Desiderius Price

Aw, so you’re a PWP type of person …

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All of my original stories on here, including the halloween/holiday oneshots, are from the same universe, most characters are connected in some fashion. So, for me, writing down a plot bunny has a good chance of being usable, even if it’s a spinoff story. But yep, recording them helps retain them and you can go back, even with a fickle muse … may be a challenge. And sometimes, those ideas are rejected, not because they’re lousy, but because it’ll distract too much from the major thrust to the story, or simply overwhelm it. (I recently pruned what would’ve been chapter 16 from Dale’s Game because it was too much, even though the underlying premise was sound in terms of what the characters needed in skill improvements. Sad to remove 5kwords and start the chapter over….not really removed, I do save them off into a separate file, just in case.)

I’ve gotten disciplined enough to jot the idea down, or put it into my database. (Which is useful, came in handy for Dale’s game, turning the situation from food poisoning into an allergy, allowing me to create an interesting trait for his character.) Even with original, if you’re developing a universe/world-building, after a while, you’ve got the same level of constraints; again, I ran into that with Dale’s Game, where the end point of the story is fixed, very fixed, within the universe, and the story was developing fast, so it was easier to make it a year later than to completely rewrite and slow it down w/o any benefit.

The Winter Sky, Jip Van Kakerken (it’s a song from the Endreal mod to Skyrim…)

Ron/Hermione, Harry/OC-muggle (and I can’t bring the fics to AFF due to the OC… ) Warning, my portrayal of their sixth year makes canon look like a street festival.

BTW, I fixed my earlier posts.

Have you read it yet? Several stories (Dolbourne & Jefferey), I’m writing more episodic, because they’re less in terms of overall plot but in more small stories tied together by the same main character(s). So, having micro starts/ends is actually helpful in terms of practice, and tightly scoping the plot because I need it to resolve by the end of the episode. I might split up those two stories, just because they’re spanning many years. My potter fanfic (the one on more or less permanent hiatus) was over 600kwords before I went and edited it down … it’s now at a more modest 500kwords. Its prequel (complete) is almost 180k. Though, my average is lower because I’ve also got two really short ones (~200 words each).

36903 I’ve done the same, sometimes I’m doing this right as I’ve woken up and not thinking straight Or, I’m on my tablet and fumble.

Given that we’re mostly amateurs on these sites, it’s understandable if stories aren’t finished. Sometimes, the author realizes it won’t work out, or, they lose interest due to a new book getting released (Lots of Harry Potter fics were like that when I started into fanfic), RL death/disease/stress (understandable), or many other reasons. I do want to finish my potter fic, but the draw/lure of my own stories is stronger – and my potter fic’s been stuck on a plot point for ages (how to portray something w/o being considered deus ex). In my originals, the main culprits have been plot bunnies! I’ve got WIPs because I decided to split the original story (it held too many competing plot threads, and was better to tell several separate stories than to try to stuff it all under one title). So, I’ve got Fiends (the most direct lineage from the first story), Alaska Trekkers (backstory, complete), Dolbourne Chronicles (backstory, WIP), Jefferey (backstory to a character appearing in the backstory, WIP), and Dale’s Game (backstory that was sparked by a holiday fic, WIP). And, I’ve got some sequels to fiends planned. Of course, once a story hits the printing press, it had better be complete! Even if I haven’t truly written the last sentence, I do like to have a good idea early on what that scene will be like, or the general conditions. I try to worry about start/end to each chapter as I write, so that’s a good way to practice, IMO. Frequently, I’ll stumble across the last sentence as I write, not always what I had in mind, but my typing will reach it and it becomes, “damn, that’s a good one – cut!”

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Often, a reader is lucky if there *is* a last sentence, given the number of WIP/abandoned and unfinished stories out there. I’ve got a potter fic that’s still listed as WIP, but haven’t updated it in five years.

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I second this (or third it, or fourth it, or fifth it….) It’d be nice to know if they’re alright or … did Daisy go on a rampage?

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Only if you’re writing a how-to-guide with the intention of carrying it out…. imo. I’m on the fence when it’s confessional, because this is one of things you shouldn’t fully act out in the name of “research”, like a bank robbery or something equally sinister.

Careful with the mulch, it ran an arm and a leg!

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Murder’s fine. I’ve got a woodchipper for anybody who disagrees.