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

Mods, I have a question: I would not want a thread to be indexed anywhere in its current condition, so I sort of want half of it deleted. As in, if there are six things in it, I want to keep two and get rid of the rest; but I would also like to get rid of the replies the deleted stuff got. Is that possible?

 

If you don't want it indexed anywhere, I would put a note at the top of it and then contact any indexer that may have done so and state that you would like it unindexed.

As for the story (I hope I understood your question correctly), you can edit out anything you don't want since we have unlimited edit time in fanfic, but we can't delete other people's replies to those posts.

 

Can at least the bits they quoted be removed? One of the stories was conceived in a very early stage of planning my epic, a lot of things changed since then and basically, those quotes are...false.

 

Yeah, we can do that. PM me links to the posts with the quoted parts you want removed.

 

I was just playing with the idea of a really, really humongous asteroid field that stretches over an area larger then many star systems and I am a bit uncertain how to explain how big it is. Part of the problem is that I don't want to be exact, since hard numbers are not good for space operas.

I was thinking about just writing something along the line of it being 1.000/10.000 stellar leagues long since we don't really know how long a 'stellar league' is so do people just get an idea of it being big. What do people think?

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There is supposed to be many different findsmen sects among the gands, do we have any idea what kind of names those different sects have and/or how they get them? Fanon is as good as canon

 

should the last chapter in the first book of a series be labeled as an epilogue or simply chapter # ? Which way is the proper way?

 

An epilogue is generally something that takes place away from the central narrative but still tangentially related. If it's not that, have it be Chapter X.

 

Gamiel

Does "******* huge" sound too much like what would be said on Earth?

So many tbings on Earth use the size of a country, eg. "The size of Wales".

You could use an equivalent area of space, eg. Hutt Space, or the Centrality.

Asteroid ocean.

"Hutt Space if someone ran through it with a hammer."

"This is why we do not take school trips to Rakatan-era superweapons, People! You don't know what they are going to press."

Hyperspace Barrier Reef.

How about star cluster?

 

I mean you can make up whatever you want for your stories, Gamiel, but what you describe...kind of violates the basic laws of stellar physics. Might want to take a step back and evaluate what you're trying to create here, because I'm having trouble seeing how it would work, let alone being described.

 

And? This is space opera we are dealing with, not some kind of NASA sponsored thing that have to appear realistic.

What about "The White archipelago was an really humongous asteroid field that stretched out from the unknown regions for at least 1000 space leagues, taking up more space then two, not to large, star systems. and that was just the part of it in known space."?

You know, I think that is a rather good way to describe what I am after. Unless somebody give me something better I think I keep it.

 

Surprisingly enough, it's simply "music player" or "music box."

 

@Gamiel--
Just a small reader suggestion: using "really humongous" as a descriptive feels... Well... Lazy. It's kinda like saying in a story that a person was "really tall" or "very tall". To quote Dead Poets Society; " So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays."

 

So my people- suggestions on how to make a lightsaber battle feel more fluid- descriptive enough without overloading the reader with details. Especially since there are potentially two povs involved. Any suggestion would be great. Thanks!

 

While I'm no John Woo, I have learned a thing or two about writing fight scenes, both with weapons and without. The first thing you're going to want to do is pick a POV and stick with it for, if not the entire fight, then at least one contiguous stage of it (e.g. the first half, or until one opponent gains the upper hand). Second, try to have a working knowledge of the styles involved (e.g. the seven forms of lightsaber combat, etc.), including strengths, weaknesses, and how they fare against other styles (for example, the Ep. III novelization describing how Soresu was good against such and such, while Makashi was weak against so and so). Third, know beforehand what style each character will use, and try to pick one that generally goes well with said characters' personality (Dooku with Makashi, Obi-Wan with Soresu, et. al.). Fourth, pick the setting with care and know what the environment may be used for by one or both of the fighters to gain an advantage over another (e.g., are there any loose rocks/crates/machines strewn about? will weather be a factor?).

And it never hurts to watch fight scenes from movies that you like, while at the same time imagining seeing them expressed in words before your eyes.

 

Watch sword fighting and lightsaber battles from the films, for sure.

I want to add reading some snippets from action books or fanfic. Then you can see what does and doesn't work. One other thing I really recommend is looking up some terms from Earth martial arts or fighting styles as well as terms from the Wook. It's helped me a lot in figuring out the right terms, how to describe them.

Some people believe storyboarding helps. I personally just write with a few goals in mind.

 

DarthIshtar wrote a great guide to lightsaber duels. You can find it on the TF.N FanFic Archive here: Duels for Dummies

 

Overboard4aFel You can post a snippet of your scene in this thread so that other users can help you "fix" the writing without committing to beta your whole fic. That's all I have to offer, because lightsaber duels are not my strongest suit (I've actually never written one )

 

I actually choreographed a fight scene, acting it out with a friend who is really into martial arts. I found I couldn't write it clearly until I physically felt what the moves would feel like. Also, check out YouTube videos of fights or duels.
Ironically, Writing action requires you to slow the action down. It's an exploding moment. The trick to realism is in the details.

 

There is supposed to be many different findsmen sects among the gands, do we have any idea what kind of names those different sects have and/or how they get them? Findswoman, TrakNar

Is something like "The White archipelago was an humongously big asteroid field that stretched out from the unknown regions for at least 1000 space leagues, taking up more space then two, not to large, star systems. and that was just the part of it in known space." better?

 

Gamiel I haven't seen anything official, either. However, there were sects that focused on various sciences and not every sect did the chemical baths.

 

A little... Maybe some thing more like "The White Archipelago was a vastly expansive asteroid field that radiated out of the Unknown Regions for thousands of lightyears, according to last count. Many scientists calculated that the Archipelago likely expanded far beyond, into reaches even further than had been discovered."

It just feels a bit... young. That's a problem I have been trying hard to correct in my writing, which probably makes me a bit more likely to be sensitive to it. All just suggestions...

 

Gamiel

"A vast sea of rocks, the result of some unknown cataclysm."

 

Then how do you name findsmen sects in your fanon? Do you have a method or just use what sounds good?

What do you mean with "young"?

Not what I am looking for right now but it could be a good summary when a character describes it.