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poppyseedheartI'm going to level with you before I start this post: I'm not a great person to answer this question because my mind is like a tiny unhinged tornado at all times and I only sometimes try to corral it. Usually I just kind of let it do its thing.
On a macro level, I started writing fic at all at the age of 13. My ego back then was the size of a megacity, probably. At no point did I think "does this make sense? is it good? is it worth saying?" I just thought "I am a visionary and everyone will be as obsessed with my stories as I am." Honestly I try to keep as much of that energy with me as I can! I have always been at least a little bit 13 in my heart when it comes to creative endeavors.
I'm going to talk first about my personal process for starting to write a new story from conceptualization to posting, and then share some broader reflections. I'll ask my friends + followers to share their thoughts too, since people have really different styles and I know mine can be a little eccentric sometimes haha.
Like I alluded at the top of the post, idea-generating is not an issue for me. I wish sometimes that I could have less fic ideas happening because it is chaos up there! I do feel like I have practice now at deciding what ideas are fun to daydream about for a minute on my own, which ones I want to inflict upon a friend in the dms, and which has merit as a proper fic idea. A big factor is how much I want to take on at that moment: am I already working on a long fic? Do I have deadlines coming up? I'm not going to start writing something that I think will need at least 30k if I'm writing a 100k+ fic and also managing three deadlines on smaller things, you know? Not trying to make myself miserable. (Usually.)
This is what I typically look for in an idea that will make me think it's worth exploring as a fully written fic:
Can you tell I ask myself a lot of questions throughout the process? Haha.
You don't have to get it right*, is what I'm trying to say. You just have to make it make sense in context. There is an idea in writing that I love and have talked about on the podcast (Fic Clique listen wherever you get your podcasts <3) that as an author you have a certain amount of coins in your piggybank that will let you tell the reader "hey just stick with me I promise I'm going somewhere with this." Those can be spend on characterization! As long as it ends up making sense and serving the story, people will often go with you. And if not, hey, you learned something! The question of character/dynamic that is compelling, interesting, and reflects something about the story is way more important than "accuracy" in my book! Honestly especially for RPF lol. Like we are just writing about some guy.
Anyway, I don't say that to be dismissive, because I do get the desire to do things right. But I also think, if I may give some advice on this, that getting stuck on whether what you've done is accurate or good enough is going to be the number one thing getting in your way when it comes to words on paper.
The desire to write fanfiction is not about money. For most people, it's not about clout (lol). It's not about becoming famous or beloved or exploiting a system or whatever. We're out here writing about things because we love them and we want that love to be a verb and this is how we express it. Or maybe we write because we have something we need to say and this avenue feels like the right one. Maybe it's processing or humor or just to see what we can make! The enthusiasm that comes with thinking man what if BTS Namjoon was a marine biologist who discovered a new species of squid and BTS Yoongi is the reporter who writes a story on it and begrudgingly falls in love with him... that enthusiasm is what will carry us. Listen to it. Enjoy it!
You don't have to get it right the first time or the second or the third. Take it word by word and see what you make and let that inform the thing you make next. Baby steps! I believe in you!
<3
*Okay I do want to say though if you're writing about Korean people or anyone outside your culture there is a need to pay attention to cultural factors and get that as right as you can while being humbly open to correction. That is different from whether you want to write Stray Kids Han as being kind of shy vs not that shy. Great just wanted to make sure I said that.
On a macro level, I started writing fic at all at the age of 13. My ego back then was the size of a megacity, probably. At no point did I think "does this make sense? is it good? is it worth saying?" I just thought "I am a visionary and everyone will be as obsessed with my stories as I am." Honestly I try to keep as much of that energy with me as I can! I have always been at least a little bit 13 in my heart when it comes to creative endeavors.
I'm going to talk first about my personal process for starting to write a new story from conceptualization to posting, and then share some broader reflections. I'll ask my friends + followers to share their thoughts too, since people have really different styles and I know mine can be a little eccentric sometimes haha.
Like I alluded at the top of the post, idea-generating is not an issue for me. I wish sometimes that I could have less fic ideas happening because it is chaos up there! I do feel like I have practice now at deciding what ideas are fun to daydream about for a minute on my own, which ones I want to inflict upon a friend in the dms, and which has merit as a proper fic idea. A big factor is how much I want to take on at that moment: am I already working on a long fic? Do I have deadlines coming up? I'm not going to start writing something that I think will need at least 30k if I'm writing a 100k+ fic and also managing three deadlines on smaller things, you know? Not trying to make myself miserable. (Usually.)
This is what I typically look for in an idea that will make me think it's worth exploring as a fully written fic:
- Not just something I've written before reskinned unless I'm really having an OTP moment lol
- I can imagine/identify two out of the following: the midpoint, the climax, the ending
- I can guess how long it might be in my head (if not, it's too vague of an idea and I need to think more)
- I can imagine how the main character will change over the course of the story
- I think it will be fun
Can you tell I ask myself a lot of questions throughout the process? Haha.
You don't have to get it right*, is what I'm trying to say. You just have to make it make sense in context. There is an idea in writing that I love and have talked about on the podcast (Fic Clique listen wherever you get your podcasts <3) that as an author you have a certain amount of coins in your piggybank that will let you tell the reader "hey just stick with me I promise I'm going somewhere with this." Those can be spend on characterization! As long as it ends up making sense and serving the story, people will often go with you. And if not, hey, you learned something! The question of character/dynamic that is compelling, interesting, and reflects something about the story is way more important than "accuracy" in my book! Honestly especially for RPF lol. Like we are just writing about some guy.
Anyway, I don't say that to be dismissive, because I do get the desire to do things right. But I also think, if I may give some advice on this, that getting stuck on whether what you've done is accurate or good enough is going to be the number one thing getting in your way when it comes to words on paper.
The desire to write fanfiction is not about money. For most people, it's not about clout (lol). It's not about becoming famous or beloved or exploiting a system or whatever. We're out here writing about things because we love them and we want that love to be a verb and this is how we express it. Or maybe we write because we have something we need to say and this avenue feels like the right one. Maybe it's processing or humor or just to see what we can make! The enthusiasm that comes with thinking man what if BTS Namjoon was a marine biologist who discovered a new species of squid and BTS Yoongi is the reporter who writes a story on it and begrudgingly falls in love with him... that enthusiasm is what will carry us. Listen to it. Enjoy it!
You don't have to get it right the first time or the second or the third. Take it word by word and see what you make and let that inform the thing you make next. Baby steps! I believe in you!
<3
*Okay I do want to say though if you're writing about Korean people or anyone outside your culture there is a need to pay attention to cultural factors and get that as right as you can while being humbly open to correction. That is different from whether you want to write Stray Kids Han as being kind of shy vs not that shy. Great just wanted to make sure I said that.
