Discussion You Know You're a Fan Fiction Writer When...

... when you volunteer to help run the awards.

 

When you look at all the cannon stuff in the Old Republic and say "Naaaaah. Who likes cannon anyway?" and proceed to throw every bit of it you possibly can out the window to adjust it to how you think everything should have gone. I'm totally not guilty of that. I swear.

When after you do what was previously stated, you then start a complete retelling of KotOR 2 with two exiles around just for the fun of it. And then it becomes your pet project that you refuse to give up. Once again, completely not guilty.

-Tyla

 

Oh Force, lets not talk about how many paychecks have I blown on Star Wars books.

Anyways, YKYAFFWW a customer quotes Wes Janson (You can't look dignified having fun!) and not only do you have a minor squealfest with said customer, but you trade plots for fun.

When you have to reassure your roommates that no, your not pregnant, your just doing research for a fic. No, really, there is no need to panic.

 

- when you hold internal monologues, while envision yourself in front of Senate, Council, Ruler, Hero(ine), Bad Guy etc, about how you see things and even write them down for pure fun

- when you start to develop storylines and contents while on your way to work and even while working, even talking/playing out loud whole dialogues and scenes

 

YKYAFFWW... When you have a dream about a fan-fic, and replay a certain scene over and over. (I am guilty of this...)

 

When you're exercising and all you can think about is what you're going to write down next in your continuing story

Or, when you get home, all excited to start writing, and then sit down and spend 3 hours on wookiepedia without writing a word down. Not that I've done that or anything...

 

YKYAFFWW...

You haven't wrote a word of fanfic since you got married [8 years for me]. But while recently cleaning out some stuff and tossing it in the trash you run across an old marble composition book with your old fics, unfinished fics and notes for others in it and decide to take it as a sign that you should start writing fanfic again.

 

When you have more comp books filled with fanfiction then you do actual school work. (Currently it's about a 1:2 ratio. I've got four more boxes to go.)

 

YKYAFFWW...

the highlight of your month is finishing up a 25 page outline for yet another long-fic.

 

...when it takes fifteen years and a history paper to use a composition book for something other than story work. (Seriously.)

 

... when you tack up all of the quotes for various roulette challenges on the bulletin board above your desk so you can see them multiple times every day to remind you of the fics you want to write when you can grab a spare hour somewhere.

... when your mind is full of writing challenge ideas. Especially quote roulettes.

... when you somehow manage to write two challenge responses in the same night, and do seventeen drabble sets in one night (different nights, though ).

 

You know you're a fan fiction writer when...

...You are in a situation and you wonder what your favorite character would have done in your place. Now is the time you wish you had the Force and a lightsaber.

...When you're listening to a song and you hear a phrase and run off to write it down as a plot bunny, shouting that you have an awesome story coming to mind.

 

YKYAFFWW you walk into work in the morning, and, due to your wretched appearance, your boss asks if you've been up drinking. You answer with something along the lines of, "No, not drinking, but I don't think you'd understand." When they give you a strange look, you reassure them that it's better not to know.

 

Spam.

 

When you have to have to manually go back and replace every Clone Wars with Clan Wars, because it's an entirely different fandom.

I've fixed 19 instances so far... and I didn't even notice until I was four thousand words in.

Oy.

 

...when you play farm town on facebook and find yourself starting to write a story in crops.

 

... when you write fanfic for NaNo.
(old but it's the season...)

 

When your NaNo has turned into the backstory of the backstory for a fanfic. But I've got 30K written...

 

When you go through your search history, it's a good deal of Star Wars stuff. As in, obscure facts that you'd only need to know if your NaNo project is Star Wars fanfic.

 

...when you're reading the creator commentary for Astonishing X-Men from an old copy of Wizard because (a) Joss Whedon is awesome, and (b) you're looking for inspiration.

 

...when your bf gives you The New Essential Chronology as an early Christmas present to help for fanfic writing purposes.

Seriously, best bf ever. Usually they just pretend to forget the second I say anything about it. This one bought me a gift relating to it.

...when you're too afraid to read it because it might spark plot bunnies.

...when the first thing you do is write about it on this thread.

 

Related: When you give a friend a bruise from hugging her after she gave you the guide to moons and planets so you can now have extra info on Alderaan and such.

 

* You're packing up to ship stuff off to storage and you find more notebooks dedicated to fanfic and RPG characters than ones dedicated to you're old school work/notes.

* Seeing said notebooks make you nostalgic and you decide to take a break from your original fiction work to start "dappling" in fanfic again...just as stress relief...yeah stress relief

* "Dappling" has lead to the outlines or notes for a half-dozen new 'fics that you're now working on.

 

When you get a new idea for a fic and think "dear god not again," because you have five ideas you still haven't started on, and you're in the middle of a longfic.

When a reader says "oh dear" upon hearing that you have another idea, because they can't keep up with all your fics.

 

When you think you hear a prowler outside your window, and your first thought is: if this guy breaks in and steals my laptop, he'd better not read my fan fiction.