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Writing status & rambles
Feb. 23rd, 2016 11:21 pmI've been dealing with creative burnout lately, which I find incredibly annoying, but there's nothing really I can do about it until some of my mental and physical stamina comes back.
I've been thinking about why Project E didn't wrap up as quickly as I'd initially predicted, and what the differences are between Project E and the fanfic it was originally based off of, so here are some thoughts:
- I got very much bogged down by plot problems. For my fanfic, I had an idea of where I wanted the story to go and what I wanted it to focus on, and from there it was just a matter of figuring out how to connect the major set pieces that were the focus of the story. For Project E, I also had a solid idea of the character arc, but then got caught up in ideas for a grand investigative mystery plot that quickly turned out to give me a lot of trouble. Only in the last few weeks did I come to the conclusion that I should jettison that idea, try to weave a coherent story first based off what I already have, and maybe go back later to add the intrigue and investigation stuff.
- To be fair, though, the fanfic was basically a romantic primary plot with an action/mystery-ish secondary plot. For Project E, for certain reasons that I won't get into, having a conventionally-developed romance plot at the forefront isn't an option, so unlike with the fanfic, I can't entirely foreground character interactions and internal character stuff; they have to be streamlined into the initial external plot and only come to the fore much later on. So the crutches I relied on for the fanfic aren't an option in Project E.
- General anxiety about working on an original fiction story (that might *maybe* go somewhere when it's finished) as opposed to fanfic.
- Also, general difficulties inherent in original fic that aren't present in fanfic: more detailed worldbuilding required (and worldbuilding is generally a massive undertaking), the pressure to make the protagonist likable (as opposed to fanfic, in which the reader is already invested in the characters from the start), no ready-made group of minor characters to draw from.
- The worldbuilding in particular has been a sticking point: I'm generally not good at scifi, unless it's scifi driven by a single specific concept, but for a general futuristic scifi world in which I'm constantly wondering things like "what do futuristic computers/cell phones look like?", "how are future wars waged?", "what is futuristic security like and how can it get bypassed?", "what is a realistic level of future medicine/biomodification?", I get stuck pretty frequently.
- It's been harder to determine the pacing and order of revelations in Project E, for the reason that I'm doing something I've actually never done before. I've written a number of stories in which information is hidden from the protagonist (and the reader) and revealed later on; I've also done the opposite and written stories in which the protagonist hides information from other characters (and the reader) and reveals it later on. (I love writing about characters who hide information, it's so fun.) However, I think Project E is the first time I'm trying to do both simultaneously: other characters are hiding information from the protagonist and the reader, AND the protagonist himself is also hiding information from other characters and the reader. Therefore, juggling who knows what and who should learn what when is a pretty huge balancing act.
Overall, things seem mostly doom and gloom right now, but I think—again, once I have more stamina and I'm not dealing with all these mental and physical fatigue problems (and mountains of work for law school)—I could, if I forced myself, scrap together most of a coherent first draft over the period of, I don't know, a weekend? (Assuming I can scrape by with not doing homework for those few days. Although this doesn't happen often, I can move fast when it comes to writing—I think I've managed to churn out 15k words in a weekend before.) I usually have an easier time editing than when writing the first draft from scratch, so...yeah. That should be my priority.
I've been thinking about why Project E didn't wrap up as quickly as I'd initially predicted, and what the differences are between Project E and the fanfic it was originally based off of, so here are some thoughts:
- I got very much bogged down by plot problems. For my fanfic, I had an idea of where I wanted the story to go and what I wanted it to focus on, and from there it was just a matter of figuring out how to connect the major set pieces that were the focus of the story. For Project E, I also had a solid idea of the character arc, but then got caught up in ideas for a grand investigative mystery plot that quickly turned out to give me a lot of trouble. Only in the last few weeks did I come to the conclusion that I should jettison that idea, try to weave a coherent story first based off what I already have, and maybe go back later to add the intrigue and investigation stuff.
- To be fair, though, the fanfic was basically a romantic primary plot with an action/mystery-ish secondary plot. For Project E, for certain reasons that I won't get into, having a conventionally-developed romance plot at the forefront isn't an option, so unlike with the fanfic, I can't entirely foreground character interactions and internal character stuff; they have to be streamlined into the initial external plot and only come to the fore much later on. So the crutches I relied on for the fanfic aren't an option in Project E.
- General anxiety about working on an original fiction story (that might *maybe* go somewhere when it's finished) as opposed to fanfic.
- Also, general difficulties inherent in original fic that aren't present in fanfic: more detailed worldbuilding required (and worldbuilding is generally a massive undertaking), the pressure to make the protagonist likable (as opposed to fanfic, in which the reader is already invested in the characters from the start), no ready-made group of minor characters to draw from.
- The worldbuilding in particular has been a sticking point: I'm generally not good at scifi, unless it's scifi driven by a single specific concept, but for a general futuristic scifi world in which I'm constantly wondering things like "what do futuristic computers/cell phones look like?", "how are future wars waged?", "what is futuristic security like and how can it get bypassed?", "what is a realistic level of future medicine/biomodification?", I get stuck pretty frequently.
- It's been harder to determine the pacing and order of revelations in Project E, for the reason that I'm doing something I've actually never done before. I've written a number of stories in which information is hidden from the protagonist (and the reader) and revealed later on; I've also done the opposite and written stories in which the protagonist hides information from other characters (and the reader) and reveals it later on. (I love writing about characters who hide information, it's so fun.) However, I think Project E is the first time I'm trying to do both simultaneously: other characters are hiding information from the protagonist and the reader, AND the protagonist himself is also hiding information from other characters and the reader. Therefore, juggling who knows what and who should learn what when is a pretty huge balancing act.
Overall, things seem mostly doom and gloom right now, but I think—again, once I have more stamina and I'm not dealing with all these mental and physical fatigue problems (and mountains of work for law school)—I could, if I forced myself, scrap together most of a coherent first draft over the period of, I don't know, a weekend? (Assuming I can scrape by with not doing homework for those few days. Although this doesn't happen often, I can move fast when it comes to writing—I think I've managed to churn out 15k words in a weekend before.) I usually have an easier time editing than when writing the first draft from scratch, so...yeah. That should be my priority.
