Thoughts While Sitting on a Writer's Block

[parallax23]

I'm suffering from writer's block for Wake Me Up...  My deadline for posting the first chapter is actually for February 1, which is getting closer and closer everyday.

In the meantime, as I scramble trying to decide between rewriting the first two chapters I already have or just posting them, I've been reading some other stories in the fandom and realized that you can see traces of people's favorite stories in their own stories.  There are odd turns of phrase that come from each person, and it becomes obvious that imitation is in fact flattery. 

I first noticed the influence of favorite stories while reading someone else's story and thinking that the terminology and sentences looked too familiar to another popular story on the site.  So I decided to see if I could spot it elsewhere.  It didn't take long for me to notice that I'd poached some cues from my own favorite authors' stories, and immediately rushed to edit it.  It happened because I'd read them so many times I had simply registered the phrasing in my head.  Also, I'm silly but I read someone's recent fic and noticed a description I had used myself in my own story that the person had liked.  I thought it was really cool because it meant that person liked reading my story over and over too.

Another thing I noticed is that I have never given any story I've written a happy ending.  No happily ever afters.  In ten years of writing I've never written a happy ending.  I know it's ten years because I wrote my first real story during midwinter recess in the 7th grade.  So does that mean there's something wrong with me?  My best friend laughed and said no when I let her in on my discovery.  She just said I'm realistic.  I don't know, she's the one getting the Masters in Neuroscience...  I guess I can take her word on it? 

Yeah, so that's all I've got...

Comments

[thewickedquill.livejournal.com]

*nods* I've seen the like, too. I have probably also done it myself - but I'm not gonna go look. Reading old works often leaves me wanting to delete them :P

In any case, don't wrory. There's nothing wrong with you! I agree with your friend. Goodness knows that most of my 'happy endings' make me want to puke these days. Maybe I've grown up, or just grown out of the hopefulness? *shrugs* Dunno, but I think it's more realistic to end things up in the air or unhappily :P Sad truth, but things rarely work out for the best. I'm not trying to be a pessimist - goodness knows I usually think positively - but it ain't normally how things go.

Mwah and talk soon!

[parallax23.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I'm too much of a realist. I've never believed in happy endings, somehow they never worked in my mind. I was twelve years old writing how there's no such thing as true love and how we have to settle for what we have or end up with nothing. Also, I seemed to like killing people off a lot. Everyone in my stories has a tragic flaw, and end up with having to make trade-offs that land them in the same place they started. But it's good to hear it's not because I'm crazy. Some days I think I have a middle-aged soul. LOL