Why/How do you write your stories, and what advice would you give on writing?

If I didn’t begin my answer with some literary device – a silly metaphor, for instance – you might not realize how egotistical I am.

I am a writing toddler, having just discovered that my brain has the capacity to invent as another form of play. I write what I want to read rather than always searching for it in vain. I also write merely to create.

It is easier than I expected to confess my big secret-that-isn’t-a-secret: I am a mediocre writer.

But mediocre writers can tell good stories, too.

Which, really, isn’t that what writing in a fandom is all about? Not every writer is insanely talented but we all have words to share that can make ourselves and others happy.

I like to think that people read my fics because I present an idea that they, like me, have been dying to read – or just discovered they have been dying to read once they realize what that idea is. I certainly won’t claim to be suave or genius or even unique in my presentation. I want to tell a story. How it comes out… well, that’s always an unknown. The baseline, though: I want to tell a story well. It’s simply wasteful to turn a great idea into something unpalatable.

I write mainly with a focus on action, even if that action is deeply emotion-driven, because that is how the story translates from my head. It has to dance, sing, drop to its knees – hell, I don’t care as long as it moves. That may not make sense to most people but it does to me.

Perhaps it is not shocking, then, when I say that I am an avid daydreamer. Unless my brain is otherwise engaged in someone else’s fic, I do my very best to remove myself from RL drama by daydreaming glorious escapes. I fantasize about the characters I love – what they could do, might have done, or have to do right that second, lest my imagination shrivel and expire as a consequence.

Some stories are the product of scenes I’ve been daydreaming for years; other fics develop from a flash of something I know I would love to imagine. Then I will skip the zoning out bit (like while driving or eating dinner or just lying in bed at night – any number of activities where I ought to concentrate elsewhere but can’t) and dive straight into the idea and write it out. Let me say, though, that the story is never fully developed from the beginning. It forms of its own accord, and I often think of myself as the medium channeling the story. (Silly of me, I know.)

The real work comes later, during the refinement process where I try to make the story not suck, agonize over my dyslexic language, or smack my forehead over the number of times I wrote a word like perhaps (which, so far, totals once in this little piece – ahaha, go me). It is difficult to shake your brain loose when it’s been in one gear for too long; it’s even more difficult to stop yourself from returning to your comfort zone. How many of my stories were created in the span of a few hours, without much tender, love, and care? How many of those stories were better than merely good?

Eh. Few enough.

But do you know why that truth doesn’t hurt?

Writing is about progress and, almost always, instant gratification. When you learn to accept the hard truth that your writing skills will strengthen more slowly than you hope, when you recognize that Jim and Leonard locked lips, tore at their clothes in a fit of passion, and did it furiously on the floor is lovely to envision but slightly lacking in detail… you can become a writer who tells good stories.

My last point/advice: Love what you write. You need to produce at least one line in a fanfic (lengthy or short) that you are proud to showcase. If there is nothing from what you have written that impresses you, then don’t expect the story to impress the reader, either. I know it is a simple measuring stick for success but it works. :)

To the anonymous person who sent this question: I hope my answer helps you, and thanks for asking!

Related Posts:

• Some RL Things – from July 19, 2015
• The Season Should Be Over But It’s Not Really – from January 7, 2015
• Happy New Year’s, Everyone! – from December 31, 2014
• McSpirk Gift Exchange – from December 15, 2014
• This Person Needs Help – from July 25, 2014