happydalek (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
happydalek) wrote2007-05-16 09:07 pm
happydalek) wrote2007-05-16 09:07 pm
Entry tags:
Done!!1!
So I finished the first draft of Fission today. 22 parts, 98 pages, and a slender 40,328 words! Almost NaNoWriMo-worthy. And by the time I get through revising, editing and rewriting, it might just hit the 50,000-word mark. But I don't plan to do any of that for a good while, yet. I already did some minor editing to the manuscript version on my computer (reorganizing some of the sections, adding some bridging material between "cliffhangers," that sort of thing) and made a nifty little title page with a picture and everything, but that's as far as I plan to go with it for the moment.
It's weird. I'm basically done, but I don't have that swelling sense of accomplishment that normally comes along with it. Maybe it's because I know I have to clean it up more. Maybe it's because I'm not entirely happy with the ending I put on it. Maybe it's because The Six Doctors is still a frickin' huge dead albatross around my neck that I promised myself I would get done once Fission was completed.
It's probably a combination of the latter two. I had the ending to Fission figured out almost from the start, but like any piece of fiction, the story evolved and changed as I wrote it, yet I insisted on shoe-horning my original ending onto it. Trouble is, I don't know how else to end it without adding substantially more content and Nyssa-angst, and I think the story has quite enough of that as it is. Especially considering it was supposed to be a short story without any Nyssa-angst at all! *Sigh*
Then there's The Six Doctors. I hate that damn thing. I really do. I started it almost a year ago and it's been tormenting me ever since. The plot keeps changing week-to-week, I keep waffling on what elements to include and which to skip or eliminate entirely, and the whole time in the back of my mind I'm petrified that my central character is naught but a well-disguised Mary Sue. One thing's for sure, I never should have started posting it on Teaspoon until I had more of it at least plotted out. Because now I'm seriously regretting including the Daleks and killing Miranda. The Daleks worked a treat two years ago before Rob Shearman's "Dalek" aired and screwed me, and now I'm left scrambling for some way to have my cake and eat it too. I'm going to end up backpedaling on the whole Dalek thing, and while some may look at that and go "Ooh, plot twist!" I'm bashing my head in with my Series One boxset, because now I have tons more material to cover just to make my ducks all line up again.
My first mistake was deciding to write an epic Multi-Doctor story as my first real foray into fanfiction. Definitely bit off more than I can chew there. But, to show I'm no quitter, I'm going to forge ahead with my blighted novel and finish it if it kills me. I set myself the goal of completing Fission by the end of term, and by and large, I met that goal (okay, I dribbled over by a week, but still, that's the best I've done). So I plan to have The Six Doctors done and dusted by the end of summer. For the first summer in four years, I have no job and no classes (for May and June, at least). The timing will never be better.
Then maybe when I'm done with The Six Doctors I can start working on my Fission sequel (tentatively titled Fusion. Get it? Get it?!), or that Torchwood fic that's been stewing in my brain for several months now. Of course, there's also Mirrors of Time, which was my original origins story for Miranda and the first in my Miranda-Ninth Doctor series. The problem with doing Mirrors is that I'd then feel obligated to continue with the second story, which is a direct sequel entitled Night of the Metallines. The pro side of the Miranda series is that by and large I've got most of the stories in her first season thoroughly plotted. Then again, maybe I could also decide to take a break from fanfic altogether [gasp!] and revive one of my original works that never got done.
Oh, the possibilities!
It's probably a combination of the latter two. I had the ending to Fission figured out almost from the start, but like any piece of fiction, the story evolved and changed as I wrote it, yet I insisted on shoe-horning my original ending onto it. Trouble is, I don't know how else to end it without adding substantially more content and Nyssa-angst, and I think the story has quite enough of that as it is. Especially considering it was supposed to be a short story without any Nyssa-angst at all! *Sigh*
Then there's The Six Doctors. I hate that damn thing. I really do. I started it almost a year ago and it's been tormenting me ever since. The plot keeps changing week-to-week, I keep waffling on what elements to include and which to skip or eliminate entirely, and the whole time in the back of my mind I'm petrified that my central character is naught but a well-disguised Mary Sue. One thing's for sure, I never should have started posting it on Teaspoon until I had more of it at least plotted out. Because now I'm seriously regretting including the Daleks and killing Miranda. The Daleks worked a treat two years ago before Rob Shearman's "Dalek" aired and screwed me, and now I'm left scrambling for some way to have my cake and eat it too. I'm going to end up backpedaling on the whole Dalek thing, and while some may look at that and go "Ooh, plot twist!" I'm bashing my head in with my Series One boxset, because now I have tons more material to cover just to make my ducks all line up again.
My first mistake was deciding to write an epic Multi-Doctor story as my first real foray into fanfiction. Definitely bit off more than I can chew there. But, to show I'm no quitter, I'm going to forge ahead with my blighted novel and finish it if it kills me. I set myself the goal of completing Fission by the end of term, and by and large, I met that goal (okay, I dribbled over by a week, but still, that's the best I've done). So I plan to have The Six Doctors done and dusted by the end of summer. For the first summer in four years, I have no job and no classes (for May and June, at least). The timing will never be better.
Then maybe when I'm done with The Six Doctors I can start working on my Fission sequel (tentatively titled Fusion. Get it? Get it?!), or that Torchwood fic that's been stewing in my brain for several months now. Of course, there's also Mirrors of Time, which was my original origins story for Miranda and the first in my Miranda-Ninth Doctor series. The problem with doing Mirrors is that I'd then feel obligated to continue with the second story, which is a direct sequel entitled Night of the Metallines. The pro side of the Miranda series is that by and large I've got most of the stories in her first season thoroughly plotted. Then again, maybe I could also decide to take a break from fanfic altogether [gasp!] and revive one of my original works that never got done.
Oh, the possibilities!