Friday, August 27, 2010

One Shots

Recently, I've been on a one shot jag... I just really want to write a few of them before I go back to The Shift.

The first one shot was Lin and Cirvel's story - the circumstances which they met and how they fell in love. I tried very hard to explain how Lin was before Cirvel, how much of a control freak she was, how shy and young she had been... just so you can see progress between the two stories. Siobhan assures me she loves the story, but I am unconvinced of its readiness so far.

The other one shot comes from my total obsession with Maroon 5. I've been listening to their CDs constantly in the last few weeks! The lyrics of "Little of your Time" particularly inspired me to try my hand at writing a one shot based on the lyrics. Hopefully Siobhan will pronounce it worthy of my profile and will edit it better for me!

School has just started now, so you can expect either a whole lot more from me or a whole lot less... it's hard to tell during the semester!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

On Prolific Writers

I have mixed opinions about extremely prolific writers. (Writers with upwards of 40 stories)

On the one hand, I am very glad that they have so much to write about, that they are so creative and I'm sure that they have very good things to contribute (I haven't read many of them, to be honest.) But somehow when I see an account that's been active for a few years and 70 or 80 stories I get put off somehow. Part of it would be that I have no idea where to begin with reading their stuff, and part of it would be the same reason why I don't buy into extremely prolific writers who are being published "in the real world". Somehow I can't seem to believe that they are that original after so much writing in that short a time.

I spend a great deal of time tending to my stories, trying to make each and every one different from each other, even if some of them aren't all that different from other stories in the fandom. It takes me years to write it and get it right, so how is it that these other writers can slap anything and everything up on their profiles so quickly? I mean, I'm beginning to feel like I am building up a decent portfolio of writing at this point in time, and I'm only sixteen stories and seven years into the site.

Ah, well. That's enough for now.

In other news, I've written another page and a half of chapter 3. I think it's almost finished!

Monday, August 2, 2010

Breaking it Down

I say pretty often that I think that my earlier fanfiction is rather cringe-worthy. I don't mind if people read it (in fact, I am rather enthusiastic when people read it) but what I've discovered is my REAL problem with that fanfiction is that it no longer represents me and who I am and what I feel I want to present to the world.

So as an exercise for me and for your reading pleasure, I am going to sum up what my fanfiction says to or about me, if anything, and the age at which I published the story (which, in the case of my two longer one-shots, is not indicative of the age at which I began writing it)

1) Not Knowing: What this story says to me is that I was very enthusiastic about beginning my writing career. It kind of screams "OMG I'M LIKE TOTALLY WRITING A STORY! /SQUEE!" and it definitely highlights what I liked to read in a story at the time - epic fluff. (Age at publishing date: 13)

2) Secrets: My excursion into a second story, what I see as an experiment with "needing character flaws" and fighting to (and failing to) not insert myself into every character I created. Slightly darker character background, though you don't see it in the story. (Age: 13)

3) Moonlight Meeting: Lord of the Rings poetry... We were writing poems in my Language Arts class at the time, and I remember writing this for that. I'd say it highlights my fascination with the Strong and Silent Type. (Age: 14)

4) The Simple Valentine: This was my first excursion into excluding as much dialogue possible. An experiment with simply description telling a tale. (Age: 14)

5) Coiasira A'Auta Eska: I'd say my first true AU story from the very getgo. The others were definitely AU, but not always intentionally! I wanted a more lighthearted story, but let the characters get away from me. Legolas' character twist (i.e. being a man whore) later in the story was a decision I made when I was a little older (it wasn't part of the plans from the beginning) and kind of simultaneously ruined and made the story for me. (Age: 14)

6) A Night in the Mountain: I love fluff and I love Arkarian, so here, have 5000 words of it. This was my first excursion into another fandom, and the writing style is very different because of it. While writing this, I remember being really awkward about the sex scene, lol! (Age: 16)

7) Elves Among Us: My first long story one shot, and a writing exercise that many people write about. It took me forever to write, and really was just me having fun with modern day Earth matching Middle Earth characters. (Age: 16, probably 13 or 14 when I began writing it)

8) Upon Earth's Opening: This was my first experiment with a darker plot, with a darker, stronger character. This was definitely my first story that had a character-driven plot, as opposed to a plot-driven plot. (Age: 16)

9) And Set Me Free, My Love: After my success with the Guardians of Time fandom, I wanted to write a poemfic. Et voila! Because of its length, it doesn't say much about me, other than a sudden interest in characters that are not main characters. (Age: 16)

10) Understanding Elemental: Back into Fanya and Legolas' world, and the first time I ever wrote Fanfiction of my own Fanfiction. Virana is not a character I would have liked to follow for very long, and the oneshot was perfect for her. (Age: 19)

11) Never Realizing: A change in writing style that suited where I was in life, having just started college and being unable to put much effort into a longer story. Also, my first male main character. (Age: 19)

12) The Blossoming: A further venture into a third fandom, and a Night-In-The-Mountain-esque love of Fluff and Lots Of It, (except with a better writing style, I think.) (Age: 19)

13) The House on the Hill: My only venture into Harry Potter, and one of my darker visions. Voldemort requires it, though. (Age: 19)

14) Him: I love little random oneshots, and this was a short, angsty one about Thranduil missing his son. What I introduced into my writing at this point was an awareness of word choice and the exclusions of certain words to further the plot (for this one it was Legolas' name, which Thranduil avoids saying until he actually sees his son at the end.) (Age: 19)

15) Earth's Final Closure: What this says to me is that this story is the reason why I am writing this blog, although you don't see it with the publishing dates. The 16-year-old me who wrote Upon Earth's Opening is a very different person from the 20-year-old who just published this story. It was a struggle to go back even 2 years to when I started to write it and even more of a struggle to go back 4 years to Caen's character. (Age: 20)

16) The Loss: A more serious look into the lives of Arkarian and Isabel, and definitely my most angsty fanfic yet. I wanted to write something that wasn't all fluffy fluff for the fandom. Also, I wanted to experiment with a sex scene that was more destructive to the characters than constructive to the plot. (Age: 20)

So I don't know if any of that is helpful, interesting, or at all coherent... but there you have it! 16 stories.

What I find most amusing about the age I was at publishing dates is that it definitely speaks to my interest in writing and fanfiction at the time. The years that have none were some of the most formative years I had, and because of that I found I wasn't as creative. (I believe creativity comes out of stability, you see.)
13: 2
14: 3
15: 0
16: 4
17: 0
18: 0
19: 5
20: 2