TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #64

This is another of those entries I don't really want to write. I'm having serious second thoughts even now. But I think it needs to be said.

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I've found that I can say I believe one thing, and then act as though I believe the opposite. I doubt I'm alone in this - just look at politics.

Jokes aside, for the past ten years I've believed that writing was 'my thing'. Eventually, I would write a bestseller and be 'made'. For five years, that belief has been true. Writing is what I was meant to be doing.

But around the end of those five years, something changed. I finished writing The River that was Red, a story I still consider to be my best work. Upon completion, I cast about within my mind for the next story.

You see, up until that point, there had always been a 'next story'. I didn't even have to come up with them. The concepts were just sitting...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry # 63

I've had to temporarily pause the writing of Valkyrie. Don't worry; nothing major has happened, and I don't need to do any major reworks of the plot or anything. The story was missing a component which I should be able to add in with only minimal tweaks to the outline. It will, however, take me a few days to add in said component.

So what's the component? Emotion. Reaction. Feeling. Basically, the bit of the story I've written appears to center on lifeless pieces of wood.

Here's why: I've detailed elsewhere how I learned writing backwards, starting with what already-published authors get wrong, and only now arriving at the basics. Well, it appears that that has applied to all aspects of writing, not just character arcs and plot.

One thing it seems I don't know how to do (yet) is go beyond the backstories and collection of traits which usually make up my characters, and somehow discover...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #62

This is a quick update.

I'M BACK!

Been waiting to say that for five months.

I am indeed back. My current fan fiction has today gotten all the way through the development, the rough outline is complete, all plot holes are filled in. All that remains is to write a final, smoother outline which I can refer to when writing, and to organize a few scenes which aren't quite nailed down. Then I begin writing.

I will probably save the more detailed recounting of how I got here for the author's note of the fan fiction. But I will say that after all I've learned in these five months, I feel like I have ascended to a new level of writing. Everything I've written before now (except possibly Red) feels incomplete, compared to this new story. Even the massive HiS feels like it's only half there.

This is, as I have detailed before, because I have discovered the plot...