Poll: What to write
Jun. 26th, 2008 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethSo, summer is here, all my classes done, only one email to send before I pass.
... And the fact it got to 10pm without me sending that email does mildly worry me, yes.
Still, after that, I have interesting and varied possibilities.
[Poll #1211620]
Things it will include: Fantasy & SF elements, some kind of setup where there's more than one world coexisting, secrets being read differently by different people, clashing ideologies, more than one side that could be considered right, some kind of disability theme or metaphor. Because I couldn't keep any of that out if I tried.
I'm vaguely tempted to do grand space adventures set in the far future... but the only bunny set I have for that is the one which started out as Blakes 7 but ended up being beccaelizabeth tries to reinvent Servalan and the Federation so it would actually work and Blake et al end up, um, actually bad guys. Which... lacks a certain something. I'm also tempted to do one of those fantasy setups where everyone is werewolves and vampires and things and they have to deal with an uncaring world of mundanes. Except from fandom I know I'm always always always most attracted to the characters who are humans that have to deal with vampires, werewolves etc etc but don't have powers themselves, so I suspect I'd get annoyed with my characters if I start out with someone super shiny special in the center.
There's a set of stories I've been wanting to write for about ten years, but my understanding of the underlying politics that drive the themes keeps changing until I'm left with a couple of strong images, a central relationship, and no idea how to set up the plot so it doesn't demonise the wrong people.
There's a thing where I tend to end up with plots that very greatly resemble my fandoms, because clearly those are places where the stories are set up almost right. I also have some fanfic bunnies left over that sadly aren't going to be books or films because they'll never go in that direction, yet I wish could be books or films so if I file the serial numbers off... But my Highlander bunnies are a bit ancient and creaky now, and from having a set of 13 I can now only remember... 1? Maybe? It was a good one though. Actors and Hollywood and stuff. I liked it as a Highlander story but I could rewrite it as a vampire story I reckon. I don't as much like the gender dynamics ... but that was the point, really, to have some fossilised prince protects princess stuff and demonstrate why it purely doesn't work.
I quite like the Zombie James Bond idea. I keep looping back to it. Something about Queen Elizabeth the First running a secret service made entirely of zombies is just nifty. But it isn't meant as fanfic - I'm not a JB fan at all, and I wouldn't want to keep the characters or relationships, which are what fanfic want to preserve. I pretty much want to rip off some plot and give it this supernatural spin. So I can't figure if that's plagiarism (bad) or pastiche (er, I've heard the word but not in a good valued way) or just writer stew (everyone gets their ideas from somewhere). Since I'd be expecting people to notice the Bond resonances and playing with them, that's not plagiarism, cause I don't take credit for it. But is it cool to do? I don't worry for fanfic, but this wouldn't have the fanfic auto audience factor and would be a whole lot of words if I did have a go. *sigh*
My beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/tag/bunnies ( https://beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/tag/bunnies ) has 136 entries. Dreams has 176, some but not all of them the same. And god knows how many entries on here alone are neat ideas but not tagged. Like the snip I wrote down this morning. So that's 137/177 then.
Not knowing where to begin: Always the big problem.
See for assignments you get Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria. You don't actually start from a blank page. You can make a bubble diagram with every outcome and all the criteria and then tag ideas to specific points. You can do the same for fanfic, where you're starting with particular characters, so you've got 'do something for each character' as one criteria for a script shaped story. Also there's locations, themes, relationships. And a page limit.
Writing something original... what are my criteria? What am I trying to do? And how does each character, setting, plot point contribute to the overall message?
That's not how the writing books start things. Well, not exactly. But there's a lot of writing books and the only actual rule is do what works.
Maybe I could take my Close Reading bubble diagram and work it backwards. You know, take the bubbles about gender/ethnicity/class/sexuality/generation/disability and figure out what I want each one to say and then take those as my criteria.
*ponders*
Polyphonic. Democratic. Equality... in a systemically unequal world?
Something where 'pawns team up and fight the big bads' is the logical and necessary outcome.
So that's multi character, varying abilities, varying specialities, and a big bad that's really unequally big in power and resources, be that because it's one superpowered individual or an institution of many annoying people or some combination of both.
Hmm, and I did that chart about how to write Torchwood and buried it somewhere in an I Can Has Teamwork post... *digs* *finds!*
... And the fact it got to 10pm without me sending that email does mildly worry me, yes.
Still, after that, I have interesting and varied possibilities.
[Poll #1211620]
Things it will include: Fantasy & SF elements, some kind of setup where there's more than one world coexisting, secrets being read differently by different people, clashing ideologies, more than one side that could be considered right, some kind of disability theme or metaphor. Because I couldn't keep any of that out if I tried.
I'm vaguely tempted to do grand space adventures set in the far future... but the only bunny set I have for that is the one which started out as Blakes 7 but ended up being beccaelizabeth tries to reinvent Servalan and the Federation so it would actually work and Blake et al end up, um, actually bad guys. Which... lacks a certain something. I'm also tempted to do one of those fantasy setups where everyone is werewolves and vampires and things and they have to deal with an uncaring world of mundanes. Except from fandom I know I'm always always always most attracted to the characters who are humans that have to deal with vampires, werewolves etc etc but don't have powers themselves, so I suspect I'd get annoyed with my characters if I start out with someone super shiny special in the center.
There's a set of stories I've been wanting to write for about ten years, but my understanding of the underlying politics that drive the themes keeps changing until I'm left with a couple of strong images, a central relationship, and no idea how to set up the plot so it doesn't demonise the wrong people.
There's a thing where I tend to end up with plots that very greatly resemble my fandoms, because clearly those are places where the stories are set up almost right. I also have some fanfic bunnies left over that sadly aren't going to be books or films because they'll never go in that direction, yet I wish could be books or films so if I file the serial numbers off... But my Highlander bunnies are a bit ancient and creaky now, and from having a set of 13 I can now only remember... 1? Maybe? It was a good one though. Actors and Hollywood and stuff. I liked it as a Highlander story but I could rewrite it as a vampire story I reckon. I don't as much like the gender dynamics ... but that was the point, really, to have some fossilised prince protects princess stuff and demonstrate why it purely doesn't work.
I quite like the Zombie James Bond idea. I keep looping back to it. Something about Queen Elizabeth the First running a secret service made entirely of zombies is just nifty. But it isn't meant as fanfic - I'm not a JB fan at all, and I wouldn't want to keep the characters or relationships, which are what fanfic want to preserve. I pretty much want to rip off some plot and give it this supernatural spin. So I can't figure if that's plagiarism (bad) or pastiche (er, I've heard the word but not in a good valued way) or just writer stew (everyone gets their ideas from somewhere). Since I'd be expecting people to notice the Bond resonances and playing with them, that's not plagiarism, cause I don't take credit for it. But is it cool to do? I don't worry for fanfic, but this wouldn't have the fanfic auto audience factor and would be a whole lot of words if I did have a go. *sigh*
My beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/tag/bunnies ( https://beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/tag/bunnies ) has 136 entries. Dreams has 176, some but not all of them the same. And god knows how many entries on here alone are neat ideas but not tagged. Like the snip I wrote down this morning. So that's 137/177 then.
Not knowing where to begin: Always the big problem.
See for assignments you get Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria. You don't actually start from a blank page. You can make a bubble diagram with every outcome and all the criteria and then tag ideas to specific points. You can do the same for fanfic, where you're starting with particular characters, so you've got 'do something for each character' as one criteria for a script shaped story. Also there's locations, themes, relationships. And a page limit.
Writing something original... what are my criteria? What am I trying to do? And how does each character, setting, plot point contribute to the overall message?
That's not how the writing books start things. Well, not exactly. But there's a lot of writing books and the only actual rule is do what works.
Maybe I could take my Close Reading bubble diagram and work it backwards. You know, take the bubbles about gender/ethnicity/class/sexuality/generation/disability and figure out what I want each one to say and then take those as my criteria.
*ponders*
Polyphonic. Democratic. Equality... in a systemically unequal world?
Something where 'pawns team up and fight the big bads' is the logical and necessary outcome.
So that's multi character, varying abilities, varying specialities, and a big bad that's really unequally big in power and resources, be that because it's one superpowered individual or an institution of many annoying people or some combination of both.
Hmm, and I did that chart about how to write Torchwood and buried it somewhere in an I Can Has Teamwork post... *digs* *finds!*
no subject
Date: 2008-06-26 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-26 09:25 pm (UTC)Making friends is a solution that leaves you with more solutions to apply to the next problem
no subject
Date: 2008-06-26 09:25 pm (UTC)