fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2753 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2753 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

__________________________________________________

07.

__________________________________________________

08.

__________________________________________________

09.

__________________________________________________

10.

__________________________________________________

11.

__________________________________________________

12.

__________________________________________________

13.

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 016 secrets from Secret Submission Post #393.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

F!S, how do you get back up after all your motivation's gone?

Recently I was writing a long fic after being away from writing for a couple of years. I have it all planned out chapter-by-chapter, up til about midway, and I've already written several chapters and betaed them. Two chapters were already published.

But then I had to stop for a while, because I was busy with RL work. During that time I had a relapse of depression and anaemia, so I was exhausted all the time and could barely get my work in.

Now I tried getting back to writing again. I'm still busy IRL but I want to try.

The beta sent me back my chapters and I decided to edit them because I didn't think they were up to standard. And that feels like it's killed all motivation for this fic. I'm trying to edit and it's not going anywhere and the words aren't doing what they're supposed to. It's not matching what I wanted in my head, and I hate it.

Meanwhile I see all these other people updating novel-length fics and writing prolifically, and I can't even read fics for the pairing anymore because I feel like a failure.

I want to finish it. This is such a simple thing. It's only fanfiction, for fuck's sake! It's not like a novel (which I eventually want to write as well.)

But I just don't know how to get my motivation back. What do I do, F!S?

Oh gosh. I know that feeling. I just finished a fic that I agonized over for several months. (I ended up hating it, but that's for different reasons.) Now I've got all these other things I want to write but I'm just blaaah, virtually no motivation.

Writing something completely different and fun seems to help me. When I was having trouble, I wrote a couple of goofy crack fics and meta. Or, if you have other stories sitting around, working on them or editing them sometimes motivates me. (I have a lot of half finished smut that I work on when I'm stuck on writing projects I'm more interested in.)

Don't let other people's fics get you down. Some people just write faster, and that's okay.

Actually, just the other day I wrote some smut for the pairing! So maybe I'll send that off to my beta, and publish it.

Smut generally tends to get more feedback, ime, so maybe the likes and comments will motivate me to finish the other fic?

I don't know. (
Fellow fans help sometimes. When I talk to others I want to share my vision or create something fun for them. I need to know people who'll read it.

hmm. maybe I could talk to my beta?

Ask her for compliments, if you do.

Thanks for the advice.

I don't really have many people to talk to in the fandom, I guess because I don't post in the tags that much and I'm not as obviously enthusiastic and fannish as other people.

Was thinking maybe I will at least let my beta know I'm having some difficulties and that's why it's taking so long to update.

I have similar problem, so don't listen to me! =D
It makes writing sound like a duty... I think they'll appreciate the heads-up in any case. Maybe your beta'd even have some advice.
Another thought, read some bad fic and see that yours is worlds better.

That's a fantastic idea! Time to go re-read My Immortal.

I hope you start to feel better, too. :) We can both beat this thing!

Thank you! Now I feel inspired, but, alas, it's bedtime.

I don't use a beta.

After general planning, I write a sort of paragraph summary of what I want to happen in the chapter.

Then I write whatever comes into my head. If it's not a complete sentence I put brackets around it. [insert more explanation of said bracket technique here] Or if I can't think of the right word, I put a bunch of slashes of similar words so that I remember the gist of what I wanted to say/get across/convey to the reader.

dialogue and dialogue tags are usually done all lower case with minimum punctuation because its easier to flow through the conversion that way; if i stop to worry about grammar, i lose my mental place and bam; there goes good dialogue lost for good

Then when that's done I take a day break or so. Then I go back and essentially flesh everything out. Internal character monologues, expanded dialogue, background details, the works. I'll usually go from about 2400 words a chapter to 4000 words a chapter during this. If I get stuck at any point, I leave it in the brackets and continue on with the chapter.

Then after a couple hours, another day, whatever. I go back and do a final reread. Usually I'll have one or two bracket sections left. I'll spend my time FINALLY correcting those. But at this point, we're talking about one or two 100 word sections in a mostly complete 4000+ word document. So the adrenaline of getting to post it helps me through.

I do a final ctrl+f for any remaining [] brackets, and then post away.

[ SECRET POST #2753 ]

Getting back on the horse

Re: Getting back on the horse

Re: Getting back on the horse

Re: Getting back on the horse

Re: Getting back on the horse

Re: Getting back on the horse

Re: Getting back on the horse

Re: Getting back on the horse

Re: Getting back on the horse

Re: Getting back on the horse

Re: Getting back on the horse