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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Discussion The Scribble Pad (Fanfic Writing Discussions)

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction and Writing Resource' started by Briannakin , Jun 18, 2017.

  1. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Moved this here, as it's more appropriate.

    No, thankfully. It's gross-out humour and apparently, I branded it as a "lost Clone Wars mission". I started a great deal of nonsense fics in March and April 2018, one of them features a particularly angry OC breaking the fourth wall, there's some genuine A/P crack! titled Wind God Helps Anakin Beat Math and one with a bunch of Lasat children tormenting Kallus who is given the title of a "honorary babysitter" on Lira San.
     
  2. pronker

    pronker Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 28, 2007
    Tantalizing snippets, all ... and speaking of A/P, do you, or anyone reading this, think it's possible to write A/P without foreshadowing?
     
  3. devilinthedetails

    devilinthedetails Fiendish Fanfic & SWTV Manager, Interim Tech Admin star 6 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Jun 19, 2019
    I like to think all things are possible in writing, so I like to imagine it would be possible to write Anakin/Padme without the foreshadowing. That being said, I don't think I've ever written Anakin/Padme without the foreshadowing. Apparently, I love foreshadowing and tragedy too much for that:p

    I discovered an interesting site for my fellow writers called "I Write Like." You can upload any text of your writing and have it analyzed to determine which author's style your writing is closest to.

    I ran several samples of my fanfic and got back Anne Rice every time.

    Reading her "How I do It" article I think I do share some writing philosophy and technique with her, so I suppose that makes sense.

    Although the writer I probably most want to emulate is Guy Gavriel Kay.

    Anyone else have authors they want to emulate in writing style? Or anyone else do the "I Write Like" test and get a consistent result like me?
     
  4. Briannakin

    Briannakin Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Feb 25, 2010
    Possible? Yes. But that would take so much of the fun out of it :p I'm a sucker for tragedy too.

    HAHAHA. I ran a few of mine and I got Agatha Christie every time, which is funny because sitting next to me is my cat... named Agatha Christie. I mean I've read and enjoyed a few Christie books over the years but - despite my cat's name - I never was a HUGE Christie fan [I like her writing but I never was a huge mystery person and now I feel like I have to explain my cat: my sister has a big ugly beast with a handle-bar mustache named Hercule Poirot (we watched the David Suchet series as kids), so naturally when I got my cat, she had to follow the theme, and Aggie just fit).

    I'm not complaining about getting Christie at all. GGK is definetly goals too. For me, would it be too cliche to say Aaron Sorkin as a Sorkin fan-fic writer? Dude can write dialogue.
     
  5. Raissa Baiard

    Raissa Baiard FFoF Artist Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 22, 1999
    I apparently do not have a style. I pasted excerpts from four stories and got four different authors—Stephen King on the fluffy mush piece I’m working on, Arthur C. Clarke on the beginning of rom-com in space, Daniel Defoe on the opening of “Meet the Aliit”, and Agatha Christie on the first chapter of Wolf Brother.

    I’m not sure what to make of this. I haven’t meant to emulate any of them (I’ve never actually read King, Clarke or Defoe :p) . I’m not sure who I write like; I think there’s probably a dash of Douglas Adams in there somewhere but otherwise... Of the profic writers, I enjoy Claudia Gray and think she tells a good story.
     
    Last edited: Mar 9, 2021
  6. Kit'

    Kit' Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Oct 30, 1999
    I got Stephen King, a political and science journalist/writer and (to my horror) Stephanie Meyer.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  7. pronker

    pronker Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 28, 2007
    It's Ian Fleming for me. Yowza! I'm stopping at one entry while the going's good![face_devil]

    I would like to write like Hemingway and there used to be a contest for that in an in-flight magazine called American Way and maybe there is one still and if that is so then I would like to find it again because the first prize was a trip to Italy.
     
    Last edited: Mar 9, 2021
  8. GregMcP

    GregMcP Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 7, 2015
    Wall to wall Agatha Christie.
    Perhaps my stuff reads like a mid twentieth century elderly English lady trying to write the accent of a Belgian detective.
     
  9. gizkaspice

    gizkaspice Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 27, 2013
    [face_laugh] What. I'm with @Raissa Baiard here--I don't have a style, unless it's the gizkaspice style :p. Literally putting in different sections of a story gives me different results from Stephan King to Dan Brown. I don't like emulating any author's writing style though so that's probably the factor here.
     
  10. Cowgirl Jedi 1701

    Cowgirl Jedi 1701 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2016
    I did this with several of my stories (got kind of carried away, TBH), and the results were all over the place.
     
  11. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    I get Stephen King, regardless of genre. [face_rofl] Curious what the other non-native speakers will get.

    I don't want to emulate anyone's style myself, simply because I would not want something like that to limit me.-

    I think it's pretty possible, too.

    What is not possible, however, is writing Mace Windu and not thinking of Samuel L. Jackson. [face_laugh]

    ...

    OK, so I have been working on something - splitting a story that was well-received after 19 chapters and then I got stuck at the 20th mid-2018.

    I revisited the story and its complexity, a three-digit number of chapters and whatnot and realised that I got stuck on the specific chapter because I needed the other characters in it and I felt like I was wasting a much better idea for the sake of having a campy subplot where two primitives are in for numerous culture shock in a far more advanced world.

    Similarly, I decided that the said long!fic does not need the two characters that I was trying to shoehorn in it, because they would completely erase two others from the story and one cannot be a part of it with the other one never being seen. One of those two that would have been erased was probably the least notable of any characters I have ever written, she has not shown any major flaws and there has been zero character building so far. But the other one, I definitely need him in the story because he owns the object that advances the plot.

    And then I realised that the characters I cannot shoehorn in it could have a completely different story going on and that they have the biggest potential for action/adventure type of stories that any other characters I have ever came up with.

    I'm going to end up writing three stories instead of one. But it makes sense.

    Anyway, the first one needs a title and I'm struggling. O_O
     
  12. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    Got Dan Brown, Gertrude Stein, Anne Rice (twice), and Arthur Clarke
     
  13. amidalachick

    amidalachick FFoF Hostess Extraordinaire star 5 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Aug 3, 2003
    I got three different authors (Anne Rice, Stephen King, and I forget the third one) using three different stories. There's no one I try to write like anyway, so I guess it's not too surprising. :p

    And now I just want to whine for a minute. I feel like I complain here a lot, and I feel bad about that, but there's nobody in real life I can talk to about this stuff and I just need to get it out of my head. Putting it behind spoiler tags so it's easy to skip if you don't want to read it, because it's just the same old rant about not being able to write that a lot of us have been experiencing and talking about.

    So an update to this: spring is not the answer after all. :( I had a couple ideas that I was really, really excited about (which is huge in itself, because for the last few months I've hated everything I came up with). And I want to write these stories but I just can't. It's like there's a block between my brain and my fingers when I go to actually type it out and I end up just staring at it until I get so frustrated I go listen to music/rewatch my mindless comfort shows instead. I feel like my brain's just rotting away, but doing anything creative or intellectual to help with that takes more energy and brainpower than I have in the first place, which makes my brain feel even more useless, and so on. I'm trying to just go with it and practice self-compassion and all that, but it's hard. It's really hard. Anyway, that's today's version of The Rant™ and I'll shut up now.
     
  14. pronker

    pronker Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 28, 2007
    My sympathies and I hope you gain equilibrium soon. I also am in the same boat re RL where I can discuss writing due to my job, but not fannish writing.
     
  15. Thumper09

    Thumper09 Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 9, 2001
    I'm sorry to hear this. Let me say first that I get it 'cause I've been there (very recently, too), and it's a super frustrating and icky feeling. I hope things get better for you soon.

    I'm offering this as a general idea for people who are in this same situation, but I'm using your post as a springboard. And honestly I'm not sure if it'll even work because I've never tried it myself. For times when someone wants to write but the keyboard sucks all the motivation away for any reason, I wonder if recording it instead would help? As in, go for a walk and narrate the story into a voice recorder, or even the story idea or rough outline / events to hit. You'd still be creating the story without any of the "sit down and work at this, and FOR CRYING OUT LOUD DON'T PUT A COMMA THERE" mental aspects, and speaking it out loud might feel a bit more free and creative to keep the juices flowing. Plus it's saved for down the road when you're ready to pound it into a keyboard.

    Like I said, I don't know if this would help because I hate the sound of my own voice on recorders and I know I'd never listen to the recording afterward so I haven't done it. :p
     
  16. ViariSkywalker

    ViariSkywalker Kessel Run Hostess Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Aug 9, 2002
    I was thinking something similar, but in my case, it's writing drafts by hand that I've found to be helpful. Don't know if that would be helpful for anyone else, but the majority of my first draft writing in the last several years has been by hand. It was especially helpful this past summer when I was getting back into writing for the first time in over two years. (As in, I didn't write a single word of fiction in those two years, and it was incredibly sparse for even a couple years before that... yeah, that hurts to think about now.) I think there's just something different about putting words to the page versus typing on a keyboard - sort of similar to the difference between recording yourself talking about your ideas versus typing those same ideas. [face_thinking] (I need to try the voice recording some time, though. That's a really great idea.)

    Anyway, I get a nice notebook and one of my favorite pens, and I tell myself I'm going to write even if it's crap, and then if it really is crap (which a lot of it is), I just draw a line through it or circle it so that I can ignore it later - but the words are still there, so I don't feel like a total failure. Unlike with a word document, where I end up deleting all the stuff that doesn't work, and then I feel worthless when I have almost nothing to show for my time. Plus, I have more freedom to take that notebook wherever I want and jot down ideas as they come, and I don't have to worry about sitting in front of the computer when I want to be creative.

    I know this won't work for everyone, but I offer my own perspective, as someone who's gone through multiple years-long dry spells in the last decade and am now finally finding my words again. [:D]
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2021
  17. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Why a spoiler? The thing I spoilered in social was legit scary, this is a problem we all have and I more than sympathise. <3

    And seriously, many people IRL would raise an eyebrow at what we're doing. I had one friend in the past who was into fanfics herself and that was it.
     
  18. Raissa Baiard

    Raissa Baiard FFoF Artist Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 22, 1999
    @amidalachick [:D] [:D] [:D] I really feel for you. I think I could just keep reposting the same rant, too. I had a brief spate of creativity after I unloaded my feelings and was all yay, I got my groove back! And then Real Life said “nope”. Again. For what seems like the thirty millionth time in the last year. And I started to write another rant, but it was a whiny teal deer, so suffice it to say life is hard and I would really like to finish my mushy mush story with my comfort characters for the MMM, but it’s looking unlikely.

    I think that there are quite a few of us who really want to write but are so worn down by life, the universe and everything that it’s just not happening. I wish I had advice, but I can offer sympathy and virtual hugs. You’re not alone.
     
  19. devilinthedetails

    devilinthedetails Fiendish Fanfic & SWTV Manager, Interim Tech Admin star 6 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Jun 19, 2019
    I definitely know the feelings, everyone. I keep thinking that I have all these great ideas to write, and then when I sit down to write them, they either slip away from me like water trickling between fingers or else when I do actually manage to write them down, they don't turn out as well as I'd hoped. Like things that in theory seem to be awesome ideas for stories become terrible when I write them down. It can definitely be very frustrating and discouraging to feel sort of trapped in a cycle of that happening.
     
  20. Findswoman

    Findswoman Fanfic and Pancakes and Waffles Mod (in Pink) star 5 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Feb 27, 2014
    Hugs and sympathetic vibes all around. @};- Same here, absolutely. After finishing up a pretty intense RL writing project at the end of February, I've just found myself too mentally exhausted and demotivated to work on any fanfic writing for pleasure, even though I have ideas. Part of it is that my days are so packed (and so fragmented: 15 minutes here, 10 minutes there) that I never even get to the point of being able to sit down to try to write, and then when the opportunity comes I'm too tired to do more than answer emails or waste time on the internet in various ways. Part of it might also be that writing doesn't necessarily feel like a pleasurable or fun prospect after the project in February; I do often have to give myself some "blank space" between finishing projects. This feels like a longer "blank space" than usual, though. And I know I shouldn't force myself, guilt myself, etc.--it's more just that I'd love to have that pleasant creative feeling back again. It would lift my spirits, and we all could use that lift right now. Maybe I'll take a tip from @ViariSkywalker and pull out the ol' notebook.

    But yes, you are definitely not alone! This pandemic has done a number on all of us. In a way, there isn't much to be done except hang in there and continue to support each other--so let's keep that up, for sure! [:D]
     
  21. Chyntuck

    Chyntuck Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2014
    I'll just post the tl;dr version: same here, everything @Findswoman said, virtual hugs to everyone!
     
  22. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    We're now all sitting in a circle, pondering. So, perhaps questions would solve it? Asking oneself what is causing it.

    I'll go first. I'm kind of apathetic regarding everything at the moment, it's probably some form of atypical depression that most of us are experiencing after a year of a life we never thought we'd be living. And I think that instant gratification, something that I generally despise in other people after it reaches a certain threshold, plays a large part in writer's block. I have an idea for the story, but I kind of want it to write itself and I'd only get to post it and discuss it. 8-} Some people have Netflix in amounts too ridiculous to be able to grasp what one just watched, some have too much food, opiates, shopping for the sake of shopping... I have stories that don't exist.
     
  23. gizkaspice

    gizkaspice Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 27, 2013
    This is me right now. Sometimes I will get very passionate to write a story and have everything planned out, and then the next day I second guess it or lose motivation and throw it all away and then forget what it's supposed to be about. So yeah, I dunno. I also kind of want things to write themselves now. I know I absolutely enjoy giving people positive vibes to continue writing things so I can read and admire them, but I'm also widely known to never take my own advice :p
     
  24. pronker

    pronker Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 28, 2007
    I often broaden the scope to ask myself if I want to be a writer at all. It takes unleashing the imagination and at times I wish I didn't have any because it bleeds over into RL to make me imagine scenarios. I write copy which is pretty much buy this now because x with only a tad of poetic license.
     
  25. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    @pronker - I feel your pain. I had clients who wanted me to do everything on a website, things far beyond my scope. And writing copy, especially on the web, with SEO in mind is a different type of creativity, BUT also a killer for real creativity. Now that you have to write that these are difficult times but blablablablabla we care and yakyakyakyakyak BUY THIS... O_O