Writing Meme: Side Question
Sep. 28th, 2014 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
loaded_marchI kind of set myself up for this one with my last Writing Meme answer, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
awyvern asked: Oh! Can I ask that question, then? Please?
The question in question is: in what other author's universe would you like to play in or what piece of artwork by any artist would you like to write a story for...
First, I've gotta say that I'm particularly susceptible to suggestion. It doesn't take much for me to come up with ideas. A picture, a line of lyric, imagery from a text, a line in a scientific journal -- you name it, something has spontaneously spawned a plot bunny.
For example, a two second scene from a perfume commercial kicked off the dragonlord fic. An abstract from a scientific journal gave me an idea for the application of a special colloidal silver compound in the use of a werewolf serum for a TW fic. A photograph of Chris Pine leaning against a classic car in the middle of a sandy desert is nagging me to write a 100,000 word original fic. A phrase I can only assume came from a song lyric (I saw it on a Tumblr image) gave me the foundation for the characterization of an original character. A conversation with a colleague to try to figure out a new way to approach a problem ended up spawning an apocalypse that doesn't involve zombies.
If I'm in the right mindset, it's really not hard to get blindsided with a new idea.
Sometimes, sometimes, I fall in love with an universe or a setting so much that I end up telling myself stories that are set in that universe. It's almost like a non-stop movie running in my head. Growing up, I used to create original characters and plop them in the middle of those universe -- MZB's Darkover series, or her Lythande, or Morgan Llewellyn's Red Branch. Nowadays, I tend to live in universes of my own making. Sometimes I write them. Sometimes I don't. It's really a lot of fun, testing the rules of the universe and seeing what options would work for a plot.
I'm a little hard-pressed to come up with an universe (that's not mine) that would make me want to play in it these days, especially since I've packed up all my books and can't throw out a list of universes that I love to read, so I won't. And I don't remember fanfics worth shit (titles or authors always escape me, but describe the premise and I can tell you how the story unfolds), so that's out, too.
But what I do know is that, since I'm more susceptible to images of any kind, there's no shortage of artwork that would make me want to write something. It's pretty much a given that anything bymushroomtale or amphigoury will make me want to pick up a pen and write. There are gorgeous pieces by altocello and alby_mangroves that make me want to beg to write the scene. And I only name these artists in particular because I've spoken with them on several occasions -- there are many, many, many other artists whose artwork I've seen in Merlin fandom that make me shake my head in awe.
Tumblr is a dangerous place for someone like me, by the way. ALL THE ARTWORK. OH MY GOD.
I have a Tumblr tag entitled "story ideas" -- things that triggered a plot bunny nesting. I have a file folder of artwork that I've saved under a naming system of [username]_[website where found]_[basic gist of idea] -- my 2014 folder is 72 images in, and that's only because the year isn't over yet and I haven't had the time to really follow link after link to look at all the beautiful artwork that's posted online. Interestingly enough, except for the artwork that I wrote RVBBs for, or Smoke and Mirrors, I haven't written a story based on a single piece of artwork, and I wouldn't, not without permisison.
awyvern asked: Oh! Can I ask that question, then? Please?The question in question is: in what other author's universe would you like to play in or what piece of artwork by any artist would you like to write a story for...
First, I've gotta say that I'm particularly susceptible to suggestion. It doesn't take much for me to come up with ideas. A picture, a line of lyric, imagery from a text, a line in a scientific journal -- you name it, something has spontaneously spawned a plot bunny.
For example, a two second scene from a perfume commercial kicked off the dragonlord fic. An abstract from a scientific journal gave me an idea for the application of a special colloidal silver compound in the use of a werewolf serum for a TW fic. A photograph of Chris Pine leaning against a classic car in the middle of a sandy desert is nagging me to write a 100,000 word original fic. A phrase I can only assume came from a song lyric (I saw it on a Tumblr image) gave me the foundation for the characterization of an original character. A conversation with a colleague to try to figure out a new way to approach a problem ended up spawning an apocalypse that doesn't involve zombies.
If I'm in the right mindset, it's really not hard to get blindsided with a new idea.
Sometimes, sometimes, I fall in love with an universe or a setting so much that I end up telling myself stories that are set in that universe. It's almost like a non-stop movie running in my head. Growing up, I used to create original characters and plop them in the middle of those universe -- MZB's Darkover series, or her Lythande, or Morgan Llewellyn's Red Branch. Nowadays, I tend to live in universes of my own making. Sometimes I write them. Sometimes I don't. It's really a lot of fun, testing the rules of the universe and seeing what options would work for a plot.
I'm a little hard-pressed to come up with an universe (that's not mine) that would make me want to play in it these days, especially since I've packed up all my books and can't throw out a list of universes that I love to read, so I won't. And I don't remember fanfics worth shit (titles or authors always escape me, but describe the premise and I can tell you how the story unfolds), so that's out, too.
But what I do know is that, since I'm more susceptible to images of any kind, there's no shortage of artwork that would make me want to write something. It's pretty much a given that anything by
mushroomtale or amphigoury will make me want to pick up a pen and write. There are gorgeous pieces by altocello and alby_mangroves that make me want to beg to write the scene. And I only name these artists in particular because I've spoken with them on several occasions -- there are many, many, many other artists whose artwork I've seen in Merlin fandom that make me shake my head in awe.Tumblr is a dangerous place for someone like me, by the way. ALL THE ARTWORK. OH MY GOD.
I have a Tumblr tag entitled "story ideas" -- things that triggered a plot bunny nesting. I have a file folder of artwork that I've saved under a naming system of [username]_[website where found]_[basic gist of idea] -- my 2014 folder is 72 images in, and that's only because the year isn't over yet and I haven't had the time to really follow link after link to look at all the beautiful artwork that's posted online. Interestingly enough, except for the artwork that I wrote RVBBs for, or Smoke and Mirrors, I haven't written a story based on a single piece of artwork, and I wouldn't, not without permisison.
