Writer's Meme
Jul. 4th, 2016 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miri_uchihaA/N: Another survey because that's all the motivation I have to produce.
-x-
What made you sit down and actually write something?
- The need to remember. There are a handful of times where I'm just lying on my bed and suddenly a story idea comes to mind. But then I selfishly thought that I would remember it the next morning. It was a really good and interesting idea too, but ... unfortunately I didn't remember half of the idea and thus, lost really good stories because of it. Now, whenever I get a story idea, whether it's great or lackluster, I still try to write it down.
What is the first fanfic that you've completed?
- A reader-insert chaptered fic in the fandom of Yu Yu Hakusho. I have bad memories associated with that particular fanfic. And while I enjoyed writing the story at the time, the response that I got from my readers, were critical and hurtful. It was the first time that I've ever posted a story for the public to read and I expected everyone to be amazed by it. That imagination was broken immediately and I cried because of the criticisms that were sent to me. However, looking back at those comments, I could see that I had been blinded by my perception of being a good writer and that people wouldn't leave mean comments or give me constructive criticism. I thought they were out to get me, but only did I stay in the writing fandom a little bit longer, did I realize that they weren't mean, but were just trying to help me get better.
How did you get your idea for your first fanfic?
- It was easy because there wasn't much thought to it at all, unlike now. Back then, my thinking process was simple. If I liked a certain character, then I wanted to be the one that they fall in love with. (I really was self-centered back then). I wanted every character to like me and at the time, I didn't know those characteristics were of a Mary-Sue (which I've come to detest SO MUCH). Now, I am more focused on the character that I love and having other characters love them, than putting myself into the story and having every character love me.
How did you promote your fanfics to readers?
- Through any Fanfiction writing site I could find, such as Fanfiction.Net, Lunaescence Archives, Livejournal, and a few others I can't really remember the name to.
Have you ever been anxious about how the readers receive your story?
- Back in the first five years of writing fanfiction, I worried about how the character's attitude would come off to the readers. I remember apologizing to my readers if I made a character say mean things to another character, believing that the readers would get offended. Now, I tell myself that it's part of the character's personality and that in real life, people actually do act that way, even to the extremes. So I don't apologize when a character seems offending to people, because I know that it's part of the character's persona.
How do you prepare yourself before writing a fanfic?
- I don't. I just dive right into the story before I forget what I had already planned for the story to be.
Do you work out the plotline or do you prefer to see where your ideas or inspiration takes you?
- A little bit of both. Whenever I see a general story line (from a prompt), with just a snap of a finger, I've already outlined what I wanted the story to be, inside my head. All the tiny details are filled in when I start writing the story. So, the story doesn't become clear until I write it. In the beginning stages, I would only have a general feeling of what the story should be and the idea might change in the middle, and whatever I had planned in the beginning might be taken out or transformed into something else entirely, but nothing is set in stone for me.
When and how does your inspiration or muse come to you?
- Randomly, whether it's a picture of a person that I'm writing about or when I'm listening to a song that elicits a story out of me.
How do you think you have evolved creatively throughout the years? Do you notice any change in the way you write?
- Back when I started writing fanfiction, I only wanted to satisfy my fantasies that were blooming in my head. Now, I want to write stories that hold messages for people and to make people think twice about a certain situation. I want my readers to learn something but at the same time, get some entertainment out of it. If asked, I would say that I haven't changed my writing style since I've begun writing nine years ago. But if I read all of the stories that I've written from my very first fanfic until my recent one, it's very obvious that I've gone through many changes in my writing style and it's weird how it's so obvious in my writings, but consciously, I don't feel like I have changed at all.
How important are readers and their comments?
- I used to be obsessed with seeing comments, because comments showed that your stories were liked and I wanted to be that writer that got 50K comments in one story and have other writers be jealous of me. I still haven't gotten nearly as much to this day, but I'm not bummed out about it anymore because I've realized that I tend to write about unpopular pairings in every fandom that I've been a part of and that makes me take a step back and not get disappointed as much.
Any words for silent readers?
- As a silent reader myself sometimes, I would say that as long as you comment on a story that evokes a strong emotion within you, then you shouldn't feel guilty about not leaving a comment on a story that seemed 'okay' to you. Those writers that jail their stories by not releasing a new chapter until they get a certain amount of comments, don't have a passion in writing in my eyes or that their self-esteem about their writing abilities is low and they need constant comments to boost them, which I hope over time, they would get out of that phase and be more comfortable that there are people who like what they've put out. If you're forced to feel guilty about not commenting on a story, then don't comment and get away from that type of negativity that only fuels their positivity. I'm saying that it's okay if you don't comment, as long as you comment on something that you, as a reader, feel like commenting on.
-x-
What made you sit down and actually write something?
- The need to remember. There are a handful of times where I'm just lying on my bed and suddenly a story idea comes to mind. But then I selfishly thought that I would remember it the next morning. It was a really good and interesting idea too, but ... unfortunately I didn't remember half of the idea and thus, lost really good stories because of it. Now, whenever I get a story idea, whether it's great or lackluster, I still try to write it down.
What is the first fanfic that you've completed?
- A reader-insert chaptered fic in the fandom of Yu Yu Hakusho. I have bad memories associated with that particular fanfic. And while I enjoyed writing the story at the time, the response that I got from my readers, were critical and hurtful. It was the first time that I've ever posted a story for the public to read and I expected everyone to be amazed by it. That imagination was broken immediately and I cried because of the criticisms that were sent to me. However, looking back at those comments, I could see that I had been blinded by my perception of being a good writer and that people wouldn't leave mean comments or give me constructive criticism. I thought they were out to get me, but only did I stay in the writing fandom a little bit longer, did I realize that they weren't mean, but were just trying to help me get better.
How did you get your idea for your first fanfic?
- It was easy because there wasn't much thought to it at all, unlike now. Back then, my thinking process was simple. If I liked a certain character, then I wanted to be the one that they fall in love with. (I really was self-centered back then). I wanted every character to like me and at the time, I didn't know those characteristics were of a Mary-Sue (which I've come to detest SO MUCH). Now, I am more focused on the character that I love and having other characters love them, than putting myself into the story and having every character love me.
How did you promote your fanfics to readers?
- Through any Fanfiction writing site I could find, such as Fanfiction.Net, Lunaescence Archives, Livejournal, and a few others I can't really remember the name to.
Have you ever been anxious about how the readers receive your story?
- Back in the first five years of writing fanfiction, I worried about how the character's attitude would come off to the readers. I remember apologizing to my readers if I made a character say mean things to another character, believing that the readers would get offended. Now, I tell myself that it's part of the character's personality and that in real life, people actually do act that way, even to the extremes. So I don't apologize when a character seems offending to people, because I know that it's part of the character's persona.
How do you prepare yourself before writing a fanfic?
- I don't. I just dive right into the story before I forget what I had already planned for the story to be.
Do you work out the plotline or do you prefer to see where your ideas or inspiration takes you?
- A little bit of both. Whenever I see a general story line (from a prompt), with just a snap of a finger, I've already outlined what I wanted the story to be, inside my head. All the tiny details are filled in when I start writing the story. So, the story doesn't become clear until I write it. In the beginning stages, I would only have a general feeling of what the story should be and the idea might change in the middle, and whatever I had planned in the beginning might be taken out or transformed into something else entirely, but nothing is set in stone for me.
When and how does your inspiration or muse come to you?
- Randomly, whether it's a picture of a person that I'm writing about or when I'm listening to a song that elicits a story out of me.
How do you think you have evolved creatively throughout the years? Do you notice any change in the way you write?
- Back when I started writing fanfiction, I only wanted to satisfy my fantasies that were blooming in my head. Now, I want to write stories that hold messages for people and to make people think twice about a certain situation. I want my readers to learn something but at the same time, get some entertainment out of it. If asked, I would say that I haven't changed my writing style since I've begun writing nine years ago. But if I read all of the stories that I've written from my very first fanfic until my recent one, it's very obvious that I've gone through many changes in my writing style and it's weird how it's so obvious in my writings, but consciously, I don't feel like I have changed at all.
How important are readers and their comments?
- I used to be obsessed with seeing comments, because comments showed that your stories were liked and I wanted to be that writer that got 50K comments in one story and have other writers be jealous of me. I still haven't gotten nearly as much to this day, but I'm not bummed out about it anymore because I've realized that I tend to write about unpopular pairings in every fandom that I've been a part of and that makes me take a step back and not get disappointed as much.
Any words for silent readers?
- As a silent reader myself sometimes, I would say that as long as you comment on a story that evokes a strong emotion within you, then you shouldn't feel guilty about not leaving a comment on a story that seemed 'okay' to you. Those writers that jail their stories by not releasing a new chapter until they get a certain amount of comments, don't have a passion in writing in my eyes or that their self-esteem about their writing abilities is low and they need constant comments to boost them, which I hope over time, they would get out of that phase and be more comfortable that there are people who like what they've put out. If you're forced to feel guilty about not commenting on a story, then don't comment and get away from that type of negativity that only fuels their positivity. I'm saying that it's okay if you don't comment, as long as you comment on something that you, as a reader, feel like commenting on.
