I've been writing for a good long time now and I've been posting my stories for people other than me to read for over a decade. And yet, having one of my stories be really well-received still shocks the hell out of me.
As is obvious from my last few posts, I have been very into Once Upon a Time fanfic lately, both writing and reading. The most recent story I wrote, a little three-chapter deal titled "Can You Help Me," turned out, to my surprise, to be one of the most popular stories I've ever written.
The idea for the story was simple, really. It came from a song by the same name by Vertical Horizon that became one of my favorite songs of all time pretty much the first time I heard it. It's a lovely song, and as I was driving to work one day, the lyrics in the chorus gave me this little inkling for a post-curse Once Upon a Time story with a hurt and guilty Snow White trying to reconnect with a defensive and walls-up Emma.
It was just supposed to be a one-shot -- a complete story told in a few thousand words -- but as I wrote, it grew too long to post as a one-shot. I quickly decided to make it a three-parter and wrote the whole thing in about a week and a half.
I posted the first chapter less than two weeks ago, and the reader response to it has been overwhelming. It's been put on more alert subscriptions (which meant the readers wanted to be notified via email when I updated it) than any of my others, and it is the 4th most-favorited story I have on the ff.net archive.
To put things in perspective, I've been posting to ff.net since 2001. The three stories that are ahead of it in terms of being favorited are "Sorry" and "Locked Out," two Supernatural stories I wrote in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and the magnum opus for SVU, "The Heart of the Matter," which I wrote in 2005.
To have a story take off this quickly is flippin' insane to me. I'm thrilled to pieces, don't get me wrong, but it's insane.
It's just that it surprises me what strikes a chord with a readership. Like I said, "Can You Help Me" was a little idea I got on the drive to work. "Sorry" was based on, no lie, a real game of Sorry that happened in my family that I translated into a cute little pre-series Supernatural story, and "Locked Out" was an idea about a preteen Dean locking himself and Sam out of the motel room during a rainstorm that came quite literally out of nowhere. And "The Heart of the Matter"? I still have no idea why that story is so popular. It's a half-casefile, half-personal relationship, slow-burn Casey/Olivia story that I really don't think is anything super-special. Apparently, though, it is, for reasons completely unknown to me.
But things like that that also give me confidence. Having something that I don't think is in any way special resonate with an audience is an amazing feeling.
Showing posts with label optimism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label optimism. Show all posts
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Writing Challenge
A little while ago, a couple posters on a message board I frequent suggested a writing challenge. Well, actually, one poster jokingly suggested the plot go a certain way, other posters added to it, and a final poster suggested someone actually go write the fanfic because it sounded awesome. My original response was that I would try it myself save for the crippling case of writer's block I had going on.
But then, as it happened, the challenge got into my head. I started thinking of various ways to go about it but at first it was just flights of fancy. When I began dreaming about it at night, I decided it was time to start seriously thinking about trying to write it.
I had a couple of plot details to work out but I got one bit of inspiration from an earlier episode of the show and a final bit of inspiration out of the clear blue sky. So yesterday afternoon, I went out and bought a new notebook, some new pens, and set to work.
I decided to start on paper because, well, paper is my roots. I always used to start my stories in a notebook and do a bulk of the editing when I typed the story up later on. In more recent years, I've been writing strictly on the computer for a variety of reasons, not the least of which included the ease of transferring the file from home computer to work computer and back again. Plus, I type a lot faster than I handwrite, so it saved a lot of time.
But the big problem with writing on a computer, especially when you have writer's block, is that it's so freakin' easy to just backspace and/or delete if you don't like something. Then you get into a constant cycle of writing and deleting and writing and deleting and you never make any progress. Of course with a notebook, you can certainly white-out, but there's more of a thought process there than just, "Eh, I don't like this. *presses Delete*"
I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening and almost all of today writing. It's not coming out as easily as it used to but it is coming out and I like it a lot better than anything I've written in the past year or so. And more importantly, I am having an absolute blast! It is indeed a challenge, but I'm having a ton of fun attempting to rise to it.
Perhaps this is what I really needed. Something completely new. Something to kickstart the creative juices again. I'll keep y'all posted!
But then, as it happened, the challenge got into my head. I started thinking of various ways to go about it but at first it was just flights of fancy. When I began dreaming about it at night, I decided it was time to start seriously thinking about trying to write it.
I had a couple of plot details to work out but I got one bit of inspiration from an earlier episode of the show and a final bit of inspiration out of the clear blue sky. So yesterday afternoon, I went out and bought a new notebook, some new pens, and set to work.
I decided to start on paper because, well, paper is my roots. I always used to start my stories in a notebook and do a bulk of the editing when I typed the story up later on. In more recent years, I've been writing strictly on the computer for a variety of reasons, not the least of which included the ease of transferring the file from home computer to work computer and back again. Plus, I type a lot faster than I handwrite, so it saved a lot of time.
But the big problem with writing on a computer, especially when you have writer's block, is that it's so freakin' easy to just backspace and/or delete if you don't like something. Then you get into a constant cycle of writing and deleting and writing and deleting and you never make any progress. Of course with a notebook, you can certainly white-out, but there's more of a thought process there than just, "Eh, I don't like this. *presses Delete*"
I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening and almost all of today writing. It's not coming out as easily as it used to but it is coming out and I like it a lot better than anything I've written in the past year or so. And more importantly, I am having an absolute blast! It is indeed a challenge, but I'm having a ton of fun attempting to rise to it.
Perhaps this is what I really needed. Something completely new. Something to kickstart the creative juices again. I'll keep y'all posted!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Cautious Optimism
I know, I know, I've been neglecting this blog. Truthfully, I've been neglecting writing lately, which meant I had no real content for the blog. Since no one likes to read "Yeah, nothing's really changed, but I'm here just to babble" posts, I just ... haven't posted.
The reasons for the neglect are numerous and all sound like bad excuses. At the beginning of the year, I had a really stressful couple of months, which left no energy or even real interest for writing. Then when things calmed down in my personal life, I found myself writer's-blocked. Nothing came out the way I envisioned, I didn't like the sound of anything I wrote, the whole shebang.
So I took a break. Breaks not of my own choosing are frustrating, to be sure, but sitting there hating everything I wrote was even more so. The hardest part of any break is getting back into the swing of things, but I knew that if I didn't, I never would.
I like writing, so the thought of not being able to make myself sit there and do it made me sad. So tonight I kicked my own behind, put my headphones on, and tried to work on my epiphany. I'd written the new prologue a couple of times already, but it never sounded ... right. And I can't really explain what "right" is; I just knew that what I had wasn't it.
Tonight? I'm cautiously optimistic that I got it right. Cautiously because I tend to like the things I write the day I write them but then I look at it more objectively the next day and see all the problems. We'll see if I still like it tomorrow, but I like it a lot tonight. The tone, the voice, a nice balance of exposition in the prose and in dialogue ... I kinda think I nailed it.
The reasons for the neglect are numerous and all sound like bad excuses. At the beginning of the year, I had a really stressful couple of months, which left no energy or even real interest for writing. Then when things calmed down in my personal life, I found myself writer's-blocked. Nothing came out the way I envisioned, I didn't like the sound of anything I wrote, the whole shebang.
So I took a break. Breaks not of my own choosing are frustrating, to be sure, but sitting there hating everything I wrote was even more so. The hardest part of any break is getting back into the swing of things, but I knew that if I didn't, I never would.
I like writing, so the thought of not being able to make myself sit there and do it made me sad. So tonight I kicked my own behind, put my headphones on, and tried to work on my epiphany. I'd written the new prologue a couple of times already, but it never sounded ... right. And I can't really explain what "right" is; I just knew that what I had wasn't it.
Tonight? I'm cautiously optimistic that I got it right. Cautiously because I tend to like the things I write the day I write them but then I look at it more objectively the next day and see all the problems. We'll see if I still like it tomorrow, but I like it a lot tonight. The tone, the voice, a nice balance of exposition in the prose and in dialogue ... I kinda think I nailed it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
