Snowflake #5 The Impossible Dream

[nrgburst]

Challenge #5

In your own space, talk about an idea you wish you had the time / talent / energy to do.

So I think rodo  named this aptly: The White Whale challenge. Who knows - maybe I'll find the motivation one day to throw myself back into research and get the work done on these, but LBR - I doubt it! 😁So this is probably more of a "Let it go" post! ❄️ Although! I have to admit that I actually did finish a longfic in 2020 after not writing it for 8 years, so never say never! 😅

The Original YA fantasy book - I had this all researched and roughly planned out, and wrote a few chapters, only to stop. I tried to finish this for Nano one year and still got only a little further before giving up again.

A Third Path - Anakin/Padme. This was a Canon AU diverging right at the end of AotC, and I was going to explore the idea of Anakin becoming a Grey Jedi instead of going all Darth and their little family running across the galaxy far far away to keep the twins out of Palpitine's hands. I left it on a cliffie too, oops. Sorry, totally my bad! 😅

Honestly, I think that once that kind of blazing itch inside your brain has fizzled, it's really hard to get it stoked again? What do you guys think?

Comments

[enemytosleep]

I feel you on the spark and fizzle with WIPs. I was saying on someone else's post that I wonder if a Plot Bunny Rescue community would be a worthy idea? So folks could adopt them out to maybe see an ending? I know I've read more than one WIP over the years that I probably could have written a chapter or two to complete if I'd had the thumbs up.

[nrgburst]

Elizabeth Gilbert wrote a book on the creative process (Big Magic) and one of the chapters is about how one idea she'd had for a novel (about a botanist doing something specific) was something she researched and plotted out but never actually wrote... and then a few years later somebody else published a book with an eerily similar premise. This was proof to her that the idea found somebody else to nurture it and give it life. So you might be onto something! An adoption agency comm of sorts?

[rhoda_rants]

I dunno. I think it depends on the fic, and the fandom, honestly. With me, I seem to flit between different creative "modes" as I can them. When I'm in Binge-Watch Mode, like I am now, all my creative energy goes towards whatever I'm binging, whether that's making icons, writing an essay series, looking up fanvids, whatever. When I'm in Writing Mode, I can churn out a decent word count on a semi-regular basis, but that is unpredictable and very hard to get back. Or if I'm in Reading Mode, I'm just consuming book after book or fic after fic, and have a read hard time producing anything myself. It's very rare for any of those to overlap.

[rodo]

Honestly, in my experience, the blazing itch always runs out before you're done, and finishing something can only be achieved by continuously working on it like it's a job. I think that's why exchanges work for me - deadlines mean I have to finish something, even without my brain on fire.

So, if there's a way for you to get accountability going in a way that works for you, I'd go for it.

[tjs_whatnot]

I think you might be right, but sometimes the spark just needs a bit of a breeze, so maybe just blow? 🤣🤣

[nrgburst]

Oooh, that sounds similar and yet different to the way I do things! Like my reading and writing modes are usually separate too, but I usually binge/write together - like it's almost a positive feedback loop of sorts? So writing will make me realize I need to re-watch to confirm a certain detail, and re-watching will make me realize there's a parallel that I need to make a GIFset for, and then people's tags on the GIFset will make realize I need to write a certain scene etc etc.
It's so neat to hear the ways different people are fannish! 🥰🙌

[nrgburst]

Oooh, I see! That makes sense to me since you write super longfic! (I am still in awe of the 130K one! 😅) For me, I can usually keep the obsessive need to give a story form going just by re-consuming whatever canon it was multiple times and replying comments etc. which forces me to think about the next bits. I only need to keep up that obsessing thing for a few months though.

Although I realized that is what ended up spurring me to finish my abandoned fic, actually! Huh. Maybe that is what I should do to kick myself in the butt for that Star Wars fic! 👟💥🤯 (Sadly The Phantom Menace and AoTC are Not Great! 😅)

[nrgburst]

I just recalled that I motivated myself afresh on that previously abandoned fic by re-watching the canon years later, and realizing I still had that same canon hole I was itching to fill - so "blowing" might indeed be worth a try! 😂

[rodo]

It actually happens for me with all fic that take longer than a weekend to write. And since I don't post non-completed fic anymore, I don't have comments etc. to keep my enthusiasm (or rather, my bad conscience) going either.

It's worth a try! And there's nothing wrong with getting fannish/obsessive about Not Great canons - those are the best to get obsessed over sometimes!