Last night I gave all of you a humorous take on the proper writing of a NATM fanfic, but tonight, we're getting serious. Sit back as I take you through my method and mindset and see how I do the best I can at what I love: writing, with the disclaimer that this probably won't work for everyone.
Now, the trash I sporked last night is something I don't get past the summary or a couple paragraphs of, because I can pick it out relatively easily, especially with all the time I spend on the internet looking into all this stuff. It does help me identify what hasn't been done, however, and in the case of Night at the Museum, what that seems to be, overwhelmingly, is an engaging story about modern day museum problems concerning Larry and the exhibits we all love so dearly, and pretty much no one else. That, coincidentally, is something I want to explore. Therefore, I have a niche, and I feel like I'll enjoy it.
Write what you want to write about, or else it'll show. If you want to put yourself into a fanfic and fall in love, that's none of my business. I just won't read it. I happen to like a particular plot line and love to explore the heck out of it, and that's what I tend to repeat in my NATM fics time and time again. For the uninitiated, that plot line happens to be a family reunion with or without the forces of chaos to contend with. It just so happens that this is something no one in the fandom seems to like doing. Therefore, it's something fanfic readers haven't seen very much of, and if they're into that sort of thing, then I have a ready readership as soon as I finish the writing.
I don't publish chapters sporadically whenever I choose to finish them. My particular method is to write the entire thing out in Notepad (for some reason my personal favorite, maybe because of the aesthetics of seeing the text in the program, and no page breaks, which can become bothersome to me), and break into chapters later. The chapters are then published on the regular basis of about one per day or couple of days (it takes longer if I am tremendously unlucky). This process allows me to work through the story organically and cohesively, make it all sound similar and read similarly, and come up with a proper title before I even start the publishing process. And besides, this way, if I don't finish, it never sees the light of day, and nobody likes a dead fic (nobody I know of, anyway).
I have on this blog a series of posts about alternate universes, and there is one where I feel it's perfectly acceptable and even necessary to have original characters: the span of time between the first two movies, after Larry quit his job to be a success. There needs to be a replacement night guard (or possibly several). That's a situation which calls for an original character. However, if all you do is have your OC bone one of the exhibits (by the way, weird)--and if I see another AkhXOC I'm going to kill someone, to paraphrase his big brother--then I don't want to read it. If there's a story in there somewhere, like following someone getting back on the straight and narrow after battling drugs or the streets or something by becoming a night guard, then I'm cool with that and might actually read. That's good stuff.
Then there's plot lines which explore what happens when the exhibits are placed in various impossible situations: what happens when Cecil wins? What happens when the tablet activates during lunch hour? What happens when Dexter accidentally screws something up with it during late night hours, causing trouble? The tablet is the focal point of all these examples because it has the most potency to affect the plot, being the thing which grants eternal life to all exhibits in the building (at least at night). There are a lot of good plots out there that don't require OCs, so why use them? (JK, I know the answer to that one. I just don't wish to discuss it.)
I also put a lot of thought into what characters would do if this or that or the other thing happened to them. For example, who would win in a fight between Cecil and Kahmunrah? (You guys remember that post? If not, it's here.) Or how would the brothers react seeing each other again after thousands of years of literally no contact whatsoever? In order to do this correctly, have it play out believably, I have to develop a very, very solid foundation of understanding of the personalities of each character involved, hence my very involved personality-themed headcanons. And I have to keep these in mind when I work out how the characters would interact with each other, because our personality informs our behavior. The Stoic isn't going to start gushing upon sight of some pretty girl and thus run into a pole, is he? That would have to be some woman. I make a great effort into making sure key character interactions make sense. And let's face it, if I'm not happy with some section of my work, I fix it.
TL;DR: Make sure you understand the characters' personalities well enough to make sure their interactions in unusual situations is believable. Finish first, make everything feel cohesive, have a title to match, and then post (and make sure you at least make one pass through each chapter before releasing it to the light of day; if you're not confident in your spelling and grammar abilities, beta readers exist for a reason). There are plots where OCs are okay, but there are many more where you can use the ones you're given; try to avoid OCs if possible.
Happy writing everybody!
Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": An interesting theory has come to my attention concerning possible plot lines for NATM 3, so put on your thinking caps as I discuss it here. That's next.
Countdown: 272 Days to NATM 3.
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