spaceheadcadet

[spaceheadcadet]

Fanfiction is great because you can see so clearly how people learn to write.

Some people, it's clear, learned almost entirely through absorbing the world around them. Grammar and punctuation will be all over the place, spellings are approximate, but the voice of the narration will come through so clearly. You can hear the dialect of the people around them as of they're telling the story. It's not a written story, it's a transcription of how they talk in their day to day life.

Some people learned through reading a gazillion books as a kid. Grammer and spelling will be rock solid, formatting occasionally based on the single tab of physical books rather than the double tab of online scrolling, but dialogue is often stilted and overly formal. You might notice a lack of contractions and very rigid rules they made for consistency that actually have a lot more flexibility than they think. They tend to have a fantastic grasp of sentence flow, though.

And other people formally learned how to write. This could be anywhere from taking school classes seriously because they enjoyed writing stories as a kid to literal certifications and jobs in the field. Grammer is flawless. Punctuation is triple checked. Foreign words are in italics. Characters have distinct voices. But their self indulgence is tempered by perfectionism. They know precisely what they want from a fic. Authors notes often feature mutterings about their happiness with the chapter. Kaomojis often appear! They seek a style to their writing, and it makes for some wonderfully clever plots! These are the ones most likely to get fun with formatting!

And some people.... Some people examined it all. They dissect dialogue, people watch, cross reference behaviours and compare characters to people irl. You can tell almost immediately who had formative experiences with Terry pratchett and/or ghibli, because it's these people. While others see writing as fun, expression, craft, they see it as art. Plain and simple. Sure, the grammar is occasionally sacrificed on the altar of creative freedom, and the occasional sentence might miss a full stop, but these people seem to self reflect on themselves as part of the art making process. On occasion, these people have the most masterful grasp of dialogue and invocation and hand sewn characterisations. Formatting is pretty standard because all the focus is on the actual words. These fics can be edited to the moon and back!

All of these can vary wildly in forethought and quality, and betas can often catch individual problems before they hit post, but just. Isn't it so cool? What's that one Oscar Wilde quote about every mask just being another fragment of yourself?

Did you recognise yourself?

[spaceheadcadet]

When you forget how to English, lose writing motivation, go insane over world-building elements, and forget how the calendar works all in one week:

[spaceheadcadet]

Refuge.

[spaceheadcadet]

Going thirty-two, now wearing a pair of prescription glasses, still I can't recognize the reflection I see when I do window-shopping.

[spaceheadcadet]

I write for all the pain I couldn't bear. Where else could I bleed if I stop.

[spaceheadcadet]

[spaceheadcadet]

The ideas in my head are cool. But when it's time to write those said ideas and construct actual sentences for it to manifest. Poof. All gone. I stare at the screen like it owes me money while the cursor blinks, mocking me for it being stuck at the same position for hours.

[spaceheadcadet]

An outstretched hand

Look closer you'll see

A reddish orange tint wedge underneath the nails

Blood rust color or rusted from blood

Look longer and you'll see

A hand resembles a metal trap

Of a friendly shake or a hand that betrays

Look even closer you'll see

Now you know why I don't do handshake

It's a bear trap in disguise

[spaceheadcadet]

Everything is unbearably dull.

[spaceheadcadet]

All these story ideas and I find myself unworthy to write any

[spaceheadcadet]

[spaceheadcadet]

Damn tumblr won’t let me format this better 😞 Wanted to flesh out an interaction between these two so have a sketchy lil comic 💁🏻

[spaceheadcadet]

I hit that ouroboros number.

[spaceheadcadet]

i feel like throwing up

[spaceheadcadet]

Well put. (Source: Writing About Writing Facebook page)

[spaceheadcadet]

how it feels to enjoy storytelling but can't physically put the words down

[spaceheadcadet]

Your First Draft Sucks. If you are constantly trying to plan everything ahead of time for your story, writing will feel like a chore, and you are more than likely to not finish it. But if you take the advice of just start writing without any concrete plans, then you are more likely to finish it. But it is going to suck. It's going to suck a lot. But it's there, you have it written out. That is when you edit it, fix the grammar, remove some things. Turn it into your second draft.

Well, your second draft is also going to suck. But it will suck less. Writing is about editing and editing. What you spend most of your time on, is editing your drafts. And what I think most writers, and perfectionists like me, need to know is that no matter how many times you edit a draft, it will never be perfect. Not saying it will be bad; no, it will be good, but as writers we tend to keep trying to reach that 100% to make it the best thing on the planet. And we lose sight of our original love for the story. Get your drafts to a point that you are happy with.

So, write your bad first draft, turn it into your decent second draft. And before you edit it too much, find peace in that 99.99%.