(no subject)

[arcanetrivia]

help

how do i tell whether this fic that is ~19k and still growing (although the end is in sight) is ok because people are not telepathic (in this universe) and if they started out kinda cold and antagonistic but want to persuade each other to do things then they just have to talk it out and that takes time and also actions take time, or is just really boring and dragging its feet and should be cut down by at least half because snap it up binch, this is all taking place inside of a couple hours at most, there's no call for so much verbal meandering?

also i have literally had to draw maps of the rooms to keep track of where each of 7 people is. is that normal?

Comments

[shivver]

I can't really comment about your first question, because it really depends on the fic and the circumstances. Prose isn't limited by the amount of time it takes to read it - for a meaty, introspective fic, for example, it might take ten hours of reading time to cover two hours of real in-universe time.

As far as mapping things out goes, perfectly normal, at least for me. I find it essential to map out locations, in my mind for simple places and on paper for more complex ones. I designed my own fifteenth century convent for one of my fics, so that I could accurately tell where everyone was. I also have a tendency to get up and move around like my characters as I reread things, so that I can tell where people are in relation to each other, what they're seeing, and whether or not they can physically do something (like, hey, Will is already kneeling, he can't kneel again now).

[arcanetrivia]

I have definitely done the get-up-and-walk-around thing for this too.