benitle and I are hosting this month's workshop over at spnroundtable. Come over and join the discussion!

As both Pet and I are second-language learners and don't live in the US, we thought it might be fun (and helpful) to host a workshop that discusses problems you may encounter when writing fic, SPN in this case, that is set on a whole different continent than yours: Faking It: Pretending You're An US Citizen When You're An Ocean Away. Where we talk about language stuff, cultural differences and ways to get your setting, the US, right. (Or about as right as is possible for a non-US citizen.)

Needs lots of people to join in and offer more suggestions!

One thing about writing that drives me bonkers is doing research.

It's not even that I'm too lazy or can't be bothered to, on the contrary, I love reading and learning about cultural and historical things. It's just that in both fiction and non-fiction writing, I never quite know where to start.

The internet is a very broad and wonderful place. You usually find information about the stuff you're looking for, only you tend to end up on Wikipedia which is a great source for a general overview but as soon as you need details, you're screwed. At least that's what it's like for me. Perhaps I'm just not very good at googleling things, perhaps the internet's filled with mostly superficial stuff, perhaps it's a combination of the two--I don't know. Fact is, I never find the information I need. Never to the depth that I would like.

Same goes for books by the way--I've accepted a while ago I never seem to be able to find what I need for my papers and I usually write around it, but when I want to write fiction where I want to get every bit right, it gets a bit annoying. The books at our local library usually aren't theoretical enough while the books at my university are too theoretical. When I want to find out about lore, or historical details or medical facts (What were clothes made of in the 19th century? What was a typical meal in the 1920's? How long does it take someone to recover from pneumonia and what are typical steps? What's a typical police arrest like? These are just random questions, no worry ;-) ), I'm at a loss because I don't know where to look. Sometimes I go on amazon to look for books on a particular subject, but I can never find the right stuff. Especially when I'm trying to find out about every-day life in the 19th or early 20th century, about manners and morals and all the little things that make a story come to life.

Which brings me to a different matter: how many of historical details in books are actually facts, and how many are just author's guesses?

So just...I was wondering whether I'm the only one who feels that way. How much research do you do? Where? Any advice for me how to improve my research-fu? What do you do when you want to set your story in a time and place you only have a vague idea about? Where do you start? Do you also talk to people/experts? Are there any good websites for historic facts and such? (Like http://www.victorianlondon.org/, for example? Or little_details)

I'd love to hear your thoughts :-)

Snagged from my flist, because I can never resist a chance to talk about writing. We'll quickly do that, and then I'll hop back to my to-do list so I will get some more stuff done today. Hooray.

( Steffis Ramblings About Writing...Even More Of Them! )

Question: when writing, do you ever borrow phrases or discriptions that other authors used in their writing because you like the wording so much? If so, do you feel guilty about it?

I'm asking because I just read the discription "A muscle in his jaw twitched" and I love it because it describes exactly what I'm trying to say. It would have never occured to me to write it that way, though. So now I'm torn whether or not to use it myself.

(Not a ground-breaking dilemma, I know. I'm just curious to know whether you guys ever feel that way too.)


ETA: to clarify--the example above is of course just a fact being stated. Still, I wouldn't have thought of wording it that way. I would have said it differently. And I feel bad about using wordings that aren't mine :)

What I hate about writing fanfiction as a German is that omnipresent feeling of not having a clue about what you're doing.

Like...writing about Stanford. What does it look like? Does it have dormitories? What do they look like? Is there a bloody difference between a dorm and a house? How do you get into one of them? Are they on campus or somewhere else? IS WHAT I'M WRITING AT ALL LIKELY?

Then you go to google and try the university website and at some point end up on a website specifically designed for all the dorms and houses WHICH DOESN'T HELP AT ALL because it's only more confusing than it is helping.

And then, you weep.

ETA: *hugs her flist* You guys rock.

I think Philip Pullman and I must be related:

"When I've finished a story I'll type it all on to the computer, editing as I go. Then I read it all again and think it's horrible, and get very depressed. That's one of the things you have to put up with. Eventually, after a lot of fiddling, it's sort of all right, but the best I can do; and that's when I send it off to the publisher."

Mr Pullman, Mr Gaiman, you are my heroes.

Are the young ones of a wolf called "whelp" or "cub"?

"Whelp" seems a bit old-fashioned to me, but "cub" is more used for lions and bears, isn't it? (Everything with big paws I guess :-p )

I assume it's not "puppy" ...?

Usually, I don't write additional notes for the things I write, I like to just leave it to the readers.

Since I rewrote a well-known film for The Empty Man, I thought it might interest people while I did it the way I did it. So, ready?

( On To The Brabble )

My plans for this summer were to rewrite my children's novel and work on some other pieces of original fiction. And then send them off to publishing houses because oh yes, I want to be a published author so badly.

But it seems like fanfiction is getting in the way - man, I love writing fanfiction so much. And I have thousands of projects I want to write. And I constantly find myself going "Just this tiny ficlet before I rewrite my original stuff". Which annoys me - annoys me muchly but I can't help it.

Maybe I like writing fanfiction so much because there is no pressure - sure, I work hard on making it good, but in the end no one is going to actually turn you down, no one is going to tell you you're not a good enough writer (or maybe some will, but most people will just ignore you if they don't like your stuff).

I think my plotbunnies for my original books are good. One of them is definitely pretty unique and would make a great book, if executed appropriately. And that's the point - I don't think I'm good enough to do that yet. I think what I'm most afraid of is to spoil the ideas.

So, am I a coward for not writing them? Am I one of those people who claim they're going to write a book but never do? Or am I smart to wait? I don't know.

Does anyone else have similiar problems? Any ideas how to deal with this dilemma?

(Also, my book shelves are completely overloaded again. Where am I going to put all my books? *pulls hair*)

One thing that always baffles me is that, when I'm in stress and busy, my creativity just bursts open. I just finished a song I'd been working on since May, adding and polishing the verses (and tune!).

It's a Supernatural Sam-centric song that I'd been meaning to write for a while.

Demon Child

"If you could I know you would, create what was never meant to be
Whether or not it would set me free
As you lie there sleeping I can see
The sharp white sickle's by your side, waiting for worlds to collide
Your soul was never meant to be
Thrown away so carelessly.

( Complete Lyrics Under Here )

Yesterday I was discussing the matter of writing with Noxie, and a question came up that I haven't yet been able to answer, so I'd like to put it here for discussion. Dear flist, if you will :-)

So, we all know that writing requires practise, practise and practise. That writing can be learned to a certain extent - which is what I've been wondering.

To what extent can writing actually be learned?

There's thousands of books as to how to learn writing, how to improve your style. Many of them helpful I guess (I really need to get my hands on "Writing Down Your Bones"). But what if you practise and practise and at the end of the day realise you're maybe just missing "it", that spark, a feeling for words and language?

Maybe you can tell stories alright, and maybe you have good insight into characters - but is that enough? Doesn't good writing require more than that? Does writing consist of more than that? Or can you still be a good writer if your style isn't witty and full of beautiful metaphors, as long as you keep your characters authentic? Or would that feel too much like reading a script?

Are combinations like that possible? Can writing be important to someone (I mean "important", not "I write for lack of better hobbies") who lacks that... spark?

I really hope this makes sense to someone out there :-)

Discuss. :-)

I'm very close to finishing my children's sci-fi novel - and after things went really well and I just wrote ten chapters like that *snaps fingers* within two weeks or so I'm stuck now. I haven't written a single line in four or five days. Not even my usual do-it-yourself-brainstorming (meaning I just write down anything that comes to my mind into my journal) works anymore. I'm totally stuck, it's like my brain has emptied itself.

Usually I wouldn't worry, because it's only four or five more chapters to go - but this time, I have a deadline, and it's drawing nigh. The book is for a competition by a publishing house, and I still need to edit and revise the whole thing and send it out to my beta readers before I can even think of entering the competition.

I'm desperate. What should I do? My brother said I should maybe just leave it be for a couple of days since I've done little else besides writing the past weeks but... I'm desperate, I did mention that? It's like I've run out of ideas, and I dunno what to do! I know where the story is headed - I just dunno how to get it there. Oh Christ, help? Please? What should I do? Ideas?

On a random note: I love, love the Everwood theme. I never really warmed up to that show but I've always loved the main title. I even used to switch on the telly just to watch the opening credits :-)

Finished my fic for spn_gleeweek and realised it's probably nothing like the request and while I still kind of like it I think I might need to try again. Darn it. And here I was being proud that I had actually finished it. Hm.

So, in order to cheer me up and because I'm full of writer's self-doubts again and because I really want to spam you with my wise and meaningful insight into writing I bring you a fanfic writers meme I found on krislaughs LJ. Because I clearly rock.

( Read more... )

Spent an hour or so today going through fanfic and writing down words and wordings that I don't know to improve my vocabulary.

So far so good.

Only, especially with wordings and phrases I'm pretty unsure whether it's actually common to put a phrase like that, or whether it's just an author's particular style. Because if it's the latter I don't want to go round copying it.

Teh Dilemma.

This post was brought to you by GIP.

I don't know how to work any harder on my writing. Seriously, I don't, and it's frustrating.

You have no idea how much effort I put into my stories, but it feels like no matter how hard I try, it's never even remotely enough. I think I'm actually doing fine when it comes to building up plotlines and chapters. My skills still need refining there, but I think that overall I'm doing alright.

What bothers me is my lack of style, it bothers me to no end because I try so damn hard. I wish I was one of those writers whose stories you not just love because the plot is good, but because the writing is so amazing (yes, that includes you glorfinniel), and beautiful, just... good.

I know mine isn't. True, there are far worse authors than me, but far better ones as well. And I'm at a point where I think, this is all I can give, I can't do better than that. I look back at my life and how I've always been writing and I think "Shouldn't I be much, much better than this by now?" So maybe I'm not as talented (if at all) as I liked to think, and what you see here is merely the result of years of hard work and practice?

And maybe this is the reason why I hardly ever get reviews, and why I don't think I've ever been rec'd somewhere. I'm just not good enough, and it's fine.

Only it's not. I wanna be a good writer, so badly. I can live with never being an ace at drawing, sewing, singing... but writing?

I wish someone could tell me how to improve my writing. But I'm afraid there's no way, right? I won't give up writing, I could never do that. But...it's just frustrating. To feel you're doing something wrong but not being able to see what it is exactly. And feeling you're lacking that something that seperates a good author from a great author.

I'm tempted to switch the comments off from this post - but then, that'd make me look like a drama queen, right?

I've got this plotbunny in my head that I'm really tempted to write - only so far the outline of the plot is more than a little rough, and I haven't yet decided on one or two major things. So here's a question I have for you:

When do you start writing? Do you just - have a basic idea and let it flow and surprise you where it leads you? Or do you plan out most of it before you even write down a single word? Do you plan out chapters before you begin a fic? How much detail do you know before you start writing?

I like to plan out most of the plot before I start writing to make sure there aren't any major plotholes. Also if I just start to write I tend to get lost in the middle of the story and don't know where to take it. But now I'm really tempted, as I said...

How about you?

How do you German/ other by rights non-English speaker do it? How do you write fanfiction in a language that isn't yours and even claim it comes easier to you than writing in your mothertongue? And how do you make it it turns out good?

I've tried. I've failed. Pretty pathetic considering I do British Studies at university. I thought by time I'd get better but it seems my self-confidence only got worse with each wording I discovered I didn't know. It's driving me insane when I don't know a word or just don't know how to word something because I'm sure the phrase can't be translated into English word for word. How can anyone do that and not go insane?

And it's not even like I don't read English books or don't watch English films - I do that all the time. Almost literally. Frustrating, really.

/rant

*returns to German fic that MIGHT be translated into English at one point if I ever find the courage to do so*

ETA: Forgot to say - I practise a LOT. Seriously. I know practise supposedly makes perfect but I can't see any improvement.

ETA 2: Ooops, I think I worded that wrongly. Now, usually I never translate stories but write them in English from the start. I also think in English then. The translation mentioned above sort of would be an attempt since nothing else seems to work...

The little girl in the Horse Whisperer film is Scarlett Johanssen??? O_O

Wicked.

Also, anyone participating here?

http://www.nanowrimo.org/


I'll have a go at it at least...I'm not really convinced I can write 50,000 words within a month, but it's an opportunitiy to actually get started on the novel I want to write and see whether it works out or not :o)

*note to myself*

Just. Write.

Your style is weakening. You've done better.

IMPROVE.

GWAH.

ETA:

And why am I always the last one to find pictures like this?