Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Does this Sound Crazy/Is it Just Me?

Ok- borrowing from some remarks on Hazel's thread without asking permission from anyone- hope that's ok. If not, er...well...sue me.

Tank said: And Jude said: Then Lynn: This really fascinates me, and has since I took up this crazy hobby. And many of you writers and trailer-makers have received private emails from me, demanding an explanation of "your process."

Wendy, probaby hoping I would go away, told me once that this would make a good poll...however, I think the answers would be so varied, I wouldn't be able to do it justice.

Here it is: How do you writers get started? And I mean that literally. How do your stories come to you? Is it movie-like? You see it and then describe it? Or do you feel it? Get a sense of a scene and then write? OR...I realize I've gone on and on about the voices in my head, but here it is again, do you hear it?

That's how it works for me. A conversation will start up in my head (I know, please dismiss the crazy that goes with that) and I write straight dialogue. Only later go back and fill-in what's happening and where.

I want to know about the rest of you. Every last one of you. Even if you've only written one. How are your stories born?

I'm trying to build a theory here. Am I a sparse, lean worded author because I'm not 'seeing it?' Are those of you who are wonderfully descriptive that way because you do? And you naturally introspective writers out there- and you know who you are- do you 'feel' your characters feelings?

If you don't answer this thread, I should say, I'll probably just keep up the emails. Poor Wendy.

Thank you for indulging this issue of mine!

CC

Yup. I'll be washing the dishes, or in the bath, thinking of pretty much nothing and a snippet of conversation will suddenly pop into my head or I'll see a small part of a scene unfold in my mind's eye. I rush to the notepad, or to fire up the pc and jot it down there and then, while it's hot. Sometimes that's all there is. Sometimes, I find myself typing further along, almost like automatic writing, with no idea where I'm headed, until it fizzles out or begins to sound forced...often in the middle of a conversation.

Often this is a complete pain because - as with one of my current WIPs - I end up with scenes or half conversations which are directly in opposition to one another and I then have to try and figure out a way to hook them sensibly and logically together or lose one. Choosing which one frequently kills me, so I prefer the former option wherever possible. <g>

As time progresses, I tend to get more snippets arriving and if there are enough of them, I have the bones of a story to work on.

I have changed my methods over the years from this point on though. I used to write whichever part of the story occurred to me next - leaping around from point to point in a completely non-linear fashion. I could have the middle or the end finished way before the first scene. It was more filling in the blanks until I ended up with something complete than anything else.

But after a time, I realised it was much easier on my betas if they could approach a story in a linear way, rather than getting separate, unconnected moments out of order, which they couldn't connect to any context. And so I started writing in linear instead. Or trying to, at least. <g> Mostly that's been pretty successful in the main.

LabRat

I have to laugh, CC, because you and I go about writing in almost exactly the same way. I start off with pure dialogue - no tags, no quotation marks, nothing. Then I have to go back and give the characters motion and setting.

Actually, my story ideas usually start with a character reaction/emotion. So for example, in Rage, the entire story started with my vision of what Clark would do and feel if Lois got hurt and he totally lost it. I could "see" that scene in my head, imagine his intense feelings, even hear the music that would be used in the movie soundtrack once Steven Spielberg decided to change my story into a movie <g>. The rest of the story branched out from there.

Then the scenes play out like a movie in my head. For days I walk around lost in this other world. When I go to sleep I'm thinking of the story and when I wake up I'm thinking of it. Only after it's completely finished does it let me out of its grip and I lose that glaze in my eye! I think that's why I can't start a story and shelve it - for me it's an intensive burst that propels me through the days/weeks/months it takes to write the story. And this is also why it's impossible for me to have multiple stories going at the same time. I just don't have enough brain capacity to live in so many worlds at once.

I write as much of a particular scene as I can, sometimes letting it gel while I work on another. Like Lab, I find myself flying to find a piece of paper to write down snippets and lines that just come to me at totally random times. I don't know how many times I've thought of something and said to myself "don't worry, you'll remember this" and then forget it completely except to know that I'd had this brilliant flash of insight that I cannot recapture to save my life.

Sadly, unlike Lab, I am completely unable to discipline myself enough to write linearly. I write the scenes that are most exciting to me first, no matter where they occur in the story. That does create the monumental problem of having to bridge scenes, which is what I always seem to have trouble doing.

The thing that inspires me most is the reactions in the characters that I love most. For example, I love protective, growly Clark, so I get inspired when I think of situations that might cause him to act that way. And I like a kinder, gentler Lois, so I think of stories that will allow her to show that side of herself.

Nothing makes me more jealous than when another writer comes up with a really cool situation that shows the character they way I love them best, and I think "Dang, why didn't I come up with that idea?"

Add to all of this the amazing affect music has on me. I can hear a song that grabs me and build a story around the feelings it creates. Not a "song-fic" based on the lyrics but more of a "mood-fic" based on the intensity and tone of the music. With my current story - Butterfly Legacy - I literally have a soundtrack saved on my HD that represents the story musically.

So, CC, I don't know if this answers your question. But I have to say that this topic is fascinating, and I'm anxious to know what drives other writers.

Lynn

I start with a central idea. In the current story, Supercop, the idea occurred to me what would it be like if Bill Henderson suddenly acquired Superman's powers. After that I often write the introductory scene, throwing in some logical back story, and usually then the outline of a plot will start to form in my head. When I have enough of it to figure out how the story is going to go, I start building in the details. I'm not comfortable writing just one story line, so I usually have an A-plot and a B-plot going simultaneously, one usually predominating somewhat over the other, and they frequently tie together at the end.

I used to write out a very detailed plot, but now it's just a generalized one, quite often not even on paper. The details kind of write themselves. I guess that comes with practice.

Nan

I'm a bit like Nan. I often start with a problem which needs to be solved, or a little voice inside me which says 'what if...'. The source of these problems and voices varies from story to story so I won't bore you with a long list.

Once the little voice has spoken or the problem has jumped into my head, I'll usually receive a scene which fits somewhere into the general concept. Often it's the opening scene. A character might also make himself known to me - again, don't ask me where he comes from, he just does .

Once I'm cooking with the concept, a scene or two, and maybe a character, the rest of the story starts to develop itself. I start writing, and when I've got up a head of steam, I'll often sketch out an outline for the rest of the story. More scenes will come to me when I'm sketching the outline, and, like Lynn and others, I'll often skip ahead and write some of the more juicy scenes - especially if I've got stuck.

Usually, I find I start slowing down at around the one-third to half-way mark, and that's when the sketch comes into its own. If I'm completely stuck, I can pick another point in the story to write from, confident that whatever I write will fit into the rest of the story. That's the theory, anyway.

CC, to answer your question about feeling and seeing our characters, I'd say that usually I can see them and can hear what they're saying. I'm not so good at feeling their feelings - I have to work at that one a lot. This means I sometimes write dialogue without fully understanding the motivation behind my character's words. I guess that means I tend to work on instinct rather than analysing the effect one character's words and actions will have on another.

The result is that I often write dialogue and then go back and add their thoughts - and very often I add thoughts in order to create a natural rhythm in my dialogue. For example, I'd much rather write an action or a thought than just write 'He paused'. Dialogue rhythm is also why I don't tend to write long introspection passages within conversations. I'd rather keep the long thinking sessions to those times when my characters are alone (or just not talking to each other <g>).

Finally, CC, I'd kill to have your skill in writing lean, sparse text that packs a punch, so don't try too hard to become flowery and description-intensive <bg>.

Yvonne


Yvonne

What I kick myself for is the fact that I don't create stories. I create worlds.

In other words, instead of thinking
Mister Bunny hopped through the forrest and was eaten by Mr. Fox. The End.

I tend to see
Mister Bunny had a wife named Sue and three baby bunnies name Bob, Bobby, and Billy-Bob. They all lived in cleveland, where Mr. Bunny worked as an acountant for a large carrot company. He hated his job, but he needed to put Billy-Bob through college because Billy-Bob wanted to be a dentist. Bob and Bobby resented Mr. Bunny beacuse they felt that he played favorites. None of them realized that this was because Bob was adopted and Bobby was actually from Mrs. Bunny's previous marriage to a squirrel named Herman who...
And I never get to the part where he was eaten by Mr. Fox!

Sometimes it works the other way.
Mister Bunny was eaten by Mr. Fox. Because of this, Mr. Bunny's wife and kids developed a hatred of foxes and joined an anti-fox group. This resulted in a scandal years later when the bunnies grew up and got married and Bob's daughter Betsy fell in love with a fox named Enrico. Betsy and Enrico eloped to Claifornia and had three puppies name Fred, Ed, and Ted. Ted grew up and became a senator, and Ed led a civil rights movement for mixed marriages between bunnies and foxes. Fred joined Ed in a sit-in at the national wild-life preserve, where he met a beautiful chipmunk name Francine. They got married and moved to Florida, where they had two kids...
Etc.

Lately, I've managed to compromise by seeing the world in my mind and writing little slices of life about those worlds. In other words, vignettes. Now do you see why I've written so many Martha and Lara stories?

Well, I've only written one complete story so far but you wanted to know from each one us...
And besides I've started a couple of other stories, so I can at least tell you how my ideas are born.

Usually an idea for a story pops in my head and I carry it around for days/weeks/months and work on it mentally. This helps to develop a general plot but there aren't any specific lines yet. Those come up in the second stage of my writing process. Once I roughly know what I wanna do and where I wanna go single sentences, whole dialogues or parts of introspection pop up and I have to write them down immediately. It happened that I got an idea while brushing my teeth and I ended up in front of the computer with my toothbrush sticking in my mouth. Sometimes I just keep writing, sometimes that's about it and I have to wait again for my inspiration to hit.
English is not my native language thus I have to switch my brain to English mode for writing. I don't translate ideas from German to English, I think English for the whole process of coming up with an idea until finishing.

Anyway, this is a very interesting topic and answering put me in the right mood for writing on a story of mine

Julia

Interesting question, CC.

Do you mind if a non-writer joins in? I have never written a fanfic, but I have invented "mental fanfics" which never made it to the printed page. These were always dialog. I can hear my characters; I do not see them.

When reading a fanfic, I also "hear" the characters. In fact, that is one of the biggest compliments I can give an author, that I could "hear" the scene play out in my head.

Obviously, it's not an either/or situation, and I love reading well-written visual descriptions of scenes. I never thought about this before, but now that you mention it, I find it interesting that if for whatever reason I don't like the visual description (for example, if it is too long), I will just skip over it. If the dialog is "off", on the other hand, I will be so distracted that I stop reading altogether.

I remember reading that we all have different learning styles - visual, audio, kinetic, etc. It is probably the same with our reading/writing styles. Interesting.

- Vicki

Coming out of my semi-lurker state because this is such a fun topic.

The idea of hearing a bit of dialogue is really intriguing to me since that's NEVER how it happens to me. Dialogue is hard for me and usually the last thing I add.

For me, most stories start with a snapshot or a teeny, tiny snippet that comes to me totally unbidden. Basically I see Lois and Clark doing something and rather than hearing anything I feel a strong emotion. Then I think about what could have possibly led up to that scene until I come up with a "what if" scenario.

Anybody's Baby was prompted by a vision of Clark coming out of the elevators of the DP and starting to walk down the ramp, catching sight of Lois's back as she sat at her desk and spoke on the phone. Almost immediately, she swiveled her chair to face him and his eyes dropped from her face to her arms, where she was cradling an infant. The image stopped him in his tracks, and I could feel how surprised he was by the scene and the sudden sense of longing that accompanied it. So I started wondering why Lois was caring for a baby and why she had to bring him to work....

The entire Playing series was the result of a cruise I took on the Potomac while visiting friends in DC a couple of years ago. I was leaning agaist the rail looking out over the city and thinking about how beautiful and romantic it was when suddenly I had a vision of Lois standing against the rail of a similar boat. I could tell she was sad and pensive, but I couldn't tell why. Clark moved behind her and slipped his arms around her and I could tell that he was feeling much the same way. I got the impression that they were very comfortable in this position despite the fact that they weren't dating and that neither wanted it to end, but that it had to. So I started wondering why they would be acting like a couple if they weren't one, and what they were doing in DC....

Annie

Yes, I remember that email exchange, CC! I don't think I was very helpful to you, though!

Most of the time, I'm like Nan and Yvonne: a premise occurs to me. What if Clark had to choose between his own life and the survival of the planet? - just for one. That, by the way, actually came to me by way of a song I hate, Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You. Or what if Clark's first meeting with Lois was when she was disguised as a man? Or what if circumstances led them to sleep together very early in their relationship, when they weren't even friends - what would that lead to?

So most of my stories come from this sort of 'what if-ing'. I think I've only once had a snippet of dialogue come to me as the first inspiration: an old and in the early stages of dementia Perry White asking Clark to kill him because he was afraid that he'd reveal Clark's secret.

But some short stories have come from thinking about episodes or settings, and trying to come up with a twist - in particular, birthday stories, where I've tried to write a type of plot or setting the person the story is for would like. So... what can I do with BatP/HoL this time, or is it possible to adapt this scene to give it a WAFFy ending... etc etc.

So I wouldn't say that I see a film unscrolling in my brain or anything like that. But once I have a premise and am writing the story, entire scenes of dialogue can unspool for me sometimes when I'm doing something completely unrelated. Or ideas for the work in progress occur to me when I'm driving to work or washing my hair or whatever.

Dunno if this helps you, CC, but judging by your current WIP you don't need any suggestions from anyone about how to write!!


Wendy

What a fun thread! And very interesting question, CC. I've loved reading about the writing process from all of you talented writers out there!

It's been interesting to see how many people say that dialogue pops into their heads to give them a story idea. Mine is a little different, though not entirely. I find myself thrown into a scene where characters are talking, but I don't hear the dialogue so much as I know what they are talking about.

For instance, in "Marriage Pact," I was reading along in a new book I'd purchased, just minding my own business, when suddenly, one of the characters in the book said something in passing about marriage pacts. The light bulb lit up over my head. I suddenly thought, what if Lois and Clark were in his apartment talking about making a marriage pact with each other? That's what I mean by not "hearing" the dialogue, but thinking about what they may be saying.

I've also had ideas come to me through titles. My "What it Means to Love You" idea came some TV show (can't even remember what I was watching at the time) when one of the characters said something like, "What does that mean, to love you like that?" Ding! Light bulb. I thought, "What a great line, 'what it means to love you.' What if Lois and Clark were talking about that, and..." Well, you see where I'm going. 368k was born from that one line. I love it when that happens.

As far as what happens after I have an initial idea: I'm very much like LabRat used to be, in that I'm a VERY non-linear writer. I can't write linearly. I just can't. Stab red-hot pokers beneath my fingernails before making me write linearly. I LOVE jumping around from scene to scene, writing what appeals to me most, then going back and filling in the other scenes and the not-as-much-fun-to-write details later. I also seem to gain more ideas for fleshing out the story as I write those scenes that appeal to me. For example, in "The Long Road Home" that I'm working on now, I've found that as I've been focusing on the more important scenes, I've had a ton of opportunites arise for including other little details earlier in the story, or places to weave in threads of the A-plot here and there, or even to make one thread or another that's ongoing throughout the story stand out by including some little tidbit. If I'd have tried writing this linearly (is that a word?), it would be a much weaker story. I GREATLY admire those who can write lineraly because I certainly can't.

One short story idea that has yet remained unwritten came to me in the form of, yes, dialogue, in the episode WIEAK (*something* good has to have come from that episode!). I can just imagine Lois talking to Jimmy, him consoling her over Clark's pigheadedness, and saying to her, "Lois, he jumped out of a helicopter for you! If that isn't love, I don't know what is." I think it's a great line, but for the life of me, I haven't been able to formulate a story from a single line as I have in other stories. Maybe that one just isn't enough.

Congratulations if you've made it to the end of this very lengthy post. I think it's a terrific thread, and I'm excited to see what everyone else has to say!

Back to lurking...

Fascinating question, CC, and I've been equally interested in the answers so far.

Reading this thread has actually allowed me to pinpoint why I find it so difficult to write long stories and to include action in my scenes.

I rarely ever get the idea of a proper plot; most of the time what occurs to me is a snippet of scene, which means I see a setting, hear the characters talking and feel an emotion connected to their state of mind. For example, even though I had been playing with the vague idea of having Lois married to Luthor and cheating on him with Clark for a couple of years, I only started writing Near Wild Heaven when I was in a park in Paris and decided the setting would be perfect for a romantic and angsty scene. I saw the whole scene playing out on my mind, and it's only then that I started working on the story.

Then as I work more snippets of scenes occur to me, and I transfer them onto my file. Very often half the scenes I draft this way don't end up getting used for the story in question, mostly because I really work out of order: scenes first, then find a plot to articulate them. This is actually making my writing life much harder than it should be.

Like Lynn, I use music as inspiration for an atmosphere. I can listen to the same songs for a dozen hours in a row and for days on end if it gives me inspiration for a story. This also has the benefit of making everyone around me scurry away and leave me alone to write in peace.

Kaethel (who shall listen to My Immortal again... for inspiration's sake, you see?)

Interesting question. I'm not a very visual person, so I don't usually get clear pictures in my head. I do sometimes hear dialog, but mostly, I start off with an idea or feeling that I want to achieve within the L&C world. That idea/feeling might be inspired by any number of things (so far, no songs). Some are pretty vague (I want a scene where Superman has gone crazy, doesn't recognize Lois, and is threatening to kill her, so Lois can demonstrate how much faith she has in Clark's basic decency) and some are very specific (I just read a book about a ghostly love story; I want to transpose that to L&C -- or there's this fanfic challenge about using the word "unspool" )

That's enough to get me started plotting, working out if the idea *could* work within the L&C context. To actually start writing, I need to know *how* I can get to my goals -- in general outlines, anyway. Well, my road trip analogy works here -- I won't start driving until I've got a list of directions (take I-95 to highway 87, follow that for 7 miles, then turn again...). Once I have that general outline, I'll start out, and discover the details along the way. (As may be obvious, I write in a very linear way )

So, in short, in order to start writing, I need a AAA Trip-Tik

PJ

Gee, I wish I were consistent in my approach to writing fanfics.

Sometimes I start off with a "what if", other times with wondering what was going on during a scene of the series--e.g. who was that woman who bid $50,000 for a date with Superman--or sometimes, I see a scene in my mind and the dialogue and I want to explore where it takes me. Once, I wanted to take one of Wendy's stories in my own direction and ended up writing Divinity's Ends.

When I'm writing I see the scene and the dialogue. Often I ignore the computer and just let the scene play itself out. Or if I'm stuck I start writing the dialogue and see where it takes me. Often I'm quite surprised with what my characters come up with.

I force myself to write in a linear fashion (probably that's why it takes me so long to write). I jot down ideas so I won't forget them, but I try to get some kind of coherence in the telling of the story. Sometimes, when I'm driving the car, a story just develops in my head and I jot it down.

Does that help your theory, CC?

gerry

ooo, fun thread, CC! like everyone else, i've really been enjoying reading all the different answers. (and, btw, lol to QoTC for mr. bunny's worlds)

as for myself, well, this is going to sound kind of crazy. (btw, i will be shocked if anyone reading this was surprised by that statement. )

the first thing you need to know is that i don't write. when i try, it comes out slow and forced and clumsy. so, i've learned to leave the writing to little timmy.

some of you have heard of timmy before, but for those of you who haven't, i'll introduce you. timmy is the curious little boy who lives in the attic of my mind, over in that grey area between my concious and subconcious. those of you who saw the late 80's TV show "dinosaurs" may remember timmy as the frequently-exploded lab assistant of "mr. lizard." the one who prompted mr. lizard's catchphrase, "we're going to need another timmy!" timmy is much happier in my head.

so, what happens is that timmy, finding nothing better to do, will go wandering around outside. as he does so, he'll often come across an idea. sometimes he trips over it. more often it'll sneak up behind him and hit him on the head. either way, he'll pick it up and look at it. he'll go "ooo..." and start playing with it. if he likes it, he'll show it to me and then take it home.

at home, he'll play with it and add to it and see what he can make with it. when it hits critical mass, he'll show it to me again. that's when i sit at the keys (assuming this is a story idea and not an idea for something else). then i stare at the screen for a while, having so much already worked out, but having no idea where to start. timmy usually isn't very good about opening scenes.

so, i force out the opening lines, and then i turn my brain off and let timmy take the controlls. he almost always writes linearly, building from one thing to another and always asking the question, "okay, what happens next?"

timmy tends to see the scenes as they play out, but usually forgets tha other people can't see them. he writes the dialogue, but often keeps the descriptions to a minimum. sometimes that's because he sees things so clearly that he thinks it should be obvious what's going on. sometimes it's because he focuses on the dialogue and doesn't really bother to think about the little gestures that go with it.

anyway, he'll write things out as much as he can, generally finishing the story in one sitting. if he can't do that, then he'll leave off when he gets stuck or when i have to go do something, and then take the loose ends back home and start playing with them again.

sometimes when that happens, he'll lose interest or just get too stuck. i've got about a dozen files in my "in progress" folder that have just been sitting there, abandoned, because something like that happened.

the major exception to all this is "the cape of good hope." that one started with timmy repeatedly showing me this image of a tattered cape hanging in a museum and someone looking at it. i knew that it was the far future and that superman was dead. i wasn't quite sure who the person was, and i only had a vague sense of what was going through his or her mind. i also knew that the image had been inspired by a certain episode of "darkwing duck" (an old disney cartoon series which was sort of a batman parody).

anyway, i kept asking timmy what it was all about, but he didn't seem to know, either. eventually, he gave up on it and it sat in the folder with the other files, gathering virtual cobwebs.

a few years later, it came up in conversation on IRC. timmy looked at it again, went "ooo!" and came up with a scene. it was about 3/4 of the way through the story but it was there, strongly, and timmy had to write it. it was just too strongly imprinted. he had to get it out of there so he could work on the rest of the story.

he put things together, they hit critical mass, and he gave the whole thing back to me. then i had to sit there and think of an opening. finally i decided it was snowing and started writing about that. the words started to move, timmy took over, and the first part of the story was written. i posted it, hoping it would encourage timmy to write more.

things went from there in fits and spurts, but the whole thing came together over the course of the weekend.

more typical was "zombies ate my homework." i knew we needed a story starting with "z." so i started thinking of "z" words. "zebra? nah, can't use that. zoo? hmm... nope. zero? maybe, but... no. xylophone? no, that doesn't even start with z! zombie? well, that's got possibilities, i think -- " at that point, timmy ran in, snatched the idea away from me, and started working furiously in his attic. he finished it in about half an hour. i went to the keyboard, and he just took over. i looked again, and there was this story.

the same thing pretty much happened with "the blueberry people." there was a challenge, it gave timmy some direction in his wanderings, he stumbled on an idea, put it together before i knew what had happened, and then showed it to me. i wasn't too sure about it, but i talked it over with a friend on AIM. she liked it, so i did a bit of research to find a recipie to work from. sifted through a few until i found one that seemed to fit. timmy took over, and next thing i knew, there was a story.

so, in summary, i guess i'm kind of like nan, yvonne, and wendy. it all starts with the idea, not the dialogue or some image (usually). from there, i don't really know what happens. i'd ask timmy, but he doesn't usually answer me. he just shows me things, on his own terms.

not really sure how this fits into your theory, if at all, cc. then again, i used to have a saying. "there's an exception to every rule, and it would appear to be me." it was mostly in reference to various aspects of my medical situation, but it does seem to apply to most attempts to understand how my mind works.

Paul
p.s. if you made it through the whole post, have a virtual lolly pop on me. you deserve it.

That's nothing.

You want to know what I do? Since I am a drama person who likes performing, the actress in me wakes up from time to time and I like to practice that by imagining myself in different situations (get in charcter) and as different characters. I think my mother thinks I'm schizofrenic... anyway, sometime I get carried away and start imagining scenes and acting out dialogue and stuff. Then I go and write it up. Er, if anyone still thinks I'm sane, I am very deeply grateful.

Or sometimes I just watch TV and see a scene that seems like it would be a good start for a story, or a situation that I think will be interesting for Lois and Clark - for example, what would have happened if Lois found out she had a twin sister somewhere (well, okay, I've been watching too many of those spanish novelas but still)?

Usually when I want to read about Lois and Clark in a specific situation or time period, I look for it in the archive. If it's not there, I write it - for example, right now I have a WIP about Lois and Clark in their college years, because I didn't find anything about it in the archive. I have another idea in the works, but it probably won't be written for a long time.

Julie

/me tosses out any idea of trying to track down her Muse (currently on a beach somewhere) and instead starts planning a Ninja raid on Paul's attic to steal Timmy...

LabRat

Not so fast, Labby! Put Timmy down s-l-o-w-l-y.

This is my thread, I have dibs.

Don't be afraid, Timmy, we have lots and lots of ice cream here, and kids to play with, it'll be fun!

CC (happy to see there's enough crazy to go around)

We're gonna need another Timmy!

PJ
who watched Dinosaurs

For me it's a little different than Paul.

I start a new story by sitting down and writing a few sentences, then the little magic gremlin that lives under my desk comes up and finishes writing the story. (I wish!).

Actually, I have two different methods of approaching a story. It can either be a 'what if' idea such as 'what if Clark came back from New Krypton physically disabled in some manner?' or 'what if given a Lois and Clark, and an altLois and altClark we only end up with an altLois and a Clark?'; or it can be a scene or two that I picture in my head that I'd like to see so I write a story around it. An example of such is in Dark Revelation where I had imagined Lois coming down the stairs and seeing Superman lying in the kryptonite cage, and then later in the story the scene at Clark's apartment where she discovers the Superman suit and the revelation hits her just as Martha and Jonathan come in.

The 'process' generally then will start with me allowing it to percolate around in my brain for a time. I try to imagine scenes and plot situations while I'm not actively engaged in something. Usually before falling asleep, or in the car traveling. Both are usually good times to try and 'work' some things out. If the idea is mainly A plot, then I try to come up with a B plot idea that can run concurrently with it. It the idea is B plot, then I need to come up with an A plot that will allow me to hang the B plot threads on it. Examples of this would be the separate different A plots I had to come up with while moving the overlying B plot of the Future series through its paces. Conversely, 'Serial Vengeance' was disigned as an A plot exercise so I had to be aware of incorporating B plot elements as the story went along. There had to be a change in the status quo of the Lois and Clark relationship due to the events of the A plot.

I write linearly. I have to for two reasons. First, if I just wrote all the 'fun' parts first, I'd never finish a story. Second, since my 'outlines' are merely vague mental notes on the directions I plan for the story to go, they tend to be fairly fluid and can change often. The story I start out writing is seldom real close to the story I finish.

Once I actually start physically writing the story I do tend to see it unfold visually as I write. This often leads to 'straying off the intended path' since this is where the characters tend to take over and do what they want rather than what I originally intended. Fanfiction gives the writer an advantage in that he has an easier time imagining his characters because he already knows what they look like. But even in the original fiction that I've written I still have the 'movie' going on in my head, it's just that the characters physical looks are more 'fuzzy'.

I don't ever 'score' a story or hear music with my mental movie. I don't really feel the emotions of my characters either. Rather, I'm more like the guy in the audience. What I feel is my reaction to what I'm seeing. So, if I'm writing an emotional scene in which Lois is devastated and is crying and what not. I don't feel her pain as much as my heart goes out to her in her time of suffering.

I can't say if my ramblings made much sense, but then neither does much of my writing . Anyway, bottom line is, what ever works best for you is the best way to write.

Tank (who almost forgot the most important aspect of writing Lois and Clark fanfiction... always include a haircut for Lois whenever possible)