rambles

I'm in that stage with my WIP where it's not so much a WIP as a jumble of notes and despair. The problem with "just write X words per day" is that it doesn't really leave time for this part of the process: the ruminating and complaining and taking walks and creating the fucking outline, which, for character-driven stories, is so difficult for me.

Do you have a method for kick-starting that process? Just barf some words onto the page and see how that goes? Force a friend to listen to you ramble? Outline the emotional beats you need to hit and then fit the canon/made-up scenes around that? (That's not a bad idea, actually.) Procrastinate on social media?

In other news, I haven't been reading a lot of fic in YOI so far -- when I'm writing a lot in a fandom, especially when it's new, I tend not to read very much -- but I read almost everything in Choc Box (except some threesomes and a crossover) and it was great! So one of my goals is to do a bunch more reading, especially for rare pairs. But I may need to wait until this WIP is drafted to jump on that.

Another goal is to write something for YOI that's more plot-driven and light-hearted. YOI came along at a time when I was longing for a fandom with adult characters with sexual histories that I could write dirty porn about without having to age characters up first. (Not aging up for purity reasons; more wanting the characters to be sexually experienced.) And I have SO enjoyed that! But it's pretty far from my usual sports-series fare. (That said, the Idea Jar is far too full of stuff that makes me go, "Ooh, everyone is going to hate that but I'm going to write it anyhow.")

How do you pick which ideas to write (or draw or vid or ...)?