PolyBigBang

[brigdh]

I have hit 8k words on my polybigbang draft, which means I will have something to turn in on the deadline Friday! Whoooo!

Of course, I still have two more scenes to write, but that's not important now, since the final drafts aren't due until the end of October.

Also of course, everything I've written is INCREDIBLY TERRIBLE. But it's a first draft, terrible is okay. Right? Right? I just keep telling myself terrible is okay because that's the only way I'm making progress.

The much bigger problem is I have to come up with a title and summary before I can send in the draft. I hate coming up with titles and summaries. My summary at the moment would be "Everybody pines and then eventually they have sex", but that is probably unhelpful.

Still. 8,000 words!

Comments

[weirdquark]

Yes! Terrible-to-make-progress is totally okay!

8,000 words of terrible is also pretty impressive; I can never manage to write anything unless I know what's going on at the very least and usually I have to know how I'm going to describe what's going on too or the words just don't come out.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, I totally wrote an outline first. Of course, that doesn't always help, because sometimes the outline says something like "A and B talk about X, by the end of the scene they have had a realization" but when I go to actually start writing it I suddenly realize that I have no idea how to make any of those things happen while staying in-character.

I always find it curious, the people who can just start writing without knowing what direction they're going. That's so foreign to my process!

[weirdquark]

I can do it if I have sufficiently well established characters and a clear starting place because after that it's just writing down their reactions to the situation and I'm kind of like, yeah, of course X would do THAT. Otherwise? Yeah, I need to know what I'm doing ahead of time and while I can be surprised and have things go in unexpected directions, I need a direction for things to deviate from first.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I'm a lot more likely to write backwards, at least if it's a short fic. So I'll have an idea such as "this is the story with breathplay", and then I have to figure out where to start it that would lead into such a situation.

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

Yay, congrats on the eight thousand! That's great. And since you are on track, you will have lots of time to polish it up. :)

Ugh don't remind me of titles. I am totally the anon who suggested authors who hate titles anonymous on meme a couple posts back >.>

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ha! I participated in that thread. I don't know why I can't title everything "the one where some stuff happens".

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

Hey, Friends did it ;)

[egelantier.livejournal.com]

1) on first draft, terrible is awesome, and 2) honestly, on first draft your brain is going to tell you 'it's terrible' regardless of anything, and the only WAY to have the first draft is to write ahead anyway. so you're already ahead on points! and doing nicely? is this fic 'poly' as in ben/hannibal/rose? BECAUSE I WANT.

(summaries are the worrrrst. i usually end up just picking up a vaguely intriguing paragraph from the story itself, and a title from whatever vaguely approrpriate song i'm listening to at the moment).

best of luck!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's all what I keep telling myself, because otherwise I want to delete everything.

It is poly as in Ben/Hannibal/Rose! Yay!

I would totally do the "paragraph from the story as a summary" thing, except since it's a Big Bang, so I have to have a real summary for the artists to work from. Song titles are being very tempting.

Thank you! :)

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

"pining, cravats and threesomes" is a good title. It's also a good summary.

8000 words is awesome and impressive and I can't wait to get to read this. <3

ETA: it is also a perfectly sufficient art prompt!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I would totally read a fic titled "pining, cravats and threesomes". But I have just reread the instructions and think I actually don't need a title yet, just a summary. Which is awesome! Summaries are at least slightly easier.

Thank you! At the moment I don't think it is up to being viewed by humans, but I will probably be begging you to beta eventually. :)

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

I think it works better with an Oxford comma - we all like gravitas with our threesomes!

I understand entirely about noy yet being up to being viewed my humans - so much of my fiction is always stuck in that state. But it'll be my honor and delight to beta when the time comes. <3

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I HAVE STRONG FEELINGS ABOUT THE OXFORD COMMA. Strong, positive feelings.

Yay, thank you!

[cordialcount]

If it were required that we didn't feel terrible about our writing to be eligible, I'd have never posted any fic in my life, much less written a first draft of it. That'd be no horrific loss, but far more talented writers than me have apparently thought the same way, and I'm so glad they post anyway.

Congratulations on picking a summary. First on the comm list! :D

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

This is true. I don't think I know anyone who writes who isn't constantly worrying and anxious over their writing. And usually in direct proportion to the actual quality, in my opinion! The more worrying seems to result in the better story.

Thank you! I feel like it is a very silly summary compared to everyone else's, but then, my efforts to write a more serious summary kept sounding so melodramatic.

[cordialcount]

There seems to be an upside-down U to it. Some people don't worry at all and are true to the Dunning-Kruger hypothesis; some people worry at an ideal level, enough to motivate editing but not to paralyze (you're totally good here, imo); and some of us are consummate worrywarts whose anxiety doesn't translate to quality in the least. If there was a worry to actual fic improvement machine, I suspect I could be Nabokov. /o\