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

I have a recollection, I'm not sure what book it was - I think the one that has Leia and Chewie traveling together for a while? Was that The Crystal Star? - where Leia is trying to be undercover and has created an elaborate fake transponder (or whatever transmits the name of the ship to other ships/stations), but someone points out that she failed to cover up the printed name on the outside of her ship (the Alderaan). Does that ring any bells with anyone else?

 

Maybe it varies by culture, too. Say, Alderaan and Chandrila have their names on the ships, but Corellia wouldn't (given the propensity to piracy and smuggling and the need to become anonymous), and neither does Naboo (aesthetics, looks ugly).

 

Investigations of past events are really good ideas, and if it a canon event, it can be a good way to get your OCs into canon events.

For example, my name, Sith-I-5, is short for a Jedi-sponsored team - Sith Investigations 5 - that I had investigating the Darth Maul, Qui-Gonn, Obi Wan incident within the Theed power facility.

It is a great concept, especially if you are into cop shows and police procedurals.

From the Brian Daley' Han Solo trilogy, and one of the earliest Guide to the Star Wars Universe, all spaceships have an automated system called a telesponder that interrogates its counterpart on other ships, to receive the names and basic details.

Han falsified one, so that the Millennium Falcon transmitted its name as the Sunfighter Franchise.

I don't know when that technology was developed, but older ships, especially those launched with a lot of pomp and ceremony, I can imagine they could have names painted on their hulls, or different colour hull plating used.

For all that some people disparage the Prequels, far as I remember, that was the first time we encountered cruisers that were not just a dull grey or off-white colour, eg. the Venators with their red upper hulls, and the diplomatic burgundy colour applied to the Consular-class cruisers.

Was Leia's blockade runner retconned with a band of colour, as I cannot remember seeing any in ANH...?

 

A bit of a random question here, but does anyone make family trees for their characters including genetic information that is used for some aspect in the story and not just background notes?

 

That might be fun! I use familyechoDOTcom for regular genealogy, so why not for a fic?

 

I do most of my writing via discovery writing (Stephen King's method). So, I think I made family trees once, but they did not contain "genetic" info. I just make up their looks as I type.

 

I meant more when you already have their looks made up. For example, say a character is force-sensitive. I would consider it either heredity or something random, but either way I would map it out on a family tree to have a better idea who has it or will have it and to what degree. Same with any other characteristic like height, etc. I dunno, I think it's just kind of fun to do

 

Wow, that's going in depth. Like dropping a submersible into the Mariners' Trench, deep!

 

Chyntuck if you need more suggestions regarding Force traditions, I have some if you are interested

 

gizkaspice That definitely sounds good fun! I realised when I saw your question that I haven't ever developed my characters' ancestry; as a matter of fact most of them don't even have families (in the sense that I hardly ever mention their family members, not that they're necessarily orphans/foundlings). I need to experiment with that!

Gamiel Thanks! I think I'm covered, or mostly covered for now. There are only so many Force-worshipping groups you can include in a single story before it becomes completely byzantine I may need more ideas of names in the future though; I'll PM you if and when I get there.

 

Have we seen any female karkarodon?

 

I don't think so Gamiel. Riff Tamson appears to be the only named Karkarodon in both Canon and Legends, and I don't remember seeing any that could be identified as female in the corresponding TCW arc. I don't think they appear anywhere else.

 

Oh, that’s interesting. For some reason, I assumed more people do it to some extent. It’s definitely a lot of fun and helps flesh out who the characters are. For me, ancestry is often a central part of the story so making a family tree just helps keep track of it all.

I haven’t really watched TCW, but there seems to be some unidentified ones as well. There isn’t much species information about them, but since they’re based on sharks it would make sense actually having females larger than males.

 

Love it. Great idea. Given that the ship in question is a pre-Empire Star Destroyer (which, I'm guessing, used the transponder method), I found a way around the question by inserting a section from the captain's point of view to remind readers who it was that was attacking the good guys. But, as Tarsier and Sith-I-5 pointed out, transponders/telesponders are the standard. So I may use that on the majority of Republic/pre-Empire vessels and go with @Mistress_Renata's idea when looking for more "local-system flavor."

 

Although I have a core OC family group, all the younger generation are / were adopted, either to bypass Order 66, or a post-rescue circumstance.

 

Random question: if you know the word "bimaristan", please raise your hand.

(It's a RL word that I want to use in a fic because it just sounds so bloody cool, but if a lot of people know it I'll go for something else.)

 

I hade to look it up but it is the Persian word meaning "hospital", right?

 

I cheated and used google.
define bimaristan
Gamiel! Now you ruined Chyntuck's question!

 

Yup, it means hospital I take it you never heard it before, since you both googled it?

 

Yep, never heard of it before

 

Never heard of it, either, neat word!

 

"And I'm with you too!"

...in having never heard of it.

I hazarded that it might be two maristans...whatever they were.

 

Never heard of it either. It is very exotic sounding.

 

Chyntuck ok fine it's a hospital...

...or it could be a fictional country on the northwestern side of Kazakhstan: Bimaristan. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and most of the other -stan countries are already over there, so it works, yeah?

 

gg