edenfalling | writing woes

You're viewing

edenfalling's journal
Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More

Reload page in style: site light

edenfalling

I know exactly what I want to write for my NFE fic -- I have the characters, I have the subject of discussion, I have the ending (...ish), but I cannot for the life of me figure out where the story needs to start. Every single thing I've tried just fizzles out in a sputter of futility. And that's if it even stands up long enough to make it from my brain to the page!

...

...

...

In summary, BEARS.

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Location: ithaca, ny
Crossposts: http://edenfalling.livejournal.com/874809.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

transposable_element

This is the second time recently I've seen "BEARS," and I don't know what it means....

From:

edenfalling

It's a Yuletide meme: writing panic and approaching deadlines are personified as bears chasing the hapless writer. I am not sure where it came from (Fanlore does not document it, alas!), though my first guess would be that it's related to Shakespeare's famous 'exit, pursued by a bear' stage direction.

From:

transposable_element

Ah. That sort of bear.

From:

lady_songsmith

*nodnodnod* I have lots of stuff in my head but no actual plot. BEARS.

From:

edenfalling

I would like my idea soup to resolve into something writable, please!

(Maybe if we play dead the bears will lose interest...?)

From:

lady_songsmith

There may be something to this -- I was saying to someone that I thought I might have to default, and they were encouraging me to do so because stressing out makes for bad fic anyway, then the next day I woke up with IDEAS.

From:

transposable_element

About a week ago I gave up on my original story idea and started fresh with something new, and things have been going a lot better. So, yeah.

From:

edenfalling

Hmmm... *considers trying to write for a different prompt*

From:

rthstewart.livejournal.com

Cofax said the same thing yesterday. BEARS

From:

edenfalling

I think it is a common ailment as exchange deadlines approach, and I am grateful to Yuletide for giving us this useful terminology. *pained smile*

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Profile

Elizabeth Culmer

June 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Tags

-a history of handcrafts [5]
-alpha timeline fluff [18]
-alternian nights [10]
-an ounce of prevention [60]
-ancestral nights [6]
-and all around is the desert [2]
-apartment manager sidestories [16]
-as the morning and the night [13]
-ashes [20]
-beauty [2]
-bluebell [11]
-debts [1]
-dreamers of the day [3]
-edmund and ginny go to harfang [9]
-elsewhere [4]
-ephemera [1]
-finding marea [14]
-fixation and other stories [69]
-four by four [3]
-harvest [13]
-jewelstuck [4]
-knives [8]
-leaf and letter [14]
-learning to listen [13]
-leaves [1]
-lemonade [46]
-locked room problems [3]
-made manifest [2]
-more or less the same [11]
-narutostuck [10]
-new horizons [3]
-one equal temper of heroic hearts [8]
-paint the town [6]
-persephone noir [1]
-restoration [11]
-secrets [55]
-small mysteries [1]
-strange likenesses [13]
-summer camp and politics [15]
-sunbright and shadowfall [12]
-tales from the yellow yard [9]
-tenich valley [1]
-the courting dance [11]
-the dragon debacle [3]
-the fox and the star [1]
-the guardian in spite of herself [75]
-the painted sky [6]
-the sum of things [25]
-the summoner's tale [7]
-the transient and the eternal [33]
-the war of secret flames [7]
-the way of the apartment manager [70]
-the witch of immish [7]
-tides [29]
-trollstuck [55]
-two guys and a girl [21]
-untimely ripped [6]
-utilitarian virtue [7]
-weregild [25]
-what isn't broken (can still be fixed) [6]
-winter's daughter [6]
-worse fates [2]
15-minute fic [229]
30 days of fanfiction [10]
adventures in botany [293]
adventures in dogsitting [46]
adventures in zoology [83]
analysis [300]
ao3 statistics [13]
ardis [13]
art [66]
asexuality [22]
audiovisual media [76]
avatar episode reactions [19]
badness and woe [255]
betapalooza [7]
book list [104]
book list 2006 [23]
book list 2007 [22]
book list 2008 [21]
book list 2009 [12]
book list 2018 [6]
book list 2019 [10]
book list 2020 [3]
books [1]
burglary is no fun at all [14]
camia [17]
cape cod [1]
cat's wedding [6]
college [152]
compare and contrast
- lww [6]
computers [233]
cotton candy bingo [65]
covid 19 [32]
critics united [8]
crossover [180]
daredevil bingo [7]
daredevil secret santa [10]
december talking meme [33]
decluttering [42]
depression sucks [78]
directory [30]
drabbles [49]
dreams [49]
editing [66]
ekanu thousandbirds [65]
embroidery and cross-stitch [4]
end-of-year writing review [13]
essay [79]
etwas deutsches [5]
everyday life [1968]
exchange letter
- betapalooza [1]
- jadefest [1]
- ladystuck [4]
- nfe [11]
- palestuck [1]
- remixredux [5]
- yuletide [16]
fable/fairy tale [50]
family [621]
fan_flashworks [11]
fandom [339]
fandom trumps hate [3]
fandom
- a song of ice and fire [5]
- a wrinkle in time [1]
- acts of caine [4]
- addams family [1]
- agent carter [1]
- american gods [3]
- an ash-blonde witch [2]
- andre norton [2]
- angel sanctuary [71]
- anita blake [35]
- arthurian mythology [3]
- avatar the last airbender [32]
- batman [21]
- black jewels [25]
- black panther [2]
- bleach [1]
- books of the raksura [11]
- bourne trilogy [3]
- brother cadfael [1]
- btvs [92]
- captain america [11]
- cardcaptor sakura [6]
- chalion [5]
- charlotte's web [4]
- children of the star [6]
- chronicles of narnia [435]
- code geass [11]
- damar [2]
- daredevil [61]
- dark is rising [18]
- dbz [2]
- dcu [2]
- death note [8]
- defenders [6]
- diana wynne jones [15]
- digger [1]
- discworld [7]
- doctor who [23]
- dragaera [2]
- dresden files [1]
- duck hunt [1]
- enchanted forest chronicles [57]
- ender's game [4]
- falling skies [1]
- final fantasy 7 [31]
- final fantasy 8 [1]
- firefly [2]
- gi joe rise of cobra [13]
- girl genius [6]
- girl with the silver eyes [3]
- glee [3]
- goblin emperor [1]
- gormenghast [15]
- greek myth [2]
- guardians of the galaxy [10]
- gundam wing [48]
- hainish cycle [1]
- hamilton [4]
- hamlet [1]
- hannibal [5]
- haroun and the sea of stories [1]
- harry potter [483]
- heroes [5]
- hexwood [4]
- hikaru no go [2]
- homestuck [401]
- homeward bounders [8]
- howl's moving castle [5]
- imperial radch [1]
- inception [64]
- indiana jones [6]
- jessica jones [5]
- jonathan strange & mr norrell [1]
- king lear [2]
- kuroko no basuke [1]
- labyrinth [16]
- leverage [6]
- lions of al-rassan [12]
- looney tunes [1]
- lucifer [24]
- macbeth [3]
- mad max [6]
- mcu [55]
- merlin [11]
- murderbot diaries [10]
- mysterious skin [4]
- naruto [455]
- nine worlds [11]
- othello [1]
- oz [7]
- pacific rim [1]
- percy jackson [1]
- pern [2]
- project hail mary [1]
- psion series [2]
- psy-changeling [1]
- ranma 1/2 [10]
- riddle-master [8]
- rise of the guardians [4]
- rusty quill gaming [11]
- saga of the skolian empire [9]
- sailor moon [10]
- saiyuki [11]
- seaward [7]
- sesame street [2]
- shakespeare [7]
- six of crows [4]
- sky high [1]
- snake fight thesis defense [2]
- song for the basilisk [3]
- spider-man [1]
- spinning silver [1]
- star trek [99]
- star wars [14]
- stargate sg-1 [5]
- supernatural [1]
- susan cooper [9]
- tam lin (pamela dean) [6]
- taz balance [1]
- temeraire [2]
- the bible [6]
- the darkangel [55]
- the dispossessed [13]
- the hidden almanac [1]
- the hunger games [1]
- the magnus archives [40]
- the martian [1]
- the queen's thief [7]
- the sandman [10]
- tolkien (middle earth) [11]
- trigun [4]
- ursula vernon [1]
- valdemar [1]
- victoria goddard [19]
- villains by necessity [3]
- vorkosigan saga [12]
- welcome to night vale [3]
- westmark [2]
- white collar [7]
- witch world [1]
- wolf hall [3]
- wonder woman [1]
- x-men [17]
- yu-gi-oh [6]
fat bear week [1]
february shitposting meme [14]
femgenficathon [54]
fic [1153]
- a song of ice and fire [3]
- addams family [1]
- agent carter [1]
- american gods [3]
- an ash-blonde witch [2]
- angel sanctuary [35]
- anita blake [27]
- arthurian mythology [3]
- avatar the last airbender [8]
- batman [7]
- black jewels [10]
- black panther [1]
- books of the raksura [4]
- bourne trilogy [3]
- btvs [69]
- captain america [8]
- cardcaptor sakura [4]
- chalion [5]
- charlotte's web [4]
- children of the star [2]
- chronicles of narnia [194]
- code geass [5]
- damar [2]
- daredevil [30]
- dark is rising [15]
- dbz [2]
- death note [4]
- defenders [4]
- diana wynne jones [10]
- digger [1]
- discworld [6]
- doctor who [9]
- dragaera [1]
- duck hunt [1]
- enchanted forest chronicles [34]
- ender's game [3]
- final fantasy 7 [4]
- firefly [1]
- gi joe rise of cobra [1]
- girl genius [4]
- girl with the silver eyes [3]
- glee [3]
- gormenghast [4]
- greek myth [2]
- guardians of the galaxy [9]
- gundam wing [37]
- hamilton [4]
- hamlet [1]
- haroun and the sea of stories [1]
- harry potter [207]
- hexwood [3]
- hikaru no go [2]
- homestuck [190]
- homeward bounders [7]
- howl's moving castle [5]
- imperial radch [1]
- inception [49]
- indiana jones [4]
- jessica jones [4]
- king lear [2]
- labyrinth [12]
- leverage [3]
- lions of al-rassan [1]
- looney tunes [1]
- lucifer [11]
- macbeth [2]
- mad max [5]
- mcu [37]
- merlin [8]
- murderbot diaries [7]
- naruto [160]
- nine worlds [8]
- othello [1]
- oz [7]
- pern [2]
- project hail mary [1]
- ranma 1/2 [8]
- riddle-master [1]
- rise of the guardians [3]
- rusty quill gaming [4]
- sailor moon [8]
- saiyuki [6]
- seaward [5]
- shakespeare [6]
- six of crows [4]
- spinning silver [1]
- star trek [35]
- star wars [6]
- stargate sg-1 [5]
- susan cooper [8]
- tam lin (pamela dean) [5]
- taz balance [1]
- temeraire [2]
- the bible [5]
- the darkangel [24]
- the hidden almanac [1]
- the hunger games [1]
- the magnus archives [30]
- the nightingale [1]
- the queen's thief [4]
- the sandman [6]
- tolkien (middle earth) [8]
- valdemar [1]
- victoria goddard [13]
- vorkosigan saga [7]
- welcome to night vale [2]
- white collar [3]
- wolf hall [3]
- x-men [14]
- yu-gi-oh [4]
ficathon [47]
financial stuff [122]
firsthome [84]
food [198]
fragment [62]
friends [225]
fun with coloring books [5]
genprompt bingo [39]
get your words out [6]
giftfic [128]
gifts [17]
grrr argh [507]
headdesk [6]
hetswap 2018 [4]
housing [167]
how is this my life [562]
humor [59]
ice cream sundae [10]
imaginary maps [7]
imsim [2]
intarre [7]
ironheart's war [11]
ithaca local [586]
ithaca paranormal [7]
jadefest [12]
joseph gordon-levitt (don't ask why) [14]
kanos [18]
kerr [2]
kinkmeme promptfic [22]
ladies bingo [24]
ladypalooza 2015 [5]
ladystuck [56]
ladystuck 2012 [8]
ladystuck 2013 [15]
ladystuck 2014 [10]
ladystuck 2015 [5]
ladystuck blind [4]
ladystuck remix [13]
lgbtfest [6]
linkspam [150]
liz attempts to cook [152]
liz edits stuff [1]
liz has a car! [14]
liz is thinky [791]
liz moves to minnesota [4]
liz stabs cloth with needles [3]
liz talks about personal stuff [657]
liz's adventures in video editing [5]
lydia winters [2]
madison [112]
master list of recs for my work [1]
medical [383]
meme [215]
mercverse [31]
meta [158]
mini-ficlet prompt meme [48]
minnesota [89]
misc fanfic [77]
monologue [19]
music [67]
nano 2004 [15]
nano 2006 [18]
nano 2007 [2]
nano 2008 [10]
nano 2010 [15]
nano 2011 [2]
nano 2012 [1]
nanowrimo [63]
narcissus project
- take 1 [2]
- take 2 [11]
narnia after dark [2]
narnia big bang [26]
narnia fic exchange [140]
narnia genderswap [9]
neighbors [54]
onion project
- 2017 [2]
original story [229]
ouroboros mix [13]
palestuck [4]
palestuck 2016 [4]
pat [19]
pepper project
- 2013 [21]
- 2014 [25]
- 2015 [17]
- 2016 [66]
- 2017 [32]
- 2018 [1]
- 2022 [1]
petunia evans dursley [9]
photographic proof [189]
plagiarism [1]
please help [120]
podfics and translations [15]
poetry [20]
politics [91]
poll [20]
questions [109]
quotes [120]
rain in spain falls mainly on the plain [13]
random [204]
rant [87]
reading [150]
recs [100]
religious education [158]
remix 2006 [10]
remix 2008 [16]
remix 2009 [15]
remix 2010 [23]
remix 2011 [23]
remix 2012 [12]
remix 2014 [13]
remix 2015 [6]
remix 2016 [1]
remix 2017 [4]
remix 2018 [6]
remix 2019 [4]
remix 2020 [3]
remix 2021 [4]
remix revival [18]
remixredux [132]
rereading secrets [14]
research [45]
reviews [318]
riverrun [3]
smoke shop [2]
snowflake challenge [8]
squash project
- 2017 [22]
- 2022 [1]
squee [196]
star island [127]
susan's wedding [8]
tales from the pit of voles [38]
thirtyforthree [91]
this is my heart let me show it to you [1]
thoughts on calormen [34]
three sentence ficathon [108]
travel [194]
unitarian universalist [503]
us politics [1]
vacation [105]
weather [224]
weirdness happens [55]
wip big bang [34]
work
- health garage [12]
- icsd [8]
- job searching [50]
- monopoly houses [502]
- not the irs [308]
- smoke shop [449]
world-building [229]
writing [1271]
wtf [96]
yuletide [191]
yuletide 2008 [13]
yuletide 2009 [24]
yuletide 2010 [17]
yuletide 2011 [17]
yuletide 2012 [15]
yuletide 2013 [20]
yuletide 2014 [6]
yuletide 2015 [8]
yuletide 2016 [17]
yuletide 2017 [7]
yuletide 2018 [12]
yuletide 2019 [10]
yuletide 2020 [7]
yuletide 2021 [4]
yuletide 2022 [7]
yuletide 2023 [3]

Page Summary

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags