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"Wha' happened?"
After reading a lot of people's fanfic pet peeves and what have you, I've recently decided that I've got some explaining to do on a few counts. The one that keeps coming up and making me wince is the "If you're not going to finish anything, don't post it!" gripe.
Everything I post, I post with the intent to get it finished. I'm sure most other writers whose stories are left hanging do so as well, which is why the WORDING of this gripe pisses me off. However, at its core, this is a legitimate complaint.
Now if I start posting something, it's usually OUTLINED all the way through. I stop and go over the outline, trying to catch all the complications that might arise in advance and making sure the idea makes sense. USUALLY, this works.
Lately, it hasn't.
Let's look at the most recent evidence: "Sharp Edges," which has been left hanging since May '02. "The Key and the Sword," stuck and in rewrites since January '03. Both started with outlines and plans in hand, and both hit brick walls.
So for those of you wondering what the heck happened, here's my explanation. Not an excuse, but an explanation.
Sharp Edges
The idea for this crossover was actually dreamed up a good three months before I started writing and posting it. Sometime in June, watching episodes of "Witchblade" and my tapes of Buffy season five, a thought occurred to me: What if Spike and Sara met in a bar? It pretty much ballooned from there, and I started scribbling down ideas, fleshing it out into an outline, coming up with a villain, giving Spike a legitimate reason to be in New York, et cetera, et cetera. I had a fairly good outline compiled when I finally started writing and posting it in late September of 2001. I enlisted a wonderful beta who was kind enough to help me out with police procedure, and ripped into it with relish.
Problem #1: The first problem came up around January, in handling the fate of a character. One of my original characters was originally slated to die. But that presented two problems I hadn't considered: it would seriously cheapen a canon death later on in the season, and the logistics would be screwed up (how would Our Heroes find the stupid Codex, then?) So I had to deviate from that original plan, which wasn't too hard since he wound up in the hospital anyway.
Problem #2: Looking at the revised outline, I realized that events were careening towards the "everyone finds out everyone's secret" cop-out. And I did NOT want that. Ian - and by extension, Irons - could not find out about Slayers et al, only that vampires were real and that Giles and Travers were well-read in the supernatural. Jake was allowed to find out about vampires - and maybe the Slayer - but had to remain clueless about the Witchblade. I was also uncomfortable with the idea of Giles and Willow finding out about the Witchblade right away. So I had to pull back and look at the outline to figure out how to steer things to avoid that.
Problem #3: With Ethan's presence known to the reader, the question became when Giles was supposed to find out he was there, and vice versa. I wanted Ethan to meet up with Giles near the very end ("Hello, Ripper!" *punch*) - but it occurred to me, that with Ethan actively trying to screw the Boss over, it might not hurt for him to discover Giles' presence earlier.
Problem #4: I had way too much fun with the Pit and Wilson, the latter of which was supposed to be a one-shot character... but with Problem #1, I had reason to use him again later on.
Problem #5: Hand pain, hand pain, hand pain. When my wrist and shoulder troubles first flared up in March 2002, it drove me to distraction. I'm still dealing with it to an extent, but now I can deal with it - then, it was a totally new issue. And as much work as I do with my hands, you can imagine how badly it threw me off.
Problem #6: Season 6 of BtVS, with one or two notable exceptions, drove me up the wall. Completely. So much that I violated one of my principles and decided to make the crossover officially AU.
Problem #7: Things went a bit askew in the late spring of 2002, as I scrambled to find a new place to live and, unable to find a suitable roommate, settled for a suitable place - but had to stay with my grandmother for two weeks in the interim to be able to move in when it was available. (Not that this was a bad thing by any means. I just threw anything resembling routine I had out of whack.)
Problem #8: In my head, the way Dawn tied in to the villain's plans looked good - on paper, it looked ridiculously contrived. Even for me. The Boss wasn't developing properly, and the fact that the dream sequence that kicked off the story was more reminiscent of the First Evil (completely unintentional on my part) made me think there had to be more to this demon.
Problem #9: Work actually picked up. Not just busy work, real work. And lots of it.
Problem #10: I decided to start "The Key and the Sword."
And on that note, we move on to...
The Key and the Sword
Now I know some people will shake their heads at me and protest, but really - I should not have started into this one. It was one of those story ideas that takes over your brain until you write it, but that was precisely the problem: I shouldn't have touched it til "Sharp Edges" was done or well on its way to being done. But it was so persistent, so much fun, that I figured it'd actually be finished (since I had some ideas for the ending). I really should have known better.
Problem #1: The fight scenes were a pain to write, and you can TELL. I still gnash my teeth over that scene where Buffy and Giles popped in, just because it was so repetitive - and because Buffy was a little too tough. Even if there was something about Eternia (lower gravity, what have you) that allowed normal humans to pull off those stunts in the cartoon, she still would not do quite as well. And having her be a match for Teela rather than flattening her would have worked better.
Problem #2: The obligatory shadowy villains. So utterly useless. So NOT going in the rewrite. They were originally supposed to be what the Compass was there to mend - coming from in between realities - but that would have required a lot more BS than I was ready to inflict on my readers.
Problem #3: At one point, the crossover became unbalanced, leaning more towards the BtVS side of things. This wouldn't have been as problematic if the audience I was writing for wasn't largely fans of He-Man. It was getting too silly, and my handle on some of the Masters wasn't so good. (Note the conspicuous absence of Buzz-Off.)
Problem #4: The way Dawn found out Adam was He-Man? Funny as hell, but wow, what a copout.
Problem #5: It was getting too damn long. I mean, come on, they don't get to Grayskull til Chapter 13! This was not intended to be as sprawling as it became.
Problem #6: I hit total creative burnout in December 2002. In that one month, I was working on two charcoal portraits, my comic strip, the TGS story that I just could not seem to write - it all hit me at once, and took a hell of a lot out of me. I completely fried myself in terms of creativity. Which, among other things, is why 2003 has been labeled the Most Unproductive Year Ever.
Problem #7: I've discovered that I hate, hate, hate rewrites. And it doesn't help when said rewrites require nuking a chase scene you love, and when the only times I've been really getting anywhere, Real Life has intruded.
So, naturally, I'm reluctant to start anything new unless it's a short. Part of me wants to nuke all my old WIPs and start over, but... I think I'll be killed. And I don't think I've got the heart to do it.
Oh, and just because:
Full Fathom Five
"Special Case" was supposed to be one long story, but I split it into two for my sanity. This one was basically thwarted because I didn't think it through completely; in short, this one is totally my own damn fault.
Problem #1: Logistical hell. I was outlining and giving myself a headache trying to figure out where certain Space Rangers were going to be when the attack occurred, where Jason would be, where SG-1 would be and how they were split up... I actually had a good reason for Ashley and Daniel to be going for the Stargate together, but I honestly don't remember what it was.
Problem #2: Characterization. Cestria was just supposed to be acerbic but still one of the good guys - then someone planted the idea that she could be a turncoat. Which set off the demons with legitimate reasons as to WHY she would do such a thing.
Problem #3: Now and Again was cancelled in May of 2000, and all other concerns became secondary.
Again, my own damn fault. I may yank that draft off my website, because of all three of these, it's the one that wouldn't hurt if I pulled it.
And now it's 2:30, and I need to go get a flu shot.
Everything I post, I post with the intent to get it finished. I'm sure most other writers whose stories are left hanging do so as well, which is why the WORDING of this gripe pisses me off. However, at its core, this is a legitimate complaint.
Now if I start posting something, it's usually OUTLINED all the way through. I stop and go over the outline, trying to catch all the complications that might arise in advance and making sure the idea makes sense. USUALLY, this works.
Lately, it hasn't.
Let's look at the most recent evidence: "Sharp Edges," which has been left hanging since May '02. "The Key and the Sword," stuck and in rewrites since January '03. Both started with outlines and plans in hand, and both hit brick walls.
So for those of you wondering what the heck happened, here's my explanation. Not an excuse, but an explanation.
Sharp Edges
The idea for this crossover was actually dreamed up a good three months before I started writing and posting it. Sometime in June, watching episodes of "Witchblade" and my tapes of Buffy season five, a thought occurred to me: What if Spike and Sara met in a bar? It pretty much ballooned from there, and I started scribbling down ideas, fleshing it out into an outline, coming up with a villain, giving Spike a legitimate reason to be in New York, et cetera, et cetera. I had a fairly good outline compiled when I finally started writing and posting it in late September of 2001. I enlisted a wonderful beta who was kind enough to help me out with police procedure, and ripped into it with relish.
Problem #1: The first problem came up around January, in handling the fate of a character. One of my original characters was originally slated to die. But that presented two problems I hadn't considered: it would seriously cheapen a canon death later on in the season, and the logistics would be screwed up (how would Our Heroes find the stupid Codex, then?) So I had to deviate from that original plan, which wasn't too hard since he wound up in the hospital anyway.
Problem #2: Looking at the revised outline, I realized that events were careening towards the "everyone finds out everyone's secret" cop-out. And I did NOT want that. Ian - and by extension, Irons - could not find out about Slayers et al, only that vampires were real and that Giles and Travers were well-read in the supernatural. Jake was allowed to find out about vampires - and maybe the Slayer - but had to remain clueless about the Witchblade. I was also uncomfortable with the idea of Giles and Willow finding out about the Witchblade right away. So I had to pull back and look at the outline to figure out how to steer things to avoid that.
Problem #3: With Ethan's presence known to the reader, the question became when Giles was supposed to find out he was there, and vice versa. I wanted Ethan to meet up with Giles near the very end ("Hello, Ripper!" *punch*) - but it occurred to me, that with Ethan actively trying to screw the Boss over, it might not hurt for him to discover Giles' presence earlier.
Problem #4: I had way too much fun with the Pit and Wilson, the latter of which was supposed to be a one-shot character... but with Problem #1, I had reason to use him again later on.
Problem #5: Hand pain, hand pain, hand pain. When my wrist and shoulder troubles first flared up in March 2002, it drove me to distraction. I'm still dealing with it to an extent, but now I can deal with it - then, it was a totally new issue. And as much work as I do with my hands, you can imagine how badly it threw me off.
Problem #6: Season 6 of BtVS, with one or two notable exceptions, drove me up the wall. Completely. So much that I violated one of my principles and decided to make the crossover officially AU.
Problem #7: Things went a bit askew in the late spring of 2002, as I scrambled to find a new place to live and, unable to find a suitable roommate, settled for a suitable place - but had to stay with my grandmother for two weeks in the interim to be able to move in when it was available. (Not that this was a bad thing by any means. I just threw anything resembling routine I had out of whack.)
Problem #8: In my head, the way Dawn tied in to the villain's plans looked good - on paper, it looked ridiculously contrived. Even for me. The Boss wasn't developing properly, and the fact that the dream sequence that kicked off the story was more reminiscent of the First Evil (completely unintentional on my part) made me think there had to be more to this demon.
Problem #9: Work actually picked up. Not just busy work, real work. And lots of it.
Problem #10: I decided to start "The Key and the Sword."
And on that note, we move on to...
The Key and the Sword
Now I know some people will shake their heads at me and protest, but really - I should not have started into this one. It was one of those story ideas that takes over your brain until you write it, but that was precisely the problem: I shouldn't have touched it til "Sharp Edges" was done or well on its way to being done. But it was so persistent, so much fun, that I figured it'd actually be finished (since I had some ideas for the ending). I really should have known better.
Problem #1: The fight scenes were a pain to write, and you can TELL. I still gnash my teeth over that scene where Buffy and Giles popped in, just because it was so repetitive - and because Buffy was a little too tough. Even if there was something about Eternia (lower gravity, what have you) that allowed normal humans to pull off those stunts in the cartoon, she still would not do quite as well. And having her be a match for Teela rather than flattening her would have worked better.
Problem #2: The obligatory shadowy villains. So utterly useless. So NOT going in the rewrite. They were originally supposed to be what the Compass was there to mend - coming from in between realities - but that would have required a lot more BS than I was ready to inflict on my readers.
Problem #3: At one point, the crossover became unbalanced, leaning more towards the BtVS side of things. This wouldn't have been as problematic if the audience I was writing for wasn't largely fans of He-Man. It was getting too silly, and my handle on some of the Masters wasn't so good. (Note the conspicuous absence of Buzz-Off.)
Problem #4: The way Dawn found out Adam was He-Man? Funny as hell, but wow, what a copout.
Problem #5: It was getting too damn long. I mean, come on, they don't get to Grayskull til Chapter 13! This was not intended to be as sprawling as it became.
Problem #6: I hit total creative burnout in December 2002. In that one month, I was working on two charcoal portraits, my comic strip, the TGS story that I just could not seem to write - it all hit me at once, and took a hell of a lot out of me. I completely fried myself in terms of creativity. Which, among other things, is why 2003 has been labeled the Most Unproductive Year Ever.
Problem #7: I've discovered that I hate, hate, hate rewrites. And it doesn't help when said rewrites require nuking a chase scene you love, and when the only times I've been really getting anywhere, Real Life has intruded.
So, naturally, I'm reluctant to start anything new unless it's a short. Part of me wants to nuke all my old WIPs and start over, but... I think I'll be killed. And I don't think I've got the heart to do it.
Oh, and just because:
Full Fathom Five
"Special Case" was supposed to be one long story, but I split it into two for my sanity. This one was basically thwarted because I didn't think it through completely; in short, this one is totally my own damn fault.
Problem #1: Logistical hell. I was outlining and giving myself a headache trying to figure out where certain Space Rangers were going to be when the attack occurred, where Jason would be, where SG-1 would be and how they were split up... I actually had a good reason for Ashley and Daniel to be going for the Stargate together, but I honestly don't remember what it was.
Problem #2: Characterization. Cestria was just supposed to be acerbic but still one of the good guys - then someone planted the idea that she could be a turncoat. Which set off the demons with legitimate reasons as to WHY she would do such a thing.
Problem #3: Now and Again was cancelled in May of 2000, and all other concerns became secondary.
Again, my own damn fault. I may yank that draft off my website, because of all three of these, it's the one that wouldn't hurt if I pulled it.
And now it's 2:30, and I need to go get a flu shot.