Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[LightningTopaz]

Have a schedule for multiple stories--but don't forget to schedule breaks.

 

[Welkamo]

How are you guys managing to juggle so many stories? I can barely focus on one.

Simple: I don't.

Ok I'll give the longer, better answer.

I currently have two ongoing stories. One is about 17 Google Docs pages (before formatting) per chapter, and each chapter takes around 2 months to write. The other is about 100-200 words a chapter, and most chapters take me 1-3 days to write and edit, depending on what's going on. Other than that, I have oneshots that are anywhere between 2 pages and 20. Paradoxically, I'm able to focus more on the ongoing series than I am on the oneshots (I have at least 10 unfinished oneshots that I could publish if I'd just get around to finishing them). I have, like, no schedule when it comes to writing, for better or for worse.

I think the reason why I'm able to (at least sort of) juggle two projects at once is 1. one of them is a collection of really short drabbles, 2. I write when I want to and can, so I'm not forcing myself to write, 3. I don't really have deadlines so I don't get stressed out if things aren't going quickly enough (in theory, at least), 4. the way that my motivation works is one of the mysteries of life (with Tim and Moby), and 5. in the back of my mind, I think "ok, people are reading this and liking it, and maybe one day other people will read it and like it, and I kind of wanna write these stories and see how they play out, and I've gotta write what I wanna read, and etc. etc. etc."

Here's the best advice I can give:

- Write down your ideas. Not in the sense that you should start writing a story as soon as you have an idea, I mean make a list of ideas of things to write (for example, I have a list of ideas for oneshots that I want to eventually get around to writing), so once you finish what you're currently working on, you'll have things to write afterwards.

- Please, please, please, I'm begging and pleading, take breaks. Do not force yourself to write. Burnout is real. Burnout is awful. Burnout is evil. Forcing yourself to write will make things worse.

- It's okay to have "big projects" that you focus on more compared to other projects, but you don't want too many of them. One or two at a time is a pretty good amount, along with a few side projects

- Decide what you like writing. Do you like chapters long stories? Do you prefer shorter oneshots? Everyone's different.

- Take care of yourself. Eat well, get sleep, practice good hygiene, exercise (I like walking, and afterwards, I sometimes get a boost of motivations/ideas for my stories), take any medication you need to, talk to someone/go to therapy if you need to. Also, if you have important/stressful things going on in your life, maybe taking on several projects at the same time isn't the best idea.

- It's okay to only focus on one story at a time! Some people can take on multiple projects, others can't, and that's okay!

 

[OrionTheAbsol]

How are you guys managing to juggle so many stories? I can barely focus on one.

Stray has all of my attention. Though there is a chance it may have spinoff stories to supplement it, I won't start on them until I complete the first part of the story (which can be between 20-30 chapters). That way, I can stay focused. And I'm currently working on chapter 11. Instead of running multiple stories, I juggle many ambitious ideas into a single one; slowly developing the world, plot and characters.

However, I should note that earlier drafts of my story (late 2000s - early 2010s) aren't so great. I stressed too much on the details and ended up with a severe burnout that took me years to recover from. It took me some time to figure out what I truly wanted to do with the story in order to bring the best out of its concepts. And because of the more mature (and dark) themes of my story, I will admit that I had a small grasp on those themes years back.

I don't have a set schedule. Because of my inconsistent work schedule and the fact that I'm still cleaning up after a natural disaster that struck my house in February this year, I can't realistically follow one. Whenever I have the urge to write, I just write. And once I'm done with a chapter, I post. However, I will admit that I do get distracted rather easily, which can cut into my writing time. That's why I need to constantly tell myself to open up Google Docs and come up with something, even something small. I don't follow daily word counts or quotas. I just do whatever I feel like doing.

Since this project is a major hobby of mine, I always brainstorm about it. I planned a lot of scenes and character interactions ahead of time, then wrote those ideas down on Google Docs. Even while I'm away from the house and can't type a lot, I pull up Google Docs on my phone whenever I get a rush of new ideas. Sometimes, I listen to music and get small ideas. And sometimes, there's something I want to write about that requires me to do a small bit of research, to see if I could realistically fit it into my story.

I believe in my project, which is why I dedicated so much time and thought into it. This level of passion is not something I usually come across, and I don't see myself working on any other writing projects in the future. While this is at its core a grim story, I wanted to try a few things out differently. I wanted to make something unique and iconic out of it.

 

[BackSet]

I tried writing multiple stories once. Never finished any of them.

 

[Welkamo]

Forgive me for the stupid question, but would you say there are "well known/famous/staple" Pokémon fanfictions/fanfictions? I know with MLP there's Fallout: Equestria. What would you say is the Pokémon equivalent of that?

 

[Greninjaman]

Forgive me for the stupid question, but would you say there are "well known/famous/staple" Pokémon fanfictions/fanfictions? I know with MLP there's Fallout: Equestria. What would you say is the Pokémon equivalent of that?

Anime rewrites/reimaginings are popular. Same with Mystery Dungeon type stories.

 

[Daren]

Forgive me for the stupid question, but would you say there are "well known/famous/staple" Pokémon fanfictions/fanfictions? I know with MLP there's Fallout: Equestria. What would you say is the Pokémon equivalent of that?

In the original series era there was Pokémon Master, which I think was also the first major darkfic and quite influential at the time (I think one of the writing tips threads here mentioned it for a while), but I don't see it brought up much nowadays.

Nowadays though...well, I'm not even an MLP fan but I hear about Fallout: Equestria fairly often. I can't think of any Pokémon fics with that amount of fame.

 

[Welkamo]

In the original series era there was Pokémon Master, which I think was also the first major darkfic and quite influential at the time (I think one of the writing tips threads here mentioned it for a while), but I don't see it brought up much nowadays.

Nowadays though...well, I'm not even an MLP fan but I hear about Fallout: Equestria fairly often. I can't think of any Pokémon fics with that amount of fame.

I've never heard of Pokémon Master (edit: I just looked it up and yes, I do know about Pokémon Master from my time lurking on TV Tropes). I've heard of Cory Falls before, along with the famous fanfic about Ash timetravelling (not Ashes of the Past, I don't think. The one with Bloodlines or something). There's also some others, but that's probably more a case of me fixating on the Fan Works sections of TV Tropes articles and latching onto any Pokémon fic examples.

My parameters for "famous Pokémon fic" are something along the lines of "has a TV Tropes page" and "National Film Registry-tier importance" is "subpages on TV Tropes", which probably aren't good parameters, but hey, I only recently got into the online fanfic community.

 

[BackSet]

Ashes of the Past and Reset Bloodlines are probably two of the most well known ficus out there. There's also a pretty popular Alola rewrite called "Professor and Student" or something along those lines.

 

[OrionTheAbsol]

In the original series era there was Pokémon Master, which I think was also the first major darkfic and quite influential at the time (I think one of the writing tips threads here mentioned it for a while), but I don't see it brought up much nowadays.

Isn't that the one where Ash is some kind of dark anime action hero and he uses Pikachu as a shapeshifting sword? I never finished it, but I found it bizarre, lol

 

[Welkamo]

I know that, at least for certain characters/ships, there are some pretty well known creators for those circles (for the big ships, at least). Nitro Indigo mentioned something like that previously, where certain creators are associated with certain characters. What I'm talking about is the reverse, sort of: creators in circles for characters being well known in those circles.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Forgive me for the stupid question, but would you say there are "well known/famous/staple" Pokémon fanfictions/fanfictions? I know with MLP there's Fallout: Equestria. What would you say is the Pokémon equivalent of that?

The reason why the MLP fandom is so close-knit is because it was centralised around a few websites in its early days. As for famous Pokémon fics, Silver Resistance has a TV Tropes page and plenty of fanart, and the author claims that it influenced PMD fics.

I don't follow Pokémon shipping circles, but in the MLP fandom, there seems to be a RariTwi (Rarity x Twilight Sparkle) AU circle. The only reason I know about this is because I'm in a Discord server with someone who talks about those kinds of fics a lot.

 

[Beth Pavell]

As far as updates are concerned, realistically, unless you've struck gold as a webcomic author, it won't matter to your readers. Few people will really hang on tenterhooks for a weekly release. Not that having a schedule in your head isn't useful - it is to keep you motivated to push through the harder parts. However, it's not a job and the schedule will slip.

As far as multiple stories goes, I don't know if I do balance them, really. But being able to write TEN SECONDS TO MIDNIGHT or The Erthe Beyonde once in a while keeps me motivated for the main story, since both are very different and give me a break without stopping altogether

 

[Welkamo]

I don't follow Pokémon shipping circles, but in the MLP fandom, there seems to be a RariTwi (Rarity x Twilight Sparkle) AU circle. The only reason I know about this is because I'm in a Discord server with someone who talks about those kinds of fics a lot.

I know the Origin, Rocket, and Pokéshipping circles have big name creators, at least (and of course other ships, but those are the first three that came to my head). Idk who I would say for Gracefulshipping (I’m, like, one of two people on AO3 currently posting fics with the ship tag), which is, ironically, the ship circle I’m most involved in (not in the community sense, more in the “making content of them” sense).

One the subject of fandom centralization, what was the Pokémon fanfic community like in the early days? For Harry Potter, at least (I’ve never read the books and probably never will, I just became fascinated with the Msscribe and Cassandra Clare saga for a period of time), it was super decentralized.

 

[Daren]

One the subject of fandom centralization, what was the Pokémon fanfic community like in the early days? For Harry Potter, at least (I’ve never read the books and probably never will, I just became fascinated with the Msscribe and Cassandra Clare saga for a period of time), it was super decentralized.

There were numerous small sites, plus a few larger ones (FF.net, of course, also places like thepokemontower.com, Cori Falls site had guest fics too, if I recall). Very decentralized while nowadays it seems like most of the prominent stories are ff.net and/or archive of our own (aside from forum only fics ).
Edit: Though ff.net was prominent even from early on.

Also notable that it seemed a decent number of writers retired around gen 3, especially in the anime fandom.

 

[BackSet]

If I recall, there was at least one site that outright banned using canon characters for some reason. Not sure if it's still around today.

 

[Greninjaman]

If I recall, there was at least one site that outright banned using canon characters for some reason. Not sure if it's still around today.

If you think about it, that kinda makes sense.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Lately, I've read a lot of fics that tend to dwell too long on emotional beats. There's a series of Animorphs/His Dark Materials crossovers on AO3 I like called Daemorphing, but one of the fics in it (The Cowardice of Lions) had this problem. Basically, the protagonists want to get rid of someone because he poses a threat to their secrets. At first they consider turning him into a rat like in canon, until a character tells one of them that killing someone is kinder than putting them in solitary confinement. So they kill him... and then they spend the last two chapters (out of five!) mulling over if they did the right thing.

I've also read some far worse-written fics (that I won't name and shame) which have exchanges like this:

Antagonist: I'm going to do this terrible thing!
Protagonist, internally: Oh no! I can't believe they'd do this terrible thing!

Is this anyone else's pet peeve?

 

[BackSet]

Why is it internally? If you're a protagonist and you outright do not under any circumstances agree with the villain, you have to call them out. It's, like, hero 101.

 

[Greninjaman]

I have four stories set up, but I don't know which one I want to focus on! I have:
A Pokémon Anime Rewrite/Reimagined Series
A Dragon Quest Reimagined Story
A Final Fantasy Reimagined Story
A Legend of Zelda Original Story

I can't decide...
Might use a random number generator to help me decide.