The Official TFN Archive Thread: Jan update!

Update, May 9, 2010:

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Happy Mother's Day! This month we celebrate the moms of the Star Wars universe.


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The Prodigal Son by geo3
How does a mother let her child go?

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The Eternal Cord by Tahi
When a mother loses her child, the pain is unbearable - as Leia discovers only too well. And yet, as every mother knows, there is an enduring bond that nothing - not even the grave - can destroy.

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The Handmaiden's Gift by Gina
On her Fifth Lifeday, Princess Leia receives a special gift from a mysterious member of the Organa household.

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Empty by DarthIshtar
Inspired by the ending scenes of ROTS, this is the story of why Bail and his Queen "always talked about adopting a baby girl."

Who's your favorite mother? Vote in our poll.

Beru Lars
Breha Organa
Jobal Naberrie
Leia Organa-Solo
Mara Jade-Skywalker
Morrigan Corde
Nomi Sunrider
Padmé Skywalker
Shmi Skywalker
Tenel Ka Chume Ta' Djo

 

Update, June 15, 2010:

This month we are proud to present a new fic!

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A Friendly Game of Chance by Darth Praxus
My tribute to L. Neil Smith's Lando Calrissian novels, this story tells how Lando got the credits for a new starship after he lost the ''Millennium Falcon'' to Han.

We'd also like to take time this month to remind authors of some rules to keep in mind while using the betareader mailing list:

• The list is for Star Wars fan fiction only. No other fandoms or original fiction is allowed.
• No sexually explicit (i.e. PWP, smut, lemons, etc) fics are allowed
• Authors are not allowed to use the list to distribute their story (i.e. send the story as an attachment or paste the whole story in the body of the email). Summaries only, please.

Any request that is found in violation of these rules will be deleted and not forwarded to the betareader list.

 

Update, July 31, 2010:

This July was a sad month for Star Wars fanfic.

On July 16th we lost author RebelMom, Cheryl, to a massive stroke following a minor surgical procedure. She is survived by her two sons and husband. Our hearts and prayers go out to both her family and friends in this most devastating time.

Mom, as she was often known on the JC, first joined the site in April of 2000. She became a member of our Archive soon after it opened in 2001. She was known for encouraging new authors, being a loyal reader and commenter on many stories, and writing many fantastic stories herself. She is the winner of seven JC Fanfic Awards. She was also a regular attendee of the Celebration Conventions and a member of her local Fan Force chapter in Tucson, Az. Much to our delight, in addition to her fics posted on the JC, RebelMom has left us with four archived stories.

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Joy to Sorrow
A first-person Amidala vignette chronicling the loss of a child.

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Mirror Manifest
During her honeymoon, Mara meets a familiar woman in a mysterious manner and learns information important to her husband, and herself.

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Shackled Past
This alternate version of Luke and Mara's romance centers around the lasting effects of past love, the emergence of a new enemy and the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the former Mrs. Skywalker.

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No Greater Love
Luke and Leia's last mission together ends in tragedy.

 

Also, let it be known that Cheryl was a founding member of Mos Everett Fan Force in 2002 - the remaining original members were proud to be there to say "Goodbye for now" today.

 

Update, September 19, 2010:

The end of summer presents us with two new stories.


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Veil of Shadows by Viari Skywalker
A strange tale where the good guys are bad, the Empire has won, and a Sith adept pursues the girl of his nightmares.

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The End of the Beginning by Andraya
How does the galaxy react to the official news of the death of Emperor Palpatine?

And a new poll:
How familiar are you with fanzines?

I don't know what they are
I wrote in/published 'zines in their heyday
I read/collected 'zines in their heyday
I read/collect old 'zines now, but didn't know about them when they were being published
I know about them, but have never actually seen one

 

Ah, fanzines. Since one editor gave a free copy to anyone who submitted a longer story or two short stories to an issue, I have a stack of ones that I've contributed to and another stack of ones that I just inherited. Sometimes, I miss getting those in the mail.

 

Update, October 30, 2010:

Happy Halloween, fanficcers!


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Star Wars: Redemption by WookieeLiberationFront
During the Galactic Civil War, two Wookiees, from different backgrounds, are put through similar circumstances during the height of Empirical oppression. One finds solace in the darkside, one finds hope with the lightside. Makaashyya comes into conflict with her very being after losing everything. The darkside consumes her, and she is corrupted into helping the very entity that destroyed her life. Echobe never had much to begin with, and what he did have was taken from him by the Empire, but the hate doesn't rule him. He fights back, in search of his missing parents, trying to help his people he once neglected . Eventually, these two Wookiee meet, and with Echobe's and his pet rancor, Bilebelch's help, Makaashyya is able to fight her demons and put an end to what she helped create.

 

Anything new to report?

 

Everyone is in turkey comas.

There have been stories coming into the queue so I'm sure we'll have an update soon. I'll drop a note in the reviewers' forum that you've asked. It's just been a little more than 30 days since the last one and the editors are good at keeping up on this stuff.

Please, anyone wanting to submit, get them in. We're always looking for good reads. (I'm looking at all you NaNoWriMo people. Clean 'em up and get 'em in! We know you've been writing.)

 

I've got several fics that I need to submit, but here's a question for staff in general: A former editor told me that one particular story might have a chance of getting in except it's very long. Could I break it into several parts and submit the whole thing, but post each part on its own?

 

I'm just a little confused by this, Ish; length is not a detriment when it comes to archival. We have quite a few very lengthy stories in the Archive. The only issue there is that it's going to take longer than usual for two reviewers to get through a particularly long story?depending on the length of the story and RL time constraints for the reviewers in question, sometimes substantially longer, and all the more so should a very long story wind up as a split decision that an editor must then read and decide upon. Bottom line: if you have a long story, it can be submitted intact. All we ask is patience during the reviewing period.

If you want to split your story up for other reasons and submit it as such, this bit from the Archive guidelines seems applicable:

All stories submitted to the Archive must be complete at the time of submission. Please consider submitting long pieces singularly, even if they have distinct movements. If you have planned a trilogy or other multi-part form, and it is artistically necessary for there to be separation between sections, submit all parts simultaneously, and they will be reviewed by the same reviewers, and treated as a single entity -- accepted or rejected as a whole -- then archived serially if you so wish. Multipart stories should be no more than six installments.

A sequel differs from a multipart story in that, while the sequel continues a story begun elsewhere, it is not necessary to it. If you've written a story which you later decide to write a sequel for, the sequel would be submitted separately and judged on its own merits, as any other individual story.

Does that answer your question, or have I missed something?

 

Okay. I just wasn't sure. It's several hundred pages in length, 365,000 words total and took a lot of time to have people beta at all! Mostly I was looking to see if splitting it up would make it less unwieldy/something the Archive would consider as an alternative to the marathon read.

 

Ask and you shall receive, I'll start small though, I'd like to get a better understanding of the process before sending in something of novel length.

 

Mechalich, I think small is a good way to start.

Ish, I think Gabri covered it well. As someone who has reviewed long fics and had one archived I'll add a little more perspective. These are volunteers reviewing so it's hard to ask someone to commit time to review (not just read) a really long story. For that reason the long stories sit in the queue for a while, then it can take the reviewer a while to complete the task. Also going into that consideration is if it's even a story reviewers are inclined to read. My long story, which was no where near the length your talking, took almost 9 months to get through the process. I've reviewed some longer stuff and when I take those long stories that means I'm out of pocket for helping out with shorter stuff until I finish the long commitment. The last long story I reviewed took me a solid month and I had to almost make a schedule to keep myself moving on the story. Not every reviewer has the time or inclination.

So you need to ask yourself how important it is to get that story archived. The archive is a great tool to get seen but it is reasonable to ask, as an author, "will this benefit me enough?" or "Would I get more enjoyment/satisfaction from spending that time writing something else?" It comes down to how important it is to you to be archived I guess.

 

Yeah. I've had ten-page fics be reviewed after 6 months or 200-page ones reviewed after a month. It's hard to tell. I'll just submit and get on with life until someone gets back to me.

 

Update, December 13, 2010:

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Your Father's Lightsaber
Mara Jade takes an unwanted vacation and reflects upon the gift Luke Skywalker gave her four years ago.

In staff news, we are sad to announce the retirement of reviewer TKeira_Lea. Please join us in giving her our heartfelt farewells!

 

Thanks for the hard work.

 

This place has its ten year birthday this year.

Wow.

Planning a party??

 

Update, January 31, 2011:

Happy New Year!

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Way of the Master by scameter
Darth Maul is sent on a mission of galactic consequence.

 

Stopping by to wish the Archive a Happy Ten Year Birthday. (A few days late.)

And many more.

 

Hey, I've been having trouble getting a hold of the Archive editors for the last several weeks. I finally got a reply two weeks ago, but nothing since.

So, I'm just stopping by to ask... Anybody home?

 

Something funny...

I've been hanging around screenwriting websites and screenwriting competition sites here lately, and I stumbled onto the Nicholl Fellowship website, which is the largest and most prestigious screenwriting competition. On there the contest runners post about how the contest is run, how the entries are distributed to the readers, how they try to get reader preferences and assign entries based on that, and how some entries were resubmitted the next year and got high placements with different judges. It's all about how subjective the process is...

It reminded me of here! So, those trying to submit to the archive, it seems that juried contests everywhere are run a lot like this place is, and the problems are universal.