writing rambles

I did fic_rush this past weekend, and I wrote over 1,000 words on a new cracky fic that I am now feeling isn't very cracky. It certainly still needs a lot of work. It was an interesting writing experiment, because I usually do a lot of self-editing while I write, but this time I turned off the editor and just wrote down whatever came to me in the hope of capturing as many funny ideas as I could. But even so, I'm not sure if there's anything truly funny or cracky in it. There's some slightly funny stuff, but slightly funny doesn't really work. I don't know; I still think there's potential in the core idea, but I don't think I've really hit on what's going to make the fic work yet.

I also need to choose a prompt for my next 50ficlets fic. I've been working on this since March, and I've done six ficlets, so only 44 to go! (Ack. This is going to take me a long time to finish, isn't it?) I'm still in a Doctor/Sarah writing mood, and so far I've written Three/Sarah, Four/Sarah and Eleven/Sarah. Seems like one of the Doctors is missing there. Who could it be . . . ?

In other writing news, I messed around with the format of an old story, Nameless, because in a review on dw_concrete the reviewer mentioned that the format might be detracting from the fic, and I agreed that the formatting didn't make much sense. But after changing it and letting it sit for a day, I decided I didn't like it and changed it back. It's weird, because on the one hand I agree that the way the fic divides things into sections makes it appear that certain things go together that aren't intended to go together, but on the other hand when I took the divisions out, I felt that the pacing then went too fast and the power of the fic was lessened. I still don't know if this is a good way to format it, but I have no better ideas, and in the end I decided to stick with the way I did it when I first wrote the thing, even though I have no justification for it other than "it feels right."

Finally, I just noticed something about my fic On the Benefits of Having an Attic. I inadvertently had Sarah write the dates in U.S. style, e.g. "January 4" instead of "4 January." No one has said anything about it, though. Is that because both styles are used in the UK, or both were used back in the early 80's, when the fic is set? Or is everyone being too nice to point it out? Bottom-line question: should I change it? What do people think?

ETA: Thanks everyone for your input on British date-writing practices! I've done a brief, completely unscientific survey of some (online versions of) British newspapers, and here are the results:

( cut because this post is getting lengthy )

writing rambles

I did fic_rush this past weekend, and I wrote over 1,000 words on a new cracky fic that I am now feeling isn't very cracky. It certainly still needs a lot of work. It was an interesting writing experiment, because I usually do a lot of self-editing while I write, but this time I turned off the editor and just wrote down whatever came to me in the hope of capturing as many funny ideas as I could. But even so, I'm not sure if there's anything truly funny or cracky in it. There's some slightly funny stuff, but slightly funny doesn't really work. I don't know; I still think there's potential in the core idea, but I don't think I've really hit on what's going to make the fic work yet.

I also need to choose a prompt for my next 50ficlets fic. I've been working on this since March, and I've done six ficlets, so only 44 to go! (Ack. This is going to take me a long time to finish, isn't it?) I'm still in a Doctor/Sarah writing mood, and so far I've written Three/Sarah, Four/Sarah and Eleven/Sarah. Seems like one of the Doctors is missing there. Who could it be . . . ?

In other writing news, I messed around with the format of an old story, Nameless, because in a review on dw_concrete the reviewer mentioned that the format might be detracting from the fic, and I agreed that the formatting didn't make much sense. But after changing it and letting it sit for a day, I decided I didn't like it and changed it back. It's weird, because on the one hand I agree that the way the fic divides things into sections makes it appear that certain things go together that aren't intended to go together, but on the other hand when I took the divisions out, I felt that the pacing then went too fast and the power of the fic was lessened. I still don't know if this is a good way to format it, but I have no better ideas, and in the end I decided to stick with the way I did it when I first wrote the thing, even though I have no justification for it other than "it feels right."

Finally, I just noticed something about my fic On the Benefits of Having an Attic. I inadvertently had Sarah write the dates in U.S. style, e.g. "January 4" instead of "4 January." No one has said anything about it, though. Is that because both styles are used in the UK, or both were used back in the early 80's, when the fic is set? Or is everyone being too nice to point it out? Bottom-line question: should I change it? What do people think?

ETA: Thanks everyone for your input on British date-writing practices! I've done a brief, completely unscientific survey of some (online versions of) British newspapers, and here are the results:

( cut because this post is getting lengthy )