Section 5: Getting Good Ideas and Defeating Writer's Block
Every writer needs an idea before they can write a story. And in the Cats fandom, most ideas have been done before. So how do I get an original idea, or find the perfect twist to put to an old idea? Read on to find out.
Observe life around you. People like to read about real things, because they can relate to them. Observe people, what is unusual about a particular person, how they act, and their conversations. Animals are even more interesting to observe. Base your characters on how your animals act, because your characters in the Cats fandom are animals. A lot of people see their pets as little, furry people anyway. What do people do that are funny? While humor is the hardest genre to write, a little funny moment in a fic is always recommended. Once you have interesting characters, you can pretty much just write about them interacting and a plot sometimes develops by itself, or you'll figure out something.
Read. If you don't read, how can you be expected to write? What you read is often the most important influence in your writing. Books can teach you about similes, metaphors, characterization, and all that good stuff that makes writing interesting and fun much better than a teacher or a writing guide can. So, have you read any good books lately?
In the Cats fandom, it is always a good idea to read as many fanfics as you have time for. You can see what your fellow fans can do, and often when you read a really good story you get inspired to write, too. Or, you might have just read a horrible story and say to yourself, "I can do better!" and then write a kick-butt story following the same general plot. Also, when you read the same thing over and over, you might think to yourself, "hey, I'd like to read something about Victoria falling in love with Macavity and joining him in all sorts of evilness!" If you can't find something, you can write it yourself!
Watch Cats. Get the DVD if you haven't already (check eBay), and watch it a kajillion times. Take every possible opportunity to see the show live. Doing this will help your characterization, and will inspire you to do some serious writing. Especially after seeing it live; you'll probably see different pairings such as Alonzo/Demeter and Munkustrap/Cassandra.
Writer's Block is just plain evil. It happens when a writer suddenly loses ideas and inspiration, or rewrites something a million times and still isn't satisfied with it. Here are some tips for getting past that road block:
- Reread your story from the beginning. It helps you to get back into the flow
of your writing, and you might come up with some new ideas that will make the
story even better!
- Plan out your story from the very beginning. Instead of sitting down and just
writing every little thing that pops into your mind, make a list of important
events in your story from start to finish. This way you avoid plot holes (where
an author forgets about a side-plot or skips something important), and you can
look over your list and figure out what you need to do.
- Work on a different part of the piece. Often, you can skip to other parts
that are more interesting to you at the moment, and then make the transition
from where you stopped writing to where you skipped forward later.
- Work on a different story. Many authors have three or four stories going at
once.
- Stop writing and start checking your spelling, grammar, and formatting. See
a big block of doom? Break it up.
- While you reread your story, find places where you think you can word a certain
action or description better and do it!
- Share the story with your friends, or your beta. They'll give you their opinion
and can offer suggestions.
- Idea-bounce. That's when you get to talking about your story with a friend
or beta, and you or the other person start saying, "Oh! What if..." This is
a great way to get inspired to write, and most ideas will work better than the
original idea. - Read some other fanfics. - Work on another story. This will
help you get the creative juices flowing again.
- Do some random-writing. Come up with the most bizarre prompt and write a short
one-shot about it. Like... Victoria and Deuteronomy discussing toasters. Or...
Animal Rescue capturing half of Macavity's crew. Will he bust them out, or start
recruiting again?
- Just walk away. Sometimes you just have to go do something completely different
for a while until you come back to the story completely refreshed. Then re-read
the last few bits of what you've written and start writing!
- Go back to what inspired you in the first place! If watching your dogs play
inspired you, watch them play some more!
- Get some fellow authors together and Role-Play any scenes you need help with.