![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the short and the long of fic
Nov. 1st, 2005 02:10 pmWriting a long fic is really different from writing a short fic.
I am finding it is qualitatively different, not just quantitatively. It is novel vs short story. I have posted some quite long stories before but I didn't write them as long stories. They were written as a series of short stories, so in sequelised form they morphed into a long story, without my needing to do anything about it.
It is different with long fics and I haven't mastered the art of finishing them. It is this that I miss and don't like about the long fic. There was always, towards the end of a short fic, that wonderful feeling of resolution where I was suddenly typing a sentence and realised, omg, this is it, this is the last sentence and isn't it beautiful? And then I took my fingers off the keyboard and lo, I knew it was done. And I could go off and wait for that post-orgasmic feedback.
Now? Nothing. No tingling pre-climactic anticipation, no feedback, nada, nix. Just an endless slog of plot convolutions, character complications, shifting povs, continuity glitches as I forget what I've written eight months ago, riffling through pages and pages of print-out and lots of wondering, is it even worth it? Will this ever be finished? What is the point if by the time I post Book 7 will be out and the canon will be in shreds around me?
In short fic, I found that one key was to pick 1a) one character whose mind to inhabit, or 1b) choose two characters whose minds to inhabit alternately; 2) hit upon a voice and mood and go with it (breezy, humorous, angsty, lyrical); 3) match mood to style and stick with that and choose words and length of sentence accordingly. This, for me, worked.
It's not working for long fic. I am now really missing that narrator who, I now realise, wasn't really trained when I was writing short fic. In short fic, I found I could rely on voice to do my narrating; that is, my narrator could unproblematically inhabit one of my characters, with the occasional worldly, knowing nod of an external narrator commenting. But in this long fic I'm finding that this is very difficult. I feel the need for an external voice to come in and smooth things over, to connect the dots between the various characters' povs, all deluded in their own ways, in a Jane Austenish manner.
I'm also finding that short fic can be written in the space of a week, a day, a few hours. It is not so difficult to sustain mood and pace over that time span. But with the long fic, I feel as if I'm entering a new mood and voice every time I sit down to write a chunk.
Oh, and this is the HP fic I'm talking about. The one with Draco and Harry and Dudley and Petunia povs.
I would really be interested in hearing other authors' experiences. Especially those who've had experience writing both short and long, and the problems they've encountered. And especially somebody who actually managed to finish a long fic and what strategies they used to get them there!
I feel I just want to get the whole thing out on paper now, never mind the continuity and the gaps in stylistic coherence. But then I'll have something to work on, to revise. But often the fun seems to be taken out of it that way, and I'm losing touch with my character's emotional centres.
I am finding it is qualitatively different, not just quantitatively. It is novel vs short story. I have posted some quite long stories before but I didn't write them as long stories. They were written as a series of short stories, so in sequelised form they morphed into a long story, without my needing to do anything about it.
It is different with long fics and I haven't mastered the art of finishing them. It is this that I miss and don't like about the long fic. There was always, towards the end of a short fic, that wonderful feeling of resolution where I was suddenly typing a sentence and realised, omg, this is it, this is the last sentence and isn't it beautiful? And then I took my fingers off the keyboard and lo, I knew it was done. And I could go off and wait for that post-orgasmic feedback.
Now? Nothing. No tingling pre-climactic anticipation, no feedback, nada, nix. Just an endless slog of plot convolutions, character complications, shifting povs, continuity glitches as I forget what I've written eight months ago, riffling through pages and pages of print-out and lots of wondering, is it even worth it? Will this ever be finished? What is the point if by the time I post Book 7 will be out and the canon will be in shreds around me?
In short fic, I found that one key was to pick 1a) one character whose mind to inhabit, or 1b) choose two characters whose minds to inhabit alternately; 2) hit upon a voice and mood and go with it (breezy, humorous, angsty, lyrical); 3) match mood to style and stick with that and choose words and length of sentence accordingly. This, for me, worked.
It's not working for long fic. I am now really missing that narrator who, I now realise, wasn't really trained when I was writing short fic. In short fic, I found I could rely on voice to do my narrating; that is, my narrator could unproblematically inhabit one of my characters, with the occasional worldly, knowing nod of an external narrator commenting. But in this long fic I'm finding that this is very difficult. I feel the need for an external voice to come in and smooth things over, to connect the dots between the various characters' povs, all deluded in their own ways, in a Jane Austenish manner.
I'm also finding that short fic can be written in the space of a week, a day, a few hours. It is not so difficult to sustain mood and pace over that time span. But with the long fic, I feel as if I'm entering a new mood and voice every time I sit down to write a chunk.
Oh, and this is the HP fic I'm talking about. The one with Draco and Harry and Dudley and Petunia povs.
I would really be interested in hearing other authors' experiences. Especially those who've had experience writing both short and long, and the problems they've encountered. And especially somebody who actually managed to finish a long fic and what strategies they used to get them there!
I feel I just want to get the whole thing out on paper now, never mind the continuity and the gaps in stylistic coherence. But then I'll have something to work on, to revise. But often the fun seems to be taken out of it that way, and I'm losing touch with my character's emotional centres.