Survey goodness

[thebratqueen]

wesleysgirl came up with a list of questions about writing fanfic so I thought I'd answer.



Do ideas come in little tiny pinpricks and then get expanded, or do they start great big and scopy and then get refined?

For me it's both. God knows that, for example, the Epiphany series itself was a tiny pinprick of an idea that got expanded, and at the same time there are many story arcs in it that started out much bigger in my head.

Looking back over all that I've written in multiple fandoms I'd say that typically my best work comes when I start a series with a small idea that gets filled out - then fill out that series with big ideas that get refined. If I had to guess I'd say that this is because the tiny pinprick of an idea keeps me on a single thesis which therefore focuses the series as a whole. Big ideas take you all over the place and that gives you greater chance for a weaker series. Sins, for instance, was a very big idea and ended up, IMO, a weak series. Chosen and Epiphany, OTOH, were small ideas.

For the most part I'm a very Naked Chef kind of writer - simple, simple simple. Stories work best for me when they're stripped to their bare essentials. That way the power of your writing can go behind the main concept and not get diluted all over the place because you need to spend five seconds reminding the reader what happened to the C plot or some such. This also forces the writing to focus on the characters that are essential to the plot.

Why do people choose to write in present tense, or first person POV, and/or why did they choose these particular styles for particular stories?

If I've ever done a present tense story I can't remember it - or it wasn't a purposeful decision. I think maybe James and I have done present tense during our random ICQ sessions that start out with us saying "Hi" and somehow end up with Angel and Wes getting naked and groiny. Otherwise I tend to write in past tense. It's just my usual style. I tend to prefer it when reading but I won't haul out some crosses and shout "unclean!" if someone puts a fanfic in front of me that's present tense. Mind you I don't read that much Smallville so possibly I'm not one to judge.

When I started out doing fic in VC I made the choice to write in third-person POV because I didn't feel I had enough practice writing Louis and Stat to do their first-person narrative voices accurately. Third person POV allowed me to use my own narrative voice, therefore letting me focus on trying to tell the story rather than trying to put all of my energies into mimicry.

Once I got more confident with the characters I switched over to first-person POV because that's the narrative voice of the VC world. Plus it's truer to Stat's character that he likes to tell his own stories.

Beyond that it depends on the story. If I really need to get into a character's head I'll switch to first-person POV. Conversely if I need to show a character so damaged that you can't get into his or her head, I'll use third.

Most of my Angel fics are in third person. I use it for Epiphany and Cat and Mouse because it allows me to switch POVs from story to story, or scene to scene, without jarring the reader too much. Cat and Mouse was this close to being first person POV though. In the end I decided against it because I personally don't like first person POV stories that switch characters. But this is why C&M has a very specific third person narrative style that gives you Angelus and Wesley's thoughts, as opposed to a narrative style which takes a step back and just let's you know what's going on.

The Infernal Comedy was the only Angel related story I wrote in first person and that's because it's Wes's thoughts about Lilah. He's basically talking to her, even though she's not there, so it just makes sense for it to be first person.

If I had to guess I'd also say that I tend to default to third person in the Angelverse because it's a TV show, so any story in first person is already asking the reader for a leap of faith on the POV shift. Third person somewhat mimics the concept that the characters do what they do and we have a camera following them.

Also, my rule of thumb for third person POV (since I always stay in one character's mind per scene) is that I pick the character who has the most interesting things to say about the scene in question. Which character will be going through a change? Telling the reader something they don't already know? Showing us the point of the scene in question? That's the character to pick.

Music that inspires?

Lots of stuff. Typically anything new. It's hard for me to go back to an old piece of music and write with it because nine times out of ten I've already used it for a story and flavors of the old story override the new.

I'm inspired by lots of different kinds of music, though, as I think the soundtrack for Epiphany will show once I get a chance to finish burning all the CDs and mailing it out to y'all. I won't spoil you on the playlist, but there's pop, hip hop, dance, ballads - you name it.

How does one brainstorm what comes next in a story?

I think the story over a lot in my head. Whenever my thoughts aren't focused on something else I'll start pondering story ideas, actually get the characters going in my head and see where they end up. If they come up against a wall I pull them back and start over again.

Arcs tend to get brainstormed months in advance based on concepts that I know I want to handle. The best example of this would be something like the Wes in an alt dimension story arc. That got brainstormed easily 6 months before I ever put fingers to keyboard. In fact the official first brainstorming session of that started with me in stakebait's apartment, saying I wanted to do a dark story arc for Wes and I wanted to do a story arc which brought in a concept from season 3 of the show.

Just to show you how the brainstorming works, the original concept that Mer and I hashed out was this entire arc about Faith, Wesley, and Wes facing up to his dark side. That this turned into a story with no Faith, none of Wes's dark side, and the kicker being an alternate dimension shows you how ideas keep getting refined. Part of that refining was, again, me throwing out things that were extraneous to what I really wanted to talk about. Faith was just a tool for the plot and therefore not very useful, Wes's dark side in this brainstormed arc was really just Wes again choosing to be with Angel - no news there. If memory serves me right I then applied Ebert's Law of Opposites (take your original story idea and do the opposite of it and see if that's more interesting) to come up with a story arc where the problem wasn't Wes choosing to be with Angel, it was Wes not saying he wanted to be with Angel. This then naturally lent itself to taking the season 3 idea of Angel being in love with Cordelia as the catalyst for character development.

What do you do when you hit a road block?

Try to back up and attempt another route. I do get road blocks a lot, which I think frustrates Mer (my usual brainstorming victim) to no end because I'll explain a story idea to her on the phone which to her sounds perfectly fine and a great idea to write, while in the meanwhile I'm tearing my hair out going "But it doesn't work!"

Usually this is because my unconscious is trying to tell me that I've taken the story to a narrative dead end - meaning we've seen this before, I'm not proving anything new or I'm doing something that doesn't ring true for the characters.

When this happens I try to trace my steps back to the last point in the story that made me go "yeah!" and start over. Starting over means seeing if the characters naturally go in another direction, or if they won't I try various forms of Ebert's law of opposites. Switching POV can also help. I hit a road block with No Answers until Mer rightfully pointed out that this was a story that needed to be from Wes's POV. Once I had that the rest of the story flowed naturally.

How often do you end up deleting a whole bunch of already-written stuff, and how hard is it to let that stuff go?

Fairly often, usually if I've tried to sit down and write a scene before it's ready to be written. It's not hard to let go of these days though because no matter how much work I put into it, if it hurts the story it hurts the story. I'd rather go back and rewrite than hold on to something because of ego.

What if you really, really want to include something but part of you is saying it's not right for that particular story?

Out it goes. I've learned the folly of keeping in even so much as a single line because I think it belongs in the story, even though the story itself is telling me really no. Many is the time I've had stories that were written because of a single line that appeared in my head, wherein that line never shows up in the final product. You can't force it.

Do you often take notes longhand?

No. A world of no. I try to when I'm forced and it never works. My brain doesn't work like that. I need to type or it will never come out.

Do you use challenges by other people to inspire you?

Sometimes but rarely. Typically this is because a lot of challenges are silly and include details that make no sense. But if it's a simple challenge it might catch my eye. Easter Interlude was partially inspired by a story challenge, but the challenge was to include the concept of Easter in a story, and that fit in pretty seamlessly with my desire to show the AI gang in a "day in the life" sort of way.

I like challenges because they help my two-step rule - you can give greater allowance for the steps if you're trying to fulfill the needs of the challenge - but unfortunately the only challenges that have caught my eye lately are for an unusual pairing which could work given the parameters of the challenge, but would take too much time on my part for a story I'd be doing just to see if I could do it, not because I feel passionately about it. I can see it in my head, I'm satisfied. I don't have a dire need to share.

Do you do anything in particular to get you into the right mindset to write a certain character or characters?

Reread stuff I've written from that POV to help click my brain into gear. Reread stuff in other fandoms of that genre type (ie darkfic, curtain fic, etc). I try not to read stories in that fandom of that genre type because then there's always the fear that I'll get writer's block b/c their story is too similar to what I was trying to go for.

Also music can help, but that depends. Sometimes music helps keep me in the right mindset, othertimes it distracts me when I'm trying to get the words down.

Which characters are easiest for you to write, and WHY?

Of my most prolific fandoms, Angel(us), Wes and Lestat. I can just get into their heads and know how they'll react under any circumstances.

Which ones are hardest, and again, WHY?

Lindsey. I can't do Lindsey for shit, which is part of the many reasons why he's been reduced to a cameo in Epiphany. Fred's hard because I'm repelled by her, but when I do have to write her I do my best to try to be sympathetic to her POV.

Which characters are most like you emotionally?

Stat - shocking, I know, given my nickname. I love Angel and Wes but neither one of them is really like me emotionally. Stat's the one who's fine for shooting his mouth off, doing as he wants and damn all the consequences... except for the part where sometimes he's vulnerable and feeling lonely.

How often do you feel like what you're writing is fulfilling some emotional need - ie, when you're writing comfort, is it because you often feel that you don't get it IRL?

If I'm feeling headache-y, tired, sick or whatever I'm writing some Wes comfort fic in my head if nothing else - and one or two times I think that's come out in a story. Othertimes I just use my own experiences being ill to inspire me, like when Cordy's got a vision hangover or Wes was recovering from dimension sickness.

The only story I ever wrote to purposefully deal with some issues was Sins, and the Tweeners and Afters where personal experiences in college influenced some of what Louis was going through. It wasn't so much that I needed to comfort Louis in order to feel comforted myself as it was that it was theraputic to write about it.

What about writing smut - do you find it easy, difficult?

Difficult. Blocking is my worst skill and smut is almost all blocking. Although I've found lately that it helps that I don't include a single sex scene in my stories which isn't a plot point of some sort, so focusing on what that plot point is helps me figure out how the scene will go.

What kinds of smut are easiest for you to write, and WHY?

Scenes with plot points. Beyond that it doesn't matter to me if it's guy/guy, guy/girl, girl/girl, guy/guy/guy or whatever. Ditto for vanilla vs. kink. Although being kinky helps. Which is also part of why I enjoy any sex scenes with Angel or Angelus - there's a power dynamic there that I get. It's always very obvious to me when someone tries to write a kinky scene who isn't kinky themselves and is therefore trying to recreate the experience without getting the concept.

Which of your stories is your favorite and WHY?

I've answered this elsewhere but Chosen, Epiphany as a concept but specifically the alt dimension story arc, Returning and the then/now story arcs. Cat and Mouse makes me happy. The Infernal Comedy also makes me happy. Basically these are stories/arcs that started out as ideas in my head and came out on the page either exactly what I wanted or better. The writing feels tight, the characters feel real - it just flows. Likewise many of my stand-alone VC stories make me happy, and a lot of my Fight Club stuff does too.

Least favorite?

Sins - first thing I ever wrote and boy is it obvious. By the Way - looked okay when I sent it out, made me cringe later.

Titles?

Present, Imperfect. Day and Night, Night and Day, Lust for a Reason, Alienation, Liberty Rules, Everybody Fell, A Night, Always? Oh - and Stuck With A Mirror.

In other fandoms - Truer Than Fantasy, Rats, Consumer Masterbation, Animal Instincts, and, of course, DOA. Because only one person ever figured out what it stood for.