On Forcing a Story · 12:59am Aug 18th, 2013
I’ve been reading through a lot of articles/advice on writing recently, and one recurring piece has stood out to me: that writers have a duty to finish their stories once started.
It’s not quite phrased like that, but the message remains in refrained passages: There are times when you will not enjoy writing, but you should do it anyway; it is a good thing to develop a regular schedule whereby X amount of words are completed per day; quality is important, but wordcount is more so.
Or, y’know, this.
Not all of these are directly stated and would probably be objected to if brought up directly. Then again, writers do this sort of thing often: “Thou shalt use efficient, unexotic prose” and “Thou shalt shun the adverb” have a wonderful tendency to contradict each other, but adherents to both concurrently exist.
The idea of forcing a story – of writing even if you do not wish to write – is a widespread one. I can understand why the advice exists for writers who work with the intent to be published, but am unsure if it should hold to fanfiction writers. Should you write when you find it hard? Or, rephrasing it so it's listed to a prefered answer, should you write when what you want is to have written? Authors finish so that they having something to show, but most fanfiction writers update chapter by chapter – I hand wave mine off as open editing; most copy the serial style of old magazines – and so do not gain the same benefits from finishing. Noticeably, there's no cash incentive.
I know I'm not an adherent: I write because I enjoy writing the story or chapter, and will only write if so. You can see me flailing around for a suitable seed here, for instance. Whether or not I write a story is dependent on whether or not I like the words/style it uses; I do not force myself to write. This leads to problems with an unscheduled and disruptive timetable, but I like to think it leads to higher quality overall.
Like. Don't know. I'm testing it, however: I've got a first draft of a story forced sitting in a gdocs right now. I'm going to sleep on it and then try a second draft. I am having to force myself to do this: I am not gaining the usual pleasure from making word sentences. This feels like pulling teeth and I'm pretty sure the output's crap. Usually, it's an opium blur of love and tea fuelled highs, and my current withdrawal symptoms are horrible.
Still, I'm looking forwards to the results. It will be nice to have written.
>Should you write when you find it hard?
You should. 'Coz you gotta finish Equestria's End.
I think that feeling like you have to force a story is a sign it's run off the rails, or it was never on them to begin with. So this is sorta the same question as, "How much of what will happen do you have to know before writing?" By "what will happen" I don't just mean plot; I also mean how many of those little zingers and striking images that will be the highlights of your story, its movie trailer, you already have in mind. If you've got a movie trailer in your head, the writing shouldn't be hard.
I wouldn't know, but if I only ever wrote when I wanted to, I'm fairly sure I never would have ever written anything at all, ever.
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Same here, same here...