The horizon calls, I cannot stay · 12:05am Jan 17th, 2014
Okay, that's a melodramatic title (it sounded too cool to get rid of when I typed it), when all I'm really trying to say is:
Behold! It may be invisible, but it does exist!
Yes! I am doing that thing that authors do where they post a screencap to show that they've got the chapter uploaded to Fimfic and can post it at their leisure. Well, actually the chapter is still undergoing edits, but the point is all the scenes exist now and even have beginnings, middles, and ends (though in one case they are not a beginning, middle, and end that all lead into each other but um... yeah). I'm mostly doing this so that my loyal(?) readerbase can shame me if I don't finish my damn edits and post within a week or so.
THAT'S RIGHT, I'M SWEARING TO A DEADLINE (tentatively).
Also yeah it's 16k... I was afraid it was gonna be 18k, so I'm relieved to hear that, though you may not be. My editing efforts have thus far focused on trying to shorten stuff, and I know a few more spots where I can cut, but with my completely excessive style of comedy I just can't always bring myself to cut jokes just for length. Anyway we'll see how the final word count differs, and I hope you'll all put up with my longwindedness.
I mean, I say that I'm nervous or whatever, but I do actually think it'll be well worth your time and has a bunch of good laughs, plus Twilight very nearly losing her mind.
(Although I am realizing that, because the first chapter only set up the conflict and didn't give a sense of how it was going to play out, it might be inevitable that 4 months later I disappoint people who had their own ideas of what the "meat" of the fic would be like... eheheh... well there's a lesson I might have learned from Good Cop, Ghost Cop if I had stuck that story out...)
As a point of interest, the fic was envisioned as 4 chapters, but I never really decided where the chapter 3/4 split was, and in the process of making chapter 2 tighter and better I've rearranged some things that have implications for later on. Could mean a 5th chapter, could mean that both chapters 3 and 4 will be a more reasonable length, I don't quite know yet.
Anyway, more to come, and more importantly, A NEW CHAPTER to come soon!
Holy fuck.
Here I thought the fic was dead, and you were actually just fucking making it 500% larger in one go.
I'm... so... happy.
This makes me a happy boy.
Don't cut words because you think a fic is too long.
Only do it if they interrupt the flow of the story.
A longer fic means more immersion. But do try to keep a somewhat steady words-per-chapter in the future. 3k and then 16k is a pretty big leap .
Settle on what you feel most comfortable with, and then extend or lessen the count as you need.
Oh my, that's quite a lot of story there.
...Oh no...
1725790 (Musing response incoming, be forewarned) Well, I always knew that the first chapter was going to be shorter than the others just owing to the events depicted, which was basically just the setup (which, like I said... probably not the best choice of breaking point, heheh). Things did end up taking up a lot more space than I thought. Maybe I'll do a post talking about why once the chapter's up.
I think the rub as far as "only cut words for story flow" goes is when you hit the question "what's necessary for story flow?" Earlier today I concocted an abridged version of a scene that cut several paragraphs, perhaps 100 or so words, but was talked out of it by a beta-reader (the ever-patient and also not-publishing-very-much Lady Grey) because it cut out the escalation of that scene to the point where the climax of it felt unearned, even though I could draw a quicker logical connection (there were other considerations--the shorter version gave the scene different implications which I thought would come off one way but seemed to be coming off another). So obviously in that case my instinct to go as barebones as possible caused more problems than it solved.
But a lot of amateur writers have a problem with identifying what in a scene is necessarily to drive the story. And, I mean, that's hard. It can be summed up quite simply, but actually getting a story to adhere to it is really difficult.
So my question when I say I'm looking for things to cut is basically that principle but on the "beat" level--for instance, does this exchange contribute significantly to immersion or sense of character, and/or is it funny, or did I write it because it felt like "what happened next" without necessary actually doing anything? A lot of times what happens is I end up wondering if cutting a joke I feel is only so-so is worth it for the increased speed, and then keep the joke because my jokes are my children and even the ones nobody gets are VERY IMPORTANT.
Also to be honest, I don't usually think of consistent chapter length as something to be aimed for, but I do seem to aim for it (most of the time) anyway. I think of in the 3000 word range as being a good length, and it's what I tend towards when I write seriously, but when I write comedy things tend to get much more over the top and more in the 10k range. I suppose the advantage is that people reading your story know what they're getting into when they start a new chapter. But that's touching on why people like Terry Pratchett aren't that fond of chapters in general, since they guide the reader in "how to read" (i.e. saying "you can put the book down now").
1725547 1725455 The feeling is mutual, believe me. I will be SO relieved to be finished with this chapter and move on to... I dunno, the next chapter (well.. actually like 3 writing assignments for various things, but you know).
Why is it always the fics that I set out to make fluffy and fun that I agonize over (see: the Twilestia oneshot I occasionally mention as "something I'm going to finish and post any day now really")? I guess there's just something about the way the business of making jokes can divert your attention from plot/character, and if you're really trying to balance them all it gets tricky.
1726235 I'm not sure what to make of this. I can only hope it's foreboding for the horrible things that will be inflicted upon Twilight and her books by the citizens of Ponyville.
1726368
Personally, I don't see agonizing over your writing as a bad thing. It tells me that the author is trying to make their story as good as it can be. It's only a problem when you agonize so much that you never actually write anything, which is something I unfortunately experience every single time I try to write a story.
1726368
1726476 Hahah, well, agonizing for me is usually the paralytic kind, because the time spent not getting anywhere gets compounded by the feeling that you should be writing. Or where all of my writing efforts go into redoing the same scene or couple of scenes like 17 ways.
1726486 D'aww, thanks Denim. Hopefully the final product will do you proud.