What the Hell Are You Thinking?
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | What the Hell Are You Thinking? |
| Creator: | Megan Reilly |
| Date(s): | 2000 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | The X-Files focused, but applicable to many fandoms |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | What the Hell Are You Thinking? |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
What the Hell Are You Thinking? is a 2000 essay by Megan Reilly.
It was posted to the X-Files website Working Stiffs.
Introduction
Every reader is different, and I can only speak for myself. That said, I’m offering this insight into my reading habits as help to you, so you can have an idea what goes through your reader’s mind when they’re looking at your story. You might already have this insight, because you have different “hot buttons” when you’re reading that make you close out or hit delete. Some of the things you hate might be the things I love, and vice versa.
So why am I doing this again? Because I like to write feedback. And you like to get feedback (or you did last time I checked). And stories I don’t read, I can’t usually comment on. Consider this my feedback on all those stories I didn’t read.
Some Topics Discussed
- formatting quirks in fic
- summaries and disclaimers and author notes
- other writing techniques
The Essay
The next issue in summary writing, beyond the label itself, is: How much do you say? This is a fine line. Most instructors recommend you study the capsule descriptions in the TV Guide to figure out what a summary should be like. Or describe your story in one sentence. But please, please, don’t give the entire story away. If you do, I can just read the summary and skip the story. For example, “Summary: Mulder and Scully have dinner, do the dishes, and end up confessing their undying love in front of the fireplace” gives the whole game away, doesn’t it? There aren’t going to be any surprises. For the same story, a summary such as “Mulder and Scully have an evening at home with unexpected results” tells the reader the same thing, but in a different way. It leaves the mystery in.
By the same token, too much mystery, or a summary that is too generic, is going to have the same effect as a summary that is too specific. “Strange things are afoot” doesn’t tell me anything about your story - it’s the X-Files, of course strange things are afoot. Don’t waste the space if you have nothing to say. As for attempts at mystery, I can’t think of a proper example right now, but if you suspect it might leave people saying, “What the hell?” rewrite it. If I can’t understand the summary, I just assume I’m not going to understand the story.
{{Quotation2|
I can also understand the desire to lay claim to your original characters in your disclaimer. But to me personally, when I see, “Mary Sue Who is my property. Don’t use her in your story without asking me for permission,” several things happen in my head, all of which put me on the defensive and make me feel icky and suddenly I’m not sure if I want to keep reading. First, I wonder what’s so great about this character that everyone’s going to be stealing her to put in their own stories. Such things have happened with much beloved original characters, but it seems a rare occurrence. Secondly, I start to think that your original character is going to be a genuine Mary Sue. I don’t know why I think this, or even why it would be a bad thing. I just do.
Archive Permissions. This might be better left to the archivists (and I have been one), and it doesn’t usually make me stop reading, but I thought I’d throw this in here while I’m going over the front matter. “Yes” and “No” and “Ask me” are answers that make sense. “Sure, but drop me a line so I can visit” doesn’t make sense to me. You’re giving permission, so the archivist can go ahead and not have to put you on the list of all the other people they have to email and ask permission, which is good. But you’re still asking for an email. Why not just say, “Ask for permission.” What happens if you say sure in the story, and then the archivist drops you a line, and you decide you don’t want your story in that particular archive? We all like to know where our stories end up. I know I do. But the “Sure, just email me” doesn’t save anyone any time.
Author’s Notes. Keep ‘em short and sweet. At this point, we don’t know you yet. We just want to read the story. If you put them at the end, that’s perfect.
We’ve already read the story, so we know what you’re talking about. If you do put your author’s notes at the beginning, write them as a reflection of your story. If your author’s note is rambling, silly, giggly, or poorly articulated, I’m going to assume the story is, too, and not read it. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and you lose readers this way. I will always remember a very good story I read that had a really juvenile author’s note at the beginning. For whatever reason, I read the story anyway. I’m sure a lot of people didn’t.
Know What You’re Talking About. At least well enough to fake it. As far as characters go, I realize not many of us writing these stories is a 35-year old five foot two inch redheaded FBI agent with a forensic background. And we are writing for fun, so it’s okay to depart from reality. At the same time, an educated person doesn’t use the same words as one who isn’t. Mulder and Scully are adults, and because of this, they aren’t going to have the same conversations that teenagers have, or express their feelings in the same way. Think about what’s inherent to the characters, not just what you personally would do. Writing gives you the opportunity to step into someone else’s shoes for a while. Take the opportunity.
As far as research goes, especially when you’re dealing with a serious or painful subject, you can’t avoid doing research if you don’t know about something and you want to write about it. Because someone out there reading your story will have experience with it, and they’ll know you got it wrong. They might be angry, but more likely they’re going to think you’re stupid. (Or both.) If you’re unlucky, they’ll point out to other people just how stupid you are. Just don’t do it. If you’re interested enough in subject such as drug addiction or anorexia or depression or whatever to put your characters through it, you should be interested enough to read a book from the library or do a search on the web to find out what it’s really like. The stories that stand out are the ones that got it right. (People still talk about “Oklahoma” and “Therapy” and “Father of the Bride” because the stories were great, but also because they got it right.)