CloverReef

I actually changed a story I was publishing because my editor thought it needed some things to make it more, I don’t know, appealing, or relevant, or engaging. I forget the word exactly. But the changes never felt right to me, and now that the book’s been accepted for republication, I went back and deleted all the stuff I added at that editor’s urging. The thing is, I never really got feedback from readers non this book, so I have no real idea if they liked those bits or hated them, but I’m much happier with the manuscript without them, so… I’m taking a deep breath and going with my gut.

Absolutely, lack of feedback makes me change stuff! Sometimes the change is as simple as pulling the story. Sometimes it gets more complicated as I attempt to read the minds of readers to figure out what the problem was. And seeing as how I’m a pretty shitty psychic, I end up changing a lot of things in a panic until the story is unrecognizable or just not what I wanted to begin with soooo either way it’s usually a terrible decision on my part lol. But doubt does that to me. Makes me make terrible decisions.

Neil Gaiman always brightens my day!

Rutty Rut Rut, that’s what the sleigh became, rusty ruts.

@Anesor Not entirely sure if you were agreeing with me or disagreeing. There wasn’t anything you said that seemed to debate my points at least? Though admittedly I bristled when you said “I think we should be careful about overusing the term ‘rut.’” and now I want to use the term even more lol. 

This is pretty much what I was going to say. Both points, lol. On TV shows, a lot of editing and decision making has to go through a number of people. When a number of people are involved in one decision, in my opinion, they tend to drive each other along a specific pattern. One person wants to take a risk, and seven more people hmm and haw over it for a while and compromises are made. I think that’s when the stagnating happens. Moral of the story? Fuck teamwork, I guess. 
And yeah, I definitely don’t follow the write what you know thing. I follow the write what you’re interested in knowing thing. Write what you love, or write what piques your curiosity. As long as interest or love is there, as pippy put it, I definitely think it’ll show. Annnd if you don’t wanna get lost in the research, go my favourite lazy route! Fantasy world based loosely on 18th century france or ancient greece or whatever! 
Anyway, back to the original question. I think it’s much easier to avoid stagnation when you make all the decisions. Though if you’re like me and you go where your inspiration takes you, there will be a lot of recurring themes, simply because I tend to get inspired by specific, similar things. Luckily there are all kinds of ways to keep them fresh. I mean Stephen King has written how many books about horror shit in New England? People still love him. Some audiences like knowing what to expect from authors. Using recurring themes and settings across most of your stories can breed that sort of security. I know when I really like a book and I go look at what else the author wrote, I go hoping for similar things, and if I find all kinds of very different things, I’m often disappointed. There’s nothing wrong with a rut, as long as that rut is a friggin enjoyable rut. 
But sticking to a set formula, as a writer, isn’t nearly as fun. I desire variety. I want to try all kinds of genres – all kinds of pairings and villains and heroes. I wanna do feminist fiction and nautical shit, and senseless, horrifically depraved smut. However, most attempts to venture from what I’m good at or certain of will die on the cutting board and never see the light of day, but I think it’s important to explore those dead ends when you feel the urge. Even if just to get it out. 

From the original author:
If the premise of any new story is merely Hinata cuckolding Naruto, I’d say that was exceedingly common as a trope in this fandom. If the new story had Hinata as a TV anchor, who was known for her publicly lewd acts, then it’s crossing the line into plagiarism.
Any continuation would need to follow our established procedures for story adoption.
 
 

I don’t think I’m quite at 2000, but thanks to collabing/roleplaying, I’m well over a few hundred. I try not to use the same name twice either, for developed characters, but I have so many characters that I planned that I never did anything with, or only used once for a few scenes and abandoned, that sometimes I will salvage their name for a new character. But even then I feel weird about it lol. 
I have this rule that I don’t use the names of people who mean something to me, buuuut I do actually have one name that breaks both these rules. Rick. Someone I had a crush on when I was a kid, I started using his name whenever I’m in need of a 2 dimensional asshole in a collab. Like just a side character that doesn’t get much scene time (not a full on antagonist or anything) and he’s made appearances in at least a dozen stories now, lol.

It did fit under the “strange thing” but I find it useful for avoiding a story where every sentence starts with “the”...because a bit tiresome/boring to me if it does.
Another thing I try to do is to balance my character names a bit.  Tough to do in those parts of the universe where the names are already well engrained, but I do try to do it elsewhere.  For instance, I have Jaimie, Joe, Josephine, Jade, Jarred, Jefferey, Joey ...etc, I noticed that I was getting a lot of “J’s” so I’ll now try to balance out the letters in a story.  (However, I can’t change the well established names, so those remain.)

Most of my ‘weird rules’ are not so much weird as boring and grammar related. A lot of my writing I go by feel, so if I made any rules I’d probably break them real quick. Well I do have a rule where I never use names of people I’m close to. And on the off chance I make a female character, she needs to be absolutely nothing like me as I’m deathly allergic to self-insertion (… of the writing variety…) Even if I some day decided to write my memoirs I’d probably break out in panic hives every time the main character did something that reminded me of me
I guess I’m a little weird about my physical setting when I write too. Like I like to have music playing that fits the mood – there was a whole chapter in Blackbird that I wrote to the sound of a rain from one of those sleep noise apps because it was raining in the chapter. But at the same time, I can’t focus when the music has lyrics. The words fuddle me all up. So most of the time I have to write with instrumentals or complete silence. 

That’s a pretty good rule. Forces you to get creative as long as you don’t twist yourself into knots avoiding it. I’ve heard you mention it before and ever since I’ve kinda just been half-assedly avoiding starting sentences with ‘the’ and more aware of it when I do use it. 

Most of my ‘weird rules’ are not so much weird as boring and grammar related. A lot of my writing I go by feel, so if I made any rules I’d probably break them real quick. Well I do have a rule where I never use names of people I’m close to. And on the off chance I make a female character, she needs to be absolutely nothing like me as I’m deathly allergic to self-insertion (… of the writing variety…) Even if I some day decided to write my memoirs I’d probably break out in panic hives every time the main character did something that reminded me of me
I guess I’m a little weird about my physical setting when I write too. Like I like to have music playing that fits the mood – there was a whole chapter in Blackbird that I wrote to the sound of a rain from one of those sleep noise apps because it was raining in the chapter. But at the same time, I can’t focus when the music has lyrics. The words fuddle me all up. So most of the time I have to write with instrumentals or complete silence. 

That’s a pretty good rule. Forces you to get creative as long as you don’t twist yourself into knots avoiding it. I’ve heard you mention it before and ever since I’ve kinda just been half-assedly avoiding starting sentences with ‘the’ and more aware of it when I do use it. 

I have changed my pen name to PlagueClover on the archives. So if you saw my story posted there under this new name, don’t worry, it hasn’t been stolen. 

I think inspiration is dreaming whilst awake. There’s no other explanation for the way the ideas leap between nuances of meaning and plot the way they do. It also explains the way that things can seem utterly silly once that inspiration leaves.
That being the case, I often feel like if I can hold onto the atmosphere and emotion of a thing, rather than the intricacies of it, then it stays for much longer. To keep it is to perfect the art of dreaming the same thing over and over again.
And, since I write fanfiction, I often find once the original inspiration has struck and you’ve begun writing, you need more than inspiration then. You need to a strike a balance between many closely related things. Inspiration is one, motivation, dedication, impetus, fanaticism and total immersion in the source material are the others. Get it right, and the story will flow like water. And if you’re posting, feedback (and lack of it) is a blessing and a curse. Feedback will buoy you up, but it can also interfere with your ideas. Lack of feedback can make you give up completely, unless the muse is particularly insistent.
 

Yes, stress and feeling like no one’s even reading has a huge impact on my inspiration as well. Makes it all the more fleeting. Makes it hard to work up the motivation to attempt to grasp those wisps, and if you manage to grasp one, there’s still the battle of trying to convince yourself it’s worth it to do anything with it. Sometimes it’s hard to see the point.
Sometimes it’s just work and family related stress that completely blows the smoke of inspiration right out of the air, but the will is still there. Stronger even, and desperate for the therapeutic clacking of keys and laying of thoughts, because when you need it most, it’s hardest to grasp. 
At least that’s my experience. 

Yeah, I write them down ASAP too, but that helps remember the ideas, not so much retain the inspiration. For me, an idea and being inspired for an idea are two drastically different things, and in my hands, a fully formed idea is worthless without the inspiration to bring it to life. 

Sometimes the stress makes my characters miserable too… just saying.

This, exactly. 

Yes, stress and feeling like no one’s even reading has a huge impact on my inspiration as well. Makes it all the more fleeting. Makes it hard to work up the motivation to attempt to grasp those wisps, and if you manage to grasp one, there’s still the battle of trying to convince yourself it’s worth it to do anything with it. Sometimes it’s hard to see the point.
Sometimes it’s just work and family related stress that completely blows the smoke of inspiration right out of the air, but the will is still there. Stronger even, and desperate for the therapeutic clacking of keys and laying of thoughts, because when you need it most, it’s hardest to grasp. 
At least that’s my experience. 

Yeah, I write them down ASAP too, but that helps remember the ideas, not so much retain the inspiration. For me, an idea and being inspired for an idea are two drastically different things, and in my hands, a fully formed idea is worthless without the inspiration to bring it to life. 

It feels like such a fleeting thing. You feel like you can reach out and grab it, but then it wisps through your fingers and dissipates like smoke. Sometimes I can grasp it for the length of a song and formulate an entire universe, but as the song ends, it fades like a dream and ten seconds later, it’s gone. The details are still there, but the visions, the emotions, the characters voices and desires are suddenly all very 2 dimensional and not strong enough to weave into a good story foundation. 
There are times, though, when it’s not such a flight risk. When I can grasp it and put reins on it and attach every passing whimsy to me like a dog sled. 
I’m not asking for help or advice. Inspiration is such a personal thing, no amount of “try this” will change my reality, but my reality is ever-changing. I’m interested in your experiences with it. Either right now, or over the years.  

Yes, stress and feeling like no one’s even reading has a huge impact on my inspiration as well. Makes it all the more fleeting. Makes it hard to work up the motivation to attempt to grasp those wisps, and if you manage to grasp one, there’s still the battle of trying to convince yourself it’s worth it to do anything with it. Sometimes it’s hard to see the point.
Sometimes it’s just work and family related stress that completely blows the smoke of inspiration right out of the air, but the will is still there. Stronger even, and desperate for the therapeutic clacking of keys and laying of thoughts, because when you need it most, it’s hardest to grasp. 
At least that’s my experience. 

Much like BW, I've got a million ideas in my head...  Usually fighting each other  (...six things on the go and one trying to be published...too many ideas, not enough time)...
I can be inspired (and write twenty chapters pretty much non stop) by a simple song lyric or something I've seen in movies or just random thoughts I have...  Which are most of the ideas...  And where the idea for the newest one came from (two lines in a song, lol)...  But that inspiration can be lost just as suddenly too…
Having a broken spirit kills that inspiration flat dead...  Trust me, I got a lot of Inspiration hidden in the basement...  And for me, that happens a lot... 
Stress kills...  And when nothing's gone right (Just like right now, laptop's fried itself (I hate this damned city))...  And bad times...  And that feeling that, while I know people are reading, it doesn't feel like it... 
The inspiration wavers and, oft times, cracks, breaks, and disappears...  I've been lucky lately...  But even then, the inspiration for STA, BaH, CHHW, even Hunted and BP have all wavered because of those factors all coming together right now...  Sucks when you're always thinking the worst…
 

Yeah, I write them down ASAP too, but that helps remember the ideas, not so much retain the inspiration. For me, an idea and being inspired for an idea are two drastically different things, and in my hands, a fully formed idea is worthless without the inspiration to bring it to life.