Desiderius Price

Yeah, I’m not going to consider my 1.1M potter fanfic “economical”. It very much wants to stop and smell all the roses along the path! TBH, I’m rarely at a lack of words when it comes to writing my stories. Anymore, I consider LOTR to be “light”.

It sucked...but served the same purpose as your “Buffy’s POV” heading. It’s simply a rule of thumb I’ve picked up on when to do a double-take, and try to hone in on issues; hence, my sharing of something I tried early on and subsequently abandoned. I’m a late bloomer in terms of getting hit by the writing bug. As mentioned, I’m learning while doing, because I’ve got the tales I want to express. Writing’s an art, so I typically consider rules as guidance, to be followed...most of the time. Though I do want to know when I’m deliberately breaking them.

Confusion’s typically my guide. If I’m having to state who “I” means, or step out of narration to explain, then that’s a hint something’s wrong. When I was using first POV, I’d write something like “I (Harry)” or “I (Ron)” which hints to the problem. Whereas, I’m now third (imperfect/limited) POV as a general rule, where it’s quick to tell who has focus in a scene. Take this exercise, open the book/story to a random page/line… know who “I” is?

Aw...a formal label for what I’ve been writing. I generally treat it like a camera that can snoop on the focus character, for a scene, a chapter, etc, but allows for the occasional “stray”. TBH, for getting into the main’s mind, it’s an excellent tool w/o the distraction of what the others are thinking (well, except my Harry and Ron have been studying up the Legilemency, so they’re a bit more perceptive.)

Weird, I find the flip is an issue… easier to keep it straight for me and the reader to keep it third POV, avoids switching around who “I” means.

I can still write into the character’s head with third person. About every story I’ve written, there’s occasion to need to focus on other characters that aren’t the main characters… even if its a short side-bar. Thus, this becomes a bit more jarring in first-person, and so I simply use third person as that’s simpler to pull off. There are definitely more talented writers out there than I am, so mileage may vary.

Right now, I’m typically jumping between two, as the mood strikes. The potter fanfic, and the Jefferey story. (And the Jefferey story mostly because I need to get it to the point to support my other originals.)

TBH, I’m a foreigner to screenplays. In stories, I’ve found that past tense flows & reads easier, and first person POV makes head-hopping confusing, even if I qualify who “I” is for a chapter/scene. Thus, my writing style is now generally past tense & third-person (limited) POV—treating that person as the “camera” to the scene/action.

I’m not an English major, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express recently, and my verbal SAT score was… maybe it reached average, if that? I’ll try something, fumble, and learn from it (well, more often than not). My first story/fanfic was written in 2-3 months at the start of my writing habit (two decades ago!), and while style improved, it’s ALL in present tense. It wasn’t until I was a fair way into the sequel a month or two later that I understood the (major) pitfalls and decided to switch to past tense. (POV’s messed up too.) Now that the sequel has passed the million word mark, rewriting into present/future tense would be murder.

At the start of WIP, I generally bank up a few chapters/episodes to make sure the story idea’s decent. But after that, I’ll usually post when the chapter’s ready to be posted.

I’ve been mixed on the anonymous review capability. On one hand, its one less hurdle for a reader to actually submit a review. On the other, a forced sign-in-to-review at least makes sure said reader has to attach an account to the review which helps keep the vitriol ones away.

TBH, I wasn’t going to sweat it. I was thankful enough to be able to post stories (even though that eliminated one excuse to not updating quicker), I’m tolerant of a a bug or two as that’s quite understandable.

Funny enough, I’m at four posted WIPs too. 1) My potter fanfic, 2) Jefferey, which is backstory to 3) Dolbourne Chronicles, which is backstory to 4) Fiends, which is, itself, backstory to the initial (unpublished) smutty oneshot. Got some dabblings on the sequel to Demons, another one focusing on Kent after he departs 2) and rejoins the narrative later. That ignores the software I’m writing at the same time to help keep all those details ORGANIZED!

Past tense is the more popular one when it comes to story writing. While present tense is slightly more “immediate” to the engagement, past tense is way easier to be consistent when you’ve got multiple POVs that you’re exploring. (A challenge would be to write a story completely in future tense ) A short while ago, I had to reformat the first chapter to my first fanfic (as I was checking its reviews, I noticed that website, that shall-not-be-named, had deleted/lost newlines leaving a big ugly blob of text). Still, that left it as a wall of “Harry says… Lupin says… Dumbledore says… Ron says…” dialogue – I’d like to think my writing’s improved these last two decades! I do use a lot of dialogue, a bit more description than writing of old – hints to wardrobes, weather, the environment, etc. Your blurb… “I really shouldn’t...” She mulled it over. “Maybe it’d be better if—“ But yep, you can mix in action with dialogue… Don’t go overboard, should be light. If it’s heavy, new paragraph. So, this would be too much: “I really shouldn’t...” She pulled the trigger, he squirmed in agony as he convulsed, the life drained from him. “Maybe it’d be better if—“ So more of… “I really shouldn’t.” She brandished the semiautomatic. “Maybe it’d be better if—“ She pulled the trigger. Also, that short action paragraph can break up a wall of dialogue too. Obviously, writing’s an art form, no true right or wrong, unless it descends into revoltingly bad—even that can be occasionally justified

41654 We get rushed, sometimes I’m typing it out on my phone so typos are easy.

Oh...my first fanfic/story, the start of it… pure dialogue in committee style, discussing how to better Harry’s falling marks (because he’d been spending all his time in the owlery writing love letters to his muggle girl.) I certainly wouldn’t write it that way anymore! I’ve grown to figure out way better ways to have done it. I also wrote in PRESENT TENSE, which… wasn’t great either. One trick I learned ages ago for details, don’t describe it ALL. Instead, draw focus to one specific detail, ie, a tear in the green lamp shade, and it gives the illusion of depth without pages of detailed description.

41652 I’m trying to avoid those infinite loops!

You’ll almost always find something you missed if you go back to it, I know I do. Usually, it’s trivial enough that I’ll tweak it in my local copy and websites. As long as you make a reasonable effort, I think most readers understand...it’s not like we’re getting paid to do this full time. It’s a hobby, I’m an amateur, and so it’s basically second draft quality at most. I actually experimented a while ago… I deliberately wrote short chapters (~2k) and limited myself to ONE proof/edit, overall, I liked the speed the story developed at due to that. However, my main stories… longer chapters let me get more into the meat of the tales.

Depends on how fast I write them, which seem to be monthly now… I usually like to wait at least one week between finishing a chapter and reviewing it for posting, that’s balancing the desire to post with catching at least the glaring grammar and other issues. Thought you were sitting on a stockpile of finished yet unposted chapters… I’d do those at least 2-3 days apart, as it’d also stay at the top of “freshly updated” stories for longer.

Ignoring the recent AFF website issues… normally one story/chapter at a time, spread days apart. If I “shotgun” blast them all at once, I don’t really get a good feel from the hitcounts.

41650

41648

41646

41644 … @Wilde_Guess you sent us back on the count. This includes @kagome26isawsome and @Melrick getting caught up in the miscount.