Monday Madness: Original Fic

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

Hey, all you original fic writers out there! How are things going on your latest/oldest/newest/only orig fic? Need any help? Got thoughts about something you want to share? Need encouragement? here's the place to do it. This week, I'm opening up the floor to you guys to discuss anything you want. So fire away!





I have to say I'm not doing so well with getting any more written in my own original fics this year, but I am hoping to. I really liked some of my ideas, but one of the problems I have is that new ideas come forward and take over my brain, and then before I get back to the first one, I feel compelled to start another one... and I have a few sitting in my WIP folder now.

I have consciously tried not to start any new ones lately though, so that maybe I can go back to some of the older ones. I have a couple that are well established - one has 25K written, and I have this idea of exactly where it's supposed to end, so I would like to make that one happen.

I also have another nine chapters in, and I have actually posted six of them, but I kind of stalled when I got to the chapter that needed the female lead to take centre stage, and I can't seem to get around that. I wanted to ask if anyone else has as much trouble writing female characters as I do? I find men easier, strangely enough, and I'm not sure why this is - maybe because I've been writing a lot of men for a long time - but any thoughts you have on the subject, or discussions on your own difficulties or ease with characters may be as good a place as any to start today.

Comments

[skargasm.livejournal.com]

Your comments made me realise that I rarely write female characters - most of my original work has been in the m/m arena and short stories so background characters are few and far between.

I do have a female character that I like in the short story being published next month. She is the sister of one of the MCs and re-reading what I have written I seem to have based her on my sisters. She's snarky, sassy but ultimately caring which is how I see my sisters. Not sure if it helps but maybe consider looking at your friends, the things you like about them, the things that you have in common and approaching your female characters from there?

In the meantime, I am writing another short story with a deadline of 15th April and getting nowhere. It's frustrating as I've already written 1000 words - I know where I want the story to go - I know what I want to happen. But every time I pick up my laptop, I do something else instead.

Every time I pick up my writing book, it sits there glaring at me.

So I thought coming here would encourage me to remember what I like about writing original stuff - I like making new people, making them real, learning who they are and what they want.

I guess I just need to remember that I LIKE doing this which is why I do it.

Sorry for the ramble *blush*

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

Don't worry at all about the ramble! That's exactly what this space is for! :D

I'm terrible and I apologise profusely for the delay in replying. I see all these great comments whenever I make one of these posts, and then I procrastinate about answering because they need thoughtful longer answers... it's just as bad as not being able to write! Anyway...

Thank you for the thoughts on female characters. I guess one of my problems with that is that I don't actually have many friends these days (when I was younger and din't have a family to fill up so much time, sure!) and my sister and I have nothing in common. I find I really don't have a lot in common with most women I know, so yeah, there really aren't that many females around me I'd base characters on. But, your comment does give me hope as there are characters in books and on TV and movies to look towards, so I guess that's something! ;-) Like you, I don't write a lot of female characters, and that is also part of my issue.

I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with your short story that's due very soon. I do hope you will manage to get it done in time. I hope coming here made you remember all the things you enjoy about original writing, and I do hope we have helped inspire you in some small way! I guess knowing you're not alone with your frustrations is one of the things that helps me, so hopefully something like that may be of use!

Good luck with that story, and any others you're working on! ;-)

[skargasm.livejournal.com]

Tv and movies is pretty much a fantastic place to look at female characters. I'm watching 'Suits' for the first time and the leader of the firm is a woman played by Gina Torres and I am LOVING her character! So yeah, I like your thought processes. And don't worry about how long you take to answer - I like popping in and out whenever.

Still done absolutely nothing with that short story but hey, I can only try right?!

[wereleopard58.livejournal.com]

Ok, I need two suggestions of something that can be used to burn a symbol into flesh (my serial killer does this), thing is I need something that could be used in the 17th Century, and something in today's time, also in the UK.

Any suggestions????

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the late reply!

Hmm, that is a tricky one. I would have thought that a branding iron would be something worth looking into - like they used for branding cattle in the US old west, although whether something like this would be around in 17th century Britain, I have no clue. But they would have had blacksmiths with all manner of metal equipment, so maybe something along those lines? Hope that helps!

[skargasm.livejournal.com]

The brand idea - similar to what they used in 'Angels and Demons' would work both in the past and present.

[chokolattejedi.livejournal.com]

So I went back to writing original fic for the first time in a few months. I saw the submission call for <3 press asking for geek trans* stories and jumped on it. Unfortunately the press is only for romance stories, which wasn't spelled out in the submission call. So I finished this story, thought it was complete and good and whatnot, and went to look at the guidelines and found that it was lacking that crucial element. And due to reasons of my character (she's finally accepting herself and ready to take a big step for the first time that is ten steps before the step of dating), shoehorning in a romance would be really really clearly shoehorning and pasted on yay.

So. Now I've got this 10K original fic that I busted myself to get done in a month and I can't do anything with it.

Needless to say I am a bit discouraged.

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

*hugs* That really is frustrating. I can see how hard you worked and how much of a let-down it would be to realise it didn't fit the criteria. I'm trying to think if I know of any comms that would be interested in such a story. The only original fic comm I belong to is ah_gayfiction, which is more for gay original fic, but I have looked around through one of my friends (who is transgender)'s comms, but I'm not sure anything is right for your story. I hope you can find somewhere to post it and have people appreciate it, anyway.

As for me personally, I'd love to read it, so if you have posted it and feel like linking it here, that would be wonderful. If you haven't posted it though, and just like the idea of sharing it with someone, you could always email it to me! Let me know if you'd like to share. ;-)

Love your icon, btw! :D