Let's talk about authorial intent.

[lettered]

I've got questions about authorial intent...



I write two types of fanfic, and each fulfills a need of mine. They are:

1. The fic that focuses on story, and that I write
-for fun.
-for escape.
-because it poured out of me.
-because something could've been better in canon and I wanted to fix it.
-because something was missing in canon and I wanted to fill it in.
-because canon was perfect, and I just wanted more.
-because I wanted to see what happened after the end.
-and come up with Best Souvenir, a shippy, plotty, epic, with a style that does not call attention to itself.

2. The fic that focuses on form, and that I write
-for intellectual stimulation.
-to become a better writer.
-to experiment with style and techniques through a medium in which I feel less disappointed about messing up (as opposed to original fiction).
-to express how I feel about canon.
-to express insights on theme, motivation, fractals, and interrelationships between characters in canon
-and come up with Five Ways NFA Probably Didn't End, a non-linear, technically experimental, containing dense language, and generally shorter fic.

For me, the difference between these two types of fics is very clear-cut. I do want those of type #1 to be the best they can be--I get them beta'ed by a wonderful gal who beats me over the head when I need it, and work hard to make the players interesting and in character. And I do want those of type #2 to be fun, to give me more of canon, to show things that could've happened.

But the difference is the intent. I set out writing Best Souvenir (type #1) because I wanted to see what would've happened if post "Chosen" Buffy met Angel. I set out writing Blood Types (type #2) because I wanted to see how a theme could illuminate Angel and his interrelationship with others through metaphor. I set out writing type #1 because I want a good story. I set out writing type #2 because I want good writing and thinky thoughts. The two aren't mutually exclusive, but how I approach them is different.

I've read some wonderful fics that my guess is are type #1, and the same for #2. I enjoy both equally, though they push really, really different buttons. But most of the great fic I see seems to be a combination of both: good stories, with interesting scenes that give me more of what could've happened in canon, expanding on characters I love and making me feel good having more of them, but also--finding new ways to use words, new ways to express things, tweaking the "rules" a bit and experimenting.

Then there are fics that are neither, and we call those crack!fics. Some crack!fic, I honestly don't understand why people write. But some crack!fic has shades of type #1--it's fun, entertaing, escapist, but the material extended and filled in and played with is fandom, not canon. The intent there, of course, is not to tell a good story, but to tell a good joke. And some fics we call crack have shades of type #2--Angel may be a crack!h0r and Spike may be a wealthy orphan monk--but it's technically brilliant: a unique use of second person, lyric language that needs to be published, omg, and thoughtful and insightful, wow. And while the premise is ridiculous, the intent is not a joke, but a good story.

(Which is why, I think, there's so much confusion/contention surrounding the term "crack!fic". There's a little blurring, between the latter kind of crack!fic and the former, and do you as an author think about which you're setting out to do when you start? And sometimes there's a blur between the latter and what we'd call "serious" fic--do you know when you're writing Buffy!prisongaurd/Faith!convict that it's crack, or is it not crack for you because you bring in real character traits of both Buffy and Faith to the table, and at which point did it become serious for you as opposed to crack? And how did your approach to it change?)

I'm also interested in the intent behind some of the one-shots written in only a couple hours, for requests, or on a whim, just to get the idea off their heads. A bunch of not-so-great fic authors write this as their standard fare, but I've seen splendid fic authors do it, and I'm wondering what their intent is. Or rather, I know what the intent is: to have fun, to er, shoot off, in a way, just to get the idea off their heads (or that thing off their faces. You know, that thing? Has no one else ever noticed the thing?) But what I'm wondering about is the approach; do the--as I mentioned, some of them really fantastic--authors who do this know when they sit down to write that such and such piece is just going to be a fly-by, a by-blow, a blow-off, an off-shoot (how long can I keep that up, huh?) Do they know it's not going to be a masterpiece? And if they do, do they still expect it to be good? Do they want people to enjoy it and leave them fb? Do they think about that when they're writing? And when they sit down to write something really serious and really important to them, do they actually sit down to write with a different attitude?

What I want to know, I guess, is: what's your intent when you sit down to write a fic? Do you have very different intents for different types of fics? Do you want to write a masterpiece every time you start out to write a piece? Or do you just plan on trying your very best every time? Or do you start out knowing it's just going to be a little doodle in your sketch pad you might show off a bit? At what point do you know that doodle might become a masterpiece, and then how does your attitude toward writing it change?

Also: what about your expectations of fb in respect to your intent? If you plan to try really hard, write as close as you personally can get to a masterpiece, do you expect/want more fb? If you only spend a couple hours or days on a fic that you started on a whim, and don't get a beta for it, are you disappointed when there isn't fb? Are you disappointed when the whim-doodle (that should be a word) fics get more fb than the ones you tried to make perfect as possible?

And how do you delineate the difference to your readers? Do you warn them in your A/N that hey, you didn't get this beta'ed? Or hey, I worked my ass off on this and I think it's the best thing I've ever done? And do you expect people to respond accordingly?


Anybody got an opinion on this type of thing?

*puts on tea* *gets you a cozie*

Comments

[femmenerd.livejournal.com]

I'm such a cheater on my work by replying to this, and such a cheater on this by giving a short answer.

I mostly write short fic. It's a thing. I have written one plotty, long story in a direct, serial narration, and a couple of other more alternative forms of multi-part fic. But mostly I write short, character-driven fics.

And really, that's the main motivation that I find in my fic writing. It's all about character. All the same, I have several "verses" that exist in my brain and multiple fics will be part of that.

But even as I say that, I also know that the form that I most often take in these character explorations is to integrate whatever idea I have about a character or character relationship and express it through a specific theme. My fics tend to have omg!significant opening and closing lines as a result.

And pretty much all of my fic is about playing with words. I can't help it.

Sometimes I get down on myself for not writing longer, plottier fic but I also know that writing short stories with an actual structure is a different gift altogether.

As for FB, I think that I have both cynical and non-cynical takes on the subject. I am well aware that if I write popular ships (or kinks) the fic is more likely to be read (and responded to). OTOH, I find that when I do spend that extra time, the quality of the individual FBs tend to reflect that fact, regardless of pairing/subject.

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

I don't split them up consciously but I know what you mean. Take my current epic, the Paul/Jack fic. I'm writing it slowly, revising it constantly, posting it at long intervals when I'm happy with it.

I had the idea, it burst in on me, consumed my brain utterly, and it's emerging slowly.

Other times I can get an idea at random, drop everything, race over to the computer (if I'm not already there), hammer it out in ten minutes or so, scan it over for typos, post it and heave a relieved sigh because not writing ones like that is like holding in a sneeze.

Sneeze fics. Heh. I like it :-)

I don't warn readers except obliquely; I'll maybe scatter around the odd 'just dashed this off'. But after three years I think most people are used to the way I write and if it bothers them they'd have stopped reading by now ::shrugs::

Part of it is that when I arrived on LJ - and this is just from my perspective, others may see it differently - LJ wasn't the only place you posted. In fact, LJ was where you posted drafts, got comments that allowed you to polish them up and THEN you posted to lists/archives/BoB, TWoP...

LJ was for the impulses, the snippets, the fragments. It was a private space, a behind the scenes place.

And now it's all changed and for me, at least, LJ is all there is but old habits... I'm used to using my LJ to post my fics in all shapes and sizes, all stages of developement.

[hannasus.livejournal.com]

Almost every fic I write, I write with the same intent: to get an idea that's been plaguing me out of my head, to write something that makes me feel good, to write something that I can be proud of, to become a better writer in the process. Sometimes the idea that's been plaguing me is a complex plot, and sometimes it's just a scene or even a single line that eventually grows into something more. Sometimes the intent is to write something very canon--very episodic and straightforward, blending plot, humor and drama in the same proportions that the show does. Other times I'm feeling experimental, and I've got a hankering to play with styles and techniques to evoke sensations and moods that you wouldn't find on the show.

But no matter the length, or the style, or the ambitiousness or the fic, I always approach my writing the same way: I try to write a masterpiece every time. It never turns out that way, but I always keep that as my goal--to write that particular piece the best I can and to become a better writer in the process. Sometimes that means working on it for weeks (or months), and sometimes, every once in a while, something comes together in just a few days, and it feels right, and, with my beta's approval, I release it into the wild. I never post anything that hasn't been revised at least two or three (or four, or ten) times, no matter how short it is or how spontaneously it started. What I consider the best fic I ever wrote started off as a single sentence that I wrote down one afternoon. The rest followed over the next couple of hours, and while I worked on fine tuning it for a few days after that, the bulk of it was created in that one brief afternoon.

I look at everything I write as an exercise of sorts--a stepping stone on the path to becoming a better writing. I never write anything that doesn't stretch my abilities to some extent, doesn't challenge me, and doesn't allow me exercise new muscles. My ultimate goal in all of this is to get better at it. Which is why concrit is such a precious gift when I receive it.

Feedback is a wonderful thing that fills the soul with happiness and inspires the writer to keep writing. But it can also be a poison, if there's too little, or if something you don't think is worthy gets more attention than something you think is precious. I try to enjoy it and appreciate it when it's offered to me, but not to take it too personally. Readers are an unpredictable, whimsical bunch, and they're not necessarily going to love everything that I love. I try to remember that that's okay, and not to let it bother me if something doesn't get the kind of feedback I'd hoped. I don't like all of the fics that people in fandom like to read, so why should they like all the fics that I like to write?

I love feedback, but recs actually mean a lot more to me. It's lovely if twenty people read my fic and take a few minutes to tell me they enjoyed it. But if one person was touched by it deeply enough to recommend it, it makes me feel like I've really accomplished something. I write primarily for myself, but when I know that something I've written has inspired someone else or really made them feel something, it's very special. It makes me feel like maybe, just maybe, I might not be so bad at this writing stuff after all.

[gloss]

Oh, bless you for posting this - I've been having Thinky Thoughts about different kinds of stories and why I do them and...

I'll be back. Yay, writing talk!

[gloss]

Basically, from *my* perspective, I call false dichotomy between #1 and #2. Every single thing I write is intended to be an exploration/exploitation of form (or reading expectations; it's the same thing, just different perspectives). Because it's fanfic, it's also *always* an interpretive argument (tm mimesere) of some sort about canon.

What differs from fic to fic is which form I'm playing with. The G/O piece earlier this week, for example, was a way of wrestling with the canon characters and my emotional investment in them. The interpretive argument being made was, in other words, an emotional one. But then there's the BAO porn I posted last night; you might have noticed how I struggled with it (*g*). The formal questions there concerned how to write porn *and* keep the situation and characters (vaguely) related to canon.

Some authors, even stellar ones, are capable of just writing what they want to see - of, in other words, transcribing fantasy. I simply can't do that. I don't know *why* I can't, but it's a fact about my process. So with the BAO I struggled with wanting to produce a fantasy that was still a legit character piece; with the GO, I put my reluctance concerning self-indulgence front and center, making it the skeleton for the story/stories.

Sometimes I have to go easy on myself; my expectations for myself, the things I want to achieve, the scale of my intentions -- they all get out of hand and shut down the writing process itself. That's what happened with the BAO. Faced with the choice between consigning *another* piece to the text files of unposted failures and getting something (anything) accomplished, I had to rejig the intent and ambition.

Also: what about your expectations of fb in respect to your intent?
I always want feedback. I like talking about process, about what I just went through, about...myself. I love hearing about the reading process, and the best feedback from my favorite readers invariably shows me a glimmer of how *my* form and argument were translated into the reading experience.

While I know that, *as* interpretive arguments, my fics sometimes run contrary to 'ship &/or fanonical conventions, I still get disappointed when fb is nasty/dismissive and recs are not forthcoming.

Do you want to write a masterpiece every time you start out to write a piece? Or do you just plan on trying your very best every time?
But that's the same thing, isn't it? Or, to answer both: Yes.

And how do you delineate the difference to your readers?
I try to disclaim porn as PWP, but there're always readers who tell me it's not. And I wish I didn't disclaim porn at all, because it's just as legitimate a set of formal questions as anything else.

[lynnenne]

I don't really have #1 and #2 stories the way you describe. For me it's either crack!fic or it's "serious" fic. The crack!fic, as you say, is mainly about telling a joke. I might take 10 minutes on the story, because it's all building up to a punchline. There was one crack!fic that I worked on for a lot longer than 10 minutes, because it was an experimentation with form, and I wanted to get it right. But in that fic, the form *is* the punchline. (The story was also a ficathon request, so I did some actual, historical research and tried to make the characters into real people, out of respect for the person who made the request.) But mainly I just wanted to see if I could do it.

On the other hand, there are "serious" fics I've done which, on the face of it, aren't that serious. For example, Keaton is Key is a humourous look at Spike during BtVS S5. But even though the tone is light-hearted, I still wanted to say something about his character development. There are things about that story I would change, now: it was one of the first fics I wrote, and I never had it beta'd. But on the whole I think it holds up okay.

As for feedback, I kind of expect my crack!fic to get less feedback than my serious fic. I think that's because I'm not as funny as someone like dovil, so my punchlines don't make people laugh as much as hers do. :)

[semby.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... well, for starters, I don't really see my fics as fitting in distinct types like your Type #1/Type #2. Mine are all pretty short, and not so plotty, but I wouldn't say that I use them as means of using specific forms and experimental writing styles. Well, occasionally, but I've been pretty conscious of those few occasions and I feel like the rest are straight up non-experimental language, just... short.

And my intent varies, I think. I'll have the short bursts of ideas that come out in half an hour, or I'll have "plots" that I can see in my head but take days to get it right. I never expect a masterpiece, but almost always the best that I can do. I sometimes sacrifice my "best" for impatience - like if I can visualize the whole thing but there are certain moments from the middle or end that are really standing out in my head so much that I can hear exactly how I would phrase them, I rush through the rest to get there before I forget. Or if I've been working on a piece for awhile and just can't figure out how to make it better and just want to be done with it.

As far as feedback... hmm. Since most of my stuff is the same length and effort, I don't really expect more from any particular one.

[lostakasha.livejournal.com]

I'm also interested in the intent behind some of the one-shots written in only a couple hours, for requests, or on a whim, just to get the idea off their heads. This is 99.9% of what I write.

Do you want to write a masterpiece every time you start out to write a piece? Fan writing is my happy fun time. My fiction writing style is unnervingly organic, so ideas bleed from me directly to the page.

Any refining comes after the original piece is written. For example, Lamb of God came to me because a childhood prayer kept repeating itself inmy head while I was working. So I stopped working, let it take over, and wrote LOG in less than 30 minutes. But I spent the 8 hours that followed the initial burst to do my historical research, and then refined the original to better suit my findings.

Also, Washer at the Ford (http://lostakasha.livejournal.com/12603.html) was a down-and dirty, channelled fic, but I spent hours after writing it to go into Celtic myth and get my finer points in line.

Speed isn't necessarily a good thing, and that's not what motivates me -- but I usually only write when a story enslaves me. Then, I'm it's bitch until it reaches the page. I don't handle interruption well, so the faster I work, the better all around.

I was going to say that I don't storyboard my fic, but I realize in writing this that I do -- the inital effort, that surge to the page from start to finish is the storyboard. When that's done then I go back and edit.

When a story feels like construction work to me I usually abandon it. Not because I don't want to work on my craft and become a better writer, but because if it feels labored when I'm writing it, it's going to be labored when you read it. Case in point: Boutique (http://lostakasha.livejournal.com/6154.html), one of only a handful of things I've written for ficathons. From my POV it's bland, totally lacking in distinction, fine for Comp 101 but overall a waste of time better spent. (Wow, I am spiritual kin to Simon Cowell. Maybe that's why I'm not asked to beta. Yikes!) Now I limit my participation in ficathons now to 'write your owns.'

At what point do you know that doodle might become a masterpiece, and then how does your attitude toward writing it change? I never know this because I'm immersed in the process. Only once I put a piece to bed do I get perspective on a story's merits, and then it's always completely subjective.

Are you disappointed when the whim-doodle (that should be a word) fics get more fb than the ones you tried to make perfect as possible? Perfection is also subjective, even from a technical standpoint. We all know from hard experience that slapped-together shit by the hot writer of the hour will get a flood of Harmony Kendallesque oohs and aahs. True in RL, true in fandom. So...no.

Thanks for making me think these thoughts! Now me sleepy.

[my_daroga]

I am, at heart, an extremely lazy writer. For the past few years I've only written fic when prompted by something--#1, I guess that'd be. These exist only to serve the purpose of illuminating the thought I have. Of course I try to make them the best they can be, but I don't generally do a 2nd draft. Of course, I don't think I've written more than 2 stories ever that made it to a second draft. That includes school papers, too, I think. I just don't revise unless it's on the fly.

So I'm not the best writer I could be. I get an idea and I want it out because generally (in Phantom fic-world, anyway) no one's done what I'm doing because there aren't a lot of fans like me who write.

I scrape by on my ability to string words together. That is all.

I wish it were different. I have a hard time concentrating.

[dodyskin.livejournal.com]

I'm much more likely to actually finish and post something conceived and completed in the same day, but that doesn't mean that that is all I write, just that that is mainly what I share here on LJ.

OK. Hm. Let me think. Fic written totally on impulse. ::searches about:: Race (http://kita0610.livejournal.com/151030.html?thread=3077366#t3077366). That was written in response to a discussion Kita was hosting (the theme was raging at the time) about fanfic and how it is defined (crackfic, AU...sound familiar? :D ). And this (http://dodyskin.livejournal.com/65631.html) was written purely as a part of conversation, a springboard for a chat. These were written as part of my fannish dialogue, so no, I wasn't out to write a masterpiece because I wasn't performing in that sense. They were not a solitary endeavour. And as to feedback, well, yes the point is response, but not necessarily in the form of an LJ comment telling me how great I am, you know? More to join in the fun.

Actually, now I think about it, most of my fic is part of some kind of conversation I'm having with fandom at the time (although not all of it is written on impulse). Phrase and Fable (http://dodyskin.livejournal.com/27835.html#cutid1) is a case in point. Actually, that's a pure indulgence fic. Utterly self-indulgent!

The other thing that I write for is the (very occasional) ficathon. Hmmmm. I think the story I worked hardest on was probably Tace (http://community.livejournal.com/picfor1000/5730.html)? I guess. I seem to remember spending a lot of time thinking about it. Looking at that link, it has a fair number of comments on it, and I remember people recommending it and talking about it at the time. I don't think I wrote it with the fandom response in mind, though admittedly I deliberately wrote it in a hyper-dramatic baroque-aria style, which does often get a big response from fandom. With the particular restrictions of that challenge (A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words, Third Time's The Charm) I thought it was necessary to do that; it wasn't really a comment-whoring, or even dialogue-seeking, decision. This year (for round four) I wrote a much less successful story and I think it got the feedback it merited. I scraped that fic together out of scraps of other things and some really poor-quality padding because I had *no* unifying concept. It really shows. The story is unsatisfying, directionless, and pointless. It doesn't say anything new or interesting about Fred. It's kinda dumb. But then I had all the conversations before I wrote the fic and so that gave me fannish happies instead.

I'm not getting in to the "one shots are inherently less valuable" debate because a) I'm bored of it and b) it makes me feel ouchy.

[crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com]

I was shocked - shocked, and not a little intimidated - by how good a lot of fan fiction was. I honestly believed fic to be an excuse to write porny scenarios not seen on the show(s) or to do a revisionista thing (Tara shouldn't die!) I was honestly astounded by how good a lot of it was.

And terribly amused by how much of it wasn't.

I'm not a good original plot person. I haven't read a lot supernatural/horror genre, so I'm not the go-to girl for the next apocalyptic catalyst. I'm good with people relating to people, so I'll go down forever as a 'shippy writer, whether it's romantic or no. I wrote "Sunday Morning Coming Down" because I believed the summer of Buffy's death was the one time in canon I could see S/X as a possibility. And it's an S/X love letter to 3 writers and I tried to make it in the style of the S/X stories I first loved. Whenever I see it pimped as "classic" or "old school" Spander, I'm happy.

I wrote "Rodeo" because nashmaveric asked for cowboy fic. I threw in the gay rodeo thing because it seemed the theme least likely - most people would go with ranching. Nothing inherently funny about ranching.

And there comes the funny thing. I've been told by more writing teachers than I can name to stop defaulting to the funny. I've had more witty asides slashed red in edits of essays than I can name. But I didn't love the Buffyverse for the vampires or the music swelling angst or because DB or JM was hot. I loved it for the dialogue - for the funny. The play with words. Things like this - LORNE: "Who's a little curt? Who's a little Curt Jurgens in 'The Enemy Below?'" Hahahahahaha! I know most people didn't even notice that line - or care - but I *love* that. I love the way the Buffyverse twisted words, made references and danced around language archaic and slang.

I've never experimented with 'style' - "Rodeo" is crack!fic; it's Human AU, written for the smut and the idea of 'OMG, how hot would Angel look in black chaps with a red dragon pattern?' and the fact that for once, I could make Xander sound *exactly* like me, without having to pull myself out of his voice (as close as they are at times.)

I'm a dialogue writer. I would probably be a much better screenwriter than a prose one. Make that probably a definitely. I hear characters talk - I love fanfic because Joss has already done the hard stuff (backstory, 'verse, etc) the fun for me is in how close I can approximate those voices. One of the best characterizations I think I've done is in a fic I wrote a in a couple of hours - the Faith/Willow story. I don't know if I'll ever top that Willow POV. And it was fun! But then - it's just two people talking. I'm good at that.

I know I'll most likely never write the moody kind of think pieces I've loved from other writers (you, Lynne, Chrislee, Kita, Yin, etc.) I’m most likely going to write snark-flavored dialogue, hopefully in a Buffyverse vein, and maybe shake it up with a bit of insight at times. But as I look back over at what I've done, I don't believe that, despite the dialogue-heavy nature of most it, that it all sounds the same. The Joyce & Angel fic I wrote, Somewhere Down the Road, doesn't sound like anything else I've written. That one was purely about mood, but incidentally so, since I was really attempting to channel the mood of a song. (Hah! Song fic! With Angel and Joyce!)

Strangely enough, though, my original fiction isn't at all like my fanfic. It's very much in a David Sedaris style. Typically first person, almost *zero* dialogue and carries itself on narrator perception. So I guess my point is...as far as fic goes, I'm married to the idea of aping Joss and Co's flavor of language - it's purely a fan thing, and not something that carries over into how I view or practice my writing writing.

I agree with you on the story v. form thoughts, though, and I'm always amazed by the people who can conceive and execute form. I'd muck it up with a joke. *g*

[gloss]

a hyper-dramatic baroque-aria style
I love this phrase far more than I can possibly express.

which does often get a big response from fandom
Does it? Huh. I tend to think that plainer styles get bigger responses. *takes this to email*

[dodyskin.livejournal.com]

LJ was for the impulses, the snippets, the fragments. It was a private space, a behind the scenes place.

There has been a shift, I think. I'm sure LJ used to be more of a *journal* type place. It was a lot more common to see the same piece posted a couple of times, after comments and revision, wasn't it? Or it this just my imagination? I could be afflicted with the back-in-the-days, here.

[dodyskin.livejournal.com]

Death! Love! Tears! Transvestites!

Fandom *loves* opera. :P

[gloss]

Fandom *loves* opera.
It's so true.

To your list I'd add Exoticization! and...hmm, that's it.

[dodyskin.livejournal.com]

It would be fun to fic a joke. A joke is a form. A classic joke has a very definite structure that you could totally use as the framework for a fic.

If you were terminally humourless and nerdy yay

[crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com]

Heee! You're neither and god - ideas! I'm having! When I'm not giggling at your icon!

[gloss]

I am glad Dody pointed out that jokes have their own form(s).

Also, *pokes you*. Just on principle, because what you said about dialogue in the Jossverse? God, YES.

[lostakasha.livejournal.com]

I love the way the Buffyverse twisted words, made references and danced around language archaic and slang.

Absolutely. Which is why so much B'verse fic is downright painful and dispiriting to read. Actually making language work in fresh ways -- rather than mimicking styles (which is often the fannish trend) -- is very tough to do. That's why I'm really picky about reading certain characters -- badly-drawn!Lorne makes me scream!

I stick by the 'dying is easy, comedy is hard,' school of thought. And shy away. But i'm very happy that you don't, baby!

[sockmonkeyhere.livejournal.com]

Mine is a weird history. *g* I'd never intended to write fanfiction myself, but when AtS ended, tubbyk of the Spike-JM message board "Cold Dead Seed" suggested that we all try to write a fic each, just to cheer ourselves up and to entertain each other. About half a dozen of us volunteered to try. I'd hoped that Spike and Fred would become a romantic couple on AtS, and when that didn't happen in Season 5 I decided to make my fic a sort of spin-off, or imaginary Season 6, in which Fred is resurrected and my 'ship gets to sail. When I'd finished the story, I discovered that I liked the results and decided to write more stories about the version of the 'verse that I'd created. Out of curiosity I entered the stories in some fanfic award contests and won some prizes, and then I posted the stories here on Live Journal, and was surprised and honored to find that I'd picked up several new readers here!

I never make an outline; I just pick out some topics that I'd like the story to hit, and then write a chapter and post it, usually with no idea what will happen in the next chapter until I sit down and make it up as I'm typing it. However, I constantly check to make sure that everything's logical and doesn't contradict what I've written in a previous chapter/story, and that it also fits in with TV episode canon. My stories tend to be long -- I've written two and begun a third, and they usually run up to twenty chapters each. I make them a mix of humor, drama, action, some romance, and some angst, and there are several characters that I find very easy to write dialogue for, and who I enjoy writing (Oz, Spike, Fred, and Illyria, for instance.) I've also taken some seldom- and never- seen canon characters and turned them loose on the pages -- Oz's cousin Jordy and Fred's dad Roger Burkle -- and they are SO much fun to work with! I even got brave and made some recurring original characters, and they've been well-received by readers, too.

I tend to write from a camera's viewpoint more than from inside a character's head. I've also noticed that I don't write a lot of heavy, drawn-out angst; I tend instead to create brief, low-key vignettes within the long stories, and try to make them touching or insightful within that small sub-setting.

[sockmonkeyhere.livejournal.com]

Meant to add, another interesting bit I've noticed is that so many fanficcers report that writing relaxes them, and/or they feel a thought or a plot bunny that won't leave them alone until they write it out.

I'm the opposite. I never feel an urge to write, and I can't concentrate or write well unless I'm ALREADY relaxed, and I'm in my quiet bedroom at my quiet computer, and I know that no one's going to bother me for the entire day.

Which explains why there's usually such a long spell of time between posting of chapters. *g*

[lillianmorgan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your thoughts. I always find them interesting, even if sometimes I don't agree with you.
I have a long and indeterminate fear of WIPs, mainly because I fear and have witnessed first hand how difficult it is to maintain them. Also I have so many ideas that to write chapter based fics for all those ideas would serioulsy and absolutely kill me.
Definitely my favourite type of fic is what you've expressed in # 2, but that tends to be rare (at least in my reading). And so I do tend to see more #1. However, as fic-writing is based on a text that everyone tends to have a good understanding of, as in the shows, (like how it's all going to end) sometimes the wonderful thing about #1 is the insights authors bring into characters, that were there all along in the show, but I never saw them.
When I sit down to write something, it's usually with a purpose that is fanon related. So I wrote my winter_of_wes piece because I wasn't seeing any W/L. I wrote my last seasonal_spuffy because I was reading too many post-NFA stories, so mine was set in Season 6. I wrote my summer_of_spike piece because I was seeing too many battles going on between S/B shippers and S/A shippers, so mine was an attempt to tackle both of those 'ships.
I also like to experiment, which is I guess why I like #2. But I also like to experiment with character too. Writing a range of characters is exciting for me, because it gives me an insight into why they did what they did in canon. So a short off-the-piece thing is something more for me - why did Darla approach Connor is Season 4? what was Faith feeling in Chosen? It also allows me to explore a character, their motives, a scene in canon that I may be able to pick up in a later fic.
or is it not crack for you because you bring in real character traits of both Buffy and Faith to the table, and at which point did it become serious for you as opposed to crack?
I think this is a very good point. Not all supposed 'crack!fic' is bad, there are quite a few that do tend to push the boundaries of experimentation. One of the most popular, and well-written, fics in the fandom last year toobusy2write's Bent Justice, was pretty much what you described. And it was just like crack because as a reader, you couldn't put it down, you were gagging for the next update.
Also: what about your expectations of fb in respect to your intent?
I always have very limited expectations on this, which I guess says more about my personality than anything else. Though it's very hard to predict the way of the fb. One thing I love is to get feedback from someone whose ideas I have thoroughly enjoyed and who has already given me enjoyment from their work. Another thing is when I get a connection from someone, a question or a debate. You know, when someone just writes 'Good job', I guess I wonder what I should have done to get them thinking about the fic.
Though, I guess, if I were to suggest trying to understand it, writing threesome fic does tend to produce the most audiences *g*
I prattled on too long didn't I? Sorry for that!

[paynbow.livejournal.com]

Hey! Toddled over here on a rec from su_herald.

When I write...well, it depends. A lot of the time inspiration hits me abd I start writing. Whether that becomes something I'm proud of or 16 pages of snark where Eve gets hit by a semi, well, it depends on my mood (I'm a little proud of the snark *g*). Sometimes I write something because I need to poke fun at the show (Little Pink Pill), sometimes I want to do a character study (The Search for Dead Boy), sometimes I want to write about what happened after the end (Away).

A lot of my Buffy stories take place in Season 6. There are a few reasons for that, but mostly it's that there's so much to play with in that season. There's also so much I wish I could fix.

With the odd exception I write two kinds of fic: humour and general. In the comments department, well, if I get them at all I'm pretty pleased. Genficcers don't tend to get much in the way of feedback, and I came to terms with it long ago. What little I do get is often of questionable quality. Fifty percent of it is people asking for a certain 'ship, the rest is people saying they liked most of it, but the never mention what they think I could imporve on. My means of improving as a writer is to have a couple of honest betas who will smack me if something makes no sense.

I never really expect much in the way of fb. At first I did, because I'd seen so many stories out there that got oodles, and I thought, "hey, I'm a better writer than that...I'll get more!" HA! Now I expect maybe 3-5 reviews for every story I post, depending on length. I have only 3 stories that have revieved more than 15 pieces of fb, and two of them are Spuffy. It doesn't really bother me, although it would be nice to know what people who read my stories thought.

All my fics have A/N's. I always thank my beta or warn that there IS no beta, and I usually mention if I wrote it in 20 minutes while highly caffinated (Whose Your Daddies). I feel it's important to forwarn people *g*

Most of my stories are type 1. I think maybe one or two could possibly be labled a mix of both types, but I wouldn't swear to it. The only writing technique I use that's not "normal" is the whole breaking down the fourth wall thing (there's a fancy theatre term and I can't remember it and I'm embarrased because I'm a theatre student...it's on the tip of my brain). I love to do that, and I do it purely for the comedy. But I'll only do it when I feel like it fits.

The biggest thing for me in stories is characterization. If I'm playing with someone else's toys, I need to play nice. That means not turning Spike into a cry baby or Dawn into solely a petulant child. There's no point in writing fic if you're not going to stay true to character. Then you may as well rename the characters, because they certainly aren't themselves.

Short because my time's out.

[leni-ba.livejournal.com]

Why I Write.

- Because if I want a fic just how I like it, then I better write it myself.

Here I take an idea I've wanted to see 'in print' since forever, but as close as some fics have come, none of them took away the crave.

- Because I really, really, really want to see how Character A reacts to Character B/Situation X.

- Related to the last, but not exactly the same: Because I want Character A paired with Character B, and I'll tweak canon until I get it!

- Because I want a particular Behind the Scenes story.

- Because I feel like exploring a particular character, normally from a hopefully novel perspective.

- Because I need more fluff/angst/dark/B-A(us)/D-S/etc... in my life.

- Because I get inspiration to write about characters not very known to me. (i.e. Anyone not in the first two seasons of BtVS)

- Of course, all of these reasons can be included under the One Reason: Someone told me to write it - or I found a pretty challenge comm. *G*

[tkp.livejournal.com]

I'm such a cheater on my work by replying to this, and such a cheater on this by giving a short answer.

El Jay is cheating life. Yay!

the form that I most often take in these character explorations is to integrate whatever idea I have about a character or character relationship and express it through a specific theme.

Character is my driving force, too. But in a long plotty fic I write for the story, it's about wanting to get inside the character to see what they're going to do. If I want to reflect on the character, or express what I think about them, I do it more in the way you describe--a short fic with a theme that expresses those ideas. I guess for me, it's kind of the difference between being with the character OR thinking about the character. But in your fics, I feel both. Which is in the end, what I think I prefer to read (interesting that I don't really write what I prefer, eh?)

My fics tend to have omg!significant opening and closing lines as a result....And pretty much all of my fic is about playing with words. I can't help it.

And these are big reasons I love the ones I've read so far :o)

Sometimes I get down on myself for not writing longer, plottier fic but I also know that writing short stories with an actual structure is a different gift altogether.

Yeah. There's is NOTHING better about long plotty fics that short thematic stories. I feel like I can say this because I can write a long plotty fic at the drop of a hat, when I know most people find it difficult. But a tight short story is exceedingly difficult for me.