Resource Fanfic Writer's Desk: Your Place for Writing Discussion, Questions, and Advice

For a fussy and paranoid writer like me, this is quite difficult to do. I know this is not an ultra-popular or ultra-well-known character, but I figure he has at least a few fans out there who might be justified in calling me out for writing his character poorly. But I appreciate the advice on loosening up and not hand-wringing this stuff too much, since yeah, at the end of the day, this IS all just fiction. I just want to do a good job for any potential readers.

In this case, it's sort of a riff on "The Deposition of General Solo" - it's a sudden takeover of the Executor (I know how insane that sounds, but there's a plan behind it, honest!) and the ship is left bereft of its entire crew except for those on the bridge. Other than minor damage, the ship wouldn't be suffering anything that would spiral out of control due to the lack of engineers, and it would not be left entirely unstaffed for long; Rebel boarding parties would soon arrive. (Whether they'd all know how to run the thing is another matter...) I know the SSD would definitely be hampered to a major extent, but I have no idea how much of its weaponry could be utilized from bridge controls alone. Judging from Admiral Piett's shouting of "Intensify forward firepower!" near the end of ROTJ, I assume the bridge crew can definitely do some damage on their own, unless they're supposed to be relaying those commands to other officers in other parts of the ship who then target and fire the turbolasers. I'm not sure how different a SSD or SD is from what we saw of the original Death Star in ANH, where we've got individual gunners manning laser turrets in addition to the automated ones on the surface shooting at the Rebel squadrons.

Yeah, I do overthink this stuff a bit much.

Ah! Well, sweet then, that would take care of that...now, do they have the Imperial March playing on a loop in their lift cars in place of elevator muzak?

FANTASTIC! That's just what I needed, likely enough to pull off a believable cameo in my story. (I like being able to find obscure, fan-favorite details from the [now Legends] EU and give them a shout-out instead of always creating OCs or brand new terms/worlds/ships, etc. Is that lazy? Maybe, but I just enjoy doing it; I get the same thrill out of it as I do picking up something vintage from a thrift store. I guess it's a geek thing.)

And yes, I've heard a lot of good things about the Medstar books. I just have such a long list of other books and then real-life expenses on my roster that they're quite far down in priority. But maybe someday I'll snag cheap copies; I know sometimes used paperbacks can go for pennies on Amazon.

Thanks so much to all y'all!

 

Hi, everyone. I'm considering a return to writing after an extended hiatus *cough* 10 years *cough* . However, I have a few concerns before I really get started. First, how do you deal with issues of canon? Specifically, do you think a writer should ret-con their fic to make it fit with canon, or would you use some sort of disclaimer to explain why it doesn't? I have fic that was conceived and mostly written before AotC, so it has Jedi in romantic relationships, multiple Jedi escaping from the attack on the Jedi Temple, and most important, it assumes that Jedi routinely become one with the Force on their death. I could probably deal with the first issue by describing their relationship as forbidden, but if no Jedi until Qui-Gon become one with the Force, I have a real problem. In my story, 2 Jedi go into hiding after staging their deaths, using the fact that Jedi can disappear at death to explain the lack of bodies. The story kind of falls apart if this never happens.

Second, how compelled do you feel to know every aspect of the SW universe? I pretty much gave up reading the SW novels halfway through the NJO, because I got tired of seeing my old friends getting their butts kicked, get incurable diseases and get asteroids dropped on them. I'm planning to write mostly in the Saga time frame, but I've also never seen TCW (besides the movie) and I worry that I will write something that contradicts some plot point from the show. (I really don't have the time to watch the whole series at this point)

Thanks for your advice.

 

My $.02: anything goes. Scrap the canon, scrap the EU, pick and choose what you want from it. At this point, we're all writing AUs.

Welcome back! It's nice to see a fellow '99er around here!

 

Raissa Baiard Welcome back to writing - it'll be a challenge, but a fun one. You saw the TCW movie, so that's a starting point. You'll have a good time with the series, if you can squeeze in the 22 minutes of each episode somehow.

 

Welcome back Raissa Baiard!

I don't think you should ret-con anything, unless you really want to so. You can always put a disclaimer at the top saying something was written before, but I don't think you should feel the need to be beholden to canon.

As for keeping up with all aspects of SW, I don't think that's necessary either. I've not read much that wasn't post-RTOJ because I'm not as interested. I know there are a lot of people who have never read any of the novels (they are all non-canon now anyway ) and do just fine. I really think whatever works for you is great and that most of the time people assume that if something is different than what was written in a novel or shown on a TV show, then it's AU.

In my experience, SW ficcers tend to be pretty laid back about such things and don't jump on people for not knowing everything.

 

That's what I'm talking about. Anything goes. I still like using familiar characters when it comes to certain love interests, but I am giving them new backstories.

 

Ooh, I want to read it! Nostalgia for the days when we thought that was what always happened. Why not?

While I admire people who can keep track of all the canon, I am not one of them and don't expect anyone else to be. Furthermore, I love AU's of all degrees.

 

Thanks, everyone. I guess, having made the decision to start writing again, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Most of my old reference materials are on semi-permanent loan to my nephew, so I was looking characters up on Wookieepedia. I was dismayed at how many details I didn't know. So much has been added to the EU, I'm glad I don't need to keep track of it all!

Kahara, the story is on the Classic JC fanfic board; it's called "Everyone Comes to Doran's Place." Sadly, it suffers from truncation and wonky formatting. I don't know if it would be permissible to repost it or if that would be against the rules.

 

One of our moderators (Mavjade) told me that it was okay to repost a truncated story in a new thread but you should put in the title that it is a repost and I have been told that if you have multiple stories you want to repost you should space them out. They don't want an author to start reposting every story in their library and fill up the entire first page of the forum.

 

Raissa Baiard, that title is familiar... turns out I already have read it. (Probably before the truncation but after it was locked or something. Or during my extended lurkerdom when I didn't comment much.) I would be glad to see a re-post; that was a fun story!

 

Cool! This might actually give me a way to ease into writing again. I think "Doran's Place is a pretty good story, but there are a couple scenes that need tweaked.

No worries about me flooding the front page; I wasn't a very prolific writer-- better at starting fics than finishing them. I hope to finish a couple of my AU's from long, long ago.

 

Definitely in favor of finishing long-ago fics! Two authors, archaeologist and syntyche from ffn, both completed stories after beginning them ten years earlier, so go you!

 

Honestly, after coming back from hiatus myself (albeit a much shorter one), I'm enjoying this whole "let 'er rip" sentiment and the embracing of AUs in general. Folks have some really fantastic ideas out there that totally kick canon to the curb. I get very caught up in details myself, as I was posting earlier, but at the end of the day...it's ALL fiction. All of it. I think it's great to see other writers' versions of "what if?" (I mean, dude, even Dark Horse got in on it by doing The Star Wars comic as of late.) My own hangups are more related to technical descriptions and characterizations than actual canon events.

Now, head-canon...that's a whole 'nother enchilada.

 

Do people know what the performance difference between the Mitrinomon Z-6 and Merr-Sonn JT-12 jetpacks? Also which one is most cost effective?

 

What durese word do people think I should use in the same ways as Firefly use shiny? Baniss which means handsome or Izrin which means beautiful?

 

I need an idea for a pet that could be a nuisance to a character...that is not unlike a cat

Are there any species in Star Wars that could meet this criteria?

 

Pittins (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Pittin) are the most-used feline equivalent, but you can easily make up your own! (And I frankly refuse to believe that plain old domesticated kitties haven't wormed their way into the GFFA somewhere. Anywhere humans can be found, I suspect there will be cats. They might be a little different, as with some of the "alien" humans -- but yeah. Cats. I kind of think they're around somewhere, even if we don't see them much.)

Edit: Oh my. Near-housecats!

 

Looks a little large for my purpose.....I think I found something that would work for a different pet I'll need. The little species called the voorpak. However, the animal for my other purpose needs to be like the evil Siamese cats in lady and the tramp and lucifer cat in Cinderella.


Edit: I think the pittin would work. The other one was quite large and probably wouldn't.

 

Gamiel The "145 kilometers per hour with a maximum range of two kilometers" is the same on both --- but the Z-6 had the most go wrong with it, I think? It was the one that Boba Fett wore over Carkoon.

'Izrin' sounds prettier, if it's pronounced 'iz-reen' and not 'iz-rinn'. IMHO.

 

Hello! First time posting on to this particular topic (and the site in general) so I apologize in advance if this post breaks a rule or isn't as well formulated as you more experienced guys. So this idea came to me after reading about how Plagueis had a hand in creating Anakin through his immortality experiments, so a story idea started formulating in my head, what if he tried the same ritual of manipulating the midi clorians a second time, only now he manipulated them within a single body instead of trying it on a galaxy wide scale (which resulted in the birth of Anakin) and so a second child from the Force is conceived. I already have character & plot ideas for it but my question is, would he attempt such a ritual again since his test subjects died later on and he started to think the Force itself was trying to eliminate the Sith.

Thanks in advance for any advice guys

 

Hi ekrolo2! Welcome to the JCF!

Are these things from the Plagueis novel? I have it but haven't gotten to it yet so I don't know a whole bunch on the topic, but here is my two cents anyway. I do think he would attempt again even if he did think the Force was trying to eliminate the Sith. I think he would want to defeat that and he wouldn't be so attached to those he made that them dying would be a big deal. I could see him wanted to perfect the ritual.

 

Yeah its from the Plagueis novel, I tried to read through it but it really wasn't my cup of tea unfortunately so I quit well before the Anakin stuff came around. Anyway, thanks for the help man.

 

Sorry for bugging you all again but I have a couple more questions for a fic idea brewing in my head. 1) did the Confederacy have POW (prisoner of war) camps during the Clone Wars? Several people mentioned Obi-Wan being held prisoner at one of these during the Dark Horse comics set during that time period but I don't know the specifics of how they function. 2) what would be a better combo of lightsaber styles, Juyo & Soresu or Djem So & Soresu?

Thanks again for the advice to whoever answers these.

 

POW camps: Probably they would have temporary makeshift camps at ground battles, and then whisk them away to more heavily guarded central prisons when possible. TCW had a good example of the latter with the Citadel. Anyone captured in a space battle would probably be held on board an enemy ship during transport to one of these central prisons.

Lightsaber styles: I admit that I'm not very familiar with Juyo, but Wookieepedia describes it (in a Featured Article, no less), as being "filled with [...] fury", while Soresu's core tenets expect the user to maintain a calm center. Therefore, it would seem to me that the two would be very difficult, if not impossible, to combine. Djem So, like Juyo, is also a very aggressive form, but unlike Juyo, the aggression is more controlled than furious. I still wouldn't expect to see Djem So interleaved with Soresu throughout a duel, but the two could still work together by using Soresu to wear your opponent down, and then switching to Djem So to go for the win once your opponent is exhausted and unable to properly defend.