big bang theories (but not the ones you think)

[aeroport_art]

Was talking with mooyoo the other day, about our methodology in how we fic. Some people have trouble getting started but once they do, pick up steam. Others might be the opposite, where they begin something and have difficulty in finishing. Maybe a fic starts from a plot bunny, or prompted words, or a photo.

So I realized, a good portion of my stories are actually born from some line, phrase, or piece of dialogue that just pops into my head and won't leave me alone until I indulge it. Even the long, novel-length things I'll sometimes write, they often start from one stupid, nagging line that spirals wildly out of control.



- “Did it make you feel angry? The way he treated you.” sticks and stones and weed and bones

- Dean is waiting. After.

- That isn’t how it starts. That isn’t how it starts at all. keep the car running.

- Fucking Hallmark. Cupid 97 (This Ain't Your Hallmark Cupid).

- At precisely 8:30 PM, on a windy Sunday night in the upper boroughs of San Francisco, Samuel J. Winchester receives a telegram. It reads as follows: ABIGAIL – GUNTHER – DECEASED – STOP – PERSONAL – EFFECTS – FOR – PICK-UP – STOP. The Telegram (WIP).



So that's one way I get to writing. The other muse I draw upon is the exercise of writing, itself. I ignore plot and characterisation for the moment, and think of some literary structure that inspires me to create a story around it.



- Initially, it was the one line (see above). Then, I wanted to create a circular cadence; each section starts and ends with similar wordings, as does the whole story, but each time it conveys something completely different. It's something I'm fascinated with, when it comes to Supernatural; time and time again, I re-use words and phrases within a story to try and express that sense of the never-ending highway, that rolling continuity, that's so characteristic of SPN. keep the car running.

- Painting a single scene to hint at a hidden, complex story that invites reader participation in imagining what comes before and after. Corner of Astor and 3rd.

- Writing backwards, like watching DVD chapters in reverse. Each chapter would present a question that would be answered by going back chronologically, even as the story progresses forward. Sunday, 2AM.

- I'll do this a lot. A whole mishmash of poetic devices, crammed into one brain-vomit. Ultimate goal: a homage to words and language. Secondary: to make you feel something, doesn't matter what. Conversations to No One (you)

- More circular cadence, with the specific goal of physically controlling the reading pace through extremely anal-retentive, strict shackles of words. It looks pretentious with all its odd spacing, parenthesis, and italics, but they're all there to try and shove the reader into this narrow box (car) that keeps going, like its on rails. Again, this story tries to emulate through words the atmosphere of inevitability in Sam and Dean's nomadic lives. I want this piece read aloud, I want the reader to hear his/her voice ebb and flow, start to finish. Of course, I also don't want it to sound as pretentious as it is, so let's just dub this PRETTY-SOUNDING!POEM. Unnamed (WIP).



Sorry, the rain makes me really meta :0 But I'm V. curious to hear about other peoples muses and how they work. Sharing timez, yes?

On less thinky terms, HELLO NEW FRIENDS. Say hi so I can friend you back! xoxoLi

Comments

[lexstar29.livejournal.com]

Completely off topic but I LOVE your icon!

As to the writing thing, I write lyrics, (or try to) in my singers guise, and it always starts from one line that pops into my head, then everything else springs up from it. I wish I had more control over it, but unfortunately at the moment I find myself drying up after a verse or two.

[aeroport_art.livejournal.com]

Aww, thanks! I like that photo too *__* is purty.

Oooh, writing lyrics. That sounds really cool!

I wish I had more control over it...
Don't we all? Muses are such fickle beings :P

[sirryluv.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes -- I always find it fascinating to see other people's writing processes. For me, it can start in all different ways. Sometimes it's that one word or phrase, like something I'm working on now, often it's the idea of something like, Sam talks dirty, or Dean gets tentacles. It's usually also related to something I want to explore in the characters, too, I think.

You know how much I love sticks and stones and weed and bones and hearing that THAT was the first line just makes me kljlasj SPLODEY.

Very cool to see how you detail all your types of fics. In order for me to realize what I want the fic to say, I have to start writing it first. Does that make sense? For me, I can't sit down and say, "Okay, I want to write about why Dean made the deal." I just have to go with whatever inspiration I have and I'll start writing and soon I'll see that yes, okay, I see what it's turning into now.

For example, the fic I wrote about the different ways Sam could've left for college -- I had no idea that's what I was going to write. All I knew is that I wanted to write about a Dean who knew sushi and who was completely smitten with Sam. Then, once I'd started writing, I was able to sit back and say, "Ohh, I see what I'm doing now."

:D!

[aeroport_art.livejournal.com]

Dean gets tentacles
Uh, I wanna read THAT ONE.

hearing that THAT was the first line just makes me kljlasj SPLODEY.
YAY I was hoping it would be remotely interesting for other people to see how I came up with some of the stuff I write, but I didn't really think it would be *__* Eeheehee I'm so glad you liked that fic.

Then, once I'd started writing, I was able to sit back and say, "Ohh, I see what I'm doing now."
Oh, I totally know what what you mean. It's so weird how sometimes, writing just takes on a life of it's own, and it feels like as the author, you're being dragged along for the ride.

I wanted to write about a Dean who knew sushi and who was completely smitten with Sam
Lol, really?? The whole different-ways-Sam-left seemed like such an integral plot. I'm so surpised the story came about from another direction! *clappy hands* Hee hee fun!

[iscaris.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I love writing meta, especially about the writerly process :D

I don't watch SPN but I checked out Corner of Astor and 3rd and really liked the style. You write like someone who reads and possibly also writes poetry. (I probably write like someone who does not, ha ha.) If these are mostly short pieces I will check them out when I have a chunk of reading time!

I probably have a really boring style because most of my stories come from the characters. The characters always make the story for me, and what moves an idea forward is usually lines of dialogue between them that spontaneous start running off in my brain. Once in a long while I'll do a structure-based story, like a five-things or a flash-forward, but mostly it's just heavily dialogue-based and interaction-driven.

[aeroport_art.livejournal.com]

You write like someone who reads and possibly also writes poetry.

Lol, I try to be literate XD As far as the poetry thing goes, it's strange--I don't consider myself a poet of any sort, and I probably don't appreciate poetry nearly as much as I ought to, but I still consistently fall into that genre of writing. It just happens D: I think in fragments and sounds, or something.

I probably have a really boring style because most of my stories come from the characters.

Don't be RIDICULOUS, darling. Good characterization is HARD TO COME BY, and you have a way with getting into peoples' minds and really defining them in fresh, interesting ways that still manage to hit home. I have such trouble with that. Especially the characters I don't understand, it's OBVIOUS I have no clue what I'm doing, whether it's clunky dialogue or an over-dependence on stereotypical mannerisms.

I love to read character-driven plots and stories because, hellooo, the best part of fic is all about the exploration of relationships between these people/characters we're so invested in. I feel like the stuff I write, it's straddling this odd realm between literature and fic, where I tend to write like the former, but there's an entire WORLD of real, literary works out there. On the other hand, fic is its own whole universe, dedicated to interesting plotlines and characterizations and meta, and I just like, fall somewhere in between, where my writing isn't guilty-pleasure enough to be popular as Fanfiction, yet it's not strong enough to stand on its own legs as a piece of fiction. Eeek!

WOW, I don't even know where that rambly came from! Excuse me, haha.