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This is pretty much for personal posterity...
I've been scraping out about 500 words most days this week. (3 out of 4 so far, at least.) ...aaand I think I need to completely scrap it and re-outline chapter 5 and 6 of this fic.
Sobcry
I've been struggling with this fic pretty much from the start, but am way too stubborn to give up on it, even though it was supposed to be done and posted MONTHS ago.
It took too long, and I wouldn't say I'm *delighted* with everything I've got, but I do have chapters 1 and 2 posted, plus 3 and 4 in rough draft. But chapter 5 has been a miserable slog as I've tried to get even the roughest of drafts written. It felt flat, and passive, and repetitive, and devoid of meaningful tension.
I wrote out a big long thing, but realized that was also boring to read, lmao. The shorter version:
BASICALLY. Instead of characters angsting to themselves, I think they need to have it happen around other people, so there's something to play off of. I also think that the eventual admission of mutual feelings for the OT3 has to happen sooner - mid chapter 5 instead of the partially into chapter 6. This lets their discovery of the plot-device mythological poly relationship be something all three of them see happen/they discover together at the end of ch 5, rather than one character find it in isolation.
After that, the final chapter can still be the resolution, where they confirm that a three-person marriage is absolutely a thing with precedent here, and not going to be grounds to dissolve the tentative alliance. Woo, happily ever after, but maybe in a way that feels a little less choppy, and less like three people doing things alone, when the whole story is trying to get them together.
And maybe that's part of the issue I was having - the three of them are supposed to be the endgame ship, and they're all mutually pining idiots, and the fact that they aren't being totally honest with each other is what's caused much of the angst. (Though there have been external pressures and several points where they're making what they think are the best choices for the situations they're in.)
But having the ultimate resolution happen based on one character doing something alone, and only afterwards presenting it to the others feels like... idk, betrayal of theme. My hope is that it will work better if the solution is something that they find together, or at least while they are together, so that it carries a sort of implication of "and once they're on the same page, things work out, because they ARE better together."
Lol, we'll see, I guess!
If it DOES work (in terms of being easier to write, or being something I'm happier with), I'm hoping this serves as a reminder to myself that sometimes if I just can't get something written, it's because there's a structural/thematic problem that needs fixing.
(Same thing happened during Potentials - initially the end battle/climax had way too much happen off-screen, away from the main character. The whole big character arc for her was about reclaiming agency, and the climax was initially largely happening away from her! It was a horrible betrayal of the theme and would have been painfully unsatisfying for her character. I rewrote it entirely, and was surprisingly happy with it in the end!)
I've been scraping out about 500 words most days this week. (3 out of 4 so far, at least.) ...aaand I think I need to completely scrap it and re-outline chapter 5 and 6 of this fic.
Sobcry
I've been struggling with this fic pretty much from the start, but am way too stubborn to give up on it, even though it was supposed to be done and posted MONTHS ago.
It took too long, and I wouldn't say I'm *delighted* with everything I've got, but I do have chapters 1 and 2 posted, plus 3 and 4 in rough draft. But chapter 5 has been a miserable slog as I've tried to get even the roughest of drafts written. It felt flat, and passive, and repetitive, and devoid of meaningful tension.
I wrote out a big long thing, but realized that was also boring to read, lmao. The shorter version:
BASICALLY. Instead of characters angsting to themselves, I think they need to have it happen around other people, so there's something to play off of. I also think that the eventual admission of mutual feelings for the OT3 has to happen sooner - mid chapter 5 instead of the partially into chapter 6. This lets their discovery of the plot-device mythological poly relationship be something all three of them see happen/they discover together at the end of ch 5, rather than one character find it in isolation.
After that, the final chapter can still be the resolution, where they confirm that a three-person marriage is absolutely a thing with precedent here, and not going to be grounds to dissolve the tentative alliance. Woo, happily ever after, but maybe in a way that feels a little less choppy, and less like three people doing things alone, when the whole story is trying to get them together.
And maybe that's part of the issue I was having - the three of them are supposed to be the endgame ship, and they're all mutually pining idiots, and the fact that they aren't being totally honest with each other is what's caused much of the angst. (Though there have been external pressures and several points where they're making what they think are the best choices for the situations they're in.)
But having the ultimate resolution happen based on one character doing something alone, and only afterwards presenting it to the others feels like... idk, betrayal of theme. My hope is that it will work better if the solution is something that they find together, or at least while they are together, so that it carries a sort of implication of "and once they're on the same page, things work out, because they ARE better together."
Lol, we'll see, I guess!
If it DOES work (in terms of being easier to write, or being something I'm happier with), I'm hoping this serves as a reminder to myself that sometimes if I just can't get something written, it's because there's a structural/thematic problem that needs fixing.
(Same thing happened during Potentials - initially the end battle/climax had way too much happen off-screen, away from the main character. The whole big character arc for her was about reclaiming agency, and the climax was initially largely happening away from her! It was a horrible betrayal of the theme and would have been painfully unsatisfying for her character. I rewrote it entirely, and was surprisingly happy with it in the end!)
