My writing process, part 1

It starts with an idea. Everything always starts with an idea.

Sometimes it is something that can work and it flows great; others, it is an idea that could work, that may flow, but in the end it does not and it remains there for months until it is forgotten and discarded.

But what do I do with an idea that I think is good and has potential, but does not flow well?

That's what I'll talk about now.

When it comes to fanfiction, the way I write my stories follows a very straigthforward process.

This process I divide in four parts:

1. Canon research.
2. Plot draft.
3. Story draft.
4. Final review.

This time I'll talk about canon research.

While it should be self explanatory, I believe talking about how I do it may help me explain better what I'm talking about. For this I'll use my story Maniac Cop: Unfinished Business as an example.

This story is based on the Maniac Cop trilogy of action horror films, and I wrote it, first of all, because I wanted to, and second, because I wanted a conclusion to what the three movies presented. The idea for this story came to me after I rewatched the second film in the series, but since I didn't have a complete grasp of the full mythology of the universe, rewatching the three movies and taking notes ended up being necessary.
The first thing I did, then, was to watch each movie and finding out any suplementary material for the films I could. This wasn't really that difficult, as I was able to get Special Editions of each of the three movies, which came with loads of extra material, including cast interview, behind the scenes footage and scripts.
During the rewatching of the movies, I wrote notes about scenes that could help me build a solid background to the story I was planning to write, this worked also because it gave me things to reference in the story to better tie my writing with the original material.
I also paid attention to characterization, which fortunately, is pretty consistent in all three films, this was necessary because it allowed me to keep the character from acting in ways that would deviate from canon, something that would lessen the story's impact.
Another advantage of my research is that it helped me understand the way the universe of the franchise looks and feels, something that I used when it was necessary to duplicate it in my writing.
Finally, by watching the three films and the suplementary material, I was able to find information that helped reshape the final story I wrote. The initial plot draft I had ended up being completely different from the one I used to write the published story.

While this example is based on movie research, it also applies to other media, such as novels, manga, anime, comic books, board games, videogames, etcetera.

So, to sum it up, proper canon research means that you find as much about the universe you are going to write your fanfiction for, in order to better understand the characters, their overall story and characterization, the look and the rules of the universe, its story and particular details so that you have a nice pool of information to pull from when you are writing.

The reason why this matters is that it makes your work more authentic, and it helps your work approach something that "feels" like the original source better, and in the end, that is good for your own writing and for the readers.

Next time, we'll talk about the second step: the plot draft. 

Lost Together illustration 3

I had some free time last weekend, so I drew another illustration for the Ranma 1/2 story Lost Together that I've been writing with DaisukiFox (we recently updated, by the way). This scene is based on something that happens in chapter 8; a two parter arc involving Pantyhose Taro.

The pencils for this one were actually far easier than the inking, which took a long time because of how many things I included here. The most difficult aspect was getting Ryoga and Ranko right, the hands and face expressions are very challenging to me, as well as the size and perspective, mainly because of the frame behind them that I included. I'm afraid I still can't do those things as well as I'd like.

I do like how it turned out, however; it's a bit more detailed than both the previous one and the first one I drew for the story, which was the main problem I had with them, the lack of a proper background always bothered me a little.

Short one-shots are liberating

You know what's something you can write quickly, with not many consequences, that will let you put any silly, serious, deep, funny or any kind of idea out there?

Short one shot stories.

Let's say you have an idea for a scene, but that it's not something that's worth expanding into a proper story that is multiple chapters long, or that even goes beyond ten pages. But you really like it, so you have then two choices:

One, you write a longer story around the scene, which can yield great results or kill the idea you initially had.
Two, you write a short story about it, adapting it to the scene so that you don't need to add anything else or giving it more chapters.

I find the second option the best one, and I've done it with good results, at least as far as getting the idea out there, is concerned.

So, should you try this strategy? I'm sure many of you already have, but if you haven't, consider it, you may be surprised by the results.

From the favorites list #3

Mismatched Love, by Evelyn CMB is, in my opinion the funniest romantic comedy in the He-Man category at fanfiction.net, and a story that I would recommend if you're interested in reading something funny this Valentine's Day.

The story is set in the 1980's universe (I think it wouldn't work in any other incarnation of the franchise) and it shows what would happen if, suddenly, Tee-La fell madly in love with main villain Skeletor, while at the same time, Evil-Lyn fell in love with main hero He-Man. The result is a great comedy where both ladies team up to capture/conquer their love interests, at least until they come back to their senses.

The question is, why did this happen? Well, the answer is explained at the end, so you'll have to read it to find out.

Well written and greatly narrated, Mismatched Love is without a doubt one of the best one shots by Evelyn CMB, who has crafted many other excellent stories for the Masters of the Universe franchise; I recommend giving her work a look, you may be surprised by it.

A truly inconvenient incident.

So, power failure today, my laptop fries my usb key, and that's where I had the updated notes for all my writing. The result? I lost them all, I don't have up to date backups, the notes for my upcoming chapters and my original writing are gone. Sure, I have copies on my hard drive, but they're from about three months ago.

Ok, I admit it is my fault for not doing regular backups, but that does not change the fact this stings. And I also lost formats, documents and data related to my actual job and redoing those is going to set me back weeks on the projects I'm working on.

It's very inconvenient and discouraging, but on the other hand, water under the bridge, what's happened, happened and all that. I guess this is a chance to do the notes again, I mean, I do remember most of what I wrote in them so I can probably rewrite it better than before.

I just don't know how long it will take, I mean I lost a lot of information, months worth of it.

Oh well, let's just be optimistic, and consider this as a chance to improve on what I already had planned.

Best to keep a positive attitude on things.

Music and writing

Sometimes when I want to write something I use music to help me get in the mood for the scene I'm writing, and while I know that some people can only write if they are listening to their favorite songs, I try to write in silence. The reason I do this is because music can be distracting; I remember this time I was trying to write a particularly important scene for one of my older stories, but I couldn't get it right because the song I was listening to distracted me, and I couldn't get it right until I stopped listening to it.

Now, I'm not saying you should avoid all music, after all, as I said above, it's really helpful to get in the mood for a scene or two. The trick in my case is that I need to listen to the song before I actually try to write something.

Anyway, I've discovered that different types of music help for different kind of scenes or chapters; if I'm going to write action, I try to listen to rock or metal beforehand; if I want to write romance or drama, I try to listen to instrumental or classical music, and for horror I try to listen to scary movie soundtracks.

But if I ever had to chose one soundtrack to listen to that for me personally helps me get in the mood to write anything I want, then that would be the Conan soundtrack. Why? Well, let's just say that it's arguably the best motion picture soundtrack ever made, and I could listen to it forever.

If you've never listened to this masterpiece, I'll share it below, perhaps after that you'll be able to see why I say it's great to get in the mood to write about anything.