Ficathon progress, woo and hoo!

[fignewton]

So, my sg1teamficathon story went off to my marvelous beta. I told randomfreshink that the plot wasn't supposed to be there, and she would probably want to cut out lots of boring scenes. But does she get the hint? Noooooooo. Instead, she asked for more!

Silly beta. :)

On the other hand? Random has an incredible talent for spotting the potential in a story and helping the author make it work. So thanks, Random - I think this one is going to be a lot of fun!

Mind you, it's half a ficzilla in length. In fact, if you combine it with the other ficathon story - the one for sg_ep_ficathon, which I have thankfully thrown in Random's direction - it comes out to more or less the same length as my original ficzilla.

Perhaps I should stay away from ficathons for a while. Learn how to drabble. :)

How about you, teamy goodness flisters? How's your ficathon coming? Pump me for sympathy or pat yourself on the back right here!

Comments

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

But your ficzilla was AWESOME! Therefore, I am entirely in support of you doing more ficathons if it means we get more fantastic stories. (though I do love those short little fics too - there is something awesome about the potential for exploration that commentfic gives you).

As for me...I HAVE WORDS! On Wednesday, all of a sudden, there were WORDS! And they aren't even all that bad, I think. I just need to polish a bit and track down a second beta because beanpot is awesome but helped me plan the story and I need to ensure my very confusing way of writing it makes sense to someone who isn't prepared to expect it. I also have to hope my recipient is okay that the "teamfic" became, oh, 66% Sam, 20% Daniel, 11% Jack and 13% Teal'c...

(I HAVE WORDS! I cannot tell you how exciting it was when the words finally showed up)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, WORDS! Yep, definitely an improvement to "vague idea floating around the ether," or even "I know this one scene will show up somewhere but I have no idea why or how or wherefore."

So, yay!

I was a little worried about Sam being backgrounded, because the story ended up mostly in Jack's voice, which is a first for me. But I think she's showcased nicely. And she handwaves the solution to save the day at the end, AND she picks up some nice doodads, so it's all good. :)

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Yep. The vague idea floated in the ether for nearly two months and then rydra_wong poked my brain just right and BAM, it all fell out in this crazy jumble of scenes.

YAY! WORDS!

Jack voice is an adventure, isn't it? And, yeah, that was similar to my problem - I wanted to stay entire in Sam's PoV and she spends most of my story being, well, very confused, and so it was hard to give the other characters as much prominence as I would if Sam were lucid or I rotated PoVs or was more of a removed narrator. But it's how the story wanted to be. I gave all of them something important though.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Well, Sam is often happy with doodads and yay for solution handwaves!

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Yay for awesome betas!

I've just sent mine off to beta! Yay! It's 18,500 words give or take a hundred so far. I'm hoping my beta will tell me where to cut and/or streamline, but that usually doesn't happen (she's like random in that way, heh).

Luckily, when I still had it half written, I had gotten an opinion on wip from redbyrd_sgfic who is very good at challenging me. Whether I followed her advice well enough to realize the story's potential is another thing, but I did try. She recommended more of a team character arc, so I've got that. And I think I've tied the action points together into a plot without too many tangents (I'm so bad at tangents...see "18,500 words"). LOL

Teal'c's planned shining moment in a scene turned into a subplot for the whole fic. I hope my recipient doesn't mind, but...who's to argue with Teal'c when he wants something?

It's not overly Teal'c central though. I ended up alternating povs amongst the team, and they all wanted to talk a lot. Actually, it's weird. The POVs ended up bookending each other. Sam-Daniel-Jack-Teal'c-Secondary Char-Teal'c-Jack-Daniel-Sam. I hadn't planned it that way, I just realized it after I got done editing.

But at least, I have a whole story. Beginning, middle, and end.

The ep ficathon sounded intriguing, but I've had a policy of only one at a time and team was the priority.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. Ficzilla territory!

I keep finding that the characters aren't particularly interested in what I planned to write. It's more a matter of my scribing what they're doing, sometimes.

And, of course, Teal'c always rocks. :)

The sign-up for the ep ficathon was long before the team ficathon. It's entirely accidental that they ended up due within a day of each other!

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Not entirely accidental, I remember glancing and knowing the team one was coming up. And, I'm trying to challenge myself not to write missing scenes, since a lot of my fic is so episode based already.

I'll be happy to read the stories though. Heh.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, who remembers what was when any more? The important thing is more fic! :)

The big thing, for me, is writing plotlines that aren't actually episode-based. This ficathon will be my second one and I'm actually pretty surprised at how well I think it came out.

But it's interesting that you see ep-based as something... less. I love ep-based fics. I love original storylines, too, natch. But I'm still intrigued by the attitude.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

But it's interesting that you see ep-based as something... less. I love ep-based fics. I love original storylines, too, natch. But I'm still intrigued by the attitude.

EEEP! I don't see it as something less. Not at all. It's my favorite kind to read and write...exploring more of what is seen onscreen.

I have found that attitude, though (and encountered it by more one than one person who says "you write good stories, too bad it's all episode based"). Missing scene stories get a bad rap, but I find the most amazing stories can be when a writer can take a story that everyone who's watched the show knows, and keep those same facts of canon intact, but still be able to make it fresh, unique, or a twist on perspective. I love that as a challenge as a writer, and I revel in it as a reader.

I have inspiration enough from the episodes to have a huge WIP list already.

But for me, fanfic writing is also meant to be a way to practice all my writing skills, and if I'm using the episodes themselves, then I have the basic outline and story structure/chronology already set up. The episodes are my primary inspiration (as my huge WIP list and current stories can attest), but where else can I grab inspiration? I want to stretch my own outlining and brainstorming skills. That's really what I meant.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

How odd to get that reaction from readers. Both ep tag and ep independent fics are capable of being amazingly written or wincingly bad.

I do understand what you mean about practicing your writing skills, though! SG-1 my first fandom in which I've created actual plots of any length. So, yes. And sorry for the misunderstanding. :)

[redbyrd-sgfic.livejournal.com]

For me a lot of the question is whether the episode-based fic is just a scene or whether it actually has a story arc of it's own. I tend not to be able to regard a fic as *finished* if it doesn't have an internal arc of it's own, even if it's inseparably dependent on the inspiring episode. And yet almost everything I do is episode based. But I often quite enjoy fics that really are just missing scenes- I just don't think that way myself.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

And I love that you do that. We discussed this once, I think: how a story may take place within an ep, but the story isn't about the ep. Those are the best kind, yes, but regular missing scene/ep tags have their charm, too.

Hey, if it's gen? And there's teamy goodness involved, or even one of my favorite guys? You know I'm going to like it. :)

[kellifer-fic.livejournal.com]

I am dooooooone... *aeroplane arms*

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Wheeeee!!!! :)

[redbyrd-sgfic.livejournal.com]

Oh, no- why bother drabbling? We really enjoy your longer fics. You should write more. Have you considered a novel?

*chuckles evilly*

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Heh. Can't imagine where that attitude comes from... :)

(And the novel - at least, the one I'm editing at the moment - is sitting on my hard drive, and glaring at me. Why can't RL writing be as much fun as fanfic?]