part thirty nine

[kficanon]

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Comments

[(Anonymous)]

all i wanted was to write a simple little cliched introspective dudes-becoming-more-than-friends fic how can that possibly be this hard

[(Anonymous)]

i feel you, i struggle so much with pacing and characterisation that it's almost routine for me to freak out and ring up my best friend for ideas when i'm at the halfway point.

which fandom are you writing for?

[(Anonymous)]

ik i'm so tired of it i'm just like "HMPHH i'm just gonna write this shit and idc how it comes out" BUUUT that's easier said than done as always. could you elaborate on the pacing issues you use to struggle with anon? bec honestly pacing is ??? to me rn, i barely think about it

it's a crossover. which is another level of hard bec i usually find inspiration by looking at videos and gifs of the ship but all i've got to work with here is like 3 barely-there moments u___u

[(Anonymous)]

hmm i like to ramble a lot but some of these rambles hinder the pacing/makes the story too long-winded/story gets too detailed etc. however, some details are relevant later in the story, so i go back and forth in my doc to cut things that are not brought up again and keep those that are. but that's problematic as well especially for long fics, which i've probably spent months on and forgotten most of the details in the middle. i have problems linking scenes together, and my scenes begin abruptly and kind of hinders the slow/fast pace of the entire story.

ahhh well i guess you could always put yourself in their shoes and hypothesize what they would do around each other. (the fic i'm working on now has the same issue and i'm just T__T because the main pair's in the same group dammit)

[(Anonymous)]

ok so what is the average length of your average fic? bec seeing how my average fic is around 1k i feel that i really should get a bit rambly and build out the plot a bit instead of just making it as simple as possible. i'm afraid to get long winded but a rational part of me says i'm not anywhere near that yet lol. i do like reoccuring details tho, i don't think you should be afraid to include those anon.

yeah that's what i try to do. but like you i have characterization issues, like i have written this person many times and i usually feel comfortable writing them but suddenly i'm all IHNI WHAT THIS PERSON IS LIKE??? and also working in the elements of the au and how that affects the characters and yeaaah it's hard.

[(Anonymous)]

da, but maybe you'd benefit if someone told you some of the person's apparent character traits. everyone is going to characterize differently, but if you're stuck on something it could help to have a different viewpoint. that or rewatch an interview/show to analyze how they react with others

[(Anonymous)]

these are good tips anon, ty! i do think i have a good grasp of their characterization tho, i'm just doubting myself when it get srs /o\

[(Anonymous)]

ia also it helps to pick out a couple of traits that define them so aus won't change them into characters that are barely recognisable

[(Anonymous)]

my masterlist is quite polarized in terms of wc. if i were to average it out it would be 5k? i'm surprised! being concise is a good thing (also something i'm not good at), but if you want to broaden your ~horizons~ you could always elaborate more, but you'd run into the risk of changing your style u____u yeah, i keep the recurring details and eliminate those that are one-off and don't drive the plot.

i try not to think much about characterisation since it's so subjective. we can never get it completely right, but i just think it should be believable enough. aus are fun! i really enjoy aus because they let me play around with the characters and just take the essential parts of them, and think of how they would react to a particular situation when there're limited options/things work differently.

sidetracking but: one thing i don't understand is how dongwoo is said to be consistently written wrong in fics when it seems pretty fine to me lol. minus the part where the authors do include real faults in his character but i would argue that it's the same for most kpop fics if that were the issue.

[(Anonymous)]

being concise can be a good thing but it often means very small and limited stories. i have written longfic before (like 20k) but it was over a year ago and i would like to get into plot-writing again. i don't care much for perserving style, i'd rather experiment and evolve.

no ita, for me it's more abt reaching a characterization that i can stand for and feel happy with. i love aus! it's basically the only thing i write. i often fall in love with an au and have this very distinct feeling regarding it that i want to convey in my fic. i try to work more on surroundings and environmental descritions bec of this, but it's hard to keep it at a good level so it doesn't feel pointless or overshadows the actions and interactions of the characters

i don't read infinite fic but i can understand that dongwoo is a tricky character to write. that either ppl will totally agree with you or think you're totally wrong. i think a good trick is to never go for any extreme, because ppl are rarely black and white. they have different sides to them that you should try to include. without making them all bland and identical to one another ofc lol

[(Anonymous)]

same da from below but, i don't see any problem with having a lot of details in your story (unless those details just lead to plot holes). i don't really understand why exactly in kpop fandom simple fics are so highly sought after? maybe it's because it seems a lot of people only like reading 10k and under? idk. i enjoy reading stories with a lot depth to them too. it's the details that can make a story quirky and memorable.
maybe the main character/s hit a lot of snags on the way that branch out in different directions, or perhaps those details are crucial to foreshadowing something later.
i guess if you go on and on about how the character can't stand the color of the blinds then maybe yes, the delete key is your friend.

i read a good line on a blog once that said something along the lines of, "every sentence you write should move the plot forward" if it's something you feel the reader should know that would enhance the plot, put it in \o/ if it's just a side note that isn't important, get rid of it \o/

[(Anonymous)]

"every sentence you write should move the plot forward" is what i try to do! when i ramble it's pretty cringe-worthy because i'm just going on and on about someone's recollection of their past when one sentence could be equally effective. i try to foreshadow with every single detail i have in my fic. if it's not foreshadowing/explaining what's going on/explaining what happened before then it'S FUCKING GONE.

hmmm idt to-the-poin fics are that popular anymore? it's the long fics that're getting all the attention. ig readers just don't like long, drawn-out fics that lead to nowhere. we have little time for fanfics after all.

[(Anonymous)]

because a simple fic about dudes becoming more than friends is not actually that simple. it's harder to build an engaging narrative around a plot with a simplistic, vague, or non-existent central conflict than it is for a plot with a more clear and robust central conflict. artsy stories about someone ~discovering themselves or smth without a clearly defined, easily identifiable, and emotionally understandable path to that goal are actually very, very difficult to write. we are programmed to think about narrative in terms of conflict. the stronger the conflict, the more natural the progression of the story. (for most people!)

[(Anonymous)]

da that being said i don't see a lot of action/adventure fics in my fandoms, which are arguably genres that have the most clearly defined conflicts.

[(Anonymous)]

conflict and plot are basically the same thing though. definition of a story is pretty much "characters in conflict." the problem is that people are programmed to think about conflict in terms of external active things like war, murder, bombs going off or whatever, but conflict can easily be internal too.

for a fic about dudes becoming more than friends there are many possible conflicts the author could consider: conflict because they are in denial, unsure about their sexuality and/or unwilling to risk the friendship by taking the next step. there could be a love triangle involved, some mutual misunderstandings. or perhaps one of the dudes moves away and the other one realises what he actually felt and then the conflict/goal could be finding him again.

[(Anonymous)]

of course conflict can be internal! what i'm saying is that internal conflicts are often more difficult to define, more difficult to convey, and more difficult for readers (and writers) to identify with, and therefore they are also are more difficult to write.

[(Anonymous)]

on the contrary! internal conflicts are far more easy for readers and writers to identify with. we all know stuff like jealously, miscommunications, identity crisis, fear of commitment...

but how many of us can identify with being a secret agent or fighting aliens? often its because of the additional internal conflicts that we can identify with the characters in these kinds of stories.

this is random but i just finished watching the nostalgia critic talk about zombie movies, and he made the point that what's actually compelling in these stories is not the zombies chasing everyone (the external conflict), but the way the characters are pushed to their limits, and forced to adapt to a post apocalyptic world (internal conflict).

[(Anonymous)]

yes yes of course, i completely agree, but what i'm trying to say is that it's easier to achieve all that when you have a strong external conflict to work with/around.

[(Anonymous)]

this is beginning to dawn on me anon, and i totally agree. it is easier to deal with concrete, physical obstacles, like war as anon said, than the internal world. like i find myself wanting to have a lot of dialogue in my fic and i'm sitting here all ??? bec ihni what they're gonna talk abt sobs. i feel like i basically have to go through their lives and situation and find out what they could be thinking about. which is tiringggg.

yet i feel that this sort of introspective fic is one of the most common kinds so it's like, if so many other ppl can do it, why can't i. and i'm thinking that it's a genre that you can fuck around with a bit, halfass as to say, because they don't actually have to mentally transform and discover themselves, they basically just have to get together. am i making sense rn lol? ig what i meant with my comment is that i want give up my desire to write something "good" and just go full-out with the cliches that come with this kind of fic, even though it's been written 2355 times before. (or maybe i am not being fair to this genre!!)

[(Anonymous)]

a story about two people getting together is boring as hell. for crying out loud at least put some character development in there.

[(Anonymous)]

but anon what if character development occurs while they try to get together

[(Anonymous)]

yeah that's what i mean though.

[(Anonymous)]

those two things are not mutually exclusive...

[(Anonymous)]

in one way i agree with you anon, and in another way i don't. there's soooo many fics out there without character development that serve their purpose just fine. if i want to write a story with two dudes glancing at each other for a while before hooking up, then i'm sure at least someone would enjoy reading it. it's basically extended pwp lol

[(Anonymous)]

fair enuff.