Fanfic Ideas and the Creative Process...

[find_sam at hotmail.com]

Ebony Elizabeth Thomas wrote: A very thought provoking post, as usual!

> Anyone who has been cursed with the label "writer" never suffers 
> from idea famine.  (snip) as a writer, I see stories absolutely 
> everywhere.

Ah, yes. This can be both a blessing and a curse, though! I find 
story ideas almost everywhere I look. Not just ideas for plots, 
either - but ideas about the way characters interact with each other, 
the way things should look, etc. An interesting game (well, 
interesting for me, anyway <g>) I play with myself during dull 
lectures consists of me absent mindedly describing the lecture hall, 
the lecturer, etc. Most of the time I don't even do it consciously - 
it's halfway through the game I realise I'm doing it.

> The problem for anyone who writes (and not just fanfic--people who 
> write, period) is never a lack of ideas but a lack of time and/or 
> inclination. 

Definitely true. I'm writing a fic at the moment (not fanfic, but an 
original), and I found that when I was plotting it I actually had to 
ditch ideas simply because I couldn't wrangle them into the plot. In 
this way, having a fertile mind is also a curse, because I hate to 
waste a good plot turn or something of that sort.

> Plot, characters, settings, and everything else just come gushing
> out... which is why I think that while one can teach the craft of
> writing, the spark that ignites it has to be intrinsic.

Are you saying that you have to *want* to write if you want to write? 
In my somewhat limited obeservations, I think that many people can 
write reasonably well if they commit themselves to it. I remember 
last year I read a very wide selection of 'answers' to the Creative 
Writing section of an exam, and most of them were original and 
entertaining. But whilst most of the candidates *could* write, most 
of them wouldn't spend much of their spare time doing it. 
It's simply not a part of them. Personally I think that skill is the 
most important aspect of being a writer, but the skill is wasted if 
you don't have the determination to write and the willingness to keep 
writing. </ramble>

> Which begs another question.  How many OT-Chatter members are
> aspiring creative writers?  Narrow is the road that leads to
> publication, and few are they that find it... how has *your*
> journey been?  Please share your tales of triumph and 
> tribulation... both are part of the writer's lot.

I would love to be a published author some day, even if the only 
people who read my books are my friends and family! I haven't had 
anything published, though, owing almost entirely to my youth (or 
maybe it's just because I'm not as good as I think I am <g>). I have 
self-published some of my stuff on ff.net, and it's certainly a 
novelty to see it on the Net!

Sam, who's never found any of the 'How To Write' books very good.

PS: Ebony, I love the idea about the illustrated book about Hagrid 
and Madam Maxime. Is there any illustrated HP fanfiction anyone knows 
about?