#fic writing problems

[mythical-bookworm]

the great thing about being a fanfic writer: if there's a certain fanfic plot you can't find, you can make it yourself.

the terrible thing about being a fanfic writer: now you *have* to write that fanfic plot you can't find.

#writing #writing memes #fanfic writing #fanfic writer memes #creative writing #writer problems #fic writing problems #memes

[figureofdismay]

i can't remember who wrote the post that brought the idea to my attention, but ever since then I've thinking about a Dana Scully who really definitely did have a big giant crush on "Spooky" Mulder during her training and early time at the bureau, based on his reputation and probably some lectures he did about profiling at Quantico/a seminar or something. So when she got the assignment to 'debunk' him and take down the x-files, she went from 'i get to meet him!!!' to 'well, shit, thanks to the assignment he's going to hate me, there go my chances with him :///' like, instantly (and in front of her boss) and after she did actually meet Mulder she was like 'he can never, ever know or he'll make fun of me so much.' (Which he wouldn't. I mean he would just a little, affectionately thrilled but not in the way that "friends" like Colton probably made her ready to expect.)

idk I'm tempted to write a little ficlet about the premise to try and get myself unstuck from long-term writer's block, and if anyone remembers who that was -- if it was you, would you be cool with me running with that idea for a little bit???

#msr #txf #the x files #dana scully #fox mulder #AUs i need in my life #i mean i'm not convinced it fully is an AU it really does work as an interpretation of canon. however that's my fic ideas tag lol #also i bet she was like 'i cannot let him know i was casually interested in That Stuff thanks to Missy and experiences i and my mom had bc #not only would he not get that I wasn't /really/ serious about it he'd try to make it go in the report. which. NO.' 😂 #fic writing problems

[jtl-fics]

None of ya’ll will ever know the sheer amount of workshopping and peer review that goes into these stupid memes. ISTG.

#I have forced this story on like six IRL friends #who do not give a shit about AFTG #But by GOD they're gonna help me figure out stupid jokes #My friend who lives in the same Apartment complex as me: Did u just hear gunshots? #Me: I assume firework until cop car but what about this meme for part 22? #Friend: Yeah I guess it is memorial weekend. It's okay but I think XX meme could convey it better #Me: Ur so right bestie #Fic Writing problems #Also to be clear #I do want you all to imagine me in a lab coat pondering the best possible meme #I have beakers #I have bunsen burners #I have safety goggles

[peridotglimmer]

okay i wasn't going to say anything but this has been driving me nuts for days now and i feel like i'm going to go insane if i don't yell into the void about this.

if all you want to comment on a fic is whining/complaining that the chapters are too short, please just don't comment at all

i've gotten (and deleted) a bunch of comments on multiple fics of mine (from multiple fandoms, i might add) over the past week that were just people complaining about the chapter length.

i have never been an author who writes stories with 5-figure wordcounts. my wordcount per chapter for multichapters probably averages between 1-1.6K. i write drabbles, flash fiction, short stories, and multichapters with one tension arc per chapter. it's in my bloody bio. i'm writing for me but posting for the sense of community and to share the love of the blorbos.

if you don't like that, please just read a different fucking fic. there are amazing authors out there who write longfics that will blow your mind, they're so good. you can see the chapter count and wordcount before you click on the title, do the math, please.

because these whining comments are just incredibly demotivating and make me want to write less.

(note: i'm not talking about enthusiastic "omg i love this i wish there was more!" comments, i'm talking about comments that read like a formal complaint to an airline)

thanks. love, belle

#belle rants #fic writing problems #writing problems #ao3

[katherynefromphilly]

Wow that was a great scene I imagined out loud in the car today, I mean, what a great, funny, touching scene I was riffing on for like 20 solid minutes during my drive home, at that place in the plot where I’ve been stuck for a month, which absolutely got me past my block, with great characters and logical plot and humor and character motivation which was all so solid and vivid that I DIDN’T WRITE IT DOWN BECAUSE I FIGURED I’D REMEMBER WHY CAN’T I REMEMBER WHY CAN’T I- *weeping*

#writing problems #fic writing problems #i usually remember! #it’s just the shower imagination that vanishes! #driving memory usually sticks! #fuck me I’m pissed i didn’t write it down! #or dictate anything to myself!! #GEEZ

[cicaklah]

Me: everything is good!!!! New job!! Other good personal stuff!!!

My brain: hmmmmmmm

Me: dont do it...

My brain: ...ur bad at everything you love and everyone but you knows it xoxo

#fic writing problems #mental illness

[ladyoftherefrigerator]

me: gosh, i really want to finish chapter four

me: *continues to write chapter six*

#valvert #fic: reconciliation #fic writing problems

[hekateinhell]

the three demons of fic writing:

decision paralysis where every idea is just as good as the last so how can i decide which one to do??? do i finish a wip and yeet it into the void so i can move on or do i focus on the newest idea before i forget it????

the conundrum of having all the perfectly descriptive words and dialogue ready to go but no time/energy to write

the inverse conundrum of somehow having the time/energy to write but the worbs just ain't worbing

#tag yourself #fic writing problems #hekate.txt

[violetsiren90]

Me, looking at my oneshot after writing the basic introduction and meat of the plot:

1583 words.

Checking again after the smut is into basic foreplay:

3411 words.

👀...😶...😬

#oops #fic writing problems #to thine own self be true tho #...mine own self is a ho

[lovelylotusf1]

Procrastinating writing the fic™ right until the deadline, then writing 1k words in an hour yesterday while Hatsune Miku Barbershop Quartet was blasting at full volume. But still not finishing the damn thing because the hurt keeps growing and the comfort doesn't want to be there.

As the Lord intended.

(Send help.)

#lotus rambles #fic writing problems #how does one write the connecting scene between the written hurt and the written comfort ending? #research has been inconclusive

[delphi-dreamin]

Why does such a perfect, pretty color have to have such a GOD AWFUL NAME? I CAN'T DESCRIBE ASMO'S DICK AS BEING 'PUCE'. IT'S A HORRIBLE WORD.

#i'm going through it tonight y'all #somebody help me #the oracle speaks #shut up delphi #fic writing problems

[yeetus-feetus]

I'm trying to write children in a fanfic but I don't know how they usually speak. Like I don't want to baby them down but I also don't want to make them seem older than they actually, y'know?

And before you ask, yes, I've interacted with many children. The problem is that none of them were in the least bit normal. My younger brother was speaking full cohearant sentences and sassing me before the age of two, started doing complex equations at 5 years old. He started school 2 years early because he is so smart. But he also can't fucking read and he's 11 now- he might be dislexic?

My other brother didn't start walking until he was 4 whole years old. His first word was 'meow'. He also never crawled at any point in his development, he bum-scooted everywhere or got someone to carry him.

My cousin didn't start actually talking until she was 6? or maybe 7? Just made different sounds and grunts to communicate. She is super fucking smart though and now she never shuts up. Like one moment she was mute and the next she was talking in full proper sentences like what??

Not even I was a normal child according to my mother, so I can't even use my own experience to write a normal child.

Have to look up dumb shit like "when do babies start talking" and "what language do 5 year olds typically use" and "when should babies start walking" and "how do 5 year olds usually interact with other 5 year olds" ???

#writing struggles #fic writing problems

[figureofdismay]

i've been going over tfx s1 and s2 with a fine tooth comb and going by how the episodes are written vs the time stamps or the air dates and imo it makes the most sense for the pilot to have taken place in ~March of 1993, and then a bit of a gap to Deep Throat 1.02, allowing for a couple unseen cases getting used to each other but not so much that Mulder doesn't ditch her-- and of course Scully's taking that security guy hostage so readily is still quite a statement about a partner she's had for a month. Then a longer gap to Squeeze 1.03, like ~late May/early June '93, to give the rumour mill to whip up the 'Mr. and Mrs. Spooky image, with Conduit-Jersey Devil-Shadows-Ghost in the Machine taking place through the summer to September-ish of '93 and Ice being like mid October.

I also assume that Fallen Angel is right after thanksgiving because despite the noted dates, it makes the most sense for Mulder to have slipped away during the holiday weekend, only to need bailing out. Scully probably got the call while staying at her mom's while frying stuffing-n-egg breakfast fritters 😂.

Though there's a problem with that headcanon, because Mulder broke is leg and he isn't even limping in Eve, and obviously Beyond The Sea has to take place last week of Dec '93 and the very beginning of '94, which logically is when Mulder when Mulder would be getting his cast off if he was injured just after Thanksgiving 🙃. Still, the airdates ~basically line up on Space thru Beyond the Sea, but again there must have been a bigger than airing gap between BtS and Gender Bender to account for Mulder's gunshot wound and for Scully to find more equilibrium.

This timeline makes EBE line up with round about the anniversary of their first case, which seems fitting and interesting. A year after Billy Miles in the woods and they're still chasing phantoms.

If you account for extra recovery time around Darkness Falls, that also puts Tooms almost a year out from Squeeze, which makes sense with the plot of the parole board seeing his case already. Then they get split up some time in June '94 and end up working apart through summer with Scully's abduction taking place at the beginning of September and her return in November. 8 to 10 or weeks seems like a workable compromise between how much hope they characters around her had all given up in her absence and how much plot they tried to fit in around her abduction in the same season. The canonical 'four weeks' number simply doesn't cut it, but the oft stated '3 months' and '4 months' i've seen used in fandom, while feeling weighty enough, also runs into logistical problems.

also, ugh, if I pad in the recovery time for Scully to get back on her feet after her return, that means Firewalker takes place at the end of November or beginning of December, that means she would spend her first Christmas in quarantine in 1994. Which does sound like something that would happen to Scully! She might get home in time for New Years?? But if you go by the airdates she misses Thanksgiving, so either way it's a major american-christian family in a CDC facility in the Cascades. No wonder her family hates Mulder a bit 💀.

If you go with the Dec dates for Firewalker, it pushes the middle of S2 forwards a bit and makes it so that Mulder ended up trading the 'Samantha' hybrid clone for Scully around about 2nd anniversary of their first case together. Which is also. Something an half, I gotta say. Really, really interesting bags of subtext there, potentially! 👀

I'm not sure that I'm going to still be working on the fic this is for -- I'm supposed to on therapeutic advice on the grounds of desensitization to triggers (writing), but even so it'll be slow going. So I wanted share the version of the timeline I'd worked out that leaves a bit more breathing space for emotional development, and has a couple interesting anniversaries. In case anyone found it interesting or wanted to run with any of that, or also found the supposed 'canon' timeline claustrophobic and contradictory in terms of vibes vs stated dates.

#txf #msr #timeline #character theory: scully #character theory: mulder #dana scully #fox mulder #fic writing problems

[jtl-fics]

Me @ Me: Ok you gotta shift out of silly times. You’re writing that Wesninski house piece that you posted about ages ago. It’s not FUNNY.

Also Me: And FF was there!

Me: God dammit no he wasn’t.

#Did i remind myself that FF wouldn't show up until the following year for my very much not FF AU fic? #Yeah #Oh Beware I'm so sorry that you have fallen to the wayside #I have a whole document of chapter titles and ideas for you #but here I am #Thinking about FF memes instead #It was a nightmare searching through that play for a new chapter title #I can only read about Orestes being a punk bitch and killing his mom so many times #Fic Writing problems

[peridotglimmer]

my brain any time i write a fic: your english isn't good enough to be using these words. why don't you just write in your mother tongue. you are an IMPOSTOR. they will see your grammar and mismatched spelling and laugh.

the only way i know to combat this: "shut up, brain". *posts fic*

#fic writing problems #belle talks sometimes

[cicaklah]

im nailing blorbo to the fourth wall

#fic writing problems #blorbo #why am I tempting fate with the blorbo content again