Time to toss in my 2 yen afore Tybalt bans this little thread.

I've been thinking about my plans for my fanfic works-in-progress, and it

led me

to ponder a simple but valid question: How do you plan out a good fanfic?

Honestly? I've tried everything.

I have planned fics out from the start, and they do work.  Shieldsman was
written that way.  I feel it's one of my better works, but in many ways it
was the least fun to write, simply because I already knew EVERYTHING, and
there was no adventure in writing it for me.

I practically everything else I've done I've just let things flow, and have
seen mixed success.  For example, Siblings was popular with some people
(damned if I know why - IMO it was garbage) and it was written in such a
way.  I tend to find I get sidetracked WAY to easily if I write that way,
and I end up with more than a few deus-ex-machina's.  However, if you really
watch what you're doing, it can work extremely well.  Oh! My Brother! is
done that way...but then i have some pretty hefty quality control standards
placed on it. ^_^

On most of my current works (aside from OMB) I use sort of the middle road.
I have a rather specific idea of where the fic should go, and what should
happen in general, but aside for some individual scenes here and there, it's
still pretty amorphous.  That is, until I'm ready to actually sit down and
write a chapter.  THEN I make sure I have the entire work almost written in
my head, that way the writing tends to be a bit more on-target.  (Shades of
Lawson, ne?)

I recommend the middle road in general, but be prepared to have some MAJOR
fluctuations in your plans.  My best example of this was Turn the Page Book
1.  In my mental plan, there were three combats, not two, and there was no
scene with Tiamat.  When I was working out the second combat, things sort of
well...worked out that way.  I looked at it, adapted my mental plotline to
fit it, and was happy.  ^_^

Whoop...gotta go...ja!

--
Christopher "God-boy" Angel
cja124@mail.usask.ca
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Pagoda/7040/

"I'm 16. Linoleum turns me on."
"Thank goodness men grow out of that."
"We do?"