What sort of fic writer are you?

[sinkwriter]

I don't usually post much fluffy stuff on my personal LJ, unless I find something especially entertaining that tickles me, like the Top Five Answers meme, the five words drabble-a-thon, or the Superhero meme... because who doesn't want to be a superhero at least once in her life, right? Ka-POW!

*ahem*

Anyway, taraljc posted this one on her LJ, and what can I say? It intrigued me.

The Fan Fiction Personality Test.

I do write fan fiction, but only occasionally and usually when a character or an idea strikes me so hard that I feel compelled to write. I was curious if this test would be able to reflect that. Here's what I got:

Your result for The Fan Fiction Personality Test...

The Mindgamer

Everything is possible, nothing is ever really over.

Fanfiction is a creative outlet for you. You don't intentionally write it, it just happens. You find inspiration in several fandoms, but are not obsessed with only one.

You like to explore "what if" situations. What if this character had never made this very choice? What if this event had taken place sooner, never, elsewhere? What if these people had never met?

You are likely to write Alternative Universes, fan seasons or sequels and just follow your (sometimes pretty strange) plot bunnies.

Take The Fan Fiction Personality Test at OkCupid

Hmm. In the immortal words of Spock: Fascinating.

;)

It probably doesn't mean much, but I found it fun, anyway. Interestingly enough, I had only 1% difference between my ultimate end result (The Mindgamer) and my second runner-up option (The True Fan). I see myself in both of those descriptions. Give 'em a read and decide for yourself.

Better yet, take the test and see how you fare. (I'm particularly curious to see what results my writer friends will receive.) Come on, it's all in fun! *GRIN*

Comments

[seagray.livejournal.com]

I gave the Fan Fic test a whirl and my result: The True Fan. The description seemed to fit pretty well, too.

[sinkwriter.livejournal.com]

Nice! :)

[dacian-goddess.livejournal.com]

True Fan, very closely followed by Mindgamer. I could say I see myself as a mix of both, but mainly the quiz is skewed enough not to take too seriously. ;P

[sinkwriter.livejournal.com]

Fun!

mainly the quiz is skewed enough not to take too seriously.

I'll say. ;) I kept thinking, um, you're painting me into a specific corner instead of offering more options. There's so many ways I could have answered some of those questions. Sometimes my real response would have been a mix of what was offered, or a totally different answer than what was offered so it wasn't a true measure of my view of fanfic (as a reader or a writer).

[dacian-goddess.livejournal.com]

Verily. I especially liked the bit about picking the one genre; as though all of us will have one rigid set of likes never to stray from (and that's without counting the cross-genre fandoms).

Just goes to show: if you want something done right, you make an LJ poll and ask people to elaborate in their comments. *g*

[accordingtomel.livejournal.com]

Dude, I tried to take this test like yesterday, but it was forcing me to sign up for the stupid OKCupid thing before I got my results so I was like, "Screw this! Not doing it." Do I need to sign up or is there some way around it?

I haven't read much of your fanfic so I don't have any real concrete comments to make about your results ;)

All I know about me is I will likely never, ever write an AU fic, because I can't even read them. Ever ;). What do YOU think about those results? Do you feel like it's an accurate reflection of your writing style?

[sinkwriter.livejournal.com]

Where are you getting stopped? At the end after you finish taking the test, at the point where it asks if you are single? I say 'yes' but when it says to 'save my results,' I uncheck that box and then click the other button below it, the one that says 'see my results' or something like that. That way it doesn't try to make me sign up for their stupid cupid thing.

No, I've never written a wildly out-of-context AU and prefer not to. But if you look at AU as anything that strays from canon, then yes, I suppose I've written something that does. I wrote a brief piece in which a character from NCIS meets Hodgins from Bones. Though I'd categorize that more as a crossover than an AU. And I wrote a hinting at a romantic pairing for West Wing that does not occur within the show (on the show, they're merely best friends). The rest of my stuff tends to be character's emotional explorations. I try to write them in character according to the canon I know, but it's still a step outside the canon box to question certain character paths, you know? So I guess that could be considered AU. But if you look at AU as completely out of bounds, like taking the characters from a show and putting them in a completely different arena, like a gladiator world or Victorian time or whatever, no, I don't do that.

I do like to ask questions, though. "What if" or "How was he feeling when...," that kind of thing. I'd rather explore the characters and their in-depth emotions and actions and reactions and connections with each other, based on the actual show. But at some point, everything becomes a bit of a stray from canon, I suppose, because if we write exactly what the show is doing, it's just rewriting the scenes and dialogue that have already occurred.

I can see myself writing a 'sequel' to an episode or adding on scenes from where an episode ended because we didn't get to see what happened after that. I have done that, and I do like the exploration of that. (I'd actually like to write a different sequel than the one we got for Aliens in a Spaceship -- I think Hero in the Hold fell far short of the mark as a sequel, sad to say.)

I don't think the test can completely capture everything that I do (or that any of us do); it was too general. It didn't even offer some of the genres I like! There are so many, I don't think "sci-fi, crime/mystery, fantasy, anime, 'weird,' or slash" cover everything you can do. What about politically themed fic, or a romance, or a general story? What about a show such as Gilmore Girls, which doesn't fit most of those categories?

Back in a moment. I've exceeded my character limit again. Damn it! I talk too much. ;)

[sinkwriter.livejournal.com]

Continuing from where I left off...

The one paragraph I can say I agreed with without hesitation was this one:

"Fanfiction is a creative outlet for you. You don't intentionally write it, it just happens. You find inspiration in several fandoms, but are not obsessed with only one."

It is a creative outlet for me. I am interested in all sorts of characters from various programs, not just one fandom. I like to think about and explore the intricacies of more than one show, setting or set of characters. And I really don't like to force my writing. Most of my ideas feel like they 'just happen' or just pop into my head when I'm least expecting it. Even when I'm trying to write something specific for someone, like for a challenge or a birthday, I prefer to let the ideas come to me, rather than force a very specific plot that's completely mapped out. I don't like to be forced into a corner. I'd rather be surprised by the characters.

For example, in the piece I'm currently working on, a Booth and Angela friendship story for greatbriton, I thought Booth was going to react to one particular moment in the story, a moment I had not written yet but had in my head that it would happen by a specific point in the story, but when I was thisclose to coming up to that moment, everything stalled and I couldn't write what I originally envisioned. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. I was so close to the part where I thought it would occur but the characters stopped talking to me. I had to step away from it for a while and think about why it wasn't working. And then I realized that Booth was already reacting, that's why he stopped talking, because he was already having an emotional reaction -- it just happened sooner than I thought it would and I needed to pay attention and nudge him from the stuck point. It's actually really interesting. I had this whole story in mind and then it went a different way. I thought it was going to be about one thing (his experiences in Iraq), I'd read up on the country and the Gulf War and all sorts of things involved with that time period, but I was wrong -- the story needed to be about something else. Fascinating!

How about you? How do you see your own writings?

P.S. Your Johnny Depp user pic is mesmerizing me tonight. *GRIN*

[bardsmaid.livejournal.com]

My results were like yours (not surprised, right?) My top two categories were pretty close, too: 88% for Mindgamer, 85% for True Fan. But there were obviously questions where none of the options really applied to me and I could only pick something sorta vaguely related to what would have been an accurate answer.

The quiz was fun, though. I have to say I loved what they had to say about the immature writer: "You don't care about canon, you happily write out of character, and the main focus is almost always on absurd, simple romances, or plain sex." And this gem: "People get upset about things you never really thought about." There's way too much of this floating around out there.

[sinkwriter.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* I had a feeling we'd get similar results! I think I was 88% or 87% Mindgamer, and then 1% less for True Fan. How funny.

You're right, though. Certain questions were difficult to answer because options either did not apply to me at all, or my answers were a blend of the various options, or my thought process on the subject was more in-depth than what was available. The genre category, for example, was fairly impossible. It didn't account for being a fan of more than one fandom (where the fandoms were for different styles of plot/setting/approach -- for instance, West Wing would be in a completely different category than X-Files), and it didn't account for all types of genres because there are just too many. It only listed a few, and that certainly did not encompass everything I enjoy reading or writing. Plus, I don't really like to categorize my writing in such a box, you know? I wouldn't write an X-Files fic (or look at one of your XF pieces) and say it's sci-fi or fantasy -- that wouldn't completely encompass the story, in my opinion. It's so much more than that. It's a character piece, it's a general story, it's an action story, it's a drama, and a sci-fi/supernatural thing, etc.

I knew you'd appreciate that immature writer description! Ain't it the sad truth?? *laughs uproariously* And let me tell you how delighted I was to see that one be the least of my results! *shakes head, still laughing* It was apparently the least like me. Not that it should be a terrible surprise or anything, but I was still glad to see it reflected in my final outcome. There really is way too much of that 'style' going on. There's writing something strictly for fun, but then there's completely disregarding character. To cross the line to the point where the characters are unrecognizable and the author doesn't even care? Ugh.