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timepiececlockI finally got a few reviews for my recent Naruto one-shot, and subsequently was thinking about writing fanfic and the conflict between what I want to say, and what the readers hear.
Does anyone else ever get the urge, I ask, to simply sit down and write a point by point description of every theme or thematic aspect of hints of possible themes within your story, to explain every bit of symbolism and minute point of parallels and character analogies and basically do a reverse analyzation of your own stuff?
And then to present this fact sheet to a reader and say "Hey, did you get all of this stuff out of my fic? How much did you pick up on, and which parts went completely over your head?"
I get the urge to ask that all the time. Because even though I start a story with just an idea of a scene or a bit of dialogue, by the time I'm done I always know exactly what I'm trying to show/achieve with a fic. And I tend to recognize in my own writing many layers, even if they only exist in my perception and because of my amateurish writing aren't properly conveyed in the story itself, or even if they only mean something significant to me, and not anyone else. But typically, by the time I'm done with something I can analyze my own stuff as much as I'd analyze a Buffy episode or a classic novel. My stuff is nowhere near as good or as deep as either of those two catagories, but I do try very hard to convey themes on more than one level in fanfiction, even if it's only obvious to me and not to any readers. Even if I don't succeed, I try to give everything a point or a purpose in my stories, so that I can look back and think "I used this symbol because I wanted to show that this character was such and such." Some people do that very unconsciously in their writing, from what I've heard people say. For me, it starts out unconscious but by the time I'm through it's all very conscious and meticulously thought over.
As late, I also tend to analyze other people's fanfiction to as much depth as I'd give my own in writing it. A lot of fanfic doesn't have that far down deep to go, and some of it has noewhere at all, but a lot of the good ones do have a lot more symbols and purposes than I'd first realized.
So I guess my thoughts to LJ writers are these... do you guys also ever feel this way, or approach writing this way? Do you ever want to tell a reader everything you thought you were trying to say with a fic, and then ask them
"Is that what you thought when you read it? Was it even close?"
That's the kind of feedback that I could really make use of.
Does anyone else ever get the urge, I ask, to simply sit down and write a point by point description of every theme or thematic aspect of hints of possible themes within your story, to explain every bit of symbolism and minute point of parallels and character analogies and basically do a reverse analyzation of your own stuff?
And then to present this fact sheet to a reader and say "Hey, did you get all of this stuff out of my fic? How much did you pick up on, and which parts went completely over your head?"
I get the urge to ask that all the time. Because even though I start a story with just an idea of a scene or a bit of dialogue, by the time I'm done I always know exactly what I'm trying to show/achieve with a fic. And I tend to recognize in my own writing many layers, even if they only exist in my perception and because of my amateurish writing aren't properly conveyed in the story itself, or even if they only mean something significant to me, and not anyone else. But typically, by the time I'm done with something I can analyze my own stuff as much as I'd analyze a Buffy episode or a classic novel. My stuff is nowhere near as good or as deep as either of those two catagories, but I do try very hard to convey themes on more than one level in fanfiction, even if it's only obvious to me and not to any readers. Even if I don't succeed, I try to give everything a point or a purpose in my stories, so that I can look back and think "I used this symbol because I wanted to show that this character was such and such." Some people do that very unconsciously in their writing, from what I've heard people say. For me, it starts out unconscious but by the time I'm through it's all very conscious and meticulously thought over.
As late, I also tend to analyze other people's fanfiction to as much depth as I'd give my own in writing it. A lot of fanfic doesn't have that far down deep to go, and some of it has noewhere at all, but a lot of the good ones do have a lot more symbols and purposes than I'd first realized.
So I guess my thoughts to LJ writers are these... do you guys also ever feel this way, or approach writing this way? Do you ever want to tell a reader everything you thought you were trying to say with a fic, and then ask them
"Is that what you thought when you read it? Was it even close?"
That's the kind of feedback that I could really make use of.
