lydamorehouse (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lydamorehouse) wrote2013-01-28 12:19 pm
lydamorehouse) wrote2013-01-28 12:19 pm
Entry tags:
Original Fiction is Hard, Barbie.
Do you remember the Math/Barbie scandal of... the late-90s? Apparently, there was a talking Barbie doll who said any number of inane things, including, "Math is hard!"
"Math is hard, Barbie," has become one of those phrases that my family uses to shorthand an idea. In this case, we usually mean it to imply: this is something that really shouldn't be that difficult, but I'm struggling with it anyway. And, today, all I can say is, "Original fiction is hard, Barbie."
I think I may be finally getting into the swing of things, but... man. It's like pulling teeth over here for some reason.
I wish someone could explain it to me. Why can I bust out 2,000 words of fan fic in about a half-day (if that) and original fiction writing is as slow as molassas? Given the scene I was just writing, I think part of the issue is description. I have a lot more of it in my fan fic than some writers, but original fiction demands a LOT of scene setting in a way I don't think is quite as necessary in fan fiction. Certainly, physical description of characters can be lighter--after all, most fan fiction is based on visual media. I tend to put a lot of effort into describing (of all things) weather in my fan fic. Also, because of who I write, there's a lot of talk of food and smells. But, a lot of the other stuff can be "brush stroked." I can do that to some extent in original fic, but a reader needs to know where they are and part of that is physical description.
And that's slow going.
Also, I can't just start with established characters and situations. I have to make all that up, and worse, get you to sympathize and like these people I'm inventing.
Hard work, Barbie.
I'd better get back to it, or I'll never get the 2,000 words I've promised myself for the day.
"Math is hard, Barbie," has become one of those phrases that my family uses to shorthand an idea. In this case, we usually mean it to imply: this is something that really shouldn't be that difficult, but I'm struggling with it anyway. And, today, all I can say is, "Original fiction is hard, Barbie."
I think I may be finally getting into the swing of things, but... man. It's like pulling teeth over here for some reason.
I wish someone could explain it to me. Why can I bust out 2,000 words of fan fic in about a half-day (if that) and original fiction writing is as slow as molassas? Given the scene I was just writing, I think part of the issue is description. I have a lot more of it in my fan fic than some writers, but original fiction demands a LOT of scene setting in a way I don't think is quite as necessary in fan fiction. Certainly, physical description of characters can be lighter--after all, most fan fiction is based on visual media. I tend to put a lot of effort into describing (of all things) weather in my fan fic. Also, because of who I write, there's a lot of talk of food and smells. But, a lot of the other stuff can be "brush stroked." I can do that to some extent in original fic, but a reader needs to know where they are and part of that is physical description.
And that's slow going.
Also, I can't just start with established characters and situations. I have to make all that up, and worse, get you to sympathize and like these people I'm inventing.
Hard work, Barbie.
I'd better get back to it, or I'll never get the 2,000 words I've promised myself for the day.
no subject
Good luck with the writing!
no subject
no subject
At the same time, a similar version of doll was done for GI Joe, using the same technology.
This led to a group of civic-minded citizens getting large numbers of each and SWITCHING OUT THE VOICEBOXES, and then putting the modified dolls back on the shelves of the local toy stores. So now you had Barbie grunting "ROLL OUT!" in a baritone voice, and G.I. Joe exhorting the virtues of shopping.
no subject
Fanfic/original fic
Writing the 'prequel' for my original created world (hereafter OCW)--a shorter novel based on an incident described in the first instalment of the trilogy--was, I realized, a lot like writing fanfiction in that it went much faster because there were a lot of givens. I knew the plot in advance. I had already created most of the characters I would need. I already knew what the place looked like/sounded like/smelled like/etc. I had the magical system established. I had to do a lot of foudnation-laying for readers who hadn't read the earlier-written novels; but I didn't have to lay the foundation for myself, and that made everything go much faster.
The labor involved in creating a world and creating original characters is significantly different from the labor involved in adapting a pre-existing world and pre-existing characters. The story, as you know, is the tip of the iceberg that is your own knowledge of the worl din which it takes place. With fanfiction someone else has already built the iceberg. With your own stuff you have to make the iceberg yourself, one crystal at a time.
Also, with fanfiction, whenever you have to make a narrative choice, there are a host of factors that narrow your choices down. You have to preserve the characters so that they are recognizable. You can't do anything that renders their world completely alien. You are inevitably thinking about what the audience--the fanfic audience, the slash audience--wants from a piece of fanfiction, and those wants are perhaps more specific and obsessive than the wants of people who read your original fiction. Whereas when you're writing your own universe, you get to one of these choices and there are a potentially infinite number of possible directions you could go in, and you have to kill yourself tryign to choose ONE.