Fanfic Writing Meme

[thisbluespirit]

Meme taken from daibhid_cand john_elliott. Thirteen questions about fanfic writing. Let's hope I can answer them...

*

1. Why do you write fanfic?

Mostly because it's fun and I can play around with different styles, types of stories etc. (Especially if this involves Doctor Who.) I find drabbles very educational - now I know exactly which 'nothing' words I tend to use a lot!

2. When did you write your first fanfic and which fandom was it for?

Without doing extensive research on alt.drwho.creative on Google, either the anarchic round robin Antel or my Sixth Doctor and Peri story and its sequel. (I'm not naming it; it's still out there and the sequel seems to be taken from a rough draft post on adwc and isn't spellchecked.) So Doctor Who. Sorry, that bit seemed too obvious to state. (Oh. Unless you count the Dungeons and Dragon fic I scribbled in my diary as a teenager, which I suppose technically was the first.)

3. Which fandoms do you, or have you, written for?
Mostly Doctor Who, but also Allo Allo, Dungeons and Dragons (for Yuletide) and On The Up because I was stalked by a story idea for months. I've also crossed DW with: Spooks, Carry On Films, Rainbow, On the Up (it was for my sister!) the Two Ronnies and PG Wodehouse's Blandings.

4. Do you read much fanfic or do you mainly write?
Both. Although doing too much writing tends to make me prefer to reader shorter fics!!

5. What comes easiest for you when writing? (dialogue, descriptions, plot, characterizations, humour, angst...)

Dialogue, characterisation, humour and plot. Descriptions are a weak point and angst happens rarely. But it does happen sometimes.

7. Which genres will you not write?
Adult-rated stuff & I don't really do slash either. (The Allo Allo story does not count!) I'm only slowing coming round to the whole fanfic language and idea of shipping and so on. Sometimes that combined with DW makes me go eek. But I tend to wind up writing anything if the story sounds like fun. I wouldn't manage hard sf, either. Mind you, writing Who fic, never say never to genres. (But no explicit stuff, swearing, graphic violence etc.)

8. Are reader comments/responses important?

No. Am not bothered at all. That post I made the other day where lack of comment made me go all wibbly and wonder about my sanity was... La la la. Oh, yes. It's sad to admit it, but YES. Plus, discussion-type comments tend to spark off new ideas. After all, if no one comments, why fan fic? Why post it? Why not work on your original novel somewhere? Making friends and discussing writing without having people look at you like a mad person and offer to 'read it when it's published' is the main reason I came back to fanfic after a long exile.

9. Do you use a beta reader?
No, not usually. (I do use a spell-checker these days, though.)

10. Which is your favourite character to write fanfic for and why?

That's really hard. I don't know if I have one. As Daibhid said, Ten is fun because you can just set him talking and off he goes. (And ten year-old Ten writing was probably even more fun.) I do like writing for the Brigadier, which is probably why he had to suffer being in a fair few Storytimes and be put upon. (He wasn't keen). Maybe Tegan, perhaps. She's quite a handy character for POVs and I'm very fond of her. She's awkward, argumentative, practical, generous and has a sense of humour.

11. Which are your favourite ships (including friendships) that you write the most?
I'm so glad this q includes friendships, because those are also fun (and quite delicate) things to write. I did start with an 'I don't do shipping in DW' attitude, but I've rapidly slidden into the habit. Brig/Liz is the one I've enjoyed the most, because sarky Liz and unflappable Brig = such fun dialogue to write. I've also done Five/Tegan quite a bit. It's the awkwardness, arguing and panicking I like there. You will also find acertain amount of Harry/Sarah-ness if you look. And I'm desperate for a good idea so I can write a Ben/Polly fic. Then again, other people tend to count my shippy stories as gen, so... ;-)

12. Do you have characters that are so strongly established that they're in your head?
They're all in my head when I'm writing. Isn't that how it goes?

13. Which characters are you most comfortable doing a POV for? Which is the hardest?

I tend to be happy to do anyone's POV unless I'm needing to hide a plot point that that character knows. *thinks* I suppose I would find Monster POV boring without a real reason to do it.

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

That was interesting... You've been writing fanfic a long time!

[thisbluespirit]

I know; it's scary. I forgot to put the date, which must have been about November 1995 or something like that. But I lost internet access after 1998 and didn't know how to get back onto adwc once I did, or where else to go, so only started again in 2007. And fanfic writing has changed an awful lot in the meantime.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Whoa!! 14 years!! I started Jan 2007.

[thisbluespirit]

So in the new world of fanfic, we more or less started together! My past life was largely IAs (an ongoing series of round-robins), with a few short stories in between.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Aye...

[john_amend_all]

I do like writing for the Brigadier, which is probably why he had to suffer being in a fair few Storytimes and be put upon.

He's a versatile character, isn't he? Give him any rôle from the romantic lead to the King of the Britons, and he'll carry it off with no more than a bit of grumbling.

Plus, discussion-type comments tend to spark off new ideas.

Oh, so very, very true. The Usenet format on adwc seems to encourage this, more so than the unthreaded reviews on Teaspoon. You get multiway conversations, not a series of unconnected dialogues.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes. I had no idea where else to go when I returned to fanfic, but it does. There's a creative community & even here on LJ where you supposedly have communities, it isn't like adwc. I posted my Happy Endings on Teaspoon to some nice reviews. I posted them on adwc and got some crazy drabbles back. I like both approaches!

[john_amend_all]

I think it's because on Usenet, there's hardly any difference between an original article and a followup; on a very old reader like rn, there may not be any. LJ, on the other hand, makes a clear distinction between The Original Post and The Comments; and Teaspoon an even clearer one between The Story and The Reviews.

On Usenet, there's also the expectation that a followup will be read by roughly the same audience that read the original post. That doesn't seem to apply so much to LJ, with its tangle of friendslists, or to reviews on Teaspoon.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, true. I mean, I like both. I like being able to post things on Usenet, chat about them and build Nameless together and be collectively silly. (Or whatever it is this week...) But I like archiving my story on Teaspoon and getting Reviews, too.

[thisbluespirit]

He's a versatile character, isn't he? Give him any rôle from the romantic lead to the King of the Britons, and he'll carry it off with no more than a bit of grumbling.

*looks guilty* And indeed, I have. Talking of the Brig, I'm equally sure he's capable of dealing with Zoe and a ladder, but it is worrying!

[clocketpatch]

After all, if no one comments, why fan fic? Why post it? Why not work on your original novel somewhere? Making friends and discussing writing without having people look at you like a mad person and offer to 'read it when it's published' is the main reason I came back to fanfic after a long exile.

--

been there, done that, and isn't it true? I was quite happy plugging away at my (now sadly neglected) original novel until I realised that there were places online where I could write things and actually get feedback...!

[thisbluespirit]

Absolutely!