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Discussion Wikis for OCs and fanfic

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction and Writing Resource' started by moosemousse, Feb 19, 2013.

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  1. moosemousse

    moosemousse CR Emeritus: FF-UK South star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2004
    I've been thinking about this for a while and I've not really come up with anything either way, so I thought I'd ask about this on here. Over the years, I've come up with some great characters and I love them all, even if it is a 'love to hate' thing. The only problem is that I seem to have lost track of them all and their stories. Not the individual fics, but their stories as a whole. So I had the idea of a wiki type thing that I could maintain so I can look through it for characters and remind myself of important things, like whether a character's scar is in the shape of an X or a T.

    So I was thinking. I know how to host a web server on my own computer, and I know that the wikipedia software is free to download, so why not keep it on a memory pen? But then, I could also keep it on the web. It does seem like a lot of hard work though, and I'm not sure about the legalities of having it on the web, so is it worth it?

    What do you think? Would anyone be interested in a wiki about my OCs? Is it a good idea to put such a thing on the web? How do you keep track of your characters and fics?
     
  2. thesevegetables

    thesevegetables Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2012
    wikia.com
    There's also Star Wars fanon wikis
     
  3. Iverna

    Iverna Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 20, 2008
    I highly doubt there'd be legality issues, since you're presumably not going to make money off it and the fanfics themselves are online too, right? If Wookieepedia is okay, I don't see why yours wouldn't be.

    That said, if it's for your own use, I don't really see why you'd have to put it online. Unless you think other people would be interested in reading up on your OCs outside of the fics in which they feature.

    I keep track of my stuff with spreadsheets, mainly. Character lists with name, age, major physical and personality features, etc. If it's a really fleshed-out character I'll have a dossier, just a Word file or something. For original fics I usually have a file called "Characters" or something with names and descriptions - lots of description for the main characters, just the basics for the rest, whatever I need really.

    I think a wiki would be a lot of work for relatively little gain in terms of your personal use. You can do the same thing faster by just keeping notes in text files or spreadsheets. An online wiki would only really be useful if other people wanted to keep track of your characters too, or maybe for a collaborative project or something.
     
  4. TrakNar

    TrakNar Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2011
    If one of Star Wars Fanon's administrators can have a wiki devoted entirely to his Alternative Star Wars Saga, I don't see why you can't have a wiki devoted to your characters. I just throw my stuff onto SWFanon and keep track of them that way. That's an option, but be warned: I am a stickler for policy and you might catch me formatting your articles. :p
     
  5. DarthBreezy

    DarthBreezy Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 4, 2002
    I like having my characters reveal themselves through the stories as some things are even hidden from me until I actually can pry it from them. For example, when I was writing a story called "The 7th Hymn of Tiresas", I knew that Luke would be introduced to his daughter (who is now 8) by Aube, and that Aube had a secret, but it wasn't until part way through writing it that I found out that Pem's twin brother, Tamaillin, had died when they were about 3... I was just as shocked as Luke...
     
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  6. Goodwood

    Goodwood Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 11, 2011
    Same goes for me, and I wouldn't dream of forming my own wiki. Doing so strikes me as a tad...presumptuous. :p
     
  7. Ceillean

    Ceillean Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 13, 2001
    I'm with Iverna on this one. I keep notes on my characters in seperate files, depending on the story. It's easier than a wiki. I tried a wiki once but kept it on my computer because honestly, I don't want people going through my OC's because there are those out there who steal.
     
  8. Goodwood

    Goodwood Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 11, 2011
    Star Wars Fanon has a policy against fanon theft, actually; it's treated on the same level as plagiarism. Furthermore, most of our content is fanon articles of characters, planets, events, vehicles, weapons, etc. about which their writers generate little to no actual prose fiction.

    Most of us who are authors write articles about our characters not just because we may (or may not, in my case) need a reference for future work, but instead so that others who may not necessarily want to read our stories can still appreciate our work, or else to provide background information that might not (yet) have a place in any future stories.
     
  9. earlybird-obi-wan

    earlybird-obi-wan Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 21, 2006
    I keep notes on my characters in spreadsheets, with one being a timeline. And my main characters write diaries;)
     
  10. Bale

    Bale Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 9, 2005
    PBworks and Google Docs are good resources I've used.
     
  11. Brandon Rhea

    Brandon Rhea Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 26, 2004
    Star Wars Fanon can be a great place to host your fan fic. I'm also one of the admins there (along with TrakNar and Goodwood), and while the format can take a little getting used to at first, it's definitely a good place for it. It allows you not only to post your fan fic stories, but to write articles about your characters, your events, your technologies, your species, and anything else that might appear in your story. There are also people there who will read your stories and give you feedback that has both critical feedback and positive reinforcement. I've been on SWFanon for 6 years so, so I definitely recommend it.

    One thing I will say about the fanon/fan fic stealing point is this. What Goodwood said about our policy against fanon steeling is true, but only to an extent. That policy only covers what people do on the wiki itself. For example, if you go onto SWFanon, you can’t use my content or Goodwood’s content in your own SWFanon articles. However, Star Wars Fanon (and all Wikia wikis) has a Creative Commons license. In the case of most Wikia wikis, including SWFanon, it’s Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0. That means that so long as a) someone properly attributes the work to you and b) they also license it under CC-BY-SA, they can use it and make derivative works from it. Doing that wouldn't be plagarism (as long as the Attribution and ShareAlike conditions are met), but a perfectly valid use of the content that's well within the spirit and intent of the license. Wikis have historically been open source with a general philosophy of openness, and Wikia is no exception.

    I still definitely recommend Star Wars Fanon, I've had a great time there for many years, but I did want to make sure you were also aware of the copyright angle.

    The admin mentioned here is me, so I figured I'd chime in on this part too. My Alternative Star Wars Saga Wiki has over 1,300 pages on it, and it's still growing. There are, at minimum, another 1,000 pages that I need to create to fully flesh out the wiki with all of the ASWS information that I have. What I then find it helpful for is not readers, but as a personal resource. When it comes to page views, I get a few hundred a week. Statistically speaking, that might as well be nothing. I'm fine with that too, because that's not what it's there for.

    Having a place where I can document the thousands and thousands of characters, planets, events, ships, years, governments, and so on from my series is incredibly helpful. It's my entire canon in one place, all inter-connected in wiki page format. For me, as someone with a series that's so expansive, it's invaluable to have a resource like that.

    Hopefully this isn't considered advertising, and if it is then I apologize, but here is the link: http://alternativesaga.wikia.com I figure there's only so much I can describe about the concept before you'd actually have to see it to know if a personal wiki is a good fit for you.

    Also, my point about the lack of page views isn't to say that getting readers for a personal wiki isn't possible, assuming you wanted readers. If you want to use it as a personal resource, though, then you'll be able to do so relatively quietly and without anyone else coming in.

    Love you too. <3
     
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