Swimming

[pjthompson]

Random quote of the day:

“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.”

—F. Scott Fitzgerald, undated letter to his daughter “Scottie” (Frances Scott Fitzgerald) 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Orville and Wilbur, Katy Perry, or the Avengers. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Comments

[notasupervillain]

Hmm. I don't feel this one, but then, I love writing and I hate swimming underwater.

[pjthompson]

Are you an organized writer or an organic one? Maybe that's more of a pantser attitude. Or not. Everybody's process is different, which is why quoting even famous writers can be dicey.

[notasupervillain]

What's the line between the two? They're not terms I've heard before.

I feel like it might be my attitude towards swimming which is unusual, though!

ETA I only write fiction because I got angry about writing fan fic and not getting to control canon, so calling me a "writer" is only true in the absolute sense of the word. I write. I do not publish, and I barely even edit.

[pjthompson]

Basically, organized writers are those who do outlines before doing the actual writing, and organic or pantsers are people who "fly by the seat of their pants" and don't do outlines. I'm one of the latter. Get to know the characters and the general destination, then take a deep dive and start writing. A technique that can lead to much misery when you reach the midpoint of your novel and realize you've gone horribly wrong somewhere along the way.

[notasupervillain]

Definitely the latter. I pick a character development goal I want to hit - Eliza trusts her friends enough to have a fight with them. And then I build a world and other characters and plot until I can get through all the stages of development to hit my goal. I've never written a novel, but I've finished plotlines that way.

[pjthompson]

Writing a novel is the most wonderful awful experience a writer can have. 😅

[notasupervillain]

The first half of my novel was about Eliza, who's an introvert, and it was impossible. The second half was about Aisha, who's an extrovert, and it was something much harder than that. By the time I was finished all the world building and character building I needed to do for Aisha, I started tearing Eliza's chapters apart to fill in all the new.

So. Yes.

[pjthompson]

I remember the time I felt I had to stop in the middle of a novel and write a separate 14000 word novella so I can understand the villainess better. 🤣 She was a damn fine villainess afterwards, though, if I do say so myself.

[notasupervillain]

Oh man that sounds delightful, villainess never get proper character work!

[pjthompson]

I wound up adoring her and wanting to give her a novel of her own. (She wanted that, too.) But things didn't work out.

[notasupervillain]

I write because authors don't love their female Villans as much as I, the Reader, do. So I'm just happy that you cared about her enough to give her a novella!

[pjthompson]

As to that last bit, you're a writer. Publishing in a possible by-product of the act itself, which is the important part.

[notasupervillain]

It's a funny thing, that I can be a Writer without necessarily having any Readers. But here we are.

[pjthompson]

Yes, here we are. 🙂