look, tangent.

[kaydeefalls]

One thing I've discovered about this whole writing 500+ words a day business, is that I wind up taking the fic in directions I'd never originally intended. Like, I think I know what a scene's going to be like, but because I'm basically forcing the text out, rather than waiting for it all to work itself out in my head first, I'll suddenly find the scene veering off in a completely unexpected direction, and then I've got to stop and wonder if I should just go with it or if I should try to wrestle it back to the original plan. I've mainly just been going with the flow of things so far. I wonder how this is going to affect the overall quality of the writing -- whether the fic will come out the better or worse for it. I suppose I shouldn't worry too much about that until I get the thing into beta, but still, it worries me a bit. I've definitely increased my productivity in the past week, but I might also be losing something in the trade-off.

Comments

[bunniewabbit.livejournal.com]

Someone suggested to me that writing for a given period of time rather than a certain number of words might end up working better, and I think she was right. I didn't find myself doing so much forcing.

Unfortunately, I'm no longer managing to do either, but that is beside the point. :p

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

I can see how that might work, but it's probably not the best solution for me -- I get distracted very easily, and unless I'm feeling particularly inspired, I work best when I can focus for a little bit, then go off and do something else, then come back for a bit longer, etc. Measuring writing in time spent is kind of meaningless for me, and if I made myself sit still for an hour and focus on nothing else, I'd probably wind up forcing it even more. But I can see why that would be more productive for other people. :)