(no subject)
Nov. 27th, 2019 08:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iniquiticitythis was titled "on connecting with writing" and i'm posting it here instead of in my google docs for organizational purposes.
lol 1. if you are calling out me i reblogged that post from my friend to think about/discuss but don't think i mostly agree, 2. ... but the 'ppl love the stuff i didn't work on more than the stuff i did' is a #real complaint we have all seen sometimes tho right?, 3. ... i see way more headcanon posts with zillion notes than fic posts. i think. (do you not see the same?) which is. interesting?
sorry, that wasn’t meant to seem like a vague or a call-out or something. i apologize if that’s what happened. basically it got me thinking about how i review this situation and i didn’t want to add ten more paragraphs to the post and also i’m super nonconfrontational.
okay i have a bunch of thoughts on this and i have about 8 minutes to explain them, which is something like this:
- i think this idea that stories are easier to digest without editing/revising is very simplistic. not nessarily bad, but a sort of step-one to thinking about writing. because i think that there’s really no correlation between story enjoyment and story revision/editing, assuming we strike from that explanation basic grammar.
-this makes me think of texting fic. texting fic probably doesn’t require a lot of additional revisions, right? but becaus texting fic, generally speaking, doesn’t have complex plots or conflicts, and while the characters may be complex behind the scenes, the story written isn’t responsible for explaining a lot of their motivations, explanations or lives. the kind of stuff a lot of low-conflict fanfiction like texting fic or coffee shop au doesn’t require a lot or revising/editing becuase a lot of these thoughts aren’t considered. and that isn’t bad, but it’s a different kind of writing, and a different kind of experience, and a different kind of interaction between the narrative, the writer, and the reader.
- however, if you’re thinking of more complex fanfiction, that requires some thought. for example, i love appellation. the characters are wonderful, the story, the interaction, all the stuff. of course i don’t know, but i would be interested to see what the outlining/beta process was there. or for example, for greenhouses, almost every chapter has four outlines: the five word outline (”ham and wash fight about books”) the twenty word outline (”ham doesn’t like being given stuff - he has a quid pro quo issue - wash doesn’t understand is blinded by privilege) a fifty word outline, a first draft, and then revisions to that draft. most chapters get their changes in greenhouses in the 5/20/50 word outline stage. and if i had the time, i would to then write a full second draft, but i don’t. the more tightly bound, plotted your story is, and the more conflict and complex characters there are, the more likely there’s a lot more work going on behind the scenes. (other longfic writers are welcome to tell me i’m wrong and to fuck off). if your story has very little conflict, you don’t need that much outlining. again, not a bad thing, just a different kind of story.
-imagined reduced effort on behalf on the writer point here
-approachability
-age difference on plotty fic vs coffe fic?
- that headcanons have a lot of extra notes on them is, i think, based on that they are super short to read most of the time, and also that they impress a sense of interaction and community, whereas i think fic is a very “i am a reader, you are a writer” situation. headcanons are “alex is X, washington is Y” and there’s an unspoken “how do these people interact, how do they get into things?” sort of statement. although i don’t think this is necessarily solid: i mean, i get asks for real fics all the time, and other people do as well. i also think there’s an identity element to it - reading wham fic might make you feel different than thinking of silly wham headcanons and that depends how you interact with it.
that’s all a side note.
lol 1. if you are calling out me i reblogged that post from my friend to think about/discuss but don't think i mostly agree, 2. ... but the 'ppl love the stuff i didn't work on more than the stuff i did' is a #real complaint we have all seen sometimes tho right?, 3. ... i see way more headcanon posts with zillion notes than fic posts. i think. (do you not see the same?) which is. interesting?
sorry, that wasn’t meant to seem like a vague or a call-out or something. i apologize if that’s what happened. basically it got me thinking about how i review this situation and i didn’t want to add ten more paragraphs to the post and also i’m super nonconfrontational.
okay i have a bunch of thoughts on this and i have about 8 minutes to explain them, which is something like this:
- i think this idea that stories are easier to digest without editing/revising is very simplistic. not nessarily bad, but a sort of step-one to thinking about writing. because i think that there’s really no correlation between story enjoyment and story revision/editing, assuming we strike from that explanation basic grammar.
-this makes me think of texting fic. texting fic probably doesn’t require a lot of additional revisions, right? but becaus texting fic, generally speaking, doesn’t have complex plots or conflicts, and while the characters may be complex behind the scenes, the story written isn’t responsible for explaining a lot of their motivations, explanations or lives. the kind of stuff a lot of low-conflict fanfiction like texting fic or coffee shop au doesn’t require a lot or revising/editing becuase a lot of these thoughts aren’t considered. and that isn’t bad, but it’s a different kind of writing, and a different kind of experience, and a different kind of interaction between the narrative, the writer, and the reader.
- however, if you’re thinking of more complex fanfiction, that requires some thought. for example, i love appellation. the characters are wonderful, the story, the interaction, all the stuff. of course i don’t know, but i would be interested to see what the outlining/beta process was there. or for example, for greenhouses, almost every chapter has four outlines: the five word outline (”ham and wash fight about books”) the twenty word outline (”ham doesn’t like being given stuff - he has a quid pro quo issue - wash doesn’t understand is blinded by privilege) a fifty word outline, a first draft, and then revisions to that draft. most chapters get their changes in greenhouses in the 5/20/50 word outline stage. and if i had the time, i would to then write a full second draft, but i don’t. the more tightly bound, plotted your story is, and the more conflict and complex characters there are, the more likely there’s a lot more work going on behind the scenes. (other longfic writers are welcome to tell me i’m wrong and to fuck off). if your story has very little conflict, you don’t need that much outlining. again, not a bad thing, just a different kind of story.
-imagined reduced effort on behalf on the writer point here
-approachability
-age difference on plotty fic vs coffe fic?
- that headcanons have a lot of extra notes on them is, i think, based on that they are super short to read most of the time, and also that they impress a sense of interaction and community, whereas i think fic is a very “i am a reader, you are a writer” situation. headcanons are “alex is X, washington is Y” and there’s an unspoken “how do these people interact, how do they get into things?” sort of statement. although i don’t think this is necessarily solid: i mean, i get asks for real fics all the time, and other people do as well. i also think there’s an identity element to it - reading wham fic might make you feel different than thinking of silly wham headcanons and that depends how you interact with it.
that’s all a side note.