open-ended question as follow-up

[kaigou]

main poll; addendum; and consider this part three:

The phrasing is awkward, but my head is full of wood-glue this morning: generally, I mean that if you have written and/or do write fanfic, then this question applies. If you read fanfic and can think of stories but rarely ever actually write them out and post them somewhere for fandom consumption, then this question doesn't apply because your own disinclination to write is already a large-enough barrier. What I'm looking for here is what stops you from writing when your own laziness or disinclination is not a significant barrier: that is, you'd normally write the fanfic, but some criteria makes you decide not to write, after all.

Assuming all other factors are equal:
WHERE a story otherwise satisfies your personal requirements for prompting fanfic ideas,
AND that you write/have written fanfic and posted it for fandom consumption,
AND that you'd normally sit down and start writing the story in your head...

what makes you not write the fanfiction?

Comments

[autohaptic]

If I were to not write fanfic it would probably be because I'd rather take the idea and turn it into an original fic. File off the serial numbers, as it were.

But I'm probably an oddity; I am an original fic writer, first and foremost-- fanfic tends to come second. The only situations where it doesn't tend to be when I end up co-authoring with someone or something like that.

[mechacharibdys]

This.

I now feel that fanfic limits me too much, when I can just swipe what interested or frustrated me about the material and head off in another direction with it!

Also, if the author of the material asks ficcers not to, or if it's been done better than I could do it. That's stopped me before.

[autohaptic]

I will say this: the only thing I hate about original fic compared to fanfic is the community aspect. There is very little community aspect in original fic on LJ-- all of the communities for original fic are pretty much just a dumping ground for fics. There are no discussions, etc, in anywhere that matters. (Not to say places like powerfic don't matter, but just that they're niche and probably include less than a third of original "fandom".)

I think I count that as a reason to write fanfic, sometimes: there's a much wider audience, usually, and there's a place where you can discuss concepts and ideas and have other people know what you're talking about. There's nothing like that for original fic, and it sucks, but I wouldn't know how to fix that.

[mechacharibdys]

Yes! That is definitely a reason. I am occasionally tempted to write fanfic just because I know I can get more and quicker feedback on it.

[autohaptic]

It would be nice if there were some sort of community for original writers to, like, interact and shit. Share ideas, find betas, discuss trends! Anything, really! (Though, I tend to want to be all, original slash writers rather than original writers in general. y halo thar, bias.)

[kaigou]

Strictly speaking, I would consider you outside the area of people to be polled, then, because the issue isn't what inspires in general, but what inspires specifically fanfic -- or in this case, what de-inspires it. That said, I'm in the same boat as you, seeing as how I almost never write fanfic now, and only do so once in a blue moon as I take a rather belabored approach to finishing up a single outstanding long-term fanfic. Otherwise, all my fanfic ideas quickly transmute into ofic ideas, with no exceptions. So for me to answer the question, I had to think of when I was writing fanfic regularly -- and what would cause me to ditch a fic idea.

[autohaptic]

For about a year I wrote a massive Gundam 00 AU-- I answered the polls in terms of my mindset during that year.

That said... I probably only spent the amount of time I did writing in that AU universe because I was writing with three other authors and we sort of egged each other on and such-- like a round robin, only we'd write entire fics instead of just a part of a fic.

I'm still writing in that universe, but I'm writing original fic more often than I'm writing the fanfic.

And then there's the fact that the AU is so fucking far off canon that it might as well be original fic. So, I'm not sure if/how that counts? It's sort of an odd experience, and it relates back to the idea that community is a huge driving force in fic-writing for some people.

[hl]

Sometimes, when I feel it's pointless--i.e. that doesn't add anything at the dialogue going on in fandom at the time. Sometimes, when I feel I wouldn't be able to do the plot justice.

None of the ones you named would really have a chilling effect for me, though if I knew there was copyright owner legal action I would post privately. In fact, wank would probably push me to write stories answering the subject (i.e., for example, when there was wank about 'Darcy as a rake' as a valid characterization, I felt prompted to write stuff that illustrated my position--basically, that Darcy would never be a rake without being essentially a different person. I never actually wrote it, because the discussion died down, but the idea is there for me to write at some point).

[kaigou]

Heh, y'know, I'm starting to think I should never give suggestions or examples of my own, because then they become fodder for discussion -- or worse, seem to limit the discussion to whether someone agrees. And I don't care for that impression; I just wanted to give some idea of what kinds of things might make a person think twice before deciding to carry a fanfic idea into an actual fanfic.

[hl]

No, sorry, I knew that--I just couldn't think of any. The possibilities are pretty endless. One fic that I've stumped at early stages is a genderwap AU (i.e. the 'always the other gender and sex' kind)--but that's because in planing it, I got kinda bored at the idea because not enough would change. My work would be, then, to detail the small things, and I just... I guess I'm not really a writer of painstaking detail.

Another I've stumped despite knowing the entire plot and outline is a continuation of a movie. It would be short, and it would make you re-think the whole movie, but the problem is, it's for a movie I've only seen once and can't find. (i.e. I can't remember the title!) It was very bad, and immediately upon finishing I thought, 'hey, what would actually kinda redeem this for me is if they would've...'. But then I didn't have time to do it immediately, and I cannot write ff without revising canon.

[annotated_em]

-Someone else has already written it (well enough that I don't feel compelled to "do it right" as it were)

-Too damn busy

-Needs too much work to pull it off correctly (lots of research, would be a novel rather than a short story, requires knowledge I don't otherwise have access to)

-Too many other ideas to get through first

-Too cracked out to write with a straight face/too idficcy to be comfortable showing to the world

[kaigou]

-Too cracked out to write with a straight face/too idficcy to be comfortable showing to the world

Ah, yes... well, I suppose idfic is really its entire own cross-genre sub-genre. A beast of its very own, encompassing all and yet uniquely independent.

[edenfalling]

Seconding all of these!

[esmenet]

See, those wouldn't make me not write the fic. Not post it where it would attract the wank, maybe, but if it was something I really wanted to write, I would write it and post it to . . . AO3, maybe. Somewhere fairly neutral. But my reasons for not writing things tend to be these:

Not feeling up to the amount of research/worldbuilding it would take, or just not being able to find what I need to know (I don't feel comfortable making shit up when I know it's something I can check, even if I can't find where)

Not being confident I could handle the characters or issues well

The plot I picked up not really working (this tends to lead into me writing something entirely different but in the same direction, rather than stopping)

And/or the whole thing just plain not working when I try to write it out. Issues with the fandom itself don't really come into it except as a decision of where to post/not post. If, say, the canon really is too small, then there isn't usually enough get to the point of planning the fic in my head in the first place.

[kaigou]

See, those wouldn't make me not write the fic.

See my reply to hl, above, and also: thank you for the feedback on what'd make you think twice. (Yes, I figured this time I'd ask open-ended and then use feedback as basis for creating a list, instead of trying to come up with it all on my own -- because I'm sure I'd miss something that way, not being omniscient and all that jazz.)

[kaigou]

fandom has history of significant vicious wank
little to no existing fanfic for fandom (to see what others have done)
limited amount of (or limited access to translations of) original canon
fandom no longer very active
fandom seems cliquish or unwelcoming to newcomers

(actually, the last is most likely to make me abandon a fic very quickly after the first chapter.)

[ivoryandhorn]

Fandom considerations don't really enter into it for me at all, mostly because I started out with a really minimal presence and participation in fandom, and by the time I was ready to be more active I had gravitated to really small fandoms. I'm pretty much used to doing my own thing in my own corner of the internet. *shrug*

But! Other things that stop me from writing fanfic:

- not enough canon. Either I haven't gotten my hands on enough canon to feel comfortable with the world and characters, or there just isn't enough canon to have a good grasp on those things. Though when it comes to characters, I could have ingested the entire canon and still not feel comfortable writing them.

- not enough time. Or the idea doesn't grab hold tight enough for me to make time. Though I guess this is more a general why-am-I-not-writing thing.

- I have trouble executing an idea -- either because of the above, or it's not coming out the way I want, or I get stuck and I don't know how to keep going, or I just can't figure out how to do it right. So I never do it at all. Sometimes I get ideas -- several of them! -- and can't muster up the energy to execute them. See also, next point.

- Scope. Sometimes I get ideas that require a lot of writing to do right -- not novel-length, but my fanfic tends to be between maybe 1-5k usually. There are ideas that look like they need me to do double that, or triple, in order to do them justice -- so I basically intimidate myself into not writing at all.

[hokuton_punch]

Possibilities:
1) I get distracted by something else I really want to write in either another fandom or original stuff.
2) I can get someone else *cough feverbeats cough* to write it for me because that's even more fun.
3) I can't get it to work on paper - I have the idea, maybe a framework, but it doesn't work when I start typing it down.
4) Someone else already wrote it and that satisfied me.
5) School happens.

... off the top of my head I can't think of any very serious instances of these happening (it's mostly laziness for me), but those are certainly things that could interfere.

[mikkeneko.livejournal.com]

I admit this question to some extent doesn't make sense to me, because the only thing that really stops me from writing fic is my lack of motivation. All other factors are a subset of that.

A related question that might be useful, what keeps me from entering a fandom/engaging in discussion? One thing that does is if the fandom has an extensive history of wank... with the losing side being one that I share views with.

Just for example: I tend to avoid Avatar the Last Airbender fandom because I ship Katara/Zuko and they are generally regarded as crazy people there, so I would feel unwelcome. Somewhat similar in Harry Potter, as I more or less ship Harry/Hermione if I ship anyone at all, and am minor-character crazy over Lupin.

[kaigou]

the only thing that really stops me from writing fic is my lack of motivation. All other factors are a subset of that.

I'd say that's true of just about anyone. Or if we say it's chicken first, and not egg: I find excessively wanky fandoms to have the startling ability to suddenly and without warning drain me of any and all motivation. Just amazing how that works, ain't it.

nice to know I'm not the only one on the planet who likes harry/hermione.

[dagas_isa]

If the following looks like a lot of restrictions, it's because I have too many fic ideas as it is. >.<

What stops me from writing/posting/considering fic (in the order they come to mind):

1. The fic, done properly, would be too open-ended/outside my scope to want to commit too.
2. Canon is something I only know peripherally, and I don't have time or inclination to get into knowing the details.
3. Too personal, and I haven't found a way to make it more than me working out personal issues.
4. Fic idea would take more skill than I have to pull it off properly (I have a three-way body-swap fic idea, complete with potential OT3age, but writing it would be the metaphorical equivalent to walking through a minefield)
5. I've already written something else in the fandom with an almost identical concept.
6. Fandom has plenty of fics with the same characters and concepts. "Plenty" being a perceived ratio.
7. Idea has unfortunate implications that I'd rather not deal with.
8. Idea is not my story to tell.
9. Canon is something where I don't feel a need to fill in gaps.

[windsorblue]

- Lack of time/energy (I spend a lot of time totally worn out nowadays)

- If I perceive a strong possibility of being Jossed, i.e., if the canon material is still in production. Example: as much as I'm digging Fringe right now, I'm not gonna even consider taking on Walter's past actions in a fic. Whatever I come up with as his motivations will probably be proven completely wrong. Battlestar Galactica is totally fair game in my mind, Caprica is not.

[dejla]

What makes me not write it:

1. I start it and decide it's beyond my skill level as a writer to handle;
2. The source material Josses me or goes places I don't want to go, and I'm not in an AU state of mind;
3. The story is in my head, I talk about it too much, and the story decides it's been written;
4. It starts to feel like work instead of play.

[kellicat.livejournal.com]

-too busy in real life
-other RL reasons (depression comes to mind)
-fear of fandom insanity
-fear of overlooking minor details and being lambasted for it
-intimidating fandom (e.g. cliqueish, not friendly to newcomers who don't follow fanon gospel, BNF worship to the extreme)
-researching the canon knowledge is more effort than I want to put in (LOTR comes to mind)