On choosing what to write

[prillalar]

How do you decide what to write? If you have a lot of fic ideas, how do you prioritize them? Especially if you're multifandom.

I'm having trouble with that right now. Typically, I prioritize by interest, both mine and the audience's. If my own interest is high enough, I'll still write the story even if there's no audience interest, but usually it's a combination of the two.

Right now, I have story ideas I'd love to write in any number of fandoms -- Whistle!, Dear Boys, Hikaru no Go (okay, that one's just filthy, filthy porn), Gundam Wing, Stargate SG-1, BSG, Harry Potter, Ultraman Nexus, FMA, Honey and Clover, maybe even Slam Dunk one of these days -- but Prince of Tennis trumps them all for personal interest and has a healthy audience interest, so that's nearly all I write.

Even within Prince of Tennis, I have ideas that drop down the queue because they involve characters that are not my favourites. I just don't have the time and energy to write more than about 1 out of every 20 ideas, so there has to be some sort of selection process.

The thing is, I wonder if I'm making it too easy on myself. If I just keep writing about the same show and same characters, is it going to be the same thing over and over again? I feel like I'm still trying to explore those characters, but that might not always come out in what I write.

Do you make an effort for variety in your writing, even if that's not where your primary interest lies? Or do you just write whatever you feel like?

I suppose this all comes down to what I want to get out of my fannish writing. I'm still not sure what that is. (Besides fame mountains of feedback the satisfaction of doing something I enjoy.)

Comments

[miko-no-da.livejournal.com]

I tend to write for whichever muse is most loudly beating on the inside of my head. That tends to mean it's for a series I'm actively involved in at that point... but not always, as the Please Save My Earth monstrosity shows!

[prillalar]

I find it interesting how people describe their muses. I don't think of my story ideas or even characters as muses. I have a muse and she is Eris, Goddess of Discord. I only call on her when I'm desperate. She's not always very helpful.

I do talk to my characters while I'm writing about them, though. Especially Momoshiro. *g*

[miko-no-da.livejournal.com]

It is really interesting to see how people talk about their muses, yes. ^_^ I think I got into the habit of putting a character to mine because that was sort of what everyone was doing, back when I first got started in the mailing lists.

I do tend to write mainly for one or two characters in any given series, and so I'll refer to those characters as my 'muses'. And my urge to write stories for said series, interestingly, tends to correspond to the personality of the corresponding muse.

For instance, my FY ideas tended to hit me all at once and be very URGENT about me writing them. The ideas wouldn't leave me alone. Tasuki was my designated 'muse'. In contrast, my PSME fic apparantly sat quietly in the back of my brain for YEARS before suddenly making up its mind that it wanted to be paid attention to RIGHT THIS MOMENT, thank you. Issei is my PSME muse.

Maybe it's why I have so much trouble writing original works... I've trapped myself by thinking of my muses as characters, and I just don't have as clear an image of the characters from my original stuff, and so I don't feel them as strongly as 'muses'.

Or maybe I'm just lazy and it's easier to write fanfiction. ^_^