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The Fan-fic Ideas and Advice Thread.

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    The Fan-fic Ideas and Advice Thread.

    Supposing you had an idea for a fic, and you'd started writing it, but you weren't sure if it was worth continuing with?

    Or maybe it's all in your head, you've not written anything down yet?

    Maybe you're just looking for a little bit of advice and encouragement, "This is my idea, would you read this story? Do you think I should continue with it?"

    With that in mind, I throw the floor open to you...
    sigpic
    Long before you and I were born, others beat these benches with their empty cups,
    To the night and its stars, to the here and now with who we are.

    Another sunrise with my sad captains, with who I choose to lose my mind,
    And if it's all we only pass this way but once, what a perfect waste of time.

    #2
    Worth continuing, how? Is an idea only worth spending time on if you can get hits from people reading it? Or might it not be worth writing no matter what in order to practice your craft?

    Seaboe
    If you're going to allow yourself to be offended by a cat, you might as well just pack it in -- Steven Brust

    Comment


      #3
      "Worth continuing with" in the sense of hitting a block, and having no idea how to progress further.

      Hence the "Advice" part of the thread title.
      sigpic
      Long before you and I were born, others beat these benches with their empty cups,
      To the night and its stars, to the here and now with who we are.

      Another sunrise with my sad captains, with who I choose to lose my mind,
      And if it's all we only pass this way but once, what a perfect waste of time.

      Comment


        #4
        Depends. If i think the block can fairly easily be overcome, i'd focus on that. If it seems too hard, i'd just skip that part and move on. The solution may present itself down the line.

        It also depends on whether you're writing for an audience, or writing for writing's sake.
        Last edited by thekillman; 31 January 2018, 09:20 AM.

        Comment


          #5
          Sometimes talking it out with someone can get you past that block.
          or I used to go for a walk and let my brain relax and then I’d sometimes come up with an idea.

          worth continuing.....well there is no fic out there that everyone hates and there is no fic out there that everyone loves so there will always be an audience for any story.

          Ive had surprise hits, I’ve also had stories that I liked that few readers seemed to, and I can be surprised when people are still finding and reading 15 year old fic.
          Where in the World is George Hammond?


          sigpic

          Comment


            #6
            Can you think of an scene that would come later in the story? Can you think of a resolution to the problem posed before you ran into the block?

            Or did you solve the initial problem you posed, and cannot think of anything else to do with the characters?

            If the latter, I'd call it done and move on. If the former, I'd work on the parts I could and come back later to fill in the missing scenes (if necessary).

            Seaboe
            If you're going to allow yourself to be offended by a cat, you might as well just pack it in -- Steven Brust

            Comment


              #7
              Subscribes to thread!

              Originally posted by Seaboe Muffinchucker View Post
              Worth continuing, how? Is an idea only worth spending time on if you can get hits from people reading it? Or might it not be worth writing no matter what in order to practice your craft?
              As someone whose fics are hardly read, that should be the least of your worries.

              The idea should be worth my time, not anyone else's. I think that's more important, and I think that's when the block comes lurking around that proverbial corner the fastest, so bouncing ideas of someone definitely helps (even if it's only the cat -- I still get weird looks for that one).

              Originally posted by Skydiver View Post
              Sometimes talking it out with someone can get you past that block.
              or I used to go for a walk and let my brain relax and then I’d sometimes come up with an idea.
              My best ideas happen in the bath tub.... doesn't even have to be full...
              Heightmeyer's Lemming -- still the coolest Lemming of the forum

              Proper Stargate Rewatch -- season 10 of SG-1

              Comment


                #8
                Too many ideas, not only for fanfic in my case, lacking of concentration, which makes it hard to write anything because ideas seem old and boring before I wrote them down since my mind thinks further and something else already

                Comment


                  #9
                  I've a couple of ideas I've been working on, on and off, for the past few years. Some of it's written down, most of it's in my head.

                  The first story - working title "The Ranger, the Wizard, and the Castle" - is a kind-of-sort-of Harry Potter fic.

                  One of the things I'd always thought odd about the HP stories, was that the majority of the wizarding folk seem to have this curious blind spot about doing someone actual physical harm. Which probably explains why Malfoy was so surprised when Hermione walloped him one in "Prisoner of Azkaban".

                  So, with that in mind, the bare bones of my story is as follows.

                  It's a few years after the events of the novels, and the wizarding world is only just beginning to get back on an even keel following the Voldemort years and their immediate aftermath.

                  Then 9/11 happens. The Ministry of Magic soon reaches the conclusion that muggle society is becoming ever more dangerous, and that Hogwarts students require some extra tuition in its whys and wherefores - "Forewarned is forearmed" as the saying goes.

                  The result, is the ARMS course - Advanced Research into Muggle Society. The problem is, they have no one suitable to teach it.

                  Eventually, through contacts with MACUSA and the US Embassy in London, the Ministry happens upon Capt. Jack Hunter - formerly of the 75th Ranger Regiment, US Army.

                  Hunter is at something of a loose end. Due to a series of bureaucratic foul ups following an assignment in Eastern Europe which went bad, Hunter has been declared legally dead. Pay stopped, bank accounts frozen, no passport etc.

                  For the past few months, he's been living with his younger sister, Meredith (Merry to her friends) Hunter, who runs a small preschool.
                  In an attempt to make ends meet, he's been doing odd jobs here and there for cash in hand, and visiting his contact at the Embassy every couple of weeks in an attempt to dig himself out of the bureaucratic hole he's found himself in.

                  He's getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress, and giving serious thought to resigning his commission and starting over, when he gets this mysterious job offer - a teaching position at an exclusive school for a year, contact Mr. H. Potter at 12 Grimmauld Place for further details...
                  sigpic
                  Long before you and I were born, others beat these benches with their empty cups,
                  To the night and its stars, to the here and now with who we are.

                  Another sunrise with my sad captains, with who I choose to lose my mind,
                  And if it's all we only pass this way but once, what a perfect waste of time.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    SO the obvious is a Sorcer’s stone intro, who’s who and what and where. Which would serve to intro/refamilairize the reader with Hogwarts and the Harry Potter Universe.
                    There can also be the added complication of shades of Voldemort in those that want to protect the magic world by isolating themselves further and those that feel the only way to fight/understand a potential enemy is to get to know them....your premise. And htere is the precedent of Hogwarts having a Muggle Studies teacher (who was probably a non-magic family member of a wizard family although I don’t know if that was stated)

                    Those that forget the past are doomed to repeat it, those that think Voldemort is a thing of the past need to be reminded the predjudice that brought about the great war can rear its ugly head again.

                    I would honestly start with the first dy of school. The new teacher, realizing it’s a muggle teacher teaching muggle things. Instead of immersing hte reader into the wonder of magic, the students go on field trips to the muggle world. Remember Arthur Weasley not knowing how use the tube?

                    There has to be a conflict in there, beyond the most basic of predjudice. something wrong with the school that magic can’t fix.....for example, when a wizard dies their magic dies with them. so how much of rebuilding hogwarts was the need to re-magic things dumbledore did? What was the spell that made the ceiling look like the sky? Or that built the quidditch pitch? Maybe they’d been depending too much on magic to be a magic (pun intended) fix all and realize that to last things need to be done WITHOUT magic.

                    It seems to me that to wizards things are often very easy. Wave your wand, know the spell, get what you want. so slugworth didn’t think twice about wrecking a muggle’s house. Yet if he had to bend over and clean things up he may have been more considerate.

                    Something along the line of realizing that true strength comes from diversity. Muggle built is harder but lasts longer.

                    IMHO, don’t focus so much on your character’s back story. Don’t start it with a 4 page info dump as to why this guy is so good and needs this job. Start with the start of term or hiring him and let the reader slowly find out his back story. HP wouldn’t have been as interesting if we knew the whole shape/potter back story from the first book. We had to get to know the person first, then learn about their past.

                    Maybe focus on it being this guy’s new job, he does it cause it’s 3 hots and a cot while he figures things out, it allows him to escape from reality for a while...and then to really accomplish what he needs to he needs to face reality and deal with it and teach wizards and witches how to deal with it.
                    Where in the World is George Hammond?


                    sigpic

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I guess I'll try my hand.

                      Let's say I have a race of eldritch abominations, monsters that harvest organic life. And not just intelligent life but plants, animals, even bacteria. Every living thing is harvested akin to how miners harvest resources. All you know about them is that they one day showed up out of the blue and began harvesting anywhere from an entire country to an entire planet, stripping it of organic life with no signs of struggle, area harvested seemingly untouched as if every living thing just vanished where it stood.
                      The only other thing you know about it is that anyone who looks too deeply into the origins of the creatures tend to vanish without a trace. Then one day, you find out that these creatures are tools created from the ground up by a far more advanced race.
                      So the question is how much I should reveal? Things like why organic things are being harvested. How they're being harvested. Ect Ect. How much do you think I should reveal without destroying the the enigma surrounding them?

                      sigpic
                      Stargate spin off series: Stargate Millennium
                      https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5580179/StargateMillennium

                      Comment


                        #12
                        So....start from a victim POV, because I would imagine that people know to run when this thing happens. And know to look for signs to get a head start. aso people in the areas affected by this stuff would keep a look out or have a protocol to run and flee. Like a disaster drill.
                        So that ominous opening scene of people seeing the danger ad running. And of course some don’t make it, to illustrate the finality of these things.
                        A dark and mysterious and terrifying scene

                        Then day. because I’d imagine the survivors/civilization needs to figure out what it is and how to stop it. So a scientist studying the aftermath. Looking for some clue, some sign of how to stop it. athis is when you can reveal what it is. How deadly it is. How no one knows where it came from....whatever.
                        How indepth you go depends on how long the story is.

                        Depending on these things there’d probably be a couple of main characters, the scientist figuring it out, the rescue worker trying to save people. Whatever conflicts you want to put into it.

                        I’m guessing you have an eventual end game. there has to be a resolution, either destroying the thing or fleeing
                        Where in the World is George Hammond?


                        sigpic

                        Comment


                          #13
                          I've a few bits of "business" worked out for my story.

                          Hunter being interviewed by the Minister of Magic and immediate magical council, the "Lucius Malfoy" analogue sneering and belittling Hunter at every turn - "How could this muggle possibly harm me?"
                          Hunter calmly replying "From my present position, I can think of at least seven ways to do you harm. Sir. Three of them kill, three of them maim."
                          "And the seventh?"
                          "Hurts. A lot."

                          Most of the magic in the HP world seems to be close in work, line of sight. So, I have this mental image of Hunter explaining to the council the concept of sniper rifles.
                          As of 2002, the longest confirmed kill by a sniper stood at something like a mile and a half.
                          sigpic
                          Long before you and I were born, others beat these benches with their empty cups,
                          To the night and its stars, to the here and now with who we are.

                          Another sunrise with my sad captains, with who I choose to lose my mind,
                          And if it's all we only pass this way but once, what a perfect waste of time.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            It would seem to me that magicians would also be vulnerable to being hit by a car, slipping and falling, etc. basically anything that takes them off guard before they can summon up some sort of protection spell.

                            they’d probably be able to fight off your average muggle but someone with training could probably take them by surprise.

                            Draco beat up Harry because he caught him off guard. Same with hermoine punching draco.

                            Harry, being of both worlds, can see the pros and cons of both ways of life. and honestly had he not been raised as a muggle he probably never would have survived. Hermoine also being born muggle gave her the flexibiliy to run while Ron was distinctly handicapped with only knowing the magic world.
                            Where in the World is George Hammond?


                            sigpic

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by BruTak View Post
                              Hunter being interviewed by the Minister of Magic and immediate magical council, the "Lucius Malfoy" analogue sneering and belittling Hunter at every turn - "How could this muggle possibly harm me?"
                              Hunter calmly replying "From my present position, I can think of at least seven ways to do you harm. Sir. Three of them kill, three of them maim."
                              "And the seventh?"
                              "Hurts. A lot."
                              Seems like an unnecessary boast to me. A magician could screw you up a thousand ways without significant harm or without being found out. Makes more sense to me that Hunter would prove himself in more subtle, but satisfying ways. For one, HP wizards seem to stuck in their magical thinking, so a quick kick to the groin or a fist to the throat would do wonders for a muggle's ability to defeat a wizard.

                              But more than that, HP seems full of wizards that don't really seem to plan or think outside the box. A wizard may think that blocking access to the fireplace and so fast travel to be a problem and a grave insult, but someone like Hunter would be used to travel time. A muggle wouldn't be bothered by about a thousand things that a wizard would. Just think how painful it is as an experienced computer user, to watch a parent or so ignore double clicks, shortcuts, etc. Now imagine you're a wizard and someone's doing the dishes even though you insist you can do it magically. And no matter how hard you try, they even seem to enjoy it.

                              Hunter could easily annoy the heck out of magical superiors simply by being a muggle.

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