Why I write fanfic and not original fic any more

Or that should be, why I theoretically write, because really, very low output into actual readable story so far.

Original fic means I make up the characters, and the basic rules of the universe they live in, and the worlds they live on, and basically the whole RPG setting and multiple character sheets for everyone up to and including the throwaway NPCs, before I settle down to attempt to put words in a coherent sequence colloquially known as a 'story'.

Fanfic means that the world, characters, basic rules et al already exist. While I can devote a lot of time to understanding the nuance, there is an actual audience for every stage of my analysis. If I come up with a deep long thought about Giles or Oz, and I post it, at least one other person in the world is likely to read it and go 'hmmm', thereby enriching the universe that little bit.

( Read more... )

Fanfic means my thoughts and essays and detail orientation actually has an audience that willingly reads it, ( Read more... )

Fanfic also has a larger audience once I manage the tricky story stage. ( Read more... )

Fanfic can be just as 'original' as the other kind, because it can still be stories only that author could tell, told in a unique fashion.

And since I spend all my time thinking about my fandoms anyway, if I tried to also make up a whole new universe, I'd have to somehow make space in all that and manage to *not* think about BtVS or Ats. For extended periods of time. I kind of don't have the knack of that any more unless I'm thinking just as hard about one of my other fandoms. And even then, usually there end up being comparisons.

The summoning in 'The Dark Age'

I'm trying to put together the teeny tiny bits we get in 'The Dark Age' and see what the ritual to summon Eyghon was like.

Purely for research purposes of course.

There were lots of black candles, some of them the big round kind with three wicks, some singular but arranged in groups of three? Probably the tall kind in a candelabra? There is some kind of round black and white pattern, very swirly and I don't think it resembles the mark. The mark of course is tattooed on, apparently before the ritual with the candles. Then they gather around the candles and pattern and put their hands on it, flat, in pairs. If there is any precision about where on the pattern they touch I can't see it, but they make a rough circle. All touching at the thumbs and little fingers. I count 5 pairs of hands.

The guy that ends up all demonic, presumably Randall, says 'time to go to sleep', before the bit with the hands. He was seen only the other side of candles. Part of that hand circle?

But six people got the mark. There are 5 names on the written list, plus the one that died. Five to summon and one to be summoned into? But he was in the circle. Probably.

Maybe one time they summoned with one less person around than usual? Or swapped a person?

Once again I'm speculating on tiny details with near total lack of data.

But is an interesting little sequence. Definitely a tattoo=needle thing going on, and darkness and flame always about the guy that died. And then the demon, but only a blink.

Every time I think I know an episode I watch it again and pull out yet more detail. Is cool.