HEY! Long-form writers: how do you approach your re-writes?
Wash ,'War Stories'
Fan Fiction II: Great story! Where's the sequel?
This thread is for fanfic recs, links, and discussion, but not for actual posting of fanfic.
Let someone else read it, and note where they go "huh? Did you mean this? Or that? And what about that thing, don't you need to set that up earlier?" And stuff. And then incorporate/take out/clarify/streamline those things in the next draft. Sometimes if it's been a while since I looked at an earlier section I can catch those things myself. Mostly I'm too immersed to catch even typos, though.
I'm arrogant enough that I don't usually use a beta (ah, the old days, when I had people I trusted in the same fandom I was writing in). I tend to post chapters as I go, so I try to plot out where I'm going, and if I come up with a great idea later I'll either pout that I blocked myself out of using it or think of twists in order to fit it in.
I am an outlier when it comes to writing methods. My first draft is in my head, I have no problem going back and fixing things while I'm writing, I like working without a net.
I don't post WIPs, because I would totes magotes lose my motivation if I did. I am constantly revising.
My biggest issue right now is that there are two chapters that still need tweaking to fit the novel structure--I completed them when I thought I was writing a novella.
There's a person on ff.net reading my latest Avengers story and reviewing each chapter as she goes. She just said "It's midnight and I can't stop reading!" She's up to chapter 8 of the current 18. I think I want to have her little fic-babies.
The people on ff.net are so much better about reviewing than Ao3. They just punch the kudos button and move on.
I like the kudos button, and greet kudos with the same joy as comments.
But I also do a lot of my reading on a phone.
I find it interesting on AO3 that the people who leave comments often don't leave kudos. I think they all see comments as better, which is fine by me. I like comments, especially when a story hits someone's buttons perfectly and then I can squee back at them. But I like kudos just as much. It at least gives me a good idea of what kind of stories people like and also if my writing is more effective. I've noticed as I've put more stories up, that I'm getting a higher rate of kudos to overall views and that makes me very happy. I'm improving!
Kudos are a consolation prize. I like discussion and conversation. I'm interested in which buttons got pushed, what worked, what didn't. This writer works for tips--throw a dollar in the comment box on your way out. Kudos are a dime or a quarter at best.
Yeah, but I'm not going to have a conversation in the comments, y'know? Throws off the ratio, and seems like a weird place to have it. I like discussion and conversation, but... honestly, not on AO3, and I'm actually, by the time I'm done with something, sick of talking about it.
Kudos are AWESOME! I don't have to reply to them! I can do sort of general trend metrics! I can tell when a bunch of people are getting into an obscure fandom based on sudden surges in Yuletide!
I think you're also, if you're into that, going to see more of what worked/didn't work, on any bookmarks of your story where the bookmarker has added commentary, because that's their space so they don't feel as hampered. Which I like, personally, because if I don't want to see it, I don't have to!
I used to check and see what people had bookmarked of mine, and what tags they used, back in the Delicious era, but I just kind of don't want to know now. It's out there, it's out there. Released into the wild and unchanging, hopefully having gone through a beta so I've already had the works/doesn't work discussion.
But... I also write mostly for me now, outside of Yuletide. I mean, even the Stupid Huge Enormous Thing that's technically for Victoria is something I am writing because I want it. (Sometimes, Yuletide intersects nicely with what I want, especially in fandoms where I think I've got one story in me and I'm done, like Broadchurch, or where my id wants it and I've just been too lazy to write it, like Don't Trust the B* in Apt. 23 and The IT Crowd. Other times, not so much.)
Sometimes I want to share with the class (honestly, there's a HUGE part of me that wants to share the current drawerfic with the class because there are parts I really really like, but it's not just Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, it's Decomposing Dove: Do Not Go Near, and no matter how many notes, disclaimers, and warnings I would stick on it, I'm pretty sure I'd get a lot of shit for even thinking about it, let alone writing several thousand words of it, because it's worse than the one thing that had people here saying, "JESUS, DO NOT DO THAT AGAIN!"), and sometimes not so much (some things are just embarrassing, okay?), but the actual writing and working is for me.
Generous poster is taking exception to a minor character quirk that popped up as a comic grace note, and she's protesting my idea of how Fox News would react to the announcement that Hydra had reappeared. She thinks Fox would be all on board with exposing Hydra and that CNN would be trying to hide it behind "calls for reason" etc. Not so much wanting to have her fic babies any more.