blither and blather

[donutsweeper]

Signups over at wipbigbang close tomorrow and I still haven't decided if I want to sign up. I have a fic that meets the prerequisite, 500 words of a story completed and the desire to finish it but....

My brain tends to lean toward freezing, flailing panic at deadlines. Yuletide is immune to this (thankfully), but the last two bigbangs I signed up for I failed to complete and I completely froze and failed to write a thing for last year's not_primetime despite really wanting to.

That said, probably 95% of what I write is for a challenge, exchange or prompt/comment fic fill of some kind (if not more, only 4 out of last year's 116 weren't written for something in particular).

I actually have 7k of the story completed, which is a LOT of story for me. (I think I have only 6 stories that long?) and probably the first 5k or so is just the set up. The problem is I'm not sure where it's going. Plotting out stories doesn't tend to work for me, my brain goes 'whelp, you know what happens, so why bother writing it?'. I probably write best when I have a general sense of the plot/problem (i.e. Arthur's famous/Merlin's oblivious, there are trials and tribulations but they manage to fall in love or Torchwood is called to investigate a lake haunting, it ties into a case Jack worked in the past and things happen) but a lot of wiggle room and that's just not the case here.

Instead, I have a trope. The 'magical/alien/whatever device/technology/spell sends character to an alternate reality/universe and things happen' trope. I read a bunch of fics with said trope and got fascinated by it. Before I knew it I had the idea for the origin world and alternate world and the manner of the device method and... that's it. I have NO idea where to go next plotwise and having a deadline isn't going to help with that. BUT, if I do manage to finish it then it means I'd get art. And art is awesome.

Sigh. Decisions, decisions.

Comments

[geekslave.livejournal.com]

I'm a horrible procrastinator and get very flaily with deadlines too. But most of my stuff written lately has been for a fest or challenge. I think I need that kick in the butt to even write most times.

The trope sounds really good and at least you have a framework for your story. If you think there's a possibility you could come up with a plot, maybe you could sign up.

Hope you can come to a decision you'll be happy with.

Stacey

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I've never signed up for a big bang for that precise reason. I have NO process while writing, and I don't often do long fics and when I do, I nearly break my brain with them. I don't plot, I just go 'wouldn't it be interesting if...' and start writing and see what happens. I think my main problem is I don't care about plot. Plot is very secondary to my interests, it's characters and dialogue I enjoy. The reason I do so many oneshots is because they're all character pieces, but long stories need a plot. It's very annoying.

Your story sounds very interesting at least--'what if' sort of stories are a personal favourite of mine. That sort of 'for want of a horseshoe nail' trope is a very cool idea. One little thing that sends everything off in another direction. I don't have any advice, except that writing should be stress relieving, not stress inducing, so if it will cause you stress to have a deadline, you'd be better off working away at it in an enjoyable fashion.

Also, while I am here:

(http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v32/AWanderingMinstrel/LJ/?action=view&current=valentined2.png)

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

That WIP does sound interesting.