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The Fan Fiction Mafia

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Negrek

Lost but Seeking
How do you handle getting back to writing a story after it's been on hiatus for a long time?

From what you describe, it sounds like you're probably suffering from two problems at once: first, that you haven't written in a while (and thus are out of practice), and second, that you have one particular project that you're having trouble coming back to.

I've definitely been there, at least with regards to the lapsed project; in my particular case, I actually wrote a ton, literally hundreds of pages of material, just not anything for my one particular 'fic. But I'll come back to that.

In your case, I think that above all you shouldn't worry about writing your one 'fic in particular yet--you really just want to be writing something. To an extent it sounds like you're kind of intimidated by your 'fic, but whenever you sit down to write you tell yourself you need to be working on this one story, and it's stopping you from doing anything. Conversely, once you've gotten into the habit of writing, it's much easier to write anything, your 'fic or otherwise, so if you're having trouble with that, I would suggest writing other, inconsequential things, until you're feeling more comfortable with the work again. Then, once you've stopped associating writing with this big scary thing you don't want to be working on, only then can you turn around and address what you find so difficult about finishing your 'fic and how you can actually get it done. So, you enjoy writing about prehistoric stuff? Think it might be fun to do a little one-shot about a fossil pokémon or whatever? Then don't go, "Oh, I would enjoy writing that, but I totally should be working on this ~other important 'fic~ right now if I'm going to be writing it." I mean, did you go off and write a few pages of your 'fic after making that comment? I'll bet you didn't. So choosing not to write that little story did not, in fact, positively affect your ability to write your other 'fic. So just stop denying yourself the little fun diversions because you feel like you ought to be writing something else. It's just going to make you feel guilty and even less likely to get started. Write the damn one-shot if you genuinely feel it would be fun. Don't post it if you're mortified by its quality (you're way out of practice, you're going to be rusty, and that's okay). Just write something.

So, then, the second problem: working on this particular story you want to finish. First of all, I think you need to really come to terms with why you stopped working on it. Only once you know what the actual problem is can you figure out how to beat it. In my particular case, I had actually finished a complete draft of my 'fic. This turned out to be, paradoxically, a problem, and for two reasons: first, because I felt a false sense of accomplishment. I'd already finished the story, right? The hard part was done! And I'd already accomplished what I'd sent out to do (that is, finish the 'fic in some form or other). So when it turned out that no, the hard part was not done, the hard part was yet to come, I wasn't really prepared and kind of wimped out on it. But the second, and ultimately more damning, reason, was that I no longer really liked the story very much. I'd started it a very long time ago, and by the time I finished it, I just wasn't all that jazzed about it. I didn't think it was my best work--in fact, I thought it was pretty bad. On the other hand, I had all these really good ideas for new stories, and I was having a ton of fun writing them--so that's what I did. Meanwhile, my other 'fic continued to look worse and worse by comparison because I was, naturally, continuing to improve as I wrote more. Eventually, though, I had to sit myself down and be like, "Okay, do you care about finishing this thing or not? You don't have to finish it. But you also don't have to worry about it being an amazing gem of literature or anything, because hey, you wrote it literally years ago now. (Oops.)" Once I figured out that what was really holding me back, I was able to kind of just grin and bear it and crank out the rest of it. It still took me the better part of a year to wrap it up due to real-life commitments and also not being all that good at the whole "letting go" thing, but hey, I did manage to finish it. And now I'll never, ever have to worry about it again.

I sense some of the same things from you, with your statement about what an idiot you were when you wrote the first part of the fanfic (err, at least I assume that's the one you're talking about getting back to). So, are you not writing because you no longer feel in touch with the story, like you no longer really want to write it? Do you fear that if you post stuff related to it now people will finally actually realize that oh no all the stuff you wrote before sucks and you are a terrible writer or maybe oh no this plot is bad, how could I ever think this was a good idea? . And do give yourself the permission not to finish it--far better to continue going on writing, on something else entirely, and lay this one to rest, than to let this one story stop you from writing at all. Maybe it just isn't worth it. Don't be afraid to admit that.

Or, on the other hand, maybe you fear that now you've gone too long without writing, and you aren't going to be able to live up to what people, you or otherwise, have come to expect from the story. Maybe you're afraid you don't really have it in you anymore, like you've lost either the spark or the drive or some other vital thing that you'll need to finish the story. Perhaps you're even afraid of success--believe it or not, you're in a comfortable spot right now. If anyone asks, you can say, "Yes, I am working on a fanfic." (You are doing something, you are being an author.) You know where the story is supposed to go, you have things all figured out. But when you finish, you won't have that anymore. You might not have any idea what to do, where to go, next. You'll have to start all over again, which is always daunting. Or perhaps you're afraid of a particular scene, or a particular character, or something else that you're worried you won't be able to pull off, or which everyone will hate, or something else along those lines.

And so on and so on. I tend to suspect that a lot of procrastination comes back to fear of something, at least on a subconscious level. If you can at least recognize that fear, you can begin to confront it. At least you might not feel guilty/frustrated about the fact that you think you should be able to write, but can't.

And then just write the damn thing. Seriously. That's all it comes down to in the end. Put one word after the other and eventually you'll get somewhere.

Is Character Development your first priority?

No, Having Fun writing a Good Story is my first priority. What character development may occur is incidental. In some stories, like the one I'm working on now, it's extremely important; in others, much less so.
 

Griff4815

No. 1 Grovyle Fan
Is Character Development your first priority?

Not character development exactly, but definitely characters. Of course character development is important to those characters, but the characters are the focal points of my stories.
 

Brutaka

Ignition
Is Character Development your first priority?
No, the plot is, more or less. But character development is always, always important and it has actually been a weaker spot in my writing that I'm trying to fix.


Well, I know it's probably too soon to post a new topic, but I've wanting to post one for a while now. Except that every time I'm about to, someone else posts one and I have to wait for it to die first. But no more!

How hard would it be to write a fan fic about game that doesn't have a plot?

I'd imagine it'd be pretty tough. But hear me out. I was playing Sims 3 all day and after just 9 hours of playing, I had entire story idea full with charted out plot points and everything. I fleshed out characters with personalities, flaws, and ambitions. There was romance and secrets. There was college fun and science experiments gone awry. There was despair and tragedy. Success and failure.
And it was all based on a sandbox game. A game where you could literally do anything.
 

Negrek

Lost but Seeking
How hard would it be to write a fan fic about game that doesn't have a plot?

Not very. The most famous "game that doesn't have a plot" is called "real life," and people write fanfic for it all the time.

If you don't buy that example, I instead submit the fact that Tetris porn exists.
 

Dilasc

Boip!
Do you ever feel that people aren't reading your stuff the correctly? All... the... time... provided anyone's reading to begin with. If they're complaining about something sounding wierd, they might be reading it wrong. I wish people understood that, but I don't exactly know how to show that I'm using slightly fancier words to convey drama and hook. Sure I mean I'd say my writing style isn't... perfect, but I need my individuality.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
How many people have considered of making an original story here?

As I said in my intro post, I've written some original stories and have ideas for more, but this really isn't the best place to post original work - I do anyway just because I'm here, but expecting any kind of response is too hopeful, as I see it. The Non-Pokémon Fics forum is pretty dead.


How do you handle getting back to writing a story after it's been on hiatus for a long time?

Well, I've never had a hiatus that long, but mostly I think it's a matter of reading and rereading what you've written, thinking about your plans, and visualizing the scene that you need to write next. Let it flow in your head before you write it down - reread first to have a fresh memory of what the characters' states of mind are, and then let them play off one another. Have the scene gather momentum in your head, and then start to write it down - by that point you know what you're going to write, and when you reach the end of what you've made up in your head, you may be able to continue naturally since you've gotten started. Some of the longest waits between chapters of Morphic ended this way - I happen to be thinking about it and a scene comes to mind and then the scene develops and then I really want to write it down.


Is character development your first priority?

Mostly I just write and the characters happen to develop as I go along. Which is to say it is probably my favorite part of writing and fiction in general, but I don't set out going "Okay, first priority is to develop the characters!" If you've got a sufficiently good grasp on the cast, character development is largely something that just happens organically; you can insert some events to facilitate it, but constructing the entire story with the express aim of developing characters isn't really necessary to have interesting character development unless that character development literally is the plot (and then you might as well call it prioritizing the plot).


How hard would it be to write a fan fic about game that doesn't have a plot?

If the game provides some kind of world that interests you, then it doesn't need a plot for you to write fanfiction about it. People would write Pokémon fanfiction even if the Pokémon games had no plot whatsoever, because the world of Pokémon is interesting and fun to explore. You might be more limited if there is neither a plot, characters nor worldbuilding of any kind, but even then you could make up worldbuilding around a game that isn't trying to be about a world of any kind. I mean, just look at the movie Battleship. It's fanfiction about a board game that made up a thing about aliens to justify the game's arbitrary rules. It wasn't good fanfiction, but it's a pretty clear example of how you can have fanfiction about anything, and not even just crackfic (like that Tetris porn).


Do you ever feel that people aren't reading your stuff correctly?

Consider that the problem may be on your end.

Think about it: how can you tell the difference between a world in which people frequently find your word usage pretentious and nonsensical (for example) but it's just because they're all reading it wrong and you're really an underappreciated genius of prose, and a world in which your word usage really is pretentious and nonsensical? Obviously, you wouldn't find it pretentious or nonsensical in either universe - if you did you presumably wouldn't have written it that way in the first place - so you can't just use your own opinion as a gauge. This is why you should listen to reviews: you're never going to have the ability to properly distinguish whether your own current writing is any good on your own.

Reviewers can be wrong, of course, but writing is a process of communication, and if your writing is failing to get across what you're trying to get across, then you're pretty much by definition not doing a good enough job of it - you can't just point to the other party and say it's their fault for not getting it. This applies especially if you find that your writing is failing to get across what you want "all the time", because that suggests there's some systematic issue with the way you write that's not accomplishing what you want in general. If a large number of people can't actually work out what your sentences mean, for instance, then you're doing something wrong no matter how much you love fancy words. It doesn't mean much to say that you're choosing your words to convey drama and hook if that's not actually what your readers are getting out of it.


To actually answer the question, yes, sometimes. If it's just one person being confused by something nobody else appears to be confused by and I'm pretty confident I was clear about the thing in the text of the chapter, I assume they probably missed that part or something and let explaining it to them outside the story suffice; otherwise, I think, "Oh, dear, I should have made that clearer."
 
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Firebrand

Indomitable
Do you ever feel that people aren't reading your stuff the correctly?

I don't think so, at least not in the sense you're talking about. But in a way, yes, I do think this happens to me a bit. In one of my fics, I made one of my characters gay (a pokemon character, no less). A lot of my reader base took it to mean, at best, that it was just one more off-beat weird thing I was doing in a fic that was generally off-beat anyway. At worst, some were outraged, whether because of their own personal beliefs and idealisms or because they thought I was just grasping for some attention and notoriety. In fact, I did it because I thought it added interesting depth to a character and to explore the concept that pokemon are far more intelligent than normal real life animals with concepts of agape love, which we don't really see in nature (yes, animals pair bond for life, and arguably that's love, but not in the sense we as humans experience it, anyway, a little bit irrelevant to the current discussion).

On a different token, in the novella class I'm taking at college, I recently had my piece workshopped. The goal of the class is to write a 40 page minimum novella over the course of the semester. In the workshop, people only read the opening 20 pages (there's going to be at least 30 more). I was trying to write in a different style, and tell the story not from the protagonist's point of view, but from the point of view of a supporting character chronicling the life of the protagonist after his death, for future generations. A lot of people didn't understand that until it was explained to them, and that colored their perception of the story. They wanted to see the story told from the major figure's perspective, not that of his childhood best friend, because he "didn't really have anything happening to him, and [the other characteral ] has a far more interesting life." When it was explained, they kind of got it.

And in my final example, on Fictionpress, I had someone review several chapters of one of my stories, citing several passages that he would have written a different way, and telling me, in extreme detail, how to adapt them to his writing style, despite there being nothing intrinsically wrong with the way I wrote it. Honestly, it all came down to a difference of syntax and semantics. I've also had instances where people don't understand some of the foreshadowing and over-arching subtlety that I weave in, but I don't pay it too much mind because I do it with the intent that it isn't to be understood until later in the story. Usually, when all becomes clear, if people go back and look over the parts that didn't quite make sense, they get it.
 

Kutie Pie

"It is my destiny."
Do you ever feel that people aren't reading your stuff correctly?

Kinda, though I actively encourage thoughts from my readers to see what they've gotten from it. You'd be surprised just how much the reader can interpret and (when their reviews are worded correctly) you realize "Holy crap, my story has a deeper meaning than I thought." Yeah, you have no idea how many moments of epiphanies/fridge brilliance I've gotten from reviewers alone just from them stating their thoughts. Which is odd, because the writer should know their story inside-and-out. But in all honesty, I think I'm half-aware of what goes on in my story. Not because it's a big story (it's part of it), but because of just how deep it goes in the message I wanted to get out--sometimes the message other readers have gained is better than the one I'm presenting. Until I started having issues with later chapters, I do remember feeling a little out of it at times while writing through the story, and then when I proofread, my jaw just drops.

So I think this question's answer is an inversion, because obviously I'm not reading my story correctly, and yet few readers are confused about it (the few who are say it's because they're not as well-versed, if at all, at the religious subtext I have going on, though in all honesty that shouldn't be such a problem, so I have no idea what I'm doing there xD). It's probably my fault for not really planning every little detail from the get-go, and thus I'm just writing whatever comes to mind and what'll pretty much fit into the story. But apparently everything's been working out fine so far. I'm more-or-less pretty worried about how chapter twenty will turn out (once it gets finished God-knows-when) since a lot of stuff goes on, and I'm worried that the characters have changed from the year-long hiatus/problem. I was writing part of it a little bit I think last week, and in my mind I'm freaking out because it just didn't feel right. So...

Any and all confusions presented in the story are my fault for not paying close enough attention to it. Yeah.
 

Bay

YEAHHHHHHH
Do you ever feel that people aren't reading your stuff correctly?

I don't think that has happened to me yet saved for maybe whenever I send stuff to my betas (and then offer suggestions on expanding/clearing up some details). My reviewers/readers seemed to understand the points I'm trying to get across.
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
Hey, guys! Quick note (that really doesn't do this subject justice but hey), but we now have a co-owner!

Actually, let's do this properly.

The Fan Fiction Mafia now has a new co-owner!

Say hello to Brutaka, folks. He'll be pretty much doing what I'm doing: keeping tabs on the thread, waving at new members, helping to support the discussion, and covering the questions you folks may have. Among other things (like being awesome and bringing new ideas to the group and whatnot), naturally.

Please don't drive him crazy or anything. :( Not that you would. Intentionally. Most of you.
 

Quilava42

Blazing Flowers
Congratulations on Brutaka being a new co-owner of this mafia!

Do you ever feel that people aren't reading your stuff correctly?

Sometimes, yes. I haven't been writing recently, but it feels as if they would miss one important thing I put in the Author's Note, and it makes them not understand.

How do you handle getting back to writing a story after it's been on hiatus for a long time?

WORK. Yes, that. Yeah, I would like to get back to a story I enjoyed back before I lost motiv on something that gives me stress, but going back to redo it seems like work to me. Just there. But, I am working on a story that a friend is helping me.

Is character development your first priority?

Not exactly. A guy back on a forums website told me that it has to happen after a traumatic event, so I can't do that right away until it passes a certain arc. I haven't been writing long chaptered fics(except my original, bad story), but yeah, I haven't completely done that yet.

How hard would it be to write a fan fic about game that doesn't have a plot?


It'll be difficult. Mostly I do fan fics on Pokemon, and Pokemon fan fics mainly have plots, so I don't know.
 
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Deadly.Braviary

Well-Known Member
How do you handle getting back to writing a story after it's been on hiatus for a long time?

I'm ashamed to say this, but most of the time, I abandon those stories ...

Is Character Development your first priority?

Nope. It just sort of happens as I go along.

How hard would it be to write a fan fic about game that doesn't have a plot?

It depends entirely on your imagination. For someone like me, who thinks up plots randomly on a day-to-day basis, pretty easily! I mean, no plot = treasure chest. The fic is your oyster, you can do practically anything with it and get away by saying, "Hey, the plot doesn't say I can't do this.

Do you ever feel that people aren't reading your stuff correctly?

Sometimes. For instance, in my fic, I have a character called Hazel. She's visually based on May from R/S/E with a few differences, but her personality is independent of May from the games, anime or manga. She's my own character, and to differentiate her from the aforementioned 'other Mays', I named her Hazel. Now this one reviewer insisted on calling her May rather than Hazel. When I asked why, he replied that she was May. I pointed out to him, "No, she's not May, she's Hazel. Call her that." And still he called her May. Which caused me to facepalm, and irately wonder whether it would bloody kill this guy to say 'Hazel' instead of May. It's a name! Now that is mostly unrelated, but I think that guy's main problem was that he was reading Hazel and expecting her to be like May, when, as I have said repeatedly, she is not May. She's independent from any other May because she does not share their personality or backstory, and the only thing she has in common is her appearance - and even that's not exactly the same.

To make a long story short, on one occasion, yes, but most of the time, I let them read it how they like.

Also, congratulations, Brutaka! Don't worry, I'll try not to force my insanities upon you. Yes, I meant 'insanities', which goes to show how many problems I have.

~Deadly
 

White_Roar~

Mother Monster
How do you handle getting back to writing a story after it's been on hiatus for a long time?

When this happens to me, I simply re-read what I've already written, maybe I could have a better plot/scene/etc for a certain chapter/part in the story, and think about why I wanted to write this story.

Is Character Development your first priority?

Yes. I myself am VERY keen at Character Development. Considering the story I'm writing right now, which is an Epic, called The Leafeon of Legend. (Not a PMD Fic) It's like my life depends on the Character Development. XD Not only that, but I personally think it's really fun developing characters, as it's like meeting a new person~! I especially like making Character Biographies; given how "unique" I do mine for the Epic I'm writing and a little inspiration from my random friends on here gave me a good idea on how to portray my Characters in their bios. What the inspiration was that, when I write the bio, I have the Character speak for them self. Like for one of my bios I did this for a Glaceon girl named Casey Highwind in The Leafeon of Legend:
Casey Highwind's Bio Introduction said:
Hi! I'm Casey, Casey Highwind and I'm a Glaceon! Most people call me Casey.

Despite that being only one sentence, (I didn't want to give any unnecessary information) I'm just saying that I like my Character Bios let the reader of the bio know exactly how my character acts, how they portray their personality by talking for themselves while actually adding the little personality description as well, and what they think of themselves and other aspects of their character. In other words: It's like they're talking to you!

How hard would it be to write a fan fic about game that doesn't have a plot?

I think it would be pretty hard. But this is only from my perspective - if you play a game, that doesn't have a plot, you're a creative fan fiction writer, and you really like the game, than I suppose one could possibly get creative about said game that doesn't have a plot and create one themselves. But for a game like Tetris, I have no idea how someone could make a plot out of that. XD;

Do you ever feel that people aren't reading your stuff correctly?

All the time. ._. I mean, sometimes when people read my work, they may ask about what someone said and it all had to do with how someone said something, whether it was slow, or meant to be said extremely fast. Though, other than that, some people may not understand some elements in the story, but I guess that may be something that happens occasionally to people.

Congratulations Brutaka for becoming a co-owner~! =D Speaking of which, considering this is a "Mafia", wouldn't we call "co-owners", "Cronies"? XDDD Or something in the latter...

Speaking of which, I have a topic/question for everyone:

Have you ever written 2 or more stories at once and enjoyed doing it? If so, how did you go about doing it? Meaning, how did you divide up your time to write both stories?
 
Have you ever written 2 or more stories at once and enjoyed doing it? If so, how did you go about doing it? Meaning, how did you divide up your time to write both stories?

I have 26 stories I am working on, but three so far are Fairy Tail, two are retellings. What is important is that my ideas don't clash and be the same, but both retellings are based on the bad stories I read, and doing what the two writes fail to do. When it comes to battles or arcs, I have main character arcs down on who fights who or who does the most damage. So do have simaliar things, like special special powers or it involves with the past alot, but both stories is more about developing one girl who gets it bad from the fanbase. My second is more about making a character who has been made the Gary Oak/Paul of Fairy Tal (shipping wise), and more of a *** than canon a likable character. Now I plan every story in advance, execpt OC wise until given. And I enjoy it, it's not chore and I like doing battles so much, considering my longest written battle is 3,000+ words, including cutaways. Now I work on each story at a time, so I am not in a rush, but if there is rushness, I will fix it.
 

Brutaka

Ignition
Have you ever written 2 or more stories at once and enjoyed doing it? If so, how did you go about doing it? Meaning, how did you divide up your time to write both stories?

Well, it's nothing compared to what the above person just said, but I do have two running fics at the moment: TTL and AVT. I'm trying to keep them separate and since they have completely different plots, it isnt so hard.
Keeping the characters distinguished is by far the toughest thing to do and I'm extremely worried that Amy and April are becoming too similar.
Though I should probably worry about Luke and Shane instead, as Amy (random & excitable, but only with people she knows. She's quite shy with everyone else.) and April (Strong-willed and emotional with a sad past) have somewhat different personalities anyways.

It's fun, but a little hard for someone not too great with characterization, like myself.
As far as how I divide my time, I like to cycle it AVT>TTL>AVT>TTL. Though sometimes I get more inspiration for one story than another, or maybe I want to write a one-shot instead. So as of late, it has been TTL>AVT>AVT>Predestined. And hopefully TTL is next.
 

Quilava42

Blazing Flowers
Have you ever written 2 or more stories at once and enjoyed doing it? If so, how did you go about doing it? Meaning, how did you divide up your time to write both stories?

To be honest, I haven't done that yet, except for like twice. But I didn't because one of them, I have an Artist Block so I'm working slowly, and I've been trying to make different stories since the ones I made were incredibly lacking in terms of plot and it's just frustrating.
 

Knightfall

Blazing Wordsmith
Figured I might as well pop in here sometime...

Have you ever written 2 or more stories at once and enjoyed doing it? If so, how did you go about doing it? Meaning, how did you divide up your time to write both stories?

Well, I can finally answer this one. As of right now, I've got two active stories going on at the moment: PMD: Overthrown and Transcending the Abyss (TtA).

I have a lot of fun writing both, and I enjoy every (or almost every) minute I spend working on them. The biggest hurdle to overcome is spending equal amounts of time on each. I've been spending a lot more time working on TtA rather then Overthrown as of late. Mainly due to the fact that it's a collaboration project and we want to get it off the ground.

Once TtA evens out a little bit, (and my schedule opens up) I want to get into a cycle of having one chapter for TtA and then one chapter of Overthrown, but for the moment, it's a little unbalanced. Needless to say, it takes a bit of work to coordinate everything, but it is really fun to do in the long run.

Knightfall signing off... ;005;
 

Griff4815

No. 1 Grovyle Fan
Have you ever written 2 or more stories at once and enjoyed doing it? If so, how did you go about doing it? Meaning, how did you divide up your time to write both stories?

I'm doing this right now, both with digimon stories. It's not too hard. I just make sure to alternate the days between each one. I devote one day to one and another day to the other.
 

Bay

YEAHHHHHHH
Have you ever written 2 or more stories at once and enjoyed doing it? If so, how did you go about doing it? Meaning, how did you divide up your time to write both stories?

A while back I was doing Nothing Everything and Destiny's Tricks (anyone still remember that fic? XD). While I enjoyed doing both, I totally rushed Destiny's Tricks and several of the jokes were forced. Back then I actually got NE done but I was slowly rewriting the chapters before posting, so I was working on DT while my beta looked over the NE chapters.

Other than that, I tend to write a chaptered fic and several short stories at the same time. I would focus writing one chapter for my longer work and then the short stories if the ideas for those won't leave me alone, haha.
 
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