Not Writing the Rough Draft

by Jane Seaton

Once again, I'm forced to conclude that Teegar and I have our origins on different planets. I'm sure her suggestions for fanfiction writing methods will work for some people. Vulcans, maybe. But to prevent too many potentially brilliant Chekov writers giving up in despair, I'd like to suggest that there are other equally valid methods of creating a finished work of fiction. While I'm not particularly consistent in the way I write, I usually adopt some variation on the approach outlined below.

Title

Well, yes, you have to call the file something. 'Chapter One' works well for me. I find it's much easier to dream up a title after you have some idea of what the story is about.

Description of Main Action:

I'm not sure about this one. All too often, a story that was supposed to have a big space battle in it can turn out to be an intense character driven two-hander that happens almost entirely in the corridor outside auxiliary control. And space battles are so hard to write anyway. I'd like to replace this heading with an alternative:

Theme and Teaser:

Paramount uses a hook to get the casual viewer to watch an episode. As writer, you'll need a hook to make you open up this file on nights when you'd rather be watching Third Rock. For me, the hook is a tasty scene that takes place some way into the story, and needs to be justified by 'the plot'. If your idea of a good scene is simply your favourite characters enjoying an already established relationship, this method won't work for you. If it's the violent break up of that relationship, you have a hook. What, you want to know, is going to make them fall out?

My hook is usually Captain Kirk and Chekov disagreeing over something and then making up again. Because I use it so often, I need a variety of ways to get there, so that my readers won't notice they're reading the same story yet again. This is where the 'theme' comes in. Pirates, vampires, pon farr, beastly aliens and the injustice of third world debt have all proved fruitful. If you're stuck, try reading Shakespeare or your newspaper.

General description of form:

You won't know this until you've finished the story. If it ends up as a tragedy, you may want to go back and take out all the cynical and humorous dialogue and sly parodies of actual episodes, but you don't have to. If you do take them out, make sure you save them somewhere for use in your next story.

Prior Circumstances:

It is vital to think carefully about these, LATER. When you meet someone in real life, they don't immediately tell you their life history, or worse, send you a resume in advance. There is no reason why the people who turn up in your story should do so either. Just make sure that they're interesting. Imagine you're putting together a dinner party. Invite a real mixture of characters. Give each one a 'handle', something that makes it easy for the reader to keep track of them. Don't be afraid to ask them to leave if they turn out to be boring or surplus to requirements.

So why did I say you should think about them carefully? Because of the 'old flame' rule. If two or more of your randomly invited dinner party guests turn out to have a shared history, or even a shared secret, you must come up with a convincing reason for them all getting together in your story. One old girlfriend per episode is acceptable, two is stretching things.

Teegar also suggests that you decide 'the state of events and character relationships just prior to the onset of the events in your plotline'. I think this can be done as you go along. Sometimes it's necessary to have your character exhausted, injured, disillusioned or elated, but you can either explain why this should be when you realise you need to, or even go back and insert a 'scene-setter' paragraph or two once the story is half-finished. There's really no need to worry about this yet. You'll probably have to change it if you write it now.

Theme:

See above under theme and teaser

Cast of Characters :

This is fan fiction, so relationships are all. Once you've realised that, there is only one golden rule. Sulu must misjudge Chekov, then suffer horribly as a result. Teegar is beginning to tire of my relentless loyalty to this rule, but I stand my ground. Just in case you haven't read Lois Balzer's Second to None, and don't know what I'm talking about, I'll phrase it a little more generally.

In order to generate angst, your central character needs to be under attack. If that attack comes from a character who should be a friend, lover, loyal subordinate or idolised superior, the angst factor is magnified tenfold. If you are a truly great author, the attack will be sparked off by external events, but thereafter fueled by the believable inner contradictions of your hero. See reference to Shakespeare, above. This option concentrates the angst to the point where the paper may spontaneously combust when you print your story.

Details of your characters' appearance, history and personalities will emerge naturally as you write. Make sure you mention everything that interests you about the characters in your story. Most of it will come in useful. Feel free to go back later and plant evidence if you forgot to mention that a character was acting suspiciously, carrying an ill-concealed weapon, or harbouring a grudge. Don't worry if you don't find out something vital about a character until after everyone else in the story has spotted it.

Motivation is the most important thing you need to keep in mind. So long as you are sufficiently motivated by the desire for feedback and/or royalties, you will contrive to keep your characters in order.

Setting:

Have somewhere in mind, preferably somewhere fairly distinctive that you are reasonably familiar with. Don't bore yourself and your reader with long descriptions, but mention the parts of the environment that your characters are interacting with, like the curiously wrought manacles or damp and rodent infested dungeons. If your story is set somewhere off the ship, the same rules apply.

Conflicts:

Try not to make your mind up about anything in your story. If you are faced with decisions over what your characters should do next, or how they should feel about something that has happened, share all the options out among them and let them argue amongst themselves.

Narrative

Never let your story plan run more than a paragraph or two ahead of your word processor. Even if you can't help knowing who the villain is, and what he's up to, try to avoid deciding how your characters will react to discovering it for themselves. If you are using this method for constructing a story, never, never, never agree to publish in instalments something you haven't yet finished. If you get stuck, simply leave the story to 'mature' for six months or so. Your subconscious will continue to work on it silently and painlessly, and one morning, you will wake up knowing exactly which half of it needs to be deleted in order to make it work.

Warning

None of the above applies if you expect to start your story at the beginning, work through it in roughly chronological order and end by unmasking the murderer in the library. As I write, I usually find I'm working on the whole story all the time, adding scenes at the end, but amending existing scenes too. This means that progress gets slower and slower as I near the end, allowing more time for the various loose ends to bed down in my subconscious, so that the final scene should happen quite spontaneously.