#secondwednesday

i really like how relaxing it is + since i’m a stem student, i get the chance to do art under the pretense of being productive (i also prefer the way i lay out planning more than most planner styles, except maybe the mossery planner)

Hi~!!! *waves shyly and tries not to hyperventilate from excitement* I’ve been doing pretty well. It’s been a busy busy summer so far!

Since I’ve already talked a bit about what I’d like readers to learn from reading El cisne here, I can talk about what I have learned from writing it (#15). And the answer is, honestly, a lot.

Without a doubt, El cisne is the most challenging project I’ve undertaken as a writer. I know that sounds odd for a fic rather than an original work. Personally, I always find it stressful when working with any sort of canon. and especially for RPF where the canon is, in fact, real actual people, the stakes to “strike the right tone” are so much higher. The biggest takeaways I’ve gleaned so far:

1) To let characterization dictate the plot, rather than the other way around. There’s a saying that writers fall into two camps when it comes to writing style: writing driven by character and writing driven by plot. I’m definitely more of a plot-driven writer. Writing is like setting up a Rube Goldberg machine where dramatic plot twists, high action, caught in a pinch moments get characters from point A to point B. But this was the wrong approach for El cisne, which despite its slower than snail speed romantic subplot, is a story about relationships. Sometimes I got so caught up in the planning that I would be forcing a link between events rather superficially that I risked OOC behavior; once I let characters organically interact with one another, things like conflict or rising tension worked their way without much deliberating. 

2) Dialogue is a lot harder than it looks. I always thought I had an ear for dialogue until I started writing El cisne. The first few chapters weren’t so bad. Yuzuru and Javi had minimal contact and their conversations were scarcely more than a few lines per competition. But then Yuzuru moved to Toronto. Uh oh. Suddenly, I had two people in the room that had to actually communicate something more than snark. Two people with a significant language barrier. ????? How the hell do I do this??? I’d write a few lines of dialogue only to throw in the towel and cower behind a wall of narration. (A wall swiftly kicked down by my beta XD). I can’t say that I’ve learned how to do it yet without significant revising, but I have learned that dialogue, which is so quick and easy to read, is really difficult to write.

3) The importance of small, quiet moments. I have an unhealthy fondness for dramatic sweeping gestures. (Side-effect of 20+ years of watching hot-blooded shonen anime). Declarations of true love! Dramatic speeches! Why can’t they just hold hands/hug/kiss already?? But friendships aren’t built in a day, and neither are relationships. Smaller moments could be just as impactful if not more than grand sweeping gestures. Many of the fan favorite scenes that appear in the 2012-13 season are toned down from ahem, wilder scenes. Did I have Yuzu dramatically declare his goals for Sochi from atop a large ocean rock on the beach at some point lololololol you didn’t see anything. El cisne has been and continues to be an exercise in patience and restraint.