Fanwriting: Making haste slowly

[nebroadwe]

My quondam Fire and Ice Challenge 'fic, now just my latest project, is still not finished, though I've worked on it off and on all week. It's developed a title -- In My End Is My Beginning -- which I don't really like but am going to live with (at least it gives me a way to label the file). I've got enough of a handwritten draft to guess that I'm looking at about 8400 words of typescript and probably 8000 words of finished 'fic. I usually overwrite my drafts and have to delete the tl;dr in revision, and this piece is just chock-full of opportunities for tl;dr, being set some seven years after the end of the manga. (My entire unwritten Al-in-Xing novel is backstory for this piece. [headdesk]) On the other hand, it's nice to be able to estimate how far I have left to go, so that I can make one of these:

4,563 / 8,400 (54.3%)

Further bulletins as events warrant. Must take some time this weekend to read all the Fire and Ice entries properly ...

Comments

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i know this sort of pain, most of mine never have a title and heaven help me if i set them aside for a few weeks to let the story perk because then i never remember the file name...

good luck. will be looking forward to seeing it. I'm enjoying the fire & ice challenges though I wish (given how many challenges went out) i knew how many didn';t get turned in thanks to all the horrible storms

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

though I wish (given how many challenges went out) i knew how many didn't get turned in thanks to all the horrible storms

I'm sure I'll hear about it eventually.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yes I'm sure too

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

"The Second -second Annual...."

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Or maybe "The 2008 Wind and Rain Challenge"?

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHA. That might be it, indeed.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Argh, yes. I still have the reflex from back when file names were limited to make them short, and sometimes they end up bearing no resemblance to the title of the piece itself, which is confusing when I'm trying to find something I wrote a while ago ("what did I call that?"). Word association games ho.

I'm enjoying the fire & ice challenges though I wish (given how many challenges went out) i knew how many didn';t get turned in thanks to all the horrible storms

Well, not mine, at least ... [glares at draft material]

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

and then if i DO title them i forget that too. At least with challenge stories I can use the challenge name...

yeah that's too bad. I wasn't entirely happy with mine but then again I never am

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

and then if i DO title them i forget that too. At least with challenge stories I can use the challenge name...

[very dim light bulb illuminates above my head] You know, I had never thought of that ...

It's that kind of week so far and I'm only thirty-odd hours in. I forgot my lunch this morning despite having made it ahead of time last night and having seen it in the fridge this morning and patted myself on the back for being so on top of things ...

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

don't feel bad. I forgot all the keys for my office and labs...

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Ouch. Or, no, wait -- it would be more interesting if you were the victim of some nefarious plot here, like your keys being abstracted by that passing stranger you bumped into on the way to work ...

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i told them my ghost stole them

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Does s/he look anything like Edward Mulhare? [remembers fondly]

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

haha, no

[artemisrae.livejournal.com]

More than halfway there? *is hopeful*

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Probably less, actually -- word counts are kind of deceptive, because I'm already looking back at what I've got in typescript and thinking, "That bit needs work, and there's something missing there, and I need to slow down the pacing there, and they're being awfully casual about that ... hmmm." On the other hand, I'm much faster at getting revisions done than I am at producing text de novo, so having a finished draft typescript will indicate that I'm getting close to done, so ...

And I need a closing line, dagnabit! Maybe I should just cut the power and let my characters spoon.

[aliasheist.livejournal.com]

Oh sweet Jesus!

Is it T.S. Eliot themed? Because the Four Quartets are positively rife with ideas to pilfer. Good luck!

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Is it T.S. Eliot themed? Because the Four Quartets are positively rife with ideas to pilfer.

Amen to that, but I actually got it from Mary Queen of Scots this time. (Not that I think Ed is like Mary Queen of Scots, but that's where I knew the phrase from first. And Eliot's being a little more circular in that 4Q passage than I'm trying to be here. Hmm. 4Q and Hohenheim, now ...)

Good luck!

Thanks -- I'll almost certainly need it. [wry]