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FFC #55 - Implosions

Posted June 20th, 2020 at 05:31 PM by TGRF
TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #55

When I wrote the last FFC, Blood, my vampire story, had just imploded spectacularly. Uninterested at the time in redoing what I had just spent a month working on, I let my interest wander towards an HiS sequel idea.

That also imploded, though not to the extent that the idea is impossible.

But the implosion left my interest wandering, with no clear direction or story to latch onto. I was left to ponder what I really wanted to write, what was really causing me problem after problem.

So today I looked over my more recent failed stories, and tried to piece together what exactly had gone wrong so many times. Here's the list I came up with:
  • Isolated scene - The inspiration deals with a single scene or idea. Core parts are often missing, and when attempting to attach a buildup to get to the scene, those missing parts lead to incomplete characters and/or plots. Also, the inspiration tends to be based on emotion, and therefore is often illogical when developed. Two stories failed because of this.
  • Isolated plot - The inspiration is a full plot, but lacks character drive. Core parts of the character arc are missing, resulting in weak character motivations. Attempts to fix often yield weak drives. One story failed because of this.
  • Incorrect mixing - The inspiration is based on part of an old idea, and an incomplete new idea which vaguely fits. This often leads to conflicting drives, or weak/nonexistant drives. This can also lead to story elelments which are irrelevant to the main story, and introduce even more deviants. One story failed because of this.
  • Lack of character understanding/backstory - The story is developed without proper attention being given to the main characters, and WHY they have the drives they do. Causes the personal stakes to fall flat. One story failed two times in a row because of this.
  • Incorrect assumption - A hard-to-show story element is shown in a way which deviates from the original element, thus creating a split in what that elelment is supposed to be and what it's now turned into. If the element is important, can completely destroy the whole thing. This is what happened with Blood.
  • Incompatible backstory - Already-published backstory/lore prevents a core aspect of the story from working. This is what happened to the HiS sequel.
That's actually more helpful than it looks. Hopefully now I'll be able to steer clear of these issues.

My interest is still wandering from story idea to story idea. I'll let you know when I have a more solid idea of where I've landed.

~TGRF.
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