Non linear fiction?

[thelibraniniquity]

I'm feeling distinctly whimsical at the moment... So I've got these two plot bunnies gnawing away at the ol' grey matter at the moment. One is a Bashir-centric story focusing on his relationship with Garak during the Dominion War; the second is a Doom/Trekverse crossover examining the many lives of John Grimm. In both cases the plots are unfolding in my head in a distinctly non-linear manner. That is, they start at a fixed point in the canon, but the narration then jumps all over the place.

I think that would make these character studies rather than more plot driven stories, which is what I've always tended towards in the past. No matter what I've written in the past, there's always been some catalyst driving things forward, something for the characters to react to. This time (these times?) around there's nothing like that. It's... more a series of recollections than anything resembling a story of the type I've written before.

And oh god, when did I start getting quite this neurotic about writing? If anything, a series of only loosely connected vignettes should be easy to write. Gah...

Okay, never mind me. I'll just be sitting over here rocking backwards and forwards wondering where all my confidence in myself and my writing went...

Sigh.

Comments

[lady-drace.livejournal.com]

Oh boy, do I know the feeling...

"Yes, waiter? I'd like to order an extra large plate of mental focus!"

[thelibraniniquity]

"And I'll take a side dish of self-esteem with a liberal sprinkling of determination."

:(

[lady-drace.livejournal.com]

Make that two...

[thelibraniniquity]

Dinner party :D

[lady-drace.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they have doggy bags here? Wanna bring some home to the bunnies...

[thelibraniniquity]

Now that I could definitely do with. As long as they supplied rabbit hutches as well, so I could keep the damned things where I wanted them!

[lady-drace.livejournal.com]

Maybe the bunnies are the ones who need a little focus?

[thelibraniniquity]

The bunnies have a surprising amount of focus and detail, actually. I'm the one who keeps getting distracted by other things ;)

[lady-drace.livejournal.com]

My bunnies might have focus, but with so many of them, I wouldn't know.

"Stop gnawing on my wallpaper!! Get your fuzzy butts out of the trash bin!! Hey! Down from the curtains, you furry vandals!! GAHH!!"

[thelibraniniquity]

LOL! You poor thing. I just build up these incredibly complex scenarios in my head, usually while I'm at work, and occasionally one of them will get turned into a story, or a vid. Very, very occasionally, though. I think I prefer the storybuilding to the actual storytelling, but I am working on that ratio!

[lady-drace.livejournal.com]

I do that too... but mostly in the bathtub. And meanwhile, all my neglected bunnies are just vandalizing my house and having way too much sex. 300 bunnies born every day. Horn dogs!!!

And as complex my stories might seem in my head, if I ever manage to write them, they always come out very light and simple. Blah.

[thelibraniniquity]

Hehehehe... my bunnies are exactly like me; almost completely asexual. I do have a thing for firefights, space battles and things going asplodey, though. I'm not that great at complex writing either; the last time I tried to write something that was deliberately ambiguous, I just got reviewer after reviewer going, "Hey, wtf?" I need to read me some more murder mysteries, I think, get a handle on how it should be done!

[lady-drace.livejournal.com]

As dark and complex as my ideas are, it always ends up being fluff and cuteness... I suck that way. ;o)

[explodedpen.livejournal.com]

*walks in, smacks you upside the head*

Don't be a complete and utter moron. You're awesome.

*walks out*

[thelibraniniquity]

I told you, it's pathological.

*stares at empty Word document some more*

[luckycricket-1.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely a non-linear writer. You should see my notebook with all kinds of ideas and scenes from...um..five or six different fics. And none of my fics ever turn out the way I planned 'em too. I've just learned just to write. It all comes together somehow.

[thelibraniniquity]

I kind of used to do that years ago, back when I was writing Enterprise fic. But for all the times I was jotting down odd ideas and scenes, I was also writing first drafts of pretty much everything longhand in the mornings before sixth form started.

Mostly what's getting the better of me at the moment is that these two particular plot bunnies have a lot of time jumps in the narration. And that's different enough to what I've written before to make me even worse than usual when it comes to the actual writing.