ALL THE FEELS

[lydamorehouse]

So with all my extra jittery energy yesterday morning, I did, in fact, spend the wee hours between 2 am and 6 am working up a one-week proposal for writing SF/F for teens. It's called MORE THAN THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE: Writing SF/F and, despite the fact that I was composing it completely on raw nerves, apparently it was exactly what the coordinator of the Loft's teen classes was looking for and she's going to put me on the schedule. I told her when she emailed me with the news, that I'd also really love to propose a couple of other classes, including on one writing fanfic.

So now I've been thinking about what I might like to do with a class on fanfic. My first question to you, the fanfic writer, is this: when you were 15, would you have been more interested in ALL THE FEELS: FanFic 101 or NO MORE KUDOS: Making the Switch from FanFic to Original Fiction? I think that either would fly, so don't try to think in terms of which is more "legit" to teach.

I've been asking people for advice on FB and Twitter, but it occurs to me that LJ is probably the best platform in so many ways. A lot of fic writers live here, after all.

At any rate it's probably only going to be a one-week class, so that's only five days of teaching (I might try two weeks, but...). Anyway, I have a couple of *for sure* topics to cover: how to take critique from strangers/find beta readers, the power of the psuedonym, and some of the basics of writing. Here's the thing, my biggest problem is that I came into fanfic both as a reader and writer AFTER I wrote and sold my first professional novel. That makes my perspective wonky. I knew how to write (at least the basics) and had already struggled with the craft of writing in a way that stressed/fostered the skills especially needed for original fiction. I'd love to know if you've seen any trends/problems that are very specific to having learned to write in someone else's world with characters pre-formed. I can imagine some, have read a few, but I suspect that some of my perspective is... well, too outsider-y, you know? That I come with the wrong set of expectations when I read fic. Because, as my friend naomikritzer said in the comment thread on FB, fanfic is a large part play (and the big draw for me, honestly,) and so it should be judged by different standards perhaps.

Thoughts? Counterpoints? Arguments? Ideas?

In other news, I've been failing NaNoWriMo, somewhat. I've been writing a lot, but I've clearly been playing the game wrong. Yesterday, my word count only went up by 16 words. The problem? I'd done a massive amount of revision and there's no way to record that in the competitive writing that is NaNo. But, I've decided to be a rebel. I'm going to actually just try to have something sellable at the end of the month, and worry less about writing 2,000 words a day on it.

Ha!

Also, I'm going to have to take some time to update you all on my continuing saga of the fish obsession. Loki's tank? It's totally posion! I tried putting a 12 cent feeder fish in it and it was dead within four hours!! Creepy! I'm going to have to stip that tank to the bone and try to restart. The other tank, the thirty gallon one I tried to give a vague sort of Japanese garden look to is doing well. I have two white mountain minnows in there conditioning it and they seem happy as... well, not clams, but some other appropriately happy fish-type thing. My plan with that tank is to have, as Mason calls it, a "bait ball" of minnows. The tank could hold as many as seventeen, so I'm going to slowly built toward that.

Okay, that's all the news for now. Must run. Have a lot of outside work I need to get done!

Comments

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I have watched the transition from fanfic to original fic in other people, and the two major problems I've seen are characterization and world-building--probably no surprise to you. The characterization issues tend to involve assuming that the reader is going to care about the characters without giving them any reason to (beyond superficial ones, or easy ones, like a difficult childhood)... and more subtly, a tendency to inflict too much torture on them. I'm not sure what creates the last issue, but some of the original fic I've read by fanfic writers gets really heavy on the cruelty, way before I'm willing to give them that much trust as writers. It feels forced, and a little like arm-twisting.

There's also minor things involving expectations, like when they introduce a character and it's obvious that we should know immediately that this character is a big deal or was coming or something, but we know nothing about them...!

The world-building issues I've seen involve the same vibe, but with the world instead of the characters: assuming everyone knows the setting and not feeding the reader enough information to really be grounded in the world.

(These things happen with original fic writers too; I think of Laurell Hamilton's later books, which got so abbreviated in terms of characterization and world-building that even long-running fans of the series were often forced to go back to previous books to remember why on earth we cared that So and So had arrived on stage.)

[lydamorehouse]

This is absolutely one of the answers I was looking for, thanks!!

I think I know what you're talking about with what I call "pain porn" in my head. That tendency for some writers who've come out of the fanfic community to put their characters through some kind of intense torture WAY TOO SOON. The _why_ of that is a kind of interesting question, but probably not a topic for a class full of 15 year olds.

So a lot on characterization it sounds like, and world-building. Those were ones I'd certainly suspected, but your perspective on the exact issues to hit is really helpful.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

*thinks* Yes, pain porn is a good term for it. Why do you think it happens? Since I'm not 15 and I'm curious. :)

[oracne.livejournal.com]

No suggestions at the moment but I would have LOVED a class like that when I was a teenager.

[lydamorehouse]

Cool! Well, if you think of anything over the next couple of days, be sure to come back and post 'em. I think the idea of teaching this at all is kind of phenomenal, you know? Kudos to the Loft for fostering it.

[resolute.livejournal.com]

When I was fifteen I would have wanted All the Feels: Fanfic 101. How to use dialog to reveal character, how to hold a pov, how to switch pov when necessary, how to create suspense and drama.

[lydamorehouse]

Ah! P.O.V.!!! Yes, I'd forgotten that problem, and I've certainly encountered it in some of the stuff I've read.

I've actually been leaning toward FanFic 101, because in someways it's more accessable. You don't have to want to do anything more than make the stuff you're writing for fun easier for people to appreciate. Plus, these are the folks, too, in a way that I think could use a place to feel legit, you know? Find local friends. Foster a writing community that's full of energy and fun and not full of all the weird stuff that happens once you "go pro" and have all the jealousy, bitterness and competition.

I'm hoping, too, if this class is a success the Loft will let me propose on for adults. It would be cool, too, if I could do an online class in fanfic writing because then I could have a chance to reach out to the much larger community.