betts i have made a PACT with some friends to write a NOVEL next year and this seemed like a great lark over the summer but now next year is RAPIDLY APPROACHING and i am WILDLY UNPREPARED, how does one write a) original fiction and b) anything of serious length, oh god
ughhhhh i feel this in my bones. The Struggle™
i have spent a lot of time dwelling on the differences between fanfic and ofic, and i think from a genre perspective, they do different Work, but purely from a craft perspective, like writing down one word after the other, the only real difference is context.
a fanfic author will presumably go into a fic with knowledge of the canon, or at the very least knowledge that there is a canon from which the story is drawing, and that the fic exists in response to that canon. ofic stands on its own. the reader goes in with no guaranteed established context, so all of that stuff needs built into the text itself. moreover, readers of fic go into a story with existing beliefs about the characters and/or world, and adapt their beliefs according to the conflict of the fic (the fic reader therefore does a lot of unique work in parsing out their own feelings about a character when approaching a fic, but that’s an essay for another time). with ofic, your characters are total strangers to the reader, and everything they do and think and say will help shape their opinion.
which means, horribly, so much extra work needs done so that you’re conveying with the character what you intend to convey. it’s the difference between playing on a playground and playing in a sandbox. with fic, you can run up to a playground with nothing and start swinging and whatever else. the sandbox can be just as fun, but you need to bring your own tools with you, and anything goes.
as far as writing long stuff, everybody’s different. some people can only move forward if they know everything that’ll happen. i can only move forward if i have a vague path ahead of me and i know what direction i’m headed. as soon as i solve the puzzle i get bored, so i have to keep stringing myself along.
also for me it helps to get immersed in the world you’re building and the characters you’re writing, and let them keep talking to you and telling you their story. the louder they talk, the longer your story.
