The Fan Fiction Mafia

[DarkerShining]

Have any of your characters written themselves?

If I'm interpreting the question right, then yes, this happens quite a bit. Dialogue and actions for certain characters sometimes just comes to me, and most of the time it's just fits so well that I have to include it. I think the character this happens the most with would be Azure the Azurill/Marill, which probably contributed to her joining the main characters' rescue team sooner than I originally intended for her to join.

 

[Sike Saner]

Have you ever written a character you just couldn't stand? Antagonist/protagonist/antihero etcetera. Were you able to write with them anyway?

Once I deliberately challenged myself to write the most nauseating character possible. The fic he was in ended up scrapped (though I've contemplated going back to it and giving it the asston of tweaks it needs--including toning him the hell down), and to this day I can hardly stand to read the parts with him in. XD;

Have any of your characters written themselves?

ZILAG.

See also: Karo, Valdrey, and Ren.

 

[DarkerShining]

Hmm... Things have been kind of quiet here lately, huh? Maybe we need a new topic?

As your stories get longer, do you ever start finding it hard to keep track of everything? Do you have any methods for keeping track of things?

Does that work as a topic? Or have we already had this one?

Anyways, I'm currently looking through previous chapters of my fanfic in order to write down the most important plot details from each so that I can better keep track of everything that has happened. In the process, I've also come across some smaller details that have given me some more inspiration for certain scenes in upcoming chapters that I'm really looking forward to write.

I generally try to do my best to remember everything I can, but it is nice to refresh my memory on some of the smaller details that might become relevant again soon. I feel things like these help make my story even stronger.

 

[Sid87]

As your stories get longer, do you ever start finding it hard to keep track of everything? Do you have any methods for keeping track of things?

YES! I do. And the first question sounds like the start of an infomercial. I thought maybe you could sell me a product.

I've used several methods to try to keep track of details. From several separate Microsoft Word documents full of people, places, and plot points to just flat out doodling the hell out of everything in old fashioned notebooks (where I can more freely draw out maps or even just start scrawling nonsense when I get bored).

The Word files are more thorough and comprehensive and clean (my hand-writing is a mess), but the notebooks are more fun and easy to maintain (I would ALSO write by hand over typing given the choice). Depends on my mood.

 

[Sike Saner]

As your stories get longer, do you ever start finding it hard to keep track of everything? Do you have any methods for keeping track of things?

I probably would have a harder time with it if I didn't tend to reread previous chapters on a fairly frequent basis. Which can be tedious sometimes, but. Well. I'm just really, really keen on avoiding continuity errors and plot holes in general, as well as the earth-shattering facepalms that follow. XD;

 

[Bay]

Have you ever written a character you just couldn't stand? Antagonist/protagonist/antihero etcetera. Were you able to write with them anyway?

For canon characters, there have been a few I'm more or less indifferent towards but wrote them anyways if they're for a fic exchange in another site. Sometimes after I finish a work I appreciate them a little more, or at leas see why some people like them. In terms of original characters, I haven't really consider that as usually the characters I create serves a purpose. Making ones having an unlikable personality that has happened, but I still move forward with writing them anyways.

Have any of your characters written themselves?
I felt like I answered this before, but this has happened to me sometimes whether it be canon or original characters.

As your stories get longer, do you ever start finding it hard to keep track of everything? Do you have any methods for keeping track of things?

I usually have an outline or a few plot ideas in Google Docs or Microsoft OneNote. I used to have my outline and ideas in a notebook, but my handwriting can get messy haha.

 

[Cutlerine]

As your stories get longer, do you ever start finding it hard to keep track of everything? Do you have any methods for keeping track of things?

I usually have the most trouble before I start writing. When I have an idea for something and I'm in the middle of another story, I usually have to write a page or so of its opening chapter and then put a bunch of one-line notes at the bottom of the word document to be absorbed and deleted later, otherwise I'll lose track of the specifics of the story, although the broad strokes may remain. When I'm actually writing, though ... I think I used to, but not so much any more. I find I can hold most of it in my head, and whatever I do forget I usually remember at around midnight, so I jot it down for me to recall and work on in the morning/when I next have time. That's about as close to a method for keeping track of things as I have. If I forget something entirely, I tend to rely on my remembering it during the editing stage. So far, that tactic hasn't failed me—or if it has, I clearly still haven't remembered yet. Which is good enough for me.

 

[gorgonfish]

Have any of your characters written themselves?

No. Characters are in my brain and my brain controls my fingers which type words on a computer that become a story. Sometimes I get into a groove and don't think much about what is written and it turns out cool, but a lot of the time it's utter crap that never sees the outside world. Characters are not real things with feelings and thoughts, writing is just lying convincingly enough that others believe they're real for a short time. If characters are writing themselves without your consent please seek immediate medical attention.

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

As your stories get longer, do you ever start finding it hard to keep track of everything? Do you have any methods for keeping track of things?

I don't really. If I'm writing fanfiction, I write enough in advance before I start uploading things. As I upload each chapter, I read over it first to make sure I catch those embarrassing typos or grammar errors. This keeps things fresh plot-wise.

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

I've considered it a lot, and attempted it a few times. I'll be working on an original story this November for NaNoWriMo. It's already in the planning stages, and is a big effort too - world-building including creatures, character development, and sewing a plot together...

Do you maintain a publishing schedule for your fic(s)? If so, how does yours work?

Every Monday and Friday on Fanfiction(dot)net. Here, as and when, as things flow slower on the forums. I try to keep it one update within two weeks though.

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?

If this can include the comedy stories I write for fun, then yes, I do this all the time. Comedy when I'm having a hyper moment, and the more serious stories (I try to keep one at a time) are often written every afternoon for a couple of hours a day or so. (Sometimes much longer if I'm really in the groove!)
As for writing more than one serious story, I don't really like to do it. But I have another idea cropping up, so I may end up actually doing so. If that were the case, I'd alternate with each day so I keep caught up with both. This may end up being the case with November's NaNoWriMo on the horizon!

 

[Starlight Aurate]

As your stories get longer, do you ever start finding it hard to keep track of everything? Do you have any methods for keeping track of things?

And the first question sounds like the start of an infomercial. I thought maybe you could sell me a product.

Haha! After seeing this, I always read the topic in one of those infomercial voices XD

Honestly, I was worrying more about keeping track of stuff towards the beginning of my story. Now, things are piecing together more nicely and I can see where everything is going. As for methods of keeping track, I did write everything out on a postcard--just a basic outline, and I fill in the details as I write.

How many people have considered of making an original story here?
All the freaking time. I always have ideas for a story in my head, but I rarely get around to writing them, and then never get around to posting them.

Have any of your characters written themselves?
Oh yeah. I mentioned in a thread that my characters in Drowning have grown into much more than I had originally intended. Tabitha especially--in the planning stages, he wasn't much more than the enemy commander. Then when I started writing scenes with him, his personality showed through and grew out of what I had in mind.Now, he's one of my most favorite characters to write!

 

[Dragonfree]

Long time, no post.


Do you have/make any artwork for your stories?

Yeah, some. I'm not a good artist, but I've doodled some of my characters and drawn/sprited my fakemon, and I'm fortunate enough to have received some fanart from others on occasion, which never fails to make me giddy. One of the reasons I want to improve my drawing skills is that I'd really like to be able to properly draw the Pokémorphs from Morphic (I've attempted a couple, but of course they're pretty terrible because those things I can draw definitely do not include anything humanoid).


Have you ever written a character you just couldn't stand? Antagonist/protagonist/antihero etcetera. Were you able to write with them anyway?

I don't think I've ever written a character I couldn't stand in the sense of being annoyed writing about them - I really enjoy writing deeply flawed people. Like, Dave from Morphic is a pretty infuriating human being, but I love writing him being pathetic/ridiculous/terrible/hilariously hypocritical/etc., so that's definitely not deterred me from writing him (as I've mentioned here before, he is actually my favorite character to write). Then there's the villains from Morphic, whom I largely can't stand reading about because I wrote them pretty terribly, but that's more annoyance with my bad writing than with them as characters, and at the time I didn't hate them while writing them because they were just kind of... there.

I guess the closest I can think of is in, like, the earliest version of The Quest for the Legends, where I wrote in ridiculous bullies just to have my basically-self-insert beat them up. But I don't even really count that as characters. And yeah, I could write them just fine.


Have any of your characters written themselves?

No. Characters are in my brain and my brain controls my fingers which type words on a computer that become a story. Sometimes I get into a groove and don't think much about what is written and it turns out cool, but a lot of the time it's utter crap that never sees the outside world. Characters are not real things with feelings and thoughts, writing is just lying convincingly enough that others believe they're real for a short time. If characters are writing themselves without your consent please seek immediate medical attention.

Just a hunch, but somehow I don't think people answering this question positively are actually delusional and literally believe their characters are independent spiritual entities that talk to them. It's figurative language for "Their dialogue and actions flow automatically from my mind, so that I don't feel like I'm deciding what they do." Which is definitely a thing; all my characters write themselves that way. I never think "Okay, now X is going to say Y"; I just see what they say in my mental simulation of the scene, and if for some reason that doesn't work well enough I sort of run it again and see if there's something else they might say there instead that works better. Often the characters just up and do something I didn't expect while I'm doing this, and usually it's better than whatever plan I might have had.

I have absolutely no delusions that this is somehow not just my brain making up stuff, but it happens through the same sort of mental mechanism as when you try to imagine how a person you know very well would react to a situation. To your brain, there's no difference between your mental model of a fictional character and your mental model of an actual person - the characters may not actually be real things with feelings and thoughts, but your brain doesn't know that, and that's the whole reason fiction works. We can take our brain's mechanism for predicting how real people behave, feed it made-up situations and people who have never existed, and have it work just as well.


As your stories get longer, do you ever start finding it hard to keep track of everything? Do you have any methods for keeping track of things?

I have a pretty good memory. I could reasonably easily recite off the top of my head what happens in each chapter of The Quest for the Legends, even the earlier ones that I haven't reread for years and years (I started the current revision in 2004). Even when I forget some detail, I'll still know where to look for it, so I can go confirm it when I need to. On occasion I've managed to bungle things when I don't realize there's something I need to look for in the first place - some throwaway line of dialogue I've completely forgotten I put in at all, say - but overall I think I've done a pretty good job keeping things straight, especially for a story that's been going on for over thirteen years.

When I started Morphic, though, I quickly realized I needed a reference to keep track of the loads and loads of characters, even if I could remember what happened in the story just fine. There are six families in the fic; I wrote a page detailing the members of each family, their appearance, the adults' occupations, and which schools the kids went to (well, specifically, which ones went to school together). Some of them also live in a city called Grace City and some in a town just outside it called Taillow Springs; that was also on the page. I had to reference this page a lot throughout the fic, especially early on. And when I got lazy with referencing it later on when I'd mostly gotten the hang of everyone, naturally I managed to completely forget Mia was supposed to have wings. Whoops.

 

[JX Valentine]

Whew! Finally caught up! Sorry for the wait, katiekitten!

In any case, who's participating in the latest fic contest? If so, how's it going for y'all? Don't be afraid to hit up aaaaany number of writing chats or VM walls to help you out if it's the latter~! Or this thread. This thread is good too.

Meantimes, it's been aaaaages since I've answered bold topics, so while I probs won't go all-out like Sid did, lemme at least tackle the last few I just added to the topic list.

How do you get yourself to write faster?
I've recently joined Habitica (formerly HabitRPG), this online game that rewards you for staying on task for whatever you need to do (and sorta punishes you by damaging your character if you miss one). One of those tasks that I've made for myself is "write 500 words a day," so I've made it a point every single day to sit down and write a minimum of 500 words on any fic I want. I've combined that with the fact that I'm publishing two fics on FFN on a biweekly basis, so I need to have material ready by the time one of their deadlines is up. Now, I absolutely wouldn't recommend everyone do this because it's not a method for everyone (and can possibly lead to burn-outs or breakdowns in some people), but for me, it's actually gotten me to write a lot faster than I had because I have clear goals to make, deadlines to hit, and rewards to earn when I do them. So even if I'm just like, "Ugh, this scene," I still push through it because I'm also like, "Well, I have to write this scene one way or another, and I have until midnight to write something, so..."

When your motivation is dead but you feel like you should keep writing, what do you do?
Tbqh, despite the above, I agree with Sike completely here. Sometimes, you just need a break, so in those cases, feel free to take a break. Work on something else, go for a walk, spend a couple days doing absolutely nothing—whatever feels right for you, y'know?

Noooot sure what else to add there that hasn't already been said, so! XD

To what extent do you make use of writing exercises to improve your writing? Do you have any favorite exercises to share?
Well! If we're lumping in prompts here, I absolutely love prompts. I love challenges. I love seeing what I can do if you tell me I need to write about X. I have to admit I don't really have any on-hand to talk about—there are a lot of them out there—but!

Do you have/make any artwork for your stories?
I haven't really made anything myself (although I'm fiddling with a book cover for AEM because one of these days, an ebook will be a thing), but I've totally received fanart. Which was awesome, in part because I like seeing visual representations of what people think different characters and concepts look like.

Have you ever written a character you just couldn't stand? Antagonist/protagonist/antihero etcetera. Were you able to write with them anyway?
Abso-tively. Unfortunately, seeing as many of these characters were either from earlier versions of AEM or discontinued fics, you can probably guess how well I've worked with them. Granted, the reason why I don't like writing a character is usually something along the lines of "they were intensely one-dimensional/dry/boring to work with," so writing scenes with them sometimes felt like pulling teeth, just because I'd have to force them to do something. Or they just didn't come off as interesting, imo. I'd still write chapters upon chapters for their characters (I mean, I once wrote and completed an entire fic and its sequel with really horrendous Mary Sues and terribly boring characters who I fully acknowledged as I was writing them were boring), but point is, yes, I've written characters I just did not like.

Have any of your characters written themselves?
Conversely, most of the cast of AEM do this for me these days, which is delightful because they're delightful to write. John especially tends to run away from me, as do Thom and Adam. That's probably why a lot of people who read the fic and comment on it seem to like those three characters: because they just feel dynamic and natural, which is exactly what I'm going for and feel when I'm writing. Idk if that's even making sense because yay rambling, but there you go~!

As your stories get longer, do you ever start finding it hard to keep track of everything? Do you have any methods for keeping track of things?
A little, but I also take a lot of notes and write a lot of proto-scenes (rough scenes set in future chapters that may or may not end up being things later) in Google Docs and little docs all over the place. I find that writing things down helps me commit them to memory, so I actually end up recalling them on my own as I write chapters later on. When it comes to keeping track of things that happened in past chapters (as opposed to plans for future chapters when I start building the fic and getting further and further away from its planning stages), I have a rough memory of what's happened in each chapter of every fic I write, so it's just a matter of going back and looking things over to help myself recall the minor details.


And now, a topic to keep the thread going~!

Which genre do you think would be hardest for you, personally, to write? Why?

Your responses may or may not be used for science later. *tents fingers and looks pointedly towards the Quarterly*

 

[Sike Saner]

Which genre do you think would be hardest for you, personally, to write? Why?

Possibly romance, and I'm not really sure why. I've sort of danced around it before, had already-established couples here and there, but actually writing about how they get together... pbbbbt.

Possibly tied with the above: high school AUs, simply because I never went.

(I've never bitten anyone's arm off or turned into a giant facemonster either, but shh.)

 

[Cutlerine]

Which genre do you think would be hardest for you, personally, to write? Why?

Difficult question! I'm ... not sure, especially when I look at everything I've written over the past decade or so and realise that I've dabbled in most genres I can think of -- even, with A Leash of Foxes, a Western, something I never thought I'd even read, let alone write. I guess I would probably find it hardest to do something like a hard sci-fi, if only because that would require a huge amount of research into areas that I don't find interesting enough to want to spend that much energy on. That feels like kind of a cheap answer, but realistically any answer I give to that question is going to be something that forces me to do more research than I want to do. Otherwise, I'm really pretty fond of trying out different things, when I can find the time. I mean, one of the things I like about fanfiction is working with (and sometimes against) a canon, and I like genre fiction for much the same way -- each genre has its own new set of conventions to explore and play with.

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

Which genre do you think would be hardest for you, personally, to write? Why?

Thriller or Crime. Mainly because I don't read either to actually learn how to write them. If I tried to write one without any fantasy elements whatsoever, I would probably get bored quickly too.

 

[Starlight Aurate]

In any case, who's participating in the latest fic contest? If so, how's it going for y'all? Don't be afraid to hit up aaaaany number of writing chats or VM walls to help you out if it's the latter~! Or this thread. This thread is good too.

Do you mean the quarterly challenge, or the Criminal Teams contest? Because I just thought of an idea for the former, but for the latter I have had NOTHING going for me. And that makes me a bit disappointed in myself :/

Which genre do you think would be hardest for you, personally, to write? Why?
Hmm, I would say Crime, but what I'm writing now technically IS crime, and though it has rough moments, on the whole I feel like it's going all right. I'm a little scared to write romance or anything to do well attraction, since I feel like I'll mess it up and either make it way too cheesy or too cold and distant. I also don't think I could do horror or comedy, since what's scary or funny to me might not be scary or funny for anyone else.

 

[PhalanxSigil]

Holy mother of god, I've been gone for forever and a month. So hey, what better way to come back to the site...than ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS FROM THE F-ING MAFIA???!!!

How do you get yourself to write faster? Uh...next question...

When your motivation is dead but you feel like you should keep writing, what do you do? You can't. No, seriously. If you're not in the mood to write but force yourself, whatever will come out will not be good. At least, that's my personal experience. That's why I go on hiatus so often. It kinda sucks, really.

Do you have/make any artwork for your stories? That involves drawing. Which I suck at. I want to learn how to draw, but haven't had the time. So no, not yet.

Eventually, though.

Have you ever written a character you just couldn't stand? Antagonist/protagonist/antihero etcetera. Were you able to write with them anyway? Honestly, I haven't written long enough to get to that point. For me, all of the characters have a purpose, and therefore have something important to contribute to the stories I'm telling. I haven't written anyone that I hate yet, and I haven't hated anyone I've written yet.

Have any of your characters written themselves? GRUSH. OH MY GOD, GRUSH. He is seriously so fun to write that his material just comes to me naturally. I never have trouble thinking about stuff that he'll say in any situation.

Also...

No. Characters are in my brain and my brain controls my fingers which type words on a computer that become a story. Sometimes I get into a groove and don't think much about what is written and it turns out cool, but a lot of the time it's utter crap that never sees the outside world. Characters are not real things with feelings and thoughts, writing is just lying convincingly enough that others believe they're real for a short time. If characters are writing themselves without your consent please seek immediate medical attention.

I'm not sure you meant it this way, but I laughed so hard while reading this. This is comedy freakin' GOLD, man.

As your stories get longer, do you ever start finding it hard to keep track of everything? Do you have any methods for keeping track of things? Every. Goddamn. Time. It's totally my fault because I rarely write outlines and I have a bad habit of going on hiatus for months, but I always have trouble keeping track of what was going on.

Which genre do you think would be hardest for you, personally, to write? Why? Probably romance. Interpret that as you will.

 

[Creepychu]

Have any of your characters written themselves?

Not really, strangely enough. As much as I like to shoot from the hip writing-wise and improvise out character behavior in the scene rather than planning it, editing is still definitely the core of my writing, and that is very much a methodical process. Even when I'm working with characters I've got a lot of experience writing, it's still quite common for me to find something interesting in a re-read that prompts me to change the flow of events around.

As your stories get longer, do you ever start finding it hard to keep track of everything? Do you have any methods for keeping track of things?

Can't say I do, really. Details slip from my mind easy enough, but I'm actually quite good at memorizing not only the general content of passages but also their general locations inside larger bodies of text. If I'm unsure on the details of what I've written previously, it's usually only a couple minutes' work to check the relevant chapter(s) and verify. Because of my somewhat obsessive editing habits, I also frequently revisit completed chapters to make corrections and set reviewer comments in context, so that usually keeps the big picture clear in my mind as well.

So yeah, memorization and frequent re-reads for verification are my main method. For stories where a lot is implied rather than stated, though, I'll sometimes whip out a quick plain text document and just jot down a brief overview of what's going on behind the scenes. These tend to be very general notes, though, and given how details change as I hash out scenes they also tend to wind up being wildly inaccurate for the finished story. More like an outline of what the plot's first draft would have looked like than anything else.

Which genre do you think would be hardest for you, personally, to write? Why?

Tough call, but...children's literature, to be honest. Specifically young children's. It's a very tricky balance writing a story in a way that's accessible to a young audience but still compelling and nuanced in its own right and even among professional authors, there are very few who have really mastered it. It's a genre whose difficulty is often underestimated, and definitely not one I'd approach lightly.

 

[Bay]

Which genre do you think would be hardest for you, personally, to write? Why?

Hard science fiction for me also. I haven't read too many books of that genre and like Cutlerine it'll require a lot of research for me. I've done science research for some fics before, but I feel with science fiction it'll require also some creativity on my part and I don't have that much ideas when it comes to that genre.

 

[TheCharredDragon]

What is it with me and my switching interests? I come here only after reading fics that seem amazing to me... *looks at The Omega Chronicles: Rise of the Red Rebellion and It's not the Raptor DNA* Seriously, I keep changing my opinion on writing. But one thing's clear, my career won't be writing. Maybe as a side job.

Have any of your characters written themselves?

... I think my silence says it all, if not. YES, A LOT OF MY CHARACTERS DO THAT. Seriously, 99.99% of the dialogue in my stories are not planned AT ALL. They just come out. I might have a general idea, but I don't plan it. Maybe 70% for interactions between characters. I don't really mull it over. I just end up writing it down.

So... I feel like answering an old topic because I DID NOT SEE ANYTHING IN THE RULES ABOUT ANSWERING OLD TOPICS, so there. That, and I've been reading TV Tropes lately. It did not ruin my life. It enhanced it.

Is there a specific trope that pops up in a majority of your writing projects either intentionally or subconsciously?

And TV Tropes made me realize I like making Action Girls. That I was aware of, but I did not realize I made plenty of Red Oni, Blue Oni pairs. But that is for the stuff I didn't really write down. Unless you count the RP posts of one of my favorite OCs count (Suranuras).

I have a question/topic, How do you handle Legendary Pokémon in your story?

I know Legendary Pokémon are pretty clichéd. Aaaaand I'm planning of making a story revolving around Giratina wanted to help stop a threat to the world (I haven't decided what but I'm leaning to the side of Kingdom Hearts crossover with Heartless...) by sending his power to a human. But his first few attempts fail, and end up killing themselves because they can't handle him and the power. Then at his next attempt gets interrupted by a criminal that ends up getting the power than THAT gets interrupted by the threat and he finds that this criminal handled him and his power the best. Yes, anti-hero annoying a Legendary Pokémon as he begrudgingly lets her help in getting rid of the problem. Because, the Megaman ZX fic, The Omega Chronicles' insanity has spread to me.

... Don't mind the ramble. I'm hopeful for this one.