Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

There is a certain joy to rereading an old fan fic and realizing it doesn't actually suck. My big bang for Saiyuki was one written years ago for a failed big bang and I forgot about it for several years until someone decided to try another big bang. I blew the dirt off this 'before the journey' story. It's made me miss Saiyuki and I wonder if there's some online spot to finish reading it. I hate doing that but it never finished in the States (half due to publisher issues, half to the severe health issues of the mangaka).

It's an important thing, learning to like your own stories. We all go through the 'god everything I write' is crap phase. Sometimes it's even true and we've not done our best for whatever reason. But there's also truth to the saying Perfect is the enemy of the good. When we strive for perfection we can get stuck within our story. We might never finish it. We might edit it endlessly. We might even manage to get past that, see it out in the world and remain unhappy with it forever.

I'm not the only one to feel this way and neither are you. Agathe Christie lamented that her stuff wasn't good or merely dime store crap of no literary value. She remains one of the best selling women of all time.

So learn to love your stuff but learn also to accept criticism of it. It can help us grow (it can also destroy us but that's a post for another time).

And now for the links Book Launch timeline

write on

And another NSFW pep talk from Chuck Wendig for when your story hits the wall

And Betty must have known where I needed help lately with her offerings

when you lose the desire to finish

How to keep a short story short

improve your manuscript


Guide to Criticism and how to handle it


The problem with Prince Charming


Yearly Word Count -

23672 / 100000 words. 24% done!

Splinters of Silver - editing nothing

Blood Red - finished it entirely!

editing 3 novellas - did jack

Behind Blue Eyes - edited one chapter

Haunted Hocking -

9723 / 60000 words. 16% done!

Comments

[enemytosleep]

I just reread Notch (mine) and didn't hate it. About to jump back into writing this weekend for the first time in roughly 5 years.

[cornerofmadness]

Good luck to you! Now that I'm writing professionally I don't get a lot of time to do fanfic. I miss it.

[enemytosleep]

Oh sweet, sounds like more publications from you from the last time I was online? I got an additional job in December and finally have a computer again. Though fandom seems a lot more volatile than I remember from what I can see haha

[cornerofmadness]

Yeah a couple novels, a few novellas and a bunch of short stories. Not as much as I'd like but still I'm happy.

How's the new job?

outside of fandom stocking I've not done much fan fic in the last 18 months so I've been out of the volatile fandom stew. Then again I'm not on tumblr so I miss a lot of that stuff.

[enemytosleep]

That's awesome you've gotten stuff out there! Congrats, you've definitely worked so hard.

Now I groom part-time out of my house and I am the accounts amanger for the fight gym. Yay bookkeeping! But honestly I do most of the work from home and I train there 12+ hours a week anyway so it's pretty nice. It's afforded me some savings and a computer already.

I have a tumblr, but I haven't used it since before I stepped out of fandom. I am a little concerned that the new Voltron fans are too exhuberant for my tastes (shipping wars are nuclear), but the fic bunny has wielded a thorough outline so I'll be writing it regardless.

[cornerofmadness]

Thanks. I publish under the name Jana Denardo for now (Mostly LGBT stuff) and would like to work up a YA series under my own name.

A fight gym? Well that's cool. I'm glad that the two jobs are working out for you.

Ugh, man I do NOT miss shipping wars. Write the story that makes you happy and ignore the haters.