wtf! never a short fic!
Dec. 4th, 2006 11:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verushka70Like a couple months ago, before RL & school & whatnot interrupted YET AGAIN, I had started a RayK/Stella->RayK/Fraser fic (not that I didn't already have some HCL fics sitting around, needing to be finished -- wtf!). I had done it as a private post to myself on my LJ.
So today I decided to paste it into a Word doc. I was just suddenly inspired, and I don't write much gen, like, ever, so I figured wtf, I'll continue it. I'll put it in Word, I'll put it on one of my USB jump drives laying around here so I can work on it on my Mac or PC or ancient Mac ibook, and I'll get something DONE for once.
So I paste it into Word and it's NINE PAGES already. And this is just the set up of the main, uh, thrust of the story (heh). And it's just the beginning of the set up, it's not even the COMPLETE set up!
WTF is wrong with me? Why can't I write SHORT THINGS? This is why I never get stuff done! I start something, it snowballs into something huge, and before I know it, it's so daunting, I don't even want to go back to it. But I can't not put in all the detail and set-up the premise and all that. It feels wrong if I don't. It feels richer -- and righter -- if I do.
Maybe I should just force myself, ala one of my fiction writing teachers 15+ years ago in college, to write for TEN MINUTES ONLY. And then stop. Master the short fic. Then move up to FIFTEEN. Or something like that. It's like, why the fuck do my stories turn into these gargantuan, long things? I mean, it's a labor of love, and it's very satisfying to finish one... but the ratio of unfinished to finished is... Actually, I don't know what the ratio is. Before I beat myself up some more, maybe I should actually check and count.
Xmas vaca is coming. Perfect time for cleaning and re-organizing the ol' "My Documents" folder, I guess.
Sigh. I do so envy the people capable of spare, intense prose.
So today I decided to paste it into a Word doc. I was just suddenly inspired, and I don't write much gen, like, ever, so I figured wtf, I'll continue it. I'll put it in Word, I'll put it on one of my USB jump drives laying around here so I can work on it on my Mac or PC or ancient Mac ibook, and I'll get something DONE for once.
So I paste it into Word and it's NINE PAGES already. And this is just the set up of the main, uh, thrust of the story (heh). And it's just the beginning of the set up, it's not even the COMPLETE set up!
WTF is wrong with me? Why can't I write SHORT THINGS? This is why I never get stuff done! I start something, it snowballs into something huge, and before I know it, it's so daunting, I don't even want to go back to it. But I can't not put in all the detail and set-up the premise and all that. It feels wrong if I don't. It feels richer -- and righter -- if I do.
Maybe I should just force myself, ala one of my fiction writing teachers 15+ years ago in college, to write for TEN MINUTES ONLY. And then stop. Master the short fic. Then move up to FIFTEEN. Or something like that. It's like, why the fuck do my stories turn into these gargantuan, long things? I mean, it's a labor of love, and it's very satisfying to finish one... but the ratio of unfinished to finished is... Actually, I don't know what the ratio is. Before I beat myself up some more, maybe I should actually check and count.
Xmas vaca is coming. Perfect time for cleaning and re-organizing the ol' "My Documents" folder, I guess.
Sigh. I do so envy the people capable of spare, intense prose.
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 04:28 pm (UTC)Love,
A sister sufferer
true
Date: 2006-12-17 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-13 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-13 06:28 pm (UTC)