meta | fic: writing multiple, varying "takes" on the same characters and events
1 School starts again for me on the fifth; I'm wasting the remainder of my summer by reading a lot of fic and writing a lot of horrible original fiction and fic. This week I'm doing a bit of volunteering -- the type you actually have to wake up early for -- so that should get me sorted on a regular sleep schedule again. Hopefully. Judging from the
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Yes, there have been some fics I've read where I went, "This is what happened!" as they progressed. But not all of those fics have been mutually compatible, either. *headdesk* Nevertheless they sometimes have had an effect on my willingness to accept other (contradictory) fic as believable. If I've just read something that really convinced me as being "what happened," for a little while afterward alternate takes are much less likely to strike me as plausible. But on the whole I'm able and willing to accept alternate takes; all fanfic is in a sense AU, after all, and there's no real reason to pick one over another if both are equally convincing.
In my own writing, I've absolutely found ideas and plotlines and themes "bleeding over." Often, in fact. This was more true when I wrote in LotR fandom, actually; I think every single fic I wrote in that fandom was mutually compatible, with perhaps the exception of some drabbles. A lot of what I wrote in my second fandom, PotC, was also that way, but there I started branching out and writing alternate takes on what happened and how characters reached certain points.
In HP fandom I've been much less consistent with plotlines and character development. I've written half-a-dozen different Harrys, for instance, and that not counting drabbles. Sometimes I do still write fics and drabbles that are consistent with one of my own earlier fics, but I'm much more flexible about it. Themes tend to be fairly consistent (not just within HP but in all my fandoms); I'm extremely fond of exploring concepts of personal identity and how those can conflict with the expectations of society, particularly in my longer fics.
How can I write one story, and then another story in which things happen differently? I'm not sure. I guess I just put out of my mind the first fic, as much as possible, and try to focus on what the current story demands in terms of plot or character development or whatever. Sometimes small details carry over from one fic to another even if larger things don't; for instance, I've had Snape possess a locked chest of sex toys in two or three different (incompatible) fics, so far. It's been just a reference, though, fleshing out his character.
And I've written both snapshots, and also long fics with much greater character development, although not really "entire life" in the sense of actually going through a whole life story. My muse has an annoying tendency to take what's intended as a short one-shot and make me turn it into something much longer. *g*
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Very, very true. :D I think that a lot of what influences the particular AU I choose as "convincing" has to do with the quality of writing; the more well-written a fic is, the higher the chance is that I'll choose its "reality" over the next.
My muse has an annoying tendency to take what's intended as a short one-shot and make me turn it into something much longer.
Oh, I know what you mean. I always get ideas for nice quick fics, and they turn out to be unfinished, sprawling messes five months down the road. Perhaps your muse is trying to hint that you should write a novel. :P
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Oh definitely, there's one that is a novel-in-progress, and I've written or cowritten three other novel-length works. Not all as tightly structured as they might be, but I'm improving at that.
I think that a lot... has to do with the quality of writing
Word to that. Although an idea that's not too interesting (even if very well-written) won't usually convince me, a poorly-written great idea has almost no chance of doing so.
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