icarusancalion

Talking about fanficThe Ron/Draco MPreg that I never promised to finish, as it was an experiment in writing what I hate.
- Snape Manor, the sequel to Primer to the Dark Arts, which was abandoned because it got jossed by JKR's OotP (Pit of Voles warning).
- The Merlin unicorn fic where the second half was written, but on the computer my ex stole, and I don't have the heart to try to rewrite it.
- A Jack/Daniel fic that was never going anywhere.
- And a Snape-fic that I never intended to grow, but dad asked for more, but then he got busy and I did, too (Voles again, look, I posted unbeta'd stuff there, okay?).

I fulfilled all my challenge commitments except my very first Snape FQF fest (I withdrew), and I still owe two 1,000-word fics from the help_haiti (the guilt is driving me up the wall, but I offered fandoms that I'm not into at the moment, and am having trouble with them).

For a fandom life, that's not half bad. I have a huge body of work. But--but these people aren't fandom. One of them hasn't seen me since I was a teenager.

So instead of doing what I'm supposed to be doing, I'm writing cathartic original fiction.

( The working title is Holiday Traditions or something like that. )

Just heard back from my writing professor whom I sent this story earlier today to prove I could write and therefore deserved to participate in NaNoWriMo as part of my classwork this fall. I've been in hope/fear freefall until I opened this:

Hi [Icarus],

Thanks for sending me that excerpt. At least the Federal Government can't touch your writing talent. I'm really impressed by what you've given me. I don't quite know what's going on in terms of the story/plot, but it shows a real intuition about starting a scene in the moment and being attuned to what's going on in an environment. It also seems to show some real character development and depth. It seems to read like literary fiction so far, but if cars start blowing up in the next scene...well, then maybe it isn't. Anyway, we can talk about this more once class starts, and I really don't see anything wrong with doing NaNoWriMo during class. Lord knows you're a brave soul. Good luck with your adventures in bureaucracy, and I'll see you in class.

[Writing Professor]

P.S. I'm switching classrooms because the original one sucked, so keep an eye out for an email telling you where the new location is.



Okay, now I'm teary-eyed. So I can write. This was from a professor who was expecting junk from a wannabee "genre" writer. And, barring any more financial aid problems (I'm still hoping what's going on now can be resolved), I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year as part of my class.

He didn't need as much as I thought. teaphile, I think this let's you off the hook, but if you still want to beta "Out Of Bounds" I would welcome it.

Okay, guys. I think this has been successfully "de-fanfic'd." The trick is inventing and inserting a original back story (two back stories in this case) and describing the characters that we usually can already visualize from canon.

My question to you -- especially if you haven't read my SG-1 fics -- does the story work for you? Does the back story make sense?

Possible problems:

- Pacing may have been screwed up by adding detail.
- Descriptions of characters may still be lacking.
- The back story might not be believable, or might not be clear. (For example, I may need to add a briefing room scene, though I really want to try to keep all the action to just the firing range.)
- My invented character names could be laaaaaaame.
- The story could just be flat-out boring without the "hook" of already loving the characters.


( First Time A Soldier, remastered. )

Since the prof sneereth at sci-fi and fantasy ("I'm not going to allow the other students to write genre fiction"), I picked a story that I could take out of sci-fi.

The goal is to prove to the professor that I'm experienced enough that I can take on the 50,000-word nanowrimo as my one of my assignments for the course. I want to do nanowrimo this year, but I'm afraid that if I don't include with my creative writing classwork, either nano or my homework will suffer badly.

So. What do you think?

Welcome to the Fanfiction Chop Shop, where fanfics are taken apart and turned into "real" fiction for the sake of creative writing instructors.

Here we demonstrate that the fanfic author can write, so that said professor will allow a certain fanfic author (namely, me) to include Nanowrimo as part of the creative writing class in the fall.

Cool, huh?

Here's the trick: It can't even look like fanfiction by the time I'm done with it. In fact, he's even iffy about genre fiction, but willing to observe a genre fic that has strong characterization and a plot that doesn't hinge on the cool sci-fi/magical shit.

This means the story I slice apart and buff a little (or a lot) needs to demonstrate:

1) I can write plot, a discernable story arc
2) I can write believable characters (trickier than you think with fanfiction, because we're riffing off canon we already know)
3) I can write setting
4) I can write a clear and consistent character POV
5) it can't be porn

Damn. Yeah. That last one's a toughie. That just took out almost all of my stories (so much for Beg Me For It).

So, the chop shop door is open. Seedy-looking criminals are ready with the grinders, welding equipment, and paint to take a story apart. Now I just need your opinion. Which story or stories should I try to turn into "original" fiction? What's doable do ya think?

[Poll #811473]

ETA: Sorry this is so wide. I wrote my own poll code and didn't know the text box would do that. Grgh. It won't let me edit the poll.

ETA2: Darn. I forgot to include Traces Through Time. Pretend it's there.