Snowflake Challenge 2015 Days 2-6
Jan. 7th, 2015 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meridian_roseDay 1: skipping for now
Day 2: Fannish Wishlist
Day 3: Creative Processes
Day 4: Interact with someone new
Day 5: Fannish Origin Story
Day 6: Create a fanwork
Day Two: Fannish wishlist – "create a list of at least three fannish things you'd love to receive"
1. Recs for asexual character fics – in particular Luna (Harry Potter), Pythagoras (Atlantis) and Kristoff (Frozen).
2. I love this vid: How Frozen Should Have Ended because yes, terrible parents. Any other vids or any AU fics where Elsa's parents encourage her to learn to control her powers instead of locking her away in her room for years?
3. "Miranda" (TV) fics – I've skimmed AO3 without success but does anyone know of any alternate endings to the finale where she's happy by herself, which I really wanted (and was hinted at by the trailer and start of the episode), rather than the Marriage and Planned Babies ending?
Day Three: Talk about your Creative Process
I get an idea; something I wish had happened in a show instead of what did, or an idea on how something from the show could work better or differently, or an idea for a line of dialogue, or a character idea, or I'll be inspired by a setting when out walking and start generating ideas.
The hard part is bothering to write up this initial germ of an idea, and then nuturing into a full ficlet, let alone a novella or novel. If I do write, the story often grows organically. For short fics, especially fanfic drabbles, this works especially well, and I can usually get a first draft completed in one sitting.
On the whole I prefer not to have specific plotlines when I begin writing. Original characters might shift slightly as the setting and plot takes shape, but then I'll decide they're fixed and that will help drive the plot.
The middle bit is the hardest; I'll often know the end at this point, but there's a lot of Stuff Happens holes in-between the beginning, end, and odd scenes I already have planned out. This will often discourage me from finishing the fic at all.
Too much planning however takes away all the creativity and surprises that is such a joy when you're writing. I already feel like I've "written" it if I know all the scenes.
However for my Small Fandom Big Bang (currently neglected, need to get back to it now Yuletide is over) I had an idea, and then began writing, and noted down some ideas for scenes I knew I wanted to include. Then when stuck, I would write some or all of one of those scenes eg Horse Riding, and even if I only got a vague outline or very rough draft down, it was something. So it's a fine line between having no idea what I'm going to write and planning it to literary death.
I know a lot of people swear by Scrivener but I don't have the cash to buy a full version. I use Hiveword (free, online) which is great for character and plot outlines, but I'm also trying out yWriter (free to download and use) to try and pull all the scenes of the Big Bang fic together; Hiveword is really more for planning than for actually storing and compiling a novel. Any other recommendations?
Day Four: Interact with someone new
I left a comment on a fic by an author I've never read/interacted with before at AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/comments/21386207
I was impressed with how they had the characters negotiate unambiguous but nonverbal consent to a New Year's kiss.
Day Five
I always say I was writing fanfic before I knew there was a word for it, let alone that other people were doing it. Fanzines, mailing lists, I've done it all at some point.
When I decided to start posting, I wanted a non-specific fandom name, for I'm multi-fannish. I wanted to adopt a permanent fannish identity. I ran my first, middle, and surname through a randomiser and chose from the list of generated possibilities. Meridian Rose Mails was one I liked, hence meridian_rose. Though if I'd known then how awkward that underscore would prove, I'd have gone for meridianrose, as I go by on a few sites, to make things simpler.
Day Six: Create a fanwork
A "Revenge" fanfic Halloween Eve (257 words) posted to AO3, for the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
100_tales prompt "orange"
Day 2: Fannish Wishlist
Day 3: Creative Processes
Day 4: Interact with someone new
Day 5: Fannish Origin Story
Day 6: Create a fanwork
Day Two: Fannish wishlist – "create a list of at least three fannish things you'd love to receive"
1. Recs for asexual character fics – in particular Luna (Harry Potter), Pythagoras (Atlantis) and Kristoff (Frozen).
2. I love this vid: How Frozen Should Have Ended because yes, terrible parents. Any other vids or any AU fics where Elsa's parents encourage her to learn to control her powers instead of locking her away in her room for years?
3. "Miranda" (TV) fics – I've skimmed AO3 without success but does anyone know of any alternate endings to the finale where she's happy by herself, which I really wanted (and was hinted at by the trailer and start of the episode), rather than the Marriage and Planned Babies ending?
Day Three: Talk about your Creative Process
I get an idea; something I wish had happened in a show instead of what did, or an idea on how something from the show could work better or differently, or an idea for a line of dialogue, or a character idea, or I'll be inspired by a setting when out walking and start generating ideas.
The hard part is bothering to write up this initial germ of an idea, and then nuturing into a full ficlet, let alone a novella or novel. If I do write, the story often grows organically. For short fics, especially fanfic drabbles, this works especially well, and I can usually get a first draft completed in one sitting.
On the whole I prefer not to have specific plotlines when I begin writing. Original characters might shift slightly as the setting and plot takes shape, but then I'll decide they're fixed and that will help drive the plot.
The middle bit is the hardest; I'll often know the end at this point, but there's a lot of Stuff Happens holes in-between the beginning, end, and odd scenes I already have planned out. This will often discourage me from finishing the fic at all.
Too much planning however takes away all the creativity and surprises that is such a joy when you're writing. I already feel like I've "written" it if I know all the scenes.
However for my Small Fandom Big Bang (currently neglected, need to get back to it now Yuletide is over) I had an idea, and then began writing, and noted down some ideas for scenes I knew I wanted to include. Then when stuck, I would write some or all of one of those scenes eg Horse Riding, and even if I only got a vague outline or very rough draft down, it was something. So it's a fine line between having no idea what I'm going to write and planning it to literary death.
I know a lot of people swear by Scrivener but I don't have the cash to buy a full version. I use Hiveword (free, online) which is great for character and plot outlines, but I'm also trying out yWriter (free to download and use) to try and pull all the scenes of the Big Bang fic together; Hiveword is really more for planning than for actually storing and compiling a novel. Any other recommendations?
Day Four: Interact with someone new
I left a comment on a fic by an author I've never read/interacted with before at AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/comments/21386207
I was impressed with how they had the characters negotiate unambiguous but nonverbal consent to a New Year's kiss.
Day Five
I always say I was writing fanfic before I knew there was a word for it, let alone that other people were doing it. Fanzines, mailing lists, I've done it all at some point.
When I decided to start posting, I wanted a non-specific fandom name, for I'm multi-fannish. I wanted to adopt a permanent fannish identity. I ran my first, middle, and surname through a randomiser and chose from the list of generated possibilities. Meridian Rose Mails was one I liked, hence meridian_rose. Though if I'd known then how awkward that underscore would prove, I'd have gone for meridianrose, as I go by on a few sites, to make things simpler.
Day Six: Create a fanwork
A "Revenge" fanfic Halloween Eve (257 words) posted to AO3, for the
100_tales prompt "orange"
no subject
Date: 2015-01-31 03:54 pm (UTC)Most character sheets I've seen get ridiculous, asking questions that add nothing to characterisation or plot, and/or are wrong for the genre/time period I'm working in. I'd be hard pressed to fill some of those in for me or people I know well, let alone characters I've just invented :P
So having basic forms for names, gender, background, and plenty of space to fill in details I find interesting (Myers-Briggs, tarot correspondences, sexual orientation) while skipping the irrelevancies works best for me.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-08 10:50 am (UTC)I'm currently editing my small fandom big bang and I am finding having the scene list in yWriter very helpful as I can mark up which stage each section is at: outline/draft/1st edit/etc as I organise and edit. I am thinking of trying out writing something mostly in yWriter rather than just using it as a scene organiser, and maybe look at Quoll again myself.