Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Seven
Jul. 7th, 2011 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenak7 – Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?
There are several answers for this, as a reader and one as a writer. I had not paid much attention to the Minbari characters during my original watching of Babylon 5; not because I disliked them or found them dull, but because they just didn't capture me the way the Centauri and the Narn did. While I rewatched the occasional favourite episodes, I didn't do a rewatch of the entire show until the dvds came out, and by that time I had read the stories ofdeborah_judge and eye_of_a_cat, featuring Lennier, Delenn, Neroon in various combinations, and lo and behold, this time around I found myself very intrigued by the Minbari scenes (and occasionally frustrated); Delenn especially came across as a far more complicated character than I had seen her as back in the 90s.
Then there are the negative examples. Back in the day during the Spike Wars, before I went zen and stopped reading both Buffy discussions and much of Buffy fanfiction, I was verging towards Spike dislike not on account of anything the poor guy had done on screen but because of the relentless woobiefication and the sheer amount of grovel fic. Thankfully, by the time AtS season 5 came along the lack of fanfiction reading had worked and I was back to liking Harmony's Blondie Bear. (Especially him and Angel being petty to each other, because it was so anti-woobiefication.) I even, dare one say it, sought out fanfiction. (Some.) A female example of this would be Lilah, whom I had liked all the way back in s1 and 2 when most people's Wolfram & Hart lawyer of choice had been the other L.M., Lindsey MacDonald. However, by the way we were in season 5 of AtS and Lilah was overwhelmingly popular, I came across first a story in which Buffy comes on to Lilah and is turned down and then a story in which Giles (!) lectures Wesley on how unworthy he was of Lilah, and I had to quit Lilah fanfiction because that pesky fanfic-induced dislike raised its head again.
And then there is the example of opinion created by fanfiction. Sort of. I usually avoid reading fandoms I haven't watched because I am a firm believer of the thesis that you can diverge from canon as much as you like, as long as you know the canon first. And nothing annoys me more than finding people writing fanfiction about a fandom the original source of which they've never seen/read and only know via other fanfiction, because that usually leads to horrid mischaracterisation. However, in my roleplaying days at![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
theatrical_muse I interacted with a lot of characters from fandoms I wasn't familiar with, in addition to those I knew, which meant I "met" these characters in their role-played, i.e. written by a fan, guise first. One of those was Tony Stark. Bear in mind this was before the movies and at a point where Tony, due to Civil War, was at his most unpopular. I entirely blame likeadeuce for not only making me be intrigued by and liking Tony Stark but hunting down various Marvel volumes to get his backstory. Including the entire Civil War storyline. Yep. The Tony fondness is all her fault.
As a writer, there were various stories where I felt exploring a character fictionally made me know her/him better, but only in one instance was there really an emotional change. This was Nowhere Man, a Torchwood/Doctor Who/Deep Space Nine crossover I wrote for Multiverse a couple of years ago, during the hiatus of TW's first and second season. Before writing the story, I didn't actually like any of the TW gang. I found Owen interesting (which is why he's the point of view character of the story), but that wasn't the same as like, and was somewhat indifferent with the occasional spark of dislike towards everyone else. Writing the story, however, made me fond of the lot of them and their show, which I hadn't expected, and this was a good foundation for starting season 2, which as it turned out cemented my fondness for the TW team by letting it act actually like a team and having in general more good character moments and better writing. (And then Children of Earth went to the stratosphere with the writing quality, but that's another story.) But Nowhere Man was where it all started, and once I had finished writing the story, I realized I was looking forward to season 2 - when did that happen? At some point while writing about team TW and Garak during the Year That Wasn't.
1 – How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?
2 – Name the fandoms you've written in, and how much you've written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.
3 – For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?
4 – Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?
5 –If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a fic, whether your "muse" or not, what did you do about it?
6 – When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?
8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.
9 – Pairings – For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?
10 – Pairings – Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?
11 – Genre – do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?
12 – Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" fic of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom?
13 – Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?
14 – Ratings – how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?
15 – Warnings – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?
16 – Summaries – Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?
17 – Titles – Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?
18 – Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka "bunnies") from?
19 – When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?
20 – Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?
21 – Sequels – Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?
22 – Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favorite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?
23 – When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?
24 – Betaing – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?
25 – Music – Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your fic? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?
26 – What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you've had to research for a fic?
27 – Where is your favorite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?
28 – Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?
29 – What is your current project or projects?
30 – Do you have a favorite fic you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link!
There are several answers for this, as a reader and one as a writer. I had not paid much attention to the Minbari characters during my original watching of Babylon 5; not because I disliked them or found them dull, but because they just didn't capture me the way the Centauri and the Narn did. While I rewatched the occasional favourite episodes, I didn't do a rewatch of the entire show until the dvds came out, and by that time I had read the stories of
deborah_judge and eye_of_a_cat, featuring Lennier, Delenn, Neroon in various combinations, and lo and behold, this time around I found myself very intrigued by the Minbari scenes (and occasionally frustrated); Delenn especially came across as a far more complicated character than I had seen her as back in the 90s. Then there are the negative examples. Back in the day during the Spike Wars, before I went zen and stopped reading both Buffy discussions and much of Buffy fanfiction, I was verging towards Spike dislike not on account of anything the poor guy had done on screen but because of the relentless woobiefication and the sheer amount of grovel fic. Thankfully, by the time AtS season 5 came along the lack of fanfiction reading had worked and I was back to liking Harmony's Blondie Bear. (Especially him and Angel being petty to each other, because it was so anti-woobiefication.) I even, dare one say it, sought out fanfiction. (Some.) A female example of this would be Lilah, whom I had liked all the way back in s1 and 2 when most people's Wolfram & Hart lawyer of choice had been the other L.M., Lindsey MacDonald. However, by the way we were in season 5 of AtS and Lilah was overwhelmingly popular, I came across first a story in which Buffy comes on to Lilah and is turned down and then a story in which Giles (!) lectures Wesley on how unworthy he was of Lilah, and I had to quit Lilah fanfiction because that pesky fanfic-induced dislike raised its head again.
And then there is the example of opinion created by fanfiction. Sort of. I usually avoid reading fandoms I haven't watched because I am a firm believer of the thesis that you can diverge from canon as much as you like, as long as you know the canon first. And nothing annoys me more than finding people writing fanfiction about a fandom the original source of which they've never seen/read and only know via other fanfiction, because that usually leads to horrid mischaracterisation. However, in my roleplaying days at
theatrical_muse I interacted with a lot of characters from fandoms I wasn't familiar with, in addition to those I knew, which meant I "met" these characters in their role-played, i.e. written by a fan, guise first. One of those was Tony Stark. Bear in mind this was before the movies and at a point where Tony, due to Civil War, was at his most unpopular. I entirely blame likeadeuce for not only making me be intrigued by and liking Tony Stark but hunting down various Marvel volumes to get his backstory. Including the entire Civil War storyline. Yep. The Tony fondness is all her fault. As a writer, there were various stories where I felt exploring a character fictionally made me know her/him better, but only in one instance was there really an emotional change. This was Nowhere Man, a Torchwood/Doctor Who/Deep Space Nine crossover I wrote for Multiverse a couple of years ago, during the hiatus of TW's first and second season. Before writing the story, I didn't actually like any of the TW gang. I found Owen interesting (which is why he's the point of view character of the story), but that wasn't the same as like, and was somewhat indifferent with the occasional spark of dislike towards everyone else. Writing the story, however, made me fond of the lot of them and their show, which I hadn't expected, and this was a good foundation for starting season 2, which as it turned out cemented my fondness for the TW team by letting it act actually like a team and having in general more good character moments and better writing. (And then Children of Earth went to the stratosphere with the writing quality, but that's another story.) But Nowhere Man was where it all started, and once I had finished writing the story, I realized I was looking forward to season 2 - when did that happen? At some point while writing about team TW and Garak during the Year That Wasn't.
1 – How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?
2 – Name the fandoms you've written in, and how much you've written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.
3 – For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?
4 – Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?
5 –If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a fic, whether your "muse" or not, what did you do about it?
6 – When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?
8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.
9 – Pairings – For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?
10 – Pairings – Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?
11 – Genre – do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?
12 – Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" fic of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom?
13 – Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?
14 – Ratings – how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?
15 – Warnings – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?
16 – Summaries – Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?
17 – Titles – Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?
18 – Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka "bunnies") from?
19 – When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?
20 – Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?
21 – Sequels – Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?
22 – Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favorite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?
23 – When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?
24 – Betaing – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?
25 – Music – Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your fic? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?
26 – What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you've had to research for a fic?
27 – Where is your favorite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?
28 – Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?
29 – What is your current project or projects?
30 – Do you have a favorite fic you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link!
