Fanfiction Lounge

So, to use the question from the forums for this magazine: Is writing mostly inspiration or determination? And what are your secrets for turning the inspiration into determination? And which writing do you enjoy more: the inspired or the worked-for?

I find it difficult to classify them as two different things, or indeed ones I use more of...

Inspiration though would have to be what I use more I suppose. But determination is what gets me to keep writing, as being busy and all...

If I write too much in a determination-like fashion though, I believe my writing starts to sound chopped and disjoined. Writing inspiration-like, with emotions, I find, can help engage the reader and even have certain emotions towards certain characters.

Yeah, for me, the emotional writing is what I like more. For instance, I have short one-shots for one fandom. The various one-shots all revolve around the same two characters, taking a look at their relationship. I found that the one-shots I'm more inspired to write are the ones that I enjoy rereading more often than the ones that I had to think and write about.

One thing that the article said was that writers found that their work that they had to force to get out was the work that they had to edit the least. It's different for me, since in the case of these one-shots, I didn't have to edit the inspired ones, but I have a few ones that I forced out that need to be rewritten. Mostly because they just don't "sound" right.

I thought that one reason behind that was because the pieces were more emotionally driven, but it's true with all my writing. My inspired work sounds more natural while the work I forced out of my pen sounds just like Feign said: choppy and disjointed.

And I thought that the so-called "sweated out" way of writing was the worst type.

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I always thought that too. And it's been proven with the stories I wrote. *gestures to above paragraphs*

I can only write through inspiration. I must be bathed in the embers of its molten sea, breathing the fumes and choking on the fiery, liquid gold which comprises it.

Otherwise I end up with a blank page, or crap. Typically the former.

I do like rereading my zombie one shot every now and again, even if it does have its discrepancies (which one tends to notice for a finished work). XD

There was a question about that before, but I generally edit my work as I go, not afterward. Regardless of what style I might be using more.

Another reason as to why I think I write more inspirationaly based, is because I feel more in the mood to write, as I cannot force myself to write, and usually just procrastinate instead.

I suppose it is different for every writer though (and perhaps even something to get used to over time, for a professional writer), in that forcing one's self to write isn't always the best result.

Is writing mostly inspiration or determination? And what are your secrets for turning the inspiration into determination? And which writing do you enjoy more: the inspired or the worked-for?
Let me put it this way: I would have just stop NE after I finished with the first draft and only thing I'll do is proofread for grammar mistakes and maybe expand on description. However, inspiration made me keep rewriting the story and wanting to make it better by adding some exciting scenes, cool lines, and better character development and emotions.

I can understand where determination can help writers, mostly to the professional writers that have to deal with deadlines. Also it can help writers on things like contests. Trust me, I hear a lot of writers that did entries last minute and they still did well. Heck, I was a judge on two writing contests and I read last minute entries, so there. XD

Is writing mostly inspiration or determination? And what are your secrets for turning the inspiration into determination? And which writing do you enjoy more: the inspired or the worked-for?
My take on this is that my writing is mostly done by inspiration. If I actually worked hard on writing, I might have had 13 fics up and posted by now (which is the number of fic ideas I have). When I write by determination, I usually just come up with unreadable crap no one cares about.

I enjoy inspired writing, as in I write on the spur of the moment, and when I feel like it. Unfortunately, I get most of my inspiration in the shower, but I lose the determination to do it after I get out. :/

Astinus said:

One thing that the article said was that writers found that their work that they had to force to get out was the work that they had to edit the least.

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It makes sense, in a way. I mean, you don't just "vomit" words, you have to think about them and see how they fit. So, you'll need time. You've got plenty of time when you're struggling for words. In that sense, forcing words out is somewhat advantageous.
But then it'll have a downside, which is probably not even feel right because it just doesn't seem to follow what's written above.

So if you ask me, it's best to have a mixed "style". I don't think using just one is a good idea.

It makes you wonder how others fair in this kind of scale though... Or perhaps we can tell as a reader? XD

*Cough* Twilight *cough*

Okay well that doesn't make too much sense, as it is based off of her sexual fantasy, so I'd assume that it was written completely emotional (as opposed to the predicated determination factor). Unless if it was a pain to keep the story, otherwise G rated... In which case... >.>

Mizan Nix Zamnie said:

[
I enjoy inspired writing, as in I write on the spur of the moment, and when I feel like it. Unfortunately, I get most of my inspiration in the shower, but I lose the determination to do it after I get out. :/

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Maybe it's just me from finishing a finance final, but that sounds so wrong to me. XD; *gets shot*

All right everyone, here's the long overdue RP post:


Imagine a hypothetical situation where you're a character in your fic. Write your character bio[Like you would an RP character].

Name: Bay Alexison (I can steal Jacob's badass last name, all right? :P )

Gender: Female, but sometimes likes to call herself a gentleman XD

Age: 21

Favorite Type: Dark and Water. Bay likes dark waters. *gets shot*

Appearance: A very small gentleman lady that can get away with a kids discount at a theater. XD Most of the time she wears simple, jeans and a blouse. Rarely you'll see her in skirts in shorts. There are time though she imagining a suit complete with a fedora and taking jazz clubs by storm. :P

Personality: Bay has a knack for math and history but not the best in science. Writing is not her best subject either, but she does it to improve her skills and also to get the ideas on her head out of the way (which is so not healthy for her :P ).

Bio/History: Bay has been raised most of her life in a small city that has been getting a lot of housing and building development lately. ._. She gets along with her parents well but not with her sister due to clashing of different interests. She began writing in high school, but did not start fanfiction until she was in her last year of high school. Now she is in her last year of university and hoping to get a career in finance.

In terms of Nothing, Everything, the characters Bunny, Jacob, and Jenny came to me to ask if I can write a novel based on their experiences. Jacob said he would shoot me if I don't. ._.

Imagine a hypothetical situation where you're a character in your fic. Write your character bio[Like you would an RP character].

Name: Scarlet Weather

Age: Eighteen.

Gender: Male

Favorite Type: Dogs.

Appearance: A large, inexplicably blue-furred dog, of a breed somewhere between German Shepherd and Husky. He wears no collar nor leash, and is constantly scratching his fur.

Personality: A stubborn, snarky, opinionated elitist with a love of all forms of literature, a knack for quickly addressing problems, and an intense desire to pound bad writing into the ground. He has a weakness for GAR, and tends to avoid angsty Pokemon stories not because they're lower quality but because he comes to the fandom to AVOID the natural and sometimes excessive angst that stems from being a member of such fandoms as +Anima, .hack//SIGN, and Yu-Gi-Oh. And if you're wondering why Yu-Gi-Oh is angsty? Watch 5Ds in its entirety. Tell me that the sheer stupidity doesn't make you angst.

Bio/History: Scarlet Weather arrived on the internet with the intent of learning more about writing. He did. He eventually leveled up and evolved into Thesis. Not content with his new form he went on a soul-searching journey, eventually accepting the name "Scarlet Weather" in honor of a favorite fighting game and coming to terms with his identity as a dog. He now lives on a farm in rural Southern Virginia, spending his days playing with his dogs, reading fanfiction, and waiting for the end of the world.

Name: Mika Nyan

Gender: Loli

Age: NEVER ask a loli her age u3u

Favorite Type: Dragon and adorable pokemon. Like Octillary.

Appearance: Somewhat short loli who wears dresses and jeans and knee-high socks because they support her knees. Pale, because she's a sickly loli, and has big blue eyes that are hidden easily by her thick glasses and overly insanely annoying blonde hair that is often put up into cute styles by her secondary mama.

Personality: Slow, doesn't understand sexual innuendos but has a big heart and cares deeply about her friends. Manipulates her mamas to videotape mama-moe-levels, blushes easily and is highly ticklish. Falls over with a side poke.

Bio/History: Adopted by a God and his demi god maid, she lives in the Aea Family Mansion in a room of fluffy pillows and dislikes cold baths. Her days are filled with roleplay games and trading cards and pokemon and touhou battles and torturing the not-so-innocent souls of the drama birgade. She enjoys playing with her pet puppy and tormenting the God of Shenanigans and is known to explode in fluffy bubbles of happiness when she is pet, held, or snuggled. She lays in the sun for hours and resists bedtime because she'd rather play more video games with the family. Puppy is also a foot rest.

Hello writers of PC. This is an idea I've been developing for quite a while. Even though I'm working on a fic right now, I'm still tossing the idea around in my mind, and I might write it after my current fic is finished. Please give me some feedback on what I have so far, if you can. I might write this and I might not, depending on what I can do with the plot.

_____

Rena Bradford, a teenager in Sinnoh, wants to fulfilli her goal of becoming a Pokemon Trainer. Rena has wanted this for a long time, and finally decides that this is what she will do with her life, since she really has no other ambitions. She has always been the silly sort of person who doesn't take things seriously, but she is slowly getting a wake-up call. She is finally beginning to realize that to be successful in life, you have to be serious about what you want. She is hoping that her 'journey' will teach her a thing or two along the way.

When the story starts, Rena is about to depart for Oreburgh to battle Roark. Before she leaves Sandgem, her mother gives her a journal to record her travels in. She also gives her a camera to take pictures of all the cities she would be in, and a cell phone to stay in touch. She gets bored quickly and begins to draw faces of people who act strange or funny around her in her journal.

She defeats Roark and wins a Gym Badge when she gets to Oreburgh, but for some reason she isn't feeling as accomplished as she might have liked. She records her battle in her journal, and leaves the Gym. The same night after she defeats Roark, she tunes into the news to watch Sadie's contest in Hearthome. When the camera pans across the audience, Rena catches a glimpse of a man she drew in her journal. He was wearing an entirely different outfit, his beard was shaved, and his hair was a different color. (His basic features were recognizable, though) This strikes Rena as odd, but she ignores it and watches the contest. The following morning Rena tunes in for the follow-up news story of it, but instead finds a breaking report that Sadie's opponent was dead, having been shot. She had been found lying on the floor of her hotel room, with no other evidence except a cold plate of food on the table. Rena is terrified by this news, but is determined to learn more.

The story is about how Rena finds that the goal she is pursuing isn't what she really wants. She gets deterred from challenging Gyms to solve the mystery of the girl's mysterious death, and soon finds that the case would affect her life more than she expected. It's a mystery trainer fic, basically.

Hold on, what? All these people we haven't seen in ages suddenly show up all at once? This is like the DCC revolution back in September!

Yeah guys, what the frell? Don't be such strangers.

I mean, you don't just "vomit" words,

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I do. You should see it. It's really quite interesting, although admittedly a bit gross.

And man, I just got back from school, so I'm on my widescreen again, and everything's so much more pretty than my netbook. Eyestrain is no fun.

Haruka of Hoenn said:

She is hoping that her 'journey' will teach her a thing or two along the way.

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That almost sounds like the summary I used for my story. XD;

Anyways, Haruka, sounds like an awesome fic there, especially since it's going to be mystery. :3 However, I can't help but think the explanation you have of Rena wanting to become a trainer but then gets tangled in this mystery will be a slow beginning. When doing mysteries, you have to get the action started real quick. I can understand part of this is character development though. Maybe perhaps have the beginning of the story start with the mystery and then have short mentions of Rena before wanting to become a trainer and such throughout the story? This is how I would go about this story, though.

If you want an example of a mystery fic, go read mine Yes, this is blant advertising. :P

Bay Alexison said:

Maybe it's just me from finishing a finance final, but that sounds so wrong to me. XD; *gets shot*

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Trust me, it's not what you think it is. I just get freat ideas in the shower. I'm not doing anything obscene. :/

*Washes dirty minds of anyone who thinks otherwise* XD

Misheard Whisper said:

Hold on, what? All these people we haven't seen in ages suddenly show up all at once? This is like the DCC revolution back in September!

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That just means we're starting to get popular again. Or maybe activity is beginning to pick up. Heck Yeah!

I mean, you don't just "vomit" words,

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txteclipse said:

I do. You should see it. It's really quite interesting, although admittedly a bit gross.

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Alphabet soup? Eh txty? XD

Haruka of Hoenn, Bay's (omg last name wat) is right about the whole beginning. One of the ten rules for writing mysteries is that plot comes first. In fact, the explanation goes a little like this, "In mystery writing, plot is everything.
Because readers are playing a kind of game when they read a detective novel, plot has to come first, above everything else. Make sure each plot point is plausible, and keep the action moving. Don't get bogged down in back story or go off on tangents."

So I second her suggestion of starting off with the action. Get the reader involved in the story, wrapped up in the mystery of what's going on, and then explain how Rena wound up involved in everything.

But it does sound like a good idea.

@Mizan's Alphabet Soup: "There's a message in my cereal! It says "OOOOOOOOO!" "Peter, those are Cheerios."

Yeah, the idea there seems pretty good, but IMO Bay...

...a new username? But now you're no longer just Bay! You've changed. You used to be cool but now look at you, with all of those extra letters! Did someone throw alphabet soup at you? What flavour was it? Did you get-

...ahem. Anywho, Bay has a good point there, by beginning with some plot to get the mystery going. Maybe you could begin with the murder report and then quickly build your way up to the murder itself and then continue from there, during which the reader will be thinking 'hmm, I wonder about that murder...' Also I agree with going and reading Bay's fic as well - it is pretty good and might help you with your fic. 'Tis a neat read. Yay supporting blatant advertising ;P But the idea does look interesting, so good luck with writing it. =)

So, to use the question from the forums for this magazine: Is writing mostly inspiration or determination? And what are your secrets for turning the inspiration into determination? And which writing do you enjoy more: the inspired or the worked-for?

Ooh, nice question. For me... well, I'd say it's a mix, and I'm inclined to say it's more inspiration most times. I need the determination to actually get writing at times, and to continue writing to finish off each chapter, and I need the inspiration to actually come up with the ideas, and know what to write about and so forth. Also agree that forcing oneself to write, although it may produce something quicker, tends to be less successful, and also less fun to write. And I like writing when it's fun. =P

That, and agree with other posters, particularly D. Lawride's two cents paragraphs. =)

So in totally unrelated but unequivocal news I finished my second exam of 5, and I'm pretty sure I did bad... Needless to say, I gave my prof a melancholy grin when I handed it to her...

Also on a side note, my store received my order of the anime 'Now and then, Here and there' so I'm happy (I got it at cost!). Surprisingly it only took two weeks when it should have taken 4-6.

Latin exam tomorrow (on a Saturday I know...)

And last but not least (relating to the aforementioned anime):

How would your main character react to the sight of slaughtered children?

This is assuming that said protagonist hasn't already done so... But I'm sure some of you have already done something like that. :P

How would your main character react to the sight of slaughtered children?
My Pokemon OC would scream at first, then poke them with sticks. Because she's curious about dead bodies, and would want to see what would happen if one did poke a dead body with a stick. Then she would want to hear about their entire stories, to learn where they came from, why they were there, and what happened to them.

My Digimon OC would just close up around everyone and react in a private manner. She wouldn't make a big deal of emotions at the scene in front of everyone, but she would react in private. Later on, she would be able to talk about it like it was an everyday occurrence.

I'm not answering about the other character, because he's just a weird one.