Writing Filter

[the_rck]

My crossover fic is currently rather skeletal. I completed a first draft, and my cheerleader told me with some trepidation that it's only the sketch of a story, making sense only to those who already know what I'm doing with it, and that one of the two characters is utterly flat and almost not present. She's quite right. I wish she weren't, but she is, and I'll spend the weekend working on the rewrite, trying to fix both problems before I ask the one beta reader I have lined up to take a look.

I'm lucky in that I usually find rewrites easier than first drafts. They go faster. The difficulty in this case is that I don't have any strong signposts to show me which sections are in the most trouble. Not that signposts in a 1200 word fic are really necessary, not really. It's so short that I can work on each paragraph without having it take forever.

My usual practice with long fics is to try to get a beta reader to insert comments into to the text. The comments, both positive and negative, focus my attention on the bits of text that the reader finds important, moving, confusing, squicky, etc. The comments also tell me what the reader thinks is going on in the story so that I can compare that with what I meant to have going on. If the two don't match, I have to work to make my view of the story come through more clearly. lunargeography, the first beta reader I ever worked with, was particularly good at this and has rather spoiled me by setting my expectations way too high.

This sort of beta reading general requires a new set of eyes for each draft. That's part of why I keep looking for more beta readers. I like having more than one person per draft because, when two people agree that a section has problems or one thinks it doesn't work and one does, I know I need to look at it especially closely.

This is all stuff that I can't see on my own. I know what I'm intending to do, so it's kind of like trying to line up two nails, parallel to the floor without using a level. I perceive what I intended rather than what's there. The best technique I've found for getting perspective without help from someone else is to print out the fic and retype it from the beginning. That forces me to see the words as they build the story and lets me spot the cracks and holes that aren't visible from a distance.

I also am lucky enough to be able to laugh at those people who advise using a rewrite to cut out pieces of a story. I generally have to make a story longer when I rewrite because the first draft leaves out a lot of stuff that I know and didn't think I needed to say or thought I had said but didn't quite even imply. If I were to cut a story's length at that point, I'd end up with an unreadable mess. I suspect that, given a completed novel, I could cut its length a bit by hacking out subplots and/or characters entirely. I'm not sure I could do it with anything shorter than 50,000 words, though. My drafts tend to be too thin rather than too fat.

Anyway, my guess is that, after the rewrite, the crossover fic will end up being about 3000 words. It may be longer, but I don't know that it will. If it is, it will be because it needs to be.

Comments

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

As you know. . . *fails willpower roll* Bob,

...sorry.

Anyway. I've got 10 hours today and 8 tomorrow at work, and that damned poetry project for Sunday.

But if you would like to e-mail me the complete text of the crossover fic, I will come up with SOME comments. Maybe not a lot...I'm not going to commit to in-depth because you're one of the people I feel really bad about disappointing. But I can come up with something!

[the_rck]

I'll work a bit on it today and then decide whether or not to bother you. You've helped already by cheerleading (I'm much more likely to write productively with someone *there* to talk to) and by being brave enough to tell me that the story was naked. I wasn't happy to hear it, but you were quite right.

I hope your weekend has *some* bright spots.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

I'm just glad you know I was very full of trepidation! I think it's going to be a good story, the dynamic you hit on, with those two character, it's just fascinating.

*looks at upcoming weekend* Given that right now, one of the few things I can think of to do that would relax me and cheer me up involves having Photoshop, which I DON'T, because some asshole stole my computer. . .

*sighs* I really need to break this mood. Once I get my plate cleared of all current obligations, I swear I'm coming up with a class in SOMETHING to take. Pottery, or maybe something physical. Maybe. Maybe archery. I dunno. But SOMETHING.

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

Well, if you want, I'd be happy to have a look-see at it, but maybe you're tired of other people's opinions at this point? :)

[the_rck]

You're the person I plan to send the fic to after the first rewrite. I'd like to have you come to it fresh then because it's still going to need considerable work, I fear. Basically, you're the one beta reader I have lined up.

It's very hard to get beta readers when one can't say anything about what fandoms one's writing.