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

Thank you. I was looking for scripts but my searches ended up on sites that wanted to sell me stuff. I really appreciate your help!

 

Fellow writers, Cushy would appreciate help:

I have been endeavouring for awhile now to learn about aspects relating to Pakistani and Indian dress and Chinese and Japanese attire so I may clothe my characters well but my attempts while not entirely void have been rather unsuccessful. Suggestions or pointers? Thank you.

Gamiel

 

Have you looked at the Wikipedia pages about Pakistani, Indian, Chinese and Japanese clothing?

 

I have to some extent, yes. However, I shall look again. Thank you.

 

So, a couple of hours ago, unexpectedly, I came up with an idea of an original character. Now I don't know what to do.

1. Is she an OC if she's the daughter of two Legends canon characters, one of whom is also...canon-canon?

2. Is there such a thing as an index of people's OCs? Would be fun to have, as I'm completely lost in more than half of the stories here and I have no idea what's going on in them. A thread for character biographies, short introductions, 411s or whatever would be super-helpful.

3. How does one handle OCs for stories? This may be a question similar to "why is the sky blue?", but in all honesty, I'm lost to the point where I have to ask poopsie questions in order not to do something wrong.

Thank you.

 

I commend your honesty and seeking clarity. More people should do that it'd ease a fair amount of tensions.

 

Hi, EP! I relate to your questions rather specifically, so I'll toss you my two cents.

1. Is she an OC if she's the daughter of two Legends canon characters, one of whom is also...canon-canon?
I would say yes. For example, a child of Luke and Mara (or Lando and Tendra, and so on) who is not their Legends!canon child, would be "original" to any of your readers. They're a brand new person whom the audience has to get to know, as opposed to an established character for whom we already have a little (or a lot) of context.

2. Is there such a thing as an index of people's OCs? Would be fun to have, as I'm completely lost in more than half of the stories here and I have no idea what's going on in them. A thread for character biographies, short introductions, 411s or whatever would be super-helpful.
Not here on TFN, that's for sure, and I don't know of anywhere else. I think the closest you will find is the OC discussion thread here in Fanfic, but that's not really what you're looking for. I agree that it would be a nice and useful thing to have, except we aren't allowed to mention our own stories in posts (out of fear of some ancient notion of "pimping," which hasn't been a problem for years), so I'm not sure we'd be allowed to create one.

3. How does one handle OCs for stories? This may be a question similar to "why is the sky blue?", but in all honesty, I'm lost to the point where I have to ask poopsie questions in order not to do something wrong.
I'm not quite sure what you mean? Do you mean create? Promote? Get people to like them? My suggestion to you would be to just write it. Writing an OC is a bit scary, no doubt, but at least give yourself (and any potential readers) the chance to get to know them!

 

I'd suggest writing your OC and the whole fic the way that speaks most to you. Though there are many people that are eager to give you dos and don'ts, it really comes down to if the creative is happy with their work.

 

Thanks for 1, wasn't 100% sure.

Regarding 2, since I assume most of us are responsible and mature enough not to act like 12-year-olds would in 2003 (PH34R, !1!111!!oneoneone), it would be awesome if there was some sort of a character index thread, indeed; where those who are better with characterisation could help others and where newbies could get a lowdown of whom they'll be reading about.

Regarding 3, I guess I didn't phrase that well - basically, I was wondering if there were any limitations on what one can do with OCs.

"Limitations are set and only then we can go all the way." - my favourite artist

 

Yay, a new OC!

I second everything taramidala said. Your character is an OC as long as you made her up, even if it's Palpatine's great-grand-aunt we're talking about. You should have a look at the OC Revolution thread in Resource, there are nice discussions going on there and there's a challenge coming up, so maybe that's an opportunity for you to introduce her to us?

As for your third question (if I understand it right), as I see it there are two main types of OC stories. One type is the stories where your OC gets to interact with canon characters and/or to play a role in SW plots that are established in canon. The other type is stories that take place in the SW universe, but that don't interfere with canon plotlines. Each one comes with its own set of "rules" and difficulties, but I personally love reading and writing both In the end, as long as you have a good story, you'll enjoy writing it and we'll enjoy reading it, so go ahead and post!

 

Of course but it matters whom sets them, Poet.

 

And really, as Captain Jack Sparrow once said, "They're more like guidelines." As far as I'm concerned, in fic? Rules are meant to be broken.

 

It's more expectation by readers more than anything in my experience. While they should be considered I don't think a vision should be compromised for them, I think a balance works best for fanfic.

 

1. I'd say yes. If she's a character you created, she's an OC.

2. The closest thing I can think of is the OC Revolution thread. I agree that would be a cool thing to have; I'm a relative newcomer here, too, and don't always know where to start with some of the OC stories.

3. It's cliche, but I don't think there's a wrong way to do it; it's whatever works for you. I know some writers like to create detailed backstories for their OCs, but when I started writing Raissa, I only made a very general background for her: she'd attended the Imperial Academy on Carida and had grown up on a small Outer Rim world. I knew her appearance and character, but not every last detail of her life. I figure out more about her as I keep writing, but I still haven't figured what kind of music she listens to or her favorite flavor of ice cream, or the other tiny details some OC guides suggest. If it ever becomes relevant to a story, I'll decide then.

I guess I'm trying to say, if it helps you to make a detailed dossier of your OC's preferences, go for it, but don't feel you're not doing it right if you don't.

You might want to ask these same questions in the OC Revolution. I'm sure the other writers there would be glad to give you input, too.

 

Absolutely agreed about this. While I would not do something downright weird to a character or a story, some things should be there to surprise and some things should be implied to happen and then...not happen.

Holy two-headed cow, I want somebody to draw this person - she needs to have his OT face and granny-ish clothes, combined of some of Naboo traditional dress. I'd have her go to the future and taunt my characters.

When you say "both", do you mean writing a story that would fall into both of the groups at the same time, or not?

It's awesome that you, out of everybody here, replied, as I am lost in your most recent story - it's because of well-developed characters like yours that my suggestion would make sense. It's not like it would make sense for each newcomer on here to message you and ask you who is she, where was she born and blabla. And from what I understand, you've been using her for fifteen years or something (since you registered?!). I'm 101% lost, if that's even mathematically possible.

I believe I posted in that thread (76 tabs open right now, 20-ish of which on this board, yikes!), with some other questions. But yeah, I might expand, as I understand that's the thread where we can discuss these characters, too.

 

Like an evil version of Neville Longbottom's grandmother? Actually, this may be a plot bunny. Palps became a Sith because his great-grand-aunt forced him to eat all his soup when he was a kid...

Well, my main fic is an epic-length thing, so there's plenty of space for both, but for now it touched on the SW film plot only peripherally. I've seen OC fics that were tightly entwined with the main story though, I can find links and PM them to you if you want.

 

If you guys ever have an idea for a thread that you would like to see (as has kinda been discussed in this thread), please PM me and/or Bri and we're happy to discuss it! This is a community and you guys are more than welcome to make recommendations. Sometimes we have to come to a compromise, but we do our best not to say no.

1.As others have answered, if it's a character you've made up it doesn't matter if it's a child/spouse/cousin/distance relative of a canon character, if it's yours, it's an OC.

2. There isn't but some people do post info in the OC Revolution thread, but I would recommend PMing the author and asking them about their OC's or for the order you should read their fics in to get an understanding of them.

3. There are never any limitations (other than the TOS/rules if you are posting here, of course) to OC's. A Mary Sue usually doesn't get the best reaction, but I think if it makes you happy to write someone, write them no matter what anyone else says. I think making an OC as real as possible is the best way to get an OC written, imagine them in different situations, how would they react, who would they go to for help, how would they feel about things, etc.

While it's certainly not nearly the issue it used to be when there were more people posting in fanfic, it is something we have to edit/remind with relative frequency. But like I stated above if you have a thought or an idea, please feel free to PM us.

 

Thank you! . I started writing Raissa and Doran 15 years ago (has it been that long, really?). I wrote one story with her, the one I'm currently reporting, and then took an extended hiatus from fan fic, due to life, the universe and everything. I just started writing again in June, which is why I consider myself a newcomer, despite having a registration date of 1999, and why Raissa doesn't have an extensive backstory. . Sorry, I didn't mean to be confusing

 

Mav while I see where you're coming from (as a former lurker I remember all too well the time when entire pages would simply say "up" and every second post was shameless self-promotion ) and I fully understand why a no pimping rule is necessary, I feel that this is an issue that should be discussed publicly, not on PM. What brings people to actively participate in the fanfic boards is their love of writing, and I really think that managing how, where and when we talk about the stories we write is something we should take up collectively. I'm obviously not talking about removing the no pimping rule altogether, but I believe we should reconsider the "any mentioning of your fic constitutes pimping" rule, particularly in important resource threads like this one, the OC thread, the fanon thread etc. I'm not sure this is the right place for this discussion though, so maybe we can open a specific thread for it so everyone can participate?

 

I will second @Chyntuck's suggestion that we discuss this in a public forum and not over PM, with a goal towards a rule adjustment. This is an issue about which I, and many others, feel strongly and it shouldn't be relegated to back door chitchat, but somewhere where all interested parties can debate respectfully and work out a solution.

 

I think that can be discussed as a community. Let Bri and I discuss it a bit first and get our thoughts together and we'll start a thread soon.

The PM us thing was more about if you had a thought about something that should be discussed as a community or a thought on a thread you would like to start, not on the discussion itself.

 

I support this discussion. I've mentioned my own fics a few times, but not because I was pimping them, but because I was using them as an example. When I tried to talk about something that a fic of mine may have covered, it became increasingly difficult to discuss it without mentioning the fic at all. I found myself being overly vague and having to reiterate things because no one knew what I was talking about, simply because I was trying to discuss an aspect of a fic of mine without mentioning the fic in any way.

I think you can understand how that would very quickly become confusing for anyone.

When we discuss our fics or an aspect of our fics, it's usually because we had touched upon a certain subject and wanted to share how we handled it. We're not pimping the fic, but openly using parts of it as an example. This is like how teachers use books as examples in literature classes. I often cite fics in discussions with my dad, both my own and other's. They're examples that I know of and can use; I'm not pimping stories to my dad.

That said, I too feel that the "no pimping" rule could use a bit of restructuring to allow for free discussion. If someone wants to use their fic as an example, fine. Just don't link to it. I see no problem. But to disallow even the barest hint of a title only serves to muddle a discussion when one could use that fic as a frame of reference.

It's like citing your sources.

 

I don't want to stifle discussion on this topic, but let's wait on this discussion until we have the thread up... it makes it much easier to keep everything together (especially when I start crunching numbers ) and then this thread can continue on writing discussions/questions.

 

I am looking for fanon/inspiration for fanon regarding the Chironian? Do anybody have any or know of a fic that use them?

 

A quick search of the story forum turns up 69 hits. Perhaps one of those can help you?

As for me, I have a question. What would be the Star Wars equivalent of the idiom "a light bulb went off in his head", as in suddenly having a great idea? The term "light bulb" isn't really used in-universe, and I'm not really sure what to use in its place, or if a completely different idiom would be better.