Tag Archives: writing process

A Bit About the Scribbling...

by Liana Posted on September 1, 2013

I've been getting some serious jabs of conscience for stories not finished, particularly as trovia's birthday whizzed by without an appearance of a completed version of "Summercome," her promised sports story, and then the three prompted stories I'm working on: a five times fic for in_the_blue, the rest of one for thecatisacritic, and "Everything is Blood" for lithiumlaughter. To say nothing of "Safe," which I still haven't gotten back to for whipsy.

In the middle of all this, I'm starting to get people bugging me for more "Son o' de Guild." Normally, I'd be okay with this, but I have a problem when people review a separate ficlet with just "Please update Son o' de Guild" and when they tell me they thought I wasn't going to finish it after I told them last chapter I would, and they all think I owe them the next chapter because I said they definitely wouldn't get another one for at least another two weeks, but that I'd be working on the story more now.

I am working on it. I'm not trying to update by a particular time because I'm currently trying to write the next chapter in some natural way without starring Jean Grey. Again. This is a story about Remy, and I've got a very important main character who is not the main character who's outgrown the bounds I want her in. It's tough, okay?

And then I go wandering through my beta emails and discover the information on the Roswell/X-Men Movieverse crossover I never got off the ground, and I wonder again how I'm ever going to get all the stories in my head out of it.

Ah, well.

How's your scribbling?

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Percolate, Sketch, Write?

by Liana Posted on August 20, 2013

So Sunday, I percolated. Yesterday, I sketched. For whatever reason, I don't do much scribbling to music without lyrics, but I put my current favorite CD on shuffle and sketched out in scribbles the opening of Ilsa Killinger and Pieter into the world of Kingdoms and Thorn.

Which is to say, I scribbled down some dialogue, thoughts, and key actions of the first few scenes of how they begin to interact with this world. Ilsa is starting the Special Unit with a cameo by her husband and by Dreamer—one operative I wasn't expecting to have to deal with so frequently. Pieter was on assignment in his old college city, Bellyn, when suddenly he finds he's in the middle of another country as the Thorn Rebellion occurs around him. Learned something new: he's been in one of these before. So much more makes sense to me.

I'd share a scribble, but trust me, sketches aren't particularly readable to anyone but me.

Hopefully today, we'll finally move to writing.

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Reflections on the 365 Challenge

by Liana Posted on August 19, 2013
This entry is part 45 of 52 in the series 365 Challenge

I have learned so much about myself creatively. I began this challenge without a job, then got one and have still managed to maintain creating every day. Sometimes I work on a challenge piece, sometimes not. Sometimes I finish one or even more; sometimes I do not—but I work.

I have experimented with syllabic and prose/free verse poetry; I have felt the freedom to write original fiction as though it were fanfic. The parameter of perfection fell aside and gave way to the parameters of time and necessity.

I have actively scribbled on ten different projects on a single day. (Heaven, help my productivity!) I have discovered that those who do not reread their own work have it easy compared to those who—literally—write what they want to read and already have read in their mind before they put pen to paper. I have learned that blogging and writing do not always get along and allowed my blogging to languish.

I have stumbled into a world I thought I would leave unwritten. I have grappled with how much should I allow the same characters to resemble each other. (I came up with a workaround, but were I not resigned, I would make Cate and Casaia entirely too much alike.) I have learned to accept the areas of my worlds that I would prefer to skirt. I have learned how to write gift fic that reflects a different tolerance level than mine on stories straight from my heart, that matter to me.

I have learned what my cultures boil down to. In Vardin, a guardian does not need to be right, wrong, or indifferent—only effective. They do not have the luxury of second guessing themselves. They do not have the luxury of failure. In Kingdoms and Thorn, love is sacrifice. They all love someone fiercely. They do not have the luxury of selfishness.

I have learned about my own convictions, where I will bend, where I will break if I write that. I have learned that I will have different readers for different worlds. I have learned the importance of story order.

I have learned why some stories that I love, I will never fangirl. I have learned why some stories I fangirl, I will never write fic for. I have learned how to fangirl my own work.

How has your writing year been? Any deep lessons or reflections thus far?

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So on general updateyness and a story-hopping muse...

by Liana Posted on July 10, 2013

I'm learning to roll with the punches. I'm just as bad at changing stories due to reading something as I've ever been, and I'm nothing like Dean Wesley Smith: I read my own work. A lot. That's why I wrote it.

What this means? I'm currently quite anxious to write some more Niko & Collie (read genderswap Black Widow and Hawkeye from Avengers) fanfic, finish up the story of the Thorn Rebellion I thought I'd never touch, and add new chapters to my various WIP while also finishing out whichever fics I think I can wrap up and off my plate.

Can you tell what I've been reading? My own work. And it's inspiring me. The only problem is I have a voracious readerly appetite and by the time I've read enough to get full, I'm inspired in waaaaaaay too many directions.

How's your reading or writing going?

:goes back to scribbling:

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Writing into the Abyss, Part II

by Liana Posted on May 12, 2013

I did know what froze me up on writing my chaptered fanfics after a while, and it's weird to admit this, but here it is: they were too long.

When I realized it was going to take more than 100 chapters to wrap up some of those stories, my brain and muse froze up and it suddenly became very, very hard to keep writing. It was easier when I didn't realize that and could just scribble into the abyss, not knowing, not caring how many words it would take me to reach the end. I cannot tell you how liberating it is to not know.

And you know what? I think that's what happened to the Story from Inferno as well. I realized how much work and words were involved and almost got over it before my brain went too much, too much, too much—I'm scared.

Some writers write scared. It drives them, keeps them writing. I don't. Never have. Never have been able. Scared freezes up my brainpower and even if I know exactly what should come next, I don't write it. If I don't know what comes next, that suddenly becomes an ultra-handy excuse to let it go and hack away at something else while nibbling every now and then on the overwhelming, too long story. And I wonder why I've only ever finished one satisfactory novel. :shakes head ruefully at self:

There is no commitment to the abyss. It is like life, only visible one step at a time, and with infinite possibilities for continuing or coming to a satisfactory end. We live by moving forward. There is commitment once a story rears itself out of the abyss and shows its overall shape. Suddenly, I feel obliged to make the story fit that shape, reach that end satisfactorily. There's pressure.

I've been thinking about how to take that pressure back off. Cross your fingers for me or share your tips if you have any. It's time to throw a few stories back into the abyss.

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Writing into the Abyss

by Liana Posted on May 1, 2013

So following along with Dean Wesley's Smith ghost novel was enlightening, but not entirely surprising. He wrote a 70,000 word book in 10 days.

I've written 4–6K fanfic chapters and short stories in 2–3 hrs, so I know it's possible, but there's that head of steam factor. I have it just as easy as he does when I write into the abyss. I'm not.

There are worlds I know so well inside and out that I can scribble off a piece of them in very little time at all. And some I know so well that I can't just keep on writing past the point I slid out of character voice. That I can't just plow ahead and change history when other stories in the canon have already established the point. That I can't just call a story done when it isn't because it's really just the first level of info I yanked out of a character's head but the details to make it make sense to someone else aren't there yet.

When I'm writing Vardin, Kingdoms and Thorn, Breath even, I'm not writing into an abyss. I'm writing into a world so full I sometimes bump up against the scenery. Nevertheless, that does not make me unproductive.

Within the last three weeks, while I was sick as all get out (and I say this not lightly, y'all; I was sick), I worked on three larger pieces: Dowse and Bleed, the prose version of "History Lesson on the Night Train," and what's shaping up to a novelette/novella size Vardin piece called "By Blood and by Land" about Llereya and Cayden and the whole history surrounding "Hunt the Mists." I've written more than 10,000 words while sick and in less than forty-five minutes a day. I don't feel bad about that.

It's easier when I'm not locked in though. Writing into the abyss is easy. You can make up any decisions on the fly and not worry about the consequences. Which is how I got the first mess of "Dowse and Bleed." That story flew out of my fingers.

The only problem is I was completely unfamiliar with writing mysteries of any kind (mysterious being a different case altogether), and so I hadn't a clue where I was going and let an awesome setup go anticlimactic with the tension draining out as I moved forward. The new version is better to me. It satisfies me because it's truer to the characters, but I  had to take a whole break to get the case on straight in my head. (Thank you, in_the_blue!)

"The Alchemist" flew out of my fingers, written in less than three hours, took minimal edits, and it's my bar none bestseller that everybody likes. I like writing into the abyss. I just can't do it often because once that story's down, it tends to grow into a world in my all too fertile imagination.

Ah, well.

Thanks all for your patience as I recovered. See you soon with more stories.

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Defining the Blog in Writing Vernacular

by Liana Posted on August 13, 2012

This story begins with a tweet, a fairly innocuous little fellow as tweets go, based upon a fairly commonly upheld principle that if a writer wishes to write in a particular form or genre, that writer ought to read in that form or genre.

Here is the tweet:

Writers who would blog about something other than writing should read blogs that are about something other than writing.

— via @lianamir1

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Choosing Vulnerability

by Liana Posted on August 6, 2012

Some days I hate my writing. Today is one of those days and the reason I almost failed to update City of Glass, my current serialized science fiction novel, this morning. I hate the whole story. I want to throw it in a river to go and rot.

Every writer I have ever met has experienced this at one time or another. It's a side effect really of our pursuit of perfection. We need that pursuit. It's what brings you fully-developed wonderful literature instead of half-baked half-written stories that leave you wondering what we were doing when were supposed to be writing. It's important. Without that pursuit, we would be unable to create the works that inspire us and make us want to keep putting pen to paper day after day.

But there's thing called a commitment. I made a promise to not just put pen to paper, so to speak, but also to put paper to bed and send it out into the great wide world twice a week for readers to enjoy—or not. I really can't control that part. Commitment is important too, necessary to us artistic types who want every word we produce to be perfect. Without that commitment, we would never be able to stop writing, editing, revising, etc. and hand over our work to the reader. It would never get to you.

And then, there's resolve. It's that murky bridge in between the two. My resolve is what allows me to do what I need to do, even when I don't want to. I still hate City of Glass as it stands. I still hate the chapter I finally kicked out the door this morning. I still wish I had never, ever made that stubborn commitment to produce a novel that wasn't finished first so I could belabor it into perfection.

But I am resolved to fulfill my commitment. The new installment is up. I have done my duty and must wash my hands of perfection.

There.

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5 Things Meme: Worldbuilding

by Liana Posted on August 5, 2012
This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series 5 Things Meme

Comment to this post saying "FIVE!" and I will pick five things I would like you to talk about. They might make sense or be totally random.

Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself, hopefully for the rest of eternity!

From arliddian: Worldbuilding

What do we talk about when we talk about worldbuilding? How about we begin with the fact that I am a worldbuilder at heart, that I empathize with Tolkien's desire to write out stories to express the worldbuilding he had done and further, that the worldbuilding he had done was built around languages. Additionally, I was asked to write this post ages ago, but haven't, primarily because it's too big. I couldn't get my arms around it.

Worldbuilding is writing. No matter what time period you're in, what setting, what people, your story exists within a world, and the story builds that world within your reader's mind.
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A Post-Fandom Writer

by Liana Posted on June 26, 2012

Excerpted from my answer in this post:

Focus on stories. Forget the writing; the writing will take care of itself. Focus on what inspires you. Read. Live through your character's eyes. Know what makes people tick. Know the stories you love and how to get from point a to point b with as many complications as you can throw on there. It's about stories, people.

Fuel selectively. If you fall in love with something (I'm looking at you angsty ships!), it will come out in your stories. Pay attention to the things that unleash your inner fangirl. Fangirl your own fiction. Make it yours. Explain it. Juggle it around until you're satisfied. Love AU (hereby go to original) but make their lousy, crazy canon nonlogic into real logic without changing anything from canon at all—if you can. Learn how to feed your own muse.

Never assume anything. Know your characters, the rules of your world, and a handful of outside factors to fling at them. The rest will be unpredictable—even to you, but inevitable.

Know the difference between voice and tone. Your voice is your writing. Your tone is your story. And for goodness sake, don't read out of tone when you're working. Keep the reading and the writing separate if you're tone-hopping.

No matter what you do in writing, what choice you make, it's fine. As long as you do it consistently.

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