I think it’s time I made another post about writing, what with this being a writing blog and all. At least in theory.
What I’m struggling with at the moment is the simple process of having ideas, of having something that I want to write. It’s funny, because I’ve talked before about writing fan fiction – and when I’m writing fanfic, ideas simply aren’t a problem. I have plenty of ideas. When it comes to my main enthusiasm, I have a list of story ideas as long as your arm and the list itself is large enough to intimidate me. I have a smattering of ideas for other fandoms, too. But finding “original” ideas is much harder (and by “original”, I simply mean something that’s using characters I have invented myself, rather than writing other people’s characters or fictionalizing real people. “Original” in the sense of Something Really New And Ground-Breaking is something quite different and not what I’m talking about. That’s for another post).
I suppose that part of it is that I have quite specific ideas about what I would like to start off with. I don’t yet want to embark on a novel. In fanfic, I’m primarily a writer of vignettes and short fiction, and that’s what I feel comfortable writing and what I’m most practised at. But while I have original ideas, they are mostly for stories that could be novel-length or even longer. Mostly they’re gay romance, which again, I’m happy with as that’s what I’m used to writing and I enjoy it very much. But I’m intimidated by novel-length narratives and by the research that’s necessary to make most of them work. (And, rather worse, by the fear that my research would mean my premise turned out to be impossible or at least prohibitively unlikely. I’m good at inventing premises like that.)
One solution is to take some of my fanfic ideas and “file off the serial numbers” – that is, to modify the characters and settings to a point where they become my own instead of belonging squarely in the universe that first inspired them. In a way I’m not 100% comfortable with that, because it feels like passing something off as my own work when it was in fact inspired by the work of someone else – but on the other hand, it raises questions about where the line is between inspiration and plagiarism. I don’t want to steal someone else’s work and pass it off as mine. I especially would feel horrible about making money out of playing in someone else’s sandbox. Even if, to extend the metaphor, I had used different toys, repainted the box and replaced all the sand. I mean: at what point is it a different box?
(And at what point does it pretty much run on a theme of lots of other boxes, many of which I’ve never even seen?)
I mean, I’m not ashamed to be influenced by many people’s work – from the creators of various books, TV shows and movies, to musicians and actors, to other writers of fanfic in my fandom and many others. I’m not ashamed to be inspired, and riff on my head on someone else’s story. But what if this was different? What if they… or what if they never…? And that’s what fanfic is, writing the what-if that, as a writer, makes your fingers itch.
And as a writer, that what-if is a wonderful place to get started. It’s a wonderful way to generate ideas. Because if that happens, and then so-and-so does this, then… And suddenly you’ve got a story. The question is how, with your own characters and ideas, to generate the right kind of what-ifs, the ones that make you feel that you’re dying to start writing right-the-fuck-now so you can see what happens.
(And do you know what? I just realized that. In the process of writing this blog post. Isn’t that awesome?)
So there it is. The more I think about it, the more I think that “filing off the serial numbers” is a good idea – taking one of my fanfic ideas and changing it until the characters are really mine. Start asking the questions, “what could I do with this that wouldn’t make sense if it was still a fanfic story?” And then play with it. Build a universe for it. And write it. I’ve done it often enough in my head; it’s just that I need to do it on paper or screen and make words out of it.
I want to write something original – I really do – and I think this might be a way to do it. Maybe “inspired by” isn’t the same as “stolen from”, even if you started with what-if and went from there.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
You know, I started reading your ninja waffles story without realising who the characters were (ya I know) and it took me a while to be sure. I have to say (although I’ve not read it through yet) that to me, it reads like an original story, or like it would be if you just changed the names.
I mean, I’m not familiar with the fanfic and you may have borrowed much more than I realised, but as far as I’m concerned if you called them TJ and Cody, that would have worked, and I’d never have recognised it as fanfiction.
I used to write fanfiction, although I rarely admit to it now, and my first work of ‘normal’ fiction was in many ways a ‘file off the serial numbers’ job, in that many concepts and at least one character started off as lifts from the fandom (Legacy of Kain, if you want to know). I sure as heck don’t admit to THAT much these days, but it’s true. The narrative works as an original though, because in the writing I drifted so far from the characters as borrowed that you’d probably be hard pressed to recognise them.
Umm, so… I guess I’m saying that yes, the transition from fanfiction to regular fiction by way of borrowing some elements from your fan-laden headspace and applying them to a new writing venture by making them different enough to pass for original is a valid technique. Yes.
Another good way to start writing stories is using writing prompts. I found this really nifty writing prompt generator online: http://www.adammaxwell.com/writers-tools/writing-prompts-generator
Maybe it’ll help you.
And if you want to start having ideas that would fit into a short story format rather than a novel format try reading more short stories. I’m more of a poet myself, but the few short stories I have written that I thought were pretty good I wrote when I was reading a lot of short story collections. My favorite short story writers are Lorrie Moore and Raymond Carver. I betcha “Self Help” by Lorrie Moore would be right up your alley.