Writing fanfiction so you can novel?

Sounds weird right? Write fanfiction so you can novel, sounds counter productive.

And I’ve yet to find a better way to get to know my characters than to put them in a pre-made fictional world like Merlin or Harry Potter or something more story appropriate and write a crossover. Most of the time this takes place post action of the story for me.

Take my current WIP, I’ve got a Harry Potter crossover that’ll never see the light of day in the works. I’ve discovered that Reg is a total sarcastic asshat when he wants to be; and Tanner and Carson, friends of the family, totally fuel his sarcasm. I don’t know how Topher put up with it for going on twenty years now. Then again, sarcasm tends to just run strong in my characters.

The point is, writing crossovers with similar fandoms has not only helped me get to know my characters, it’s inspired me in different scenes.

On noveling: location change

I recently relocated one of my WIPs, it was set in Colorado, now it’s been relocated to North Carolina and Virginia. I’m kind of glad for the relocation, it really changed things up and will work better for the plot in the long run.

On the flip side, the title really has to get changed because I believe Nicholas Sparks has a book by the same title and everyone knows that all of his books are set in North Carolina. Okay, not everyone knows that, but my mom’s read practically all of his books and my sister’s seen practically all of the movies so I’ve seen parts of them by proxy, trust me, they’re all set in North Carolina with possibly one exception.

Master WIP post to follow, y’all should know what stories I’m talking about.