Discussion The Scribble Pad (Fanfic Writing Discussions)

I know that I always love getting a bunch of readers/reviewers. But I find that a couple faithful readers with sincere feedback warms my heart just as much as well as the "likes." I realize that everyone can choose to read my fics or not; that they choose to do so first of all and then compose a comment and post it, I am grateful for!

I find that just participating in writing challenges which allow me to write things I personally love to explore is rewarding in and of itself.
The OTP and other challenges have been especially inspiring!

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I agree with devilinthedetails' suggestion. Frankly, I'd read anything you wrote about practically anybody because I know the characters would be themselves and believable. Fanfiction to me is pure quality delightfulness! I'd invest time in reading super duper fanfics like I find here and bypass stuff that authors get paid to write. Just because it's their day job doesn't mean it's something I'm going to SQUEE over.

 

It’s for the OTP Love Letter challenge. I have the guy’s letter written and it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever written, but it’s not the best, either. I could write the girl’s letter, but I really would just be making myself do it because I don’t ship these two.

Aww, thank you so much, Ny

I feel like I’m kind of in a low spot with my writing at the moment. I wrote almost 1500 words plugging away at one of my WIPs but I’m not happy with any of it. I wrote half a story that’s just meh trying to break my block, and now I don’t know what to do to get the spark back into my writing.

 

It depends... usually on if the story ever gets finished or not. I'm one of those people who writes while watching TV, just to unwind, so I do write a fair number of stories I feel "meh" about (in my mind, not everything I write/post will be awe-inspiring, if it was, I'd post like one story per year). Often if I do finish something, I will post it, just in hopes someone will get enjoyment out of it, even if that person is future me. If I REALLY feel indifferent or like no one will get joy our of reading it, I won't bother finishing/editing/posting it. I'll shelf it and hope to eventually come back to it. I really don't know what to add, devilinthedetails kinda said pretty much everything I was thinking.


On a related note. I also have a question. Where do you get inspiration (besides challenges here)? Broad question, I know, but I REALLY want to write (anxiety is rearing its ugly head), but I feel like all my WIP are trash and I just wanna work on something new, but my muse is giving me nothing.

 

What about Charybdis?

 

I work from image sources a lot. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then finding a picture that inspires me can result in me dumping a thousand words onto the page (sometimes considerably more). I find a lot of characters this way, especially for Star Wars with its massive image archives - in addition to Wookieepedia, I'm fond of Jedipedia and its SWTOR NPC archive.

 

Ninja'd! Adding that someone off-site stated using another part of the brain by sketching a scene to nurture the muse that way. So what if it's not great art? Stick figures can be expressive and lead to great words.

 

Often, my stories are really about what's going on politically or about issues I feel strongly about because of a personal connection. There's always some real-life issue that's in my stories. The SW universe is so big that we can slide just about any real-world issue in there and call it "Star Wars." My stories have indirectly covered domestic violence, racism, the opioid crisis, PTSD, child abuse, the immigration issue, veteran's issues, etc.

I've found that music helps to focus stories I've already gotten into, sort of like creating a sound track to those stories, but as inspiration of and by themselves, not so much.

By the way, your WIPs are NOT trash. We are our own harshest critics.

 

So, for no very good reason other than it was short and I’ve been dealing with writer’s block on my WIPs, I wrote the other letter for the OTP challenge. I feel less meh about the story now, so I might actually post it, though I’ll probably add a note like @devilinthedetails suggested, saying that this was pretty much an experiment and I don’t plan to turn it into a longer story.

As far as inspiration, a lot of mine comes from thinking about my characters—how would character X and character Y interact? What would Character Z do in a certain situation (which might be something as mundane as doing their shopping ) What was their childhood like? Who are their family? Why do they like/hate the things they do? Sometimes, I’ll let them start talking—sometimes, like Donkey, in Shrek, the trick is getting them to shut up (sorry Ro and Wren, but you know it’s true).

 

My inspiration can come from a song lyric/title and the mood it reflects; a mood or nuance in a relationship between characters that I want to explore and expand upon; oftentimes I find myself writing what I love to read or would love to read. An example is my most recent collaboration; I love L/M meet REALLY early in the timeline fics so ran with it.

 

Thanks all. I've come up with a few ideas for stories based on your suggestions, but I think I'm just overwhelmed by thee amount of WIPs I have in progress... yet am not making progress on (the downside of working with Scrivener is that I can see all these listed in my binder... judging me for wanting to start something new, like a cat judging me for not getting up to give her treats). So I think it might be time to create a new section of my binder called "WIPs that ain't W".

My brain also can't decide if it wants some cathartic angst, SUPER ANGST, or a funny tale inspired by idiots who park in handicapped parking's wheelchair loading zone who 'were just going to be a minute'.

 

@Raissa Baiard - I will generally not post a story that I am not happy with. That is not to say that I haven't quickly and did something that could have gone longer and still retained some satisfaction with it. But I still have to have a certain satisfaction with the product that I'm putting out or I just won't post it.

@Briannakin - I just saw this so please allow me to add my two cents. Aside from prompts and challenges, much of my inspiration comes from from items that stand out with in the source material, Be at a scene or theme from a TV show, book, movie, or other. When I say something stands out that could be either adding to something positive which I liked or expounding on something negative that I did not like. For me this is usually done in one of two ways either a missing scene or an introspective piece that digs further into the character's actions on page or screen.
For example I thought Ben Solo might have some thoughts during his climb back to Rey after Palpatine threw him over the cliff. So I wrote about it. Similarly, I thought that Rey may have some thoughts or feelings about Ben's death. Still working on that. I hope it helps.

 

Thanks. What little my muse is giving me these days is mainly OC based post-finale so there's only so much going back to the source material will give me. My muse has continued to be a butt and I really don't know why. I have ideas for scenes but dont really know how to turn them into stories.

 

Have it happened to people that you have been reading a fanfic that you find interesting/good/"at least want to see where it's going" and then the author do something that makes you go "you are missing the whole point with the 'verse you are writing in"? Like a SW fic having the ending declaring that the world is better of with out the Force, or a Magical Girl-genre fic that seems to have the opinion that the military or military-like organisations would handle the threats better, or superhero fics that presents the heroes as just as big a problem as the villains, etcetera.

 

Do you mean an author hints at a good idea that ends up being a throw-away mention and never takes it anywhere? Not in fanfic but definitely in "official" stories.

 

gg

 

Yes. I suspect I'm simpleminded because the premises you mention such as an entire galaxy/universe/world being better off without the Force would disappoint me if I read a fic all the way through and discovered that the protagonist felt/thought that way. I'd clamor for a sequel to set the person right!. I'm not sure what to call it --- evil vs. good works for me in entertainment. As for shipping, well! The multitude of Batman/Catwoman fics leave me cold, for instance, if romance rears its head. It's interesting to consider other viewpoints though as mine is not the only one out there.

 

gg

 

If it's just a short do I suggest mentioning on the top that it's an AU, maybe also which kind of AU, and then jump right in without really spending to much time in the text explaining how we got here or how the AU is different form the main 'verse, you can do that in the authors comments

 

I love AUs! My first fanfic story was an AU and I've been writing them ever since. (I even have the "Infinite Ezras" project to see how many AUs I can base off one character ) I guess one thing to consider is how the change in your AU "cascades" throughout the GFFA--if Uncle Owen lets Luke go to Tosche Station instead of cleaning up the droids, so
R2 doesn't play Leia's message or get his restraining bolt removed until the next day, so Luke is at home when the storm troopers arrive, etc.. Another thing to consider is how consistent/different you want to be with your characterization; what qualities do they have that remain the same across 'verses?

If you have any other questions regarding AUs, I'd be glad to help any way I can.