Discussion The Scribble Pad (Fanfic Writing Discussions)

Apologies in advance for what became a bit of a ramble, but...

For me personally, this is where I'd invert my usual approach to characters and focus on what they do, their job, its role in relation to the story, their interests, hobbies, pursuits, etc. rather than their thoughts, feelings and emotions. Normally I'm all "what you do doesn't matter, it's who you are that counts" but with Vulcans (and others) you have to latch on to something to distinguish them, and if it can't be their emotional core or personality, then it's gotta be something else, something tangible. Which is why I reckon Tuvok felt fresh, because he was a security officer who could use his logic to get tactical, and apply that specific skillset when teaching and advising others. We'd never really seen that before.

Additionally, you could use their interactions with other, more distinct characters to introduce brief flashes of sub-surface personality (or its equivalent). Have others around them poke, prod, and occasionally peel back the layers, if you ever feel the need to. Some of Tuvok's best moments were in reaction to things like Paris pulling pranks on him, or Neelix trying to befriend him, or Janeway seeking insight on a tricky moral issue.

The best thing about writing is that you can address what's going on in somebody's head without having to "show" it. You can present their thoughts on a subject or situation without dwelling on a reaction; just have 'em thinking things like, "this makes sense" or even, "if I had emotions, then I think I'd be angry" and it'll convey plenty.

 

I am torn between finishing the story I am writing and rebooting the trilogy it is a part of. The story would fundamentally be the same, but I want to change some creative choices I regret. has anybody ever restarted a story near the end, or is it better to see through what you’ve already done? (My story is the final installment of a trilogy I’ve been working on for four plus years)

 

I have pretty much completed an entire story, then decided "this is rubbish." and in a moment of self irritation, I deleted it.
But a week later, the story was still in my head and I wrote it all down again from scratch, pretty much as it was before.

 

My thought is that, even with the redo, my general trajectory is leading to the same place, and the creative decisions that annoy me are present to the end. I think I am going to reboot it. I have a good head start already and more room to plan everything in advance before I publish any of it.
Thanks for the advice everyone, really appreciate it and all of you.

 

Sticking the landing can be so tough.
You can have characters and a stage and an drama, but how do you stop your runaway train in a satisfying way?

The screenwriters for Game of Thrones (and it seems like G.R.R. Martin too) know that crisis well.

 

Above anything else, all I'll add is that you should never, ever delete anything you write. If you don't like something you've produced, put it in another document, start a new notepad, whatever you need to do to get away from it... so long as you stop short of destroying your own hard work. Because trust me, it's either A: better than you think (and you just need a little distance to recognise that) or 2: gonna be useful again someday, as a reminder of progress or to compare with your second draft.

 

I've had a notion of creating a fan fic in the form of a comic strip, but I don't see anyone else telling their stories with pictures. Maybe no one has wanted to, but is it verböten?

 

We're three months into 2024 and to give myself a post-KR kick in the pants I thought I'd check my progress on my 2024 resolutions. So:

1. I haven't even opened any of my multi-chapter WIPs since I wrote my goals. I definitely need to start looking into it if I want to get anywhere near achieving this goal
2. I made substantial progress on a story for one of my one-shot threads, I mapped out a second one and I have a fairly good idea for a third one. Writing and posting these three one-shots is my mini-goal until the end of June.
3. Goal achieved! I wrote my entire Kessel Run in NSWFF, and that includes a crossover which is something I hadn't even considered trying before. I do have an idea for another NSWFF series for the Olympics this summer, but I may set it aside until next year in order to make progress on my other goals.
4. There's, ahem, a Mini-Game I signed up for fully knowing that it would take me out on a tangent, but it should (hopefully) be a short tangent. There's also the Dare Challenge, which always takes me out on a tangent I can't resist following to the very end. I need to stop signing up for prompts that demand to jump to the top of my list
5. About reviews, I could have done better, but I could have done worse too. I have a fair few reviews to catch up on, but with the KR going on I didn't fall too far behind, so I'm giving myself a pat on the back and saying "keep it up."

What about the rest of you, how have you been doing? (The discussion about 2024 resolutions begins here if you want to find your post).

 

Let's see... I haven't posted any fics yet this year but it's still the first half and I've got some plans. Definitely haven't done a review every week, though I have reviewed a bunch of things some weeks. Overall, I'd say it's a work in progress.

 

Greetings all.
Some may remember me in here for my stories since as far back as 2007. Had a few trilogies and epics here and there as well as several small stories and vignettes. Mostly set in the EU (Legends now) and focusing on Luke and Mara. I even have a few Non SW fics. Fun times!

Well, I haven't written anything new in close to 3 years. Strangely, I seemed to write better when I had less time on my hands with jobs. My situation has changed now. I'm on disability due to a medical condition that requires me to attend a facility 3x a week. No job except for caretaking for my mother still. And all the free time a writer can want.

Except my Muse has flown away in all that time. I've tried to write originals but can't seem to get the flow anymore. My writing ability of any kind, I fear, has been lost. My last story in here I couldn't finish because since I started it before TROS, and by the time that came out, the story conflicted with canon. I know, I know, I can write it as AU. But it wouldn't have made sense if I went that route. Besides, I had exactly ZERO reviews for any of it. So, I thought What's the use? and stopped it. Had a great title, too (What You Have Learned)

Fast forward to a few days ago when I thought of another situation in a SW fan fic. And it would be connected to one of my earlier more famous works named The Mary Jane Skyler Trilogy. Some in here may remember it. The short version was that after Mara Jade died from the events in Sacrifice, instead of fading into the Force, her soul was transferred into the body of a woman living on Earth in Mobile, AL. The problem was that the woman was in a coma due to an accident. Crazy, huh? There's more to it all than that obviously, but no details now.

My thinking is that Mara herself is in a coma, but she enters an AU that we on the other side of the 4th Wall know as the Disney-canon. The one where Mara Jade does not exist. This would be set some time after the events of TROS. Luke and Leia have died. Han has too. There is no Ben Skywalker but a Ben Solo (who is also dead). And through all her realization of this, she meets Rey Skywalker. I see this as a SW version of It's A Wonderful Life. Mara gets to see a world where she never existed. BTW, if such a fic is to be written, which ff forum would I put it in? Legends or SW sequels?

My point (and I do have one) is that for the first time in 3 years, I'm excited to write. Anticipating the outlines. I'm thinking that maybe this will bring my Muse back.

So....thoughts, comments, advice, insults?

 

Welcome back @madman007! I'm sorry to hear that you had issues with your health, I hope you're on the mend now

My only advice would be: grab the muse while she's there and don't let her go. Just write your story the way you envision it and revel in the pleasure of the words!

As for how to prefix your story, we have the option to add as many era prefixes as we want now, so (given your description) you'd want to to use both "Beyond the Saga" (which is for New Canon stories set after the ST) and "Beyond-Legends" (which is for Legends stories set after RotJ). You can also add tags as described HERE to make your story easier to find.

Happy writing!

 

@madman007 sorry to hear about your health issues and I hope you're doing okay!

I've also been struggling with writing the past few years and I have to echo Chyntuck's advice. If you have an idea that you're excited about, lean into it and write! I don't know if perfectionism is an issue for you, but just try to get the words down while that initial excitement and drive is there and don't worry about making it 'good' yet. Just tell your story and have fun!

Also, try not to get discouraged if the muse comes and goes. There have been so many times when I've had a burst of inspiration and thought "yay, the muse is back! I can write again!" and then it's gone again a few days later. It can be really frustrating and discouraging, and I'm trying to learn to accept that and just enjoy it while it lasts. Beating yourself up about not writing really doesn't help anything.

Your concept sounds really cool and I'm glad to hear you're excited to write it! Have fun with it, enjoy the process, and happy writing!

 

@madman007 , glad to see you are back and have ideas for more stories! I hear you on it being hard to hold on to that inspiration long enough to get the thing written (am trying to do the same right now). Wishing you the best with your health situation too. For what it's worth, it makes perfect sense to me that it would be hard to write with that going on.

 

Having been absent from fanfic for something like twenty years, I wonder about the merits of various sites these days. Chiefly because I have been engaged in reposting Midnight and other fics on fanfiction.net, and I. Am. Ready. To. Scream.

The reason for this is that I have made all my stories all one long file. Now, ff.net SAYS that you can simply copy-paste to create chapters, but apparently one cannot. Because when one does, the chapter comes up as ONE HUGE MESS with all this html in it.

If you hear anybody screaming in the distance, that's me. BECAUSE IT'S TAKEN ME ALL DAY AND PART OF LAST NIGHT TO UPLOAD MIDNIGHT AND WLB. (Thank god it's a holiday.)

Now there's this one called AO3 that wasn't around back when I was, and I'm like, Is it worth it crossposting over there?? Because getting noticed on Wattpad is no longer a thing. I could do well over there when they had their message boards and even got shortlisted for the Wattys with two novels in one year ... but it's crickets for me over there now. Sheesh. Yet it bugs me that, try as I might, I CANNOT post photos on here, even though there is a way that is supposed to work, and ff.net only allows one tiny thumbnail per story.

Ai, ai, ai. What are your experiences posting on different fan fic forums?

 

I've had that happen on FF.net when I tried to recover a deleted story (I change my mind a lot, so sometimes I think deleting it is easier than continuing on with it, but then end up changing my mind again so I try to recover it). The best thing to do is just go into the saved document and clean it up (that's what I do), before you post it, or else like you said, it can be a jumbled mess and hard for anyone to read. After you save the document, you have to go into the Manage Stories section and replace the chapter with the updated one.

I'm also on Ao3, but I don't crosspost my stories (too much work). For starters, I don't have the same username (since I signed up for FF.net in 2011 and Ao3 in 2015), so I'd have to state this is a note, and it takes me long enough to update on one, so having to update it on two sites would be even more of a hassle. What I like about Ao3 is that you can filter stories. If you don't like slash (M/M or F/F stories), you can filter it out so that it doesn't even show up when you're browsing through stories. FF.net doesn't do this, so I have to look through the pairings which can be a bit of a nuisance.

 

So basically, if an image isn't hosted on a website somewhere you can't post it on here? I don't know how to use these things and I don't want to use one, so that's why they're on substack. Interesting about AO3, thanks.

 

Gosh, that was really informative!! Maybe I will post over on AO3. (Once I've recovered from the all-day chore of getting all my stories into the document manager.) And thanks for clearing up the mystery of photo sharing over here. I think I'll just stick with my Substack ... I don't want another site membership to deal with.

Thanks a mil!!

 

Not to mention, it’s Hugo Award-winning and therefore (and I got the words from their site guidelines) I am a “contributor to the Hugo Award-Winning AO3 website.”

 

Here's another one: How YOUR background shows up in your fics. For instance, I've done tons and tons and TONS of reading on relationships and on psychopathy and other mental/emotional problems, which is why my OC has an easier time with Palpatine than some others might.

 

*Hides her quasi-prophetic dynamic with a princess and a goddess.*

What do you mean have I heard of Moses?