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

YKYAFFWW you finally sit down to write the end of a planned story and realise all too late that quick bulletpoints make every idea seem workable... even the unworkable ones. Heck, especially the unworkable ones!

And so there you are, suddenly having to pull a new ending out of your backside in order to prevent your characters from being total jerks.

Oh, and the best part? It's the third time you've realised this.

 

Been there at least twice.

You have a quiet night for once and think, “ooh! I can hear my characters think now! Where’s my computer?”

 

...when you have an eight-hour stretch of a manic-like-episode and proceed to run through EVERY theory you can think of... and wear someone else out in the process...

 

When you have an hour-long walk and create generations of a prank because you’re THAT slap-happy with the idea of it.

 

YKYAFFWW you enter a timed challenge so you figure: 1. it's already tomorrow in Tokyo so it's okay to post or 2. it's still the 9th in Pago Pago so it's okay to post.

 

Just sitting here pondering a fic I've got going. A little thing in the poorer, lower levels of Coruscant.
For @DarthIshtar 's The Paperwork Challenge.

And I'd been imagining the setting on the long, wide causeways like you see around Dexter's Diner, but...
Now I'm thinking about High Rise Council Flats. Those grubby things 10 stories high. So you have a tower that's well over a hundred sorties, and the lower levels are just crammed with the poor and unemployed. Bad light, bad air, trash everywhere, predatory thugs roaming the corridors...

I have to throw away about a thousand words, but it will be a whole lot more interesting.

 

Well, now I want more socioeconomic fanfic to read.

YKYAFFW a reader has three theories of where one story is going and you can’t wait to write the fourth and actual plot that you came up with months ago.

 

OK I'm sorry but WHAT the h-e-double toothpick does "YKYAFFW" mean???

 

In this case it's the thread title, "You know you're a fan fiction writer".

 

OH ... duh-uh ...

 

YKYAFFW you’re working on strategy and suddenly realize that you know exactly how to wipe out the rebellion in one chapter. You decide not to use it, but feel like you’re clever for using the empire so effectively.

 

YKYAFFWW a passing glance at a challenge you weren't even considering leads to a two-page outline less than five minutes later.

 

You're going through old docs because there's a fic you will never actually write want to work on and come across one that consists of nothing but a rather cryptic phrase but you remember exactly what it means and what inspired it. This is especially note-worthy because you can barely remember this morning, last week, or your own name some days.

 

YKYAFFW you come up with a plot and mention it to a friend and now can articulate the debate points for several news outlets reacting to the news because the friend minored in polisci.

 

4th re-think of the intro to a story before the actual story even starts.

 

When you're still in a long-term writing drought but you fantasize about the different language and attitude styles in the Fallout television series on Prime.
(I really really want to try this.)

 

YKYAFFWW you awakened just now entertaining a plot bunny from a marvelous full color dream in which you're accompanied by your family watching a film retelling TPM loaded with action set pieces starring McGregor's Obi-Wan with an almost new cast; at film's end, Neeson's Qui-Gon enters with his Padawan, Siri, only she's not called that but Sela and Audience-Member You gasps while people turn in their seats to look at you ... in the dream, you speculate that "producer failed getting the rights for her name so they cast a cute wise-cracking blonde expy" and when you depart the theater, you're asked "why the gasp?" and you reply, "She was in the books."

 

YKYAFFWW the first thing you have to do after watching a new episode of a Star Wars show is go back and change a line of dialogue you wrote the day before, because the "proper" writers beat you to it, word for word.

 

….when you accidentally reply to a message because the boards are acting wonky on your laptop. D’oh

 

Being sick inspires you to work on the mushy comfort fic you started when you had Covid last year (luckily it's not Covid this time, just a nasty cold!). Well, that and realizing your self-imposed deadline for finishing said fic is coming up fast. Where did this year June go, anyway?

 

@amidalachick Hope working on your comfort fic helps, and that you're feeling better soon!

 

Please tell me which line it is in PM. And link the fic.

YKYAFFW when you get fanfic ideas based on fact-checking a conspiracy theory.

 

When you are hit by inspiration for a fanfic in a fandom you haven’t written in for a long time, decide to write it from the POV of an OC that was the POV character of a fic and you discover that you apparently never gave her a first name


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You make a joke about a line of dialogue implying that there’s a Star Wars version of “Jesus loves me” and then find yourself writing that song (all three verses) according to your fanon Alderaanian religion at 11:45 on a Sunday night.

 

YKYAFFW when you write minor characters with a expansive backstory for one chapter or two; that includes family background and interconnection to famous figures by some manner. It's a lot worse for a details-orientated person like me, every minor background person gets a little writing and before you know it, I give them lore in a split second.

I have a few scenes planned for Christophsis and now three small-time evil rich slavers now have motivations beyond "slave Kerkoidens and be friends with Republic" , its crazy how this is normal for me.