Well, I'm coming close to the end of the Precipitous Bar. It was a strange journey, to say the least. I have had a tendency that, when inspiration hits me on something like this, to simply tell the story. It happens a lot, to be honest. I've made some efforts previously to try to write these sort of things down, but infrequently. I've always considered myself more of a storyteller than anything else, but as was pointed out to me, it's not that big of a jump to go from a storyteller to a writer.
The problem I used to run into when trying to translate the thoughts to the page was more of a time thing. The necessities of work, responsibilities, social life and an effort to relax periodically kind of restrained me from investing the time and effort that I would put in to writing. Honestly, let's face it: although you may love it, although you may enjoy doing it, writing can be stressful. Well, for a purpose, or to accomplish something anyway. Writing for the hell of it can be liberating.
Still, there's a lot of work that goes into getting a story on paper (or, in my case, on the intarwebs) that you don't have to worry about when you're just happy to tell people the stories. Fact checking, settings information, outlining/pacing the story... It can get crazy. Even the act of writing itself, trying to get the words down while the story is still trying to move in your head, can cause issues. You find yourself jumping ahead, or going back and fixing items instead of trying to continue where you are.
The bar was different, though. This was sudden; it came all at once, not like most of my typical stories. Granted, parts of it did still require fixing in order to make the story work, but it wasn't the slow business of trying to grow the story from a seed. It was awesome to come to it all at once, but it gave its own complications. Specifically, trying to get the story down (and not get burn out part way, my biggest weakness) without forgetting it.
The size of the story made it a bit easier, thankfully. And honestly, I didn't really concern myself with a lot of the issues I normally approach in most of my writing; I didn't worry about specific pacing, interest or really anything other than getting it down. Heck, I've even been lectured on grammar use in part of it, and I didn't go back and correct it. Yeah, I know. I didn't correct a grammatical mistake. It's like years of well-trained OCD, all down the drain.
In the end, though, I think it was good for me. I have a bad tendency to get burnt-out on writing in most situations; I don't tend to get a lot of feedback, positive or negative, on a lot of my fiction writing, so I tend to lose my drive to continue to do so. Non-fiction or personal writing, sure, but for some reason the stories get overlooked. Well, I assume they do; either that, or everyone is creepily quiet about it, which could be a good or bad thing.
Still, the point is, I've just about finished this one, and I finished it for me. I didn't really have any particular reason to do so (well, Shae did tell me she was growing impatient with waiting on more, but honestly I missed most of those comments until recently, anyway...), but I still managed to keep myself motivated and in-charge. Here's hoping that I can keep this attitude up. I've got a lot more I'd like to get done.
Here's hoping I can find my notes, too... I still can't find my folder with all my info on Deciduoh and Aeternus, and I want to at least include some pictures if nothing else. Ah well. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far!
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