oakstone730 | Entries tagged with writing

Cross-posting from my Tumblr.

The lovely @eidheann tagged me in the five fics meme where you rec five of your own fics. Eep. Instead of rec’ing, I’m commenting on my fics that are most significant to me. I'm sure if I were to do this next month my answers would be a different but these are the one's I picked today.

First one is easy. It’s the one I think I’m known for (I’m Oakstone730, by the way, *waves*), and certainly the most read (holy shit when did it pass 40K views on AO3?), shared, and rec’d: Twist of Fate.

Twist is significant to me in that it was the third or fourth story I wrote and due to its length (300K) I can see my writing evolve and improve from the beginning to the end. I also like it for the way I was able to wrap the canon of the books into a Harry/Draco Hogwarts story.

The Day After: The Missing Chapters from the end of Deathly Hallows would be my second fic that stands out. It was my first story, written in a frenzy in August 2011 before I even knew fanfiction existed, because I had read and re-read Hallows and felt so unsatisfied that I sat down and created my own ending. Full of typos. Harry/Ginny Ron/Hermione

Taps - this is my only Captain America offering, even though I have dozens of ideas floating around in my head, Taps is the only one which has been completed. Kind of completed. I actually have another 10K that I cut from it because I decided that less is more. For me the time just after Steve wakes up in the 21st century is the most evocative. How would it feel to be trapped between the two time periods and trying to move on? It’s a gen fic.

Solder - written as a pinch-hit for Erised. I like this one because it has components of stories that I tried to write several times in the past and couldn’t fit together, until I had to throw together a story in a few weeks and Solder was born. It is typical of my longer fics - combining high angst with fluffy moments. Deals with the difficult subject of addiction and the effects it has on a family - but with a tentative yet still positive ending. Harry/Draco

Smoke and Mirrors - Harry/Charlie. Although I’m known as a Harry/Draco shipper my true OTP is Harry/Charlie. This story is *not* for everyone. It’s BDSM but because I don’t wander too far from my favorite writing style it is also fluffy and angsty. This is one of those stories that asked to be written and I couldn’t stop until it was done.

That’s my five - but just a quick shout out to any Mark Watney/Chris Beck readers (all 4-5 of you...) I do have six Mark/Chris stories of varying degrees of angst, fluff, and death.

So, this month marks my third anniversary in fanfiction. Hard to imagine that three years ago I didn't know all this (swirls hands around laptop) existed. I've told my story before (August, 2011 I sat down and wrote an expanded ending to DH because I was so dissatisfied, learned about fanfiction afterwards, etc. etc).

I'm sitting here tonight wondering what I would be doing, who I would be if I hadn't been diverted down this alternate path. When you consider I'm nearly 49, my life had been set for quite a while. Husband, kids, avid reader, most importantly non-writer. I never wrote anything but press releases and newsletters in the previous twenty years, before that it was essays and term papers. Never creative writing. Always day-dreamed. Day-dreamed and what-if'd a lot, but never put words on the page.

And then Harry Potter happened. And now I can't stop writing. Still day dreaming but now I actually write up those day dreams. And I still watch people, and wonder about them, and make mental stories up about them...but now I put those stories on the page. And I love the process. I love the burning need to shape the story the way I need it to go. To mash two people together and find the words to make their story exciting.

So, I don't know where I would be if I hadn't discovered fanfiction but I'm very happy that I did, especially since of all the wonderful people I've met in this journey. I'm hesitant to mention names, because there are so many of you, and you ALL make my day brighter with your stories, rec, art and shared-enthusiasm - but especially

impishtubist,

omi_ohmy

eidheann_writes

icmezzo

groolover

digthewriter

capitu and ALL of you.

snippet from first story (by the way is anyone else seeing really weird LJ cuts? Big gaps with no cut-text?
( Snippet from that first story... )

drarryxlover came up with this writing meme, and it was great comparing her writing clips, here are mine...

The questions:

1) Something old- A blurb from one of the first fics you’ve ever written.

2) Something new- A snippet from something you’re currently working on, or from the last thing you posted.

3) Something borrowed- A scene or section of dialogue from another writer’s story. Maybe something that inspired you or resonated with you. (Credit the writer and link to it if possible, please.)

4) Something blue- C’mon, you know you’ve written a really gut-wrenching bit of angst at some point. Let’s hear the saddest or angstiest thing you’ve got. Alternatively? Tell us about the last time you described the color blue.

( My responses... )

...so, I re-read that last clip from Twist, and couldn't stand it: typos and epithets. Just re-wrote it, here is the new version:

( re-write of angst from Twist )

So,

zeitgeistic did a thing. Well, she does LOTS of things, including writing brilliant fics like her latest: Last City. It is brilliant. If you haven't read it you should stop reading this and go read it, immediately. Go on. We'll wait.
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Wasn't that good? In her post of the fic she included a divine sneak peek into her browser history. Which I loved - so I thought I'd take a gander at my own. All I can say is please God: When you kill me off, please delete my browser history. That being said I'll share some of the research I conducted in January and February. Warning: I was writing my BDSM fic for

hpsolemnlysworn and as I am a complete ignoramus when it comes to BDSM, I had to do A LOT of research.

( Oakstone Google Searches... )
There were a LOT more searches, this is just the highlights :\

Almost all of what I learned shows up in Smoke and Mirrors.

So, I showed you mine...what does yours browser history have saved?

The librarian in me feels compelled to remind everyone that YES, your browser does preserve this information. Learn how to delete it -
FIrefox/Mozilla Chrome/Google Safari/iPad (do searches for other Apple products).

This post is being made just because I'm tired of trying to remember where I read/saved XYZ writing reference link that I saw posted. Hopefully if I create one post I can add all the bookmarks/notes that I find so I can look one place instead of twenty.

** This is a work in progress ** If you have a website/resource that you've found very helpful, let me know about it!

Writing 101 (aka What I should've read before I wrote my first fanfic, instead of afterwards and now I have 1000 epithets that need to be edited out)
A (Beginner's) Guide to Fanfiction by

faithwood
Open Letter to Bad FanFic Writers by

jeyhawk (Relatively quick list of 36 foibles that beginning writers have, I like that s/he uses a lot of examples.)
( Rest of the links... )

I have to admit that the news of Rowling working on the script for a HP-world film did not strike me as that exciting, I'm not a visual person - a new book would thrill me but a film not so much (I dare not admit that I haven't watched all the HP films) - but then I started seeing the posts about being excited for new canon and that is very interesting.

It is wonderful that the film will provide a whole set of fresh canon to follow--or to ignore as the whim dictates.

There is some canon that after having read HP fan fic for two years makes me flinch just a little - three things in particular: Ginny's Bat Bogey Hex, Harry's Treacle Tart, and Draco's Sectumsempra Scar.

Of the three, I find the hex the most grating. It is mentioned so often in fics that contain Ginny. So often. My theory is that there is very little canon about Ginny, in the books she was deep in the background except for when JKR needed her. As a result there is a need, perhaps, to mention the hex to tie the story to canon-Ginny, but really in all the years at Hogwarts surely she achieved more than that one hex?

Harry's Treacle Tart - and yes, I think I've forced myself to use it - does he really like it that much? Maybe it was the only dessert reference JKR made? I don't know. Oddly, Dumbledore's lemon drops don't bother me at all, nor Draco's chocolate fixation. Just the treacle tart. Maybe because we can't get a decent one over here in the States.

Draco's scar. I'm actually writing that into a scene right now, which is why I'm pondering this so hard today. The scar - the bathroom scene - pretty much has to be mentioned if it is an H/D 8th-year or just-post Hogwarts fic, Of the three, I accept the need for this one the most but it does become a rote component to the stories because it is a such a pivotal scene. It is very hard to keep it fresh and give it a new perspective. I guarantee my writing up of it will be nothing new - but I was thinking about Turn by Sara's Girl - she did a brilliant job of making the most of this moment in Harry & Draco's lives.

Are there any aspects of canon that you would be happy to see vanquished?

Current Location: On the proch
Current Music: leaves in the wind

It was two-years ago this month that I wrote my first fan-fiction story, written sitting at my desktop computer while my children played blocks and Little People on the floor behind me. In August, 2011, I did not know that fan-fiction existed, I was writing simply because I'd spent the summer re-reading the books and found myself reading the last couple chapters of Deathly Hallows again and again (already I was completely ignoring the Epilogue) trying to read between the lines and find more answers than the words on the pages were providing. I contemplated ordering the UK books to see if they provided more closure, but I knew they wouldn't, the answers weren't there.

My writing place

At the playground, driving to school and work, I started composing what I thought happened next. When these thoughts became jumbled, I scribbled them down on an envelope in my purse. When I lost the envelope, I sat down at my computer and wrote out my thoughts, but then I started adding dialogue, and it started to build. My little bit of closure grew to be 22,000 words, and I was immensely proud of it, because it put a neat little bow to the seven books, and of course reflected what I wanted to see happen.

Still, I was embarrassed, I'd just spent two or three weeks writing a conclusion to someone else's story, and I couldn't really justify why. In a rare bit of honesty I confessed doing this to a virtual friend (the only kind I have) and she typed back: Oh, you wrote a fan-fic. I gave a virtual nod and immediately went to Google and searched fan-fic and got over six million hits as a return.

This was my first clue that the world was not flat.

( Click for the rest of the story... )

A continuation of

ginger_veela's Writing Meme from earlier this week. (My answers to Part I here)

( My answers to the meme... )

ginger_veela has a fun meme posted... self-evaluating your writing.

Just updated this --

eidheann_writes posted her meme and I loved how she provided the rationale for her answers so I added that to my responses here.

( Here are my answers... )

I've been debating all week about writing stories that switch POVs. Is it acceptable, generally, to switch POVs within a story? Not every paragraph, which I find terribly distracting, but from one chapter to the next. Or is it a sure sign of novice-writer?

In my shorter stories, I always write from the same POV, but in the longer ones I do, on occasion, switch perspectives when I need to show the other person's view. Is it a sign of poor writing skills that I can't convey that while maintaining the 'main' character's point of view? I admire writers who are able to tell entire stories from one side, but when I'm writing a scene I sometimes feel the need to show the other character's side of the events that are occurring. Is this a bad thing? I know I've spent hours writing and re-writing scenes because I can't decide whose perspective that scene needs to be told from...

Let me know what you think, please!

Stolen from marianna_merlo my year of fanfiction writing summed up
Calendar Year: 2012
Total Stories Written: 15 (including current WiPs)
Total Words Written: 315,000 (aprox)
Average Words Per Story: according to FF 24,925
Shortest Story: DragonLover (300)
Longest: Twist of Fate (312K)

( Read more... )

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Indigo Girls

Working on a chapter for the Charlie/Harry story. It requires a certain amount of backstory which I've written as Charlie just reflecting back to himself. To me it seems very boring. Anyone want to read and give an opinion? Is there a general HP slash writer's community on LJ? I know of the

hd_writers group but this is primarily hp/cw with past and future hp/dm and cw/oc.

This is the story that is being written (two chapters into it): What Happens in Fagaras, Stays in Fagaras - but I don't think you need to read that bit if you just want to tell me if the beginning of this chapter is too boring. I'm thinking of changing it to Charlie having a conversation with the healer about everything in the past, which could work.

( The chapter in question... very rough, not edited. )
So, what do you think? Opinions appreciated. I think it would be better delivered in dialogue rather than a whole personal reflection thing....