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

When you're lying in bed trying to sleep, come up with a witty piece of dialogue or section you overlooked, so have to get out of bed, go over to your phone and write a note reminding you to properly add those to your fic the next morning.

That's practically every night for me since I started writing

 

It is a testament to your strength of character and willpower that you don't have the phone in bed with you, or within reach.

 

...you've made the OOU creation date of your main OC his IU birthday (translated to the appropriate GFFA calendar month, of course). And you celebrate his birthday every year. And enough birthdays have passed that his OOU age now matches his IU age in most of his stories, and it weirds you out.

 

...when seeing @Thumper09 give you a jolt of nostalgia!

...when it's hard to concentrate...on anything!

...when a well respected (not old at all) matron of the board requests a story of you...in public...and you start wracking your brain for something worth to provide her.

 

...when you research Roman soldier uniforms to describe those strips of fabric that form the skirt of Wonder Woman's costume (my character likes wearing it), and five months later, re-read the fic and say, "yeah, no-one is going to know what peruges are", and you simplify it to "metallic blue strips of fabric".

 

You know you're a fanfic writer when you have two epically ginormous plot bunnies from different fandoms vying for the attention of your muse, but neither of them is actually getting written, because it's easier to shove their giant bunny tails to the back burner and write the smaller plot bunnies.

 

.......you get story inspirations from your cat. Bonus points if cat writes said story idea by accidentally typing random letters on the keyboard.

 

...when a news article doubting that carrots help you see in the dark, has you concerned that that could invalidate your standby pun about someone being from Carratos (EU planet).

 

....you’ve learned to use private browser windows so the shared computer doesn’t get ads associated with searches like “cheesy pick-up lines” or “funeral banquet menu”
....you finish a story and go through all your WIPs and plot bunnies trying to find something the moose will run with.

 

...when you hear songs on the radio that would inspire fic, but forget them by the time you're able to write them down.

 

Try to grab and memorise a couple, or a few words. Then when you get to a computer, you ought to be able to put them into a search engine, and track down the rest of the lyrics.

 

When you are trying to get 1000 words out of She's Country by Jason Aldean.

 

...when your hands are aching from typing and your arms are aching from keeping them bent in front of the computer and your legs are aching from sitting down for so long and you really should just go take a walk or something but when plot bunnies strike, they strike hard, so here you are doing this all over again......

 

...when you have a giant carnivorous cephalopod clutching the front of a cruise liner, the Doctor and his TARDIS on board, projecting a force field around the ship, and you have been stuck for months with no idea how to get rid of the creature....and your muse flashes up a picture of the SPECTRE-launched laser satellite from You Only Live Twice.

You get three words into a scoff, and the muse lays out a Six Degrees of Separation of how your fics over the years can connect the two.

 

...when one your favorite fandoms has left you with little inspiration with its most recent season.

 

...when while playing a video game you suddenly get the insane idea to write this years dear diary challenge in form of an extensive AAR, instead of your original idea.

 

What's an AAR?

 

After Action Report, in relation to video games they are basically stories, often in form of diaries written from the persective of characters in the game refelcting on the players journey and descisions so to say. For example in a game like Skyrim it could be written as a diary of your character. Or in strategy games like many Paradox titles could be written from the persective of the players nation leader or a common person obeserving the events that unfoled due to the players actions.

Generally this is done for roleplaying purposes and imersion in the game. Some people also upload their writings in that regard as something of a cross between a fanfic and a lets play I guess you could call it.

Hope that explains it.

 

Ah, gotcha. When I was learning HTML (HyperText Markup Language) I used it to record about three years worth of Everquest sessions, The Yavinelf Diaries, so I know precisely what you are talking about. I didn't know it was a common thing for roleplayers though.

 

That what you mention sounds like it, yeah.
Will say I´m not so sure how popular it is with roleplayers in rpg games to be honest, I mainly know it from strategy games, my best friend has written some pretty good. Would give you guys a link but its a german side were I use to read them.
Generally I think it mainly is done in games with long playtime and huge player freedom, like global strategy games or open world rpgs, because this allows the writers to tell truly unique stories.

 

Is this anything like the format of the TPM junior books of 1999, "Queen Amidala (Star Wars Episode 1, Journal #2," which had lots of photos and a decent enough story to tell? There was another for Maul and one for Anakin. I forget if Jar Jar had one ... Or might it be a Find Your Fate book, where you flip the pages according to what decision you make in the story to wind up who knows where? *ponders*

 

Hm don´t really know those so I can´t say that. The format is usually left to the writers themselves on how they want to tackle it. Screenshots of course can be included and most AAR do, at least to some extend.

In the sense that for the writer/player things are uncertian and the story is not fully under your control as you write it yeah. Though it isn´t for the reader, though of course between chapters and say ahead of big descisions in the game you can ask your readers to vote on wich to pick.

 

Thanks! *adds AAR to her Personal Fanfiction Glossary (TM)*

EAD Oops, meant to add ... YKYAFFWW there are numerous fuzzy canon areas re your headcanon for Fandom, which is a blend of movieverse and TVverse, and you could reeealllly use the Force from AltFandom to explain them ...