On Having Faith, and One Year on Live Journal

[hobgoblinn]

"There will be no having of any kind....."

Yes, well. It's been a year since I joined this great whirligig of fun known as Live Journal (and other, less complimentary names, depending on its behavior and my flist's moods). If I haven't thanked you folks recently for your entertaining posts, comments, friendship and support lately, shame on me. Thanks, everyone.

And a special Happy Birthday to the great and wonderful gileswench, whose natal day this also happens to be!

I should try to post something slightly profound today, given the significance of the date. Well, okay, how about this: what I'm really thinking about today is how we go about launching ourselves into the telling of tales. To get an idea and post a start to a story takes a tremendous amount of faith as a writer. (Or maybe that would be temporary insanity. I'm not clear on that point.)

To start reading a WIP takes a tremendous amount of faith too, as a reader. I can't count (not being a math major) the number of times I've started reading a brilliantly written and conceived story-- that stalls. The Transformations Quartet springs to mind. So does liz_marcs's "Water Hold Me Down" (possibly the best title I've ever seen. Not to mention a damn good story.) I've had some stalled tales, myself, most notably my first novel, started in grad school and then abandoned for over 20 years. Still have no idea how it ends.

I've got a couple of WIPs I'm working on now, including the Nano06 novel. But here's the weird part-- every single time I pick up my pen or my laptop, after a tale has stalled, and somehow new stuff comes to me, I'm surprised.

It's like, I struggle so hard to write a scene, and nothing comes, and then one day, for no reason at all, something clicks, and I write it. It's not Hemingway, but it's also usually not bad. At least, I can work with it. It's devilishly hard to edit what's not written, after all.

I invite you to share your moments of grace, if you care to. Or those of you with seriously stalled fics-- how did those start for you? What were you working out with them at the time, and what's changed since? I'd love to see liz answer that-- almost asked on her journal today, but didn't want to seem to be pressuring her. I know real life plays a role-- you can't receive the inspiration if you're too exhausted at the end of the day to write it all down.

And I will share one more bit of thanks. Doubtless she's regretting her generosity now that she's slogged through the start of the Nano Novel, but gillo has graciously agreed to beta it for me. I am learning a great deal about my bad habits, how to avoid them, and how in general to be a better beta reader myself. Watch this space. Once I have a completed draft, I'm going to take her early comments to heart, fix what can be fixed, and start posting.

Thanks again to all, and good night.

Hob

Comments

[usedtobeljs]

Happy one-year anniversary to you!

I sometimes set long projects aside and let my backbrain work on plot or whatever, but that can be frustrating...

[gileswench.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I had a lovely one.

I hate it when a fic stalls out on me in writing. It's frustrating, because all too often I can see where I'm going with it, but I can't seem to make the pieces fall into place to get there. But since I've done that so often, I now make a point of not posting until I'm at least into the home stretch and expect to finish the fic within a few days.

Now if I could just come up with the next set of words for The Hellmouth Chronicles, Gift of a Future, Not So Doomed...yeah, there are a few.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'd love to see more Hellmouth Chronicles and the like (also an excellent title.)

[po-thang.livejournal.com]

Hi,

Found this via GRB and I hope you don't mind my commenting.

I won't count how many fics I've got sitting on my harddrive that don't seem to want to travel with me anymore. *sigh*

I do know that it seems to help if I bounce ideas off of people, especially those who I enjoy reading. Gatewench is someone who always seems to help me figure out whatever small element that is holding me up.

As to why it stalls? Well, I tend to say that my muse is on walkabout (why take the blame myself *G*). But it's usually just RL rearing it's ugly head. Especially now that I'm doing work and school. I've had a couple of excellent ideas hit me lately, but I just can't seem to find the time to get them down. Or, at least, get them down in a timely manner.

And because I generally don't read WIPs anymore, I don't post until I'm either completely done with the fic or so close to it that I know I'll finish it.

Sticking to that rule usually means that I'm the only one who is frustrated when the muse decides to take a vacation (not taking the blame myself, remember?)

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

I don't mind at all-- welcome to the discussion.

The danger of talking about your writing is, sometimes, the talking itself is enough to work out whatever the story was working out for you. Samuel Taylor Coleridge is the poster child for this. In addition to being an opium addict in his later years, he was always talking to young writers and admirers About various things-- and he consequently never felt the drive to get those ideas down on paper.

Yeah, RL does have that effect. But I know sometimes people just get to a different place in their lives, where the issues raised a fic they're writing don't seem so compelling or relevant anymore. That's more what I wanted to know about, if other people found that true.

Thanks again.

Hob

[ex-shitsu-to509.livejournal.com]

Happy LJ anniversary!

I have a seriously stalled sequel fic that I've posted the first chapter of twice and have a plot, notes and stuff for. It's been over two years now, and although I have confidence in it my main problem is that it would be long - around fifteen chapters - and I have other, shorter stories that I want to write and if I commit to one huge fic then am going to be stuck with it for around six months. Also, am not sure who'd be reading it. On LJ I use allthejellies for B/G stuff and that community seems to be fading out, which is a shame as I really like it.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Which fic is it? I would read it, definitely......

[ex-shitsu-to509.livejournal.com]

That's good to know, thanks :-) The fic is called 'Upon a Midnight Dreary' - there is a reason I wasn't just pulling quotes out of the air, though God knows that's tempting because I find coming up with a title more difficult than writing the story. How are you with titles? - and it was/maybe one day will be a sequel to 'Days of Wine and Roses' which was a post-Chosen B/G fic.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem with titles, actually. But I'd take a stab at it. I tend to pull quotes out of the air, too. But since I've actually read Shakespeare and stuff, that isn't as disastrous as it might otherwise be.

I'll have to go find the original, and the chapter 1 of the other fic.

[ex-shitsu-to509.livejournal.com]

I took both the fics off my LJ cos it got me down having them hanging around reminding me that I wasn't working on them.
Here's the link for the first chapter of Days...

http://buffygiles.velocitygrass.com/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1144&chapter=1

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember this, and remember liking it. Haven't been able to read through it all again, thanks to my Internetz drama. I will try to get back to it when I'm online again at home. And need distraction from the beta pain. It's a good pain, but still....