(no subject)

[nny]

I made an absurdly proud post about editing my own fic, earlier. I thought it might be wise to explain that a little, so you don't think I'm any more cracked out than usual. :D

Most of my fiction is not edited in any way before it's posted. If I am writing for a challenge of some sort and the challenge requires it be beta read before posting then I will comply; my usual way of getting around the change is to simply make the changes suggested and then post it, without thinking any further.

Why? Because I'm worried it might be awful and beyond saving. Because I have tended to think, in the past, that my fic isn't long enough/good enough/worthy enough to warrant a beta. Because I suspect that if I wait long enough to read it through again I'll decide I hate it entirely, and then I'll never get it posted.

The story I wrote last night, though, I emailed to myself at work and printed out first thing this morning. It's now covered in little notations, covering everything from sentence structure and word use, to characterisation and POV. Like, for instance, if I've decided to go for a tight third-person narrative, whose mental shoulder am I looking over and have I made it consistent? What exactly is the character's mood in this scene? Are they trying to hide that? For a writer who's generally as instinctive as I am, when writing, this is kind of a huge deal. Mostly I will write what sounds right, and not think about it deeper than that. And for the most part it works fine, but now I can pull out and recognise things that are ever so slightly off and, more to the point, I can recognise why and what I should change.

This is exciting to me. Because whereas before I've never thought that I could be a good writer, now I'm of the opinion that at least I can have a good stab at doing the best that I can do.

What's changed? The amount of meta I've been reading, principally. It's a recent thing, since I've moved into Stargate: Atlantis fandom; it's a fandom that I'm really interested in being a part of, and it has a selection of my favourite writers from prior fandoms currently writing which is just awesome. Along with the fun challenges and stories, art and icons and wallpapers, crack and wank and so forth, there's an awful lot of interesting discussion. I'm not saying that other fandoms I was in haven't had this, only that now I know where to find it and I'm in a state to appreciate it.

First and foremost, this fandom pointed out metafandom to me, the place where I tend to get most of my reading.

Another place for excellent advice about writing in particular is synecdochic's livejournal. Sometimes I can't be bothered to read it, I confess, and sometimes I'm of the opinion that really she's overthinking, but there is some excellent advice and interesting perspectives on loads of different topics and I'd recommend it if you're interested in such things.

Some specific meta posts that I've found interesting/helpful:

Know what you're writing and own what you're writing, from musesfool. Sometimes you should admit that you're writing porn for porn's sake, and that there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, and sometimes you need to look into it a little further.

Characterisation Uber Alles from mmmchelle. Although I'm not always in agreement that the examples used were enormously successful for me, this is an interesting checklist on how to make sure your characterisation in a smut scene is the driving feature.

Showing not telling, except synecdochic is rather more of a proponent of showing through telling. And the examples from FiJAWfNLtL still break my heart, so I'm gonna go with it.

Write what you know. Get what you don't beta read, which is rydra_wong's contribution to the huge race-representation-in-SG:A-fanfic wank. Basically, a guide for white fans writing characters of colour which essentially says Stop and Think. It's a good post all 'round.

A DS workshop post about how to end a story. That's it. Really interesting.

And finally, a reassuring post for anyone who gets unnerved by impressively thought out meta posts.

*grins*

Comments

[soupytwist.livejournal.com]

Ooh, shiny.

*checks out*

(And personally I think writing and putting it out there is more important than editing - sure editing is good, but if you spend all your time doing that and never posting/showing anyone any of it, then you might as well not have written at all. But then that is my perennial failure, so I would think that. :) )

[unravels.livejournal.com]

:o Ooooo. Looks like good stuff! *memories*

[tropes.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for linking to these. I'm trying to cure myself of some really unfortunate habits I've picked up from RP (not knowing when to skip time b/c I've been writing in realtime so long, POV switches) and it's good to know that my instincts about what I'm doing wrong are right.

♥