As my current project is still in the works, I cannot yet give you feedback on the success of last month’s idea (that is, to publish a work of fan fiction to ease into publishing at all). What I can tell you is, I am enjoying it immensely.
I’ve encountered obstacles that, once they’re in front of me again, are as familiar as old friends. Inconsistent levels of detail, varying tone, conversations which don’t move the plot along as needed until the third or fourth attempt at writing them, finishing a scene and realizing I should have done it from a different point of view – each is both frustrating and invigorating.
I recognize that it seems ridiculous to start an entirely new story for my first published work; however, I have a good reason. Any time I wrote seriously enough to build a complete piece of work, I was writing too seriously to apply that to a fan fiction. This in turn meant I didn’t have a fan fiction even close to fully plotted, let alone drafted. Hence, the brand new story.
The story in question has a beginning, a middle, and an end; a few plot holes fixed (and some not yet fixed); and many thousand words more than a fortnight ago. I had hoped to double those words during the event this weekend; now I only hope the cut on my finger won’t slow me down too much. It is doing well so far. Back to the event.
First, a definition: OHHOW. I’ll put a link to them at the bottom.
From their website:
“One Hundred Hours of Writing (OHHOW) is an interactive writing event, in which we link streamers together to create a non-stop, around-the-clock, around-the-world writing adventure. It is run entirely by volunteers and for free.
OHHOW started as a way to bring writers together virtually during a time when we were isolated. It has grown into a community of streamers who share their love of writing in Weekends of Writing Wildly and One Hundred Hours of Writing events.”
And this time, it starts the same day this post goes up. Fun! I’m particularly looking forward to catching shifts when streamers I recognize from other writing groups are live. I wonder if I should add the words in this post to their wordcount….