My Little Fallout: Far Harbor, Week 2 (SEEKING EDITOR) · 4:57pm Jul 13th, 2016
Spy sappin' my stories!
Treachery! Betrayal! Mild inconvenience! Hit a bit of a snag this week when my two regular editors both tapped out from editing this particular story. Something about the ending being "too dark," or that the narrative was "depressing," or that they're "both sissies who don't like reading stories that make them need to drink heavily." That last one may be a paraphrase on my part.
Whatever the case, I am currently looking for a new editor/pre-reader to bounce ideas off and get their review of early drafts. Shoot me a PM if you'd be interested. 
And now, progress!
No, wait. That's Fallout: New Vegas.
Week 2: Character Motivation
This part of the outlining process is a god-awful nightmare and I'd forgotten how bad it was. Because this is the part where I work out why the protagonist (and by extension, the reader) gives a damn about these events, and that always opens the outlining up to that nagging question: "Yeah, but... why?"
It works on any story. "Yeah, but... why does Luke join the rebellion when he was all ready to march off to the imperial academy?" (Star Wars) "Yeah, but... why is Siren Song such a nasty bitch?" (Siren Song) "Yeah, but... why is Applejack so concerned for someone she knows is the bad guy?" (Arbitrage of Moments) And of course, the short answer is, "Because that's just the kind of person they are," but that is not a sufficient answer for the outlining process. You need to have specifics.
And no, screaming "because Applejack is best pony!" is not a sufficient answer either.
This is particularly tricky for me, since a big part of my style of writing is: "People don't make decisions for big, sweeping reasons. They make them for petty personal reasons." Why did Bob shoot Dave? Because his blood sugar was low and he was angry. We may post-facto rationalize it into a revenge narrative, but on the spot, that's the reason. Which means that working out character motivation often depends upon the fine details of the scenes and the moment, which of course aren't fully fleshed out yet. It's like when someone asks me for a plot summary of Siren Song, and all I can manage it: "Siren attempts to walk across the city. Problems ensue, but she eventually makes it."
I recently did a blogpost on the Five Adjectives Method, and for me, this is the part of writing where that method is most useful. I don't know the details of all the scenes yet -- I haven't even worked out who all the characters are -- but this at least gives me some concrete traits I can start working with to get an idea of how Character A would respond to Event B.
Sweetie Belle would probably be adorable at it.
The goal for the end of this week is a rough, event-by-event outline, focused on each character's personal story arc. Event C influences all the characters this way for this reason, causing them to do this this and that. I think of it like a story outline, only instead of being a summary of plot events, it's a timeline showing how those events impact the characters. We'll see how it goes!
I'd offer help, but I' doubt I could provide anything substantial.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Is exactly what has saved me from committing to write so many stories that would have died one chapter in.
4088933
Quite alright. Hoping for the best, but I can forge ahead either way.
4088935
Yeah, it's an important question to ask, but it also makes this part of the writing process like pulling teeth. Siren Song really is the best example of that for me. I can't think of any real way to explain Siren's motivation beyond: "She's guilty, and kind of mean, and really bad at not getting in trouble," so when I try to write it down it all falls apart. But in the story I see that it's coherent.
I don't think there's a way around it other than just putting more time in to the pre-planning.
Have you had offers of help yet? I have plenty of time to spare if you'd like a springboard or something.
Would I need to read anything to understand the story currently?
As to your previous editors, they shouldn't read Project Horizons if they don't like depressing stuff. Cuz that story is so good but good damn my heart hurt after binge reading the entire story.
4089040
Not yet! And no, you would not have too. Written for an audience with no prior knowledge of Fallout whatsoever.
Though I should warn you, it's not in the Fallout: Equestria setting. No Project Horizons here.
4089050
Fallout Ponies not in Fallout Equestrian setting?
Blasphemy! Sounds intriguing. I assume it is more along the lines of the normal Fallout games but with ponies instead of humans.I'll have a look if you'll have me.
I imagine it's something made extra difficult when one has to think about this while including character development.
Both showing how a character has grown when showing their motives and how they have changed over time, but, also showing how the core of the character that got them on this adventure is still a huge influence on the character motivations and behavior.
4089073
Ah!
I really liked A Curious Case of Immortality, and FIO: Requiem.
wwooaahh, man!
Because his motivation to do that wasn't loyalty to the Empire but a desire to get off of that desert rock he was stuck on and go have adventures and the Rebellion promised even better adventures than being a Storm Trooper. It's pretty clear in the movie that that's how it starts for him and he only later develops personal loyalty to the cause of the Rebellion.
Joining the Empire meant he might get to fight some Rebels, but joining the Rebels meant he could go launch personal commando raids to rescue attractive Princesses while learning magic from an old guy who told him he was special. Why wouldn't Luke join the Rebellion?
Of course that just ties into your next point:
EDIT: Also, I'm sadly kind of a terrible beta because I'm not good at getting drafts back to people quickly or I'd volunteer.
Well, what sorts of things are you looking for, more precisely? You say "to bounce ideas off and get their review of early drafts", so do you merely want someone to read and provide thoughts? Is that, instead, a part but not the whole of the job, being joined by more involved proofreading?
What could an editor expect in terms of deadlines, chapter length, live meetings vs. solo editing, etc.?
Good luck!
I'd offer to help, but I gave up on writing entirely.
Proofreading? You have my help if you want it.
4089464
Hey Reese!
Usually, I get a chapter of an epic fic out about once every two weeks, it's about 8-12k words long, and I try to get it edited within a week and a half of it being done. I usually hang around on Skype or IM for the editing, because I find that's the most efficient (and pleasant!) way for editors to give feedback, but it depends on the person.
4090677
Yeee :D
4091159
Hm, interesting. There's such a variety of author-editor interaction systems in use.
Anyway, thanks. So you don't have prescheduled meetings, but you prefer that editors contact you live over text chat, if you're available, rather than simply leave comments? Oh, speaking of that, what permissions do editors have? Comment only, comments and suggestions, editing mode but with out-of-software restrictions, that sort of thing.
And a week and a half to get usually at most 12 kilowords done every two weeks, without prescheduled team meetings, doesn't sound too bad.
4092037
I usually do comments-and-suggestions, and yeah, I can't guarantee a regular enough schedule for pre-set meetings, so I usually do it on an as-available basis. The editor can have an odd schedule too!
4092064
Hm...
Oh, right, this question appears to have gotten lost:
"Well, what sorts of things are you looking for, more precisely? You say "to bounce ideas off and get their review of early drafts", so do you merely want someone to read and provide thoughts? Is that, instead, a part but not the whole of the job, being joined by more involved proofreading?"
The schedule sounds alright, though.
4092096
I think I'm good! A lot of other people volunteered, and we'll see how these things get up off the ground. :)
But thank you!
4095553
Ah, good, and you're welcome. :)
No offense meant by all the questions, of course; I would like to work with you, but, well, I'm on three stories' teams at the moment already. :)