Fanwriting: Making Haste Slowly, Part 3

[nebroadwe]

Just in time for the end of the Fire and Ice 2008 challenge (congratulations, artemisrae: I voted for your piece, though I thought it was lyric_nonsense's, because the only story whose author I identified correctly was cornerofmadness's, because nobody else I know consistently writes dialogue that wouldn't be out of place in a Howard Hawks film :-), I've finished draft the second (typescript) of "In My End Is My Beginning":

8,803 / 8,400 (104.8%)

As you can see, I ran right over my initial estimate of length, but since my first draft didn't actually have a formal conclusion (I handwrote my way up to the last dialogue zinger and then stopped), that's not unexpected. Persons with a vested interest in seeing me poke a toe outside my comfort zone will perhaps be pleased to note that I did, in the event, decide to cut the power and let my characters spoon in the dark. But since it's dark, you can't really see anything, so my modesty is preserved. Win-win.

Now I've got to revise the thing. I've already identified three different places where I'm missing transitions, oh joy ...

Comments

[artemisrae.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the compliment, but I gotta say I'm far FAR more excited for your fic! I didn't get ANYONE I guessed right either - although we had an advantage last year since Lyra posted who'd turned in their fics right before she posted them all. (Although I gotta ask, did you have any suspicions about which one I HAD written? Even though I'm certainly not complaining about reminding you of Lyra.)

Revise revise revise!

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the compliment, but I gotta say I'm far FAR more excited for your fic!

No, no -- come on, this is where you bask in the adulation of your peers and develop an outsized ego, like an Oscar laureate. Or something.

I didn't get ANYONE I guessed right either - although we had an advantage last year since Lyra posted who'd turned in their fics right before she posted them all. (Although I gotta ask, did you have any suspicions about which one I HAD written? Even though I'm certainly not complaining about reminding you of Lyra.)

I don't think so ... I remember thinking that the one about Ed getting sick and being fed soup reminded me of you thematically, but I was pretty sure, on the grounds of its slightly wonky execution, that it wasn't you. I didn't peg evil_little_dog to hers, either, though it doesn't surprise me in retrospect. COM's dialogue is just always recognizable. I guess Lyra faked me out by writing so well in first person that I couldn't hear her usual narrative voice in there. :-)

[artemisrae.livejournal.com]

No, no -- come on, this is where you bask in the adulation of your peers and develop an outsized ego, like an Oscar laureate. Or something.

I can't develop an ego when I'm still not sure how I won the contest! Josie saw the results first and emailed me flipping out, and I got on AIM all "WHUT ARE YOU ON ABOUT?"

I have the opposite of an ego - half the time I have to be coaxed into posting a fic. It's actually a very anxious thing for me. Thank you god for patient betas. And, you know, the adulation of my peers :D

(I'm still more excited for your fic!)

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I can't develop an ego when I'm still not sure how I won the contest!

Uh, by writing a good 'fic most of the voters liked? What popped it over the top for me was the fact that it rounded off nicely -- I liked the narrative voices in Lyra's, but I couldn't suss out a thread that tied it all together and made it a story rather than an episode (possibly a failure on my part as a reader, but still ...); I liked COM's dialogue, but the whole thing seemed to go by rather too fast to deal with all the issues (plot/character/theme/other) being raised; I liked ELD's evocation of childhood, but, again, got to the end and wasn't quite as impressed with the rounding-off, the way the end ties up what precedes it and frames the action in context, as I was with yours; and I liked the Ed-with-the-flu one for having a very good handle on the characters after it's all over (this one also rounded off well), but the execution was wonky. The one that rewrote the beginning of the story was an interesting idea, but it needed to be either shorter or longer; it broke off at the wrong point. And so on.

I have the opposite of an ego - half the time I have to be coaxed into posting a fic. It's actually a very anxious thing for me.

I suppose I should be saying, "No, no, trust yourself!" except that really good writers tend to be paranoid that way, which is one reason their writing is, y'know, GOOD. Because they don't settle. Unlike all those people in the Pit whose author's notes begin, "I know this isn't any good, because I wrote it while I was drunk, but I figured I'd post it anyway." I mean, dear Melpomene, WHY?! Ahem.

Must print out 'fic now so that I can make corrections all over it ...

[artemisrae.livejournal.com]

Uh, by writing a good 'fic most of the voters liked?

Well... if you're gonna put it like THAT. I actually think it's kind of hilarious that you liked how it rounded off - if you only knew the ANGST and the utter TEETH PULLING involved in getting that last section out.

(Which reminds me, I need to go comment on COMs...)

I suppose I should be saying, "No, no, trust yourself!" except that really good writers tend to be paranoid that way, which is one reason their writing is, y'know, GOOD.

If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were trying to hint at something there... :D

Must print out 'fic now so that I can make corrections all over it ...

NOT that I'm trying to rush you (nor do I feel that you are the type to BE rushed) but have I mentioned that I'm REALLY REALLY excited for your fic?

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I actually think it's kind of hilarious that you liked how it rounded off - if you only knew the ANGST and the utter TEETH PULLING involved in getting that last section out.

It's like what they say about swans: the only reason they can glide serenely across the water is because the feet are going like gangbusters underneath.

NOT that I'm trying to rush you (nor do I feel that you are the type to BE rushed) but have I mentioned that I'm REALLY REALLY excited for your fic?

Yeah ... I just wish I could be sure anyone actually wanted to read it ... :-)