Check-In Post #4

[slashmarks]

Week three is now complete! Each week, I'll make a new check-in post with a few optional discussion questions. You can use this post to update us on our progress, complain, celebrate, or talk to other participants! Also feel free to discuss each week's questions in our discord server.

Comment to share how your week went!

Optional Discussion Questions

1. Do you stop to do research or edit mid-story, or do you save that for when a draft is complete?

2. Artists: is your work process entirely digital, entirely traditional, or both?

3. Is there a particular part of a story (beginning, middle, action scenes, etc) that you tend to really struggle with? Has this changed over your time as a writer/artist?

Comments

[sansigma]

1. Do you stop to do research or edit mid-story, or do you save that for when a draft is complete?

English is not my first language so I often have to look up words as I write, but other than that I try not to stop in the middle of an actual writing session to do research. The lines can be fuzzy, though – yesterday I went looking for a simple translation of the Swedish word "följe" and ended up at a webpage about itinerant courts during the mediaeval period. Super interesting! Not really relevant to the story I'm writing!

I definitely do research during the writing period, though. Soon I'll have to look up different fancy fabrics that oldtimey fantasy dresses could be made of, for example.

And when it comes to editing, I've never been able to not constantly edit. If I need to reread an earlier part of the story to check on something, I will definitely tinker with it.

3. Is there a particular part of a story (beginning, middle, action scenes, etc) that you tend to really struggle with? Has this changed over your time as a writer/artist?

I'm not great at dialogue. I think I have gotten better, mostly thanks to writing more fic for canons where I can actually hear the characters speak (rather than mostly writing for book canons). That way I practised emulating specific speaking quirks and natural word flow.

I've also been criticised for leaving my stories too unresolved, and had betas badger me to add extra scenes to the end. Partly I think this is a matter of taste, but I have to admit that the stories where I added to the resolution actually were the better for it. I guess I sometimes stop writing when I think it's obvious where things are going.