30 Day Fanfic Writing Meme – Day 13
Jul. 18th, 2011 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meridian_rose13 – 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?
Depends on the canon, I suppose. I don't use fanon too much but the Legend fandom has definitely developed tropes and ideas that have become part of the mythology for me. some of it is crack, like how Richard always stops to rescue animals, while other things are more considered, like stuff about the Mord'Sith hierarchy. There's bookverse too, which muddies the waters, so it can be hard to say what is definitively canon.
Discussions at the Palace often make me see Legend in a different way, as well as giving me plot bunnies. Sometimes I see poor choices in canon that make me label it as 'badfic' and get the urge to read or write fixit fic. Writing fic can make you get inside the characters heads more and change how you see them and thus the source – and trying to figure out the canon mythology/timelines etc can show you gapting plot holes of doom that make you wonder if the writers were even paying attention to the show bible. It can also highlight the underlying themes and motifs as you more closely examine the plot arcs and character motives.
Filled questions available via the fanfic writing meme tag; index post will be completed at finish of meme.
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!
Depends on the canon, I suppose. I don't use fanon too much but the Legend fandom has definitely developed tropes and ideas that have become part of the mythology for me. some of it is crack, like how Richard always stops to rescue animals, while other things are more considered, like stuff about the Mord'Sith hierarchy. There's bookverse too, which muddies the waters, so it can be hard to say what is definitively canon.
Discussions at the Palace often make me see Legend in a different way, as well as giving me plot bunnies. Sometimes I see poor choices in canon that make me label it as 'badfic' and get the urge to read or write fixit fic. Writing fic can make you get inside the characters heads more and change how you see them and thus the source – and trying to figure out the canon mythology/timelines etc can show you gapting plot holes of doom that make you wonder if the writers were even paying attention to the show bible. It can also highlight the underlying themes and motifs as you more closely examine the plot arcs and character motives.
Filled questions available via the fanfic writing meme tag; index post will be completed at finish of meme.
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!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 10:48 pm (UTC)Discussions at the Palace often make me see Legend in a different way, as well as giving me plot bunnies. Sometimes I see poor choices in canon that make me label it as 'badfic' and get the urge to read or write fixit fic. Me too, on both counts :D
Writing often gives me more insight into the original canon, and sometimes I start thinking the fandom knows more about a particular character or incident than the writers do, just by thinking about it so much and discussing it...
(Apparently, Joss Whedon thinks the Cheese Man in Restless, at the end of Buffy season 4, is just totally random, but Restless is one of my favorite episodes, and every time I watch it I think the Cheese Man represents the First Evil. Of course, maybe I'm giving a little too much thematic weight to it there, but it's prophetic dreams - how random can they be?)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 09:41 am (UTC)Restless; it's interesting how Giles is playing dad to Spike, as I recall. This is a precursor to their presumed relationship in Tabula Rasa - one of my faves :D - and makes me wonder if there was plot there that never became fully explored.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 04:43 pm (UTC)Tabula Rasa is fascinating - Buffy and Dawn know they're sisters almost immediately, but Willow at first thinks she and Xander are together, and Anya and Giles think they're getting married (and I find them a more interesting couple than Xander/Anya, actually) and Buffy and Spike still have a total accord, and I love the bit where Spike realizes he's a vampire: "I must be a noble vampire. On a mission of redemption. I'm a vampire with a soul!" and Buffy: "How lame is that?" Take that, Angel! ;D
Bit of a side-track Buffy flail there...I love that show :D
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 02:34 am (UTC)Anya/Giles could work: in that episode, they have a lot of chemistry, and although he gets irritated with her, he doesn't seem cruel or condescending the way Xander sometimes does. And they already know they can get along, because they run the shop together. I also love the bit in Checkpoint where Quentin Travers is all menacing and Giles tries to protect Anya from the evil Watcher's Council :D
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 03:55 am (UTC)I am of the same philosophy. Sometimes I'm willing to work with canon and reinterpret it, but other times I just look at it and go "No. No way. That's OOC/implausible/etc and I can't in good conscience accept it"
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 09:43 am (UTC)There's often an episode where I'll say to one of my family or they'll say to me, 'Who was writing X this week?' because the character was behaving so oddly for no reason other than poor writing or forced plot development.