What it says on the tin.
This is a space where fanfic writers are interviewed about their thoughts on writing, how they approach fanfic, and what’s helped them on their fanfic/writing journey.
Currently all interviews have been conducted for the first round of posts, but if you are a writer that would like to have a conversation with @darkisrising in the next cycle, please reach out via this blog’s ask box. All fandoms welcome! Doesn’t matter if you are new to the process or established, we’d love to hear from you. You never know; maybe what you have to say about writing is exactly what another writer out there needs to hear.
Posting schedule:
Meet-Cute Monday, where we will meet the week’s writer
In the Weeds Wednesday, where we get into the nitty gritty of writing
Final Thoughts Friday, where our writer will give us some last thoughts on fanfic
Banner and icon by @bronze-lorica
Also, I have come to learn I am terrible at writing up image descriptions so PLEASE feel free to add your own and reblog. I welcome and appreciate it with my whole, entire heart!
You don’t have to write some genre-redefining masterpiece. You can write a story about two people very simply falling in love. You can just write a story about a person going to the store. You could, if you were so inclined, just re-write Star Wars but like, make all the names start with M.
Don’t let the fear of not-writing something transcendent stop you from just writing.
questions about writing?? tell me how to write funny interactions between characters ..... pls...............
GOD what a question! impossible to answer! people have been seeking the solution for eons upon eons! I'm a little drunk but let me see how many of the seven comic premises i can remember
1. shared secret -- something the POV character and the audience both know that no one else knows. e.g. character A has an ostrich trapped in the other room and it keeps making noise and character B keeps asking "what's that?" and character A says something like, "oh, I left my vibrator on," while the ostrich rips through the room like a fucking wrecking ball.
2. ok i can't remember any more but basically comedy is where reality and what's being said diverge? so like character A is bleeding out all over the kitchen and character B says "holy shit you're bleeding out all over the kitchen!!!" and character A says "nah mate totally fine" OR obi-wan and anakin are flying a spacecraft high above coruscant that starts to fall apart mid-orbit and as everything is on fire and collapsing around them obi-wan says cheerfully, "not to worry, we're still flying half a ship!" OR, to call on recent media, stede bonnet who clearly does NOT know how to captain a pirate ship walks around giving confident orders as to how to run a pirate ship.
3. also, rhythm is important. this is not one of the seven comic premises but i am, at this point, dedicated to the numbered list. short sentences are funny, long sentences generally are not (in writing prose, and in dialogue). of course there are exceptions to all rules and there's a difference between laugh out loud funny and quiet haha in your brain funny. funny conversations should move fast and there shouldn't be too much in the way of descriptors/adjectives cluttering them up.
4. the letter K is a funny letter. use words with K
7. rule of threes!
and that's all I know about comedy. i do not consider myself a comedic writer but i write the way i talk and i have very dry humor so i guess that bleeds into it. in short -- absorb what is funny to you, mimic it, make it your own, voila. i understand this is probably not helpful but once again! impossible age-old questions, etc. goodnight
<<This post is a part of a longer conversation about fanfic writers, how they view fanfic, and their writing process. All views are the fanfic writers’ own, and whatever fanfic they choose to write is entirely their own decision. No judgment value will be placed on fic content. These conversations are meant to provide insight for other fanfic writers in whatever stage they are at in their writing life>>
Final Thought Friday (with aurevell, @aurevell)
Talk fanfic to me I could go on for days about how storytelling is a part of being human, something hard-wired into us. How it helps us connect with each other.
I think we need fanfic because we need stories, and because fanfic allows us to be in control of those stories. It's not that you can't get stories elsewhere in the media. But to me, the fanfic experience I curate for myself consists exactly of the kinds of stories that speak to me most. They're not gritty or dark, they don't adhere to a rigid structure, they're not sending me pointed messages, and no one had to get an OK from some production company to create them.
Instead, fanfics feel like the oldest form of storytelling, the kinds of stories we share with each other just because we enjoy them. Their plots wander. They touch on personal experiences. They can be dark or whimsical or self-indulgent. Best of all, they let us recognize ourselves in someone else's words and perspectives. You get this sense of companionship just from reading or writing them - because they're just for us, just for our community, something we share. They're about characters we love and reimagine, and fanon ideas that we steal and run with. Fanfics help us connect and create together, and that's a beautiful thing.
<<This post is a part of a longer conversation about fanfic writers, how they view fanfic, and their writing process. All views are the fanfic writers’ own, and whatever fanfic they choose to write is entirely their own decision. No judgment value will be placed on fic content. These conversations are meant to provide insight for other fanfic writers in whatever stage they are at in their writing life>>
In the Weeds Wednesday (with aurevell, @aurevell)
Walk me through your writing process. It's so different for every fic, but recently I've been getting into more of a familiar groove for it. Usually, once I have the idea for a fic, I'll do the thing where I do not write anything at all for a while. But I'll think about the story when I'm doing other stuff - walking, housework, etc. - and it's not traditional "writing" but it really helps. For some reason, some of my best plot and character "eureka" moments happen when I'm not actively writing just yet.
When I kind of have a vague idea of where I want to go (though often without knowing the exact ending yet), that's when I'll sit down and make a general outline. For short fics, I'll start writing as soon as I've done a quick outline, but for longer fics I have to do wayyy more work.
I'm a big fan of the snowflake writing method, although a lot of the stuff about it online is MUCH too in-depth and intimidating for my needs. Basically, my method is to start with a quick summary, and then expand on it little by little until I have a 1-pg outline. Then I take each sentence of that outline and expand on it a little more. Then I'll take each piece of the larger outline and expand more, and so on. (I think it's kind of like painting? You aren't laying down all the details in one area all at once, you're jumping to add more details to each area in cycles.)
An added bonus with it is that it means I'm going back to different parts of the story a lot, which is helpful so I remember to do foreshadowing AND because I have the memory of a goldfish and will otherwise forget continuity details in two seconds.
When do you find the ending? Is that a crucial thing to know before you start to write or does it sneak up on you later? It depends! I don't think of it as crucial at all though. Sometimes I know it right away, and sometimes it comes up later, after I've wrestled with the plot and developed the characters enough to go "oh, this ending would make the most sense."
Is it the same with beginnings? Oh the beginning is always the first thing I know. I've never had an issue (knock on wood, now that I'm saying it) with the beginning of a story - that part's always really fun for me. Maybe just because making a "hook" is so interesting, though.
Yes, hooks, let's talk about them, because that's something I haven’t touched on yet in any of these interviews. What sorts of things make for the best beginnings? Do you subscribe to common writing wisdom of starting in medias res? Hmm, I think some of the most fun hooks happen when you ask, "What's the most interesting thing about this situation/this character?" It's not about coming up with something wild for the sake of grabbing attention, so sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge. But there's always something you can work with.
As for in medias res, I do subscribe to it - but I'm realizing I don't always do it with my fics! I usually like to start at the moment of the action starting, the big change, the first meeting, the arrival, etc. I mean, I honestly think it depends on the story, so yeah a few steps before the big change works well if that's what is called for by the story you're telling, you know? But I tend to be suspicious of any writing advice that deals in absolutes.
Do you wanna talk about that? Writing advice and how to navigate other people's good intentions? Oof, that's a big question! I actually love trying new writing advice, but I have to remind myself to take things with a grain of salt. Otherwise you end up doing something crazy like taking all the adverbs out of your fic because someone said they're weak crutch words, and who wants to read something like that? (Coincidentally, you can pry adverbs out of my cold, dead fingers lmao) I think like you said, you have to assume people have good intentions, but that doesn't mean their advice is what your fic needs.
Where do you go when you want to find writing advice or new perspectives on honing craft, etc? Okay I'm gonna be honest and say that I actually get a lot of writing advice by going to the library vs. online! Don't get me wrong, I do like the occasional blog or video about writing from professional writers (shout out to Patrick Rothfuss who has great tips...though I'd love it if he put those tips toward finishing the last book in his trilogy lmao), but I've gotten some good tips from books! Probably my all-time fave is “Save the Cat,” which is technically a screenwriting book but a great read for general "how do stories work" info.
Oh yeah, “Save the Cat” is great! Right? The only downside is it changed how I look at movies, haha!
Any others you like? Trying to think off the top of my head - I also liked “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott and “Steal Like an Artist” by Austin Kleom. And I've been recommended “The Artist's Way” by Julia Cameron SO many times but haven't gotten around to it
Okay, so. Tell me about these outlines of yours. I know they’re epic. Ok sooo full disclosure that I DO use Scrivener (shout out to NaNo for that sweet discount), which makes this stuff a lot easier. I don't even understand half of the planning features in the program, but I run with what I know. And I do need to be kind of Extra even with my basic-ass plots, because (again) I have the memory of a goldfish and cannot remember plot details for more than five seconds.
One of the best things about Scrivener is that it lets you separate different scenes of your outline with color-coded labels. In the fics I've already published, I've been using different colors for different drafts to help me figure out where I am in the revision cycle. BUT going forward for fics I'm in the process of writing, I'm assigning colors according to subplots. Which is a minor shift, but it's been a HUGE game-changer because I really struggled to keep up with that stuff in the past. It helps me make sure I'm actually tying up all the loose ends!
How do you structure time to write in your day? Is it every day? I was JUST talking to someone about this actually! I try to set aside time for writing a few times during the week around work, but it's unfortunately the first thing that gets dropped from my to-do list if anything unexpected comes up. But in the past, when I was writing early in the morning before anything had a chance to "pop up," it felt much easier to make progress. So I might try that again.
Where does reading fanfic fit into your process? What do you admire that other writers do that you want to include in your writing? How is that going? Oh man, reading fanfic is everything! It's super inspiring to read a great fic and think, I wish I could craft something with a plot like this, or create this perfect phrasing, or juggle character arcs in this effortless way! A good fic gets me really excited to practice writing until I can get on their level. Which CAN be kind of daunting, but I like to think of it as more of a long-term challenge.
What's the hardest thing you've ever attempted with a fic, and why was it difficult? Soooo it's possibly because it's my most recent fic and therefore freshest in my mind, but I'm currently doing a Steter longfic that has felt like the single biggest writing challenge of my life for two reasons. It's a time-loop story, which means I have to stay on top of little continuity things that can be tough for me. Worse, one of the POV characters (Stiles) doesn't fully remember the previous loops. Which means I've had to figure out how to keep things interesting for readers while a character is literally repeating the same sequence of events that just happened. So it's been challenging but also super fun - I've had to get creative in ways I've never thought about before!
I think it’s taught me better ways of building tension. One of my favorite story vibes is when you know something is off, and maybe the POV character does too, but you can't put your finger on why. So I started finding ways to add little moments of "wrongness" into the mix. (Plus the cliffhangers. Plenty of cliffhangers.)
Coming to the end I promise. Here’s something I ask of everyone: say something nice about your own writing. Oh my god, you're winding down with the toughest question of all??? Well I guess the thing I like about my own fics, at least my longer ones, are the ideas. I'm always writing stories I really want to read, and I like doing imaginative stuff. Even though I'll probably always be working to hone my wording, or the pacing, or the character arcs, I really like the ideas and themes at the core of my fics. I feel like I have a good foundation to practice building on.
Any advice to the newbie writers out there, or the ones that are struggling with it? My only advice to ANY writers, including myself, is to jump in and do it. Unfortunately (in spite of my best efforts to do otherwise) writing appears to be the only way to get better at writing. That's true for everything from your first story to the scary idea you're not sure how to tackle. The sooner you jump in, the sooner "Can I do this" becomes "I guess I'm doing this" becomes "I've done this!" It may not always be pretty, but you can bet you'll feel good about it - and practice is the only thing that can make your stuff better in the future!
<<This post is a part of a longer conversation about fanfic writers, how they view fanfic, and their writing process. All views are the fanfic writers’ own, and whatever fanfic they choose to write is entirely their own decision. No judgment value will be placed on fic content. These conversations are meant to provide insight for other fanfic writers in whatever stage they are at in their writing life>>
Meet-Cute Monday (with aurevell, @aurevell )
AO3 Stats:
Pseud: Aurevell
Pronouns: she/her
Current fandoms: Teen Wolf
Current pairings: Steter, Sterek
How many total fic: 12
How many fandoms: 1
Total word count: 313,899
Longest fic word count: 118,704
Shortest fic: 1,647
Highest kudo count: 1,795
Lowest: 148
What’s the story behind your pseud? I was a huge Tamora Pierce fan growing up (I liked the idea of all these girl knights running around kicking ass). Aurevell is a made-up character name I've used in video games/RPGs since I was a kid, because I thought it sounded like a lady knight from one of those books.
How long have you been reading and writing fanfic? Oof, I've been reading fanfic for over 15 years I think (help how do I math?) which is maybe showing my age a bit. I remember coming home and having to read it on our shared family computer! It was kind of a self-soothing reaction to having to wait for the next Harry Potter book, because I absolutely had to imagine what was coming next.
I started writing fanfic maybe a year or so after I started reading it. I stopped writing for a while when I got busy after college, but I never stopped reading it. When I finally jumped back in it was because I fell into the Teen Wolf fandom completely by accident. I wish I remembered which fics made me fall in love with it, but I couldn't tell you - except that all of a sudden I had a million story ideas and nowhere to put them all! So I made my current pseud for a fresh start and jumped back in.
Did you have any goals or hopes or something you wanted to get out of writing this second time around? Honestly, I didn't have any goals or hopes when I first started writing, with the possible exception of getting all those story ideas out of my head and onto paper - which hasn't happened AT ALL, because I get ten more ideas for every one fic I actually publish. But I am making some "fic resolutions" for 2022 to push myself a little harder, so we'll see how that goes!
Oh that's a good idea, what kinds of things do you think would go on that list of resolutions? Above all there are two long fics I have been trying to get started for literally...eight months? Nine?? And so at least starting those fics would be at the top of the list. I also do want to make some resolutions around reading about the process of writing so I can try some new stuff and maybe make my life a bit easier. And I also might set a total yearly word count goal, but that seems a bit too ambitious, so we'll see how I feel once I get there. Considering that I didn't win Nano this past year....I may end up reconsidering.
How do you know when an idea is worth chasing and when is it time to walk away? Oh god, that is the million dollar question! It's so hard to say, and if I knew the answer I probably wouldn't waste as much time as I do. But I probably circle back to a story if I either can't stop thinking about it, which is usually a sign there's at least something there, or if I feel like it deserves another shot. (I do follow a loose "three strikes and you're out" rule where if I've made three unsuccessful attempts to crank a fic out, I dump it in the trash bin where it continues to haunt me till the end of time).
Any particular ghosts of fic past that you want to give a shout out to here since they won't see the light of day? Literally so many I can barely choose. But most recently, there's this Sterek fic I wanted to do for Halloween which would be a literal horror story (my fave genre tbh) in which Stiles and Derek are trapped in the haunted Hale House with a monster. But I tried writing it over the summer for months, and no dice unfortunately! Which is fitting because it's haunting me still and also it's a haunted house I guess?
Hahaha! Yes! Thematic, I love it. Do you write original content or only fanfic? I don't write original content, but I DO want to start one day! I don't think I'll ever stop writing fanfic for good, but I think doing original stuff might be a fun challenge to get into. I've talked with a friend about getting into self-publishing together, so that's probably the route I'd end up going (if it happens).
What drives you to write? This feels like the biggest cop-out of all time, but can I just say "stories?" Telling a good story is really fun for me, and it's even more exciting when you're on tumblr or AO3 where there's fanfic communities, because you can get the sense that you're taking readers on a journey. That's why doing plotty stories are probably my favorite, because you get the dramatic reactions to reveals and cliffhangers and I LIVE for that stuff. Also let's be honest...I write fics because I want to read a very specific niche plot and no one else has done it yet. So it's like "okay I guess I HAVE to write this thing in order to experience it personally."
Not a cop out at all! I think it’s what’s the biggest difference between original fic writing and fanfic. Not quality, not that it’s playing with IP, but that you get the chance to engage with others as you write. It is SUCH good fuel for the fire.
<<This post is a part of a longer conversation about fanfic writers, how they view fanfic, and their writing process. All views are the fanfic writers’ own, and whatever fanfic they choose to write is entirely their own decision. No judgment value will be placed on fic content. These conversations are meant to provide insight for other fanfic writers in whatever stage they are at in their writing life>>
Final Thought Friday (with antheiasilva, @antheiasilva)
Talk fanfic to me. I do think there's something wild about "there's this little corner of my heart and brain that only YOU understand" that makes fandom communities so intense and amazing. Like, no one else gets it. It's a very important and profound sense of being liked and being alike. Of seeing and being seen. Of loving and being loved. I mean, I love my friends. That's what friendship is for me. And it is real, even though we've never met in person and this is the particular wavelength on which we vibe, and sometimes the only wavelength.
When I really sit with it, fanfic can get into pretty deep and even spiritual places for me. I am definitely a romantic in the broad sense of the word– and the narrow, let's be real!--so I do think fanfic is often about love. Loving the characters, loving the show, wanting to experience the love between characters, whether it's friendship, family, romance, sexual. So many different kinds of love, but all love. Isn't it amazing that all that love can come from nothing and go and live and circulate between people?
It feels kind of endless or boundless, because however much there is of it, there can always be more and it never uses anything up - it's generative. Magical. And I don't think it's an accident that fanfic is written and loved by people whose love is often not depicted or given representation, or places to live and breathe in the world. The things we dream about and desire are different and we need space to have that. Fanfic defies convention, makes space where there isn't any, breaks down barriers.
One last thing: thank YOU so much for doing these interviews. For taking our craft so seriously and for being so generous with your time and energy. This interview series is definitely a labour of love, and I hope all your readers will see that and appreciate that.
<<This post is a part of a longer conversation about fanfic writers, how they view fanfic, and their writing process. All views are the fanfic writers’ own, and whatever fanfic they choose to write is entirely their own decision. No judgment value will be placed on fic content. These conversations are meant to provide insight for other fanfic writers in whatever stage they are at in their writing life>>
In the Weeds Wednesday (with antheiasilva, @antheiasilva)
What’s your writing schedule like? Fits and spurts, when I can. There's no schedule, it happens when I'm up for it and have time.
When it comes to writing, what are some things that challenge you, and how are you working through it? Dialogue comes easiest to me, and blocking out a scene, but the environment and background, exposition, that stuff is harder for me. So now I write in layers. I go with what's coming to me - usually dialogue - and fill in what I have, and then add more afterwards. Like printing in different layers of colour. I sometimes get frustrated with fics sounding too much the same - and for that I have to set the tone of a specific fic by reading earlier chapters- and having a wonderful beta read through things to check that it matches. Hint hint…
Haha! Yes, that’s true, you DO have a remarkably cool beta [reader: on occasion, it’s me]. Could you talk for a bit about beta readers, what you look for, how they support you/your work? It does depend a bit on the fic. Sometimes I just want an enthusiastic screamer or someone to read it over to see if there's anything glaringly off or awkward. Other times, I do want someone to push me a bit–whether it's on prose and style, or depth or type of characterization. I do want things to feel in character, even in the most outrageous premises. And sometimes what I want to happen bumps up against the character and I want my beta to be able to tell me that. I've found betas mostly through vibing online about similar stuff. I always try to work with writers I admire. I want to learn from my betas and talk about craft with them.
What’s the hardest thing you've ever attempted with a fic, and why was it difficult? I think the hardest thing was the structure and style with “After the War.” The different reveals that involved flashbacks were more complex than the single progressive timeline that happens in most of my fics. I had to know what happened but hold things back so we could see Obi-Wan figuring things out as his memory returned. And shifting from the minimalistic style to a more fleshed out style as Obi-Wan woke up and healed, while keeping the same tone - that was really hard.
But beautifully done, and effective. Where does reading fanfic fit into your process? I am always blown away by the level of writing in my fandom (Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan, but also Star Wars prequel and Clone Wars). I do admire eloquence and precision, as well as a fully realized world - little details that bring the fic to life. I want to experience fic like I'm stepping onto a holodeck from Star Trek. I want fic to make me feel things. I often pick what I'm reading based on what I am experiencing or want to experience. And that definitely influences how I write.
Show don't tell is something that I struggle with, so I do enjoy it, but I am sometimes frustrated by it and long for more interiority. I do want a balance of that. Because show don't tell is often held up as the gold standard but it is one style. It's not everything and it has its own history and lineage and politics.
Oh absolutely, I feel that. I feel like all writing advice, show don't tell included, should be taken as trying to find a balance in how you write. Not as the one and only truth and answer and way. Exactly.
So, after saying that, lololol... What advice have you heard/gotten that has had a meaningful impact on the way you write or your relationship with your writing? One that I say to myself is "the best chapter is a done chapter" - which is to say, sometimes you just need to finish and post and move on because you could be endlessly editing.
Do you kill your darlings? I do kill them when they are redundant. Or when they scatter focus or get a scene away from itself. I try to remember that words are a renewable resource- I can always make more, there will be more. I don't need to cling to little phrases or even passages as if I won't ever have something like that again. Listening to audiobooks really helped me with this one. I love “Wild Space” by Karen Miller, but she does a triplicate descriptor sentence structure thing ALL the time. And it just annoyed the crap out of me after a while listening to it. I don't need the same action described in three different ways in apposition. Pick one.
Oh man. well. I've been called out, haha! I mean, I do it too! Everyone does. But not constantly and for mundane actions. It showed me, though, that I should probably read my stuff out loud to myself more for editing. I do do that sometimes and realize I've used "still" like four times in a paragraph.
That’s a great one I always think I’ll do and then… don’t. Lolol! Okay, say something nice about your own writing. Hmm..... I think I'm good at using language to depict and evoke feelings. My characters have depth and emotional realism. Sometimes my prose can be awfully pretty. And I think my stories can really hit readers in the feels, so to speak.
So, tell me. Why do you write fanfiction? Because I love it. I love the characters, I love the world, I love the millions of different scenarios. I don't get bored with these characters. I want to see them over and over and over again. I want to get to know them and their motivations and their history. I want to see them through different eyes, as I change and as I experience them in new ways through other people's writing.
It's personal healing and development - because it's expressive, and I get to work through things - as we talked about earlier - and make sense of myself as I make sense of the characters. It's fun. It's so fun. It's an adventure in your brain. I have aphantasia, so I can't just imagine and watch scenarios in my head - I have to depict them, build them, touch them. Fic is the way to do that.
Also, my readers are pretty awesome. And there is this magical feeling of posting a chapter being like giving a present. But it's a present to myself too. There's just a lot of joy to be had and circulated. And I think that's pretty radical stuff these days.
<<This post is a part of a longer conversation about fanfic writers, how they view fanfic, and their writing process. All views are the fanfic writers’ own, and whatever fanfic they choose to write is entirely their own decision. No judgment value will be placed on fic content. These conversations are meant to provide insight for other fanfic writers in whatever stage they are at in their writing life>>
Pseud: antheiasilva
Pronouns: they/them
Current fandoms: Star Wars, Stargate
Current pairings: QuiObi (Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan), Gen
How many total fic: 28
How many fandoms: 2
Total word count: 182,952
Longest fic word count: 36,182
Shortest: 215
Highest kudo count: 1305
Lowest: 29
What's the story behind your pseud? Being the classics nerd I am, it's the Greek goddess of flowers and Latin for forest. I made it up in high school, and I think the original version was jediantheia but then I wanted to not be so fandom specific. Jokes on me, 20 years later and I'm still obsessed with Star Wars!
How long have you been reading fanfic? How long have you been writing fanfic? I've been reading fanfic since at least 1997 or 1998. I'm not sure if it was my first fandom and pairing, but I was really into Mulder/Scully fanfic and I remember printing it off high school computers. I know I looked for, but don't remember if there was any, Jurassic Park fanfiction and I did write Jurassic Park fanfiction around that time, but it never made it online. I think it mostly stayed in a notebook. I also wrote some Lord of the Rings fanfic in the early 2000s but that also never made it online. But I did win a high school short story competition for what I would now call Hamlet/Horatio pre-slash in 2001.
I was lurking around Qui/Obi in the late 90s, early 2000s. I remember reading some of “Walk Softly and Carry a Big Lightsaber” in the Master and Apprentice archive on high school computers, but didn't get very far. It was back in the days where I thought I was straight and read a lot of Qui-Gon/OFC. I didn't really start writing seriously until 2017, with Stargate Universe fanfiction (Rush/Young, of course), and then started writing Star Wars Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan in 2018 and never looked back.
Why did you start to write fanfic with your current writing incarnation? I was really interested in seeing the conversations characters might have with each other if they just fucking talked and what their relationships might turn into. With Rush/Young I wanted to see if I could plausibly and in character get them into a relationship, without any gimmicks, tropes, external influences. Nothing against sex pollen or aliens made them do it - I love that stuff - but the fandom had A Lot of that already.
With my first Qui/Obi it was similar. Can I, in character, get them into a relationship with the barriers that exist between them. And the master/padawan legacy is a big deal to figure out. If they were living, breathing humans in all their messiness, with all their trauma and history with each other, all of the power dynamics, and pseudo-parent mentor stuff, how would they figure that out? Could they?
I look at them in “The Phantom Menace” and they seem completely in love with each other in this quiet, respectful, magical way. I remember watching Qui-Gon's death scene in 1999 on the big screen and my heart leaping into my throat because for a moment it really looked like they were going to kiss. I just wanted to imagine that going somewhere in a romantic and sexual way. Not that they aren't already somewhere, but I'm allosexual so that's the trajectory that really pulled me at first.
How does what you do as a career inform the sorts of stories you write or the narratives you chase after? Wellllllll, I do work in mental health so... yeah. No surprise that emotions, relationships, trauma are all pretty central. I also trained as a yoga teacher and I'm studying more and more nondual wisdom and philosophy through yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism, tantra. So the philosophy and spirituality connection is also probably going to be showing up more and more.
Take "After the War" for example, where did the trajectory of healing come from, how much was informed by that work? Quite a lot - but less academic. I have a pretty intense trauma history myself and so all the academic stuff is filtered through lived experience of trauma healing through therapy, self-directed healing, emotional processing, embodiment and somatic therapy, yoga, exploring and healing from intergenerational trauma. There's definitely stuff about dissociation and structural dissociation in “After the War” and the importance of safety in the present, the challenge of coming into and staying in the present, being in connection, receiving love, accepting oneself and all of one's exiled parts of self. What is the Dark side really anyway? I think it's related to trauma.
Disclaimer- it's still fiction and fantasy! So, you know, don't try this at home and all that.
One of the cool things about healing from dissociation is that it is a lot like waking up, over months and years. And I tried to get that effect in “After the War” with the style and structure. It's not linear - there are setbacks. And it's hard - you have to let go of control. You can't rush it or make it happen. You have to come back to acceptance and compassion over and over. And it's not done alone.
So this intersection of fanfic, using known characters and settings, to explore lived trauma and process healing and identity is something I'm fascinated by. Fanfic has a reputation for being non-serious writing (and it absolutely can be! love that for it!) but because it's such an accessible way to write and share and have others read and respond, I feel like it's uniquely situated to give people a chance to say some really personal things. I agree with you 1000%. Fanfic can be healing magic. Writing it and reading it. You can be with your "stuff" whatever it is, with the buffer of the fictional characters and universe and the process of being with the stuff, understanding it, feeling it, having compassion for the character (cough cough, yourself) in it, panning out and seeing it from a distance, focusing in and seeing little pieces. It's all healing and integrating, I think. That's been my experience. You have that great line in Mirrorball where Obi-Wan is right up against the proverbial wall with his frustration with Qui-Gon and then something shifts. Hang on, I need to find it…
"If they are staying true to their established pattern, one of them should walk away, but Obi-Wan doesn’t feel that caged animal drive to get away from Qui-Gon this time. His meditation has helped Obi-Wan peel away his fears and hurt until all that is left is a boundless calm that makes him feel both terribly small and unspeakably large. He knows this feeling for what it is: perspective.
Now he’s ready to face Qui-Gon again."
This state Obi-Wan's in, and the choice he makes here - that is trauma healing. And I feel like writing fanfic helps me do that. Needless to say, you blew my freaking mind with Mirrorball and I will love it forever. That is what fanfic can give us, I think, among other things - dopamine, endorphins, practicing compassion, more neural interconnectivity etc. This is one of those passages that has lodged in my brain and will never leave. I am both thrilled by it and unspeakably jealous in the best way.
Not bad for a fic thats mostly about Obi-Wan becoming a club kid and having anonymous alley sex, lolol! Hahah, it's about so much more than that.
The other thing I hear a lot from other writers/readers is that fanfic has the accessibility for people to see identity outside the mainstream they might not get to see. Can you talk about any moments of that for you? Yeah, I mean my drive to write fanfic was at least partially inspired by my gender awakening, figuring out I'm trans and trying to figure out masculinity. I'm fascinated by and adore masculinity. I'm particularly fascinated by Jedi masculinity- Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are so strong, so competent, so powerful, and yet Qui-Gon kneels down to look Anakin in the eyes. He almost never raises his voice. Obi-Wan too. They have power over themselves and so they don't need to take it out on others. They don't get out of control. That's Anakin, whose possessive need for control of others is trying to compensate for the chaos he feels in himself.
I grew up in a family where men bellowed like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park when they didn't get their way and used physical violence against people much weaker than them. And that's our culture too- damn patriarchy. Swimming around in healthy masculinity is hard to do! I need fanfic for that! I do value all of the identity representation in fanfic, but I can't say I've been overly compelled by trans Obi-Wan stories, for example. Art seems to be a different story. I have been known to cry when seeing Obi-Wan art where he has top surgery scars.
Oh I love that: seeing non-toxic masculinity in fandom. That’s a really beautiful thing to get from fanfic.
Hello! A question for you and all your writers. Who would you say is the author (fanfiction or published) who most influences your writing, and how do you mindfully borrow and learn from them? (i.e. What part of their writing, specifically, do you try to emulate in your own, and is this a conscious or sub-conscious process?)
Hi anon! Great question!
I asked a few writers ( @willowcrowned, @shey-elizabeth, @tessiete) and also took a crack at answering myself. The post got a little long, but I hope you’ll find it as interesting as I did to see how different writers engage with what they are reading....
DarkIsRising:
I read a LOT of fanfic in a ton of different fandoms that I’d never write in, constantly looking for the very best writing that fandom has to offer. I’m always asking for recs from people, trying to find the writing that makes my brain purr. From there it’s a process of getting lost in a new writer’s way of developing story and character, falling in love with how they did what they did, and then rereading to see if I can find out why those words in that order made my mind melt or my heart speed up or my skin get that sickly dread feeling that comes when the angst is high and hitting just right. What happens next depends on my mood.
Sometimes I’ll tuck away what I think I learned into my back pocket as something that’s interesting but not really what I’m particularly interested in writing. Sometimes I take the deconstructed idea of what I learned and write something where I try out the trick for myself. I wouldn’t say it’s copying so much as “hm, I think this is how it worked, is this how it’s done?” and then apply it to my own writing.
“Werdla” came after several re-readings of an Old Guard kink series by TheIneffableLily, who used this mood of safe and consensually sex where the kink served to make a charged emotional atmosphere, where the really truly dangerous thing wasn’t the pain play or what have you, it was the vulnerability that might be revealed through the sex. So I tried it out for myself in relation to Din and Luke, playing with the idea of Din’s helmet and Luke’s blindfold—which comes up a lot in dinluke fanfic, so much it’s probably its own trope at this point— Din’s vulnerability in removing his helmet to have sex with Luke and the trust that Luke is a good enough man that he won’t look. Later I found out that furiosophie was inspired by the mood I created in “Werdla” and used what she’d felt in it to create elements for her fic “Go and Get Your Hands Dirty.” So that’s kind of a beautiful thing in fanfic, when it’s done right and everyone is being respectful (and not stealing literal words, etc) how much of this work can be a call and response. Someone writes something that stirs a feeling in me, that feeling influences what I write next, only for someone to read my thing and get inspired to create their own thing from it. Sometimes it creates those “works inspired by” links in ao3, but sometimes it’s more subtle than that, and that subtly is where I absolutely live, die, and live again.
Tessiete:
100% ruth baulding. Ruth's stories got me back into SW, and prompted me to enter the fandom (first, intending to seek her out, but then I started writing). She just has this great balance, imo, of slightly overwrought prose that to me felt very original Star Wars-y. Kind of an elevated Lucas! And I love how she used language to convey character subtext (I've talked about this before, but she rarely uses the word "love" bc Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan don't know how to use it for each other, either. They always talk around it, and so the writing skirts it with metaphor.
Then, I'd say treescapes, and outpastthemoat. Moat has this ability to walk a fine line between tragedy and hope, and I find that particularly wrenching for Obi-Wan stories in particular. Often the most gutting parts of her fic are the smallest miscommunications. I strive for that subtlety. And with trees, her imagery just is SO evocative and poetic. She packs so much feeling into a visual moment. I literally change how I think about storytelling every time I read her work. I think about the details. The wrist bones, the lashes over the slate blue eyes, the little turns of phrase that reveal SO much. Just....incredible!!! I do consciously think of them - though it's not as clear cut as trying to copy them. Sometimes, it's just osmosis, or skill acquisition. But I think of them A LOT.
Shey:
I don't have one particular fic author I take writing inspiration from. Early on, I took a lot of characterization inspiration from the most popular writers in the Steter/Stetopher fandom because their take on the characters is what made me fall in love with the pairing. For example, Bunnywest writes Peter in a way I adore, and that has influenced the way I write him. Twothumbsandnostakeincanon's snarky, sarcastic Stiles is my favorite Stiles. So they, along with many others, have definitely influenced the way I think about the characters. I've spent way more time reading fic than I ever did watching the show, so the way I picture the characters is an amalgamation of the way I've seen them written over time.
As far as "mindfully borrowing," that phrasing makes me uncomfortable. I do my best to keep out of other authors fics when I'm writing. (In fact, I don't read in a fandom that I'm actively writing in for this exact reason!) When you're all writing about the same characters it feels way too easy for "borrowing" to turn into copying.I also wouldn’t say I try to emulate any particular writer, either. I read a lot (32 published books so far this year, 150+ last year. Thank god for Kindle Unlimited!) and I really believe that I've learned a ton about writing because of it. I'd say the most useful thing I do to learn from other authors is read and think about the things I'm reading. What did I like? What did I dislike? What worked in the story and what didn't? WHY?
On the other hand, there are plenty of authors who's work I absolutely adore and I aspire to write with the kind of skill they do. Definitely the two mentioned above, as well as Twisted_Mind, cywscross, kouriarashi, and ThisDiscontentedWinter (if you want more names, check out my AO3 bookmarks!). On the published author side, I'm obsessed with the writing of Onley James, Cara Dee, Alessandra Hazard, Hailey Turner, Neve Wilder, and Nora Phoenix to name a few.
Willowcrowned:
Ohhhh that’s such a good question. It’s hard to say what author most influences my writing because I’ve been writing for long enough that my go-to style has become a melange of bits stolen from some formative works. Since I do like to experiment consciously with prose style, if I’m ever trying to nail something specific, I’ll find an author that writes that way and use it as a reference. For “Smoke Raised with the Fume of Sigh,” which I wanted to have rich, luxe prose, I turned to Dark’s (hi Dark!) “The Things That Are Deadly.” For anything where I want economy of language without sacrificing setting, I’ll go back to Tolkien (my first and forever love).
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Hello! A question for you! Would you say you are more a planner or someone who discover the pacing and plot as you write along? If you do outline how do you do it, and do you usually manage to follow the outline you've writen?
Hiya!! Thanks for the ask!
So for me, personally, I'm... a little of both. There are times when a fic idea hits me, fully formed, from beginning to end and it's all I can do to open up a doc and write it all out-- plot, motivations, snippets of dialogue, all of it. When that happens I then divvy up the plot points into a vague road map of places to hit so that I can get to where I want to in the story, and that’s usually what I call an outline. Those are the long fic, or "long fic" since my idea of long isn't all that long, like the Sinatra series or Mirrorball or the Peter-Hale-is-a-witch fic (which I have handwritten notes on top of the usual word vomit doc because apparently my creative mind had Big Thoughts on how it should go). I tend to be pretty faithful to the outline-- and will let myself wander within the structure a bit-- but I’m not the kind of writer that wants anything I write to be terribly surprising. With a feeeeew exceptions I personally like to build the story up with all the pieces there so that the reader can see things are coming because, yeah, we know this character and we see the situation, and even if it’s a car wreck waiting to happen, you’re bracing for impact because you watched them buy the car, get in the car, get distracted thinking about their ex in the car...
For short fic I usually come in with a single idea and flesh it out as I go, letting the story surprise me on the way from point a to z. These are supposed to be fun exercises and I let myself let go and write just to write. Maybe I’m working on a mood, maybe I’m trying to work on a technical skill that I think is weak, maybe it was a sing lyric someone sent that I want to rip apart and reconstruct in a weird way...whatever it is, I try to keep it to one or two sittings and for that I don’t really need an outline because it’s not too hard to remember where I was and where I want to go. I think that's why I like to write these after I put out a chapter of something more planning-intensive, because it's nice to remember that not all writing is the pulling teeth experience of trying to stick to an outline for the good of the story.
Then there are the inbetweeners like the sex worker au or mpreg boba, those I come in with a single idea, but they just keep growing on me. It kind of feels like the story has cornered me at a party, blitzed out of its mind, saying "and ANOTHER thing..." and I can't seem to figure out how to politely make my graceful exit, lol. So I just let it keep going. Those are the fic that it’s honestly a relief when people tell me they like them because I feel pretty out of control while writing-- and not terribly certain if what’s going on “works”-- but somehow feel compelled to keep adding to it.
At the end of the day, whether you plot or pants or in between, I genuinely believe the most important thing is to be willing to switch up how you’re doing things if your usual just isn’t working anymore. Whatever works to keep the words flowing, since ultimately that’s the goal. Thanks again for writing in, anon!
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Ask week
Hello,
all you wonderful, beautiful people that have been following along with this little experiment!
So, this week I’m trying something a little different (and it’s totally NOT because I’m behind on editing interviews...okay maybe it is a little bit).
Instead of sharing interviews as usual, I’m inviting you to send in any questions you might have for me or any of the writers I’ve already talked to, and I’ll do my best to get in touch and pass along your questions. Anything you maybe might have wondered about this interview project or any questions you’d like to ask about my or someone else’s writing process that haven’t been covered, go ahead and drop it into this tumblr’s ask box and I’ll do my best to come up with an answer for ya.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
<<This post is a part of a longer conversation about fanfic writers, how they view fanfic, and their writing process. All views are the fanfic writers’ own, and whatever fanfic they choose to write is entirely their own decision. No judgment value will be placed on fic content. These conversations are meant to provide insight for other fanfic writers in whatever stage they are at in their writing life>>
Final Thought Friday (with willowcrowned, @willowcrowned )
Talk fanfic to me.
I think that at its heart, fanfiction is just another form of writing. Which is a good thing! It's a great thing, actually! It's generative and community-based in a way a lot of original fiction can't be, and definitely has its own quirks and downfalls, but really, when you get down to it, it's just writing. It's an act of creation. And that we get to fulfill that human drive to create while being part of a community—that we get to make, and talk about the things we make, and connect with other people over them—is the cherry on top.
<<This post is a part of a longer conversation about fanfic writers, how they view fanfic, and their writing process. All views are the fanfic writers’ own, and whatever fanfic they choose to write is entirely their own decision. No judgment value will be placed on fic content. These conversations are meant to provide insight for other fanfic writers in whatever stage they are at in their writing life>>
In the Weeds Wednesday (with willowcrowned, @willowcrowned )
Okay. Let’s get into your writing process. You get an idea, it’s itching at your brain. What’s the first thing you do? Notes app! Usually ideas come to me in the form of one-off lines or snippets of dialogue that then develop into scenes. I'll put whatever the line(s) is/are down in the notes app on my phone, and if I'm not busy I'll usually start expanding on it immediately. If the idea gets big enough (think a paragraph or two—maybe 150 words), I'll open my laptop and copy paste it into a Word doc where I start writing for real. I'd say about 25% of my ideas get past the notes app stage. Another 10% of that 25% actually makes it through an entire draft, and sometimes a fully drafted fic never gets finalized edits and posted.
Why is that? What kills your fic before they see the light of day? Usually, I'm just too busy to finish it before I get preoccupied with other things. Short, comedy oneshots only get done if I do them in one or two sittings. Longer fics I tend to end up committing to fully (regardless of loss of interest) when they've hit either two scenes or 4k words, whichever comes first, and those two scenes/4k also really only get done if I do them in one to two sittings. I hesitate to call it waning interest, because it's not—I'd still be happy to read those things if they were written, or write them if I felt excited about it—but I do feel very strongly about only writing when I'm excited to write, and if they don't make me feel excited to write then I don't. I think it's probably to do with my ADHD—if it's not giving me the dopamine I need, and it's not giving it to me now, it's physically painful to write. So I just... don't put myself through that anymore.
Do you outline? Outline? What's an outline? When I write something, I usually know where it ends, where it starts, and have a sort of idea of how the middle will go. When I outline, it's only when I've gotten stuck midway through the process and need some concrete guidelines.
Do you write in or out of order? I tend to start with a scene in the middle—that's usually where the initial line/bit of dialogue comes from—and then I'll write either starting from that scene (eventually adding a beginning when I'm finished), or starting from the beginning. That's as out of order as I can go without confusing myself
The middle? Why there? Because that's where the idea comes from! I don't really get ideas for the very start of a scene—I don't know why, but I just don't—and I need a jumping off point to really start writing. The line/lines I have give me a tone to start with, and a conflict to work off of immediately.
Do you write every day? Hah! No. I have a life.
Okay that was mean. But like... no. I'm very adamant about only writing when I feel good about it. The times in my life when I have forced myself to write even when I desperately didn't want to, especially when I didn't have the spoons, led to burnout so bad I stopped writing for months, which made me miserable because I like writing. I just—ugh, we ascribe so much importance to the idea of "getting better" at writing that I think we forget you're supposed to enjoy your hobbies above all else. Writing shouldn't be a punishment. It should be a reward! And funnily enough, now that I don't force myself to write, I've produced ten times more than I did when I was forcing myself. I know the 'write every day' advice works for some people, but it was just about the worst thing on earth for me.
Yeah, that's such a good point to make. A lot of the time advice–especially for writing–gets regurgitated and when it works for some, that’s great, but for the people that it doesn’t help there's not much counter-advice. Honestly I have a really negative reaction to writing advice in general—barring when it's applied to a specific thing I've done in a specific thing I've written—because so much of it has been actively detrimental to me. There's a reason I skip past every writing advice post I see and it's because every time I've tried to take that advice, I've started hating writing and hating what I've written. I mean, I think the advice can be important and useful, but I also think there's this tendency to take it at face value and not think about what it's really trying to say. The "said is dead" stuff, for instance, is alarmingly stupid when it tells you to stop using said. But the point it's trying to make—vary the rhythm of your dialogue so it doesn't get dull, and add in action so the reader can picture the characters—is good.
Absolutely agree. When it comes to reading fic do you find you read more than you write it? Oh, I read WAY more than I write. I mean if we're just talking Teen Wolf, which someone [*cough* it was Dark] got me into a little under a month ago, I've read well over 300-400k of it, and I've written 12k.
As you read, are you aware of things that other writers do that you want to include in your writing? How is that process going? Oh, ugh, I mean. I've been SUPER insecure about my own writing lately, to the point where I blocked another (very talented, and I'm sure perfectly nice) writer out of sheer, petty jealousy because every time I saw their name it made me feel awful and mean. I know I really have trouble with serious, character-driven narratives—especially longer ones—and I have recently produced something that is serious, long(ish), and character-driven! But because so much of what I write is comedy, I feel—I hesitate to say inferior, but inferior might be the best word for it—to writers who seem to effortlessly be able to produce amazing fics that are exactly the kind of thing I spent eight or so months struggling with. That jealousy and pure feeling of shame at not being good enough are pretty decent deterrents for not writing in general, let alone trying the sort of writing (character-driven, serious, full of motifs, and long) that that specific other writer (and other writers in general) do so well.
I really appreciate you talking about that. I feel like these feelings of insecurity and envy are SO common and I don’t think they’re spoken of honestly enough. In private pretty much every writer I’ve ever talked to, regardless of where they are in the fandom landscape of popularity, has moments of spiraling insecurity and doubt. It’s just part of being human, to value other people’s abilities sometimes more than your own. Which leads well into our last bit, I think: say something nice about your own writing. I think I have a talent for comedy, and I know my writing is good at translating the rhythm of a joke spoken aloud into text. I guess I know I’m capable of switching my prose style and that’s cool.
Okay, we already talked about how a lot of writing advice is kind of bullshit… but any writing advice for anyone out there struggling with it? Writing shouldn't be a horrible burden that you dread all the time! It can suck, you can hate it sometimes, it can make you want to tear your hair out with frustration occasionally, but it should only make you feel that way because you care about it. If you hate it not because it's hard and you're stubborn and you want to make it through because you like writing, but because you don't want to do it... then maybe you should reevaluate your approach. Writing shouldn't make you miserable. It should make your life better, even if it's only by a little.
<<This post is a part of a longer conversation about fanfic writers, how they view fanfic, and their writing process. All views are the fanfic writers’ own, and whatever fanfic they choose to write is entirely their own decision. No judgment value will be placed on fic content. These conversations are meant to provide insight for other fanfic writers in whatever stage they are at in their writing life>>
Pseud: willowcrowned
Pronouns: she/her
How many total fic: 58
How many fandoms: 12
Total word count: 308,663
Long fic word count: 45,632
Shortest fic: 417
Highest kudo count: 1517
Lowest: 9
And what's the story behind your pseud? The short answer is that I like trees and crowns. The longer and much nerdier answer is that I had Tolkien’s stuff about willows on my mind while I was trying to come up with a pseud that didn't have my name in it. Also, I like crowns.
How long have you been reading and writing fanfic? I've been reading fic for about eight years. I've been writing fic for just as long, though my first attempts belong thoroughly in the tweenage slush pile of 'well, it shows promise. kind of. maybe. if we're being generous.’
And was that under a different pseud or have you been monogamous with this one this whole time? HA. Totally different pseud. I've gone by, oh, four now? It wasn't even on AO3, either, which is a major relief. Also loving the phrasing here. Yes I DID cheat on my last pseud. Don't tell it though—I don't want to be the one to serve the divorce papers.
What drew you back to writing fanfic for this go-around? I've never really left fandom. I've always liked hanging around the edges—writing when I want to, not writing when I don't. I like writing—not just having written, or reading what I've written, but the act of writing itself (or at least I like it most of the time). I just find putting words down on a page very tangibly fulfilling. I don't really want anything more out of it than that.
So you en... enjooooy writing. Am I pronouncing that right? Aahfsjhkdjghj
Talk me through how that works because that’s not how my brain operates. Have you ever played an instrument?
Badly. Okay, uh. Imagine you can play an instrument well. There's a point when you're playing when you slip into almost a meditative state, where you can feel the vibrations of the instrument underneath your fingers, and you can feel the rhythm, and you know you're the one doing it, but at the same time you hear music in the air, and you've done that—you've made something beautiful, and through the act of creating it, you've become more a part of it than you could listening.
Anyway, my point being: there's a joy and a satisfaction inherent to creativity and to the act of creating something, and that applies with anything you make. That's all there is to it, I guess. I do find joy in connecting with a community, and I wouldn't give up that part of fandom for the life of me, but when I'm after that, I go on Tumblr or message a friend. When I write, it's because I want to write—specifically to write, to create in that way.
What is your relationship to your fic after you've written? How much fulfillment is the "after" in writing for you? I think for me there's a difference between writing, sharing, and posting. When I want to write, I write, and in return I've created something and fulfilled what I think is a very basic human need to make things. When I want to talk about my writing—when I want to know if it's good, if it's affected someone, if it's working well and if it, at the end of the day, might matter to someone else, I share it with someone I know will be able to give me the thoughtful feedback I crave. When I post something, I definitely do want comments from it—I'm not a perfect human, free from all desire for attention—but I'm not posting it expecting thoughtful, meaningful, and fulfilling engagement. I'm posting it because I read fic, and I like reading fic, and I want to sort of... contribute. And also get praise, because again: not perfect.
In terms of my relationship to fic after I've posted, I will say I do check for comments pretty obsessively (the potential promise of a comment notification from AO3 in my email is the only thing that gets me to actually check my email these days), but the biggest fulfillment comes from (a) the process of creating and (b) the meaningful, thoughtful engagement I seek out on my own terms.
So you write a lot of headcanon, cracky, what-if takes on Tumblr that never turn into fic. What does Tumblr give you that fanfic can’t? Functionally? Community. Tumblr is a lot quicker at responding, especially now that I've got a bit of an audience on there, and it's also way quicker for me to write a Tumblr post because I'm not putting much actual thought into it. When I'm writing, I'm focused on creating a piece of art—dubious though the quality may be. When I'm posting to Tumblr, I'm focused on making a funny joke.
Tumblr is where I get a lot of my laughs, and a lot of the feeling of community that I think is so integral to fandom—for whatever reason, a lot of us care about something (and when that something is Star Wars, you definitely are searching for a reason, because why) and humans are social creatures. We want to care together.
Fic—specifically writing fic—is where I go to fill a deeper, harder to satiate need for creation and for intellectual stimulation. Community and intellectual engagement aren't mutually exclusive, but I find that for the most part, Tumblr is better for the former, and writing fic is better for the latter.
Inspiration. Where is it for you? Other people! I'm terrible at coming up with things on my own, and that's not an exaggeration. The easiest shortcut to inspiration for me is reading other people's fics. Sometimes the inspiration is just "well that was a terrible take on everything, hold my beer while I do it better" and sometimes it's "huh, that's a neat concept, but what would happen if I did this, and threw in a pinch of that, and I think some nutmeg would go nice here," but either way it almost never fails.
<<This post is a part of a longer conversation about fanfic writers, how they view fanfic, and their writing process. All views are the fanfic writers’ own, and whatever fanfic they choose to write is entirely their own decision. No judgment value will be placed on fic content. These conversations are meant to provide insight for other fanfic writers in whatever stage they are at in their writing life.>>
Final Thought Friday (with spqr, @andthepeople)
Talk fanfic to me. One of my favorite things about fanfic is that there are, collectively, these versions of characters that exist nowhere except inside our collective fandom heads. Like, to use the example of Arthur/Eames, I love Inception desperately but I will be the first to acknowledge that there is almost nothing on the actual page, as it were--in the actual film. The versions of Arthur and Eames that exist in fandom have been birthed and reared and kicked out of the house fully-formed entirely by writers of fic. I love those characters, and they really, genuinely wouldn't exist without fanfic.
On a similar note, I love how deep fic gets into character. I'm not a person who can leave the movie theater or turn off the TV and be satisfied to leave characters behind--I want to carry them with me, take them out of my pocket and get a good look at them every once and a while. You can probably tell it's approaching midnight because I'm relying entirely on badly-concocted metaphors to get my point across.
In terms of the benefits of creating fic, I think it's a great forum for becoming a better writer, if that's something you're serious about doing. Sort of like stand-up comedians have to go in front of an audience and learn what silence sounds like, fic writers have to learn what silence sounds like--the resounding lack of kudos and comments, etc etc. Metaphors again. It's a much easier (less painful) lesson to learn on AO3 than in the Thunderdome of the literary world. Fic is a place to experiment and fall flat on your face, to learn what works and what doesn't.
It is also a place to learn to write a good sex scene. I've decided not to shy away from the porn of it all, in my soapbox moment. The sex scenes in good fic are 1,000,000% hotter than any sex scene in any novel ever. I shall die on this hill.
