(no subject)

[nny]

I've been thinking about the way I write.

I have reasonable success with drabbles, and ficlets... it would appear that around 1000 words is my limit, and I find this endlessly frustrating. There are a ridiculous number of ideas, snippets and random lines scattered on disks and pieces of paper around my flat.

I think the problem is my lack of attenetion span. I come up with an idea, and I want written, down on paper, done. When you add in my procrastination... I write short pieces that can reasonably intense and affecting on occasion; though I'm unsure of the success of some because I become imaptient even with *them*. I use images or phrases that are too tied to one particularly (for me) affecting image within the film or book, and do little to anchor that in some kind of plot. I become too elliptical.

Anything longer always seems to become stagnant. I think, sometimes, that this is a fault of perspective rather than quality- coming back to them later, they often seem reasonable pieces and I wonder why it was I left them in the first place.

Strangely, the only vaguely recent story that *hasn't* suffered this problem is a piece of piratefic. (No, not *Pirates* fic, piratefic. It's probably best you don't know the fandom...) That one is well into the seventh chapter, and though I haven't been working on it with any regularity it can be picked up and added to whenever I feel in the mood.

Perhaps it's the narrative "voice" I used. Unusually for me, it's in the first person, and as it's a historical piece of fiction the narrator is far more formal and mannered than characters in HP would generally be, for instance. (Unless fanon Snape was *very* pissed off.) For one reason or another, this 'politic, cautious and meticulous' voice moves the story on far better than anything that sounds remotely like my voice. Yet it's not a suitable voice to carry any of my other fics, and it would be ridiculous to attempt to adapt it so.

Perhaps it is because it is so different to my usual voice. I wasn't particularly prolific in the X-Files fandom, but more prolific than in this. Maybe it's because I was more able to get inside the character's head, because they spoke in an American accent, an American cadence (or, at least, that was my intention). The voice they spoke with in my head was easy to distinguish from the voice I think with, and therefore I could lose myself in it with more ease.

Perhaps this is the wrong fandom for me.

I sincerely hope not.

Does anyone else find this problem? Do you have any advice on how to overcome it? Is the choice of narrative voice always a clear cut one, or do you need to approach from a few angles before it clicks?

Comments

[r-becca.livejournal.com]

I do have that problem a lot, actually.

My one longer fic that I'm particularly proud of is sort of a strng of small scenes, conversations, flashbacks, etc. It's not just the normal, straightforward narrative that you have in the HP books, for example. So that was a good way to use my handicap to my own advantage, and people seem to like that style...

I've been trying to write a series of small ficlets/drabbles but that's not working out too well. I think posting them as I go along was not the right decision because I definitely lost focus if I ever had it in the first place.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I don't see that this choice makes much of a difference for me. And nearly always it's very clear to me who needs to narrate and how - I can only think of one case where I dithered about it.

For me, sustaining interest in an idea requires having a clear idea of where the story is going. I need to know, before I start writing, how the story begins, and how it ends. Usually I have a vague idea of what goes on in the middle, but it's subject to change. Anyway, as long as I know where the story is going, I have a clear goal I can focus on.

[chasehunts.livejournal.com]

The choice of narrative voice - normally that is very clear to me. I can think of one instance (of a fic still not finished) where I tried to go with a first person and not a third person narrator, and I just couldn't do it. "I" came through too much and totally tromped my character. I ended up going back to third person and got my character back. Choosing 'which' narrator to voice - if I can't make a decision on that, nothing is ever written.

About shorter vs. longer and finished and unfinished: I've written shorts (less than 500 to 5500 words) based ONLY on the title or one line summary. I've written stories outward from one scene somewhere in the middle - or around one sentence. I've written backwards from an end I wanted (a 500 word drabble). I've mixed up a few of these "pushes" I've identified and written with all of them. All I can suggest there is use some writer's workshop examples and slug it out with your muse until you come out on top no matter what you begin with. *grin*

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Narrative voice is never a problem for me - probably because my fics always start with a character saying something...over and over and over...in my head until I sit down and start writing.

The problem comes when I try to figure out what happened before that little dialogue snippet, and where it's going.

I never have problems with plot bunnies, but I lack the patience to sit down and flesh them out. The best stories (published and fanfic) are the ones that make you feel as though there is much, much more going on around the story the writer is telling one. Gimli and Legolas don't take up much page space, relatively speaking, in LotR, but one has the feeling that they're doing things while Tolkien's narrative voice is looking the other way, so to speak. I'm easily distracted, and can't get the flesh onto the bones of my stories. Which is why I'm doomed to a career of writing 3,000~4,000 word fics.