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03 May 2019 @ 10:35 pm

Well, after yesterday's down-to-the-wire vote for the final round of LJ Idol...I wound up tied for first place with one of the other writers. That meant a sudden-death 24-hour write-off, which is truly my nightmare as I am not the fastest of writers!

I was up late last night trying to get a story to happen, and I came up with a couple of great openings and part of a story that had to be shelved for another time... because the quiet, lyrical, semi-formal narrative voice I naturally tend toward is also the style of the other writer. That's no good in a head-to-head contest!

So this morning, I started on a third approach. Hey, why just write and finish one story from the get-go, when you can agonize and restart the creative process multiple times instead? \o?

But seriously, while that sometimes happens anyway, this late in the Idol game you have to really think about the other writers and their styles, and provide a strong story with enough contrast if you want to get the votes. Even if that means writing the whole thing the day it's due and posting right up to the deadline. :O

The poll for the Idol write-off is here, and the voting window is exremely short-- less than a day. Please help out by clicking and voting before 10pm U.S. EDT Saturday, May 4th.

THANK YOU all for your continuing support! I'll just be over here going to pieces in the meantime. Let us never speak of how much chocolate was involved in getting through today...

Tags: me, pimpity

7 comments | Say what you feel

7 comments —

( 7 comments — Say what you feel )

kickthehobbit on May 4th, 2019 06:31 am (UTC)

...cripes, lady, how do you still have any fingernails left?! I'd have bitten mine off!

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halfshellvenus on May 4th, 2019 06:32 am (UTC)

Well, I do feel a little bit toxic at the moment. Like my stomach is trying to devour itself.

Or that could be the effects of all the chocolate. :O

What a day... /o\

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kickthehobbit on May 4th, 2019 06:33 am (UTC)

I think that is only understandable, given the circumstances!

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halfshellvenus on May 4th, 2019 06:39 am (UTC)

I wrote a whole thing for the 5-story Week 17 that talked about my writing process (excuse me, I mean, 'process'), where I detailed the nerve-wracking and uncertain ride that being a "discovery writer" entails.

I SO VERY MUCH envy people who brainstorm ideas, sketch outlines, and then just sit down and go. Because except once in a blue moon, that is not how the creative part of my brain works--at least where fiction is concerned.

It's more like standing by the side of the highway watching traffic go by, and throwing out a lasso to try to hitch a ride on something and hoping it's going in the direction you wanted.

And that it doesn't ignore you or run you over. :O

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kickthehobbit on May 4th, 2019 06:40 am (UTC)

I used to write like that, so I feel for you. :)

Nowadays I'm all about outlines. I don't know what shifted...I think that (weirdly enough) NaNoWriMo changed my habits! Hard to write a novel if you don't know how it ends. :D

I will add that it's not a quick process though! It's at least a few days of figuring out what the idea is and then writing it to the outline. So it's not all it's cracked up to be, either!

Edited at 2019-05-04 06:41 am (UTC)

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halfshellvenus on May 4th, 2019 06:57 am (UTC)

I do outlines for non-fiction stuff, but I don't write much of it.

I think the bigger problem is that a lot of what drives my fiction writing is the narrative or character voice. So, I often don't know what I'm writing until I 'hear' that voice.

And if it's the wrongvoice, or an uninspiring voice (as it sometimes is), the story doesn't happen. :O

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kickthehobbit on May 4th, 2019 07:02 am (UTC)

Heh, the only non-fiction I write (besides lj posts) are grant proposals, and you need an outline for those or you're not going to hit all the goals...

I can understand how the voice issue might be a bottleneck. It's not something that usually influences what I write...sometimes I get a character who has a very distinctive voice (one of the pieces I wrote for Idol a few years ago, about the Night Market, was like that), but usually it's just, "well, here's where the story needs to go, so..."

Now that I'm working on a novel it's a bit like, "oh, boy, I don't like this character or what they have to say, but they're necessary, so I guess I'll learn to live with it" and that presents a whole different set of problems! :)

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