Discussion The Scribble Pad (Fanfic Writing Discussions)

Anyone knows how to get inspired when nothing seems to come to your mind, but you're trying to keep up with the schedule? I listen to music, but that doesn't help me much, besides I can't find the tracks with the moods/ topics I need. How does one squeeze words out of themselves against their will?

 

What do people think of using species from non-SW worlds/settings?

 

FireKeeper

I just give myself a mission. e.g. Save Tahiri from the Vong in Edge of Victory: Conquest. Justice for Ciena Ree. Save Clarice Starling from Dr. Lecter.
Just don't stop until you have accomplished your mission.

Also world building. Cannot finish a fic? Build a family tree. Did your Luke marry Callista? Gaeriel Captisan? What are their children's names?

Write a short story about their friends. Develop side plots.

Discovery writing. Write a single sentence such as Luke meets Mara. Then write a .doc document on how Luke meets Mara, just role with it. Did C'Baoth get Mara and clone her to kill Luke? Did Mara get ambushed on the way to meet her contact? What did that contact look like? Ugly? How ugly? How cute?

One thing to do though, is write a lot before posting. e.g. For the Bounty I wrote about 10 chapters before I posted chapter 1. Writing fanfic and stick to schedules should not feel like a chore. But if it ever does, just drop it and write another story, come back and read what you have written and then continue the story.

Gamiel

That's just crossover.
No shame in doing crossover.

 

I did have one mission: kill Kylo and save Han. I accomplished it. Now I have a mission to kill Snoke, but the journey to it will be kinda long. There are also some SWTOR missions like "Vaylin deserved better", "Revan and the Exile deserved better" and "we deserved a better showdown with the Emperor than the one we got in Knights of the Eternal Throne", but, since these don't fit into my fanfic's timeline, they are low priority. There also was a mission "the EU deserved better" , which had me write a time travel fanfic that estabilished EU and the Disney canon as divergent timelines of the same universe, and had an OC restore the EU version of the events, but that mission was a failure due to multiple contradictions between the Disney canon and the old EU.

I did jump to writing a moment that happens much later in the story just because I felt like it though.

And I really want to finish this before December.

 

I've found Spotify is great with playlists to set the mood for myself.

But if words just aren't coming, just take a break - play a video game or something for a few days when you'd normally be writing. I find my worst writing comes when I'm forcing it out.

I think it's fine as long as you let your readers know the original source. It isn't to do with rules, I think it is just curiosity to say "if you like XYZ element, this is where I got it from."



I JUST WROTE 1400 WORDS ON A CHALLENGE I'VE BEEN STUCK ON (I went back to my original idea, gave it a bit of a different POV). I AM SO HAPPY!

I like to work on different things at once, but I find if I have TOO many things going on, I just shut down. So, after I finish this challenge piece, I think I'm finally going to start on my sequel I've been itching to do (I'm actually already started, but it's been so long since I've touched it and I have like 1000 words down).

 

Great suggestions from DARTH_MU What I do is imagine the various scenes in the next update and literally write the end or middle scene first and then see or think about what led up to that or play with lines of dialogue and write around those, fill in with context, like the emotions and what led up to the exchange.

 

Isn't Spotify a paid service? Thing is, I am a poor student with no scholarship, who lives with her famly. I have no money to pay for any services, I instead use VK, a social network popular in Russia and the neighboring countries to listen to music for free. It recently got banned in my country( stupid ass politicians), though, but that doesn't stop me from using proxies and TOR to access it( but damn, it's so slow now).

I am on holidays, so don't have a laptop with me( only an Android tablet), and since most of the mobile games suck( I hate the freemium payment system), I am pretty much stuck with writing, watching Youtube vids and playing KOTOR yet again.

P. S. I hope talking about Ukrainian politics and the usage of TOR is not punishable here. If it is, PM me, I will edit the message.

 

Writing on a tablet?


Pavl Korchagin is my favorite fictional character.

*looks around*

 

I either work on something else, or get SUCKED INTO THE SIMS! Usually I just work on something else. A completely different story. Artwork. Needlework.

 

Spotify is actually free - you just have to deal with ads unless you pay for a premium account. But I'm not sure what countries it is available in.

But, frankly, the other advice still stands. Years ago I had to write on a tablet for a couple months (broken laptop) and it was summer, so I was so very bored so I just forced myself to write, but the writing sucked and it drained away all desire for me to write for months afterwards. Just do something else.

 

I agree with everyone else FireKeeper, there's no point in forcing yourself to write something that you've listed as "high priority" if the words aren't coming. When I force myself that way I'm usually not happy with the result and that makes things even more frustrating.

I think that taking a break can be a good strategy. I usually take advantage of such breaks to read things (fanfic or not) because it enriches my mental landscape, for lack of a better word. I also think that working on a side project can help, and I often have a look at on-going challenges on the boards to find a prompt that can inspire me even if I don't necessarily follow the challenge rules (have a look here for current standalone challenges; there are more listed in the "archived" section of that index, plus a few others going on in the Fanon Thread, the OTP thread and the OC Revolution thread, and of course the Plot Bunny Thread). Another thing I can usually do when I'm in no mood for writing proper is to outline future stories, develop characters or do some worldbuilding. I find that doing this often helps trigger the muse at least to write a particular scene, and when I find my writing groove again I stitch all those scenes together.

 

I did start a SWTOR one-shot concerning the low-priority "Vaylin deserved better" fanfic, but I haven't finished it yet. I do try to acoid challenges, though, because I know my own dislike for limitations, mood swings and past schedule slips. I tried to take part in writing challenges years ago when I was a teen whose writing sucked, but failed to write up anything in time.

Lately I've been getting ideas about different things, but I they can't be applied to the characters I currently write.

Also, I wish I were able to draw well. I'd really love to draw my OCs to have some form of a visualisation for people who actually wondered about my OC's appearance, but every time I try, I fail spectacularly and end up destroying my drawings. And most of those flash dollmakers/ character creators make my OCs look too pretty. How do you create a graphical representation of your OCs?

 

FireKeeper

I don't know if it would help, but maybe browse pictures of actors/actresses of TV shows/movies you like.

For example, for my OC Honor Tur-Hazy, I just searched google auburn haired teen actresses. Then pick one, add scars, age lines, etc.

Then I remembered I really liked Elle Fanning's work in Super 8. So she ended up as the "model" for my OC.

 

I do a lot of mental casting. For example, a slightly younger Sara Martins is Valissa Calrissian. I had Sam Eliot as a Rebel officer, and Sam Waterston as a Jedi Knight.

 

If you go to the OC index thread , you'll see that many writers will fan cast their OCs with real-life templates. You can also see some examples of fan casting in the OC Revolution thread starting here and running for a few pages (plus the added bonus of some wonderful artwork of OCs by earlybird-obi-wan).

 

I visualise my leading OC's by painting them first.
Antagonists were often disliked colleagues or public figures

 

The latter applies to me, too.

 

Went for a drive - light but dodgy lunch at Panda Express - BOOM - logjam cleared! Couldn't get home fast enough to write! (She says, posting here on TF.N instead)

 

Public figures huh? We have a whole slew of those in the U.S., starting at the very top.

 

I may or may not be taking some jabs at some US public figures in upcoming diary entries.

So, I just spent the vast majority of my evening with no internet (power went out, but I had nearly a full laptop battery), but the muse was productive and let me churn out almost 2000 words, which is like a huge victory for me. Unfortunately it was on random vignettes (which have taken over my brain) and not on anything I want to get going on. Ugh, muse! You fickle creature you!

 

Somewhere in this conversation there's a dare challenge waiting to happen...

 

Good question, wrong thread. Sorry.

EDIT:

Since Darth Mu answered my question here, I decided to repost the question, for context.

 

Welcome PlanetSmasher

This is very complicated. Disney have indeed as of this moment discontinued Star Wars Legend EU. However, the Old Republic Era, there are now two different Old Republic Eras. The EU Old Republic Era, and the Disney Canon Old Republic Era.

It is true that for a time, and maybe still, Amazon have a category called Fanfic. It is/was for authors to self publish fanfics for various fandoms for money. Please check if it still exist.

All that being said, I don't think, unless you (I mean you as in all authors, not specifically you, PlanetSmasher.), are some kind of multiple Hugo and Nebula award winner, and wrote a petition to Disney to continue authorizing brand new stories for the Legend series, the chance of having writing Legend books for money is nill.

For some reason, at least in the literature board of the Jedi council forums, there exist, or seem to exist, a certain power that resist new legend books. All the attempted so called "Bring Back Legend" threads get locked sooner or later.

For various reasons as said above I stay for the Fanfics on this boards, and allow other people to use my OCs. People will never take the Legend EU from me.

 

Thank you, Darth Mu, for answering so quickly! Your answer does illustrate the complexity of the situation.

Again, you have my thanks.

 

I'm plotting out a joint mission of Luke/Mara early in their engagement. I want their to be a miscommunication of some sort so I had a point I needed help on.
Which one would it most likely originate with, Luke who would be impulsive about some aspect of action or Mara who is used to doing things without "consulting" someone? I'm leaning more toward the latter. I also want it to be something that isn't vital too much to the mission, i.e., not something that wrecks it, but more in the matter of "I wish I'd known that" or "We really need to share stuff"