This evening I found a story in my drafts folder that apparently I wrote 6 months ago (I have absolutely no memory of this). A terribly trope-y "sold into marriage" fic but with a twist I quite like on re-read. I think I left it in my drafts because I wanted to expand on it, but actually I think the draft is good as-is, even though it's quite bare bones in comparison to my usual rambling style. Needs a bit of spit & polish so that's what I'll be doing this weekend.
Apart from that, I'm going to try to make a start on a reconciliation chapter for my long-fic. That really depends on my mood though.
Pretty much all my stories so far have featured a core OC & I realised today that for the couple of one-shots I've done, I have a passing relationship with those OCs, but for the longer stories, it's like I live in the OC's head. Part of it is no doubt the nature of spending months writing from a character's perspective, but it...
๐ Glad to know it's not uncommon. I guess it makes sense. You have weeks or months (or years) trying to figure out these characters in your head (& without any formative material, in the case of OCs) so they make more of an impression than characters you dip into for one-shots or short stories.
I realise it may be part of the reason I enjoy reading others' longfics as well, so long as the characters are consistent. Even if it's a canon character, I feel there's always the writer's interpretation of them in the story & some of those interpretations are wonderful especially for my favourite characters, even if they totally diverge from what I know of that character. I don't really consider OOC to be a negative in that case. But if the character does something that's OOC within the context of the version of them in the story or becomes inconsistent with themselves, then I'm likely to drop the fic.
Yep. Like the "idiot ball" concept in TV, random sudden OOC is almost certainly down to plot needing a convenient reason for something to be crowbarred in & the writer not having a more elegant option. Very off-putting imo.
I just realized that I seldom write/read fanfiction of books, and when I do, it's because they've been adapted to multi-media. Like, when I was into the LoTR and Hobbit fandoms, my baseline was the movies. When I got into Hannibal, it was because of the TV show. Harry Potter--the recent video game. Even my most recent story, set...
Hmmm... This made me think. I'd say it's mostly TV & film for me. Stranger Things, Star Wars, Star Trek, Mad Max (to break the "St..." streak), Pitch Black. But I mainly latch onto a fandom for the characters (& usually a specific character). I am a terribly one-track reader & writer of fanfic. ๐คทโโ๏ธ But I likes what I likes.
I'm not entirely sure I can explain it. I read a lot but books don't seem to need fanfic according to my brain. I daydream about the ones that interest me but that seems easier because I've already had to build the mental world as part of reading the book, so the daydreaming is just a continuation of that.
Whereas film & TV feel naturally more constrained due to the medium, so when I come up with an idea for a favourite character, I feel more compelled to write it down & similarly on reading other people's ideas for that character. I know a few people who fanedit films & I honestly don't know how they do it because there's just so little there to work with when compared to fanfic writing. ๐คทโโ๏ธ It's like I feel the visual medium of film & TV need fanfiction to make them whole or greater than they are.
Yeah, solving a puzzle sounds more on the ball for fan editing. Like a more constrained form of creativity since you could come up with a great idea but if the material isn't there to cover it, it'll never get going.
Part of the reason I like fanfiction is that I go in for romance/fluff/smut, but the characters I want to see in those situations usually aren't the ones who get that in TV or film - they're not the romantic leads or they're too weird or it's all suggestion (& no payoff!). So I write what I'd want to see if I had the choice of what happens on the screen.
Why, oh why, when I check my Bookmarks, is there nothing updated in the past 24 hours? Yes, I know I've a Read Later list as long as my arm... That's not the point! My brain wants comfy reading that it's already invested in, not a new thing to figure out. ๐ฉ
I try not to let summaries put me off reading a fic. I'll try the first few paragraphs regardless (unless the summary mentions something I explicitly don't like). Lack of a summary or an inarticulate summary are really the only things that would make me skip a fic.
With regards to writing summaries for my own fics, I dunno. I think I'm not so good at them but it's hard to tell (& I'm hiding stats at the moment because they bum me out, so who knows if my fics get many hits). I'm trying to improve & have rewritten a few of my summaries as I've thought of better ones, but I don't think I do the "sales pitch" aspect of summaries very well.
I totally agree on the "I'm bad at summaries" line (I say after posting yesterday saying pretty much that about myself ๐).
Something about that line in a summary sounds very much like the author didn't want to put the effort into making the summary better but also wants me to overlook that & that combination just annoys me.
Yeah, I'm not too worried about whether or not I'm "selling" my fics as ultimately I'm writing what I want to read & at least a couple of other people are getting something out of me posting them on AO3.
I have had a little fun with tagging - I basically wrote my only one-shot so far so that I could use the tags Virgin, Horny & Demon all for the same character. ๐ It's stupid but it really tickled me in a way that summary writing doesn't.
I'm not a massive A/B/O fan but I came across the Knot in my Name collection on AO3 & I really like their attitude of "let's make it difficult/undesirable for big companies to scrape our writing & use it for AI training" so I've been reading some of the submissions in my favourite fandoms (mainly Stranger Things & Star Wars).
I kind of like the idea that kbin pulls from other federated spaces based on hashtag. It means I don't need a Mastodon account to be able to keep an eye on fanfiction news there. Maybe more relevant if AO3 Status moved over from Twitter to Mastodon but still...
That said, I can totally see it having an impact on moderation. I think if anything was pulled into the microblog list that's obviously uncool, we should be able to report it & get that blocked. And if it's a personal preference thing, instructions for how individuals can block would be very useful.
Re self promotion, I don't mind that so much that I think it needs to be moderated in the microblogs.
@a_mac_and_con This week is not going to be the most productive for me due to life getting in the way, but in my WIP, I've got chapter 27 of my long-fic (wrote about 500 words but I feel like I may scrap & start again) & a one-shot which is my first attempt at 2nd person perspective (think it'll be tough to get it good as it's not one of my strengths but I wanted to challenge myself). Both are on the only topic I write about: Eddie Munson from Stranger Things gets laid.
@borzoiteeth@a_mac_and_con
Welp, I finished it & don't think it's utterly terrible so now it's out there in the world & I'll see if anyone loves or hates it enough to comment! ๐
@avividtale Thanks. I'm mainly just feeling sorry for myself today ๐คง And sorrier when AO3 isn't there. Hope the admin team are hanging in there - this kind of crap is never fun!
I mean, I'll be honest, my favourite fanfic writers are the ones who tell the same story, same relationships, over & over, & do that well. I'm happy to read writers who vary their styles, subjects, etc but ultimately I'll follow writers who I know will give me more cake. ๐
I think this substitution or prioritisation of romantic relationships over platonic is something that's present in a lot of narrative art. Romantic couples are seen as the most important of relationships.
It's why I love shows like Faracape where they put a lot of importance on friendships between the characters. Love in shows like this aren't just expressed romantically.
๐คฆโโ๏ธ After all my "I am doomed to only write long-fics", inspiration struck last night for a new one-shot & I managed to draft half of it today. ๐ Looking forward to finishing it & maybe getting it out into the world over the next few weeks.
Outside of work, I can't hit repeated short-term creative deadlines on demand. It's like just knowing I'm being held to account (by myself) stresses me out & zaps my ability to make progress. I think it's related to task initiation/executive function issues for me & the fear that my creative juices will dry up causes them to do so.
Which is a pity, because NaNoWriMo sounds cool! Maybe if I quit my job for a month & had nothing but writing to focus on. ๐
What are you reading (or writing) this weekend? (7/28)
I've been rereading a bunch of my favorite MP100 fics, but I should probably get back into doing some writing. Now to choose a WIP. XD
I visit my one-shot OCs but I live in my longfic OCs
Pretty much all my stories so far have featured a core OC & I realised today that for the couple of one-shots I've done, I have a passing relationship with those OCs, but for the longer stories, it's like I live in the OC's head. Part of it is no doubt the nature of spending months writing from a character's perspective, but it...
Is there a type of media you favor for fanfiction?
I just realized that I seldom write/read fanfiction of books, and when I do, it's because they've been adapted to multi-media. Like, when I was into the LoTR and Hobbit fandoms, my baseline was the movies. When I got into Hannibal, it was because of the TV show. Harry Potter--the recent video game. Even my most recent story, set...
Fanfic Summaries
I was pondering this earlier in the week. People have summaries they like and ones they will scroll past without considering the story at all....
What are you reading this weekend? 7/14?
AO3 is back up (yay!) and there are other sites out there hosting great fanfic and comics. What's on your list for this weekend?...
["Poll"] Community Input on the Magazine
A couple updates!...
Resisting the long-fic temptation
Does anyone else have to resist the urge to turn every idea they have for a story/setting into a long-fic? Do you succeed & if you do, how?...
Fan Camp NaNo
Is anyone else using Camp NaNoWriMo to help write their fanfics?...