My only other fic efforts were for Doctor Who. I knew Sheepie from that fandom well before I ever got struck by the lightning bolt that is House. I've still got two rather lengthy Doctor Who stories milling about in the back of my head, but right now I'm pretty thoroughly occupied with that little collaborative House-fic thingie.

QL fans all over the place! It used to be on at ONE IN THE BLINKIN MORNING here. Grrr - I'm passing on RSL's dark intellectual rage! But I agree with Mare: one of my favourite Interweb adventures was the Boozy, Ad Hoc Round Robin story because you never knew where the story was going to go. It was a bit like a literary version of theatre sports.

I did a couple in the X-Files and Buffy fandom, but very minimally, prior to "House." (I even got in during the last years of the 'zine, pre-'net. Is that something to be proud of?) Unless you want to count the stuff I wrote back in my mid-teens, but that stuff -- Star Trek, Emergency!, Starsky & Hutch -- never made it out of my notebook. So, so, so grateful the Internet wasn't around then.

I know. I read some stuff a (now published) friend wrote many many many years ago - and 'by gum'! The best bit was that I photocopied them and whenever I want her help... he he he! Blackmail material. I think writing takes practice. Maybe by the time I am 80 I will be able to put a presentable sentence together.

All the QL fans here! That's so cool, I love it. Fawlty, I bet I have your book somewhere in that oft mentioned "box of Quantum Leap and X-Files crap we've kept all these years and one of these days we're just going to throw it in the back of your truck and you'll have to deal with it" in my parents' storage unit. I started out with Quantum Leap. Moved into a couple of X-Files fics. Dabbled in TDS/TCR which was fun until the fandom went batshit insane(r). I'm very tempted to write a Torchwod or Doctor Who story or two, but mostly I stick with House.

Oh, Quantum Leap. LOVED that show. Loved it, loved it, loved it. So many possibilities. I never read its fanfic (until TLTW's crossover with House, which was awesome), but I did read some of the books. I also loved (premise-wise, the show itself went off the rails) Sliders. Anybody else watch that show? Back to topic: I wrote, a million years ago, a ST:TOS story with Nimoy becoming Spock, or something like that. Then no fanfic for years and years until this wonderful thing called the internet. My fanfic reading then went something like this: X-Files Mulder/Scully > X-Files Mulder/Krycek (and M/Scully/K) > Damon/Affleck > Ocean's 11. Spring 2006 I started writing down some ideas for a Damon/Affleck fic (in which Matt is a robot), but didn't get too far. Then BAM House/Wilson fic, found the Housefic archive, and my world was rocked. Got the DVDs, wrote my first fic, watched all the S1 & S2 episodes I'd missed, signed up for LJ, and everything escalated from there.

PIMPTASTIC!
Here's something of general interest to fanfic writers everywhere: the chance to write EVEN MORE HOUSEFIC than you've ever written before. I'd like to think that there are a hell of a lot of us who have a novella up our sleeves--or, in the case of some epic writers around these parts, more than one. And maybe just cross out the "la" part on the end of novella, to make it simpler. I'd like to see more lengthy fics in House fandom, and I know it can be done--think Ignaz Wisdom's "A Modest Proposal", Asynca's various epics, and...other stories along those lines whose names have totally escaped me for the moment. The point is, who wouldn't want to challenge themselves to take a few months and write 20 000 words of Housefic? I know I will! Check out the House Big Bang Challenge, and start thinking big.

I've written in Buffy, Passions, Xena, Smallville, X-Men: Evolution, Stargate Atlantis, Highlander, and House fandoms. Eh currently no fandoms since my muses seem to have died...*pokes them with sticks*

Heck, my first Housefic was 35,000+ words, and that's been the shortest of my long fics. My issue is that I can't write to challenge/ficathon standards. I have to write what strikes me and when. Forcing it to meet some arbitrary standard seems too much like work for me.

And that reminds me: Housefic_meta http://community.livejournal.com/housefic_meta/profile has just been chatting to Sy Ded. Sy is an excellent writer (and I think one of the first House writers? Correct me if I am wrong) and Namaste has been pumpin her for info, so if you want to do some really really in depth ff chat this is a good place because these guys are all ff and some more ff.

Namaste, I hear you--it can be really difficult writing on days when the writing doesn't want to come. But me, I find that the more I write, the more I want to write. The bigger my day's wordcount, the more likely I am to exceed it tomorrow. It's as much a practice thing as anything else. Anyhoo, for this particular challenge: five months to write 20 000 words works out to four thousand a month, or 250 words a day even if you only write Monday through Friday. Also, Namaste--mind if I pimp it on housefic_meta? Maybe not today, but in a few...I'm trying not to crosspost too much. If you guys know of other comms that might want to know, also, I'd be glad to hear of 'em.

That's fine, zulu, go ahead. My issue with writing to specific contests is less the word count, personally, than trying to say at this point what will inspire me at another point -- even within a couple of weeks or a month. So even trying to pick a topic is hard, and I don't like the idea of trying to predict now whether that story bunny will be enough to sustain for a long fic, or if it'll peter out in just a few thousand words. But then I rarely know in advance where something will lead. I thought "Family, Friends and Other Complications" was just going to be three or four chapters, and it turned into 20. And thanks for the notice, sheep. There are more Q&As coming up on Housefic_Meta, with Deelaundry, Perspi, Topaz Eyes and Daasgrrl. (err, as soon as I get the questions wrapped up for Topaz and Daas, but they're in Dee's and Perspi's hands. Right. Back to work.)

The part of "Pencils Are Dangerous" that I have on my hard drive is almost 40,000 words...and I lost the first five or six chapters in the Great Hard Drive Crash. I've probably got another 20,000 words to go, though. Maybe those of us who are experienced at writing Big Long Stories should share tips on how we do it?

I conk out at about 30 thousand words. I have great admiration for people who can keep it going for 140 thousand.

*raises hand excitedly* Ooh, ooh! I watched Sliders and loved it right up until it crashed off the rails. Is there, by any chance, Sliders/House crossover fic in existence? I used to write Housefic exclusively until late last year, when I got the wild idea to cross House/MI-5, which was followed by House/Supernatural. This month, the word count for Supernatural fic has been higher than for House fic. Blasted hiatus . . . I'd love to hear those who've written really long pieces talk about how they pace themselves, as my approach is to get the bit in my teeth and write a couple thousand words a day until I drop over. The longest piece I've ever done is 26 thousand words. 140 thousand is a really admirable achievement.