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 Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 6:49 pm
And by long, I mean very, very long.
I'm asking since I've had this idea for quite some time, but pulling it off properly will take a great deal of set up over a span of several games in the series, as well as careful research, planning, and plausible dot-connecting.
I've never actually written a full-fledged, honest fanfiction before (which makes this a very daunting task for me), so I could really use all the help I can get. How do you guys handle writing multi-chapter fanfics? Any helpful tips on general organization? While I'm hoping for help for myself, hopefully this thread can help out others, too. I'll appreciate any advice I receive.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:02 pm
I have a great deal of experience with writing long fics. However, I am yet to actually FINISH a long fic. The main problem that I run into (and you'll have to decide for yourself if this is relevant to yourself or not) is that I lose interest in the story and/or the fandom before the fic is completed. When I lose interest, I lose the drive to write. So I stop and nothing ever gets done.
This is a trend that I've seen with a lot of authors who write long fics.
There seriously needs to be an award of some kind for the people who can finish a story that's X words or longer. Those people are freaking champs!
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 7:41 pm
Renkon Root I have a great deal of experience with writing long fics. However, I am yet to actually FINISH a long fic. The main problem that I run into (and you'll have to decide for yourself if this is relevant to yourself or not) is that I lose interest in the story and/or the fandom before the fic is completed. When I lose interest, I lose the drive to write. So I stop and nothing ever gets done. This is a trend that I've seen with a lot of authors who write long fics. There seriously needs to be an award of some kind for the people who can finish a story that's X words or longer. Those people are freaking champs! Out of curiosity, how long were these fics? And I find that very relevant, honestly. I've been a huge fan of the series since I was a child so interest in the series is no problem, but as far as the actual completing the fic part goes, well suffice it to say that I can easily lose motivation. (Though, as little known as this series is, I suppose this is something I would mainly be writing for my own entertainment.)
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 9:16 pm
I have in the past set up times where I try and write and set up a date for myself to try and finish the chapter by. It's tentative of course. And I find that if I roughly lay out what I want to happen, it helps a lot with my pacing and what needs to happen where. The rest of it, I just roll with it. xD
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Violent Crow Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 7:30 am
Night Kunoichi I have in the past set up times where I try and write and set up a date for myself to try and finish the chapter by. It's tentative of course. And I find that if I roughly lay out what I want to happen, it helps a lot with my pacing and what needs to happen where. The rest of it, I just roll with it. xD This helps a lot. Setting up a doable schedule in which to write and, more importantly, in which to actually have a chapter finished will really make or break you. If it's going to be a very long and involved fic, you need a bit of structure or else you're likely to let the story fall by the wayside since (I'll be blunt) writing a super long fic is rather daunting. Let's see... As mentioned before, it's helpful to have ideas for chapters drafted out so that you can flesh out the skeletons and make writing chapters a heck of a lot easier. Be sure to write down any and all ideas that come to you and store them in a safe place because you never know when writer's block will strike and those sometimes silly ideas can make for great inspiration to get you and the story moving again. You said that falling out of love with the fandom won't be a problem, so I won't touch on how to handle that issue. Now in regards to actually completing the fic, just set yourself a clear beginning and an end so that you know what you're working towards. The rest will come to you... I hope. Thing is, I'm working on a fic that has a word count of 250k~ and 57 chapters but I'm not done with it. That's why I'm not so confident in giving advice on actually finishing long fics. But I'm sure you can do it! You say you'll be writing it for your own pleasure so that's a good motivator.
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Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 7:49 pm
Lufuu Renkon Root I have a great deal of experience with writing long fics. However, I am yet to actually FINISH a long fic. The main problem that I run into (and you'll have to decide for yourself if this is relevant to yourself or not) is that I lose interest in the story and/or the fandom before the fic is completed. When I lose interest, I lose the drive to write. So I stop and nothing ever gets done. This is a trend that I've seen with a lot of authors who write long fics. There seriously needs to be an award of some kind for the people who can finish a story that's X words or longer. Those people are freaking champs! Out of curiosity, how long were these fics? And I find that very relevant, honestly. I've been a huge fan of the series since I was a child so interest in the series is no problem, but as far as the actual completing the fic part goes, well suffice it to say that I can easily lose motivation. (Though, as little known as this series is, I suppose this is something I would mainly be writing for my own entertainment.)They're all roughly 20+ chapter or 60k+ words. Some were for pretty mainstream fandoms, others were for thing nobody's either heard of or remembers anymore. There was a Fatal Fury fic that made it to 23 chapters before I gave up. A Dragon Ball Z fic that I quit at 22 chapters. My Golion (original Japanese ver. of Voltron) that made it all the way to 30-something before I left it in the dust. I do still return to the DBZ fandom periodically. I've been a DB fan since I was 12-years-old and I will love it forever. Every now and again, I'll write another scene or two for that fandom, one time I even got so inspired as t actually update that 22-chapter fic. But other than that, anything that grows to over 20 chapters and isn't finished will probably never get finished. What fandom is your fic for?
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Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 8:00 pm
Renkon Root They're all roughly 20+ chapter or 60k+ words. Some were for pretty mainstream fandoms, others were for thing nobody's either heard of or remembers anymore. There was a Fatal Fury fic that made it to 23 chapters before I gave up. A Dragon Ball Z fic that I quit at 22 chapters. My Golion (original Japanese ver. of Voltron) that made it all the way to 30-something before I left it in the dust. I do still return to the DBZ fandom periodically. I've been a DB fan since I was 12-years-old and I will love it forever. Every now and again, I'll write another scene or two for that fandom, one time I even got so inspired as t actually update that 22-chapter fic. But other than that, anything that grows to over 20 chapters and isn't finished will probably never get finished. What fandom is your fic for? Goodness, that is a lot. About the only one I know is DBZ, I've been in and out of the fandom myself since I was a kid. Never read any fics for it though. Ah, my fic (assuming I write it) is for the Wild ARMs series, it's my most favorite game series of all time. I've been in love with it since I was...I'd like to say 6? So a good 15 years now.
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Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 8:02 pm
Lufuu Renkon Root They're all roughly 20+ chapter or 60k+ words. Some were for pretty mainstream fandoms, others were for thing nobody's either heard of or remembers anymore. There was a Fatal Fury fic that made it to 23 chapters before I gave up. A Dragon Ball Z fic that I quit at 22 chapters. My Golion (original Japanese ver. of Voltron) that made it all the way to 30-something before I left it in the dust. I do still return to the DBZ fandom periodically. I've been a DB fan since I was 12-years-old and I will love it forever. Every now and again, I'll write another scene or two for that fandom, one time I even got so inspired as t actually update that 22-chapter fic. But other than that, anything that grows to over 20 chapters and isn't finished will probably never get finished. What fandom is your fic for? Goodness, that is a lot. About the only one I know is DBZ, I've been in and out of the fandom myself since I was a kid. Never read any fics for it though. Ah, my fic (assuming I write it) is for the Wild ARMs series, it's my most favorite game series of all time. I've been in love with it since I was...I'd like to say 6? So a good 15 years now. I confess, I never played it. But you should give writing your fic a try. If you really love the series that much, you just might be able to finish it. You're love might carry you through.
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Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 8:06 pm
Violent Crow Night Kunoichi I have in the past set up times where I try and write and set up a date for myself to try and finish the chapter by. It's tentative of course. And I find that if I roughly lay out what I want to happen, it helps a lot with my pacing and what needs to happen where. The rest of it, I just roll with it. xD This helps a lot. Setting up a doable schedule in which to write and, more importantly, in which to actually have a chapter finished will really make or break you. If it's going to be a very long and involved fic, you need a bit of structure or else you're likely to let the story fall by the wayside since (I'll be blunt) writing a super long fic is rather daunting. Let's see... As mentioned before, it's helpful to have ideas for chapters drafted out so that you can flesh out the skeletons and make writing chapters a heck of a lot easier. Be sure to write down any and all ideas that come to you and store them in a safe place because you never know when writer's block will strike and those sometimes silly ideas can make for great inspiration to get you and the story moving again. You said that falling out of love with the fandom won't be a problem, so I won't touch on how to handle that issue. Now in regards to actually completing the fic, just set yourself a clear beginning and an end so that you know what you're working towards. The rest will come to you... I hope. Thing is, I'm working on a fic that has a word count of 250k~ and 57 chapters but I'm not done with it. That's why I'm not so confident in giving advice on actually finishing long fics. But I'm sure you can do it! You say you'll be writing it for your own pleasure so that's a good motivator. I have to admit, I'm one of those people who find setting up outlines and skeletons to be little help more often than not, but maybe now that I've had to get just a tiny more organized in general it'll help me out more. I'll definitely seriously consider that! I think part of my problem is definitely finding a clear starting point, though I know precisely how I want it to end. I feel like it would be much easier if I had more people to consult on the matter, since my ideas seem to come to me most when I talk with people about them. As for your fic, I'm frightened by big numbers. And impressed. o.o I shall cheer from you over here away from the big numbers.
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Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 8:09 pm
Renkon Root Lufuu Renkon Root They're all roughly 20+ chapter or 60k+ words. Some were for pretty mainstream fandoms, others were for thing nobody's either heard of or remembers anymore. There was a Fatal Fury fic that made it to 23 chapters before I gave up. A Dragon Ball Z fic that I quit at 22 chapters. My Golion (original Japanese ver. of Voltron) that made it all the way to 30-something before I left it in the dust. I do still return to the DBZ fandom periodically. I've been a DB fan since I was 12-years-old and I will love it forever. Every now and again, I'll write another scene or two for that fandom, one time I even got so inspired as t actually update that 22-chapter fic. But other than that, anything that grows to over 20 chapters and isn't finished will probably never get finished. What fandom is your fic for? Goodness, that is a lot. About the only one I know is DBZ, I've been in and out of the fandom myself since I was a kid. Never read any fics for it though. Ah, my fic (assuming I write it) is for the Wild ARMs series, it's my most favorite game series of all time. I've been in love with it since I was...I'd like to say 6? So a good 15 years now. I confess, I never played it. But you should give writing your fic a try. If you really love the series that much, you just might be able to finish it. You're love might carry you through. Quite frankly, I'm usually shocked just to find out people have heard of it. ^^; Anyhow, thanks for the encouragement. I definitely intend to try and write it at some point, I just hope I can make myself go through with it. I've got a lot of gaming to do and notes to take to get everything right.
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Violent Crow Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 11:16 am
Lufuu I have to admit, I'm one of those people who find setting up outlines and skeletons to be little help more often than not, but maybe now that I've had to get just a tiny more organized in general it'll help me out more. I'll definitely seriously consider that! I think part of my problem is definitely finding a clear starting point, though I know precisely how I want it to end. I feel like it would be much easier if I had more people to consult on the matter, since my ideas seem to come to me most when I talk with people about them. As for your fic, I'm frightened by big numbers. And impressed. o.o I shall cheer from you over here away from the big numbers. I seriously used to hate setting a schedule for myself. I hated it! Schedules actually help out, though. Especially when you find that you're getting busier with work, school, etc. Most of the time I just set myself an arbitrary date to have a chapter done and it just keeps me in check without being too restricting. So in that sense I don't do a true schedule for myself. But I also don't really do true outlines, either. I just write stuff that comes to me and it's just snippets of chapters and that's my outline- that's what I flesh out later down the line. I don't do that long, drawn out process that you learn in high school for writing stories. Yeah, I struggled to stay awake through that so there's no way I'd willingly put myself through that nonsense again! sweatdrop That's funny to me because we're pretty much the opposite. I always have the beginning down but I'm iffy about the ending and usually dawdle over a few ideas before finally figuring something out. To me, my fic doesn't really seem all that big. I don't know why. It's never been a chore to write, so I guess that's why I don't think it's so long. However, you can just ask Kunoichi- I was shocked to learn that my story was 250k~ words and 57 chapters mainly because I have the story roughly split between two main characters (one's a secondary main, but he gives more information and brings in an element of mystery and danger whereas the actual main character is mostly ignorant but amusing).
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