Hi All,

  >Hmmm... I hope this doesn't count as noise...

Me too! But here is my humble offering. (And Thom, is it noise?)


Hi ya, Wing! (Is that your name, or a handle?)

Huum, interesting and hard question!

Most of the time, you start with a basic idea which will turn into your major
plot line.
My last one started with the idea of what would happen if a male vampire fell
in love with onna-Ranma, raising the questions of how would Ranma react, how
would Akane react, how would the vampire react, and evolved from there.

Then you just start writting. I know this is a lot harder than it sounds! A
lot of people (myself included) have a hard time in getting started. The best
advice I ever got (and use) is just to jump right in, wether you think that
it is the beginning of the story or not. If you've got the end, write it,
then go back and work on the middle. Or if you have the middle, write it,
then go work on the beginning or the end. A lot of times, the rest of the
story will appear as you work. (I guess that is the 'inspiration' part.) I
have the good luck (feh!) of having characters haunt me in my sleep. I'll
start something and dream about it all night. (Or I'll be thinking of a plot
idea and have Ryoga come and start poking me with his umbrella at 4:30 in the
morning.)

A lot of writters keep a notebook or tape recorder or something similar and
write down anything that appears in thier warped minds. (Well, at least mine
is warped. I just suspect most of the others are!) I suggest you do this
also. You might use the ideas, you might get an idea for another story, you
might just trash it later as silly, but a lot of times, your subconcious will
dredge up stuff for you to use.

If it helps, make an outline of how you want the story to progress but
remember to be flexable enough to let it change and evolve on it's own. I
myself do this and keep it at the bottom of the file as I work. A lot of
times, I don't use a lot of what I planned, but that is part of the fun of
writting!

Make sure of your characters, become comfortable with them. You might want to
do a vingette of characters you're not comfortable with thinking to
themselves or interacting with others until you get the 'feel' of them.

Major point in a fan-fic!
If you're going to introduce 'new' characters, make sure they don't
overshadow the established ones! And make sure they have a really good reason
to be there.

Use your pre-readers! You have a whole bunch right here who will read and
suggest to anything you do. My last one changed radically from the first
draft after my pre-readers got hold of it. But it became a much better story!
If you only have a 'piece' or vingette, but want feed-back, post it! That's
the best way to find out how you're doing!

Be able to laugh at yourself and understand that sometimes the characters get
a mind of thier own and won't do what you want them too! This sounds kinda'
Zen, but it happens a lot!

Well, that's about all I can think of right now.

Hoped this helped some.
Shannon