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Date Posted: Saturday, April 23, 02:03:41pm
Author: sk
Subject: all of the above
In reply to: Nell 's message, "What gives you plot bunnies - as a writer or a reader? (r)" on Monday, April 11, 09:17:01am

Apologies for jumping this up to the top, but I was out of town while most of this discussion was unspooling, and so wasn’t able to respond in sequence. But I did want to add a couple of things, since the topic is such a juicy one.

For me, certainly, it was the "fix it" thing, which in turn spawned the "damn it's too much trouble to fix it, how about some AU!" impulse. Nell

I don’t know that it’s so much about “fixing” things, though I’ve tried on a couple of times to explain how things could be a certain way. It’s more about dealing with the hand I’m given -- if Section acts a certain way, or a person does a certain thing, where did that come from and where could it go?

So - this, for me, spawns all kinds of half-baked ideas for how on earth Section could be *this* leaky, and yet remain as effective as they continued to think that it was.....(Not to mention the problem that spawned my first evah bits of fannish scribbling - how Michael could possibly have been both the operative we saw at Section something close to 24/7, and yet maintain the marriage to Elena.....) Nell

I think this is the most fertile part of the equation for me. Coming late to the LFN party there were already so many character studies of the main players around I didn't feel I had much to add to that area till later. But how does the place work, and who works there -- those were all major-sized gaps to me, and I’ve had alot of fun thinking about them.

A small example with Farscape. When you're introduced to the characters you know a lot about them, certainly the basics at least (astronaut, soldier, escaped convicts, former ruler, etc.). With LFN, you barely knew anything about them. Even after 4 years, you didn't know exactly how/when most of them ended up in Section in the first place. Rita

This has been a great source of fun for me as a reader in LFN, though -- there are a huge variety of Michaels, Nikitas, Madelines, Operations, Birkhoffs and Walters that people have written and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed sorting through them all.

It's the unresolved questions, murky backstories, and outright contradictions that trigger most of my plotbunnies. Fandoms that don't have those characteristics don't inspire me to write very much. JayBee

Or LOTR - what's to fix? There are no holes in Middle earth - at least, not of the gaping LFN variety! Obviously, I can see why people would be drawn to writing post fellowship stories, or stories about elves from the Simarillion - and some of those are things I've idly day dreamed about myself. But, I have no need to even read other people's stuff in this vein, much less write any myself. Nell

It’s like jumping double dutch -- you need to find the place to get it. If the universe is already complete, there’s no entry point.

And ultimately, I write because I want to tell stories about the characters I love so. Swatkat

Isn’t that really the crux for everyone?

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