Post by wordy on Mar 4, 2010 7:36:21 GMT 10
Breaking the Block
by greenie
A great way to inspire yourself with new ideas for fanfic is to read. Ideally, read the original books that your fanfiction is based on, and get to study the characters again. You’ll find yourself noticing little quirks about them you hadn’t seen before, and you can use that as inspiration. Also, try reading between the lines. What isn’t shown in canon, even though we know it happened? What’s only mentioned in passing? Think about how you’d have it happen, and have a go at writing it.
Not everybody has the books handy, so try reading some other fanfic. See what the trends are in fanon; maybe you’d have fun jumping on a bandwagon and trying it out too. You might have noticed some overdone clichés; how about putting a new spin on one of them? What about trying out a new pairing? SMACKDOWN and the archive of Peculiar Pairings fic is a great place to start looking for inspiration for pairings. Still stuck for something to write about? Try the Malorie’s Peak Prompts for some more ideas.
Even with wheelbarrows of inspiration, it can still be hard to start writing. A great trick here is to start small. Set aside five minutes, and make yourself write something. Don’t stop to worry about whether or not it’s good; it’s far better to have something to edit a bit later than it is to have nothing at all. Once the five minutes is up, give yourself a break. Check your facebook, see if anyone’s posted on Goldenlake, and then have another go at writing for five minutes. Keep writing in little chunks, and before you know it, you’ll have a shiny new fic all ready to post.
I look forward to reading it!
(I use some of these methods myself - especially the going-back-to-the-source suggestion. I love it!)
Maybe once we'd have seen it during Smackdown!