WEEKLY CHECK-IN: Tickety boxes and a couple of questions

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

[Poll #1824744]

Now that you've started hyperventilating thinking about your story, are any particular songs coming to mind, like "Please release me (Let me go)" or "A Whumping hunting we will go?"

Any particular writing/vidding/drawing survival must-haves at your house? I have to drink pots and pots of tea (probably explains why I always have the lads consuming copious amounts) and my mate Cherry has to listen to the Bee Gees... don't ask.

Or, if none of this foolishness appeals to you, feel free to just check-in and let us know how it's going.
.

Comments

[marjorammax.livejournal.com]

I'm absolutely gobsmacked that it's coming along as well as it is. I have (unbelieveably) a fairly detailed plot and I'm about three quarters of the way through my (very rough) first draft ... That sounds impressive until you see the HUGE gap between the first few paragraphs and the part 3/4 of the way through that I'm currently working on.

I'm sorry but I just had to give in to the urge to whump the boys. I find writing the action scenes so much easier than the scenes where nothing much is happening. Hopefully by the time I'm done with this scene I'll find enough inspiration to fill in the middle, and it won't seem too disjointed for having been written out of order.

How does everyone else write? Do you start at chapter one and work through chronologically, or do you jump in and out and link it all up at the end?

I'm trying to immerse myself in music from the era. Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel's Make Me Smile has been played to death and my family are threatening to walk out (sorry, I just love that song!). But when I'm actually writing I prefer silence.

And the number one survival essential has to be tea - cups and cups of the stuff.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

How does everyone else write? Do you start at chapter one and work through chronologically, or do you jump in and out and link it all up at the end?

Yes. :)

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

Always such a lovely surprise when it's really just flowing along. Don't forget to relish this feeling, it'll get you through the headdesking parts. *g*

Whumping the lads? As if any of us would ever do that. :D

Like Kat said, yes. I think the more writers you talk to, the more you'll find that there are a million different ways of writing it depending on what works for you and what sort of thing you like to write. For instance, I like a convoluted plot, so I'm likely to do more plotting than someone who prefers to concentrate on emotional aspects. Someone writing AU might have weeks of research to conduct before even starting and so on.

[hutchynstarsk.livejournal.com]

I start at the beginning and write till I reach the end, although sometimes I have to go back and add or change scenes later if I missed something.

Also, I don't drink caffeine or listen to music. Seem to be the minority in that....

Best of luck! Glad it's going well. :D

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

You may have noticed from some of the comments here that the English in general consider tea less a writing necessity and more a life necessity... and I'm not talking about this American iced tea nonsense. :D

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

Here now, what's wrong with iced tea? It's brilliant on a really hot day.

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I shall quote my mother on the subject: Iced tea is an abomination and a sin against god.

Yes, she's where I get my sense of humour, thanks for noticing. *g*

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

Well, I love it either way. So there.

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

Ah, obviously one of those colonial types. *g*

If you grew up on hot tea and never tasted Southern sweet tea until you were an adult it's just. Plain. Weird.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I grew up in the North and would never have had a tea experience if not for my best friend in HS. Her mum was from the UK and we had tea there every afternoon (plus other British goodies). That's where I got my love of hot tea and sweet juicy oranges. Plus back then imported biscuits were a rare treat. I loved seeing her bring out the tin from her family back home. There was never a tea bag in my Italian coffee drinking house, I can't remember when I first drank iced tea but I was certainly not at home! :)

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I was in Ohio, my first day in America. Someone asked if I'd like some tea. I said yes please and was handed a tall glass full of brown water and ice. I was surprised, to say the least, and it tasted awful.

One of our neighbours kept an eye on our house when I went home at Christmas and we brought him back a large box of English chocolates. He, his wife and his three kids have all mentioned them every time I've seen them since. *g*

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

I'm horrified at you mum's feelings about iced tea. *g* Made properly it can be nectar of the gods on a hot day.

*g* Mums are very good for passing on the humour gene.

[marjorammax.livejournal.com]

God, I've just realised how stereotypically English I am. I can't live without tea (definately hot, not iced), and I find myself talking about the weather all the time. The trouble is I can't talk about my love of all things Pros and m/m because the people I know wouldn't understand, so the weather is a nice easy topic. Even my husband tells me I have a problem. Have I? ;)

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I'm English, but I live in America and it took coming here to realize how totally tea dependent I was. :D

Oh, and I still talk about the weather all the time, it's just that those chats now involve hurricanes and tornadoes as well.

No, you don't have a problem, particularly as you now have people to chat with about these very important subjects.

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

I've tried to write out of order and it makes my brain go into catatonic lock down. I must start at the beginning and write through to the end. I rather envy people who can jump about in a story and have it turn out to a cohesive whole at the end.

[marjorammax.livejournal.com]

Whether it will be a cohesive whole at the end is debateable - we will just have to wait and see (and bury our heads in the sand if it's not!) :)

At the moment I'm just going with the "write a scene if it appeals" approach - I've never had a whole plot fall into place so easily and I'm loath to do anything that stops the creative juices flowing. If that means writing the end before the beginning ... well, I'll just keep my fingers crossed that it works out.

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

You definitely have to go where the creative juices are flowing. *nods*

My beta writes out of order all the time... and she laughs at me and calls me 'anal bookkeeper girl' because I can't. *g* (it's true, I am a bookkeeper and I like things orderly. *g*)

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

I'm strictly chronological - can't cope with jumping around at all!! Some people are linear thinkers and some aren't - fascinating!

I know novelists who write the way you do and their work always appears to be seamless when it's finished. I think that's down to good beta/editing.

Even a linear writer like me sometimes has chunks that have to be rewritten (e.g. because you suddenly discover anachronisms) and then you have to read the whole thing through to make sure there are no clunky transitions. One of the problems is repetition - feeling a need to explain something, whether it's a description or background, or whatever, and then you find you've done the same in the bit you were rewriting/inserting...

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

Ive always started at the beginning and written to the end--I edit as I go along and once I get to the end, someone else edits. I rarely write scenes out of order. I do love the action scenes and tell myself firmly that I have to write the 'boring bits' (between action and exciting scenes) as interestingly as the action or no one will want to read them.

I can't write an outline to save my life and usually know the beginning of the story before I start and an approximation of the end. The middle sections just build on one another until we all arrive at the end, slightly surprised to be there!

My mother was a huge hot tea drinker, so I followed suit. I live for tea--it can be hot, cold, milky, Chai latte--however. I like tea.