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?

Do you make an outline of the whole fic and stick to it like crazy glue?  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?  How do *you* decide how the plot unravels in your
storylines.

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?

--
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

Okay, so it's been while since this thread bounced around.  It just wouldn't get out
of my head, so I'm going to reply to it.

I have to admit genuine surprise at most of the responses from the list on this
one.  I couldn't agree with almost any of the replies I read.  Almost everyone was
unanimous in the claim that fics write themselves and the author is just sort of
along for the ride.  Obviously, I have a real different experience of writing than
most people.

I don't write unless I know what it is I am trying *to* write.  There has to be a
one single motivationg "thing," a *reason* to write.  Whatever it is, it dictates
everything else, and I plan my fic to make *sure* that everything that gets included
does so for one reason and one reason only: to fulfil the purpose.  I don't allow
anything else in.

I start with *why* I am writing.  What I am trying to say.  It has been called many
things.  Some call it a "central theme," others a "guiding principle."  Some say,
"what's the point?" or "what's the 'bottom line'?" or simply, "where's the beef?"
As a success principle, it's been called "beginning with the end in mind," and
"being goal-oriented," and who knows what else.

Is it simply because there is a certain scene I want to see, and so I have to write
a story around it so that I will have a container for my scene?  Is it to illustrate
a principle in action?  Is it to offer a rebuttal to another authors' ideas?
Whatever it is, it will control everything else in the story without mercy, and it
NEVER changes.  EVER.  Everything else may change, but the reason why I'm writing
the story to begin with never does, and it dictates ALL that will happen along the
way.  If anything contradicts the original purpose, it is cut out without delay or
apology.  It may be saved in a file for inclusion it another fic someday, but only
if it will serve the purposes of that fic better than the one I cut it out of.

I can't speak for  other writers, (and obviously don't, since most seem to plan far
less than I do) but I have to plan a story in great detail before I even start.  I
have to know the point of it all, and more importantly, *how* I am going to
accomplish that point.  Without that, there is no story.  I'm flexible along the
way, I allow inspiration to help me when it can, and sometimes I don't have the
specifics of how I am going to achieve a specific goal (although that's very rare)
but I do always know what goal each specific scene must accomplish in order to be
included in the story, and I firmly believe that my "inspiration" takes orders from
my planning, not the other way around.  In fact, I wouldn't allow it the other way.

Maybe this would be a good time to include what I believe to be the *main* role of
inspiration to be in writing.  I believe from my own experience that the best and
most creative use of inspiration is *during planning!*  Yes, that is where it shows
up for me.  I know that I want to achieve a specific goal, but have no idea how to
do so.  I try different ideas out as I'm planning the story, seeing how each idea
fits the whole (and the goal), and then, POW! inspiration hits and I go, "Oh, Wow!
I've got it!  That'll be great!" and the newly inspired idea goes down on paper as a
part of my planning.  It is also then subjected to the twin tests of 1) does it
achieve the original intent, and 2) does it contradict any other part of the story?
If the answer to #1 is no, the inspiration is trashed and forgotten.  If the answer
to #2 is no, then I have to make a decision about which part will be the one to
keep.  Almost all of this is done during the planning, before I ever even begin the
process of writing.

For instance, in my first fanfic, The Plan, I heard my little brother's plan and
thought to myself, "that's so simple, even Ranma couldn't screw it up.  He would
sure *try* though..."  There you go.  That's the "one thing."  It dictated all other
things.  In order to accomplish the goal, I would *have* to have a happy ending, I
would *have* to show Ranma screwing it up at first, then slowly getting the hang of
it, I would *have* to keep all explanations of The Plan and how to work it at a
seven-year-old's level, yet I would *have* to show it WORKING at the teenage (or
older) level.  And despite the protestations of certain Nabiki-boosters, since the
whole point was to show how The Plan could help Ranma work out his situations, (not
change them into different situations) I would *have* to have Ranma end up with
Akane.  To make this into any kind of an alternate fic at all would fly in the face
of the purpose of the whole thing.  Whatever some of us may feel, it is clearly
Takahashi-sama's intent that Ranma & Akane end up together *someday.*  I may
disagree, you may disagree, but she's the boss, and what she says goes, except in
alternates.

Not that I couldn't have written an alternate, (in fact, I'm already planning a long
one right now) but just that it would then be (and will be) a very different story.
It would have violated the intent of *this* fic, that's all.  Indeed, in the end,
several powerfully persuasive pieces of C&C prompted me to write Plan B, an
alternate ending to The Plan.  That's fine, since the overall dominating purpose and
goal of *that* fic was to present a believable Nabiki/Ranma pairing.  But there was
just no way that it could actually be a part of The Plan itself!  It would violate
the whole purpose of the story to begin with.

So, I thought about the logical consequences of Ranma trying to do my little
brother's plan, and came up with the events of the section I called Day 00.  Then I
thought about how I could help guide poor Ranma down a better road, and came up with
Nabiki as his tutor.  Then I thought about how she would logically start Ranma off,
and that was when I realized that The Plan was phrased in hardest-to-easiest order,
and would be easier for Ranma to handle in smaller bite-sized chunks, starting with
the end and moving up to the beginning.  Each thing led to the next logically, and
it was almost all planned out before I started writing.

I say almost, because I knew I needed a big disaster/ultimate test of The Plan
somewhere after the middle, I just didn't know what that was going to be.  I knew
exactly what I wanted it to accomplish, though, and would not accept anything else.
I knew I wanted Ranma to pass the test, and then have Nabiki unexpectedly fail the
same test, ultimately leading her to be more inclined to adopt The Plan for
herself.  What I came up with eventually was Akane cooking dinner.  I already knew
what I wanted to accomplish, and how it would end up, I just didn't have the
specific mechanism chosen.  It just sort of presented itself when Akane was crying
in Kasumi's arms, and I liked it, so I ran with it.

Another reason I say almost is because I was as surprised by Akane walking in on
Ranma and Nabiki during Day 01 as they were.  It was really spooky.  There were
Ranma and Nabiki all alone in her room, and suddenly there was Akane walking in on
them!  I went with that to see where it would lead.  I figured I could always just
delete it and do it over again the way I had planned if I didn't like it.  But, it
turned out so much better than what I had originally planned it, that I kept it.
Hey, if the characters want to come to life and make my job easier, I'm not going to
argue.  They just normally don't, *and I'm totally sure that it wouldn't have
happened if I hadn't been so clear from my preplanning exactly what I wanted to
accomplish in that scene.*  My creative subconscious got so clear on my goal (from
my planning) that it offered me a better way to achieve it.

I also kept it because it would increase the jealousy that I had decided Akane would
need to feel.  I knew I wanted the story to end with everyone adopting The Plan, and
the only way I could see that happening is if the situation deteriorated to the
point where everyone was desperate enough to try anything!  Once the jealousy thing
started, it led logically to the thought, "How can I increase this?" which led in
turn to Ukyo mis-hearing Nabiki's confession of love for Ranma and desire to marry
him.

Lastly, ... prereaders.  Thank Kami for prereaders.
I wanted a really soft "not-really-a-resolution" ending.  Something sentimental, yet
not sappy.  Something that would leave the reader with a feeling of hope, but not
totally blow the Takahashi Polygon.  I wrote the morning of Day 05 and thought I was
done...

NONE of my prereaders liked it.  I explained it to them.  They still didn't like
it.  I re-wrote it.  They still said it was too soft, it wasn't enough.  Admitting
defeat, I wrote the Epilogue.  They passed it, and I posted it, and the rest is
history.  I was officially a fanfic author.  Rereading it now, I have to admit they
were dead right, and I was too close to the story to see what was obvious to them.
(Thanks, guys!)


Hmm... I seem to have run out of words ... what am I trying to say, and have I said
it?  Let's re-read and see ...

Yep, it's said.  I hope someone out there gets something out of all of this.  That
would be a pleasant bonus.  The *main* goal of course (the overriding theme, the
"point" of it all) was to get it said and sent out so that I could stop thinking
(obsessing) over it.  I have accomplished that purpose, and so am finished.

Now, on to the next ...

Tonbo
--
Big wooden mallets. The choice of offended females.