Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2005-06-03 09:06 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2005-06-03 09:06 pm
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Purely out of curiosity, I'd like to ask those of you who write fanfiction (or any kind of fiction, really), how you go about it.
What generally inspires you to write a story? Is it usually a mental image, or a phrase or scene or sentence that just pops into your head, and you write the story around that? If so, do these snippets tend to be a beginning, an ending, or something in the middle? Is it more often a general concept for a story? Do you seek out challenges in the hope that they will inspire you to write? Is your inspiration completely unpredictable?
Do you prefer working with already-established characters or your own? When and if you include original characters in your fanfiction, is it more from an interest in the original character or because of something that the character contributes to the plot? Do you spend a lot of time designing original characters, or do they sneakily move into your head and redecorate the creative part of your mind to suit their purposes?
Are you writing the characters, or are the characters writing you? ...okay, that made no sense whatsoever. What I mean is, do you feel that you're in control and deciding what the characters do/say, or do the characters take the reins and say, "I'm going to do it this way. Just try to stop me. I dare you."?
Are you more confident with character or with plot? Do you prefer writing dialogue or descriptions?
Do endings come easily to you?
Do you plan your stories in advance, and if so, why? Is it because you feel that you need a plan in order to ensure that the story has a chance of being completed in the next millenium, rather than following every shiny new plot idea you come up with and suddenly having a million loose ends to tie up? Do you feel more confident when you're sure of the direction in which you're going? Do you tend to stick to your plans, or do you end up scrapping them completely halfway through?
What genres do you find yourself writing in most? Which do you avoid? Any particular reasons?
If you found yourself in the middle of a featureless wasteland and suddenly had a fantastic idea for a new story/a story you were working on and having trouble with, and you would forget the idea unless you recorded it immediately, and you had no pens or paper, and the only way of recording it was to burn it into your clothes with a convenient magnifying glass, and it was your favourite shirt, would you?
Do you find it easier to write long or short stories? Do you tend to write a fic in one sitting, or spread it out over a period of time? Do you usually write from beginning to end, or do you skip ahead and write scenes and sentences as they come to mind, or do you write the whole thing backwards?
Do your stories ever get finished, or do you have a tendency to get bored and move on to the next?
If you get a fic idea that is completely on crack, do you write it anyway? (Damn you, Doctor Who/Silent Hill crossover! Why the hell am I writing you?)
And, of course, the question which everyone asks: why do you write?
By no means should you feel obliged to answer all of these questions (or, indeed, any of them), or to hold back something about your writing methods if it's not asked about here. I'm just rambling, really. In lots-of-questions format. Yes.
If I get any answers, I promise that they will not be used to sneakily write a dissertation or anything of the sort - this is genuinely just because I like hearing about the writing methods of other people. If I or any friend/member of my family should happen to want to use them for anything else in the future, I will obviously ask your permission first.
What generally inspires you to write a story? Is it usually a mental image, or a phrase or scene or sentence that just pops into your head, and you write the story around that? If so, do these snippets tend to be a beginning, an ending, or something in the middle? Is it more often a general concept for a story? Do you seek out challenges in the hope that they will inspire you to write? Is your inspiration completely unpredictable?
Do you prefer working with already-established characters or your own? When and if you include original characters in your fanfiction, is it more from an interest in the original character or because of something that the character contributes to the plot? Do you spend a lot of time designing original characters, or do they sneakily move into your head and redecorate the creative part of your mind to suit their purposes?
Are you writing the characters, or are the characters writing you? ...okay, that made no sense whatsoever. What I mean is, do you feel that you're in control and deciding what the characters do/say, or do the characters take the reins and say, "I'm going to do it this way. Just try to stop me. I dare you."?
Are you more confident with character or with plot? Do you prefer writing dialogue or descriptions?
Do endings come easily to you?
Do you plan your stories in advance, and if so, why? Is it because you feel that you need a plan in order to ensure that the story has a chance of being completed in the next millenium, rather than following every shiny new plot idea you come up with and suddenly having a million loose ends to tie up? Do you feel more confident when you're sure of the direction in which you're going? Do you tend to stick to your plans, or do you end up scrapping them completely halfway through?
What genres do you find yourself writing in most? Which do you avoid? Any particular reasons?
If you found yourself in the middle of a featureless wasteland and suddenly had a fantastic idea for a new story/a story you were working on and having trouble with, and you would forget the idea unless you recorded it immediately, and you had no pens or paper, and the only way of recording it was to burn it into your clothes with a convenient magnifying glass, and it was your favourite shirt, would you?
Do you find it easier to write long or short stories? Do you tend to write a fic in one sitting, or spread it out over a period of time? Do you usually write from beginning to end, or do you skip ahead and write scenes and sentences as they come to mind, or do you write the whole thing backwards?
Do your stories ever get finished, or do you have a tendency to get bored and move on to the next?
If you get a fic idea that is completely on crack, do you write it anyway? (Damn you, Doctor Who/Silent Hill crossover! Why the hell am I writing you?)
And, of course, the question which everyone asks: why do you write?
By no means should you feel obliged to answer all of these questions (or, indeed, any of them), or to hold back something about your writing methods if it's not asked about here. I'm just rambling, really. In lots-of-questions format. Yes.
If I get any answers, I promise that they will not be used to sneakily write a dissertation or anything of the sort - this is genuinely just because I like hearing about the writing methods of other people. If I or any friend/member of my family should happen to want to use them for anything else in the future, I will obviously ask your permission first.
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Most of my story ideas divebomb me while I'm not paying attention. I'll be sitting in class, or doodling, or playing a video game, and something will hit me. It's just a moment of 'this, you have to write this'. Often the idea is accompanied by a key scene in the whole, or even reams of mental dialouge.
It depends on what fandom I'm in, when it comes to original characters. With Mercedes Lackey fandom, since she doesn't like us fiddling around with her characters, it's accepted and the norm. So my OCs get attention, detail, creativety. In my other fandoms most, if not all, of that is devoted toward the characters I can already work with. OCs are mostly filler in those stories.
My characters forbid me from writing them OOC. Which I know sounds crazy, but there you go.
Um, I usually know where my stories are going, and where they're ending, but the middle fills itself out as it goes along. I definitely don't write things in order.
I'm a sucker for romance, I have to admit. I try to avoid action because I cannot for the life of me write battle scenes.
I'm not that attached to shirts anyway.
I usually end up writing longer fic, just because my ideas tend to be more expansive. I like subplots and intrigue and things being slightly drawn out. But I do like to write a drabble every so often, though when my fics are short, they're short. When I'm writing on my computer I write beginning to end, chapter by chapter, but I have a writing notebook that houses all ideas and future scenes. I have about two future chapters of Bandages written that won't come for awhile yet. Not everything from the Notebook of Doom makes it into the story, however.
Most of my stories don't get finished, not because I'm bored, but because I find myself displeased with something. Either the plot got away from me, or my writing style evolved and I can't look on the story as anything but crap, etcetera. I think I've currently settled into a place where I'm only writing fics that are my view of quality, with controlled plots, so maybe I'll -finally- finish something.
I write because I have to. If all these ideas were in my head with no outlet, I'd go insane. And I enjoy it, I really enjoy having something I'm semi-good at, and sharing it with people. And the ego-petting from reviews doesn't hurt. *preens* XP
Rambling for everyone!
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Ideas often come to me when I'm lying in bed at night (I tend to listen to really loud music for a good hour before sleeping), but sometimes I'll be thinking about random fandom (whee rhyming!) stuff while I go about my everyday things and suddenly I'll think 'ooh fanfic idea!' (That happened today and now it won't leave me alone. Go away, idea, I'm still working on a fanfic.)
I do stuff for
The latter gives lyrics and that's just a case of 'if it brings to mind a scenario, I'll write it; if not, I won't bother'.
With the long-ish fic I'm writing at the moment, I'm trying to stick to perfect chapter order... But I've gotten the final few paragraphs (at least I know the ending, I suppose - but then, the fic ends when canon starts, so it's hardly a challenge. ^^) and a couple of snippets from in the middle done while I'm working on my writer's block on chapter 3, so that's not working too well.
I prefer already established characters. Maybe I'm just too lazy to create my own, I don't know. ^^; I have started to create an original character for a fic as a sort of 'I wonder if I could' type thing, and I have a few specific traits in mind for her (a bit of a sycophant, bossy, eventually develops a crush on a canon character - who would rather date an octopus with halitosis, natch) but apart from that, she writes herself, sort of.
Usually we sort of come to an agreement (just to clarify, I don't have voices in my head and I don't actually talk to them. ^^), but there are times when I want something to happen and it ends up not working the way I want it because the characters dig their heels in. Then I get sneaky and work around it. *sticks tongue out at characters*
I think I'm better at description, although I occasionally like writing dialogue; I always get worried that the characters are doing too much talking and nothing else is happening.
I try to plan ahead with my fanfics because I'm terrified of writing myself into a corner, but it rarely works. My plans either don't work in practise or I don't want to write what I've planned, one or the other.
Genre... My drabbles tend to be all over the place when it comes to genre, so I don't think I have any preferences.
*laughs at featureless wasteland story* Possibly, if I didn't think I'd be able to remember it and if I didn't think anyone would see the shirt.
Short stories, definitely. I lose interest in the middle of my long ones a lot of the time, and while I'm trying to kick the habit of being the literary equivalent of a goldfish, I'm not sure if it's working. ^_^
My stories never get finished, not the long ones, anyway - like I said, though, trying to kick that habit.
Why do I write? It's fun. I like doing it and it's my way of saying 'what if this happened?' - plus, when canon doesn't make me squee enough, fanfic can do that.
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* Yes, but I don't post it.
...okay, now I actually feel obliged to talk about stuff because otherwise it'd be kind of jerky. I don't really write much of anything. The only stuff that I post is really short. I'm currently trying to write something that's longer, but I have a really hard time because I tend to work in spurts. ...so basically if it doesn't get done when I start writing it, it tends to just sit on the backburner forever. This is why I don't really consider myself a fanfic author. I spend lots of time thinking, no time writing. Eheh.
EDIT: Yes, I did post and delete this three times. I kept screwing up the HTML.
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Depends on the character. Sometimes they just wander off by themselves, and then I've got no choice but to go along for the ride. (But that's okay, because I can always edit it out afterwards.)
I have never properly planned a story in my life. It seems like a waste of time. Well, not a waste...I just think that all the time I spend planning the story would be better used writing it. ^^; (Incidentally, remember TDSL? That's why I'm having so much trouble with it. I have to refine every single chapter I write about a million times over before I'm satisfied that it's suitable for public view.)
I find endings very difficult, because I always find myself thinking about what might come next.
"If you found yourself in the middle of a featureless wasteland and suddenly had a fantastic idea for a new story/a story you were working on and having trouble with, and you would forget the idea unless you recorded it immediately, and you had no pens or paper, and the only way of recording it was to burn it into your clothes with a convenient magnifying glass, and it was your favourite shirt, would you?"
No. I'd use my trousers =D Or my legs. Or arms. Or I'd burn it into the sand and when the rescue helicopters came I'd make them hover over the wasteland for long enough for me to write it down.
It is incredibly rare that my fics get finished on the same day that I started writing them, although it's not unheard of for me to switch off all my messengers, put up Word and have a finished fic a couple of hours later ^^; But then I sleep on it and reread in the morning. Any niddly little errors tend to come into focus after that. It's usual for me to have two or three fics going at once, but I only ever have one chaptered fic going. Otherwise I lose the plot. (Metaphorically.) If I got a completely-on-crack fic idea, I would probably write it - whether I would show it to anyone else is another story.
I tend to avoid writing...well, anything ^^; The genre shapes itself with the story, if that makes sense. And I would never insert an original character into a fandom - working with the ones already there is so much more fun.
And I write because...I don't know, actually. Because I can, I guess. I enjoy it and I might actually have something to share with the world in general; I've hardly got anything to lose by it, so why not?
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I like established minor characters, who exist but didn't get a lot of attention so we don't know much about them. That may be another reason why I like FF8 so much; very few characters got the attention I felt they deserved. I'll also make up characters rather freely, but they're usually there because I want them there because they can relate to the main characters in some special way. I don't think I've ever built a fanfic around someone I just made up. I'm definitely more comfortable with plot, but hate writing description; dialogue comes much more easily.
Middles come very hard for me, so I rarely ever get to the ending. I don't recall ever having much trouble when I get there, though.
I'm fairly sure I write the characters, but I am not at all sure I'm writing the story; quite often I've had a plot run away with me. Only once have I really tried to plan out, point by point, where a story is going, and then because it was the second part of another story that was only supposed to have one part. My patience with runaway stories has its limits. (I've been working on that story for like three years and aren't close to finishing it. Go figure.)
I like science fiction, and fantasy within limits. I've written basic drama once in a while, but never finished anything. I find it easier to start writing long stories, but near impossible to finish them; ideas for short stories come harder to me, but I'm much likely to get them done when they do. Typically with long stories I write them chronologically, because if I try to write ahead I'll have to rewrite it anyway when the story actually gets there, thanks to the story-running-away-from-me thing.
I keep story ideas in my head, so I'd probably keep my shirt. Depends on how long I'd spend in the wasteland after getting the idea, though. Most stories that stray too far from sanity just remain ideas in my head. (Most.)
I have no clue why I write. Possibly it stems from the persistent feeling that I could imagine something way cooler than my actual life.
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With fanfic, I prefer already-established characters, and I don't think I have ever used OCs in fanfic.
Oooh, they are DEFINITELY writing me.
I prefer writing dialogue, because it's more fun. I prefer to write humour, and for me that depends on dialogue a LOT.
Endings? Nah, not really. Hard to wrap up sometimes. Titles are even worse.
With short stories I usually know what's going to happen, but for longer things like Nanowrimo I haven't a clue. I start somewhere and see where I end up. It's fun.
Humour, definitely. I suck at romance, I always make myself cringe. Don't think I could do angst and drama too well either.
hope it would come back.
For fanfic, short. I'm not really the epic writing type, and once I get started writing, I prefer not to stop, but sometimes I have to.
Well, I may write it, but I may not put it on the net and keep it around just for kicks or something.
Because it's FUN!
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(Of course, I'm really responding to tell you that your icon should get some sort of award.)
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A theme that wasn't well-explored in canon, an intriguing characterization point, a crackfic idea that's too funny not to write.
I like drabble challenges, because drabbles are so short that they work just fine for illustrating small ideas.
Do you prefer working with already-established characters or your own? Oh, fanfic. I've done both, but writing my own characters is work, and writing fanfic is fun.
do you feel that you're in control and deciding what the characters do/say, or do the characters take the reins. It depends on how well I know the character. And then it's not the character taking the reins, it's me groaning at the OOC crap I wrote, and deleting it.
Are you more confident with character or with plot? Do you prefer writing dialogue or descriptions?
Am minimalist. Character good. Plot good. Dialog okay. Must I describe?
Do endings come easily to you?
No, but the stories need a good one. I tend towards shorter stories, and the shorter, the more important a good ending is.
Re: burning a favorite shirt... I had a great story idea once while I was up a 3-story ladder. It was such a great idea that I laughed uproariously, and slid off. Miraculously unhurt. Since then, I've been much more inclined to let story ideas go if I can't conveniently write them down. I also no longer take jobs that require climbing ladders regularly.
Do you tend to write a fic in one sitting Yup.
why do you write? Because I have to tell stories, and sometimes I have stories to tell.
Part One...
Usually, I get my ideas for stories from reading/watching other things. When reading a novel, a character might mention something that happened in their past, and I decide to write about a similar thing happening from someone else's viewpoint or something. Or a poem might give an idea of a situation, or there might be past events that I read about and want to present from a different viewpoint. It's all about the viewpoints. :)
Do you prefer working with already-established characters or your own?
While I'm really moving on to original fiction now, I find that fanfiction and RPing are like comfort zones for me- I know the characters, and I can write about them, and I don't have to put work into creating them. I tend to use original characters as little as possible in fanfic, except in my Marvellously Perfectly Wonderful Mary Sue parody. If I do use original characters in fanfic, it tends to be from more of a plot point of view than anything- though in Harry Potter, my main fandom (if I have one), there's a cast of many and I can just have any random person doing something. Though I also like giving minor characters a turn in the spotlight- Marietta Edgecomb and Parvati Patil, for example.
Are you writing the characters, or are the characters writing you? ...okay, that made no sense whatsoever. What I mean is, do you feel that you're in control and deciding what the characters do/say, or do the characters take the reins and say, "I'm going to do it this way. Just try to stop me. I dare you."?
I'm writing it. Totally in control. That doesn't mean I write it well, just that I'm always fully aware of what I'm writing and I can delete it if I don't like it.
Are you more confident with character or with plot? Do you prefer writing dialogue or descriptions?
I hate coming up with plot. I'll have basic ideas for it, but I can never get ideas for scenes or anything that aren't really cliched. So definitely characters (though my characters usually need another draft to properly flesh them out). I can write dialogue, I can write descriptions, but neither of them brilliantly. I write in a certain style a lot, which I count as my shining point... thingy...
Do endings come easily to you?
Not really. I never seem to end it at the right point, and my endings are never dramatic- always understated, rarely happy and rarely horribly tragic. I wouldn't end a story at "I love you"; I'd end it at the bit where the "I love you"s have gone on for a bit and the main character wanders off somewhere and talks to people and argues a lot (my characters are great at arguing, mainly because I can't think of anything else), then ends up somewhere perfectly random and I'll cut it off, just like that.
Do you plan your stories in advance, and if so, why?
I do plan my stories, with at least very basic ideas for each scene. I still have loose ends, but at least it's vaguely focused. And I think I do feel more confident about it, though it's more fun to just write randomly, which is what I'm doing for my Mary Sue Parody of DOOM. I tend to stick to my plans, but I think that could be a downside- although I get stuff finished, it doesn't always achieve anything I wanted it to.
Part Two...
I write romance/YA mostly, and occasionally attempt lit fic. That's mostly because I tend to avoid all others in horrible fear. I want to try historical fiction, but I don't think I could ever keep to it for very long.
If you found yourself in the middle of a featureless wasteland and suddenly had a fantastic idea for a new story/a story you were working on and having trouble with, and you would forget the idea unless you recorded it immediately, and you had no pens or paper, and the only way of recording it was to burn it into your clothes with a convenient magnifying glass, and it was your favourite shirt, would you?
This shirt? Maybe on the back... *is apprehensive* Then it wouldn't hurt the unicorn and the swirly bits.
Do you find it easier to write long or short stories?
Um, I put less effort altogether into short stories, but less effort per word in long ones. So if you're doing it by word count, long stories, but I like writing short stories so much more!
Do you tend to write a fic in one sitting, or spread it out over a period of time?
Not over a long period of time, but not in one sitting. Maybe two or three. I've got into the habit of handwriting things first, too, so I can look over them when I type them up.
Do you usually write from beginning to end, or do you skip ahead and write scenes and sentences as they come to mind, or do you write the whole thing backwards?
Well, I wrote my NaNoWriMo from beginning to end, but that was because it was the first large-scale project I'd ever undertaken, I think. Next time I'll try writing whatever part I want to write.
Do your stories ever get finished, or do you have a tendency to get bored and move on to the next?
I finished WriMo, and that's pretty much the only non-short story I've written, but I tend to finish them if I start them. Most things I never actually start, but even if it's months later I usually dig it up and get to work on it again.
If you get a fic idea that is completely on crack, do you write it anyway? (Damn you, Doctor Who/Silent Hill crossover! Why the hell am I writing you?)
Yes! I once wrote Sam Vimes/himself from Discworld, and I'm planning some crazier ones, including one with a band called The Candyland Revolutionaries. (I didn't come up with the name, but it's a cool & strange idea.)
And, of course, the question which everyone asks: why do you write?
Because I feel like it.