30 Days of Fanfic: Day 18

[john_amend_all]

18) Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka "bunnies") from?

Ah, the old 'Where do you get your ideas?' question. Sadly, I never thought to record with each fic whence the original idea came from, so I don't get to post a nice pretty pie chart and have to rely on my ill-regulated memory.

My main impression is that a lot of story ideas arose out of my fondness for fixits — though, in some cases, the problem I'd originally planned to fix didn't actually get fixed by the time the story was finished. For example, Extra-Curricular Activity, the first fic in what became the Holiday Jobs series, was written to take the version of Zoë presented by the expanded universe circa 2007 — stuck in a dead-end job and racked by nightmares — and give her a little quiet fun.

There's also a species of more-or-less crossoverish bunny where I think "hang on, this thing in setting A is more or less similar to this other thing in setting B. I wonder how far the resemblance would extend." An example of this type is Trouble in Store, which came about through that process: "This Time Round has invasive restaurants, Discworld has invasive shopping malls. What would happen if..."

I also get a fair supply of ideas from the usual sorts of places: fic challenges, random generators, prompts posted on dw_straybunnies or dw100, and so forth.