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

[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.