What I Write in What Order and Why

[scribblemyname]

I had some private conversation recently about a character of mine who has appeared in a significant role through various ficlets but only in snippets and scatterings and primarily when feeling playful or trying to keep things light, which en brief, led said conversant to not particularly like the character because they felt shallow.

It made me really think about it. I have deliberately put off writing the stories where this character gets full development—even though they were linchpin pieces for the entire series—for very particular, but entirely subconscious reasons. Today, I realized why.

A long time ago, I talked about how I was an immersion writer. I know that about myself and when I'm galvanizing my output, I start prioritizing fics. I don't tend to like shifting mindset, and perhaps that's exactly why I'm not burrowing deeply enough into Niko's psyche for "Everything is Blood," because it would shift my mindset from the Kingdoms & Thorn post-operative mindset I've been needing to stay in to finish this collection into the operative mindset, which I need to do, but not just yet.

When a new story comes to me or some real depth of understanding on a story I've got on the docket, but not on the table, I tend to put it off if it doesn't fit with the mindset I'm buried in. Sometimes, I'll be writing and realize I need to know something and instantly will shift gears to write the piece of information I need, then finished with the story, get what I want out of it, then dive back into the story I wrote it for.

The character that I haven't really written is in the Kingdoms & Thorn storyworld, but he's not an operative. He's never been an operative. Digging into his mental space throws me out of Rachelle, Ashen, Red Wolf, Shift, Cate, and Justus—all characters I'm trying to plow out some serious fic for. But I can do it. I know his mental space. I know his character so much that I didn't even catch the lack of depth in his portrayal in the few ficlets I'd dropped him into.

But I wrote full-on in the mindset of another non-operative in that world when I wrote "Acceptable Cost." Why? Because I needed the background on healers and the medical system in Kishet for "Dowse and Bleed" and I needed the background on Alaine and her family for "Collateral Damage"—both of which are linchpin fics entirely within the post-operative mindset. They're focus pieces for me, so I went ahead and wrote Alaine, stemming from the original snippet I gave her in the first draft of the story from inferno and Mira's commentary on Alaine in "Collateral Damage" as it stands so far.

But I didn't explain anything. I wrote the incident, her mindset, her heart, her experience, then stopped. It was a worldbuilding piece, and I was okay with keeping it as that. The other character's stories aren't worldbuilding pieces—they are character studies, deeply interrogative of setting and history, etc. They are bona fide linchpins.

Do you write multiple projects at once? How do you prioritize them?

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Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

I actually find I do better in juggling multiple projects if I have different types of characters to work with. I don't do well writing two characters that are too alike at the same time. I feel like I lose them in the process. So I keep my worlds separate. I can flip between scifi and historical mystery with more ease than I can two historical mysteries or two mysteries. Sci fi can be a little more flexible because I have unique pieces to each world. The abilities that certain characters have to do not overlap and their worlds are separate. Where I struggle is when I get two characters that are too alike. A jaded former covert operative and an ex-military federal agent bleed together too much for me to handle. I can't spent too much time in one type of mindset.

I can't work on only one story at once. I need to switch to keep myself motivated when I get stuck or when I am going through a difficult part of the story or just as a "cleanse." I have one serial at the moment, and that one is technically the priority because it has a deadline. Sort of. I find that having one story that is "work" allows me to have some "guilty pleasure" writing on the others. There tends to be one that is going really well and has more inspiration/demand than the others, so that one is usually pushed to the lower priority, as a "reward" for doing the one that is more "work."

That, of course, makes it sound like I'm tricking myself, and I'm not. I like writing, I like all the stories I'm working on currently, and usually I keep them even in order (one scene of this one, then a scene of that one, and lastly one from the other) but that switches depending on time, inspiration, and if I have a started version on a different computer/piece of paper/my phone.

Now that I've talked about it, I'm not so sure my process makes much sense.

[scribblemyname]

Methinks your process makes more sense than mine!

I also get bleed if the characters themselves are too similar. Mostly, I like to work in a single group though. For example, writing Shift and Rachelle or Cate at the same time is a bad, bad, bad idea, but Rachelle and Ashen are so different in temperament/personality that I can handle sandwiching them. But yes, yes, yes. That bleed.

I'm the same way about can't work on only one, though I suspect it's more the I can't stop writing when I'm stuck and I can't stop the popcorn kittens, so I keep snippeting even when I'm writing. I think it's smart the way you arrange yours. It's a good way to keep a flow up and stay disciplined. Maybe that's why your output is so much better than mine! :le sigh: I suppose we can't all be so organized.

I really like your method. I think it works. And it's way better than some of those writers of the classics who had to write in the tub or standing up or could only write a single sentence some days. I'm more of a slog it, then flow kinda writer myself.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

Mine developed in part because I can't stop multitasking and am a bad window flipper when I'm on the computer, so that's a part of it, plus the endless stream of new ideas that never stops.

After working with Moira, Occie, Enya, and even Terra, I am very leery of working with the same mindset again. They all grew up the same, have similar issues, and sometimes I'm not sure they seem as distinct as they should be.

That bleed... It is a kind of brutal, unhelpful thing.

I need more than one story, am a compulsive writer, and so rotating just became necessary. That way I can always have something to work on even if I'm stuck or away from where I left off or being bombarded by a new thought that needs to get written down before I forget it.

I never quite managed working in the bathtub, though I used to resent showers and sleep taking me away from writing (now most of the time, that sort of feeling is reserved for my job, though.) I have written standing up, but it's better if I do that to do it on my phone. I usually count a day with only a sentence as a failure of a day.

Then again, I have the dismaying knowledge of what I can write in a day to compete with, and a sentence doesn't come close to that.

[scribblemyname]

1 sentence/day = epic fail

I hear ya, sister!

I left off in Fire and Water at "On the Run." At that point, all the characters were incredibly distinct.

I do hope I've managed as well with my own.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

Of course, days without writing are worse.

*shudders*

Well, I hope they stayed that way all the way through the other three/start of the fourth. It's hard for me to know anymore. Even with rereading them all for edits.

I think the team members seem distinct, but then they usually have the advantage of only being in their own snippets. I've only seen Rachelle with Cate once, and I can't remember any with Shift and either of them at the moment...

[scribblemyname]

Remember that bit about writing them together? :grins: I'll get around to it. Eventually. Maybe.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sure. :P