Continued Adventures: The Fanfic Thread

[Dianthus]

But that's part of my point - Hook isn't a last name (which you point out yourself in saying his name isn't Killian Hook), so Emma doesn't really call anyone by last names at all. which is part of why when she does in stories, my brain is like, "wait, what?"

If I may, Hook doesn't refer to anyone else by last name, either, only Emma. He generally uses titles with the others (if they have one).

I can see Emma calling Hook "Jones" to make a point, or to be playful, so long as that's not the only way she refers to him through the whole story. Kinda like her use of Hook's "mates" back in Neverland (points for trying the accent too - I thought she did a decent job of it.)

[Stuffy]

The name stuff doesn't bother me unless it's an AU where Hook has a hand but his nickname is Hook.

I've said it more than once but my OUAT fiction pet peeve (apart from simple grammar rules like knowing to, two, and too) is the description of Emma's eyes being green. Because until they tell me differently, Emma has Jennifer Morrison's eye color. Jennifer's eyes are blue or grey with a brownish color around the pupil. They are not green. Now the brownish color can make them look greenish but they're not. Even after Lana gave an interview describing Jennifer/Emma as having blue eyes and blonde hair people still said she had it wrong. It's stupid but it immediately takes me out of a story.

Edited December 2, 2014 by Stuffy

[Minneapple]

Navigating tumblr and ff.net, and even AO3 to an extent can be a scary experience. So I just wanted to drop a thank you to everyone in this thread for all the great fic recs!

[OnceUponSomeChaos]

But that's part of my point - Hook isn't a last name (which you point out yourself in saying his name isn't Killian Hook), so Emma doesn't really call anyone by last names at all. which is part of why when she does in stories, my brain is like, "wait, what?"

Reread what you quoted again. I was talking about how Hook is the only one who uses "Swan" (last name) as an actual name (anyone else has used "Miss" before it) and therefore he's the only one who calls Emma by her last name like it's a first name. Because he does this, I can see how she would logically follow his example (in AU) to call him by his last name instead of his first, although not necessarily all the time. It could easily be a thing between them, and only them, even if she calls everyone else by their first names.

Although technically.. everyone called Peter Pan "Pan".. which is kinda like his last name... :-)

 

[RadioGirl27]

White Light on a Black Sea has been finally updated!!

[allyj128]

I caved and finally got a tumblr. What are all of y'all's tumbler's again?? 

 

I need to figure this bananas new world out. On the plus side, it will theoretically make me so much more relevant to the college girls I advise. They are all obsessed with it.

[sharky]

I'm at athenascarlet on tumblr. Also, just posted links to a new story I wrote on FF and AO3 so now you have to follow me. ;-)

[RadioGirl27]

I'm radiogirl27 there. I don't write fanfiction but I reblog a lot.

[CatMack]

I'm catcmack.  I haven't written fic in a long time but I occasionally reblog.  And make pretty gifs.  Also there are cats.  A lot of cats. 

[allyj128]

Thanks, everyone! brighterthansunshine28 on both tumblr and ff.net (haven't *yet* written and CS ff....but you never know). I'll be following y'all shortly!

 

Oh, and I haven't totally figured out this whole tumblr thing. Who else in the OUAT fandom do you follow? What other cool tumblrs do you follow??

Edited December 6, 2014 by allyj128

[daxx]

daxx04 Don't write but I reblog a lot from some great OUAT blogs.

[Rumsy4]

My tumblr name is aloha-4-ever. I think this topic needs to be in the Meet Market thread, though.

Yay on White Light finally being updated!!

[allyj128]

Oops, you're right. For whatever reason I thought this conversation was in here, but it was in the Meet Market. My bad. 

[sharky]

Have anyone else read a horribly edited story with bad grammar just so they could see what happens next? I feel dirty. It was a nice sweet fanfic but totally cringe-worthy.

[Mari]

Ha!  Not all the way through--I finally skipped to the end, just because I was curious.

 

I will also admit to occasionally reading really, extremely out of character fic (that the writer clearly thinks is in character) just to see how bad it gets.

[Dani-Ellie]

I know all authors are different, but as an author, if I'm straying OOC, I like to be told. In a polite way, of course, and especially when I'm still trying to get a handle on the characters, but yeah, please tell me. I'd rather have to adjust some things in my writing than write a hundred and one stories with wildly OOC characters. ;)

 

That said, some of the OOC things I've seen are so very OOC that I have a very hard time believing the author and I are watching the same show, haha.

[sharky]

Speaking of which, I think I may have gone a little OOC with this new fic but thought you guys would like it.

Jail and Bail: FF and AO3

[Mari]

That said, some of the OOC things I've seen are so very OOC that I have a very hard time believing the author and I are watching the same show, haha.

Yes. Emma suddenly spouting pet names at Hook continuously while having newly hysterical mood swings at Snow, David, and Regina. Selling Rumple out to a random mob boss she knows from her childhood for enjoyable revenge while wearing something super glamorous and girly.

Things like this might be entertaining, but they're not exactly Emma.

Edited December 9, 2014 by Mari

[allyj128]

I posted my first OUAT drabble on FF: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10880897/1/The-Realization and AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/2747231

 

 

Sharky - I loved the start to Jail and Bail!!

[Rumsy4]

I need to check out all your new fics. My muse is completely down right now. 

 

Have anyone else read a horribly edited story with bad grammar just so they could see what happens next? I feel dirty. It was a nice sweet fanfic but totally cringe-worthy.

 

LOL. Yup. I can usually get by as long as at least two of these three things: plot, characterization, and language, are good. I usually don't mind it if the language isn't perfect. But there was this one fic I had to give up because the characters were so OOC, and the spelling and grammar was atrocious. The plot was good, but I still shudder... 

Edited December 10, 2014 by Rumsy4

[Rumsy4]

gp posted a CS christmas drabble yesterday. It was good, but so confusing. I thought she'd written off fanfiction? :-p

[Mockingbird]

Anyone find/write something about what actually happened between Hook and Emma once he got his heart back? Because that cut to Emma drinking with Regina was infuriating. It's not like I want angst, but you don't build up that whole "Hook thinks he's going to die and is being forced to do terrible things" plot only to have it be resolved with a 22 second scene. Bad form, writers. I'm counting on some fics to fix this.

Edited December 16, 2014 by Mockingbird

[Rumsy4]

BK (Bemusedbicycle) wrote one. Hopefully there'll be more! haha

[Rumsy4]

Here's another good one: http://msgenevieve447.tumblr.com/post/105412438346/if-i-lend-it-to-you-will-you-keep-it-safe-for

[Lieutenant]

Speaking of which, I think I may have gone a little OOC with this new fic but thought you guys would like it.

Jail and Bail: FF and AO3

Just got caught up on this one, Sharky.  Super cute!  I think the premise is hilarious, and you've nailed "Lieutenant Jones" quite well; all adorkable and honest and sweet.  I've a soft spot for that version of Killian, if you can't tell from my screen name - ha!

 

Anyone given the new CS au "Between Heaven and Hell" a go?  It's by Alexandra Lyman, who is also writing "Beyond the Horizon", which we all love - 'cuz it's amazing.  Anyway, I've never been way into the supernatural genera (never even seen Buffy.  Yes, yes, I live in a cave...), but if anyone can get me to dip my toes into new waters it's Hook and Emma, lol.  I've really enjoyed it.  It definitely doesn't shy from the 'M' rating, esp when in the skeevy world of sin and filth where the demons live, but I'm definitely intrigued and have enjoyed all the updates.  I really wonder how she's going to be able to ultimately give Killian and Emma a resolution together...if that's even possible.  And all the historical flashbacks/back story are super interesting.

[YaddaYadda]

I really don't read a lot of fics because I'm pretty meh on them, so I wasn't sure at first about this one (Between Heaven and Hell), but I'm actually really enjoying it.  I know it's supposed to be a Captain Swan fic, but she's creating a whole world around it.  I think it takes guts to do that.  If she changed the names and modified certain things, she could try and have it published.

[Rumsy4]

I too am enjoying BHAH. It's fascinating, and her world-building is very good.

[Souris]

This is a lovely fic mostly about Hook & Belle bonding and dealing with what happened with Rumple.

[Dianthus]

Lieutenant, on 18 Dec 2014 - 07:51 AM, said:

Just got caught up on this one, Sharky.  Super cute!  I think the premise is hilarious, and you've nailed "Lieutenant Jones" quite well; all adorkable and honest and sweet.  I've a soft spot for that version of Killian, if you can't tell from my screen name - ha!

 

Anyone given the new CS au "Between Heaven and Hell" a go?  It's by Alexandra Lyman, who is also writing "Beyond the Horizon", which we all love - 'cuz it's amazing.  Anyway, I've never been way into the supernatural genera (never even seen Buffy.  Yes, yes, I live in a cave...), but if anyone can get me to dip my toes into new waters it's Hook and Emma, lol.  I've really enjoyed it.  It definitely doesn't shy from the 'M' rating, esp when in the skeevy world of sin and filth where the demons live, but I'm definitely intrigued and have enjoyed all the updates.  I really wonder how she's going to be able to ultimately give Killian and Emma a resolution together...if that's even possible.  And all the historical flashbacks/back story are super interesting.

You've probably figured out by now that I'm a huge Buffy fan. I recommend it. Meanwhile, I'll give this a try.

Also, too: if you enjoy this, you might want to give Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman a go. It's not a romance, per se, but you've got an angel and a demon working together and it's all good fun.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Dianthus

[ParadoxLost]

Once upon a time seven strangers... picked to live in a hovel... and have their lives scribed ... to find out what happens... when people stop being fairy tales... and start getting real.

 

I need a freaking support group.  I don't know how anyone ever finishes writing a multi-chapter fanfic.  Crackfic calls to me.  It sneaks into everything.  I mean I *know* no one wants to read the Seven Dwarfs do the Real World.  I just needed to get this out before I ended up writing a whole chapter on the subject. So move along now. 

[Mari]

I mean I *know* no one wants to read the Seven Dwarfs do the Real World. 

I don't know, ParadoxLost.  I think you should go for it.  Now that the idea's out into the universe, I can't stop thinking about it. I want to read it, even if it's just to make it stop singing and dancing in my head.   (Sort of like I listened to Dominic the Christmas Donkey today.  It was stuck in my head.  It was a big hit with the teen boys.  They told me it was the best Christmas song, ever.)

[ParadoxLost]

I don't know, ParadoxLost.  I think you should go for it.  Now that the idea's out into the universe, I can't stop thinking about it. I want to read it, even if it's just to make it stop singing and dancing in my head.   (Sort of like I listened to Dominic the Christmas Donkey today.  It was stuck in my head.  It was a big hit with the teen boys.  They told me it was the best Christmas song, ever.)

 

They are wrong.  Percy the Puny Poinsettia is the best Christmas song ever.

 

I'm going to write a serious fanfic.  I won't be diverted.  Or if I'm diverted it won't be about the Seven Dwarves.   

 

I will however share (with very little prompting) the one Once crackfic I ever wrote.  A prologue in which Hook tries to woo Emma using research about how modern pirates conduct themselves (with source material such as McDonald's).  Did I mention crackfic?.  For reasons passing all understanding (to me) no one else wanted to hear about Hook dangling drunkenly upside down from the Jolly Roger singing 'I am a Pirate King' while Emma looked on in red leather.  But the musical is in my head so I'm good.

 

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10026009/1/The-Pirate-Must-Dance

Edited December 19, 2014 by ParadoxLost

[retrograde]

Fanfic isn't usually my bag, but this reworking of Heroes and Villains is frustratingly good. "Frustrating" because it only took fairly minor changes to make the whole episode so much better. One thing I hadn't even thought of until I read this is how much more sense it made for the Frozens to stick around the whole episode and actually help defeat Rumple instead of randomly leaving 3/4 of the way in. Emma and Elsa joining powers to stop him would have been a great coda to the Frozen arc and the friendship they developed. The reveal of the fake dagger for Belle was so much less convoluted than on the show. 

 

The love scene was obviously just for readers, and not something I would reasonably expect this show to include (nor would I really want to see it, honestly). And I do understand that even if the writers hadn't wanted the evil trio in the episode, there was probably network pressure to do so so they could tease them for 4B. But otherwise, this really was a very well thought-out revision of the episode. 

[KingOfHearts]

 

Fanfic isn't usually my bag, but this reworking of Heroes and Villains is frustratingly good.

 

Funny how even the unchanged dialog sounds so much better when its in text form. Not sure why. The quality of the writing is so much better. Sometimes I think the fans would do a better job writing the show.

 

I did like the twist that Belle actually knew about the dagger.

Edited December 21, 2014 by KingOfHearts

[kitticup]

http://archiveofourown.org/works/2846774/chapters/6384134 This is a cute Xmas story in progress. It is how Hook met Santa Claus.

[Rumsy4]

This is not a OUAT fic, but OMG!! I had to share it. If this is the wrong thread, I apologize to the mods. I came across this fic (http://archiveofourown.org/works/690880/chapters/1269360) that I inhaled! It's based on greek mythology, and Hades & Persephone are the main characters. There are lots of well-fleshed out secondary and supporting characters including Demeter (obv), the god of Death, Charon the boatman, Hermes, and so on. There is an overarching plot, and some intriguing little sub-plots as well.

Oh, and as a warning, it has a mature rating for a reason. ;-) It would be great if they brought greek mythology into the show, if it was certain the writers wouldn't ruin it. There--I tied it back to ONCE. ;-) If any of you read this fic, I would love to discuss it via PM.

[Lieutenant]

Thanks for the fic rec, Rumsy!  I'll have to check it out.

 

If anyone's interested, there's been a little Christmas one shot added to the "Bella Notte" CS au verse: here.  It's absolutely adorable.

[Rumsy4]

You're welcome! There are so many christmas CS fics to catch up on!!

[Selina K]

I wrote a little 1000 word CS scene to resolve "Heroes and Villains" a bit more satisfactorily to my CS mind.  I've never posted any ff before and was hoping someone could look at it since I am usually hideous at self-editing and fill me in on the etiquette of posting on ff.net or AO3 or if it is even worth posting.  Please PM me if you would be interested in helping a first timer out or if there is a better place I should post this ask, please let me know! TIA!

[Selina K]

Resolution

 

I published my additional CS scene for 4.11.  Thank you for all offers of help!  I'm such a newbie I didn't even know one would call a draft a beta, so thank you!

[sharky]

Actually, your draft is your draft. The people who edit it are your betas. :-)

[Selina K]

See - total n00b!  I'll learn yet.  I find the whole idea of posting something 'creative' to be terrifying.  I've been on boards like this for 20 years, but creative work is a whole different ball game.

[ParadoxLost]

So are there any other writers out there?  I've finally decided that I need to figure out if I'm weird.  I'm procrastinating because all of Rumpel's dialogue is rhyming like he's being written by Dr. Seuss and I need to get it to stop.  But that isn't the 'am I weird' question.

 

I've written a few things before and my process just doesn't seem normal to me.  I tend to come up with a scene or kernel of a story idea.  Then I find a gimmick.  Not on purpose, but I never start writing until a gimmick grabs me and won't let go.  Then I turn that into some unwieldy creative writing challenge that is completely out of my control.   Most of the time I outline with the gimmick to build a framework.  Not story beats for the outline.  I'm talking pure gimmick like each section will be based on one line from the Brady Bunch theme song.  Then I fill in the pieces of the story I know in the appropriate places.  Then I force myself to brainstorm and fill in the empty sections to get from A to B.  OK, I never go from A to B. 

 

I've written stories in random order.  I've written stories backwards.  I once wrote a story by pulling random words out of a hat.  That was technically my first fanfic (a college assignment) and may explain a lot.  I have no idea how to explain what I'm doing now.  I've never written fanfic beginning , middle, and then end.

 

I seem to abdicate responsibility to the sections I'm forced to brainstorm to finish, like the story is in control.  Characters die, not my fault.  Musical number, not my fault.  Crackfic, not my fault.

 

Do other writers work in a more linear fashion?  Do you write what you want to happen or do you feel like the story requires certain events/characters even though as a reader (of your own story) you would want something different (like the total absence of Henry)?

[Dani-Ellie]

Ooh, a process post! Yay!

 

For me, I have to write linearly. Mostly this is because I don't outline. I can't. A whole chunk of the fun for me is seeing where the story goes. Planning it all out beforehand through an outline take so much of the fun out of it. (This, as you can imagine, was very problematic in school. I was lucky enough to have a couple of teachers who would let me hand in drafts instead of outlines.)

 

So what'll happen is I'll have an idea of what I want to do with the story but I won't always know how the characters are going to accomplish what I want them to do. (Yes, I have written myself into many, many a corner this way, but it's how I have to work. If I outline a story, I kind of feel like I've already written in and then have no desire to actually write the thing.) But a lot of times what will happen is as I write and as the story develops, I'll suddenly have a little epiphany and be all, "This! OMG this is the ending of the story!"

 

And then I have to wait to write it because I can't write it until it's time for it because I have to write linearly, haha.

 

To give an example, I once wrote a pre-series Supernatural story about John leaving Sam and Dean at a haunted motel (without knowing it was haunted). The ghost was a little five-year-old girl who'd been killed on the premises, but she didn't know she was dead. And as I was writing the scene where she's explaining to Sam why she's hanging around (because her mom always told her if she ever got lost, she should stay where she was so her mom could find her), it hit me that that was how they were going to get her to cross over: by convincing her to go "home" because her mom had found her. It's not something I planned at all when I came up with the idea ... it just came to me halfway through the story, heh.

 

Now sometimes, if I'm sitting on an idea for some reason (I can only write one story at a time, so sometimes I'll be ruminating on an idea for my next story while working on the current one), I will end up planning the whole story from start to finish in my head. Those are the stories that end up getting written in like, a week and a half and I end up posting chapters every other day.

 

Do you write what you want to happen or do you feel like the story requires certain events/characters even though as a reader (of your own story) you would want something different (like the total absence of Henry)?

 

Mostly I write what I would want to see and hope others want to see those things, too. I won't put certain elements in a story that I don't feel belong there even if I have a reader asking me for them (like, 99.8% of the time, Regina's not going to show up in my Charming Family stuff). I've definitely had chapters take turns I never intended when I started writing and I've certainly had the characters take off on their own but most of the time, I'm okay with what comes out. If I'm not okay with it, I rewrite it until I am. (There was one chapter in I think "Crumbling Walls" that I must have rewritten five or six times because the characters kept taking it to angstier places than I really wanted and I felt like it was reading like melodrama for the sake of it. Trying to reel that sucker in was a nightmare.)

[Souris]

I never write strictly linearly. Things tend to come to me in chunks, not necessarily chronologically. It might be a scene, an image I want to describe, a plot point or a section of dialogue. I get those down, then I go back and "fill in the blanks," which generally takes more effort because I'm not as "inspired" by the connecting bits.

 

And I tend to get in a "dialogue" or a "description" groove (or rut) -- one day all I can produce is dialogue, the next day only description and emotion. That's why it takes me so long; I have to even things out later.

[ParadoxLost]

So what'll happen is I'll have an idea of what I want to do with the story but I won't always know how the characters are going to accomplish what I want them to do. (Yes, I have written myself into many, many a corner this way, but it's how I have to work. If I outline a story, I kind of feel like I've already written in and then have no desire to actually write the thing.)

 

This is how I write too.  But I think that putting myself into a corner is something I do on purpose and that is probably why I skip around, to force myself to figure out the middle without changing the end.  I have fics that have "rules" to writing them that force me into a corner.  Like I do a story where each chapter is an AU of an episode where everything happens but is totally different due to offscreensville (already hard).  Only I don't have very good memory of what happens in the subsequent episodes and I don't allow myself a refresher.  So I end up doing a lot of stuff like little throwaway couple moment with a jacket.  Whoops.  Six day heat wave in the next episode, lets do a whole chapter explaining the jacket during the hottest part of summer in six flirty couple vignettes.

 

But this is the stuff that I write that I like best because its where the humor and relationship stuff comes out of me instead of just plot.

 

Now sometimes, if I'm sitting on an idea for some reason (I can only write one story at a time, so sometimes I'll be ruminating on an idea for my next story while working on the current one), I will end up planning the whole story from start to finish in my head.

 

This is not me.  I write crackfic in my head in the middle of other stories.  I sometimes can't control it.  I had to create a crackfic anthology after throwing a shark at a character in a dream sequence once.  I was watching Sharknado and felt the need to lash out at SyFy.  Knew I was going to alienate readers. It wasn't that kind of fic.  I did it anyways.  If Rumpel does not stop rhyming, I'm going to do that for OUAT before I finish writing what I am working on. 

 

Mostly I write what I would want to see and hope others want to see those things, too. I won't put certain elements in a story that I don't feel belong there even if I have a reader asking me for them (like, 99.8% of the time, Regina's not going to show up in my Charming Family stuff). I've definitely had chapters take turns I never intended when I started writing and I've certainly had the characters take off on their own but most of the time, I'm okay with what comes out. If I'm not okay with it, I rewrite it until I am.

 

I write until I'm happy with something.  I just sometimes find myself surprised at which characters show up in the fanfic.  I tend to start out with.  OK, this is CaptainSwan.  Charming Family can be included.  Then I bring myself around to having Regina, Rumpel, and Henry as part of the story because they are part of the tapestry of the show and become necessary to the story.  Watching the show, I'm usually wishing Henry into a well never to be seen again.  In fanfic, its hard to do a story without him without going completely AU. 

 

I really don't like writing AU.  I'd say canon is my jumping off point.  I don't like to ever say anything never happened which makes my slow writing kind of a problem.

Edited January 13, 2015 by ParadoxLost

[Dani-Ellie]

I never write strictly linearly. Things tend to come to me in chunks, not necessarily chronologically. It might be a scene, an image I want to describe, a plot point or a section of dialogue. I get those down, then I go back and "fill in the blanks," which generally takes more effort because I'm not as "inspired" by the connecting bits.

 

And I tend to get in a "dialogue" or a "description" groove (or rut) -- one day all I can produce is dialogue, the next day only description and emotion. That's why it takes me so long; I have to even things out later.

 

I'll have mental guideposts. Like, I may know I want to hit Plot Point A and Plot Point B but I can't write Plot Point B until I work up to it because I don't always know how I'm going to get there. What happens, then, is that Plot Point B comes out in like twenty minutes because I've had it planned in my head since the beginning of the story and my brain is all, "Finally! We can get this out on paper now!"

 

My first drafts are generally very dry. There's not a lot of kick to the descriptions or the dialogue; it's more about seeing where the story goes in this chapter. My second draft is a line-by-line rewrite and that's where I beef up the descriptions and add humor to the dialogue and the inner monologue. I regularly double my word count from first draft to second. All subsequent drafts are just fiddling with wording and adding things here and removing things there. (The exception to this is when I do a writing exercise because one of the self-imposed rules of the writing exercises is no editing after the fact. So when I'm doing an exercise, I pay more attention to the description and humor and emotions the first time around since I know I won't be going back at it for round two.) I do, however, have days where writing just is not working. Sometimes I just need to set it aside for an hour or so. Sometimes I have to set it aside for the day and pick it back up the next.

 

But this is the stuff that I write that I like best because its where the humor and relationship stuff comes out of me instead of just plot.

 

 

I'll have chapters like that, where stuff just happens and I have absolutely no idea where it came from. I have fun with those chapters.

 

 

 

This is not me.  I write crackfic in my head in the middle of other stories.  I sometimes can't control it.  I had to create a crackfic anthology after throwing a shark at a character in a dream sequence once.  I was watching Sharknado and felt the need to lash out at SyFy.  Knew I was going to alienate readers. It wasn't that kind of fic.  I did it anyways.  If Rumpel does not stop rhyming, I'm going to do that for OUAT before I finish writing what I am working on.

 

I've tried to write two stories at once and it just does not work for me. I end up getting confused and it ends up slowing the process down for both stories. On rare occasions, I've set aside a multi-chapter to bang out a one-shot that won't leave me alone but for the most part, I'm only working on one thing at a time.

 

 

 

I write until I'm happy with something.  I just sometimes find myself surprised at which characters show up in the fanfic.  I tend to start out with.  OK, this is CaptainSwan.  Charming Family can be included.  Then I bring myself around to having Regina, Rumpel, and Henry as part of the story because they are part of the tapestry of the show and become necessary to the story.  Watching the show, I'm usually wishing Henry into a well never to be seen again.  In fanfic, its hard to do a story without him without going completely AU.

 

I really don't like writing AU.  I'd say canon is my jumping off point.  I don't like to ever say anything never happened which makes my slow writing kind of a problem.

 

I'll throw characters in if I need them to be there for plot reasons, but if my goal is to write, say, a Charming Family bonding piece (which is 90% of what my stuff is, haha), having, say Regina show up would be disrupting what I want to do. (Especially the ones I was setting at the point in the show when Regina was actively plotting to kill the Charmings!)

 

I don't like writing AU, either. I've had people give me vaguely AU prompts and I've asked to adapt them sightly so that I can still write the meat of the prompt in a way I'm more comfortable with. Thankfully the prompters have been good with that! I try to set my stuff so that it can fit between episodes (or even between the scenes of certain episodes). There's so much opportunity with this show for missing-scene fic or episode codas and imagining the stuff that happens in Offscreensville. If the show canon-balls my stuff after the fact, oh well, but I do try, when I set things earlier in the timeline, to make it as canon-compliant as I can. (I do, however, continue to write Season Two Snow, even in my post-season two fics, because I can't stand what they've done with her and Emma and from the reviews I get on them, I'm not the only one.)

Edited January 13, 2015 by Dani-Ellie

[Selina K]

I have ideas for scenes, like the CS scene I wrote, when they're glaringly obviously missing.  I need a kernel of the story handed to me, and then I can elaborate from there.  I don't need characters per se, but like with the CS scene I had 'resolve heart / angst storyline' and all of the backstory that led to it.  The only other thing I've 'published' online was a short story where we got the characters names and a title, and then we had to write a romance novel type story to fit.  I got 'Longing for the Vigilant Outlaw' and 2 Welsh names, and could build from that.  I feel like the kind of writer I could be would be a ghost writer or script writer because if someone gives me the big arc and the goal, I can write in the details to support it, but seldom come up with a fascinating premise on my own.  Once I have that, I can write in a linear fashion though ideas for stuff that will happen later pop into my head and I jot down notes or conversation snippets I want to remember at the bottom of the page so I can use them when I get to that part.

[sharky]

So I'm like Dani-Ellie -- I have to write linear. I have several scenes in my head that need to be connected and if I just wrote those scenes I couldn't motivate myself to fill in all the pieces.

I've actually started to do canon divergent and the biggest project I'm working on now is totally alternate universe, which is something I haven't tried before. Fingers crossed this doesn't crash and burn.

And I really need to be motivated by a pairing to write fanfic. I wrote lots of Jim/Pam fanfic and then lost interest in The Office and therefore lost interest in writing. So Captain Swan has been a really good motivator to get writing again.

[ParadoxLost]

I feel a tiny twinge of shame for this, but I just need to know.  I really like getting feedback on fanfic.  It helps motivate me.  Good. Bad.  I can make use of it all.  I   I just want to know that I'm not throwing something into the abyss.  I get pleasure out of writing, but there is a portion of the work that is for me and after that the story is done enough in my head.  I could stop at that point, but I commit the rest to 'paper' for the readers.

 

I only have one fandom to compare to for OUAT, and by comparison, OUAT sucks in terms of finding readers and getting any feedback much less quality feedback.  I'm talking about the lifetime views of my OUAT fic being less than half the first day of any other fic I've ever written, even when I was completely new at this.  Frankly, I thought maybe I don't mesh well with OUAT fandom or my summary was really that bad but scanning fanfiction.net, It seems a pretty universal thing at least in terms of low number of reviews.

 

So is fanfiction.net not the place to post OUAT fic?  Is there just too much fanfic vs. readers and its hard to find an audience to sample new fics? Or is it just me?

 

I've had to resort to completing this latest fic before posting anything because I know lack of views/reviews will sap my motivation.  I kind of wish I could get back into that other show enough to write about it,