mugenmine: mildly shameless...

Sometimes, in fandom, we just want to write id-tastic fic that rolls around in tropes that might be viewed as problematic. But we don’t want to address the problematic side of things in this particular fanwork; we just want to roll around and wallow.

It is considered courteous to give readers a heads-up via use of AO3 tags. I propose a tag that signals that a given fanwork is for rolling around, not giving a measured evaluation of anything. The MCU has carved out a space for this sort of fic with the “HYDRA Trash Party” tag, for which I commend them. Trash Party is a bit too specific to cover all of the ground I’m thinking of here, though; I propose “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat.”

For those of you not familiar with Arrested Development, Michael Bluth finds a paper bag in the freezer labeled “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat.” He opens the bag, finds a dead dove, and reacts as follows:

[gif of a white man saying “I don’t know what I expected” in a deadpan manner]

The “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat” tag would essentially be a “what it says on the tin” metatag, indicating “you see the tropes and concepts tagged here? they are going to appear in this fic. exactly as said. there will not necessarily be any subversion, authorial commentary condemning problematic aspects, or meditation on potential harm. this fic contains dead dove. if you proceed, you should expect to encounter it.”

Two days ago I finished the zero draft of a novel. It's about 53K and I wrote it in about six months by sticking to the 300 words a day thing. It's a trash heap of word chaos, and "finishing" it was akin to crashing a plane into the ground, but I'm still kind of floored that stringing small amounts of words on a page and forcing myself to write through a void of a middle actually gets things done. (Not a clean method mind you, I wrote 4 versions of chapter 11 until one stuck, but it still worked, albeit kind of arduously.)

After I finished the draft I panicked a bit, cause like, I didn't want to break the streak (289 days and counting) but I don't have another thing ready enough I can dive right into. So I've decided to draft a rough story outline for what I want to do next. It's a standalone fantasy/romance type thing, but there's a huge hole in the middle of it and I'm afraid to start it without knowing what needs to be there (I so suck at middles) so now my 300 a day is just writing what happens in the story. Kind of like a very robust outline. Lore, backstory, lead up, whatever informs the story and where it needs to go is going on the page. It's even looser writing than before which makes getting the words down much easier. But I feel like this will really give me a fighting chance to get through the next book.

Yr "robust outline" sounds a lot like a film treatment. Have you ever read one? It's basically like the prose translation of what we see/hear onscreen. Minimal stage or camera direction, more just "Jesse is a 31 year old guy who overcame a rough background and now owns a plant store in a neighborhood that is becoming gentrified. After establishing shots of the block and building exterior on a grey morning with torrential rain, we see Jesse tending plants in the dimly-lit shop. Over his shoulder, we see vague motion through the plate glass front window, focus shifts, and outside the shop is a very rain-bedraggled man (Santos, 28, project manager at MegaGardenCo). Jesse watches him struggle with a broken umbrella he throws away in disgust, but quickly jogs over to pick out of the gutter. As Santos looks around for a more suitable place to ditch the umbrella skeleton, Jesse takes pity, unlocks the front door and invites Santos to come inside the shop and take shelter from the rain."

Well that got away from me. No, I'm not writing that "You've Got Mail" plant boutique/Home Depot gay romance unless whoever was the lit agent for that hockey thing agrees to represent the book and shop film rights.

ANYWAY.

I love any kind of non-traditional "outline." The story of the story, the notes, the scraps of dialog, the scene-saving phrase that came to you in a dream and you scribbled it in sharpie on yr forearm first thing upon waking so it didn't get lost. I find it helpful for planning and energising for writing; I hope you find yr mysterious middle!

I don’t think that’s my thing per se, but I think it is kind of a skeleton draft. Pre-zero, just the facts, mostly exposition… we’ll see as it’s kind of my first time trying it this way! I never used to be an outliner, it’s interesting how our methodology changes and adapts overtime.