel that was accepted...almost two years, and hardly any progress yet.

 

The other thing is the insurance/medical assistant thing I mentioned recently. Got a letter from the department handling it, and my application has been denied. Their excuse? I make too much money. So, let me get this straight. For most of each shift, I'm paid $5/hour. Every paycheck is under $200. My last one was only $130. Even with tips, I'm not making it. Had to borrow money several times in the last few months just to pay the rent and make my car payment. And the job hunt has still gone nowhere. Yet my income is "above the maximum limit" to qualify for assistance.

 

I can't even think of anything to say about that which won't just turn into frothing-at-the-mouth ranting and a stream of profanity and threats of unspeakable violence.

[YurigirlzCrush]

my family has had this problem too. if you're talking about government-related assistance, they count anything that could be considered an asset as income. do you have a nice car? they think you should sell it and buy a rust-bucket before they should help you. own your house? well, that's an easy $200,000 if you sell it, or at least some cash if you take out an extra mortgage or something. so why do you need their help? *smh*

 

my mom works three jobs to support the five of us, and she barely makes ends meet. and yet she makes too much to qualify for a lot of the assistance programs like SNAP and Medicaid because she owns this house. which led to her paying for all of the medical bills out of pocket for when I broke my ankle this summer. because none of her jobs offer health insurance that we can afford. my youngest sisters are safe for medical situations because the government covers medical costs for uninsured children under a certain age. not sure of the specifics but I know my sisters are covered for regular checkups and emergency care. but me and the eldest of my little sisters? we're not covered.

 

*hugs* so in short, ftkerns, I feel for you. it's sort of stupid how some of the qualification processes seem to work.

[MrStoob]

On-Topic: having some WILD dreams that feature crossovers between DA: Inquisition and Mass Effect, haha!  While I refuse to do a crossover between those two particular games (genres are far too different for me to enjoy writing it), it is providing nice fodder for various plot points!

 

Which brings to mind a question to all the multiple Universe Crossover Specialists...what criteria do you use to determine what fandoms you will mix?  For me, I can usually explain a great many things with magic/time-travel/immortality/etc, but I am loath to fall back on such things if I can help it.

I'd mix whatever I think would be interesting, and not overly-difficult to fit together.  I wouldn't personally like to try and mash Star Wars and Skyrim together for example, as there's virtually no common ground, whereas I have done a oneshot Mass Effect/Skyrim tongue in cheek cross-over (it was the Space Core's fault...).

 

My current multi-crossover makes sense to me at least; premise: in a dimension where SHODAN is successful and transforms that universe into her 'construct', it messes with space/time across the multi-verse and creates the potential for 'tears' and other dimensional holes, thus Elizabeth unwittingly makes the journey to the Von Braun to ensure Jack's success in stopping SHODAN and finally end the cycle that Comstock (seemingly) started.  Crossovers for Bioshock, System Shock, Half Life, Portal, the underrated Singularity, and possibly more if I feel like it.  Oh.  And SHODAN might be Caroline ("I like watching you work, insect."), I haven't quite decided that yet.  It's only really a few chapters in, the ideas are more than I can fit in at the mo and I don't want to reveal everything all in one go.

 

Some aren't so bothered but I like some kind of tangible link between the franchises, beyond 'there was a strange flash, then Darth Vader was in another dimension'.  Certain characters from different franchises would be interesting, yes, but just dumping them together for no apparent reason is fine for oneshots or smaller works but on a full piece, I'd prefer a bit more reason.

[ftkerns]

Thanks, Yuri.    That's pretty much how this stuff has worked as far back as I can remember. Over twenty years ago, when I lived in Oregon and my first job was delivering newspapers at 4:00 every morning, I couldn't get on the Oregon Health Plan because my income was "non-verifiable." In a good month, I'd make maybe $300. When I finally managed to land my next job, it was minimum wage, and then the excuse was the same as this one -- I made too much money. I guess if the only money you have is a handful of loose change in your pocket, that's still considered over the allowable limit.

 

And because this is how my life always works, I'd planned to go to the ER yesterday and see if I could talk them into just doing the hernia surgery before I end up with gangrene or something, but I woke up with a sore throat and then the rest of the symptoms set in throughout the rest of the day. Now I have to wait until I'm over the cold because I'm not trying to drive somewhere when I can barely sit up straight.

 

As far as writing goes, an interesting opportunity came up last night. Some of the authors who have books out from the publisher that accepted my novel in Feb. 2013 are putting together an anthology of sci-fi/paranormal romance stories, and invited me to send something in. (There's already a volume out for sale, and this one will be the second.) While a lot of the stuff I write has characters in relationships, the romance is usually not the focus of the story. I tend to write a lot of actiony stuff, so I'm not sure anything I come up with would be a good fit. I don't write straight-up romance, like the books you see on the shelf with Fabio or whoever on the cover. But some ideas finally clicked into place for the character I talked about a few months ago, the woman with the scarred-up face. Most of the major plot points of the story came to me last night and I started writing. Cranked out nearly 3,000 words right there.

 

It'll have a lot of humor in it, like Freelancers, and quite a bit of action, so like I said, I'm not sure if it'll be a good fit as it's not a typical romance story. There'll be a lot of focus on the relationship that develops between the main character and a guy she runs into early in the story, so maybe that'll be enough. I talked to the author who's running the project, and she said it might be good to shake things up from time to time. So if this story does make it into the book, at least it'll stand apart from the rest.  So, at least there's a shot at bringing in a few dollars, and maybe drawing some attention to the rest of my stuff. I can't qualify for medical assistance anyway, so I might as well keep trying to find other ways of making some extra money, right? 

 

Edited to add: I've just put up a short excerpt on my blog.

[YurigirlzCrush]

*dons a Santa costume and apron, grabs broom and Swiffer, commences cleaning and chasing away crickets*

 

Merry Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good day! *waves*

[Seracen]

*dons a Santa costume and apron, grabs broom and Swiffer, commences cleaning and chasing away crickets*

 

Merry Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good day! *waves*

 

I'd like to add my own holiday wishes to all!

 

Now...to go out and get some Chinese food...maybe do some more writing after falling into a food coma!

[teh DRUMPf!!]

 So after something of a break -- awaiting and finally playing Inquisition -- I have returned to my 'fic. I am actually spending my downtime writing over replaying DA:I. Though I'd really like to do both, I only have time for one, and my work is getting real close to finish, which has renewed my interest in it. Also, I can do some of the writing at my workplace when I'm not too busy, but cannot similarly play DA:I over there, lol.

 

 

Still feel like I've got a lot to learn in the way of creative writing, but I do feel better at this than I was before. Also, I have developed some tricks to make the process easier. One thing, for example, I have found is that often the right words do not come to me when I am writing new chapters, but when I revise it soon after it starts to come together a bit, so now I leave lots of [brackets] around words/phrases that do not convey the meaning I am going for adequately but are good enough placeholders for the time being.

 

Heh, I feel like (DA:I spoiler ahoy!)

Spoiler

Cassandra trying to record the events of Adamant/the Fade.

[Seracen]

 

 So after something of a break -- awaiting and finally playing Inquisition -- I have returned to my 'fic. I am actually spending my downtime writing over replaying DA:I. Though I'd really like to do both, I only have time for one, and my work is getting real close to finish, which has renewed my interest in it. Also, I can do some of the writing at my workplace when I'm not too busy, but cannot similarly play DA:I over there, lol.

 

 

Still feel like I've got a lot to learn in the way of creative writing, but I do feel better at this than I was before. Also, I have developed some tricks to make the process easier. One thing, for example, I have found is that often the right words do not come to me when I am writing new chapters, but when I revise it soon after it starts to come together a bit, so now I leave lots of [brackets] around words/phrases that do not convey the meaning I am going for adequately but are good enough placeholders for the time being.

 

Heh, I feel like (DA:I spoiler ahoy!)

Spoiler

Cassandra trying to record the events of Adamant/the Fade.

 

Glad you are feeling more comfortable with your process!  I don't think any writer truly stops learning (not the good ones anyway).

 

As for those placeholders, I've been using that trick for a while now.  Sometimes, you just aren't in the mood to write a particular scene, but you need to get it out of the way in order to move on to the next parts.

 

"[insert fight scene here] [banter here] and [develop x/y/z]" were peppered all throughout my initial draft of ME3: Paladins of Tython.  I feared I'd never make headway, or that I'd end up posting while missing some of my own prompts!  Still, it all worked out in the end.  I wish you luck on your own project!

 

So, in regards to my next ME fic...I am pretty well stalled.  But I feel I need the break.  I am still growing the universe in my head, but I am still poking at some of the trickier aspects.  I feel like I won't be able to make any real progress until I untangle the villain's motivations (which, to be frank, are secondary to my other pursuits with this story).  It's a mess right now, but I'm not concerned.  I'm just in that happy middle ground, where I can daydream about the concept, but feel no rush to actually start working.

 

Ironically, this is as much due to my freetime as anything else.  I've no doubt that the creative juices will flow once again as soon as my classes start again!    The irony! 

[Fatiguesdualism]

Just thought I'd wish the poor, benighted souls (no), my fellow patients, (stop it), we few, we happy few, we band of br (Shakespeare?  Seriously?) 

 

 

Anyway...Happy New Year (and yes I'm a bit early -- but I'm working tomorrow, so .... )

 

More seriously -- I finally updated Stuck in The Middle (I may have told folks October, so...yeah...    )  The chapter is, honestly, a mess -- but it's finally done!  I can move onto the next!   Maybe sometimes you just have to write some stinkingly bad chapters and let them go?  Goodness knows this one had been nothing but a weight on my mind for...(counts fingers) ...nigh three months.    

 

Anyway...

 

Happy New Year! 

[Seracen]

Just thought I'd wish the poor, benighted souls (no), my fellow patients, (stop it), we few, we happy few, we band of br (Shakespeare?  Seriously?) 

 

 

Anyway...Happy New Year (and yes I'm a bit early -- but I'm working tomorrow, so .... )

 

More seriously -- I finally updated Stuck in The Middle (I may have told folks October, so...yeah...    )  The chapter is, honestly, a mess -- but it's finally done!  I can move onto the next!   Maybe sometimes you just have to write some stinkingly bad chapters and let them go?  Goodness knows this one had been nothing but a weight on my mind for...(counts fingers) ...nigh three months.  

 

Anyway...

 

Happy New Year! 

 

Happy New Year all!

 

Yeah, I think everyone has chapters like that though.  For myself, that's what all the [notes in brackets] were for.  I'd just hope that I'd be inspired to flesh it out later on.  Oddly enough, that's how I decided on changing the ending.  I basically realized that I was burning out on the story as constructed, b/c I could not will the energy to write the setup in a certain way.  That forced me to change the final arc, and I think made it stronger.

 

Of course, this is only a luxury I could have afforded myself by writing out so far in advance.  I'd never have been able to do this if I were month-to-month.  I don't think I'll ever write that way again.  Instead, I will barge through the first 10-20 chapters, post those when I have written to around chapter 30, and hope the interest stays by the time I get around to posting the finished product (which, granted, will likely take a month, depending on chapter count).

 

Not the best way to garner views, I know.  Constant updates keep the readers invested for longer.  It also keeps your story relevant on the front pages.  But my way allows me to craft a better story, IMO, and that makes me happier.

 

Anyhoo, I ramble again.  Once more Happy New Year All!

[YurigirlzCrush]

*groans* I have to ask. Is it a bad thing if you still feel hung over nine hours after you stopped drinking and crashed? yes, I was up until noon and still going. and yes, I just got up about half an hour ago. *sheepish* don't judge me! I didn't get to actually start celebrating until 1am, because I spent the whole first part of the night chasing around a whirling dervish of sugar-induced hysteria and trying to keep her out of trouble until she finally crashed.

 

anywho, I hope everyone had a pretty awesome New Year's Eve, and that the start of the new year has treated you all well.

 

*rubs temples* now can anyone fed-ex me a care package of asprin, pepto-bismol and chocolate? I don't feel like going out to get it myself...