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One Way Of Writing Fanfiction
This is how I go about writing House fanfiction. It's certainly not the only way to do it, but it's my way. I thought that maybe some of you might be interested.
1) The Bunny
Anything can trigger a bunny. Sometimes the trigger isn't even obvious. I guess anybody would recognize a bunny as soon as it hops into their peripheral field of vision. Sometimes one can breed bunnies. As in, hey, I want to write a sick!Wilson fic. This time, I'm going to have him run over by a car! Voila, there's the bunny. Sick!Wilson fic involving a car crash.
2) The Nurturing Of The Bunny
If I find a bunny that strikes my interest, what I do first is observing it. Plot bunnies are attention whores; as soon as you start paying attention to them, they will start doing interesting things. They will show you more of the plot. Where, who, what, why, how. What I usually do is that I let the images show me where to go.
To return to the sick!Wilson car crash example: this plot bunny spontaneously triggers an image of Wilson in the hospital parking lot in my mind. There, I've got the where. As I keep watching, I can see the car coming. Only it's not a car, it's a motorcycle. A whole new plot twist - House is going to cause the accident. I've got the who covered and the what, and I also have a conflict in my plot. This is where the bunny starts to evolve from a plot bunny to an actual plot I can work with.
In general, I can't say a lot about how to develop a plot. It's always good to have someone to bounce off your ideas, to tell your story to, if one wishes to put it that way. Before I start writing, I like to have a general idea of where I'm going. Even if I don't end up there, it's a safety net I can fall back on when I get lost in any new ideas I might have had while writing.
3) The Writing / First Draft
Writing is work. Plain and simple. You have to sit down and do it. There are a few things I pay special attention to while I do it, though.
The point of view (POV): I don't think that a fanfic has to be written from one particular POV from the beginning to the end. Especially not longer (5000 words or more) fanfic. Sometimes POV changes can bring a deeper insight to a story or open up possibilities that one fixed POV would not provide. However, I absolutely avoid POV changes within scenes. There are very few published authors who can pull this off, and I have never read a fanfic where this was done in a believable way. POV changes within scenes throw the reader off-track and interrupt the flow. If a POV change is needed, I finish the scene, put a paragraph breaker in place and then start writing from the other POV.
The characterization: The characterization is, especially in fanfiction, very important. If the main characters of a fic are OOC (out of character), people will probably not like it. Opposed to a rather widespread opinion, I do think that there is a way of telling IC (in character) from OOC. IC means that the characters have comprehensible motives for any and all of their actions, and that those motives don't differ too much from the motives the actual TV characters seem to have.
Taking House as an example: one of the most obvious "motives" of the TV character Gregory House is being a creature of habit. If one were to write House as a very spontaneous character, it would certainly be a sign of OOC characterization.
Nothing is set in stone about the characters; there is still a lot of room for one's own interpretation. What it comes down to is that the characterization needs to be consistent. There has to be a reason for every action or non-action. Keeping this in mind goes a long way to making sure that one's characterizations are IC.
The style: Pick one, stay with it. There are certain exceptions to this rule - if for example there is a flashback in the fanfic. Flashbacks are often written in the present tense while the rest of the fic is kept in simple past. However, as a general rule: tense (as in present tense or simple past) and person (first, second or third) should be the same throughout the fic.
Then, there are several narration styles. If an author writes little description and a lot of dialogue, it will confuse the readers if there's suddenly a two-paragraph long description of, say, House's bedroom. If the style involves a lot of introspective writing, a plain descriptive part will throw the reader off track. And so on.
I'm not saying that it's an absolute no-no to mix styles. If there's a change in style, though, there should be a reason. For example, a flashback in first person and present tense while the fic is kept in third person and simple past. Or a dialogue-only epilogue to a descriptive fic. Or whatever. Just no switching styles in places where the interruption of the flow isn't expected or justified.
Tension: There can never be too much tension in a fic. Well, that's a lie. However, there's a certain truth to it. If there's an opportunity to delay a revelation, one should usually take it. Not telling the readers about everything that is going on beforehand goes a long way to keeping their interest up. I try to do this especially when I have surprising things happening. Something happened, and the character from whose POV I'm writing only noticed it marginally. I don't say, "event X happened, but character B didn't really notice at first". I describe what character B did notice - a loud crash, a flash of light, whatever - and then let the reader find out together with him what event X exactly was.
Chapters / paragraphing: This is something that, again, has a lot to do with the flow. As the most important rule I try to avoid writing long paragraphs. A maximum of 150 words per paragraph is my rule of thumb. In longer paragraphs, the lines tend to blur together, and their contents don't really come across.
As far as chapters are concerned, that's something that depends on the story. I don't like chaptering stories very much, so I only do it when I have major breaks in my fics - like, for example, a long time-span passing between scene one and scene two. This is a matter of taste, though. The only thing I would recommend is, again, trying to achieve consistency.
Balance of angst / humor / emo: No matter which genre I'm writing, I always try to include all three things in my fic: some angst, some humor, some emotional stuff. There can be angst in a humorous fic - for example, Wilson accidentally taking House's pills. That's mainly humorous. There are opportunities for small snippets of angst in between, though - if you're writing Wilson POV, it might be that he can't figure out what's going on and gets a little scared and angsty.
Humor in angsty fic is also not impossible: House can be very funny even when he's pissed off and depressed. People in the fic might not laugh at his snarking, because the situation is too dire, or laughing would be inappropriate. Doesn't mean the reader can't take a short break from the angst and smirk at the snark.
For me, it's all about the balance. Too much humor will turn the fic into silliness, too much angst or emo will make it impossible for the reader to take it seriously.
4) The Editing / Second & Third Draft
Now it's written, the plot is wrapped up and I'm all done. Well, not quite.
I usually edit while I go along. Before I start a new scene, I usually reread the one before to see whether I like it, whether the atmosphere is working and whether my characterization fits. If it doesn't, I poke and edit until it does.
Still, my fic isn't done when I've written the last word. If I left something open - I couldn't for the life of me figure out what House should say in scene four, so I had him shrugging, but I still don't like it - then I go back and think about it until I either decide I can live with what I wrote the first time around, or until I have come up with something else which works better for me.
Then, I give the fic a complete read-through, paying attention to the content. Have I explained everything well enough so the reader will be able to follow it? Is my characterization consistent? Did I get across what I wanted to get across? Did I manage to keep the angst / humor / emo balance? Is the ending too rushed? Etc, etc.
After that, I run my fic through the spell check and send it to my beta / my betas. They will tell me if I got any of the language wrong, if my characterization is off, or whether I maybe overlooked some major plot holes. They will mention anything to me that felt off to them.
As soon as I get the beta feedback, I make the final edit. Beta opinions are not the word of God, but usually, the beta is right - more often than not they point out things that I myself wasn't feeling entirely comfortable with. Anything they say should be seriously considered, weighed against one's own opinion and then decided on.
If I made major changes - like, for example, added or completely rewrote a scene - I get beta feedback on those new parts, too. After that, I sometimes give the fic a final read-through - usually, I don't, because at that point I'm so sick of the story that I only want the damn thing posted. But if I was feeling very insecure about certain things, I force myself to read it once more.
If it finds my approval, I post it. And hope for feedback. Lots of it ^^.
Well, this is how I do it. I would love to hear how other people go about the business of writing fic. Do you do it the same way? Pretty much the same way? Completely differently?
no subject
1) Consult teeming WIPs folder.
2) Drink heavily.
3) Drink heavilier.
4) Wake up the next day to find open Word file full of stuff!
5) Decide everything is wrong.
6) Send to Alexis, beg for help.
7) Receive comments from Alexis telling me it's the best thing EVER and I just need to do this this and this to make it even more perfect.
8) Throw chair across room.
9) Drink.
10) Edit.
11) Post.
no subject
no subject
I spot a plotbunny and try to ignore it. While I'm busy ignoring, the plotbunny festers in my brain and grows and grows until I can't ignore it any longer.
That when I sit down and start writing. Usually the plotbunny is only the very first part of the actual story and I simply write with no real idea where its going. I do have a hazy idea of where I want it to go though, but all the middle ground is basically 'exploring terra incognita' while I go along. Things just just happen.
I do the editing while I'm writing. Basically check what I've just written. That's why I prefeer writing on the computer, because the changing is easier.
After I'm done I skim the whole story again. Sometimes I let it sit for a while and then re-read and change a couple things. Especially with longer stories.
If it's a story I deem 'important' I get a beta. Usually I go without one. (For example with drabbles or MSTs) I'm not good at writing loooooong stories, so most of mine are unbeta-ed.
When I like the story enough, I post.
no subject
When I have written something, actually managed to finish something, it gets posted. No matter what. Even if it's mpreg *gg*. It's probably not the best way to go about it - when a fic is bad, it'll stay bad and shouldn't be posted no matter what - but I can't deal with having invested a whole lot into a piece of writing and not post it ;P.
Otherwise, our writing processes do sound a lot alike.