Danny Phantom Online Community

[Seven]

... or any fiction in general I suppose.

How does everyone prefer to write? Do you like to think up an idea and then just write it as it comes to you? Or do you like to make outlines and character spreadsheets before writing?

I used to use the former, but lately I've started using outlines, mainly for bigger works. Oneshots I like to write from the heart, but sometimes there's alot of information going on that I need to keep track of. And especially if it's a mystery...

But anyway, I'm officially taking an unofficial poll. How do you write?

[baronobeefdip]

Well, first I run into a wall. Then, after I wake up from my concussion-induced sleep, I write down whatever brain-damaged caused ideas were in my sore noggin as I dreamt...or went into fits of dementia...whichever it was. Sure, the ideas don't always make sense...and many of them are vague blurs....but at least it works.

Just kidding.

I just have something inspire me and I work from there. I do write multi-chapter fanfics from time to time. But, mostly, I write humorous one-shot fanfics involving the DP villains getting into some insane situations during some of the most mundane of events.

[One Amahira]

Sometimes ideas randomly come to me, others I actively brainstorm. That gives me my base idea. It might be a character interaction, an important piece of plot, a message I want to express, or any other core idea to build off of. This base or core idea is my foundation.

Then I research the crap out of things I should know before writing if it isn't something I already have a good amount of knowledge or experience with. Admittedly, I am pretty much an obsessive compulsive researcher. One of the settings for my work included an old-fashioned Japanese house and Shinto shrine, which sent me off into researching traditional Japanese architecture. >_>; The end result of that research was knowing what the hell I was talking about and producing a scale model of the house floorplan for reference.

Then as I build onto the core idea, I write down outlines, plot ideas, dialogue snippets that hit me, and create time lines. Naturally main points occur, but there is flexibility in reaching those and new ones can be added or old ones removed my discretion. This gives me direction without limiting myself.

Research, outlines, and notes may seem like a lot of excessive work for fanfiction, but I strongly believe multi part works benefit from them. Even oneshots as well to a lesser extent. It's easier to store oneshot details in your head without losing any of it than all the details that cross your mind for a 35 chapter piece.

[MoonlightUmbreon]

Once I get an idea, I just write it... and keep on going and going and going.

I don't plan - it makes me bored with the plot and unwanting to write it. But usually after a very big multi-chapter piece, I'll look over it many times and get rid of any errors and plot-holes.

[invaderbeckyandclad]

I just get a bunch of ideas and feel the need to write them, but then they never get finished, and I want to write drama, but comedy always seems to mold from it..I have yet to write DP I will one day, maybe.

[DannyPhangirl]

I Just write a bunch of little random stories down. I Get ideas from those and make one big story out of it! ^^ Works everytime!

[Firefury Amahira]

While not as much of a research maniac as my sister above there, I make sure that I'm familiar with the entirety of the canon material before I start at the least. Sometimes I'll do a little superficial research, but the majority of my preparation is writing down a rough timeline for the story I want to write. (I also jot down plot bunnies so I can get the basic idea written down without it driving me bonkers.)

My timelines aren't anything fancy; they're just a brief listing of major plot points in chronological order. It gives me a roadmap for my story so that I don't wander so far off course that I write myself into a corner by accident, yet it still has plenty of flexibility to modify, add, remove, or rearrange events in the story.

I used to just plow right into the writing, but more often than not those stories would run into a massive wall of writer's block and I'd lose track of where I was going with things.

[Anthiena]

As said in The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Five minutes of planning makes for fifteen minutes of work. Or something like that.

Planning is a good thing-you know where you're going, but you have to be unafraid to change it up. Two examples:

#1: Chess Piece by Neo Yi had QUITE a few ideas according to Neo Yi that didn't make it and one character meant to be a one-chapter story stuck around to the benefit of that story.

#2: I'm writing a story called Memory Changeling. I had five different versions of the opening chapter and three different versions of the second before I settled. I may have multiple versions of chapter three so that I can refine the interactions of the characters better. I do have a plan for the whole fic, I know vaguely where it's going, but the fun's in the journey, not the destination.


For the flip side, I'm also writing a journal-type fic called Phantom's Secret Diary. It's supposed to be somewhat rough because it's a diary. Who drafts a diary, afterall? I do have a number of issues I want to address with it, but the point is to explore Danny's world in a meaningful way. (And do loads and loads of slash, but I digress).

The advice I have is write what you know and dream. Do lots and lots of dreaming.

[AiredaleLady]

I tend to come up with random ideas first, some of which work and others of which don't. Once I have a basic idea, I draw up an outline and fill in the details. If the story is set in a past or future timeline in which the characters would be older/younger, then I plan out how to characterize them before actually writing. I ask questions like, "what will they look like, physically," "what career would they have" and most importantly, how much diferent are they from their canon forms?

Only when I have done these two steps do I begin writing. Sometimes, I start in the middle of the story and work my way to the beginning and the end--I usually do this if I have a really cool line of dialogue that I feel just has to go in, or a detailed exposition scene.

Now here's where I b reak from most FF writers. Once I have a basic skeletal story (5 pages, depending on how detailed the final product will be) I revise...and revise...and revise...etc. I add new descriptions, cut out unnecessary scenes, replace dialogue but most importantly, I focuse on exposition. Only when the printed version can be read smoothly without any stumbling do I deem it "worthy" to be included in a final draft. What started out as a 5 page skeleton sometimes ends as a 30 page or longer finished piece.

Of course, some of my one shots don't go through such an excruciating process. I still revise, but perhaps not as much as I ordinarily would.

[Jazzypants]

Well, a lot of DR is derived from elsewhere. So yeah, usually I am greatly inspired by something else before I write.

[Quantum Iguana]

I haven't done much fan fiction writing. I can't necessarily say how to make a fan fiction be good. But I can talk about what makes a fan fiction bad.

If the characters in the fan fiction don't talk like the characters in the show, that's a problem. Understand how they talk.

Understand what the characters like, how they would react to different things, situations and people.

If you can do that, you're halfway there.