That One Thing Meme

[ladyfoxxx]

You know when you get that first idea for a fic, all shiny and exciting and you immediately latch onto ONE scene or ONE moment that you desperately want to write? Sometimes you write thousands of words JUST so you can write that ONE scene or moment

Comments

[shinetheway]

YES THIS A SQUILLION TIMES THIS

I call it the spark, the scene or image or line of dialogue one thing that makes that fic NEED TO BE, and if I don't have it then I might as well not even open up a document--even if I can drum up the inspiration to write something, it all comes out vaguely flat and lifeless.

The really funny/gratifying thing is, when I post, the scene that gets the most comments or the line that gets the most cites is almost always the spark. It's like, the enthusiasm I have for that bit, and the vividness of the spark in my mind comes through, even when the rest of the story, honestly, maybe isn't that great.

The thing that I do, though, that I guess maybe isn't that normal is I immediately write that scene first, and then start filling in the blanks of how it got there. For instance, in my Merlin BB, the scene where Merlin bolts out of the throne room running, and then pushing Arthur up against the bedroom wall and whispering magic to hide them while soldiers pour into the room and Arthur stares at him in disbelief and shock--that was my spark and I wrote that first. Then I spent two months trying to figure out why the hell he was running from and what the hell came next. [snickers]

[ladyfoxxx]

The spark is SUCH a good term for it. I've had it be a scene, a scenario, a line of dialogue, but it's the push to make you write it.

the scene that gets the most comments or the line that gets the most cites is almost always the spark. That is SO cool - you obviously put a lot into it and people pick up on that!

I immediately write that scene first, and then start filling in the blanks of how it got there

WOW. I very rarely do that! I think I mostly need to write fic in chronology or IDK I guess I get worried I'll lose motivation to write the rest if I get my favourite part out first or something. Oh that is SO interesting.

[shinetheway]

I think--I think maybe it's that I'm scared that if I don't capture it, I'll lose it? I like writing fic in order, one bit after another, for a lot of my short stories, and in fact everyone I know who writes that way, especially the long fics, I just think their fic is incredibly well done, tightly plotted, cohesive, organic and *meaningful*. But then I try to write long fics that way, force myself to ignore the spark that gave me the idea in the first place and start at the very beginning and it just feels...wrong. That one bit that I NEED to write, the bit that's flaming brightly in my head, I'm always scared that the fire's going to burn out and I'll lose it if I don't write it down. So I write that, and hope and cross my fingers and keep typing once I've written it all, so the momentum of writing usually sweeps me forward into the next scene. [helpless] Does that make sense?

And even if I don't keep going, the psychic, I don't know, satisfaction of having created that one perfect scene is often enough to just satisfy me. That doesn't happen often, but it does happen. I've got a Merlin story where I doubt if it'll ever be finished, because I wrote the one bit I wanted to see and now I just don't need to know the rest in the same way.

But normally it's like, I don't lose motivation because now I want to know *what happened* to cause the spark, what happened after it finished, so then I start getting ideas for more and more scenes, building the bridges between what I've already written. I'm a big believer in momentum, too, the act of writing and using your creativity causing you to write even more and create even more, like the mechanical act of writing prompts more ideas for how it's going to go next--it's like when you're walking a long distance and at a certain point you stop thinking about walking and how far you've gone and how far there is to go because your legs and hips and brain just fall into a rhythm and an hour later you've reached your destination and you don't even notice the time passing or the effort it took to get there. So then eventually I've got a BBB and it's the last night and I'm scouring it desperately making sure I don't have any "stuff happens in a forest" placeholders. :)

Because I pretty much suck at plot, so everything I've ever done with a cohesive plot sort of happened by momentum and accident combined. I stumble into a bit of plot by chance and just don't stop writing until I've figured out how it ends.

[ladyfoxxx]

That is so interesting. I totally understand where you are coming from with the angle of "if I don't write it now I'll lose it! I'll figure out how to bridge these scenes later!" I've definitely done that myself and some of my most prolific writing periods have been THAT kind of writing. I know when I was racing to draft deadline on my bbb or desperately trying to put down words on my Nano I was really writing that way - the okay I have this idea, I haven't really thought about it or how it fits with all these other scenes but I'm just going to put these words down RIGHT NOW.

Come to think of it, those kinds of writing sessions have been very productive for me in the past, and they've definitely taken fics I've been working on in directions I probably would never have gone if I'd sat down and tried to think it out first. And honestly I think I've written some of my best stuff under those circumstances so please don't think I'm dissing on your writing habits - if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, this is so FASCINATING to me.