I should probably finish those fan fics
Jul. 27th, 2021 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breakinglight11My fan fic writing has slowed to a crawl. For a while this summer I was going GANGBUSTERS, writing thousands of words and posting on a regular basis. I even started a couple new fics, intended to be short and finished quickly… neither of which I finished before I got busier. Prep for filming for Dream Machine took over my time, and I didn’t have the energy or focus for writing for a while. That’s common for me, that when I’m in production I’m not really inclined to generate a lot of new work. Neither original stuff, nor fan work stuff like this.
I hit a transition point with my current major fan fiction, His Part to Play, about Captain America’s life post-retirement having returned to the 1940’s. As I’ve mentioned, the time has come for the story to change genres from slice-of-life character piece to more of an adventure, and that requires doing the work of plotting which I tend to find more labor-intensive to plan. I was no longer able to easily write way ahead because I had to figure out structural stuff that, up to this point, wasn’t really a big issue in the story. But during Bernie’s visit we talked out some ideas that mean I now have a better idea at least what comes next, if not necessarily every step of the journey, so I am prepared to pick up the narrative from here. Still, I’m neck deep in production, which takes a lot out of me, so we’ll have to see if I can make myself buckle down on it.
There are, however, still the two short ones. I started them specifically because I thought they’d be quicker and easier to finish. So completing them might be more doable under the demand of my current circumstances. I am continually bemoaning how difficult it is to get an audience for my work, particularly the original stuff. I’ve been trying to balance my efforts to have larger projects and smaller, more accessible projects going, because having something out there with the built-in audience that fan fic does gives me a little boost of feedback to keep me going, while I work on more important things that take longer sustained effort. It was pretty cool when I was releasing updates every two weeks and getting evidence of consistent readership and enjoyment. So it’s worth it to me to go to the trouble, even when I’m otherwise occupied.
I hit a transition point with my current major fan fiction, His Part to Play, about Captain America’s life post-retirement having returned to the 1940’s. As I’ve mentioned, the time has come for the story to change genres from slice-of-life character piece to more of an adventure, and that requires doing the work of plotting which I tend to find more labor-intensive to plan. I was no longer able to easily write way ahead because I had to figure out structural stuff that, up to this point, wasn’t really a big issue in the story. But during Bernie’s visit we talked out some ideas that mean I now have a better idea at least what comes next, if not necessarily every step of the journey, so I am prepared to pick up the narrative from here. Still, I’m neck deep in production, which takes a lot out of me, so we’ll have to see if I can make myself buckle down on it.
There are, however, still the two short ones. I started them specifically because I thought they’d be quicker and easier to finish. So completing them might be more doable under the demand of my current circumstances. I am continually bemoaning how difficult it is to get an audience for my work, particularly the original stuff. I’ve been trying to balance my efforts to have larger projects and smaller, more accessible projects going, because having something out there with the built-in audience that fan fic does gives me a little boost of feedback to keep me going, while I work on more important things that take longer sustained effort. It was pretty cool when I was releasing updates every two weeks and getting evidence of consistent readership and enjoyment. So it’s worth it to me to go to the trouble, even when I’m otherwise occupied.
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