professional opinions...

Thursday, August 7, 2008 2:27 AM

Well folks, been off the site for a while. Been most joyously unemployed, yay! Lordy, I wish this could last. Not that I'm loafing. I've been up at 6 or 7 everyday, generally working much more than 9 to 5 on my house and getting ready for my new job. But I'm not stuck in a cubicle at any point in the day, so color me happy!

Also, I'm taking a novel writing class. I'm developing an original idea, and I've gotten good feedback on it. I've got the basics of the plot set out, but I'm not real sure how I'm going to present it. For instance - many of the other writers in the class use first person, and I've been playing with that. It does kind of stick me with one character, so I'm not sure if I want to develop too much in that direction. Yep, there's a long way to go!

So, the first week of the class I was straight up about my writing history and told them I came from fanfic. Of course, none of them had any idea what that is - in fact, no one in the class is even into sci-fi. There were a few *oh shit* looks when I told them my genre LOL!

Which makes it especially cool that I believe I'm winning them over. I don't think they've encountered the kind of character driven sci-fi that Joss inspires. Because - although my world and my plot are vastly different from Joss's, I'm following his lead of using characters that real people can relate to, and giving them lives that feel relevant, even if the worlds they live in are very different from ours.

Which is to say that this fanfic thing has been wonderful. I honestly wasn't sure if I was just a hack that would get torn up when I encountered "real life" writers. (The class includes published novelists and long time columnists. And hell - let me plug the teacher. She wrote this: http://www.toxicfeedback.com/ and she's absolutely wonderful.) They've had constructive criticisms for me, but many positive things to say too. They seem almost surprised that they can connect to the things I write, that amid the bizarre settings there are human relationships and emotions and darkness as well as humor.

So, I'm thinking that I learned well from my fellow Firefly ficcers, and especially from my lovely betas. I can't imagine going into this class without the experience I've gained through fanfic.

The interesting stuff will come in the last class tomorrow night. Because I have been completely overwhelmed with house projects and new job prep, I didn't have more original fiction prepared to submit last week. I turned in the first chapter of Back Stories Book 3 instead. These poor people - it's a dense chapter for those who HAVE read the first two books, so I don't know how folks who don't even know Firefly will manage! Anyhow, I'll be getting their feedback tomorrow. So, when I finally get around to posting it, you'll have a professionally reviewed bit of fic to peruse LOL!

BTW: I'm also hoping to convince a few classmates to go out and watch the series... We'll see how that goes!

COMMENTS: 5

Back to Blog Roll