I'm going to fill this out for the first fanfic I finished writing and then the most recent fanfic I finished writing. The answers should be on vastly different ends of the spectrum! LOL
Name of story: Heartache
Year you wrote it: 2000
1) Did you feel your characters were strong?
Um, no. None of the characters had any sort of depth. They were all just flat cardboard cutouts who said and did stuff LOL.
2) Was your plot consistent?
The plot moved pretty quickly. The whole story is only 15 short chapters. The first third of it was just about Brian and the guys; the female lead, Alexa, wasn't even introduced until Chapter 6, and by the end of the story, she and Brian are in love. There was a lot of summary to get from one point to another.
3) Did you have many filler chapters or sub plots?
There weren't really filler chapters because I just used a lot of summary to move the story along. As far as subplots, there are two main storylines that are woven together, the medical drama one and the romance one, but not any subplots.
4) What is something you are proud of concerning this story?
This story is not good by any means, but it's far from the worst I've read. It's not even the worst I've written, even though it was my first. I was only fourteen when I wrote it, so I can forgive myself for it being so simplistic and naive. What I'm proud of is the fact that it's pretty well-written in terms of grammar and conventions. It's organized into complete sentences and paragraphs, it uses appropriate punctuation, the dialogue is punctuated the right way, the spelling is fine, etc. The 8th grade diploma I had when I wrote this came in handy! LOL
5) Did you find any major problems or inconsistencie s?
Besides the fact that it does more "telling" than "showing," I noticed at least one sentence that was missing some punctuation, and I also caught a chapter in which I changed the name of a minor character within the same chapter... oops LOL. Also, it's very obvious that I did not do any real research in writing the medical aspects of the story. My only "research" involved rereading a Lurlene McDaniel book that was written in the 80s and maybe watching ER, and it shows. But I was fourteen and didn't have access to or even knowledge of the kind of resources I have now, so again, I can forgive myself for that.
6) Something interesting that you took away from this one?
I guess something interesting is that I don't hate the plot of this one. In fact, Secrets of the Heart is sort of a more mature and twisted version of the same basic premise, without the romance and with more of a psychological/mystery element.
7) On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate this one?
3 - because like I said, it's not good, but it's not a total failure.
8) Did your opinion change from you wrote it originally?
Yes - when I originally wrote it, I had enough pride and confidence in it to submit it to a site to be hosted. That was the first step that eventually led me to start my own site. The only reason this story is still posted on my site now is purely out of nostalgia. I would never post it on AC or anywhere else.
9) Would you recommend this one to anyone?
No
Final thoughts and comments about it: Heartache is what it is: It's the first fanfic I finished and posted online, and it led to two sequels and then more stories after that. Its "medical drama with a hint of romance" storyline was very telling of the type of stories I would become known for writing. Everyone has to start somewhere, and that is where I started LOL.
Name of story: Curtain Call
Year you wrote it: 2010-2011
1) Did you feel your characters were strong?
Yes. Nick was a different Nick from the versions of him I've written in other stories - more mature and laid back, but also more cocky and manipulative (yet still charming). I tried to write him as I see him on stage, in interviews, and online, while imagining how he might react the fictional situation of having cancer.
Cary was a character I could both picture clearly in my head and relate to. I think she was likable, but also flawed, in that she was easily manipulated by Nick. But I felt like she behaved in a consistent way - she never did anything that made me think, "The Cary I know wouldn't have done this."
2) Was your plot consistent?
This story is about a journey, and I think the journey can be broken down into several legs, each with their own story mountain. The first leg is the set up, in which both characters and their backstories leading up to the start of the story are introduced. The second leg is about Nick hiding his illness while on tour, which takes up most of the first half of the story. The third leg is the "calm before the storm," in which Nick undergoes a stem cell transplant to keep his disease in remission and Cary explores her relationship with him, and the final leg is them dealing with his impending death. I think they all go together to tell the complete story, but I also see how the first and second half of the story are different enough that they could have possibly been split into two separate stories. I'm not a fan of sequels, though, so I'm glad I kept it all as one.
3) Did you have many filler chapters or sub plots?
There were some filler chapters, but none that I thought were pointless fluff. Every chapter did something to move the story forward, whether it showed a tour stop and a passage of time or a scene that helped to develop the characters and their relationship. As far as subplots, there weren't really any that didn't relate directly to Nick, Cary, or the situation they were dealing with. I felt like everything - the tour, Cary's aspiring singing career, her dead mom backstory, and her relationship with Nick - tied together to form the main plot of the story.
4) What is something you are proud of concerning this story?
I'm proud of how the first person narration turned out. The medical stuff was old hat to me by the time I wrote this one; I knew I was capable of researching and writing it realistically. But this is one of the first novels I've written in first person point of view, especially alternating between two different characters' voices, and I wasn't sure how that was going to go. I've gotten a lot of compliments on it, and when I went back to read it, I was really happy with it myself.
5) Did you find any major problems or inconsistencie s?
There are 27 typos or missing words that I need to go back and correct! There was also one chapter where I had the narrator mention that the cruise was off, and then a few chapters later, they acted like they were still considering whether or not to go through with it. That was an inconsistency. But I didn't really notice anything major.
6) Something interesting that you took away from this one?
When I started this story, I knew I wanted Cary's character to be female, even though the movie that inspired the idea (Funny People) was more of a bromance. It just didn't make sense to me to create a male original character when I already have four other Backstreet Boys for bromance. That said, I wasn't sure if Cary would become a romantic female lead or not. Obviously I could see it going that way because I like romantic subplots, but I didn't want to force it, so I decided to see what kind of chemistry my two characters had and let them decide. What happened was that while I realized early on that Cary had a crush on Nick, I was never sure of his feelings, and eventually I just figured out he wasn't as into her as she was into him. He liked her as a person, but he was also using her for her companionship and her caring nature (and also for sex). Almost any part in his POV where it mentions him wanting her to stay, the reasons he gives are that he's lonely and/or bored without her. He never thinks "because I love her and just can't live without her." And so once I realized that, I wrote that into the story, the fact that they didn't feel the same way. It made it even more of a tragedy in my mind, but I think that also made it more interesting than if they had been soulmates. I'm glad that I paid attention to my characters and was willing to go where they took me, instead of forcing them to feel a certain way that worked for my plot, but didn't work for them. That's a lesson I learned the hard way from By My Side, and I hope I'll remember it for future stories.
7) On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate this one?
I'm going to be an arrogant douche and say 9. As a writer, I'm proud of this story, but as a reader, I actually really enjoyed just reading it. There was really nothing in it that made me cringe or have regrets, and that's a first for me when it comes to a novel like this one.
8) Did your opinion change from you wrote it originally?
I liked Curtain Call as I was writing it, but I may like it even better after reading it in its entirety. The whole time I wrote it, I was comparing it to Broken in my head... and while I could appreciate that the writing was of a better quality, in my mind it didn't have the same magic as Broken. Broken is my baby; I've never been more attached to a story than I was to that one. But when I compare the two now that they're both done and I can step back and look at them from some distance, I can see how much better of a story CC really is, in most ways. It's raised my opinion of CC and probably lowered my opinion of Broken LOL.
9) Would you recommend this one to anyone?
To anyone who loves a good, long tearjerker and doesn't mind female leads or detailed descriptions of medical procedures, yes. For readers who don't like those things, probably not LOL.
Final thoughts and comments about it: I'm really proud of this story and thrilled with the reception it got on AC. Even though it completely killed my momentum on Guilty Roads, I'm glad I went where my inspiration took me and wrote Curtain Call.
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Topic: Reading your own stories...challenge (Read 13566 times)