Most of what I read and write is fanfiction, though I have written original fic as well, and I do love reading books - it's just that these days, I read more fanfiction than books (some of which are novel-length fanfics, so...) Anyways, a lot of my love goes to established characters and worlds. Right now I'm working on a Game of Thrones fic, a continuation of a one-shot I wrote last year. (I'm getting back into Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire in anticipation of the new season coming in April. Any of y'all GoT/ASOIAF fans?)
One wall of my room is covered in notes and world building stuff for an original setting I've been puttering in for years. I've put a fair amount of effort into creating the physical planet... Playing with tectonic plates and basic climate regions, thinking about what regions would have easier and harder times traveling and trading between them... Not so much to show, as far as actually writing its stories. I've got a few very rough outlines and character concepts, but there's pieces missing in each of them. Every time I notice that I'm struggling to write because something's missing, I go work on the world, or the deities, or read fan fiction. Fun thing I can share: after several months of effort, I've contrived a set of seven prominent deities: Devourer, Destroyer, Decider, Defier, Definer, Developer, and Defender. You know. De-ities. :) Very contrived, but very satisfying for me to have a single verb that's the central handle of what they're about. They'll usually go by other names and titles, different ones in different cultures. The most complete, as example: Decider is also called Lightkeeper or Peacekeeper, or Gatekeeper: the one who sets and enforces boundaries, who keeps fires tamed within hearths and lanterns to protect the destructive and ignorant children of the world (basically everyone besides Decider) from themselves. Gatekeeper in the context of knowledge: information is guarded for only those judged worthy of it, and actively kept from spreading. Views innovation, change, growth, life, and fire as things all too likely to overreach and destroy themselves... In D&D terms, Lawful Evil, or the lesser/necessary evils. Common symbols would be tall, thin black lanterns that somehow resemble bars from a jail cell, with a small flame within. Common depictions would be similarly tall, thin, and severe: the teacher from Invader Zim, or the food critic from Ratatouille.
Does anyone else have the problem of trying to wedge every good idea they get into the same fictional universe, and then not being sure if they really should or it's just too much for one setting?
Absolutely. I'll come up with a fic idea, and I'll write a bit of it, and then later that night, I'll think AND WHAT IF ALSO THIS? AND THIS? AND THAT WORKS LIKE THIS TO DO THIS even though I realize intellectually that the impact of any one of those interesting ideas is lessened by having all those other things crammed in? I mean, I think that kind of thing can work, if you are careful about what you're mixing together and not just throwing every new idea into the mix, but I usually realize I'm approaching the latter.
Thank you! I hope to make them usuable in roleplaying contexts with D&D/PF contexts, since that might be more accessible to people than freeform writing. In all honesty, I've revised them a lot this year since I came across the Moral Foundations Theory, since having one god focus on each (and one focus on self-interest) seemed like a handy shorthand for exploring worldviews. ( http://www.moralfoundations.org/ ) @Morven Oh gods, way too much so. Almost every time I start really detailing a story and setting, I think of a great way to fold it into this one have them enrich each other. It's getting bad! I lose interest in the stories that stay independent. :(
Oh yeah! I usually just kinda let them marinate in my head and try them out on my world(they get taken out and put back in again and again). The good ones end up just being used for different cultures. Like magic system alone, I have a culture that uses incantations, another that is more Avatar/benders like, one that uses spirits, and another is based on blood/god genes. They all work on a very simple basic understanding of magic, but they each have their own rules and specialties.
Only with my mermaids. Which actually contributes to the development of their culture over time, so...
I have a fascination for settings where different rules of reality mean that the solar system or world or universe doesn't work the way ours does. The idea of the hollow world / universe is an ancient one like that. Or the idea of an infinite plane surface. Or the one I've liked exploring the concept of, where there is no vacuum of space but rather air all the way, enabling quite different space travel (at least within the local solar system analog). Working out physical rules that enable such universes to exist is interesting, as are thinking of the ways that people could live in them.
That's been true of my story ideas. Go about combining them the right way, prune the ideas that really aren't working, and the multiple levels of detail enriches them.
this happens to me all the dang time! i also have the problem of coming up with a couple slightly different versions of the same idea where they're too different to merge but too similar to justify developing them all as separate universes.
See, I have a built in justification for that. My story has canon alternate universe. Plus later dimension hopping.
i do fanfic, mostly slash, mostly in certain small fandoms, mostly starring one particular character. unfortunately, i don't really have that many (or even any) ocs or fictional universes of my own. like i used to when i was younger but... that kind of inspiration just... stopped. dunno why. yeah... i personally find it interesting that a few of you guys have trouble with canon characters, since i'm the exact opposite and all.
It's different kind of challenges. With canon characters, there's remembering the details of canon and staying true to the spirit of the characters. With original fiction, we know the background and the philosophies we used to make it... It's easier to stay consistent. But then we're making the background!
Agreed - I used to write more original fiction, but now I am much more likely to go in a fannish direction than write original fic.
yeah. i'm very good with remembering things and get very interested in canon characters, and am not that great with creating a background with philosophies.
my huge original world is about people with superpowers. @Bel Capricorn can attest to this, the main character is completely insane.
Yuuup. Each fic I'm doing is a means of dealing with a chunk of ideas. Started one, then got overwhelmed and paused it, realized I was trying to cram more crossover elements in there than was functional (in the future, too, hadn't actually hit that yet), and then started another which had the same problem and splintered again. Hopefully I can stick to three. Or at least finish one of them first. This, too. Or fanfic-of-fanfics which always seems less okay, somehow.
