Anyone who is going to be a writer knows enough at fifteen to write several novels. - May Sarton
To me, the quote gave rise to a few questions at once: Does that mean writers are born, not made? What constitutes a writer here - just someone who writes, or a great (i.e. critically acclaimed, best-selling, pick your poison) writer? Does knowledge play so great a role in shaping a person's writerly destiny? Because I think writing is more about the telling than the knowing.

Writing progress:
August 20 300 words.
August 21 1,000 words. It's time to start solving conflicts, or I'll be writing my way to 2010.
August 22 100 words.
August 23 800 words. Romantic scenes make me go ouch. I'd rather write about people hacking at each other's limbs.

1. There's a community in DW, Parthenon, where members can post bits of scene that are supposed to be part of their ongoing stories, but they don't know yet where those scenes belong, exactly. (I haven't checked if there's a similar comm in LJ) If I have such scenes in store (which I usually don't), I'd either adjust the story so the scenes can be included, adjust the scenes so they can be included in the story, or discard them altogether if they really can't fit into the story. This might mean I'm either boring or not terribly creative. Another option is to use prompts from writing communities to - the word that comes to my mind is 'legalize' - the existence of these scene bits. This is something I maybe should try.
Have you ever thought up scenes like that? What do you do with them?

2. readerofasaph asked if anyone would be interested in a Tennis no Oujisama bigbang.

3. Writing progress

June 27 1,000 words.
June 28 1,200 words. I need to write longer fighting sequences.
June 29 2,400 words. A lucky day. I also should do more research on the principles of qinggong.

Writing progress
June 9 1,100 words. Without coffee this time.
June 10 200 words.
June 11 900 words. At this point, the story could use a plot twist.
June 12 Again, 900 words.

Thoughts:
. Do plot twists, which from one POV are an attempt to keep readers (and the writer) interested, justify a fair amount of coincidences? In wuxia, coincidences are sometimes a major factor in moving the story forward. Or so I gathered.
. I'm beginning to wonder if I can only write certain types of (main?) characters. I might not have written enough original fics to know that yet, but I wonder all the same.

1. Via summerwrite2: Suspending Disbelief. My reply to the post is here.
I tend to get bogged down by details because I believe they can either contribute to the plot or the character, later if not sooner. Thus, I want to see how I can make the most of them, and I want to see it now. I don't want to later do research on a certain aspect of the story, and think how useful some of the findings would be if I could have integrated them into the story. If that's a failing on my part, I hope it's one that can be remedied by extensive pre-research.

2. A meme that's been reappearing lately:
"Sometimes it's okay to pimp yourself out. Post a list of your top five fic-favorites you've written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them. This isn't about the BEST things you've written, but what you LOVE most. Then tag five other people to do the same."
Taken only from the fics I wrote in 2008 until now, and not cut, er, because everyone isn't cutting theirs, either. Tag yourself if you want.

1. Days of Glory - Tennis no Oujisama
I can't write serious!Tezuka well, and thus, crack.

2. A Thousand Years - Naruto
Sasuke/Sakura, written the way I like it - with distance between them, more than a touch of melancholy, and a sense of future hope.

3. This Season - Fullmetal Alchemist
Roy/Hawkeye. What I thought would be a drabble developed into a decent-sized fanfic. I like Roy and Hawkeye here, both individually and separately.

4. Blades in the Moonlight - Tennis no Oujisama
What is this tennis you speak of? Those boys are swordsmen, that's what they are. And Tezuka vs Yukimura really needs to happen.

5. Bamboo Shots in the Snow - Yitian Dulong Ji
Yin Liting/Yang Buhui. There's an atmosphere of quiet here that I enjoy. And apparently I write Buhui better than I do her husband.

When I get stuck in a story and bunnies pop up, I try to remember that, once I abandon a project to start a new one, I'll be bound to do it again, and again, leaving a trail of WIPs on my wake. [/dramatic] That I'm not in the mood to work with the current story or have no idea where I'm going with it is no excuse to give up (hateful phrase, that). Is this simply about self-discipline? Do I just have to slog through? But how can readers enjoy our story if we don't?
An alternative is working on more than one story at the same time and with the same pace for each. However, tempting as that sounds, I'm not sure if it's nothing more than holding up potential WIPs before a concave and rose-tinted mirror. While I know that the method works for some people, I'm not sure if it will for me. Like I said above, if I start on more stories than one, I may get addicted to starting instead of finishing. To me, the wrap-up of a story is a point in the journey that's painful to reach, more often than not.
Yr thoughts?

Winnie the Pooh, Hemingway style. I seem to have seen fanfics done in the style of certain authors, but can't remember where. And yes, this would make an interesting challenge. Tangentially: In 52author_pickup, you talk about authors in their own style.

I just finished reading Holly Lisle's Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love and Money. There are several points that stick to my mind, but here I'll just bring up two.

1. Is it obligatory to know how your story ends from the beginning? Some writers prefer to simply set up a universe, including the characters and the big events, and then let the story take its own course from there. I usually go with this approach, because to me it would give more room for the plot to expand and the characters to grow. The last multichaptered story I wrote with a definite end in mind from the start also uses this method, to some extent. (Digression: I guess I'd have had even more leeway if the story had been original instead of fanfiction, but at that time I was too overwhelmed - "OMG I'm doing NaNo for the first time!" - to have the mental energy to create a universe from scratch)

2. Writing collaborations. I mentioned about this before. In Lisle's experience, doing so as a professional hurts one's solo career. I imagine some of the same pitfalls may await those who collaborate in writing fanfics - our partner can suddenly take the story to an entirely different direction without telling us first, do too little work, or get offended when we don't accept their ideas. Despite all that, I still want to give writing collaboration a shot, but I'm afraid I'm too possessive with my ideas, and that I may not be able to hold up my end of the bargain due to work/RL constraints.

Okay, so that's my rambling. Your thoughts?

1. and all the years we have wasted, Fullmetal Alchemist, Roy/Hawkeye. Poignant with heartfelt characterization.

2. Advice on novel writing by Crawford Killian.

Don't lean on others for editorial advice and encouragement--least of all people you're emotionally involved with. Spouses, friends and roommates rarely have both editorial perceptiveness and the tact to express it without infuriating you or breaking your heart. Empty praise will get you nowhere; unconstructive criticism can destroy your novel in an instant.

What you write is really a kind of commentary on everything you've read so far in your life.

summerscribes started on June 1 and will end on August 20: set your own goal during the 81 days. If a more flexible schedule is what you're after, novel_in_90 is still around. (Can you tell I'm also resisting the temptation here?)

beccastareyes likens fiction to cooking, as in, "if it's at all edible, someone, somewhere has eaten it." I used to think that writing is similar to cooking in a way. You have to know what ingredients to add, when and how to add them, also how long the cooking process should take, so that the final result will be to your liking.
(Not that I'm good at real-life cooking)

I enjoy writing dialogues, and sometimes there's a small problem. Unless the conversation is highly engaging or the fic is completely dialogue-only, I'd be tempted to have the characters do things that may not contribute to the conversation per se, but can help make the scene more dramatic. ( Example ) The downside is that these actions can be distracting or superfluous, and can even spoil the mood. But to me it'd be too boring if the narrative parts consist only of "he said/she said." It's like an indication that the writer is lazy, or that the characters don't move at all or move very little during the conversation, which isn't always the case.
What do you do to make your dialogue scenes more interesting?

The Curse of the WIP – The Lost Art of Rewriting in Fan Fiction - why we should finish the entire fic before posting it by the chapter. I used to do that too, back before LJ even existed. It's more tiring, but it also makes it easier to maintain the believability ("quality" sounds a bit too pompous) of the overall story.

I'm participating in Writo de Mayo and part of it is posting daily on this journal, so an advance apology for the extra spam.

India and the Conundrum, a webzine for serialized original fiction, is being groomed for a relaunch. To learn more, you can head over to indianconundrum, the first post to be more specific. They're open for new serials, by the way.

This month's genre at genrechallenge: child fiction.

Via aiwritingfic: why authors should have blogs. The entry should motivate me to speak up more on everyone's journal, not least my own. (How you become a fast thinker and a verbose person, that's what I need to know)

1. "The worst thing you write is better than the best thing you didn't write."
I saw the above quote on an LJ userpic, and when I googled it, this page came up as the top result. It's part of a writing resource site. (I just want to add that finding writing tips is easy - actually doing something about them is the tricky part)
Back to the quote. It's probably true that out of all the crap one writes, there's bound to be a good sentence/concept or two, and some sentences may look more promising later than they did at first. The problem with me is that I can be something of a perfectionist - if it's not good or I don't really like it, then why write it? I'm trying to overcome that mindset and write as much as I can, even if most of what I write doesn't get read by anyone else.
How much does the whole practice-makes-perfect thing actually help you?

2. Meme: Give me two characters, and I'll write a letter that one of them sends to the other.

1. Readers with credentials. Basically, the OP wonders why some writers prefer concrit only from writers they trust. Me, I'll take concrit from anyone, as long as it helps.

2. 76_kickoffs, because the themes are pretty and the community could do with, er, members.

1. Sign-up for this year's femgenficathon is open. I wrote about Sakura last year and may write about her again this year, because I'm boring like that.
a_to_z_prompts, a writing community with fourteen theme sets based on the alphabets.

2. How guilty (or not) would you feel if you never finish a multichaptered story, be it original or fanfic? Does it depend on the readership? ("No one reads this but me anyway, so no one will want to know what happens next," that sort of thing) I have always had the attention span of the fabled gnat, and my enthusiasm burns out easily. Thus, I sometimes think I'd better not start writing a multichapter at all, if that means I'll end up disappointing people, including myself. Some go-getter I am, eh?

1. There are two crossover fic memes at fandom_memes, which make me suddenly realize I'm not too fond of writing crossovers. I'm just not very good when it comes to transporting characters from one series to another. That might be a sign of a closed mind - I don't know. I am, however, usually happy to write AUs. It's the usual case of wanting to see what an interesting bunch of characters would do in a different verse altogether.

2. (You might already have seen this) For Haruno Sakura's birthday, I'm collecting theme sets for Sakura pairings. Please contribute pretty themes, if you can, and thus more people may create more fanworks ;)

Thanks for replying to this meme, guys - your requests have been quite interesting. :)

Via issen4: the line between plagiarism and fanfiction.

Fanfiction solves the problem of finding an audience.

Because you know there are other people already familiar with the universe you're going to write in, and you hope they'd be interested in reading what you make of that 'verse.

Yet fanfiction writers relate to other writers as writers, first and foremost.

Definitely. We exchange not only ideas and opinions about canon, but also about writing itself, and sometimes other things besides.
I've had this journal since November 2004, and during the three and a half years that have passed since then, I believe I've improved more as a writer than I did during my LJ-less days. Which is why, like aiwritingfic and several others, I may not join in the LJ 24-hour strike. Unless everyone else moves to another blogging service and I have no choice but tag along. IJ is already inundated with accounts made specially for storing smutfics, ahaha.

1. Perfect Imagination, a beta directory. LJ, of course, still has beta_search, betaread_search, and fandom_betas. (Any other comm I missed?)

2. To those of you who have written stories in collaboration with others, what are the advantages and drawbacks compared to writing solo? I'm just curious, because I've never written with a partner, and probably would be confused if, for example, I and my partner do it by writing the sections in turns. But that's not how you do it - is it? Or maybe one half of the partnership supplies the idea and the other half types it down. Which wouldn't work out so well if both are writers and want to actually write the story themselves.