The first draft is done. I'm not looking forward to editing. I loathe editing. Ugh.

But the draft is done, yay!

Yay for a first draft!

I'm not there yet. I am starting to feel that slightly freaked-out feeling of, "Oh, crap, am I going to be do done on time?" even as I find myself choosing to be a couch potato and dither around and not write. (My main accomplishment is just pondering the story and brainstorming ideas for tying together all my loose plot threads.)

*shakes pompoms*

It goes rather well, even with a week with no writing at all. I've almost finished the second chapter, which leaves the third chapter to write (which is about 10k). Hopefully, I'll be finished by mid-June which would leave me time to edit and possibly send it to a beta.

It's better now, but I've had to change part of the plot and I'm not entirely happy with what I came up with. I just have to finish writing to edit it.

I have been slacking this week on the 16 fics I decided to finish, but I at least got my snippets in and sorted, I've got maybe two close to finishing (like, by the end of next week I hope), so I'm happy with that.

I passed the 4K mark today. The story may go a bit longer than I anticipated, but I still have time so I'm not panicking yet.

Submitted my snippets, barely, but one thing to cross off the list :D

I had no idea this was a thing. Why is this not on LJ too?

Anyway.

I started working on my fic finally and I remembered why I had stopped in the first place. I'm so stuck. It is an important scene and I have no idea how to make it in character.
If I could get past this scene, I'd be doing great! I know what I want to have happen after this!
I just... *headdesk*

I'm just gonna encourage you to skip the bit where you're stuck and keep writing on to the next piece? Maybe the trajectory moving forward will help inform how the scene goes when you come back to it, or you can address it in a different way like in someone's memory or people talking about it.

That's what I'm going to say with my complete lack of knowledge of the situation!

::shakes pom-poms::

Thank you, I'm going to try that. It will be difficult because i'm a very linear writer. If it gets this fic written though...

Can you literally skip over the stuck bit and then reveal the information later? (I had a scene I was unmotivated to write and I decided to cut directly to the main character remembering it after the fact. Granted it wasn't that important of a scene so I could get away with that.) If the struggle is that it doesn't feel in character, that's important, but... I don't know, try to imagine the character explaining why they would do the thing. If you can come up with the right rationalization, it could make the story even better.

No. It has to be included because it is a turning point in Detective Benson's crisis. It is not an exposition scene, but one where she finally comes to realize that she is in a very bad, dark place. I think, however, that I might be able to change who she has the scene with? Maybe that is the problem.
Thanks! You may have helped!

Yay!

I literally always end up writing "the difficult scene" last. Even though they tend to be closer to the beginning of the fic. When everything else is written and this is the only thing that stops you from posting, it somehow becomes easier to just get it done! :)

I'm a very linear writer, so I always go in order. I'm thinking though that if my new idea doesn't work, I might have to do this. Anything to get this fic written!

Submitted my snippets! Barely! With 10 min to spare. (I hope I've got my time zones right)

Kinda feel like they are terrible and entirely the wrong ones and the summary literally is non existent. Seriously doubt it would attract any art!

On the other hand, I didn't think I'd submit it at all. So ithat's a positive. And doing this excercise made me look at some scenes further down the line that I am actually really excited about. And step away from the difficult first part that I am stuck on. Feel a bit better about my story now.

Off to bed now - it's past 3am where I am. :)))

I feel you with the art worries. I'm wondering very much if there's anyone from my fandom who will even be looking at this challenge. But the really nice thing about fic is that different stuff appeals to different peeps so even if you don't feel solid about your snippets, someone else can find them inspiring.

You are not alone in writing Merlin fic! :D If you ever wanna chat Merlin - hit me up!

And, believe it or not, there's still a fairly active fandom (well, for a show that ended several years ago). It's less visible on LJ these days, and more prevalent on Tumblr, but there's a great comm: Merlin-Writers https://merlin-writers.livejournal.com/ that's fairly active. They also have a chat which is pretty well utilized and people are great about being supportive. There's also Merlin_Forever that runs a regular weekly rewatch. :)

There are definitely active fanartists in Merlin as well - I'll be posting at that comm when WIPBB Art Claims go up!

Plus, there are still several regular fests/exchanges/bangs that happen for Merlin every year. (My WIPBB Fic is one I didn't finish for a Merlin BB). I know of After_Camlann (Merlin BB which is going on right now), Merlin Holidays (holiday exchange), Merlin Reverse Bang, Merlin Remix, Merlin_Canon Fest (starting soon) and... a few others.

Thank you so much! That is very kind!

I did hope / know that Merlin fandom was still rolling along somewhere, but I'm so disoriented coming back after a long absence that I didn't even know where to start looking. Thank you for the directions! And I'd love to talk Merlin with you sometime. :)

Here's some vintage whine... it's been so long since I've done real-ass fannish activity that I no longer remember how!

Also there's the other, newer WIP that keeps shoving its way in and wants my attention. And it has gained a lot more words than the one I'm supposed to be working on. But at least I am still moving slowly forward and not frozen — that makes a huge change from the last few years.

One scene left to go - but the whole thing is too short! And I don't really want to pad it out just for the sake of word count...

This nearly always happens to me with this challenge because my natural fic length is about 5k.

I haven't written for almost nine months and I'm feeling pretty rusty. I can only write in the summertime, but the start-up is so hard. Ugh. My brain really has to shift into gear to get this thing going. I stalled in my re-reading of what I already have because it seems overwhelming to get back into the swing of the story...

Sigh. Glad to have a place to whine. Perhaps later, as a reward, wine... :)

Argg, this place doesn't want to me sign in. Apparently it's heard I'm loyal to LJ. Anyhow, I'm here to whine.

Opinion time, does it turn you, as readers, off if a story is mostly gen, but somewhere at the 3/4 line a bit of a ship begins to develop? Then, by the end, it's not really fully developed, but there are some sparks, a hint that if these two were to meet under different circumstances they might have been a couple?

Yes and no. If the ship takes over the story then yes, I most definitely mind. If the ship remains subtle enough that I could ignore it if I don't like it, or appreciate it if I do, then I don't mind.

I've written probably 2/3 of the words I think the finished piece will be but these last scenes feel like they're taking so much effort.