Writing is a messy and complicated process

[holdouttrout]

At the beginning of the year, when I was still trying to write 200,000 words (At July 1, with just over 100,000, I decided not to risk my sanity and stopped worrying about wordcount*), I wasn't really paying much attention to what I wrote, or worrying about finishing things as much as just writing them. I also was writing a lot in Google Docs, and not tagging things like I should have.

Then, of course, I was busy trying to finish the sjficathon fic (And Then I Dreamt of Yes), and so I was working in one (maybe two) files and not paying attention to the rest.

Yesterday I went through my Google Docs and tagged things. Tons of things. And I think I found a few that I could potentially work on and/or declare amnesty on. (Yay!)

I also found FOURTEEN separate files with various bits and pieces of the various ideas I had for the sjficathon fic. FOURTEEN. Many of them have variations on the theme I finally used, but there are tons of scenes that just didn't work, and some hilarious sketches of ideas I thought I was going to write. And that doesn't count any that were on my hard drive.



Nine years of repression, hundreds of missions, eighty-seven nights spent in the same tent together, and two weeks of boredom was all it took before Sam jumped her (former) commanding officer. Off-world. While stranded for no shorter than three and no longer than three and a half weeks.

It was a little pathetic, actually, though Sam wasn't sure exactly which part she was supposed to feel guilty about.

"I can hear you thinking, Carter. Stop it." Jack's voice was a mere mumble against her skin.

The vibration tickled, and Sam shivered. Jack tightened his arms around her stomach, the left hand sneaking up to just touch the underside of her breast.


This is apparently from when I was already frustrated by my fics, because I only wrote what's posted here, and I obviously thought smut was the answer. *g* It's actually a lot closer to what I ended up writing than what I started with.

I'm sure Annerb and Aurora thought I was nuts, because both of them were online at the time and I kept sending IMs like "OMG! I found ANOTHER one!" It was scary! At one point I could have sworn they were breeding: little self-replicating files populating entire servers. I think I finally managed to neuter tag them all.

I may have to do something with them now that I've identified them, because they illustrate quite nicely that this is not my usual method. I normally have only a couple of files for each fic, if I ever have more than one. (Besides beta files, but that's a little different). I also usually know what fic I'm writing before I start. Or have maybe one switch.



So that's what I did this weekend, at least if you're not counting normal, boring, everyday life sort of things. Like laundry.



*Don't ask me why I'm planning on doing NaNo if I was stressed out by GYWO, but I am. I'm fairly sure it's Annerb's fault.

Comments

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

This is apparently from when I was already frustrated by my fics, because I only wrote what's posted here, and I obviously thought smut was the answer.

"Smut" is always a good answer. *g*

Yikes - uh, I mean, yay NaNo! ;) I swear I will come back online and talk to you about The Project before you get stuck into that.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

It is almost always a good answer, except when you're dealing with kid's toys. I STILL feel guilty for the MLP/Care Bear smut. *shudders*

Ooooooh. Well, if we get going on The Project...maybe my novel can wait. November is such a bad month to write a novel. *considers*

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

No, no, don't delay the novel - I'm very happy to leave it to brew over November. Or I can work on one thread, or whatever. It's wonderfully adaptable like that. :)

[annienau08.livejournal.com]

I obviously thought smut was the answer

It's not? I thought smut was always the answer.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Well, it's definitely always an answer. Definitely. In this case, it wasn't the right answer for what I wanted to do.

...And now I killed the humor of your response. *g*

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

*grins* I just didn't want to deseeeeerrrrrrt youuuuuuu!