Round 23, Hour 22

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

What are your favorite writing metaphors? Is writing a fic like cooking something? Is it like writing a computer program? Is it like sticking a bucket outside and hoping words will rain into them? Or is it like fighting off a pack of ninja penguins with alien fish?

Comments

[welfycat.livejournal.com]

To me, writing a fic is like fumbling around in a dark room. You're not really sure where you are, and you keep stepping on sharp things that might be legos, and your hands find all of these objects (ideas) that you can get the gist of the shape of, and sometimes figure out what they are, but you don't know the details until you turn on the lights. Or run from the room screaming. That happens sometimes too.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I get some of that, too. It's like, you *know* there's something great there in the dark if you could only find it! And then you get ahold of something and bring it forth and squint at it, and it's not what you thought it was, and you wonder if you should drop it and try for something better, or if that's all there is.

[lolmac]

When it's going well, it's music.

When it's going badly, it's cooking. (I'm a lousy cook.)

When it's not going at all, it's driving in a really bad traffic jam.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I love it when it's music! If it weren't for those effortless moments, I would've given up writing a long time ago.

[starbells.livejournal.com]

Writing is like chasing after a group of characters who are going about their normal buisness. Sometimes they are walking and it's easy to keep up with them but sometimes they up and run off to who knows where and it's impossible to figure out where they are or what they're doing. Sometimes they are doing very interesting things like fighting off villans or saving hurt animals in the woods but sometimes all they want to do is sit down and drink coffee and talk... for HOURS. O.O

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

LOL. Sometimes I try to tell my characters what to do, and they look at me as if I were crazy. I like the idea that the characters are off doing things, and either you're watching them, or you're not.

[thisbluespirit]

The penguins have stolen all the metaphors, so I cannot say.

But I have successfully signed up for Yuletide! With time to spare so that i can wake up in the morning, think: wait,. I offered what? and change it before sign-ups close.

Now I must either tweak my letter or post something or go to bed.

But write, fic_rush, write! \o/

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Pesky penguins. But congrats on Yuletide!

[a-q.livejournal.com]

Writing is like doing a puzzle, without a picture or border pieces and couple of wrong pieces thrown in the pile.

And after this complicated metaphor, it's bedtime for me (work tomorrow, blah)
Good writings to everyone!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Sleep well! We'll try and get the border pieces done for you by the time you come back. : )

[isdon-isgood9.livejournal.com]

Good morning!!!!

I'm going to have breakfast now :D

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Good plan! I'm eating lunch myself.

[http://users.livejournal.com/idlewild_/]

Oof. I haz had a nap. What is writing like for me? Erm... one of those physical memory dumps after a hard drive crash? Beating my head against a keyboard repeatedly until the words come out?

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

You can write by beating your head against a keyboard? Well, that explains why you're more prolific than I am. *g*

[http://users.livejournal.com/idlewild_/]

Hah. Yes, but it doesn't necessarily make much sense. irejirjg'ir[jiagqp849.

[glinda-penguin.livejournal.com]

Generally I'm fighting of penguins, only during fic rush are they ninja trained...

Also I wrote a drabble this hour.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Yay, drabble! *showers you with confetti and ninja penguin repellent*

[laurie-ky.livejournal.com]

Writing feels physcial to me, so maybe like working with clay, a shapeless lump of raw materials that I build a foundation with and shape and take some stuff off and put it in another spot, smoothing it, making the pot rise up when it's on the wheel, my fingers making it unique. Then there is the drying time, when things start to settle but you can still work on it, maybe carving details into the pot. Then comes the glaze, and firing it. Then you hope that somebody likes it enough to buy it (charity auctions) or stops to look at it, touch it, and let you know what they think of it.

And now I shall go write another review. I was way behind on doing that so I'm glad to get caught up.

Laurie

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

That's a neat metaphor!

[sid]

I'm late, but I want to try this metaphor thingy! :-D

Writing is like driving a bus, except that the characters on the bus tell you where to go. And new characters get on at the stops, and other characters are pulling the cord because they want to get off even though you're not at a stop and you're not through with them yet....

Or, it's like stepping into a boat and pushing away from the shore, and sometimes you're paddling against the current and sometimes you're going whereever the current takes you... and sometimes you crash into an obstacle you didn't even see coming because it's beneath the surface, and sometimes you lose your paddle....

That was fun! :-)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

:D Thanks for sharing your metaphors!

[thisbluespirit]

Okay, it is morning, and I found that the penguins had buried the metaphor in the back yard. As this is concrete, it took some work with a pick axe to recover, but I did my best:

Writing is like a dance, often a complicated country dance with lots of people. It can be a fairly sedate one, or a fast one that leaves you out of breath, with everyone switching partners and skipping about. When it is going fine, everybody meets at the arranged plot points and there is a lightness and joy in the prose. Sometimes people miss a step, or even fall over, but it's usually all part of the fun. Except then, sometimes, the music stops and nobody knows what to do.

That's when you have to take pick axe to the back yard to look for the metaphors the ninja penguins hid there.

(Also, I totally woke up this morning and changed one of my Yuletide offers. :lol:)