Fic Challenge Question

[chomiji]

I'm sure I'm overthinking this. It's a problem I have: why let something be simple and clearcut when it can be convoluted and weirdly awful?

louiselux has set up a wonderful new community, saiyuki_time - Daytripping to the West, for timed fic challenges. The first challenge is up, and the time is 1 hour. I am excited - but I've never done a time writing challenge before.

The time is just the time I spend actually committing words to media, right?

(I feel so stupid.)

Comments

[blackcatsboon]

I should think so. Unless it specifically says in the rules that you're not allowed to, I'd say you can already have an idea and maybe even plan it a bit beforehand. But once you start actually writing the fic, that's it, you got an hour.

[chomiji]

Thanks! That's reassuring.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Please don't feel stupid - it's not that straightforward if you've never done anything like it before. The simple version is you have on hour to write something in. My usual tactic is to use most of that time to write and leave myself 10 minutes at the end to edit and spellcheck. I find it more of a challenge if you don't plan before hand, just sit down and write whatever comes.

Is that clearer? I hope so.

[chomiji]

The thing that was worrying me is that I tend to spend ages turning the story ideas over in my mind, even writing bits of dialog in my head, before I ever sit down to commit anything to a file. And I was wondering whether that was, in essence, cheating.

I rather wish I hadn't looked at the prompt already - I've been trying not to think about it, but it's the old "Don't think about a blue hippo!" - and instantly, that's all you can think of.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

*thinks about blue hippos*

It's up to you, I think. Sometimes I wait until I have an idea and then I do the writing, and sometimes I just sit down and let it come out without thinking it through at all. The second type can really be a lot of fun and afterwards I always feel pleased that I did it.

[chomiji]

Looks like I should start avoiding looking at the prompts ahead of time (which usually means "while at work") ... this will be a big challenge for your humble correspondent, who tends to subscribe to the "Life's uncertain - eat dessert first" school of self-rewards, especially with LJ during the workday!

(I'll have to pretend that the prompts are non-worksafe, or something.)

Thanks muchly!