16. Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an "architect" or a "gardener"? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)
Gardener! Definitely. In fic as in life, I suppose. :D Sometimes I start with as little inspiration as a single vivid scene or snappy line that I can't get out of my mind, and let the plot/characters surprise me from there. I'm pants at trying to lay out a whole story ahead of time - either the characters grab it and run away with it, or my 'outline' gets fuzzier and more prose-y by the paragraph and I've half-written the thing by the time I stop to try to remember where I was going with it!
18. Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?
Tonnes! I could never list them all. I've been in fandom since, oh, the late 90s? In both the anime-manga and Western media sides of fandom. And I've been reading novels and poetry and falling in love with them since I was able to read, pretty much!
Just a very, very few of the influences I could cite:
Tenshi & Llamajoy were fanwriters whose gorgeous, poetic prose gave me such emotions and gave fanfiction new depths in younger!Krait's eyes; I'd never read anything quite like that before. (Years later, I would read Patricia McKillip's fantasy novels, and have the same general reaction! Thaat kind of beautiful prose-poetry is something I am inspired by and aspire to, though I'm not there yet.)
Telanu astounded me with her emotional whammy and ability to keep a plot going through multiple fics over several years!
C.J. Cherryh's Chanur and Foreigner novels opened my eyes in whole new ways and taught me so much about writing and perceiving alienness, culture clash, and translation conventions. Since foreign cultures and xenocultures are dear to my heart and my id, I'll probably never stop being awed by her skills!
Rainjoy, whose intense and often heartrending fics were rivalled only by her own critical eye and love of structure, taught me a lot about pacing and story shape. On the profic side of things, I could say the same about Lois Bujold, who also taught me never to be afraid of having a better idea, or of conflict between beloved characters.
Freece (C.S. Pacat) completed the alchemical circle of my writing interest: from original fantasy fiction to fanfiction to original (slash) fantasy fiction to published work with its own fandom. An excellent writer on a technical level, and one who beautifully upheld the idea of "write what you love"/"write the stories that your community wishes somebody was writing" that fandom embodies.
These are in addition, of course, to all the ficwriters who showed me kinks (sexy or narrative) I didn't know I had, and who made previously-unconsidered pairings make sense; and to all the prowriters whose well-crafted writing carried me along through stories so effortlessly that it was ten rereads before I thought to look at how they created that effect. Their inspirations may never see the light of the Internet, but they live in many an unfinished work on my hard drive!
And then, too there's all of the ones who taught me by negative example: what NOT to do, what DOESN'T work. Those lessons were just as important as the positives; learning what I don't like in a story, and what breaks me out of a reading experience or loses my sympathy with a given character, is an important part of any writer's growth! Profic, fanfic, my own fic - what one ought to strive for in any failure is a step forward. If my writing has improved, it's done so on the fallen pieces as well as the successes; stories I bounced off of, characters I couldn't love, and drafts with author's notes reading, what is this nonsense? and seriously?! are inspiration in their own way.
Most of all, though, more than any one author, fan or pro, has been the community. I wrote before I was involved in online fandom, but it was an exercise for myself; no one read it but me, and I had no feedback and no inspiration outside myself. Having other people who loved (or hated) along with me, and who argued about everything from eye colours to prepositions to OTPs, has surely been one of the greatest influences on my writing, in gestalt! As a fan of various pro writers, I've had a thousand extra eyes to examine their work and pull meaning, example, error, and emotion from it. As a fan among fanfic writers, I've had a thousand extra brains to think thoughts about any given fic - and a thousand fics to love and study and learn from!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2016-09-14 04:26 am (UTC)Gardener! Definitely. In fic as in life, I suppose. :D Sometimes I start with as little inspiration as a single vivid scene or snappy line that I can't get out of my mind, and let the plot/characters surprise me from there. I'm pants at trying to lay out a whole story ahead of time - either the characters grab it and run away with it, or my 'outline' gets fuzzier and more prose-y by the paragraph and I've half-written the thing by the time I stop to try to remember where I was going with it!
18. Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?
Tonnes! I could never list them all. I've been in fandom since, oh, the late 90s? In both the anime-manga and Western media sides of fandom. And I've been reading novels and poetry and falling in love with them since I was able to read, pretty much!
Just a very, very few of the influences I could cite:
Tenshi & Llamajoy were fanwriters whose gorgeous, poetic prose gave me such emotions and gave fanfiction new depths in younger!Krait's eyes; I'd never read anything quite like that before. (Years later, I would read Patricia McKillip's fantasy novels, and have the same general reaction! Thaat kind of beautiful prose-poetry is something I am inspired by and aspire to, though I'm not there yet.)
Telanu astounded me with her emotional whammy and ability to keep a plot going through multiple fics over several years!
C.J. Cherryh's Chanur and Foreigner novels opened my eyes in whole new ways and taught me so much about writing and perceiving alienness, culture clash, and translation conventions. Since foreign cultures and xenocultures are dear to my heart and my id, I'll probably never stop being awed by her skills!
Rainjoy, whose intense and often heartrending fics were rivalled only by her own critical eye and love of structure, taught me a lot about pacing and story shape. On the profic side of things, I could say the same about Lois Bujold, who also taught me never to be afraid of having a better idea, or of conflict between beloved characters.
Freece (C.S. Pacat) completed the alchemical circle of my writing interest: from original fantasy fiction to fanfiction to original (slash) fantasy fiction to published work with its own fandom. An excellent writer on a technical level, and one who beautifully upheld the idea of "write what you love"/"write the stories that your community wishes somebody was writing" that fandom embodies.
These are in addition, of course, to all the ficwriters who showed me kinks (sexy or narrative) I didn't know I had, and who made previously-unconsidered pairings make sense; and to all the prowriters whose well-crafted writing carried me along through stories so effortlessly that it was ten rereads before I thought to look at how they created that effect. Their inspirations may never see the light of the Internet, but they live in many an unfinished work on my hard drive!
And then, too there's all of the ones who taught me by negative example: what NOT to do, what DOESN'T work. Those lessons were just as important as the positives; learning what I don't like in a story, and what breaks me out of a reading experience or loses my sympathy with a given character, is an important part of any writer's growth! Profic, fanfic, my own fic - what one ought to strive for in any failure is a step forward. If my writing has improved, it's done so on the fallen pieces as well as the successes; stories I bounced off of, characters I couldn't love, and drafts with author's notes reading, what is this nonsense? and seriously?! are inspiration in their own way.
Most of all, though, more than any one author, fan or pro, has been the community. I wrote before I was involved in online fandom, but it was an exercise for myself; no one read it but me, and I had no feedback and no inspiration outside myself. Having other people who loved (or hated) along with me, and who argued about everything from eye colours to prepositions to OTPs, has surely been one of the greatest influences on my writing, in gestalt! As a fan of various pro writers, I've had a thousand extra eyes to examine their work and pull meaning, example, error, and emotion from it. As a fan among fanfic writers, I've had a thousand extra brains to think thoughts about any given fic - and a thousand fics to love and study and learn from!