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I haven't written anything non-work related in over a year. I'd felt this weepy sort of defeatist doom over this fact until I remembered (sometime today) that I'm an amateur, unpublished writer, with no readers, crit group, or...anything. At one time I would have felt like that combination of facts equaled rock bottom, but I've have this fantastic realization that what I've really got on my hands is a clean slate.

I can write anything. I can outline a plot, or not. I can do complex character sheets with corresponding visuals, or not. I can get involved in crit groups, communities, organizations, writing books, etc. or not...and I think you get the point. I've had this half-baked mystery fighting the constraints of word count goals, self-imposed deadlines, promises to my crit partner, etc. floating around in my head for years, but after leaving the characters alone for so long they are starting to play around in my imagination again. They're doing that great "movie in my mind" thing while I'm driving, showering, doing dishes, etc. and hinting that they just might behave and let me pin them down with written words if I don't constrain them too much with writerly STUFF.

Please don't let me ruin this by strangling my ideas, and please let me know if you are having luck with projects- either in an organized, goal-driven fashion or with more of a hair-brained just-for-fun sort of method.

I've missed you, fiction_transitions! I sincerely hope all is well with everyone.

capriuni

Hello!

For the most part, I've never written fanfiction, but eleven years ago, an original character popped into my head, who's very existence has been dependent on the Doctor Who universe.

Eloise was "born" in the Usenet Newsgroup Rec.arts.drwho [aka RADW]. At the time, there was an angry and protracted flame-war going on between two factions of fans. The newsgroup was filled with people accusing each other of being either a Pro-Pertwee or Pro-McCoy troll. One day, I admitted that I came into the forum to have Fun, and one of my friends, in a friendly way, accused me of being a "Pro-fun Troll." And with that, Eloise "popped" into existence (that's her, in the icon).

Over the course of the next four or five years (depending on how you count), I hosted, through her, a series of Pro-Fun Round-Robin fanfics. At first, she was just a way for me to "link" the different aspects of the stories that other people were writing -- as "hostess," she was free to wander among groups of guests, and thus be able plausibly spread information to the characters who needed it. Over that same time, her own back-story and character deepened (And she gained a family who "co-hosted" the parties with her -- even a new Time Lord, from the ancient history of Gallifrey), even though she had no real existence outside these annual parties. Every other "guest" at the parties had their own fictions to return to, and she did not.

Last year, I realized that had to change, and it was time to give Eloise her own existence, without owing a debt to either the BBC or any of my friends, who'd helped create her universe.

But that means carefully unweaving her from one tapestry and reweaving her into another, without losing her archetypal essence.

And that's going to be the tricky part. Right now, I'm debating whether, and by how much, I should borrow from traditional Scandinavian Troll Folklore and how much to make her a different sort of being altogether, out of whole cloth, so to speak. And also whether to place her universe in the age of the Internet, or in pre-Industrial, agricultural times.

I'm not sure I have any specific questions at this point, but I just wanted to air what I'm working through, so when I come in in a week or two, babbling incoherently about whether a ringing church bell can wreak havoc on an Internet connection, you'll have some idea why. ;-)

charamei

Anyone got any good tips, or know of any good articles, on finding the way 'in' to a world?

I'm in an irritating position where I have two WIPs - one totally original, one a transition - and the original one has a fantastic world that's really easy to work with, but no coherent plot or beginning as yet, whereas the other has plot, characters and the flattiest flat flat world you'll ever see.

finch

Sign ups for both

originalbigbang and

novel_bigbang on LJ are now open for 2011!

I seem to have signed up for both. Hm. Wonder how that happened.

Also open for signup is

junetide, a DW-located Yuletide-style original fic/art exchange.

In the ongoing battle for an audience, these sorts of things can be a great way to get involved, get cheerleaders, get feedback, and so on.

finch

So guys, given the theme of this comm I can guess what you're going to tell me, but basically I need reassurance. I have a character named Testing, an OC from the Danger Days universe based around My Chemical Romance's new album. (Ridiculous names are de rigueur in that universe.)

I've been playing around with him a bit and I'm thinking about just making him totally OC and doing my own post-apocalyptic universe where I can fuck around to my heart's content with all the toys I like from Danger Days and Repo! and Uglies and suchlike. I already even have a bit of a start on a post-apocalyptic story, I've just not been able to decide what to do with it, and maybe this will get me to work on it.

But of course, Danger Days has a surprisingly active, OC-heavy fandom and that's pretty exciting.

So what do you think? Does it make a difference? Should I take out the (nonexistent) references to (nearly nonexistent) canon?

Crossposted from my journal.

finch

Hey, guys, Yuletide signups are open. Yuletide is a nifty little holiday fic exchange for rare fandoms.

But how is this relevant to original fiction, you ask?

Many of the fandoms are more like guidelines than canons if you like writing historical, religious, or humor fiction. There's "historial RPF," where you would be signing up to write historical fiction about specific famous people and various mythologies listed as fandoms so you could write a story about Jesus, Isis or Theseus. There are songs and albums listed as fandoms so you could write stories based on your favorite songs. And there are lots of other random topics like "computer anthropomorfic" where you would write about a modem and a router having a torrid affair or something.

Since once of the big drawbacks to making the transition is the lack of audience, Yuletide is perfect - not only do you have a guaranteed audience of one but you have pretty good odds that quite a few people will read and you might get recced as well.

vanessagalore

I found this article via the Erotic Authors Association (an lj comm). Some NSFW content, if you interpret that strictly. It's slanted toward slash writers trying to convert their fanfic to publishable stories, but much of what the author says would apply to non-sexual fanfic as well. I found it very encouraging, and it's a fun read. If nothing else, her techniques could be a great exercise to jump start your writing.

Mod: please feel free to take this down if it is inappropriate in any way.

groovekittie

Anyone signing up again this year? I already have. I will be continuing the same novel I started last year for '09, but with a fresh wordcount. I never did finish the story, and I really want to finish it. So I'll be using nano to help add to it. :D Woo! NANO!

Current Mood: hopeful

rydra_wong

I'm having a really hard time starting from scratch without an established canon to "bounce off".

I can come up with world-building ideas, but struggle with generating characters I find compelling enough to write about.

Anyone got any tips?

(Lucky bastards whose characters just turn up whole and entire in their heads and start chatting away are disqualified from answering *g*.)

aurora89

Alright, I have 4 characters loosely based on existing characters in a fandom I'm part of. The problem is that I have 2-3 other main characters in this novel who are OC's (relatively speaking, I mean, since all of them are at this point). The original four characters have distinct voices and personalities that are easy for me to remember and keep straight, but the others aren't nearly as interesting to read about. I'm trying to give them personality and just get to know them as I write, but it's really hard.

Any suggestions on making my characters a little cooler/funnier than normal people, which is who they want to be?

finch

If you're looking for something to get you motivated to write in August, you may want to check out Web Series Writing Month. You get to set your own goals and the forum is encouraging of original projects.

marina

I made a post in my DW about dealing with novel length stories. Your thoughts welcome!

finch

havocthecat suggested it was time for a round of posting about our awesome projects, and I am inclined to agree, so here you go! Tell us what you're working on! And then we can tell you why it's awesome!

I know there was an original fiction friending meme during 3W4D but I can't find it now, so if you also want to use this post as a way of finding new friends who are writers, go for it.

groovekittie

K, so I've heard this said a million times as advice given to authors who are just beginning. And I've often wondered how this could apply to scifi authors. But then one day I realized that scifi is really just allegory for what is going on today set in a fantastic setting sometime in the future or on another planet populated by alien societies whose politics cleverly reflect our own in some way.

Which is what I love about science fiction so much.

And now I find writing my own scifi story, it actually is some very true and helpful advice. So how does a woman who has lived the majority of her life on a small secluded reserve in Northern Saskatchewan apply "what she knows" to a story that takes place on a mining facility on moon far, far away from our own solar system?

Easy. Apply local politics, beliefs and familial arguments. Insert these amongst the touchscreen workstations, the foreign elements, the spaceships and the stars. Because no matter where we go on earth (or in the galaxy, I imagine), these things are universal. Even if our politics, beliefs or familial arguments aren't all the same, we all have them. And that's what makes us all so interesting to one another, and it's what makes a damned good story.

At least ... that's what I'm hoping. :D

Current Mood: contemplative

darkersummonings

God help me, but I have NO WRITER FRIENDS. You guys are as close as I'll get. I mean, my sister writes, but she's in a bit of a funk, and she's actually leaving for Chicago for 6 weeks so she can get the inspiration to work on her novel. It's about the mafia, and since Chicago is home of the mafia I figured she'll be overwhelmed with ideas in a couple of days.

Anyway, I'd love to chat with someone and bounce ideas off of each other. I'm just dying for someone to talk to that knows the pain of trying to make the transition from fanfiction to original fiction. I'm doing pretty well I think; joining prompt communities is helping, but I just...argh. You know the feeling right? Need a kindred spirit? Someone to relate to?

My question is: as an author, do you find it freeing to discuss your works with other authors, or with people who don't know how to pick up a pen? And by that last statement I mean people you know don't write, aren't interested in writing, and will probably never, ever write ever.

If you do talk to other authors, how do you network? Where'd you find your writing buddies? Do you drop emails, IMs, slap them in the head when you see them in public?

I'm a sponge right now; I can absorb anything. So just pour it on.

aurora89

I don't write much original fiction lately. I'll freely admit that. I went over to fanfiction a few years ago partly because I was sick of writing crappy stories about Mary Sues and flat characters, and partly because I wanted to write good stories without having to do a lot of overwhelming world-building.

But now I'm trying to write some original fiction, that's loosely based off of EXTREMELY AU fanfiction I wrote several years ago. Just to avoid confusion, the story is about two scientists and their little girl who manage to teleport to our Earth as they're dying (they were informants against a gang they worked with and got caught). And I'm overwhelmed, honestly. I don't know whether the host bodies they take over should know each other, live with each other, or be strangers. I don't have any semblance of a plot for once they actually reach Earth, aside from wanting them to help their host bodies. I don't know anything!

How do you deal with the overwhelming possibilities? I know that this is going to be the hardest part (setting it up) and once I get past that I will basically be writing fanfiction for my own stories, but getting to that point is making me want to give up already. Help? Advice? Support? Thanks so much in advance, and sorry if this has already been covered (links would be great if so!). I'm brand new to DW.

Current Mood: intimidated

finch

Judging by comments on the last post, I think we could all use an excuse to talk about our characters. Feel free to geek all over the comments of this post with your current character, any fandom ties you've cut to get him or her where they are now, how their name is a clever pun based on the original name, and how the project is going.

Over there in my icon is Robin Blaser! He's a former child prodigy in the field of robotics who is currently living just above squalor and building illegal bots. He's about to have his life turned upside down not once but twice! Also, magic and gods and time travel!

Robin is the main character in my originalfic bigbang project. That project is going... well, slowly at the moment. I've been devoting most of my attention to revising something else, but I'm gearing up to turn around and actually bring this sucker home.

He's named after a poet, and the character he descends from was also named after a poet from the same movement. That is the single dorkiest job of renaming I've ever done.

How about you guys?

finch

logophilos posted an essay in her blog today, using the Fanfiction Debate of '10 to vector off onto another topic - filing off the serial numbers.

She's discussing it in the context of her field, but the desire to make go from fanfic to original fic without necessarily sacrificing all the writing you've already done is one that's come up before here, and can apply to any number of genres.

logophilos points out some of the most dangerous pitfalls of this choice, as well as some bad author behavior.

In general, I'm not opposed to the idea of filing off serial numbers. I even posted about it here when I started to revise a project last fall. In my experience, it's a lot harder than it seems at first glance. A lot of my projects have seeds in fanfic, but have been heavily AUed and/or revised.

When I tried to simply find-and-replace the project I mentioned above and then gave a quick readthrough to a story I thought was pretty stand-alone, I just kept finding things I felt I should change, or references I needed to rewrite, in-jokes that didn't make any sense without the context... eventually I decided that just rewriting it would be the easiest choice.

Have you had any luck with filing off serial numbers? How much work did you do, if you did?

groovekittie

Okay, first of all, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your kind words of encouragement! :D You guys are all so awesome!

Now ... so, here's the thing: I was just wondering if I'm totally crazy or what?

It's taken me since November to get to that word count I was bragging about earlier. Yeah. That's 12000+ words, but it took me 6+ months to get to that point! Ugh. So not cool. Of course, I didn't write for almost 2 months when my RL blew up on me, but still.

Despite the snail's pace it's taking me to write this story, I am already making plans to extend this story into a trilogy! And then expand onto it after that by writing another story in the same world!

See, that's the crazy part. On the one hand, I'm really enjoying this world I'm creating here, but on the other hand, I am not a prolific writer, nor am I a very disciplined writer. I'll be writing this for the rest of my life!

Not to mention, I don't even know if it's any good. *headdesk* I suppose it shouldn't really matter, because I don't really plan on publishing this, as it was never my goal. I just wanted to write it. So ... just like any of my previous fanfiction writing, I just should just enjoy the process. But ... but ... but ... SIX MONTHS! *sigh* Someone tell me I'm not insane? :P

groovekittie

You guys! You guys! You guys!

I actually made it to 12000+ words in my original scifi novel! *flail*

*hyperventilates* I've never written this much for a single story in my life! Original OR fanfic! Now I'm wondering if I should shoot for 12500 today or do more work. lol I mean ... I get paid for work, but it is Friday. Hmmm ...

BUT 12000 WORDS! EEEEEEEEEEEE! I'm so proud of myself! I could just squee! *\o/*

Current Mood: accomplished

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Fiction Transitions: Fanfiction to Original Works

2012

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Page generated Jan. 28th, 2012 10:02 pm

We can still love our fandoms, and our friends

while stretching our writing in a different direction

Recent Entries

Oh hi, fiction_transitions

An introduction -- of myself and my puzzle

Tips on worldbuilding?

Some Original Writing Big Bangs

This Thing I Am Doing

Yuletide

Interesting article on converting fanfic

nanowrimo '10

Finding your characters -- where do you begin?

original characters are less interesting than 'converted' ones

Writing in August

How do you plan for plot

Tell Me Why Your Story Is Awesome

"Write what you know"

Networking?

Coping with feeling overwhelmed

Open Character Thread!

File It Under B for "Bad Idea"?

Am I crazy?

YOU GUYS! Milestone reached!

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2012

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