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Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

So, on Sunday my partner and I drew up a weekly timetable for me, because I've been losing focus, procrastinating, and becoming distracted. Yesterday was day one of keeping to it, and while it wasn't perfect I consider it to have been a tremendous success. I have writing time scheduled in for Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, plus some other slots where I may choose to write. Progress is coming.
 
I attended a 21st birthday party today. Long story short, I'm now babysitting my niece for the night at my grandparents and don't have Wifi. Which is an improvement over the last birthday party, which involved a katana and hallucinogens and accidents. It's a long story. I don't think I'll have time to publish anything this week.
 
I'm sorry you can't say things like that and not be asked to elaborate a little.
I'd rather not go too into detail, as the man who brought the katana is currently in rehab of his own volition. Plus, talking about illegal drugs seems a little hardcore for a Pokémon forum. All I can give is advice for those in similar circumstances.
  1. If everyone else is tripping, and you're the one that's not, Adult Swim will only pacify them for so long.
  2. Take the sword away IMMEDIATELY. Do not wait for the thankfully-minor cuts, or the unrelated nosebleed that left me with many questions. (Related: practice your MMA. They ain't giving it up.)
  3. Hide the katana behind the washing machine. The bathtub works for a little while, but you gotta move it when they're not looking.
  4. Cloth draped over skin does stop bleeding, but it also bonds to skin as it heals, causing immense pain. Open up the medicine cabinet and go crazy with band-aids.
  5. If they walk out the front door and start roaming the streets, let them go. You've done the best you can.
  6. Blood stains quickly. Wipe up what you can, then get the bleech.
  7. Move to another state.

On the plus side, when your hands are full during cleanup and you need to bring the sword down to the car, you have a legitimate excuse to drape a katana over your back. And man, does it feel cool.

I've had an interesting life.
 
A small announcement!

After some discussion, the team has decided to clarify the wording of one of the Review League rules. "Speedy Review" points are conferred to any review of a recently updated fic, whether or not the review pertains to the most recent update. Previously, this rule was ambiguous, as some reviewers found it intuitive that only reviews of new content would be eligible for this bonus. The new wording is as follows:
  • For speedy reviews done within 48 hours of a fic being released or updated, you will receive 2 extra points. Reviews need not pertain to the latest update.
  • For speedy reviews done within 24 hours of a fic being released or updated, you will receive 4 extra points. Reviews need not pertain to the latest update.
We hope this will encourage more reviews of longer fics that would otherwise not benefit nearly as much from the speedy review incentive!
 
I just realised that on Fimfiction, I get really hung up on the idea of getting popular. I added Moonkind: The Wayward Butterfly to a bunch of groups in hopes that it would get enough attention to get featured (it didn't). Like a let's play, the first instalment gets more attention than any subsequent ones. Just like in my Fanfiction.net days, comments keep me motivated. I don't have this mindset on Archive of Our Own, probably because it's less closely-knit, but does anyone else have this problem?
 
I'm highly motivated by consistent responses from readers. Of course I want a readership. Why else would I be posting my work online, on multiple websites no less?

Good news over here. Partner has a week off work, and my bff who works in China is visiting for the better part of a month! Gonna be a good time. Still no luck finding a proper job, but I might have some small opportunities to earn from home for the time being. Fingers crossed those go well.
 
There's also the problem that the Fimfiction user who I ask for help with ideas has been offline since the 12th, and I'm getting worried about them.

I think I'm stressing too much about writing this story. The chapter I've been most please with took almost a month to write. I feel like I just want to get this done over the summer holidays. I think a good way to write would be to write a chapter with a beginning, a middle, and an end, leave it overnight, and revise it the next day.
 
@Nitro Indigo who knows? I don't know anything about your relationship with the missing person, how casual it is, and so on. Plenty of people discuss their writing with a number of different people, so I personally wouldn't take offence, but I can't promise that your friend won't feel put out, because I'm not them.
 
@unrepentantAuthor I've edited that part out now, but I was worried they'd come back and be all like, "Oh, no! You replaced me!" I didn't know them until I started rambling about my ideas on a forum thread and decided to share them through PM when I realised I was spoiling something that hadn't been written, and that they were the only one on the thread who was interested.
 
I just realised that on Fimfiction, I get really hung up on the idea of getting popular...does anyone else have this problem?

I have...opinions on this topic. But rather than get all preachy, I'm just gonna relate my own experiences. One second, I'm gonna need a big font...

Fuck popularity.

If I wanted to be popular, I could do it pretty cheap. Make accounts on all the major social media sites, buy myself some followers, post links to my fan fiction, and start posting unrelated comments everywhere I could. Eventually, some smucks would click my name, see I'm decently popular, and leave real comments. Perhaps I'd attract a hatedon for the sole fact I'm writing fanfiction, which would attract a hatedom to the hatedom and I'd have actual comments of support. Perhaps there'd just be smucks thinking "this guy's popular; he must be good!" Whatever the case, I'd eventually have a real following I could plug my fics to.

And then what?

My fanfic's popular. What does that accomplish? I now have an audience I have to placate, care for, perhaps even moderate. Meanwhile, I'm making zero money from this endeavor, because this is fan fanfiction. And if I were to set up some "under the table" crowdfunding, I'd be painting a huge target on my back because I'm popular. The copyright lawyers would love to make an example out of me.

For me, I don't need outside encouragement to stay motivated. If I ever reached that point, I'd stop abd rethink why I'm writing in the first place. There are plenty of other activities that also don't make ne money; why not do those instead of writing fanfiction? And that's because I enjoy writing for the sole sake of writing.

Take my poetry collection. I got to about a dozen poems, of which only the first attracted any comments. And I'm fine with that. I even set up an experiment where I hid a review trade in one of my posts, and despite months, no one's bit. But I kept writing poetry, because I wanted to. I was clarifying my thoughts on several complicated issues while creating a memoir of sorts out of my author's notes. That's what kept me motivated, and every project since has been structured so no outside gratification is needed (fun fact: I wrote the entirety of KAIJUMON before joining these forums, because I wanted to test a possible re-worldbuilding of Pokémon. It gave me sweet dreams).

I suppose I'd eventually like to build a cult following. I don't want to be popular per se, but I do want to find like-minded people that have similar tastes in media. Hence while I publish to a small outfit and occasionally advertise. But I've learned my lesson about soliciting reviews, and if someone's commenting because of some external pressure (i.e. scoring points at the review game), then I'm not going to get much from it. If people comment on my fics, I want it to come from someone invested in my work and wants my future writing to be better. I have my own conversational writing style I feel comfortable with, plus my low-wordcount poetry-inspired narration I find effective. And until I find a critic invested enough to change that, I'm gonna self-develop and keep on writing.

Weuh. That speech is outta me. Again, this is all my personal take. yadda yadda yadda. Feels good finally getting this out there. I might formalize this into an essay down the line, something I can put into my sig so people know why I write. It seems to be something that surprises people.
 
So... you want your popularity to feel earned? Because I do too. I originally started YouTubing because I wanted to connect with people who liked the same things as me, but I don't want to do it as a job.
 
@Nitro Indigo I suppose that's a way to put it. I just wanna write for myself, and if other people like it, it's a bonus. And you're right about connecting with others; I'd rather write for a small following I can personally interact with than a faceless legion. End of the day though, I still gotta put myself first if I wanna stay sane. Taking breaks, giving yourself a flexible schedule, etc. I suppose writing, to me, is a coping skill, and I'm wary of popularity taking that away from me.
 
while i agree that writing should be done on the author's terms and that popularity is not an objective good, i can't practise what i preach there since i really really want people to read my fics. however it's not for internet coolness points (yeah like i'd get those with a tpp fic) but because my stories are my art and expression and therefore a pretty deep part of me. when someone reads my stories or looks at my art, i feel a connection to that person. it's like spending time with someone, but instead of all kinds of social rules and insecurities in the way, i'm able to be completely honest in an abstract way. my art is the reflection of my soul, so there's no pretending something i'm not when i write from the heart. i feel like this is probably also how musicians feel when they play and/or sing for someone.

it's true that this also makes me very vulnerable, but honestly, i still feel way more vulnerable in real life interactions. i've also been lucky enough to receive overall very good reviews so far - not in terms of positivity so much but constructivity. constructive criticism is also very honest and shows that the other person cares about my art enough to want to help me improve it.

anyway on an unrelated note i bit my tongue like a few minutes ago pray4me
 
Well, this topic takes me back a bit. I always used to focus just on writing for myself to the extent I never actually posted any of my work online. Don't think I actually shared it with any IRL friends either, beyond a brief mention here and there along the lines of: 'Oh yeah I write things, so what are you up to today?' It was odd, since at the same time I thought the idea of having an audience sounded pretty amazing in principle, once I was 'ready' for it. As I recall it's not that I didn't understand critique was important, I just felt it killed the magic in some strange way. I guess I knew my stuff was bad but was in denial about it or something like that? I don't know. I'm an odd fellow.

Funny how looking back that all seems like such a good time. I recall getting dreadfully worked up about whether I should be posting stuff or not. Nowadays, that seems like a great time when I was actually writing stuff regularly, rather than doing little bits and pieces occasionally when I'm not doing other stuff. Hmm. The daftest thing is even if I was still writing on a regular basis I'd probably still be too timid to post, knowing full well I was making the exact same silly mistake as I did years ago. Hmm.

Eheh, excuse my nostalgic ramblings, I got a little carried away there.
 
What finally pushed me into writing was watching hot take Youtube videos where people exposed flaws in the plots of movies or the development of characters in books and films. It often made me think, "Hmm, what could be a way of doing that better?" and I'd spend a while thinking of a good according to me at least way to execute the concept. I've had vague story ideas for a while, although they were never actually written down.

The first thing I posted on this Writer's Workshop, though, was a short shipping fic I wrote in the middle of the night to see if I could actually write something. Then I made myself post it because I thought, otherwise, I'd never build up the courage to post anything. I also assumed this place would be a lot more casual than it actually is ^^; I was surprised and impressed by the quality of the works and reviews on here.

Caring about popularity only becomes a problem when you become fixated on it, at which point it starts to interfere with your work. It's pretty natural to hope people will read and like your work.

@Nitro Indigo
If it makes you feel any better, I've been writing and re-writing my Pokemon Y review for at least two months now.
Maybe ask somebody else to read it to get a second opinion? Or leave it for a few days and return with fresh eyes.
 
The other day, I started to draw a cover for Moonkind: The Wayward Butterfly where the protagonist looks up at something, but I couldn't think of what she'd be looking at. I decided to add some finishing touches to the character artwork, but I don't think it's good enough to use as a cover. What do you think? Are there any tutorials you'd recommend?

EDIT: I just got an idea: a cover showing a montage of all the main characters doing different expressions in PMD-style portraits. Part of me thinks I should wait until I've introduced all of the major characters before getting a cover. I'm not begging for free art.
 

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