Solitary?

[ithildin]

Do you find you are better/more motivated/excited about writing if you have someone or two or three to interact with? I'm coming to discover that when I feel like I'm writing in a vacuum, I just seem to sputter out. I think that's been a lot of my problem lately. My cats aren't really interested in my theories about Loki's daddy issues, or if the Avengers really need to live together in one house mansion as it appears that they do in the comics (really?)(or so I've gathered from fic I've read.). I initially started writing fic in a collaborative environment, and I guess it's stuck. Which is weird considering in RL I'm pretty much a loner. For the most part, I interact on a daily basis (outside of work) only with my family, and the occasional cup of coffee after work with one of my assistants. I see friends a few times a year if I'm lucky, as they all live far away. I need a Harvey, I think. Or a sociable ghost - a Captain Gregg of my very own! Or I do need to start talking to my cats.

Comments

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

So, I added you on AIM and YIM if you want...

I have the same problem. I got really spoiled when I first starting writing fanfiction on LJ. I would have people on various messengers that I could run ideas past or even have them beta in real time. Now, they're busy and I'm trying to write a novel and that's even worse. It feels like you're just plodding along in the dark...

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

I'm not on YM much, but will add you for when I am :)

It was weird to realize how much I depended on having people around to bounce stuff of off. Not like RL me at all. In RL, I'm very self-sufficient and relatively solitary.

[theteej2.livejournal.com]

I feel exactly the same, especially to both comments. I got spoiled as well for the same exact reasons then when everyone vanished I was left to hang out and dry. Which is pretty much what I did. Doing, still doing basically. Kinda sucks.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

And everyone I meet these days seems so young. I never thought I'd feel well, old. When did that happen?

[theteej2.livejournal.com]

I dunno, but I know I got you beat on old! It took four years to break the last writers block, and though I have been maintaining a teeny tiny writers blog in private, I haven't really been able to write anything substantial because I am so much older that the rest of the fen, and I prefer a 'classic' sense to the characters I am dealing with rather than what has taken the fandom by storm.


Now that really makes me feel old!

Avengers Mansion

[brightknightie.livejournal.com]

>"to live together in one... mansion as it appears that they do in the comics (really?)(or so I've gathered from fic I've read.)

It depends on the current writer and storyline, but yes, in comics canon, most of the active Avengers usually choose to live in Avengers Mansion, which was donated to them by Tony Stark. (In the old days, Stark's identity was secret, so even the Avengers didn't know he was Iron Man, just their friendly neighborhood wealthy benefactor of heroes. Obviously, he didn't personally live there then. Similarly, in the old days, Thor's other identity as Doctor Don Blake had a home and a medical practice, and didn't live in.) In comics canon, Jarvis is a human being, not a computer; he's the butler at Avengers Mansion, and sometimes has his own adventures (these are usually comedy interludes).

Inactive Avengers (the team roster is loooong) of course do not live in the mansion. The Vision and the Scarlet Witch lived in the New Jersey suburb of Leonia during her pregnancy. Quicksilver and Crystal lived on the moon with the Inhumans. Captain America maintains his own apartment when he is also maintaining a secret identity profession (e.g. graphic artist, illustrator, comic book artist).

In the comics, the Avengers have sometimes "franchised" out, e.g. the West Coast Avengers and Great Lakes Avengers. Those groups have their own separate headquarters/living arrangements in their regions of responsibility.

Re: Avengers Mansion

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Nin a comic book fan and gave me the rundown. Still weirds me out :) Unless the movies make it canon, I'm avoiding the whole frat house thing.

Re: Avengers Mansion

[idontlikegravy.livejournal.com]

You know, I never really questioned it before, it just kinda made sense to me that they'd share a place - like how firemen stay at the fire station when they are on duty; it makes the team instantly available for any crisis and can be briefed together rather than having to wait. "Oh we have to wait ten minutes because Cap's stuck in Jersey" or the like wouldn't really cut it when the fate of the world is at stake!! *grin*

Re: Avengers Mansion

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

I don't know why, but the idea of it is just.... I dunno LOL I guess I since I'm coming at it from a movie POV only, I just can't see Tony living in the same house with a bunch of other people. Or Thor for that matter.

[selinamoonfire.livejournal.com]

I've been having this problem too. When I started writing I had this group of awesome cheerleaders who didn't care what I wrote as long as I wrote something. We could edit it later and make it better. No idea was too crazy or too small...

Now I have like one person I can talk to and I hate that I'm basically working in a vacuum. It has killed most of my motivation and I talk myself out of ideas no matter how good I initially think they are.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

I started writing as part of a group, and we'd write stories in IRC to entertain each other. But people move on and times change. I guess I haven't adapted very well.

[selinamoonfire.livejournal.com]

I haven't really either. I'm the kind of writer who HAS to bounce ideas against someone. Even if the person I'm throwing them at just goes "Uh huh...I like that." I just don't work well without some sort of interaction.

I don't think most writers do well in a vacuum. From what I've read usually there's SOMEONE that a writer works with for support.

[dragonsinger.livejournal.com]

I don't do solitary fanfic writing very well either. But so far, writing original fic in a vacuum hasn't been that bad. I just sputter out when it comes time to revise.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Glad it isn't affecting the original fic.

[dragonsinger.livejournal.com]

This is true. Now if I could just figure out the revision process.

[idontlikegravy.livejournal.com]

Hmm, talking to your cats seems a slippery slope kind of act, but I do get what you mean. I work much better with someone to bounce ideas off. I'm lucky that I've developed a way of virtually doing that with my betas/coauthors via email/chat/googledoc

That said, I do catch myself in the act of talking to myself out loud quite frequently when I'm writing!

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

I used to have people online like that too, but most have either moved out of fandom, or into other fandoms. I guess my muse is just lonely. Me too, I suppose. I'll get over it eventually :)

[dejla.livejournal.com]

Yes, I feel the same. If I have someone--and usually I can find someone, but not always--who'll help me work things out, I can keep going on a story. Otherwise I always run the risk of losing steam and dropping the story because I can't work out the exact plot I need.

It's rare I can finish something by myself--Kindness of Ravens and Simple Gifts were two I did pretty much alone. I have betas who'll run through something afterwards and tell me what I need to fix, but working it out with someone helps a lot more.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Yep, exactly. My steam is definitely not much more than a simmer currently. I'm at the point that I read what I write and tell myself it's stupid, and no one's going to read it, so why are you torturing yourself?

[dejla.livejournal.com]

Ooh, ow. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean there. I can completely paralyze myself by dwelling on whether or not there's any POINT to writing any longer because I get few or no comments. So I'm boring and why am I doing this to myself?

I have three hundred pages of an original novel I'm stalled on--and other things that may have been Jossed. I'm still considering writing the third long Ravens story in spite of being Jossed--it would be an AU, after all, anyway.

[jedimasterstar.livejournal.com]

I hate solitary writing. I am one of those people who needs to bounce ideas off of someone in order to get somewhere.

We may need to start a support group.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Pretty icon.

Bouncing is of the good.

[starhawk2005.livejournal.com]

An interesting question...

Although I think my biggest issues now are more ones of lack of time and energy. *sighs*

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Those definitely are big ones.