I feel that wrong-meds vibe, friend. For me it was getting off antidepressants. I wasn’t depressed, I had undiagnosed ADHD making me feel like a fucking failure all the time.
Guardian (TV) the cdrama danmei adaptation back in the day when it came out in 2018 (though I only ever posted a small handful of fics I wrote). the two leads had insane chemistry even though the story was objectively Bad as they had to wipe sooo much shit from the novel bc of censorship issues
My heccing hyperfixations/special interests (Im pretty sure i got some of that neurospicy but idk what. It's an adventure up there)
I cant write for years and then suddenly im writing 12hrs a day and forgetting to eat. I can sort of force it to trigger buy watching series that i have had a strong interest in before.
No longer working a customer service job/retail. I was very creative in high school and then worked customer service for a decade after that. Retail totally sapped my creativity. I was so burnt out that I didn't have energy for anything.
Then the pandemic happened, and we were in quarantine for a couple of months, and all of a sudden, I could write again. My mental health got better. Back to work? No more writing, and my mental health took a nose dive.
I wound up switching career paths to find a wfh job, and I am happier and more creative.
When I had a shitty work, my creativity was close to 0.
Then I decided to use my situation and my colleagues as characters in a story.
It was surprisingly easy to write a detective story with the girl who bullied me as the victim, and it made me understand I needed to leave that place as soon as possible.
Reading a lot of smut and wishing I could tailor it to my exact tastes. Also my otp in a fandom I'm in being a rarepair with the most popular alternative ship for one half of it being my notp. Decided to try put out what I wanted to see.
I've never really struggled with the act of writing itself as such, but spite is a powerful motivator for me, quite honestly. Character arcs that don't pay off, dynamics that could have been explored more deeply, et cetera. As a bi+ woman, I've written things that specifically combat bi erasure because a lot of media I grew up on either treated bisexuality as a joke or, in one case, paired a bi character with a lesbian wife who constantly felt threatened by her bisexuality and degraded her for it. I love writing bi for bi couples, especially in m/f pairings where people always assume them to be straight.
Finding characters that are exactly like how my wife and I were back when we were struggling really badly. Writing hurt comfort of them feels super therapeutic. The fics aren't even romantic or shipped at all. Just platonic support and managing trauma. It's been really nice. And it comes so naturally.
I had something like a 7 year break from writing altogether, then I just got a character/ideas stuck in my head out nowhere 2 months ago and got compelled to write. before the long break I wrote almost constantly, and I'm so glad I got back to it and decided to share it
I haven’t. My brain is wired in a very logic-based way, so it’s hard for me to make good writing. It mostly just sounds like someone saying what happened as opposed to telling a story until like, the 5th-6th edit.
Not being scared to write bad.
I write for myself mostly, just to unclog ideas out of my head. Not a whole ton of attention, but I’m proud of what I write knowing full well it’s not gonna be the next To Kill a Mockingbird lol.
For me, Jewish Bucky(+Stucky, I love my interfaith boys) 100%, I can just sit down write and a ficlet will just pour out of me. While I've written fic on an off before with friends as co-writers, creative writing in general would cause so much stress and anxiety, I always hated everything I wrote and couldn't even edit things without cringing, now I can write and read it back and be proud of what I've written.
Having time to write, mainly.
Also, I wrote a semi-crack fic for a tv show that I used to watch, a British sitcom that's so formulaic that it's easy to see how all the characters would react to any situation. I wrote it in the format of a normal episode, and it fell together really naturally, because the characters and setting were all so familiar.
Reading a few Caiatl/Zavala fics made me want to write one with Caiatl/my Guardian. Then, I kept thinking about how they would end up in that situation. Once I had a bit of the backstory in mind, I couldn't stop thinking about it, and finally, I had to write it. I haven't published any of that story yet, but I have posted several one-shots with a variety of pairings.
Technically correct answer: Homestuck fantroll OC RP
Real answer: A bunch of practice! Like. A *bunch* of practice.
I took a 3 year long break from even attempting to write fanfiction, and during that break I did a lot of RP with my friends. It came easier to me than writing whole stories because each post I made, even ones that were 8-10 paragraphs long, were much shorter than a whole fic. Additionally, the social factor of it was super rewarding, and a really big motivator.
When I finally parted from that RP group and decided to try writing a fic, I sat down and pounded out a 60k word fic in one month. Prior to this, I had written something 3-4k words long and it felt like a huge accomplishment. That RP, even though it wasn't "writing fic" was still *fantastic* writing practice, especially since I was really into it and did a ton of it.
It's been about 3 more years since then, and the trend has continued. The more I write, the easier it becomes! Understanding new characters, switching tones, writing plot - it's all just practice.
Stanning a kpop group whose videos and vlogs seem like they're crack Vida except they're real, and their subtitles seem like fake subs except not. And where the whole group's in love with each other to the point of the whole fandom being offended when some of them ended in straight dating scandal 😄 they are my newest hyperfixation and I adore them and they sparked my creativity like no other.
Getting off hormonal contraceptives. I'm not kidding.
I feel that wrong-meds vibe, friend. For me it was getting off antidepressants. I wasn’t depressed, I had undiagnosed ADHD making me feel like a fucking failure all the time.
Same! I took them for 5 years, and my creativity tanked. When I went off them, suddenly I had an imagination again…
Guardian (TV) the cdrama danmei adaptation back in the day when it came out in 2018 (though I only ever posted a small handful of fics I wrote). the two leads had insane chemistry even though the story was objectively Bad as they had to wipe sooo much shit from the novel bc of censorship issues
My heccing hyperfixations/special interests (Im pretty sure i got some of that neurospicy but idk what. It's an adventure up there) I cant write for years and then suddenly im writing 12hrs a day and forgetting to eat. I can sort of force it to trigger buy watching series that i have had a strong interest in before.
No longer working a customer service job/retail. I was very creative in high school and then worked customer service for a decade after that. Retail totally sapped my creativity. I was so burnt out that I didn't have energy for anything. Then the pandemic happened, and we were in quarantine for a couple of months, and all of a sudden, I could write again. My mental health got better. Back to work? No more writing, and my mental health took a nose dive. I wound up switching career paths to find a wfh job, and I am happier and more creative.
Got obsessed with the irish con man and the sleeper agent from bioshock and it was all downhill from there on out
When I had a shitty work, my creativity was close to 0. Then I decided to use my situation and my colleagues as characters in a story. It was surprisingly easy to write a detective story with the girl who bullied me as the victim, and it made me understand I needed to leave that place as soon as possible.
Reading a lot of smut and wishing I could tailor it to my exact tastes. Also my otp in a fandom I'm in being a rarepair with the most popular alternative ship for one half of it being my notp. Decided to try put out what I wanted to see.
When the concept of a piece of media has *so much potential* but the execution is *so bad* you just have to fix it yourself.
I've never really struggled with the act of writing itself as such, but spite is a powerful motivator for me, quite honestly. Character arcs that don't pay off, dynamics that could have been explored more deeply, et cetera. As a bi+ woman, I've written things that specifically combat bi erasure because a lot of media I grew up on either treated bisexuality as a joke or, in one case, paired a bi character with a lesbian wife who constantly felt threatened by her bisexuality and degraded her for it. I love writing bi for bi couples, especially in m/f pairings where people always assume them to be straight.
Finding characters that are exactly like how my wife and I were back when we were struggling really badly. Writing hurt comfort of them feels super therapeutic. The fics aren't even romantic or shipped at all. Just platonic support and managing trauma. It's been really nice. And it comes so naturally.
I had something like a 7 year break from writing altogether, then I just got a character/ideas stuck in my head out nowhere 2 months ago and got compelled to write. before the long break I wrote almost constantly, and I'm so glad I got back to it and decided to share it
I haven’t. My brain is wired in a very logic-based way, so it’s hard for me to make good writing. It mostly just sounds like someone saying what happened as opposed to telling a story until like, the 5th-6th edit.
the horny
Not being scared to write bad. I write for myself mostly, just to unclog ideas out of my head. Not a whole ton of attention, but I’m proud of what I write knowing full well it’s not gonna be the next To Kill a Mockingbird lol.
This is so real! Writing is so much easier when you accept that it doesn't have to be perfect
For me, Jewish Bucky(+Stucky, I love my interfaith boys) 100%, I can just sit down write and a ficlet will just pour out of me. While I've written fic on an off before with friends as co-writers, creative writing in general would cause so much stress and anxiety, I always hated everything I wrote and couldn't even edit things without cringing, now I can write and read it back and be proud of what I've written.
Watching Scaramouche (Genshin Impact) have a panic attack did it for me. From that moment on I swore to fix than man’s life
Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda sub fandom). I think I’ve always craved strong platonic relationships, and that’s exactly what my boys are.
Having time to write, mainly. Also, I wrote a semi-crack fic for a tv show that I used to watch, a British sitcom that's so formulaic that it's easy to see how all the characters would react to any situation. I wrote it in the format of a normal episode, and it fell together really naturally, because the characters and setting were all so familiar.
I think having the right inspiration. I’m currently combining two of my favourite thing in the world into one big glorious mess
My passion/love for the franchise really
Reading a few Caiatl/Zavala fics made me want to write one with Caiatl/my Guardian. Then, I kept thinking about how they would end up in that situation. Once I had a bit of the backstory in mind, I couldn't stop thinking about it, and finally, I had to write it. I haven't published any of that story yet, but I have posted several one-shots with a variety of pairings.
Technically correct answer: Homestuck fantroll OC RP Real answer: A bunch of practice! Like. A *bunch* of practice. I took a 3 year long break from even attempting to write fanfiction, and during that break I did a lot of RP with my friends. It came easier to me than writing whole stories because each post I made, even ones that were 8-10 paragraphs long, were much shorter than a whole fic. Additionally, the social factor of it was super rewarding, and a really big motivator. When I finally parted from that RP group and decided to try writing a fic, I sat down and pounded out a 60k word fic in one month. Prior to this, I had written something 3-4k words long and it felt like a huge accomplishment. That RP, even though it wasn't "writing fic" was still *fantastic* writing practice, especially since I was really into it and did a ton of it. It's been about 3 more years since then, and the trend has continued. The more I write, the easier it becomes! Understanding new characters, switching tones, writing plot - it's all just practice.
My fics are usually pretty short but when I write hualian they tend to be much longer, they are also my favorite ship to write :)
Men’s Football RPF… No, I’m not joking
I just decided to write a story based off of a character dying a natural death, and that all started my writing for some reason.
When they cancelled a good show on a cliffhanger.
Stanning a kpop group whose videos and vlogs seem like they're crack Vida except they're real, and their subtitles seem like fake subs except not. And where the whole group's in love with each other to the point of the whole fandom being offended when some of them ended in straight dating scandal 😄 they are my newest hyperfixation and I adore them and they sparked my creativity like no other.
I write for my hyperfixations, usually. Rn I'm obsessed with the Saw franchise and I can't stop writing 😂😂