Discussion The Scribble Pad (Fanfic Writing Discussions)

This is literally only the second time that I have seen that acronym, since encountering it in an Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, in the Eighties.

 

Yay, me! I'll need to try harder, like Avis Rentals.

 

This is a great way to look at it, Findswoman. I have never thought comparatively. Perhaps, I am lucky in that respect. I look at an other FF writers works in the same way I would a profic writer's work. If I like it, GREAT! If, I don't I set it aside. Personally I think there are better fan fic depictions of Hera and Kanan in FF than in the profic novel that was produced. I think it also comes down to why you write. Admittedly, I write to please myself as well as my readers. And yes, I succumb to the malaise of few reviews or none, but it hasn't stopped me. Validation in this world of FF is important. But so is reading good stories. I love it when I get on to a good story and want to let the author know how it affected me. However, I will advocate for this site all day long when it comes to how new writers are fostered by board veterans. I was fortunate enough to have a great 'master', @Zonama, back in the day. She, and others taught me the value of responding to comments and how important it is to an author that they received comments. This site also never stood for trolling or negativity in comments unless the author request 'con-crit' (constructive criticism). As I am like to do, I have probably stream of conscious-ed my way into a corner.

All this to say, I encourage authors who compare their work to others' too harshly, to let down their guard. If you don't like it, don't read it. If you do like it, ENJOY THE HECK OUT IT!

I absolutely love the phrase 'self indulgent fluff'. Yes! Of course it is. That's why your readers love it. To tell the truth, I think FF as a mode is self indulgent and that is why it prospers.

P.S. Y'all can feel free to PM me anytime.

 

As always - but especially now that Mav is away and I'm like 110% an ADD mess drowning in stress - if you have an idea for a resource thread, please PM us. I'm all for encouraging more comments, but my brain is a mess right now.

As for the current discussion, here are some of my random thoughts from my poor brain. Like brodie, I've never felt like I had to compare myself to other fanfic writers. There's some things I'm bad at (descriptions) and other things I'm good at. Some of my fics (IMO) are masterly crafted works of literature; others are pretty much comprised of poop jokes. But none of that really matters. I have fun writing whatever the whims want me to write. I love writing "self-indulgent fluff" and, frankly, that's the type of fanfic I love to read too. There's heart in the self-indigent stuff and you can tell the writer had fun writing it. If I want to read elaborate plot lines and amazing world building, I'm probably going to pick up a profic book (thats not to say I haven't come across that in fanfic too; I've read fanfic that's better than profic), but if I want fluffy downtime with my favourite characters, I'm going to go to fanfic.


Also, yeah, I write for myself and I write what I enjoy. I agree that validation and comments are important to keep the muse going (I think we had a similar conversation in the past... maybe it was in this thread), but also having fun.

And, I think the beauty of fanfic is how differently we can interpret the same characters or events or imagine "what comes next." Sure there's stuff I maybe don't enjoy, so I don't read it. It's the same way with profic: look at how different authors handle the same characters very differently, or look at what Disney did post-ROTJ as compared to Legends.



Edit: Found the post here in the OTP thread and the discussion kinda continues on the next page and I think it would make for an interesting broader question: How much do readers play a role in your motivation?

I think I'm mostly just echoing myself here when I say I write what I want to write for fun, as an creative outlook, to 'de-stress' and out of boredom (because my attention span sucks so much I often have to do something like write while I watch movies). That being said, if I didn't have at least one person reading and enjoying my stuff, I'd probably get discouraged or bored or my muse would drift off (because I do get ideas from my reader) and maybe I'd try something else to get that interaction part of the creative process.

 

Is it possible to toss away/mentally block all EU input for a long lasting franchise to write fic on the original source? For instance, reading a great deal of EU consisting of comics and tie in novels for Star Wars sticks one in a strange netherworld for the "Party Like It's 1999" prompt to write a TPM story. Another instance might be for Star Trek TOS or Sherlock Holmes' canon of 56 short stories and 4 novels.

 

I'm not sure I understand the question. oh, wait. Are you suggesting trying to block that Anakin is Vader in order to write little Ani as cute, innocent kid?

 

Yes. I'm likely blurring being a reader and being a writer, though, because as a reader I understand the "wheee, I get that foreshadowing!!" vibe when reading ficcage and as a writer I'd hope to avoid one.

 

I think the source material is pretty clear that the Anakin as a child, as of TPM, was clever, fun loving, smart, but also emotional.He loved his mother and his friends and is constantly shown as willing to help, to set himself aside. And yet, he is acutely aware of his circumstances.; the poverty, the danger, the lack of freedom. My two cents is to concentrate on these things. TPM being what it was, there is little to point to broody teen or adult mass murderer.

 

The prompt revolves around Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, but I could see adding Ani to a fic that either disregards the SceneThat Didn't Happen, as the fandom puts it, or acknowledges it.

 

Are you speaking of glowy buggy alien thingies?

 

Use whatever you like, disregard whatever you like. Doesn't matter.

Whatever we write will be our own microverses, so won't affect anything else.

For me, a lot of my "values" were established when the SW universe and lore was the films, maybe a dozen novels, and the West End Games roleplaying guides that I purchased. That's it.

I've drawn a line in the sand. I don't care that ships can now hyperspace into gravity wells without shredding their hyperdrives, or fly through a planetary shield for some guano reason. The same, for others, would be to ignore whatever element of a character's history feels wrong, just ignore it if that is what you need to make your story work, or what you require to enjoy your writing.

 

Thank you. This is exactly what I needed to hear today. I’ve been pulling out my hair today trying to figure out how to reconcile the backstory I’d written for an OC with canon Mandalorian history. I had him trying to convince Sabine that Clan Wren should ally with his clan because they’d staunchly opposed the Mando faction that had been controlled by Maul, Dooku and other Imperial baddies—except it turns out Sabine’s mother was a member of that faction (right up until they tried to kill Sabine and wipe out the clan). Oops. But you know what...as you would say, drokk it. Surely Ursa Wren had a change of heart after the whole trying-to-wipe-out-the-Clan incident...and anyway, it’s not Sabine’s mom the OC wants to impress

 

Interesting about the cut off points! Roleplaying guides would seem to have lots of exposition on character because they're not published to provide plots, as I take it, but to help in a tabletop/online game? So they can establish a great deal of pure delving into character.

Isn't that a bear to do! The mind spins and shovels in oodles of how to mesh with canon ideas and sometimes those ideas come a cropper. Best of luck with satisfying the urge to construct plausibility.

Thanks, all, for the food for thought. I've not read any of the novels series past NJO, but Kenobi caught my eye.

EAD: Oh yeah, lots of Jude Watson.

 

Hello all. this discussion has been percolating with me for a few days and, in light a harsh 4 word review of a fic on another site, my dander is up. Ironically, it is not related to this site, but the differences in our corner of this sit and the megalith other ff sites that have assets and imitations that we don't.

Edit: Some of the these comments were sent in PM earlier today, but I edited the personal aspects.

Speaking of other FF sites I just got slapped pretty hard with a 4 word rejection review which may be the only review I ever get for a fick that I posted for The Avengers. And, I quote: 'this sucks. Boo. Ooc.' This was left by a guest so I am able to contact the reviewer for add info. Rejection stinks whether with few words or a lot but I like what I wrote so I'm not overly concerned.

One of the benefits of this site and perhaps even a detraction is the fact that we live in a bubble. The number of fan fiction users here is much smaller and the fandom specific. A certain etiquette has been fostered for us as we've engaged the site from the beginning and that can make going out into the big bad world of other, more expensive sites, daunting.

I've been wondering lately what sparks a reader to leave a review, Or even a like or kudo. And if someone does take the time to leave a review what sparks though kalevi either positive comments or negative? In some respects this is rhetorical it can come to mind If you were writing is being roundly ignored or negative comments are being left.

I love this site. What I love about this site is how it is set up. The colors, the imagery, the aesthetically pleasing, welcoming layout. There are plenty of other sites that are laid out differently. A couple of the biggest have a spartan platform which has multiple feature, but is so hard to access any community. For me, this is layout related, not content related. One of the biggies doesn't even have a PM feature which means that all user communication is in reviews/comments. There are alot of things that can be shared in PM that may not be appropriate or relevant to a review space. I would love to be able have he kind of community there, that we have here, but it doesn't seem possible. Part of that, I know is that this site is fandom specific(for the most part). We all love the same thing and this place is for the expression of that love, in all it's different formats.

I know this is a jumble, but my mind is taxes and I don't feel like sorting it out. I hope it makes some sort of sense.

 

Yeah, a crowd paradoxically creates a disconnection. So many people that you don't know them. And yeah, that review should be glossed over. It's no big deal.

There seems to be sweet spot between "dead" and "swamped" for forums.

 

I will "like" a fic update or one-shot prior to leaving a review to show I read and enjoyed, just don't have time at the moment to comment, or someone above me left an eloquent expression of what I wanted to say; in the latter case, if I happen to think of other aspects I can comment on I will come back and leave a posted comment.

If an author asks for concrit, then they're open to receiving strong feedback and will take it positively; but even in that instance, it's no excuse to be rude.

As for OCs, there was a time I was wary of how I'd feel about them. Then I became enchanted and enthralled, and the rest is history. They usually, no almost always ( ) turned out to be one half of an OTP/couple. But I wound up liking her/him as an individual, as well.

 

TFN stands for The Finest Networking (available for fic writers). Regarding the specious comment, ain't no thang.

 

I would rather get two similar reviews, so please do not feel that you have to avoid commenting, because you see someone say what you wanted to.

I love this site too. Colours, layout, community.

That describes my problem with Social Threads on my other haunt, the Roleplaying Forum.

Here, as has been said, we are all in the same bubble. On the RPF, each game is its own bubble, so attempting to fit in a thread with people that aren't involved in your game is difficult; here much easier. We can get into each other's threads without feeling like we are intruding, so we are all on the same page.

Never encountered AO3. FF.net, just too bland looking to suit me, no community, I couldn't seem to be able to get my stuff on there; and the only thing going for it, was that I could find stories pertaining to one subject, really easily.

 

Re what @brodiew said above: As an (checks age on drivers license, looks at member start date on profile) old lady, I’m wondering if we have a different attitude toward fanfic in general than participants in other fanfic forums. I’ve noticed that quite a lot of newer fanfic writers (as in joined in the last couple years) will post but not comment. It could simply be a matter of forum culture, as it were. They are used to not commenting as that’s perfectly fine in FF.net or AO3. I’ve even seen people post multiple chapters over a very short time period (2 or 3 a day) when there really isn’t time left for thoughtful comments between chapters. Perhaps that’s part of it.

Also, I do totally agree with the idea that this a forum OF writers. We crave feedback, even if it’s just a “like” otherwise it feels like you’re writing and nobody is reading. There’s really no other way to judge.

I for one would totally be on board with @Findswoman’s suggestion to do some kind of team review!

 

If I read something & hate it (or think it's totally OOC), I don't leave a review. Saying "boo, this sucks" is just rude. If the writer really wants concrit, I might say "Qui-Gon's decision to put on a hot pink mankini and beat Yoda to death with a hammer seems really out of character, considering that everything else is in canon. It really pulled me out of the story. I think your description of it also might exceed board standards for acceptable violence."