My Writing Process for OatS

This week flew by quick! I'm not even entirely sure what I did. I was working, and the next thing I know it's Tuesday again!

Okay, I know what I was doing. I was lurking on Tumblr for the most part. I didn't even really have MUCH time online, even taking my time on Tumblr into consideration. I would find a post that I like, dump it in my Drafts folder to read fully, or comment on, or at least tag later. I have over 500 posts waiting in my drafts folder for me to find the time to properly go through them. Most of which are writing advice bits or writing prompts.

I really need to come up with a not-yet-used name for a writing blog on Tumblr - a writblr I think they're called... That way all the writing bits aren't buried among the massive pile of Miraculous Ladybug posts.

Anyway, speaking of ML, that's why I spent most of my limited free online time on Tumblr. First weekend of October we got two new episodes; two out of three for a three-part arc. The following weekend we got the third episode of that arc, along with another new episode. This past weekend the first part of the two-part season finale aired. This upcoming weekend that episode will re-air in English, as well as the second part; the season finale.

So we go from "This 26-episode season is taking the whole year to air" and "We have to wait a full month before the next episode!?" to six episodes in one month; mostly airing in sets of two.

The fandom on Tumblr is AAAAAAAACTIVE! It takes me nearly an hour to just sift through new posts that popped up every day.

It's a poor waste of time, but the fandom will die down soon, so I'm just trying to stay on top of it now. Especially because the more active you are in the fandom the more followers you get, and the more followers you have the larger a platform you have, and with the larger platform you have more potential readers.

I actually was discussing this fact with Hubby yesterday.

A couple of weeks ago I stated that one of the folks I follow on Tumblr - Buggachat - started posting her first ever multi-chaptered story.

Curiosity Wrote a Comic

The story went live October 6th. It already has four chapters posted - she posted two of them yesterday - and is a little shy of 12,000 words. As of this writing, there are 3489 hits, 449 kudos, 63 bookmarks, and 121 comments. Now, if Buggachat replied to any comments her replies would also be counted, so I don't know if all 121 comments are reader remarks, but still...

On the flipside, you have “Peeping Tomcat”. Kudos and hits are still trickling in, but since the story is complete and newer stories are always pouring in for this fandom, my story is getting kind of buried and forgotten. As of this writing, I have 7786 hits, 282 kudos, 43 bookmarks, and roughly 34 comments if I weed out my replies.

So... my story is done - at 17 chapters and over 84,000 words - and has been up since March; done since July 31st. Yet I barely have double the hits Buggachat has. Even with half the hits, she has twice the kudos, 20 more bookmarks, and at least double the comments.

I have to admit. That hurts. Especially when she's not known as a fanfic writer in the fandom. She wrote one one-shot, and this is her second go at writing fanfiction for the fandom. She mostly has snarky and/or amusing comments about the show on her Tumblr, and she draws. So she's active in the fandom, which gets her the followers, which leads to readers.

I mean, that's how it worked for me. I liked her snarky comments and fancomics, so I followed her. She posted she is writing her first multi-chaptered fanfic - which is her second ever fanfic overall - and I was all about reading it.

The platform works.

And I'm proud of her. The story really hooked me, and I gladly gobbled up both of her chapters yesterday within hours of her posting them. I have no ill-will against her. I wish her the best, and she deserves the comments, kudos, and bookmarking.

It just hurts that my story didn't get that love.

I mean. I LOVE the love I was shown. And I have to take into consideration that I got a LOT more love for my story over on Fanfiction.net than I did on AO3. Still....

Especially when I see Buggachat getting reviews like "I've never read a fic so in-character on this site before..." and "This is by far the best fanfic I've ever read..."

oof.

Granted, there's no proof that those reviewers even KNOW PT exists, let alone have it to compare to. Still, the fact that something that has be equally toted as "incredibly written" isn't getting nearly as much love?

Like I said: Oof.

I mean, most of my reviews seem to be "Why isn't this getting more love!?" so clearly those who reviewed really REALLY liked the story. So I can be proud of that. But... yeah... why isn't it getting more love? Why aren't more people saying "You need to check this story out"?

Is it because those who found it are, like me, not very renowned in the fandom, and so even if they do promote it - like Jowy's Pixie did on her blog last month - the vast majority of the fandom still doesn't see? Is it because I don't draw doodles that people can share; making me more popular in the fandom? Is it because I can't crank out a new story daily - or at least weekly - like other popular ML fanfiction writers? Is it because I just can't get my spotlight bright enough for others to see?

Is it because I wrote in first-person, and too many are conditioned to think fanfic writers can't write in first-person without the story being trash? The second they see the first-person they run for the hills?

I wish I could get the word out there. Based on my reviews, my story could be quite the hit... if only people could find it.

I joked with Hubby that I should just send messages to the more popular members of the fandom asking them to read and let me know what they think. I just can't work up the courage to do so though. I feel so awkward being like "Hey, I think you might like my story. Could you give it a read and let me know what you think?" It feels rude to be like "here's my 84,000-word story; go read it!"

Maybe if they were like "I'm bored and need to find something to read; send me a link to your fanfic" I'd be all over that! If someone ASKS I will gladly say "please read mine," but to go in cold? Unsolicited? Eh.....

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

It's also a bit depressing to know that your former college roommate is now a published author, another one of your college friends has her first round of edits back for her manuscript, and a third friend of yours has her first manuscript completed. Add in one of the members of our writing group finally finished his manuscript? And I feel like I'm the only one that doesn't have an original idea.

All of my energies have been focused on writing these novel-length fanfics. And they aren't even really the kind of vague-AU fanfics like a lot of people write; the kind that can easily be tweaked into original, publishable works. These will always and forever be passion projects used for experience and given to the public for free.... a public that doesn't seem to even know these stories exist...

So... please excuse my writing funk right now. I'm trying to get past it.

I'll try to focus on being proud of my friends and their writing accomplishments, because I know how hard it is to get that manuscript done. I know that it's an amazing feeling when you hit that last word of a story that's been brewing for forever, and I would never want to taint that. I'll try to just enjoy the stories I'm reading - because we're all colleagues, not competition - and ignore the stats attached. I'll try to remember how much my story is loved by those who HAVE found it. I'll try to focus on how proud DFL seems to be of me. How she is constantly asking if I've talked to the rest of our writing group about the milestones I've hit with PT: the great reviews; the consistent posting schedule; completing a novel-length story, including edits; the fanart I've received; Pixie's lengthy review on her blog; etc.

So... yeah... WRITING!!!!!

X All the Y meme
Originally created by Allie Brosh
for her blog Hyperbole and a Half

Okay, so I didn't really do much WRITING per se this week. What I mostly did was edit the scenes I've already written, as well as go through my outlining notes to try to tweak based on how my plan has changed.

And when I say notes... um... I mean NOOOOOOTES.

Technically, this isn't even ALL of my notes...

This story has kind of been forming in multiple different ways since no one way seems to be working. Back in August, I started off trying to use the Snowflake Outline method created by Randy Ingermanson. It sort of worked, but it definitely is better suited for original works. As is the "Ready. Set. Novel!" workbook.

I then gave myself a refresher course on the Three-Act format. Considering "One and the Same" sort of has two parallel stories going on that converge just before the climax, I figured writing out each story using the 3-act format would work.

It... kinda did???? I got hung up a bit though.

So I tried to break down the 3-act formula a bit more: asking questions and then trying to answer them. That... didn't really work any better....

That was when I switched over to the notecards method I used to write PT, but I didn't get very far there either, so I tried going back to the 3-act formula. I created worksheets for myself and filled them out.

Well, this past week I went back and filled in some of the remaining blanks - and there's still some I need to figure out - as well as scribble a heck of a lot of notes/changes to my original view of the story.

So. Many. Marginal. Notes....

The third act got pretty dark this past week when I jotted down my notes. Even so far as to have Ladybug force Chat Noir to give up being a superhero. I'm not sure I'm going to keep that in, but it's nice to know how far I'm willing to push the angst....

Anyway, since most of the scenes I've been writing have been through Adrien's POV, and I wanted a sort of even split between him and Marinette, I figured "maybe I should alternate chapters; how would that look?"

I scribbled out the first four chapters - the part of the novel I know the structure of pretty solidly - and I'm still working on tweaks of even THAT.

I should probably go back to writing in
pencil instead of scribbling things out in pen.

Before I even finished writing "Peeping Tomcat" I had attempted to write out the basic outline of OatS, using the Snowflake Method, and leaning heavily on my original idea of this story being a sort of retelling of "You've Got Mail." This past week I took that original outline to task....

I think my task this week is to solidify my outline so I'm ready to start NaNo in A LITTLE MORE THAN A WEEK! Speaking of... who else is joining me in November?

My biggest hurdle I think is trying to fit in more Marinette chapters since this story is SUPPOSED to be largely about her. For whatever reason though, while I can easily get into Adrien's head and write his POV, I'm having the darnedest time getting inside Marinette's head. Which is suuuuper weird since she's the main POV character in the show. If anything, she should be the easiest one to write, which is probably why so many fanfic writers keep their story in her POV.

I'm also struggling with when and why Chat Noir confesses fully about spying on Marinette and finding out she's Ladybug. I think I have it locked in as the Main Culmination at the and of Act II; jettisoning the plot in a different direction for Act III. That way the third act is about Chat Noir trying to regain Marinette/Ladybug's trust, as well as Adrien trying to discretely handle damage control for his superhero persona. However, I had the Big Confession happen when CN again asks for the superheroes to reveal themselves. The catalyst of him asking is seeing Ladybug be hesitant about her date with Adrien, because she has feelings for Chat Noir. After the argument, LB decides she can't handle this right now, and zips over to her date.

Originally, when this reveal was the climax of the story, Marinette gets to her date with Adrien, only to admit that she really does love Chat Noir just as much. Her confession gives Adrien the confidence to transform into CN in front of Marinette, and everything ends happily ever after.

Buuuuut.... did Marinette forgive Chat Noir too quickly after he betrayed her trust? What about their conversation made Adrien realize that she did want to know who Chat Noir is after all? Now that I have to fill the third act with ways for CN to earn her trust again, what would the catalyst of the reveal-ask be? Would LB still be debating if she should go on her date? Would Marinette and Adrien be dating throughout the third act?

Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comic books
by Bryan Lee O'Malley

I think I made this whole thing more complicated for myself.... All I can say is that I'm glad this is such a passion project for me - and that I feel I owe it to the few really devoted fans I have - because if I let the above heartbreak of barely being found dictate anything, I'd stop.

Or at least I'd focus on writing simple one-shots. That way I'm a more active member of the fandom that actually ADDS to the fandom, instead of what I'm doing now which is just reblogging with added commentary. Being more active in ADDING content to the fandom would be the main way to get that larger reader base. It would be the way to go.

Buuuut nope. I have to come up with complicated plots to 80,000+ word novel-length fanfics.

Sometimes being a writer for the love of writing sucks.


Alternatively, I also used this week to finish reading "Leather and Lies." I actually finished it on Thursday. I was having one of those "no good; everything sucks" kind of days. So I squirreled away in my bedroom with just five chapters left to go and blew through them.

Celeste Straub certainly knows how to write an intense third act, that's for sure. I totally get why people stayed up all night to finish the story. You can check out my Amazon review here. I also really need to get around to posting my review on GoodReads as well....

Anyway, one more book crossed off my reading challenge. I've also started another of Jowy's Pixie's stories, which is 256,502 words and 45 chapters long!

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

You can read it too here: Destiny's Dance

I think I might be bumping "Atlas Shrugged" off my reading list in favor for this story for this year. I MIIIGHT get to AS next year....

I also still need to figure out what to use for that final reading slot. I mean, I have read a LOT of fanfics this year, all of which are either one-shots - such as the two Pixie posted - or on-going stories, such as "Under Lock and Key", "When Duty and Desire Meet", "Curiosity Wrote a Comic", "And the Name for Your Order is?", "Mr. Lucky and the Cat", and "Immortal Bond" - which, unfortunately hit a writing snag for Pixie, so she's starting it over again.

So, word count wise, I think I hit my quota, but it would be nice to have a completed story title to put in that last slot. Anyone have any suggestions?

In the meantime, I'm back to working on my story and trying to shut out the demons trying to tell me I'm not "good enough" simply because my story hasn't been found.

Screw those demons! I'm writing "One and the Same" anyway! And I'm also figuring out a one-shot that I can write and post for this month's new story quota.

I hope to have a link for you guys next week. Until then, take care.