Anesor

Very much a pantser. I do have a general idea of the ending I’m aiming for, but if I start analyzing the desires and antagonists and obstacles too much it stifles instead of making sparkles. Only in the last week did a revisit of old character friends made the story really flow.  I work so much  better as a pantser, but that leads to bigger  issues for longer pieces.  Short ones are usually light on those qualities like theme, development, and world building so I think I’m okay.
I’m trying to figure out why my fanfic has gotten so much less spontaneous… and why my originals I’ve made so hard.  I suspect it’s because the results of two novel length pantsing ended up messes and wasted of all the time spent on them.  I desperately need an editor, but budget-wise that won’t happen anytime soon unless I win a lotto. So I muddle through as best I can with the occasional opinions. I love a good review that points out things… at least once I calm down. :p 
I get ideas from anything, and keeping them long enough to get them recorded is an issue. I break ideas into fandom/series and a bucket for original ideas.  When I finish a story i may take a day or two to relax, and then check my idea files. That is best case, sometimes a plot bunny will not let go, hence a Neverwinter sequel has displaced my NaNo projects for the moment.
Usually I have at least two active stories and one or two a semi active. (right now, active original, three active Star Wars, and a Neverwinter… NaNo has kicked my muse into high gear but not the direction I planned on) On a good week I post for two stories, on a bad one, nothing. (that is one thing about NaNo that leaves me antsy, I may not post anything that month)
Once I have the basic idea down I usually have the starting point and a major plot arc. That can usually be sumarized in a single sentence or so, no matter the final intended length.
Names, quirks, background, etc I make up as I need it. I use highlighting to mark areas to fill in and clean up later, staying a bit generic. ‘Search and replace’ is my friend. character studies killed my muse dead in 2010. There are random generators too for lots of details.
I concentrate on the story flow and love cliffhangers, and hiding the answer in plain sight where I hope it was overlooked.  Pushing and concealing answers in the story, means I prefer 1st person for the same reason its favored by mystery writers: a fair mystery!  I don’t want characters to look incompetent in any genre by making the events too obvious.  I also don’t want the readers to get frustrated because the reader didn’t know some obscure fact like one car doesn’t come in stick shift that year, so the clues should be given to the character and reader. That is a tricky balance and sometimes I lean toward underexplaining.
One of my bigger problems is that I have too much going on in the last chapter so it ends up huge. But finishing a story is important so every one is a victory. The next big problem is editing and selling, but that’s more a publishing challenge than a writing one as I see the 1st draft as foundation and blueprint. All the revision in the world can’t help if it wasn’t written down.

Creating stories can be a perplexing/confusing topic since everybody seems to have a slightly different way of going about it.   For trivial details, I’ll use random generators/pickers, to get a list and see “what fits”.  I’ve got a database which is close to the “lore bible” for my originals.  I’ve written small programs to help my writing (date generator, that random picker from a file, database management, map aids, etc).  I’ve drawn crude maps, both on paper and in drawing programs.  I’ve experimented with 3D programs, mainly for layout of major locations, just to give an idea.  I’ve got a bunch of spiral notebooks for my potter universe – which has turned out to be highly useful when returning from a decade “on-hiatus”.  I’ve got a myriad of small text files for my potter universe, with backstory (also useful after that long on-hiatus).  A three-ring binder with loose paper for the original universe.
As to actual writing, I don’t write a super-fine outline, just a crude one.  Write a few key scenes, if needed – just so I’ve got an idea of where I’m heading.  Bring up the “inspirational” pictures, and start writing.  I’ll write notes which I’m about to end for the day, so I can pick up where I left off.  I’ll jot down a bit of an outline for a chapter, when it’s important.  And I’m not afraid to cut/cull material or alter the outline if the characters aren’t agreeing with it.
I also try to keep a spiral notebook handy for that occasion when I hear something, or come up with something, or even after a talk with a coworker – I’ll jot those ideas down, which gives things a better chance of being remembered.  And I’ll typically find my brain the *most* creative, coming up with the *best* ideas as I’m trying to get ready for work after a long weekend….

Normally it’s inspirational, unclogs my neurons (so usually explicit pictures … use your imagination )  However, I have done some 3D-modeling, drawing, etc, when it comes to figuring out layouts to places, or even a family tree.
I’m a bit more toward a pantser when I write, but I do tend to have some rough idea already.  However, I will let the characters surprise me … heck, had a “surprise” blow job in the story the other day, I wasn’t planning on, but it just spontaneously happened.   My balance of pantsing vs outline depends on the complexity of what’s happening – a chapter that’s essentially smut is nearly always pants, while more intricate plot or action, would have an outline, or even blow-by-blow (depends on the timing required).
My general outline is “stuff happened”, and I’ll refine the stuff in between beginning and end as I write.  One thing I will try to do is to write the key scenes, just a draft, so I know what I’m headed for.
 

Yeah, most writers are pantsers or outliners at base.  If you have trouble with outlines you are probably a pantser. It is a continuum so there’s no hard edge. 
I think I have the most problem if I try to plan character behavior or feeling stuff ahead of time. I’ve done detailed grids and flow charts for action sections or to keep track of cast locations when multiplots are at a climax. Background and culture I don’t  plan enough, but I do record bits in a separate file/location for later reference.
My notes file makes for interesting reading in its own right. My notes mentioned someone wanting to shave someone’s beard as payback in chapter two, it finally happened in chapter 28. That wasn’t planning from before I started writing, but more like weaving in loose threads and plot hooks I left behind me. Often my Maguffins like the beard threat aren’t planned consciously, but my muse makes very good use while my ego is pleasantly surprised. One character got threatened in what I thought was a throwaway chapter ending, but is making an interesting subplot now… It’s not always ME doing the planning, but my muse. Recording the mass means I can weave the story back into itself and look much cleverer by not being totally episodic that ignores earlier changes. Continuity errors make ya look bad.

Yeah, most writers are pantsers or outliners at base.  If you have trouble with outlines you are probably a pantser. It is a continuum so there’s no hard edge. 
I think I have the most problem if I try to plan character behavior or feeling stuff ahead of time. I’ve done detailed grids and flow charts for action sections or to keep track of cast locations when multiplots are at a climax. Background and culture I don’t  plan enough, but I do record bits in a separate file/location for later reference.
My notes file makes for interesting reading in its own right. My notes mentioned someone wanting to shave someone’s beard as payback in chapter two, it finally happened in chapter 28. That wasn’t planning from before I started writing, but more like weaving in loose threads and plot hooks I left behind me. Often my Maguffins like the beard threat aren’t planned consciously, but my muse makes very good use while my ego is pleasantly surprised. One character got threatened in what I thought was a throwaway chapter ending, but is making an interesting subplot now… It’s not always ME doing the planning, but my muse. Recording the mass means I can weave the story back into itself and look much cleverer by not being totally episodic that ignores earlier changes. Continuity errors make ya look bad.

Just the setting. Once you build a world and continuity as long as you don't violate the rules of the world and the guidelines everything else is easier to let it happen more organically.
Only outlined a whole story once. Hated everything about it and deleted it wholesale.  

Kinda like when you RPG
you have to get a feel for the character or characters.
Keep a general idea. events usually happen that will get you from point a to point b.
The last time I tried to be meticulous about it I rage quit and deleted the entire thing.  The only notable exception is Oceania in general. Haha.
 

What the heck is a pantser?
Desiderius Price and BronxWench, I never thought of using images to help with inspiration and description. That seems very effective. I will try that.
Participating in RP helped a lot with character development as sort of a sandbox for the way a character might behave and act. Being able to bounce them off others can make them more fleshed out and creative since you can put them in situations that you wouldn’t have anticipated. I came up with a lot of characters RPing with friends when I was younger, although we stopped doing that after high school (a favorite was a Christmas horror theme where a sugar plum “fairy” terrorizes... – hm, might be a good one for a Christmas submittal here ).
I’m glad I’m not the only one that suffers with too much planning. Thanks for detailing your processes.
The only thing I write beforehand is dreams that can be used for plots. If I don’t write those down 10 minutes after I wake up, I forget them. Some of my best ideas, including a story I’m working on now, have actually been my subconscious talking. For some reason, my dreams tend towards comedy, puns, and satire that is far more clever than what I can come up with when awake...

A pantser is basically someone who writes by the seat of their pants. They don’t put too much effort into the outline, preferring things to evolve more organically. There are pros and cons to this, just as with anything. I believe with pantsing, you get much better characterization. Whereas a strong outliner would get much better plot with a greater ability to do twists and turns.
@InvidiaRed Have you really outlined the whole story, or just been very meticulous with the setting? Cause that in itself is a bit different as well.

Very much a pantser. I do have a general idea of the ending I’m aiming for, but if I start analyzing the desires and antagonists and obstacles too much it stifles instead of making sparkles. Only in the last week did a revisit of old character friends made the story really flow.  I work so much  better as a pantser, but that leads to bigger  issues for longer pieces.  Short ones are usually light on those qualities like theme, development, and world building so I think I’m okay.
I’m trying to figure out why my fanfic has gotten so much less spontaneous… and why my originals I’ve made so hard.  I suspect it’s because the results of two novel length pantsing ended up messes and wasted of all the time spent on them.  I desperately need an editor, but budget-wise that won’t happen anytime soon unless I win a lotto. So I muddle through as best I can with the occasional opinions. I love a good review that points out things… at least once I calm down. :p 
I get ideas from anything, and keeping them long enough to get them recorded is an issue. I break ideas into fandom/series and a bucket for original ideas.  When I finish a story i may take a day or two to relax, and then check my idea files. That is best case, sometimes a plot bunny will not let go, hence a Neverwinter sequel has displaced my NaNo projects for the moment.
Usually I have at least two active stories and one or two a semi active. (right now, active original, three active Star Wars, and a Neverwinter… NaNo has kicked my muse into high gear but not the direction I planned on) On a good week I post for two stories, on a bad one, nothing. (that is one thing about NaNo that leaves me antsy, I may not post anything that month)
Once I have the basic idea down I usually have the starting point and a major plot arc. That can usually be sumarized in a single sentence or so, no matter the final intended length.
Names, quirks, background, etc I make up as I need it. I use highlighting to mark areas to fill in and clean up later, staying a bit generic. ‘Search and replace’ is my friend. character studies killed my muse dead in 2010. There are random generators too for lots of details.
I concentrate on the story flow and love cliffhangers, and hiding the answer in plain sight where I hope it was overlooked.  Pushing and concealing answers in the story, means I prefer 1st person for the same reason its favored by mystery writers: a fair mystery!  I don’t want characters to look incompetent in any genre by making the events too obvious.  I also don’t want the readers to get frustrated because the reader didn’t know some obscure fact like one car doesn’t come in stick shift that year, so the clues should be given to the character and reader. That is a tricky balance and sometimes I lean toward underexplaining.
One of my bigger problems is that I have too much going on in the last chapter so it ends up huge. But finishing a story is important so every one is a victory. The next big problem is editing and selling, but that’s more a publishing challenge than a writing one as I see the 1st draft as foundation and blueprint. All the revision in the world can’t help if it wasn’t written down.

Very much a pantser. I do have a general idea of the ending I’m aiming for, but if I start analyzing the desires and antagonists and obstacles too much it stifles instead of making sparkles. Only in the last week did a revisit of old character friends made the story really flow.  I work so much  better as a pantser, but that leads to bigger  issues for longer pieces.  Short ones are usually light on those qualities like theme, development, and world building so I think I’m okay.
I’m trying to figure out why my fanfic has gotten so much less spontaneous… and why my originals I’ve made so hard.  I suspect it’s because the results of two novel length pantsing ended up messes and wasted of all the time spent on them.  I desperately need an editor, but budget-wise that won’t happen anytime soon unless I win a lotto. So I muddle through as best I can with the occasional opinions. I love a good review that points out things… at least once I calm down. :p 
I get ideas from anything, and keeping them long enough to get them recorded is an issue. I break ideas into fandom/series and a bucket for original ideas.  When I finish a story i may take a day or two to relax, and then check my idea files. That is best case, sometimes a plot bunny will not let go, hence a Neverwinter sequel has displaced my NaNo projects for the moment.
Usually I have at least two active stories and one or two a semi active. (right now, active original, three active Star Wars, and a Neverwinter… NaNo has kicked my muse into high gear but not the direction I planned on) On a good week I post for two stories, on a bad one, nothing. (that is one thing about NaNo that leaves me antsy, I may not post anything that month)
Once I have the basic idea down I usually have the starting point and a major plot arc. That can usually be sumarized in a single sentence or so, no matter the final intended length.
Names, quirks, background, etc I make up as I need it. I use highlighting to mark areas to fill in and clean up later, staying a bit generic. ‘Search and replace’ is my friend. character studies killed my muse dead in 2010. There are random generators too for lots of details.
I concentrate on the story flow and love cliffhangers, and hiding the answer in plain sight where I hope it was overlooked.  Pushing and concealing answers in the story, means I prefer 1st person for the same reason its favored by mystery writers: a fair mystery!  I don’t want characters to look incompetent in any genre by making the events too obvious.  I also don’t want the readers to get frustrated because the reader didn’t know some obscure fact like one car doesn’t come in stick shift that year, so the clues should be given to the character and reader. That is a tricky balance and sometimes I lean toward underexplaining.
One of my bigger problems is that I have too much going on in the last chapter so it ends up huge. But finishing a story is important so every one is a victory. The next big problem is editing and selling, but that’s more a publishing challenge than a writing one as I see the 1st draft as foundation and blueprint. All the revision in the world can’t help if it wasn’t written down.

Very much a pantser. I do have a general idea of the ending I’m aiming for, but if I start analyzing the desires and antagonists and obstacles too much it stifles instead of making sparkles. Only in the last week did a revisit of old character friends made the story really flow.  I work so much  better as a pantser, but that leads to bigger  issues for longer pieces.  Short ones are usually light on those qualities like theme, development, and world building so I think I’m okay.
I’m trying to figure out why my fanfic has gotten so much less spontaneous… and why my originals I’ve made so hard.  I suspect it’s because the results of two novel length pantsing ended up messes and wasted of all the time spent on them.  I desperately need an editor, but budget-wise that won’t happen anytime soon unless I win a lotto. So I muddle through as best I can with the occasional opinions. I love a good review that points out things… at least once I calm down. :p 
I get ideas from anything, and keeping them long enough to get them recorded is an issue. I break ideas into fandom/series and a bucket for original ideas.  When I finish a story i may take a day or two to relax, and then check my idea files. That is best case, sometimes a plot bunny will not let go, hence a Neverwinter sequel has displaced my NaNo projects for the moment.
Usually I have at least two active stories and one or two a semi active. (right now, active original, three active Star Wars, and a Neverwinter… NaNo has kicked my muse into high gear but not the direction I planned on) On a good week I post for two stories, on a bad one, nothing. (that is one thing about NaNo that leaves me antsy, I may not post anything that month)
Once I have the basic idea down I usually have the starting point and a major plot arc. That can usually be sumarized in a single sentence or so, no matter the final intended length.
Names, quirks, background, etc I make up as I need it. I use highlighting to mark areas to fill in and clean up later, staying a bit generic. ‘Search and replace’ is my friend. character studies killed my muse dead in 2010. There are random generators too for lots of details.
I concentrate on the story flow and love cliffhangers, and hiding the answer in plain sight where I hope it was overlooked.  Pushing and concealing answers in the story, means I prefer 1st person for the same reason its favored by mystery writers: a fair mystery!  I don’t want characters to look incompetent in any genre by making the events too obvious.  I also don’t want the readers to get frustrated because the reader didn’t know some obscure fact like one car doesn’t come in stick shift that year, so the clues should be given to the character and reader. That is a tricky balance and sometimes I lean toward underexplaining.
One of my bigger problems is that I have too much going on in the last chapter so it ends up huge. But finishing a story is important so every one is a victory. The next big problem is editing and selling, but that’s more a publishing challenge than a writing one as I see the 1st draft as foundation and blueprint. All the revision in the world can’t help if it wasn’t written down.

I am something of a pantser when I write by myself. When I co-author with someone else, I keep copious notes, but left to my own devices, I let my characters tell the story. It’s not even remotely efficient, but it’s how my brain works best when I don’t have someone else to bounce ideas off. The only thing I might make notes for are certain elements of the backstory, like pantheons, place names, and a very, VERY rough timeline. Otherwise, I wing it madly.
I also do collect pictures as mental prompts, which I save to private boards on my Pinterest, just to fuel the imagination a bit, or aid me in describing something. I’m very visual in many respects, even if I prefer not to describe my characters in such minute detail as to rob readers of a chance to imagine the characters themselves.

When I started my potter fic many years ago, I did make some notes, etc, including “behind the scenes” shorts to the other side.  Now that I’ve decided to restart that story, fifteen years later, I’ve been finding those notes useful, invaluable actually, in restarting it with some consistency.  Overall, if it’s important to the story, or good backstory, I do write it down, either on paper, or in the computer.  I even have a database for my original works.  Another invaluable file I have, from years ago, is a spreadsheet for the potter story.  Given its size, I had columns for each of the major/significant charactors, a row per day of the story, and for those interesting days, a thing or two about what was happening – useful, very useful, to refer to.  (And, now that I’m revising, I’ve got some of the older drafts too.)
As to writing the story itself, words definitely flow more easily at a keyboard, especially if I’ve got “inspirational pictures” up onthe rest of the computer monitor.  Now, I don’t start with a comprehensive story outline….NO!  I will write any key scenes, have a rough idea, and refine it as I write.  So, this next section to the current chapter I’m working on, yesterday, I came up with a few points to write to, so I give one sentence snippets, and I’ll likely write to those goals as I work tonight/tomorrow at it.  Any “later” ideas that I don’t have a spot yet, will loiter as one-liners in the rough order I intend, until I reach them.

I remember those word processers. My parents hHad a similar one in the house until we got our 486 PC in about ‘94/95, and then it probably went into a cupboard or classified ad.
With my shorter flashfics up to 1000 words I often just have a rough idea, or a bit of word play, or a shit joke, and start typing to see what happens. Sometimes something pretty good happens. Other times it’s a load of horse cock.
With my longer stories I’ve tended to come up with as many ideas and concepts to use, type ‘em in a text file, and then try and get them into a rough chapter plan order to work out how I’m going to do it, the plan will often include turns of phrase I’ve thought up to use. The plan will also sometimes get mixed around a bit with things being moved to other chapters or deleted. My current story plan is messed up a bit because I’ve found I can’t fit everything I wanted in part 3, so I’m rejigging part 4 and so on. Even with all that I sometimes have a really hard time getting things down as they are in my head. I sometimes sit here for minutes trying to find the right frigging word that’s on the tip of my tongue – sometimes I try and google for it. I don’t have any character sheets either, which probably means I’ll contradict the shit out of myself one of these days.
Another thing with me was I did a lot of request stories for other people, and for some of those they had a paragraph or two about what they wanted to see so that part of the work was already done, in a way. To take an example from the forum – If I did one of T_B’s requests, say. These usually have a plot outline, a few details of characters to be included, and indicate the main fetish or fetishes involved. All I’d be doing there would be hanging the descriptions and whatever perversity occurs to me off that skeleton, and crediting T_B for it. I guess with requests like that, it’s like someone’s dug down three feet by six and you the author just have to dig another three by six. Sometimes it could be difficult because I’d say to the requester, “What about if X does Y?” and they’d say that they would never know arousal again, you monster, Harry would never felch Amelia, but otherwise it’s basically easier developing someone else’s story idea with those.
 

Hey there,
I’m curious how other writers develop their ideas into a full story. What is your process?
When I was a teenager, I was daydreaming all the time and stories ran though my mind like films non-stop. I could only write via computer or typewriter because handwriting was too “slow”. One of my favorite instruments was a handheld word processor that I got from a library (does anyone remember those?). I didn’t have access to a computer unless I went to a public library, so often times a story would be stewing in my head for weeks and when I finally had a keyboard in front of me it would spill out in one go – then the editing process could begin with a wealth of material. When I have access to a computer to write whenever I wanted, I barely wrote at all. I realized a story must sit in my head for a long time before I can write it. I can’t write character sheets or outlines or summaries, otherwise the story dies.
It seems like everyone is going to have a different method to get their ideas out. It’d be interesting to hear how your methods developed over time or how you discovered them!

In my time here, I’ve seen very few instances of severe trolling or flaming. I really believe it occurs in certain subdomains more than others (and in some not at all) and generally revolves around someone daring to write something other than the OTP of the reader, or in some way bashing (or failing to bash) a specific character. Think Weasley-bashing in the harry Potter subdomain, or the fixation on Sasuke cuckolding Naruto in that subdomain. Aside from those instances, the flaming and trolling has been minimal here, maybe because we tend to moderate actively and we deal with flamers and trolls quickly.
We do have limitations here that other sites don’t have, such as not allowing authors to reply to review on their review board, but one advantage to our forums is that only the author needs to be a member to create a review reply thread. Non-members can read and reply freely, and we’ve completely fine with including the url to your review reply thread in the story. I sometimes include it as a footnote AN, just a quick lime letting readers know (right above that handy link) that I do like reviews, so please drop me a line. I do allow anonymous reviews, and I’ve never really regretted doing so, even given that I’m sure to piss people off on a regular basis as a moderator who might have warned their story or even hidden it.
But concrit?  Good solid concrit is my favorite thing in the world, and I still haven’t forgiven Shadowknight12  for vanishing and not leaving me his wonderful, and very useful concrit. Snarky paladins aren’t what they used to be, that’s for damned sure.

Yeah, good luck to all taking part!

Not doing it this year, but I’d been wondering who here was. Thumbs up to y’all!

It’s just over two weeks until this year’s NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) The goal is to finish the first draft of a story, without any prewritten prose, starting Nov 1st and finishing Nov 30th. There are a bunch of coupon and promos for participants and winner, but the prezzies vary year to year. Createspace used to offer physical printings if you published through them, but they were completely absorbed by Kindle this year.   The idea is that a little friendly competition helps a lot pf new writers to finish a story. outlines, character studies, prep is fine. Just no story.
Register before Halloween because the servers are usually hit hard on the start and end days. They added a fanfic category for stories last year.  I started writing during 2007 NaNo and hit the total eight times. (you submit a file, that you can scrqmbleif you think sojmeone would steak it) A lot of my big fics started during NaNo. It’s fun to see your progress graph inch up every day and see how your friends or town are doing.
They also sponsor a couple Camp NaNo sessions earlier in the year, but those can be writing, revising or some other task. I’m restarting my prison ship story after several years in a trunk. I could not figure out why it just withered away when I tried to figure out how to revise it. To keep me insanely busy I’m taking a ‘how to write a novel’ class, and hoping it will provide enough insight to strengthen the story. It’s a 32 lesson self-paced package, but this is the beta and it’s not finished. So I will have to use the later lessons more for future novels… I’m goign to try to fit a chapter of my current big fic in November too.
I also hear there is some holiday that month and I’m wondering if a frozen dinner will help.  If you want to writing buddy, I’m bucolic-scribe on that site.  I use this challenge like a booster shot for my dilligence and organization, because my output drops below 500 words a day every summer and the 2k boost usually lasts me until spring. Give it a try!

It’s just over two weeks until this year’s NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) The goal is to finish the first draft of a story, without any prewritten prose, starting Nov 1st and finishing Nov 30th. There are a bunch of coupon and promos for participants and winner, but the prezzies vary year to year. Createspace used to offer physical printings if you published through them, but they were completely absorbed by Kindle this year.   The idea is that a little friendly competition helps a lot pf new writers to finish a story. outlines, character studies, prep is fine. Just no story.
Register before Halloween because the servers are usually hit hard on the start and end days. They added a fanfic category for stories last year.  I started writing during 2007 NaNo and hit the total eight times. (you submit a file, that you can scrqmbleif you think sojmeone would steak it) A lot of my big fics started during NaNo. It’s fun to see your progress graph inch up every day and see how your friends or town are doing.
They also sponsor a couple Camp NaNo sessions earlier in the year, but those can be writing, revising or some other task. I’m restarting my prison ship story after several years in a trunk. I could not figure out why it just withered away when I tried to figure out how to revise it. To keep me insanely busy I’m taking a ‘how to write a novel’ class, and hoping it will provide enough insight to strengthen the story. It’s a 32 lesson self-paced package, but this is the beta and it’s not finished. So I will have to use the later lessons more for future novels… I’m goign to try to fit a chapter of my current big fic in November too.
I also hear there is some holiday that month and I’m wondering if a frozen dinner will help.  If you want to writing buddy, I’m bucolic-scribe on that site.  I use this challenge like a booster shot for my dilligence and organization, because my output drops below 500 words a day every summer and the 2k boost usually lasts me until spring. Give it a try!

I skipped last year, and I’ve been miserable about it all year, so come the hells or high water, I will be doing NaNo this year. And for anyone else wanting to buddy up, I am MorwenNavarre over there, and I will be writing a Ghost and Gerry novel, for anyone who reads my Witch’s Apprentice series. I’m still thinking about the title, but I have a half-assed plot in mind, involving… well, I have to write the thing first, before I write a blurb!

It’s just over two weeks until this year’s NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) The goal is to finish the first draft of a story, without any prewritten prose, starting Nov 1st and finishing Nov 30th. There are a bunch of coupon and promos for participants and winner, but the prezzies vary year to year. Createspace used to offer physical printings if you published through them, but they were completely absorbed by Kindle this year.   The idea is that a little friendly competition helps a lot pf new writers to finish a story. outlines, character studies, prep is fine. Just no story.
Register before Halloween because the servers are usually hit hard on the start and end days. They added a fanfic category for stories last year.  I started writing during 2007 NaNo and hit the total eight times. (you submit a file, that you can scrqmbleif you think sojmeone would steak it) A lot of my big fics started during NaNo. It’s fun to see your progress graph inch up every day and see how your friends or town are doing.
They also sponsor a couple Camp NaNo sessions earlier in the year, but those can be writing, revising or some other task. I’m restarting my prison ship story after several years in a trunk. I could not figure out why it just withered away when I tried to figure out how to revise it. To keep me insanely busy I’m taking a ‘how to write a novel’ class, and hoping it will provide enough insight to strengthen the story. It’s a 32 lesson self-paced package, but this is the beta and it’s not finished. So I will have to use the later lessons more for future novels… I’m goign to try to fit a chapter of my current big fic in November too.
I also hear there is some holiday that month and I’m wondering if a frozen dinner will help.  If you want to writing buddy, I’m bucolic-scribe on that site.  I use this challenge like a booster shot for my dilligence and organization, because my output drops below 500 words a day every summer and the 2k boost usually lasts me until spring. Give it a try!

Yeah, I’ve seen too many pro writers who make a well-done character go so far off the rail for clearly meta reasons in books, TV, and games and they thought bending the char is less important than forcing the scene or plot.  That happens in fanfic as well, but I see that as less embarrassing, though still bad. I can be open to redeemed villains if they have to work at it, and tarnished heroes if they break, but the changes from canon need to be rooted in some one or multiple hints in the canon.
Most annoying to me are the ones who take things far darker without any convincing reasons for the character change beyond bending the character. Because the writer hates that box.
I think if you hate the box, why use that character at all?  OCs are better than bending the character and rejecting the box. Characters are made up of voluntary and involuntary boxes. We can tweak or grow out of our self-made boxes, but it just doesn’t happen by magic. (even in worlds with magic, there is the spell or curse that forces a change. The better writers figure a way to adjust the box without rejecting the entire box. [BTW i really like this box metaphor, because it handles OOCness well]
-- about the number of OCs for the story, that is tricky. If there is no existing character to take the story role the writer needs, I don’t see any problem. But I think OCs should be a minority percent of the cast. People read fanfic for new adventures of characters they love. I know I tend to drop from stories where majority OCs carry the story. I started writing from canons of CRPG, so the lead was almost always an OC which colorizes the story told. 
I find the bigger reason for limiting the number of characters is that the story will grow almost virally.  To make interesting characters or get canon ones to be more than tropes, you have to develop them and give them goals and some small arc. That takes a lot of time when you pass a dozen major characters, that’s how my simple Cthulu coming to attack a high fantasy city exploded to become 300k words and I nearly had an ilcer trying to wrangle it to a conclusion. My current crack derived idea is heading for 200k,  (8 POV chars 2 of those OC… 21 major chars, and 5 of those are OC) All those subplots end up detracting from your main story thread. Slices of life are good, but a good story needs a good and meaningful conclusion.
Your cast is a bigger box to treasure.

The reason fan-fiction makes such a great writing exercise for many is that the characters are already done up for you. You know the characters, you know the world, you know the possibilities of both so all you have to do is come up with an interesting arrangement of events.. It’s good practice for when you start doing original works with original characters because believe it or not, once you’ve defined a character you’ll have just as much of a constraint as if you were writing with someone else’s character. that is, there is a limited set of actions that will ‘feel’ right for any character.
Embrace the box.
It’s a common thing , even among pro authors to simply have a character be whatever they need the character to be to make a scene work and this can create some  narrative dissonan ce. Have you ever seen a story where a character just does something that doesn’t fit well with how they’ve been characterized Or their actuions over the course of the book don’t seem to flow from one to the other in any logical pattern? Yeah That’s what hapopenbs when a character is bent to fit the story.
The reall question is. How many OC’s do you need to add to tell an interesting story?  Or to quote a piece of whriting advice. Try to tell the story with as few characters as possible,