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What tends to create the initial impetus for a fic? A plot idea? A striking image? Some personality trait you want to explore? Something else entirely? Okay, hopefully I'll be able to answer this question without writing 6 rambling pages of confused nonsense. So, the short and simple answer is: D, all of the above. Usually they occur concurrently, sometimes they occur separately. However, I almost always have a combination of factors inspire me before I actually start to write, although sometimes I can point to a single, driving force that actually made me start writing before I had anything other than that moment, and go, "There! That's the one, officer! That's the one that made me do it!" And now, the longer answer. And, sadly, I think that this is going to turn into another rambling, uninformative spiels that only tangentially touches on the question you asked. Because, as I sit here, straining my very little brain and thinking about what makes me actually write a fic, I realize that it's not just an idea or an image or a feeling or what have that makes me actually sit down and write that thing as a fic instead of going "ooh, nice" and moving on. I have to have a sense of the story that goes along with the fic -- or, at least, now I do, although sometimes I still fic (yes, I'm verb-ifying a noun) without the slightest idea of what's going on. But that's not to say that pure, blinding Inspiration is only occurs in the fics that I have a sense of story for, or that the sense of story is really the major impetus for my ficcing, or that images and plot ideas and personality traits and that (as yet) undefined other are all of equal importance in my ficcing process. And, after rereading everything I've just written, I think I'm just going to have to stop and take a deep breath and go through, step-by-step, the twisted process of how I produce fanfic. Okay. First things first. The (if you pardon a shaky and extended metaphor) atoms that, ultimately, a fic: A 'what if?' moment, a single image, a small scene, an idea I want to explore (like parenthood), a bit of dialogue or a phrase, a small scene and its follow up, a quote or song, a personal experience, a feeling I want to capture, a challenge, a response to something that bugs me, a response to some idea/moment/line/whatever that someone else wrote, a gift to someone, a plot, a writing style I want to try out, something I've read/seen, a particular pairing. Generally speaking, these fic-atoms are inert. If left alone, they will almost never become actual fics. I might ooh and ahh over them, and I might idly wish to write a fic using them, but they won't make me sit down and go "Right. I'm going to write a fic because I have to use image X or scenario Y, or whatever." For example (and this is one that you should be quite familiar with, forest), when I read about Finnish werewolves, I thought the concept was very interesting would certainly make a good fic...but I felt no compulsion to write that fic. And, generally, that's what happens to me if I just get a fic-atom all by it's lonesome. But, if two or more of those little suckers get together, if they gang up on me... Well. The chances of ficcage happening are definitely increased. See, the impetus to fic requires at least two of these fic-atoms. 'Grief', for example, was partly me coping with the very sudden death of a dear friend, and exploring my personal feelings about death. 'Broken Wings' was a combination of "what if Keith was a slave" and "what if Keith had wings" and that entire beheading scene. 'Happily Ever After' was all about Addict!Keith and the ending. 'Amazing Grace' was about Whore!Keith and how my knee hurt and the image of Sven moaning and panting in submission, all naked and slightly embarrassed and begging to be fucked. Point is, all of these fics grabbed me and shook me and screamed "Write me damn it!" And that's pretty normal for me. It's really self-preservation. If I was inspired to write a fic by every thought or image or whatever that lent itself to a fic, I'd never get anything else done. I have to be grabbed and bitch-slapped into writing a fic. Which isn't to say there aren't exceptions. Sometimes single fic-atoms can make me sit down and want to write a fic just as badly as a gang of the bloody things. 'Overs' was trying to capture the feelings I got from the Simon & Garfunkel song of the same name. 'Fascination' was based entirely on the idea of Keith and Zarkon as a pairing; I think the Zarkon/Pidge idea popped into my head after I started writing. Which, actually, is an important fact that I need to expand on. Fics almost invariably 'happen' to me. I don't usually create a timeline and I don't plot and I almost never write backstory. Unless there's a very specific past event that has to be mentioned, any sort of references to their pasts the characters in my fics make are, pretty much, the only history those characters have. Because, for me, it's not important to know how/where Keith grew up, his religion, or the major life events that occurred for him (a fact that gets me into a lot of trouble when I look at a fic I've written and want to turn it into a serial. See my answer to randi's question for why); he's going to act (within the constraints of character, of course) the way he's going to act and it's not necessary for me to know the specifics as to why. So, really, a lot of my ficcing is just me being a conduit between the already finished fic that's lurking, somewhere, in my head and the page. Because I don't know what's going to happen, and am, quite frankly, very surprised by the twists and turns a story takes. Thus, things like Zarkon/Pidge or, oh, the fact that there was even a Keith/Pidge 'ship in 'Stars' were all sort of middle-of-the-fic "Oh crap, now how do I resolve things and let this fic end?" creations. However, except in very few cases, by the time I start to actually write -- by the time a thing can properly be called a fic-idea and not just an intangible "hmm, interesting" mental moment -- I almost always know how the story is going to end; I know what the pivotal moment will be, and this is also why, generally, the ending of a fic comes pretty rapidly after the climax. Again. It's self-defense. If I didn't know that there was an ending, a general goal I was working for, I'd never want to start. Although it's also true that, sometimes, I figure out the ending after I begin a fic -- a lot of my more cracktastic fics are written like this. 'Caught', for example, didn't have a definite story-shape when I began it; neither did 'Red Riding Hood', largely because I had two possible endings and I wasn't sure which one was going to fit. So, lets see if I can sum up a little, try and make some of this coherent. There are many, many things that create 'fic ideas', that create little moments where I go "Oh, that could be interesting". On their own, these little moments aren't, generally, enough to make me go "I. Must. Write. This." -- to do that they need to be teamed up, they need to form fic-molecules. And, actually, I always need a fic-molecule in order to actually make a story form. If I have an image of, say, Keith bounding spastically about a room, and it's an image that hits me hard enough to want to turn it into a fic, then I will actively find other fic-atoms to attach to this image to turn it into a fic. The difference is really whether or not I get a fic-molecule that's naturally formed or one that I had to force into being. This is also why there are certain 'themes' running through my fics -- parenthood, for example, and the aging of relationships, and addiction. It's easier to attach a theme to an image and go from there than it is to attach an image to an image. However, in order to actually get this fic-molecule to actually become a fic, I have to have some sense for the story, some sense that it's going to end. If I don't have that, then no matter how cool the idea is, I probably won't write it. There. That's about as coherent as I can get right now. There may be more edited in later, because I don't know if this really explains anything at all. |