![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Mez is Metaing
Dec. 28th, 2007 11:56 amI've been reading ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
metafandom for about six months now. It's quite interesting, especially from a writing perspective.
One thing that tends to come up quite often is drabbles: 100 word pieces of fiction. I've read essay after essay talking about how brilliant drabbles are, how challenging they are, and how much they improve your writing. And I understood it. Theoretically. As an abstract concept.
Well, I have just finished a piece of fanfic, in 28 drabbles. And I can now say, with complete confidence, that writing drabble is one of the toughest, most intense activities that a writer could possibly contemplate. They are insane!
Seriously! I have 28 drabbles, and 40 pages of notes. Over the last month I have analysed sentences, and even just single words, trying to find the perfect way to express what I'm saying. I have rewritten, and rewritten, ripped up several drafts and started over from scratch, analysed story arcs, character motivations, and foreshadowing, written titles, rewritten titles, read episode transcripts, watched episodes and taken notes on facial expressions, and bookmarked a thesaurus online.
I am exhausted!
If I ever become an english teacher, and a student hands me a piece of creative writing, I will hand it back and say "cut it down to half the size, and then bring it back to me". Having to get rid of words polishes your writing more than anything else could.
metafandom for about six months now. It's quite interesting, especially from a writing perspective.One thing that tends to come up quite often is drabbles: 100 word pieces of fiction. I've read essay after essay talking about how brilliant drabbles are, how challenging they are, and how much they improve your writing. And I understood it. Theoretically. As an abstract concept.
Well, I have just finished a piece of fanfic, in 28 drabbles. And I can now say, with complete confidence, that writing drabble is one of the toughest, most intense activities that a writer could possibly contemplate. They are insane!
Seriously! I have 28 drabbles, and 40 pages of notes. Over the last month I have analysed sentences, and even just single words, trying to find the perfect way to express what I'm saying. I have rewritten, and rewritten, ripped up several drafts and started over from scratch, analysed story arcs, character motivations, and foreshadowing, written titles, rewritten titles, read episode transcripts, watched episodes and taken notes on facial expressions, and bookmarked a thesaurus online.
I am exhausted!
If I ever become an english teacher, and a student hands me a piece of creative writing, I will hand it back and say "cut it down to half the size, and then bring it back to me". Having to get rid of words polishes your writing more than anything else could.
