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

....you just finished a story and now you don’t know what to do with yourself

 

...when your muse is on overdrive and you are producing consistently longer one shots than you have historically.
...when is standing in for Steve Harrington (Stranger Things).

 

...when research creates an amusing disparity between what you, and your character knows.

I watched two Youtube videos to research glove compartments in Citroen 2CVs, and eventually found myself staring at this massive dark space to the right of the steering wheel and driver controls, with no idea what I am looking at.

Couple days later, it is the turn of interior lighting to be researched, and I inadvertently encounter an explanation of what I had found before.

"Oh, it's a parcel shelf!"

Now, if I could not make that logical leap between a massive open space on a dashboard, designed with no apparent regard to momentum and gravity, and didn't make the leap in logic to it being a parcel shelf, there is no way that my character is going to.

How big were the ******* gloves that you were designed for? [Liz] wondered at the open space in something akin to shock. Was this car owned by Mickey Mouse? Had Jake nicked it from the staff car park at EuroDisney?

And that just makes me smile.

 

YKYAFFWW you read this post directly before sleep and the post gave you the sweetest and most fun dream you've had in months

. Honestly, the Citroen in our garage hasn't run in just ages, but in the dream it was downright spiffy and you drove it on a car rallye, just like in years past. Somehow, somewhere this incident will appear in a fic.

 

You used to drive cars in rallies?

 

...when even after fifteen hours of work you can´t resist thinking/planning for your stories before heading to bed.

 

We belonged to a Citroen car club with monthly meetings involving rallies including scavenger hunts (get a rubbing from a certain historical plaque, for example), meetings at restaurants waaaay out in the country, and other fun stuff. I would drive while Spouse read the map and the instructions. It wasn't race track driving.

 

...when writing the letter was one thing, but writing the response has you totally psyched out!

 

...when you think your muse is about to tap out, but after the two count, her shoulder comes off the mat.

...when drabbles might be calling you back.

...when you cannot get the Stranger Things 'Never Ending Story' duet out of your head.

...when writing Erica Sinclair is a challenge you want to take up!

 

...when you read a plot bunny, have no idea of the context, and think about just re-hashing a scene from a James Bond movie, except with the bunny' characters.

Come to think of it, that won't exactly be a first for me.

 

....when you read this as “re-enacting a James Bond scene with bunny characters”.
No, actually, that probably just means I watched too many Bugs Bunny cartoons in my formative years

 

The sequel to Zootopia, with Judy Hopp's cousin... Bunn. James Bunn.

 

...when you read something in a novel, and feel an affinity with the characters, because your own characters are doing, or have done something similar, or are sharing geographical locations, or going through the same experience.

In this specific instance, I'm reading a Jack Reacher novel, and as the protagonists head to the LAX airport in Los Angeles, I know from research, that I have a team about ten to fifteen miles West of the place, going through their own adventure (roleplaying game that I am currently in).

And it feels

 

YKYAFFWW you write copy for a product description and the instructions are to "present Q&A's designed to help the shopper form a decision" and your description's introductory para reads like a little fanfiction scenario; "speculative, please revise" comes the instruction from Higher Ups and you feel like a

 

...when predictive typing knows who you ship, because it can supply the second half of your OTPs if you type "(name) and" .

 

...When Billy Joel has you thinking about Luke and Mara.

I haven't been there for the longest time.

 

When you read bad movie reviews and get mad when they say, "The script reads like fanfiction." If professional novels were so great I would be reading them instead of fanfiction. With the exception of Zahn's new novels, I haven't been able to finish a new SW novel yet.

 

Except for Zahn, I haven't even tried!!

To be fair, I did think that the 'Bells' episode of GOT did feel like a 'I hate Dany' fanfic!

 

Only if you are talking about bad fanfiction. I watched how it played out and knew there was at that point only one type of ending that would make sense because that episode was pivotal. It really restricted the possible endings unless you want everybody to suddenly act out of character. I predicted the ending, but hoped I was wrong because I thought it would be a very unsatisfying ending.

I bet if you go to AO3 you can find alternate ending GOT fanfiction that makes much more sense and has a better ending.

I hate the bashing of fanfiction because there are so many awesome writers here. Now when I hear, "The script is like fanfiction I think, 'That good, huh?' or 'I wish'."

 

I agree with the above re the "bad fanfiction" because the quality of prose in the fanfiction field astounds! The ingenuity of plot and true characterizations, amazing AUs, intriguing world-building, all complete the experience to me. Profic writers get the money, so somebody likes it.

YKYAFFWW you reserve the right to sample canon and make like this froggie if it's unacceptable

 

It's thanks to fanfiction that I even started writing properly in the first place

I hadn't written a word for years, then back in January I got big into reading Gravity Falls fanfic. Eventually I read a one-shot with a neat premise, that I really wanted more of.

Well, whaddya know, I've since written over 300,000 words of that this year

Never got that same urge with 'proper fiction', much as I love reading.

 

I really only meant to imply some of the bad 'character-bashing' fanfic that exists. Like a lot of people, the PROCESS of how we got to Dany burning King's Landing bothered me more than the actual event.

And you're right...I've stumbled across more than a few really good AUs for GOT!

I really don't think most people understand how hard it is to write a compelling story...even if it is 'just' fanfic.

 

...when you write a few Star Wars drabble and remember that there is more in life than Hawkins, Indiana.

...when Hawkins is still very present in the muse's interest.

....When your muse starts to talk in the voice of Erica Sinclair demanding attention.