Desiderius Price

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.

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Chapter 11, “February” is now posted. Have fun! - DP

Rape is part of human behaviour so it certainly can have a legitimate role in stories. It happens in wars, on the streets, in intimidation, in business, and in families. To deny it is to restrict to only one side of humanity. Rape is more than plot, it can simply be a person’s character, if they’re isolated with another in a vulnerable situation….or, coping with a character’s past (ie, the victim). And how the story’s society responds to the victim/perp, that can illustrate the world.

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Maybe hook is the wrong way to describe how I approach it, more like glue. I generally want my first sentence, first paragraph, to have some traction on the reader’s attention, to pull them into the story. I figure that I’ve got a thousand pages to describe the growth of tree rings in intricate detail, so I can spread it out throughout the story.