Doug Murphy wrote:

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?

...you plan fics?  Bwahahahahaha!!!  That's a good one ^_^

Do you make an outline of the whole fic and stick to it like crazy glue?

Tried that...failed miserably.

Do you
just come up with an enemy that the characters from the anime have to face and
work out the plot as you go?

enemy?  the characters need enemeies?  at this point in time none of the characters
in my fics _need_ enemies.  they're doing a perfectly good job of screwing
themselves over.

How do *you* decide how the plot unravels in your
storylines.

_I_ don't.  The story usually works itself out, I just put it on paper.  Take my
first fic, a Ranma 1/2-Mamano Hunter Yohko X-over, it was _supposed_ to be a
comedy.  It's become a fairly dark epic.  Or my second fic "Kasumi's Little Secret"
it was _supposed_ to be a one shot fic.  I'm currently working on part 7.  After it
grew into a series it was _supposed_ to center on Ranma.  I had to spawn a second
series for that.  After it started centering on Kasumi, I was _supposed_ to go into
detail about her training by part 3.  I _still_ haven't gotten that part done.  To
speak for my self, I've given up planning fics.  They never go where I want them to
anyway

The reason I'm interested is because once I finish chapter 3 of CCWD and
re-write ADD I'm moving on to part two of CCWD for which I have a lot of
'events' planned but I'm not sure how everything is going to be worked out.
Should I sit down before I even start and make an outline or have you all found
that letting a story 'write itself' is better?

For the record, CCWD is (currently) very much writing itself.  I'm finding that
sitting down with a basic idea and a few characters works nicely for short
chapters but will it still work when I start working on longer plot lines?

well even stories that "write themselves" fit into larger plot lines.  My story
"Family Demons" wouldn't have a larger plot line if I hadn't just let it go and
write itself.  As it is I have a whole bunch of scenes floating around and  a rough
outline connecting them all.  That seems to work best for me if I'm working on a fic
with a long and definite story arc.

AJ

--
Draxon-X@Bellsouth.Net

           Writer, Reviewer, and worshipper of the Red-Haired goddess.
                              Long live Nene Romanova!
"I don't know what's wrong with you, but I think I can probably make it a lot
worse."
                          --Ryouga Hibiki, A Demon's Delight