Semi-serious thoughts

[rosiphelee]

When I did my first degree, my tutor had a number of watchwords he used to frequently remind us of (much in the same way as Mad-Eye Moody 'reminds' people of the need for constant vigilance). His favourite was 'intellectual adventure.' Whatever we did, whichever options we chose, we were supposed to approach them in that spirit. At the time, like most students, I didn't appreciate it. It's stayed with me, though, and I find myself using it as a standard from time to time.

The lack of intellectual adventure was certainly one of the factors in making me look towards teaching. I was thinking about it again this morning, when Becca posted about why she wrote. The following suggestions all result from where my brain went next. I'm trying to start a discussion here, so please argue with me, make suggestions, etc.

I've given up wondering why I write. What interests me more is how. I've been thinking about it more and more over the last few weeks, with a certain amount of dissatisfaction. I'm not complaining or looking for sympathy here. It's a very nice rut, and I can steer along it competently, but it's still a rut. Where, in all this writing I churn out, is the adventure? Where is the passion and the challenge? What happened to the impetus to push myself into improving?

In this context, I've been thinking about fanfiction. I'm not interested in starting a debate about the pros and cons of what they write over there. What interests me is how they write. The immediate sense I get from fandom is of energy. People write for the love of it. They challenge each other; spark off each other; mess about and experiment. Why isn't this happening with original fiction? Where are our prompt communities? Where are our challenges? Our writing memes? Drabbles? Timed contests? Crack fests? Why are they having more fun than us?

I realise the virtue of steady writing. Being able to keep going in the face of writer's block and lack of inspiration is one of the things that seperates the potential professional from the amateur. The flipside of that, though, is the risk of getting stale. I also understand that it's easier for people to take risks in fandom, where they're not hurting their own characters, or messing up their own worlds.

Which all comes down to the simple conclusion that I'm going to start messing about. Does anyone else feel the same? Are there other things we could be doing? What about book discussions? We all have overlapping taste in fiction - could we organise a book group of some sort where we nominate a book a month and all set aside a few hours at the end of the month to join in a discussion? Thoughtful reading is, imho, one of the most useful skills for a writer. Or technical discussions? I know we're all pretty good at constructive criticism (yes, I know I've been lax, but you all know how ashamed I am) but what about more general discussions of how to tackle character or world-building or similar broad topics?

It seems, and this is a general observation, not an attack on anyone because I know that different people approach things differently, that we're not using livejournal widely enough. We've got the amazing advantage of a group of like-minded writers and their expertise, and a forum which allows multi-thread discussions. Why don't we use it a bit more? At the moment my LJ bears more resemblance to a primary school news' book than a writer's blog or interactive space. It seems a waste.

Does anyone else think it might be fun to make a mess?

Comments

[rosiphelee.livejournal.com]

There does seem to be an upper size limit on this sort of thing. Part of it is the restriction of audience - less people are willing to try to read something by an unknown amateur. You can see that in the ways little subgroups appear on Elfwood.

I've come to dislike the whole comment exchange principle. There's a nasty undertone of obligation to it all. I know that I've been more stressed than I should have been with real life events over the last year because I've been feeling guilty about not reading and letting people down. I suspect that, for me at least, is part of the staleness.

I've never done a co-written project. A big joint world-building thingy would be fun :)

[shanra.livejournal.com]

I'd never really thought of the subgroups like that, though it's true in a way. People read people because they see links everywhere, or because they see comments, mainly.

I've never done a co-written project. A big joint world-building thingy would be fun :)

I've seen it done before (fantasity.com, PlanetSide, for example). Different styles can be an asset, but they can also be the opposite. All a matter of finding a balance and being able to let go of characters and ideas. With co-writing it's all a question of knowing the characters well enough or going with the flow, and if you're going to mix world ideas, deciding which is the dominant structure.

Takes some of the fun out of it, but if you're going to co-write crossover things, you need to sort it or risk getting in a childish argument of
"I do this, so you can't do that!"
"Ha! But because of this you cannot do that!"
"o_O That's silly."

ASSP has several different theories on magic all thrown into one story. At some point, you need to decide who has the right of it and which is the stronger. What is possible, what isn't. Why is this possible in this approach and not in this?

Those are things you need at least a basic frame for, and if you're co-writing it does need to click with your co-writer and styles. With co-world-building there are more options since you don't have to work on the story itself together. *ramble*

[rosiphelee.livejournal.com]

I suppose there's Thieves World, as well, if you're looking at published collaborations. I've never read any of those but they seem to be a piece of joint world-building, and then everybody worked with their own characters.

I know when it comes to my writing magical and social systems are something I work out very early on, so I suppose it would be a case of doing that before the start.

[shanra.livejournal.com]

Oooh! I've never heard of that/them before. *makes note* Sounds interesting, and it'd work too. If it's necessary for the story that characters meet, I'm sure something could be worked out then. ^-^

When it comes to writing for me, I build a little, start writing and build more as I go along. Sometimes there are pauses to create more background or to think something through before continuing, but most of the time it all goes hand in hand.

For something like this, they'd need to be worked out at least roughly. Enough to give people a framework, but enough to give them room to fool around it. Above all, it should be fun to do.

So... Next question, if we're going to go through with making writing more fun/versatile again, where do we do it? Stay with personal LJs, revamp talechasing, make a new community?

coastwallker is right about the calendar challenge. ^-^ For me, it was the time restraint. ^-^; I wasn't sure I was going to be able to finish on time, so I chose not to participate.
It did sound like a lot of fun, though, and had some great results. ^-^ Things like that would be lovely to see more often. (And, in my case, really, participating. There's still trees unwritten, no?)

[rosiphelee.livejournal.com]

I tend to have ideas as I'm walking along/at work etc. so by the time I start putting things on paper I usually have quite a lot of the plot and characters worked out. Once I start pinning it down into precise words, I usually pause to work out the details of the background, which then feeds into developing the next chunk of plot. I'm always half a book, or equivalent, ahead of what I'm actually writing.

I haven't really thought this through far enough to have any big ideas. I was really hoping to start a discussion. We could use talechasing more, and theirvoices. The drabble meme should be fun, and there's a lot of those twenty-question type memes which we could do for characters rather than ourselves.

Did you see alintaflame's magic realism challenge? That looks fun.

The calendar challenge was fun, but I'm not really thinking of big events like that (personally, I'm just too tight for time). I was thinking more of little everyday things.

[shanra.livejournal.com]

*looks around* Think you have 'yea-sayers' so far.

Actually, I think talechasing would be lovely for posting (short) challenges and drabble challenge requests and the like. I wouldn't even know of a magic realism challenge, if you hadn't mentioned it just now. Having a community, yes, is slightly more cumbersome to post than in your own journal, but it means having things like this in one place.
It's just a thought there, really.

Character meme are lovely. We could design our own too, if we wanted.

The calendar challenge was fun, but I'm not really thinking of big events like that (personally, I'm just too tight for time). I was thinking more of little everyday things.

Oh, I know the feeling. I don't think we should have many of them. Or if we do that the deadline isn't "finish before this date" but "finish within a time frame of ____" so you can pick it up whenever you want/have time to work on something.

As with anything, it'd just be throwing things out for people to try/work with if they want to. Little larger than everyday things still, but possibly more manageable. ^-^