Workshop: Writing casefile stories.

[hansbekhart]

How to Build a Casefile

Hi there! I’m Hans, and I’m here to talk about casefile!fics.

Comments

[gretazreta]

Thanks, that's a useful perspective at a very good time.

[hansbekhart]

Thank you, I hope it helps!

[rei_c]

We, as a fandom, are lucky as hell. Essentially, we’re working with open source programming; the mythology and legends of the last hundred-some-odd years are completely open to us. We have fifty states and every country in the world, if you view immigrant or international traditions in the same way that canon does (that is, as totally yankable). The whole world is fictionally ripe for our use.

Exactly the way I think of it!

[hansbekhart]

It's the coolest frickin' thing ever, man :D. You can go anywhere, and be inspired by what you see.

[rei_c]

I wanted to ask -- in your experience writing case files, do you usually start with the problem of the myth or the problem of the characters? (Or, another way: do you see some interesting myth/legend and build a story-line around that or do you find the best-fitting myth/legend after you've already thought of a story to tell?)

[hansbekhart]

Hmmmm. It might be cheating, but I think ... I think of my theme first. I think of the point of the story, what I really want to say with it. In BBP, I wanted to showcase local legends - in Skinnybone Tree, I wanted a longfic where the Wincest was central to the plot, not just thrown in on top. In our Big Bang ... well, I can't say too much about it, but we started out with a legend. So I think overall, I'm inclined towards finding a myth/legend and building a storyline around it

[oxoniensis]

This is fantastic - thanks so much for writing it up and sharing all your tips!

[hansbekhart]

Thank you for reading!

[riverbella]

A very concise and succinct summary of the key elements of casefiles. I am particularly attracted to casefile!fic precisely because of the things you mentioned. If the author has done the research, the reader gets a strong sense of place and learns something new. I never knew a thing about the logging indsutry before I read Red, or, for that matter, about the peculiar history of Santa Cruz before I read Beach Blanket Poltergeist. For that reason, and for the intense characterizations and interactions between the characters, they are my two favorite casefiles. (Incidentally, I feel the same way about the published works I read. If I don't learn something new--whether physically or psychologically or both--I am wasting my time.)

I have been toying with the idea of trying a long casefile!fic myself. I have a perfect location/history for one but have not yet fully thought out how I want to approach it. Between you and big_pink, I have gained some valuable insights for the process. Many thanks.

[hansbekhart]

Thank you so much! I'm gonna try not to blush a whole lot at you. (Red is one of my favorite fics of all time, and man, I was nervous enough following her workshop.) Having a strong sense of place can be incredibly helpful when writing a casefile - it can determine how you use your language just as powerfully as knowing what genre you're writing in. A story about the South will be different from a story about the West will be different than California and so on, because each area doesn't only have its own different sort of mythologies, but different cultures and accents that you can tap into. For me, knowing that is really helpful - casefiles can look big and scary, and whatever helps you narrow it down to tell the story you have is just great.

I hope that you do write your casefile! Thanks a lot for reading, and I hope that this post helps in some way!

[gottalovev]

that was REALLY useful. I am about to try my first real case file and it made me realize exactly WHAT got me so enthralled with those stories I adore: those parallels between the case and the character's internal journey (I knew that, but on some unconscious level, you know? I was not really plotting it for mine and now I know I need to work on it). there is a lot of food for thought in this workshop, thank you so much.

[hansbekhart]

Thank you so much for reading! I'm so glad that you found it useful, and good luck with your case file!