intrigueing (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
intrigueing) wrote2014-10-18 03:35 am
intrigueing) wrote2014-10-18 03:35 am
Entry tags:
Fanfic plans, because I said so on fandomsecrets, and because othellia did it first...
My default state is to have about 5-8 plotbunnies for fanfics, usually very well fleshed-out in places and with some scenes written out in my head in painstaking detail, right down to the wording, floating around in my brain. I almost never actually write them, because I'm a lazy procrastinator, and turning my disjointed mental movie clips into fanfics written in actual goddamn words is like pulling teeth. But in moments when I'm bored or want to feel a certain way or think about a certain thing, I metaphorically pull one of them out and go over them, tinker with them, work on them all in my head. Barely ever write any of it down.
However, I've really come to the conclusion over the past few months that my procrastination wreaks havoc on my self-esteem. Whenever I succumb to it, I feel useless and small. I've just gotten so used to doing it for college papers during the past four years that it's etched into my self-perception - "lol, I'm not the type of person who can actually work on a writing project in a sustained way, and then finish it! Other people can do stuff like that, not me."
So, I think that working on actually writing my fanfics and completing them rather than letting them sit in my head gathering dust will be a really good self-esteem boosting exercise for me. And saying so to other people will give me the illusion of peer pressure, which is helpful. I felt really good about succeeding in writing and finishing that zine review/meta thingamajig in my previous post, after not posting any meta -- other than long boring analytical comments and PM exchanges -- in about a year. I haven't finished and posted a fic in about two years, so...we'll see.
Anyway, there was a thread on fandomsecrets the other night asking for fanfic plotbunnies and I contributed a less-detailed version of this list, and swore that I totally, seriously, genuinely am planning to write all of these at some point in the next...lets say 6 months. There, I said it. Now I'm much more likely to actually do it:
- That West Wing fic with CJ and Toby meeting during the 1984 Democratic National Convention. CJ as a college-age volunteer starry-eyed over Geraldine Ferraro and Toby as a younger, less jaded, less bald campaign worker on yet another of his streak of umpteen failtastic campaigns.
- That other West Wing fic about Jed and Leo and Leo's whole alcoholism/addiction mess in the 1990s, which has always been one of my absolute favorite things about the show and their friendship. I'm fascinated by this whole dynamic, and the contrast between what we see in Jed and Leo's friendship in the present on the show and what we hear them say about their backstory.
- That Frasier fic about Frasier crashing in Seattle after getting dumped by Diane on Cheers, with alive!Hester and stuff. Cheers!Frasier, especially early!Cheers!Frasier was different in a lot of ways from Frasier!Frasier. But mostly, Hester, Hester, Hester.
- That Harry Potter fic about the Founders being a bunch of outcast misfits trying to build a school some time before the Norman invasion, the key premise in this fic being that they were not these dignified super-wise stately prophets, but a bunch of people going "IDK what I'm doing. Why did we pick a lake full of squid? Hey wait, how do we even sort these kids anyway? Fuck it, I'll use my hat." Except, like, in middle English. I do have some ideas about how the phrase "Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon" became the school's motto...
- That other Harry Potter fic from the POV of a group of first-years on sorting night set in, like, the year 2091, with super-duper-old and awesome Harry Potter being slightly Dumbledorish. Actually, probably more Mad-Eye Moody-ish, post-Auror career and all.
- That Picard/Q fic which will be really difficult because Picard/Q needs to be fucking hilarious to work. I don't know if I'm up to it. This entire bunny is courtesy of a Clark/Lex Smallville fic which made me basically die laughing even though I've seen maybe three episodes of Smallville and hated them, but it involved Lex acting exactly like Q and it was the best thing. I'm one of those people who probably irritate shippers to death because I love and praise good shippy fics on their story merit, but usually just kind of grin bemusedly at squee. Picard/Q is one of my small handful of gleeful exceptions, which probably says something unflattering about how my brain works...
- That Starsky & Hutch fic tracing how the hell their friendship took such a massive nosedive in between Targets Without A Badge and Starsky vs Hutch. I'm way too squeamish about painful ugly angsty vicious fighting for this to come easily, so I'll probably rewatch that ping-pong scene from the beginning of Sweet Revenge about twenty times for reassurance that no matter what, it's alllll completely and totally temporary, before I finish. My ideas on this subject are more numerous than could ever fit into one fic, meaning I'll have to choose just a couple of Hutch's five billion possible motivations, for clarity's sake. *siggghhhhh*
- That other Starsky & Hutch fic spanning from the 1950s to the 1990s that istotally kind of a "The Untouchables" ripoff with a lot of "is Bay City Los Angeles or part of Los Angeles and whether it is or not, why is it such a wretched hive of scum and villainy?" fleshing out. I think I've lost track of how many District Attorneys got busted for massive corruption during that show's run, let alone all the other dirty law enforcement officers and brass. Worse than prohibition Chicago. I'm planning on making it half-epistolary -- fictionalized newspaper stories, reports, memos, etc.
- That One/Master and One/Susan's Grandmother and One/TARDIS (in that order, probably) pre-Unearthly Child Doctor Who fic. I haven't seen any Doctor Who since season seven, and have no idea how badly Jossed all my ideas are going to turn out.
- That Star Trek TOS crackfic in which Kirk desperately tries to write a report on the events of "Spock's Brain" that won't sound like he's writing while stoned out of his gourd.
I'm detecting a distinct pattern here? I don't know what's with my thing for prequel/future/missing scene fics....
However, I've really come to the conclusion over the past few months that my procrastination wreaks havoc on my self-esteem. Whenever I succumb to it, I feel useless and small. I've just gotten so used to doing it for college papers during the past four years that it's etched into my self-perception - "lol, I'm not the type of person who can actually work on a writing project in a sustained way, and then finish it! Other people can do stuff like that, not me."
So, I think that working on actually writing my fanfics and completing them rather than letting them sit in my head gathering dust will be a really good self-esteem boosting exercise for me. And saying so to other people will give me the illusion of peer pressure, which is helpful. I felt really good about succeeding in writing and finishing that zine review/meta thingamajig in my previous post, after not posting any meta -- other than long boring analytical comments and PM exchanges -- in about a year. I haven't finished and posted a fic in about two years, so...we'll see.
Anyway, there was a thread on fandomsecrets the other night asking for fanfic plotbunnies and I contributed a less-detailed version of this list, and swore that I totally, seriously, genuinely am planning to write all of these at some point in the next...lets say 6 months. There, I said it. Now I'm much more likely to actually do it:
- That West Wing fic with CJ and Toby meeting during the 1984 Democratic National Convention. CJ as a college-age volunteer starry-eyed over Geraldine Ferraro and Toby as a younger, less jaded, less bald campaign worker on yet another of his streak of umpteen failtastic campaigns.
- That other West Wing fic about Jed and Leo and Leo's whole alcoholism/addiction mess in the 1990s, which has always been one of my absolute favorite things about the show and their friendship. I'm fascinated by this whole dynamic, and the contrast between what we see in Jed and Leo's friendship in the present on the show and what we hear them say about their backstory.
- That Frasier fic about Frasier crashing in Seattle after getting dumped by Diane on Cheers, with alive!Hester and stuff. Cheers!Frasier, especially early!Cheers!Frasier was different in a lot of ways from Frasier!Frasier. But mostly, Hester, Hester, Hester.
- That Harry Potter fic about the Founders being a bunch of outcast misfits trying to build a school some time before the Norman invasion, the key premise in this fic being that they were not these dignified super-wise stately prophets, but a bunch of people going "IDK what I'm doing. Why did we pick a lake full of squid? Hey wait, how do we even sort these kids anyway? Fuck it, I'll use my hat." Except, like, in middle English. I do have some ideas about how the phrase "Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon" became the school's motto...
- That other Harry Potter fic from the POV of a group of first-years on sorting night set in, like, the year 2091, with super-duper-old and awesome Harry Potter being slightly Dumbledorish. Actually, probably more Mad-Eye Moody-ish, post-Auror career and all.
- That Picard/Q fic which will be really difficult because Picard/Q needs to be fucking hilarious to work. I don't know if I'm up to it. This entire bunny is courtesy of a Clark/Lex Smallville fic which made me basically die laughing even though I've seen maybe three episodes of Smallville and hated them, but it involved Lex acting exactly like Q and it was the best thing. I'm one of those people who probably irritate shippers to death because I love and praise good shippy fics on their story merit, but usually just kind of grin bemusedly at squee. Picard/Q is one of my small handful of gleeful exceptions, which probably says something unflattering about how my brain works...
- That Starsky & Hutch fic tracing how the hell their friendship took such a massive nosedive in between Targets Without A Badge and Starsky vs Hutch. I'm way too squeamish about painful ugly angsty vicious fighting for this to come easily, so I'll probably rewatch that ping-pong scene from the beginning of Sweet Revenge about twenty times for reassurance that no matter what, it's alllll completely and totally temporary, before I finish. My ideas on this subject are more numerous than could ever fit into one fic, meaning I'll have to choose just a couple of Hutch's five billion possible motivations, for clarity's sake. *siggghhhhh*
- That other Starsky & Hutch fic spanning from the 1950s to the 1990s that is
- That One/Master and One/Susan's Grandmother and One/TARDIS (in that order, probably) pre-Unearthly Child Doctor Who fic. I haven't seen any Doctor Who since season seven, and have no idea how badly Jossed all my ideas are going to turn out.
- That Star Trek TOS crackfic in which Kirk desperately tries to write a report on the events of "Spock's Brain" that won't sound like he's writing while stoned out of his gourd.
I'm detecting a distinct pattern here? I don't know what's with my thing for prequel/future/missing scene fics....
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Personally, I think missing scene prequel fics are a blast to do -- weaving in the missing bits in canon fun intellectually, and it's always a rush to get someone say "Wow, this really felt like a scene from the show!"
Also - if you haven't already, consider joining
Finally: That ToS idea about Spock's Brain sound hilarious Doo eeet!
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And yes, Picard/Q is totally squee-worthy! *g*
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I would read all of these fics, even the ones for fandoms I don't know.
"I'm one of those people who probably irritate shippers to death because I love and praise good shippy fics on their story merit, but usually just kind of grin bemusedly at squee."
I'm in the same boat, basically.
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