Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Writing process

I'm fairly new to the MB and I'm wondering what other writers' writing process is - pre and post posting (gosh, that even sounded bad to my ears, I apologize). Let me try and clarify.

I didn't start posting Missing Lois to the MB until I had 8 Chapters written and completed and I saw the end in sight. But when I posted The Yodeler's Song, I waited until it was BR'd (Thanks again, Lynn) before posting.

Do you wait until your story is finished before you start posting? Do you write as you post? (especially when you know it going to have several parts to it?) Do you wait until you have a sizeable portion written and BR'd before you post?

The reason I ask is because now that I've finished writing my EPIC, I'm working on a shorter piece. Longer than my vignette about Perry, but shorter than Missing Lois (since it's hard to be longer). How many pages should I have in the tank before submitting it to a kind BR who will be willing to look at my work? Should I see the end in sight before posting or should I start posting before then?

So, to answer these questions (since I know each writer works differently), I pose them to you. What is your writing and posting process?

I'm a feedback junkie. Typically I post a chapter about three seconds after I finished writing them. I'm naturally lazy and the feedback keeps me motivated to keep writing. I wrote 100,000 words in 6 weeks like that once. Of course, I haven't had a beta reader in years, so that means I post faster than most.

With longer stories, I get easily distracted during the posting process (both in positive and not so positive ways) so I don't post anything until the story is done, with only minor re-visions to be done.

As to when to send it to the beta reader, with longer stories, I need a little more feedback to keep me going so I tend to send chapters as I complete them.

Joan

I'm a feedback junkie like Shayne. I write a chapter at a time for the longer stories, but I have an outline of the whole story. Sometimes, though, feedback causes the story to change dramatically in a good way. My chapters are usually about 14 pages long and I go over them multiple times. First, I lay down the dialog, then I go back and add character motion, attitude and description of emotions as events happen. Then I let that percolate and then go over it again and then post.
So what you do is how it feels right to you and can change story to story.
regards
Artemis

When I was writing I fell into a basic pattern.
I was always a stream of consciousness writer so, even though I had a general idea where I wanted to go with the story, it tended to evolve as the story grew in length.

I depended on my beta to point out when I was straying too far off course.

Obviously, for the shorts and vignettes I'd have to whole thing done before posting, but with the longer stories I wanted to have roughly half of it done before I started posting. That would give me enough buffer to keep a decent posting schedule yet still get enough written in the meantime to stick to it.

Even though this is all done for the heck of it, I believe that once you start posting a story you have incurred an obligation to the gentle readers to continue to provide them with story parts in a timely fashion until you have finished.

The advantage on these boards (and by extension, the archives) is the quality of work we get to sample.

Tank (who like any writer 'lives' for the feedback and apologises to the writers of the terrific stories currently being posted for his poor record of comments lately)

I always posted in segments. I found that the feedback, ideas, suggestions, speculation given by the readers on each part often shaped the next in ways I'd never intended, letting me add in ideas or sparking ideas of my own that enhanced what I'd intended to write. But I usually had the first third to one half of the story mostly written before I began posting on longer stories.

As for betas - I don't think there's a set amount of pages you need to have in the bank, per se. If you have a couple of paragraphs that you desperately need a second opinion on, your beta will generally be as willing to view it as a whole chapter or several pages. In the past, I've sent one page or a whole story to my betas, depending on what I needed from them.

LabRat

For longer stories, I try to post in parts of around 7-14 pages, depending on where a logical break falls (or a good cliff hanger ). I send parts to my beta readers one at a time. Sometimes a part has to go back to the beta reader a second time if there are major rewrites.

I have yet to finish a long story before I start posting it. I usually have the set up finished, and a good idea of where I want to end, but I often get bogged down in the middle and need reader feedback to help me decide how to get from the beginning to the end and what we'd like to see happen along the way. I'll even ask questions as I post. For example, in 'Foreshadowing' I took a reader poll on how much Lois should interact with her kids, if at all, and in 'The Man Under the Suit' it was the readers who came up with the idea to have Lois meet Martha without Clark around.

I think you can ask more of a beta than of the boards. Especially if you've worked with a beta reader before, they'll often be willing to look at a chapter or two even if you have no idea where the story is going or even if it's worth pursuing. They can help you make that call and brainstorm possible directions with you.

I also believe that once you start posting a story, you should try to finish it out of respect for your readers' investment of time and interest. I try to keep enough buffer going so that I can post three times a week--two if we hit a roadblock. I took a very long hiatus in the middle of 'The Man Under the Suit'--my brother passed away and I just wasn't up to writing happy endings--but I did come back to it eventually, and my beta readers and the feedback from the boards helped give me motivation to finish it. Now once this baby is sleeping through the night I'll get it sent off to the archive, too.

Hope that helps,

Happy

Let's see:

I used to write about half of a story before posting the chapters one by one to fanfiction.net. But I don't do that anymore. I wound up rushing myself to write and the writing came out substandard.

Now I finish the story and read it over several times before I post anything. That way, I can fix grammatical and spelling mistakes before I post, I can change wording that I don't like, I can add/delete things, change plot points to reflect later chapters, etc. And then, once I am completely satisfied, I start to post the chapters.

I've actually never had a beta reader. I've always acted as my own. Not too smart, I know.

Each writer is different. What works for me won't necessarily work for someone else. That's part of what makes the writing process so unique.

I AM a feedback junkie though. So I do have the bad habit of checking my email/ff.net account/these boards every few minutes after I post a new chapter/story though.

I am open to ideas from readers, even when I have written the entire story already. Sometimes, I'll take little suggestions and rework the piece before I post the next part or before I submit it to the archives.

The thing is about my writing, I tend to see things like a movie in my head. So as I write, I have a fully edited piece of footage in my mind of how I want things to look, what details I want to give, how things are going to happen. I even see things in camera shots. (Close up on Clark's face, a long shot of Clark and Lois sitting on his sofa, a tracking shot as Clark flies into the burning building, etc...I just don't write those in because, well, it's weird for writing). Sometimes I write a story and know exactly how it is going to lay out, plot point by plot point. Often I discover how the plot is going to reach point X as I write. I love when that happens. It's always such an adventure!

Like right now, I'm writing a revelation story. I started writing knowing that a) I wanted it to take place at a ski resort and b) I wanted person X to find out Clark's secret. I'm now about 5 pages in and I've already surprised myself at certain points.

My original novel (currently on the back burner because LnC fics have taken over my brain) I started writing knowing about 50% of the plot details that I wanted to work in, including how I am going to end it. The rest of the details have been surprises to me as I have written. I'm about 85% done with that and hope to get it published. And that's at 134 single spaced Word pages and 69,567 words currently. (Not that you care necessarily but I'm just damned proud of that).