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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

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

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction and Writing Resource' started by Luna_Nightshade, Nov 24, 2011.

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  1. taramidala

    taramidala Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 18, 1999
    [face_laugh] Poor Anakin can't catch a break in any incarnation.
     
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  2. ThreadSketch

    ThreadSketch Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 22, 2013
    I'm sorry, but chocolate is just too awesome NOT to exist, even in a fictional distant galaxy. That's why I give Zahn a pass. :p (Although what I find amusing about it is that it's always mentioned as a beverage only - c'mon, there must be GFFA candy bars too while we're at it!)

    Due to the discrepancies in caf/stimcaf/vine-coffee I came up with a personal head canon for my fics, regardless of what Wookieepedia says:

    • I made stimcaf into a purely synthetic, artificially flavored faux coffee that's the absolute dirt-cheapest way in the GFFA to get your caffeine fix. Since in our modern day we've got plenty of artificial ingredients in our foods, I didn't think this is a big stretch for a high-tech sci-fantasy galactic society. I decided that the logic of calling it stimcaf is because the taste is either so wretched or so bland that it's primarily consumed for its stimulant properties, and it's as strong as reactor fuel.
    • Caf would be the actual beverage brewed from the real beans (which the Wook says are grown and exported from Garqi). It can vary in quality just like our Earth coffee (like the Arabica/Robusta differences, at the very least). Personally, I find it a little hard to believe that caf beans couldn't be planted on other worlds with similar climates and be more widely available, but...eh, I guess it can be hand-waved away by saying that the plant is really finicky and won't grow anywhere else.
    • Since I found vine-coffee to be just a bit lengthy on the tongue and too Earthy - and SW is already notorious about squishing words together to make them sound more "space-y" - I shortened it to vincoff, and made this into the most premium and expensive tier of caf, the stuff only royalty, nobles and other filthy rich bigwigs bother to spend on. The taste of this stuff is appropriately mind-blowing. ;)
    I did say I tend to overthink the little things, didn't I? 8-}
     
  3. taramidala

    taramidala Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 18, 1999
    I like your kind of overthinking. That's brilliant.
     
  4. ThreadSketch

    ThreadSketch Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 22, 2013
    Aww. Well...I guess that means it's not in vain, at least. [face_blush][face_coffee]

    All of those tiers were set up just to provide the backdrop to a scene where Leia is a guest in a wealthy family's home; upon encountering the aroma of vincoff being brewed during breakfast, she's overcome with memories of the last time she drank it - her last day on Alderaan with her parents. The drastic difference between the ultra-high-quality beverage and the stimcaf she's had to put up with for the past several years in the Rebellion becomes a sort of metaphor for her grief and bitterness over her world's destruction, and her reintroduction to this fancy drink helps to reinforce the idea of family, because...
    she's now going to be quaffing it in the Naberrie household.
     
  5. taramidala

    taramidala Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 18, 1999
    You have no idea how much I love this. [face_love]
     
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  6. ThreadSketch

    ThreadSketch Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 22, 2013
    [:D]

    Ugh. And this scene is from the double-novel-length fic burning a hole in my brain and hard drive, aka, will never see the light of day. [face_tired] I have a love/hate relationship with this fic because I'm too possessive and control-freakish to want to split it up with a co-author, but...I feel like I need a second (maybe even a third) person to bounce certain ideas off of or ask for advice. Unfortunately, the Big Idea behind the plot would be a huge turnoff for any SW fan, so I'm on my own with this one. But I'm glad somebody out there likes at least that little tidbit!

    And I think I'm hijacking this thread now, lol. Shutting up, sir...
     
  7. gracesonnet

    gracesonnet Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    May 20, 2014
    That is awesome!
     
  8. Theodore Hawkwood

    Theodore Hawkwood Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Jun 17, 2014
    It seems with a simple query I have in fact created a monster worth of Sith Alchemy.
     
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  9. taramidala

    taramidala Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 18, 1999

    Well now I'm going to have to dare you to spill...because I highly doubt that your idea is that much of a turn-off. :p

    But yes, idea-bouncers are great resources for any writer, particularly those of us who struggle with writer's block and too much research and too many ideas. I wrote in a vacuum for many years and now that I feel as though I have a solid support system, my writing is actually getting somewhere. It may end up being 25 years of writing by the time I finally finish my "magnum opus" but dammit, I'm going to get it done. [face_laugh]
     
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  10. taramidala

    taramidala Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 18, 1999
    Oh noes! We're talking about fic writing and how everyone's experience can help someone else! :p
     
  11. Theodore Hawkwood

    Theodore Hawkwood Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Jun 17, 2014
    I knew that, that was just me joking about.

    In my writing vinecaf or vine coffee is akin to espresso or the pricier coffee types as well.
     
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  12. ThreadSketch

    ThreadSketch Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 22, 2013
    "Look at the size of that thing!" [face_laugh]

    On a semi-related note, since this is something I'm dealing with right now, sometimes we have to summon the humility to hack away a lot of excess from our writing. My default mode is to start making everything sound overblown and more flowery than a grocery store floral department in February, until I get sick of my own pretentiousness and just attack the whole thing with a machete and leave behind the bare essentials. I like some of the purple prose I conjure up, but it's like hoarding - I have to be willing it give it up and delete it if it's unnecessary. The story should stand on its ability to convey the main idea, not an overabundance of window dressing.
     
  13. Theodore Hawkwood

    Theodore Hawkwood Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Jun 17, 2014
    I can totally relate to this sentence. Often I keep in mind two things, show not tell and cut away excess when possible, not quite to Hemmingway-esque terseness but certainly conveying my point with the minimum of flowery prose.
     
  14. ThreadSketch

    ThreadSketch Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 22, 2013
    You'd understand if you knew. [face_sigh] But seriously, if your desire to know isn't in jest, I could PM you with the details so I won't continue cluttering up the thread. Who knows, you might have some insight yourself, or perhaps be able to recommend someone who could help out with it. You've certainly got quite a hall of fame's worth of fics favorited on FF.N. I still feel like a n00b here trying to rub elbows with veterans.

    Yeah, this humdinger has existed since at least 2004 or a little earlier. Stang, that makes it a decade old, technically. It's aged like a fine wine, though, compared to how it used to be, yikes.

    :) I have to keep reminding myself to trust the readers' imaginations to do as good or better a job at figuring out what I'm trying to say than tossing it all out there. (No, instead I'll vomit everything out in the thread commentary, LOL.)
     
  15. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    • It could be a trademark question, only caffa made from Garqi grown beans can be called caf
    P.s. were is it stated that caf beans only can grow on Garqi?

    P.p.s. just want to chare the drink ohx’ from Warhammer 40k
     
  16. gracesonnet

    gracesonnet Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    May 20, 2014
    So if my fanfic's main character winds up being Mace Windu's padawan (possibly only for a brief period like if her previous Master died suddenly) or the great-niece of Count Dooku (but he never talks to her or anything), am I going to break the galaxy?
    Wellllll...I'm going to do it anyway :)
     
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  17. taramidala

    taramidala Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 18, 1999
    Nope. It's fanfic: anything goes. :)
     
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  18. ThreadSketch

    ThreadSketch Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 22, 2013
    ...True dat! That hadn't occurred to me; good idea.


    Right here, at the end of the opening paragraph of the article. It doesn't state that they can only grow on Garqi, but their use of the word "source" gave me the impression that caf beans may only come from there. It was a completely accidental discovery while I was browsing for other things on the Wook, and...I did notice it has no citation number. So I have no clue where this factoid actually came from.

    [Spock] Facinating! [/Spock] :D

    LOL. If anybody's going to break the Internet with a fic, it'd be me. :p

    I'm assuming you'd be concerned about accusations of Mary Sue/Gary Stu-ism, or just too much plot contrivance, having the character related to or rubbing elbows with a major SW character? I second the statement of not worrying since it's just a fictional universe in the end, but also - if the writing is good, it'll work. I would think fanfic readers are already folks who are particularly open-minded about creative or radical ideas with the story and characters, instead of just sticking with the profic. (This is not to say I believe fanfic readers are better than profic-only readers, not at all! Hopefully I'm not conveying that.)
     
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  19. pronker

    pronker Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 28, 2007
    Ability question alert: in Star Wars: the Clone Wars, it looked like Obi-Wan and Quinlan were leaping maybe 75 yards at a time while they pursued Ziro through swampland, but does someone else have a better spec on how far Jedi can leap? :D
     
  20. gracesonnet

    gracesonnet Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    May 20, 2014
    I think my worries are about both aspects but yeah- at some point, I need to just write and deal with it all later.
     
  21. taramidala

    taramidala Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 18, 1999
    I have to agree with ThreadSketch. If the writing is good enough, people are less inclined to view a character as a Mary/Gary Stu. It's the fics that you see on FFN that start out "Lilly was just your ordinary high school senior until one day she wakes up in a teenaged Obi-Wan's bed. Whoops! What happens next??" that people dislike.
     
  22. gracesonnet

    gracesonnet Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    May 20, 2014
    I think it's a little of both but yeah, I kind of need to just go ahead and write and get out of my own head. And no, it won't be like what taramidala described, luckily :cool:
     
  23. Theodore Hawkwood

    Theodore Hawkwood Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Jun 17, 2014
    Has there ever been any big description of a standard Corellian accent? I know in the EU somewhere there is one, but can't recall it.

    I recall Coruscanti and High Coruscanti are British accents of varying types, and that they mentioned Han around the time of the Vong speaks with a vaguely Coruscanti voice in later years.
     
  24. Kahara

    Kahara FFoF Hostess Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2001
    Always assumed that Han's American-sounding accent was normal there. On the other hand, Corellia is very old as a settlement; more than enough time to develop some regional variations.
     
  25. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
     
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