Deus Ex Machina Discussion Thread

I've been at these boards for a long time now. Don't let my registration date fool you, I've gone by other names. I use to be pretty active under these other names, but that is long in the past.

But enough about pointless talk about me, onto the topic at hand. Why I mention the above is because of the nature of the fan fiction forum, and how it has changed over time. It's probably more popular then ever before, yet I see a glaring lack of serious Round Robin stories.

When I see a RR, it is almost always humor-based. Having funny RRs is fine and good, but the dreadful lack of serious RRs brings great sorrow to my heart. A few years back, the fan fiction forum was bursting with such stories; now they come around once in a blue moon (probably less).

Therefore, I pose two questions to members who frequent this forum.

Firstly, any thoughts on why we have this black hole in serious fan fiction stories?

And secondly, would some fellow writers out there like to get together and start one up? Summer time is coming round after all, and its the summer of Star Wars.

 

Hm... would probably depend on what time frame it is set in. I can't stand NJO-era, for example.

I do try to temper my regular stories with humor, but by and large "action/adventure" is the bone and blood of Star Wars, and always my main focus.

Perhaps one of the problems about "serious" Round Robins is that you sort of need a common plot outline that you're following. Lots of RR's start off with a concept, but no clue how to get to a dramatic conclusion, and the next thing you know...

 

I agree completely, Mistress Renata.

Firstly, I also can't stand NJO, so that wouldn't be a problem. Let me briefly describe how I like Round Robins to be run.

I have been in both incredibly structured ones, and those without structure at all.

I personally find a happy medium works best. The RRs that have every post planned out are silly. Likewise, I find that even planning out the entire plot destroys the unique aspect about writing RRs in the first place.

I find that before the story starts, a few plans about what the story is about need to be decided upon, but nothing too detailed. This includes the characters of course, which need to be well fleshed out by their respective creators. As well, an idea of where the story is going is obviously needed.

From that point however, I enjoy the flexibility. As long as the general premise of the story isn't drastically disrupted, being creative is great.

I also strongly believe in seperate threads (or even a seperate message board) dedicated to discussion about any and all aspects of the story.

On the humor issue, I also would have to agree. Obviously humor is fine, but like the movies themselves, I feel it shouldn't be central to the story.

These are my personal preferences of course; what I've found works best for me.

 

Hmm.. serious round-robins (or "pass-the-stick" stories, as I always referred to them) are fun. Most of the time. I've been running an OT-era one on www.mecantina.com under "The Cantina", thread "pass-the-stick".
I'll join in, depending on the timeframe and theme

 

I'd be interested in hearing more of your ideas, even though I must be crazy to even consider committing myself to another round robin. I can't help being intrigued, though, despite the fact that I myself am guilty of posting in "silly" round robins. I can be quite serious, though.

I don't know anything about the NJO and therefore can't have an opinion of it, but I've recently developed a very healthy appreciation for Rogue and Wraith Squadron, and of course the Jedi have long been a favourite of mine. What did you have in mind?

 

This is true. I'm actually working on a humor round robin right now, with some of the best authors I know. I'm having a great time.

However, I do agree that there is a lack of "serious" round robins, and if I see one on the boards, I wouldn't hesitate to join. There's probably nothing better than writing with a group of authors.

 

I would agree, DF, writing with a group of authors is great.

I'm happy with the support so far. It looks like we may actually have a chance to create a serious RR.

When it comes to timeframe, I really like the freedom one has in the prequel and pre-prequel eras. Personally, I love anything Jedi or Sith. Without a doubt, it's my favorite aspect of Star Wars.

The difficulty in doing a RR with Jedi is that rarely are there more then two to four together at any one time, excluding the Temple of course. But an RR with a focus inside the Jedi Temple would lack that action adventure focus that we all know and love in Star Wars.

Of course, if there are only about three or fewer others interested, we could do something like this, but a group a bit larger would be nice.

I've actually been contemplating the idea of an RR focusing on a mercenary group.

What intrigues me about this idea is the characters that might come out of it. Mercenaries by nature fall into that "neither good or bad" category which gives them an interesting uniqueness. They all work for money, but the way they see their job, and galaxy in general is often extremely different. I could see a lot of creative flexibility with this concept.

I'm not sure whether this idea would be too popular though. People often don't like focusing on characters that aren't immediately identifiable as good or evil, but are often somewhere in between.

Thoughts?

 

Orrr... if you want to get more than one Jedi together at the same time, and if you have authors who are really on the ball and paying attention to each other, you rough out a plot line (without being too specific) that has X different groups of Jedi on their own specific missions, and the missions are drawing together at a thrilling climax because they are all originated by the same Mastermind. It's not until maybe 1/2 way through, as the Jedi start to encounter each other that they realize the spice smuggling operation is linked to the Ambassador's murder is linked to the gang riots on Hyacin, is related to...

See what I mean? A serious challenge, but not impossible, and with plenty of scope for non-Jedi characters as well.

Okay. Got company, gotta go.

I agree on most points; planning threads or sharing e-mails is critical to make this kind of thing work...

 

Planning threads? Bah -- where I come from, we just "wing" it.

As for the timeframe... if I were to pick one, I'd say "original trilogy-era" -- I'm not too big of a fan of the Jedi/Sith (I'm watching Ep2 for the action/plot/characters, not for the Jedi ). I DO have one fanfic in the works that has a Jedi (kinda), and 2 others that feature 'em, but other than that, I try to avoid the Jedi. If I want to read about Jedi, I'll pick up my NJO books.

 

A most interesting idea, Mistress_Renata. I'd be more than willing to write in such a RR, though I don't have enough time to post more often than once or twice a week

 

A mercenary group, huh? Could/Would they have connections to the Jedi and/or the Sith?

I like Renata's idea about connecting everything.

I'm more and more intrigued, but like Lordban, I wouldn't be able to contribute more than one or two posts a week if I joined.

 

Yep, a mercenary group would be fun, with 1/2 Jedi included and - perhaps even trickier but very funny - the plot mastermind is one of the main characters, though it's not shown until the climax.

 

I love writing in RR's, but one of the biggest problems I see (besides the humor thing ) is the lack of structure in the story, and the dedication of the writers.

I recognize that too much plotting of the stoy can spoil the creative genius of the writers, but if there is no direction at all it is chaos and makes absolutly no sense. There is no idea where the story is going, how it's going to end etc...

I hate that.

Then there are the writers who sign up, saying that they are dedicated writers and that they can post regularly... but then they NEVER post! I can totally sympathize with those writers who have been working on the RR for a while and they suddenly get writers block bad and cannot think of anything whatsoever to post. I have that sometimes too... Or those who can only post once in awhile (BUT THEY STILL POST!) ... but it comes back to those who say they'll post and never do. And it happens over and over again! The same author signs up and they never start posting or they get halfway through the RR and quit!

Errr... will a solution to this problem never be found.

Then back to the original subject (Long post, I know, I'm sorry). Humorous RR. I agree with everything that's already been said. However they ARE entertaining when you're not in the mood to read a cannon-like RR. But there are a serious lack of well planned, executed RR. Not to mention ones that actually have the possibility of being finished.

BTW, Renata, that's a good idea you have. Do you just think those things up out of the blue??

 

BTW, Renata, that's a good idea you have. Do you just think those things up out of the blue??

Well, pretty much. I think I distill things, really. Something from the newspaper, something from a history book, a chance remark from a friend, a TV commercial, a long commute with no library books to occupy my mind so the ideas all percolate...and WHAM! Plot bunny!

Either that or I'm channeling Yoda.

So? Anyone going to dive in? Jaden, it's your baby...

 

Good posts all. I'm happy there is some constructive thinking going on. It's definitely a good sign that we are onto something.

An interesting idea, Renata, certainly. Of course as you say, it will be difficult to pull off, especially with a group of people. As well, we would probably need quite a lot of structure so that different story threads actually do meet.

When the idea of a lot of non-Jedi characters involved as well came up, I was immediately thinking the same as Lordban.

It would be interesting to have a person, or a few that are on the whole master-mind side of things. As mentioned, one of us playing the puppet master him/herself would be very interesting. This way, a constant story would be told from both perspectives, and the characters could play off each other. This would also reduce the extended planning we would have to do, because we'd just be constantly e-mailing, or posting, discussing where we're going to go with the story.

I'd actually be up for creating a message board specifically for that purpose. For an RR I had awhile ago, I made one, so another would be no problem.

So, the question is who would be up for this? Timeframe would obviously be prequel or pre-prequel, but for those who don't like focusing on Jedi, other options would definitely be open as I mentioned above. Third party perspectives are even a possibility.

Thoughts?

 

I'm up for this... and starting a message board for this sounds like an interesting proposal. Hmmm....

 

I'm up too

 

I'd like to find out more before committing myself permanently.

 

I'd be interested to see where it goes. I'll be on two week's hiatus in August for summer vacation, but otherwise, barring accidents/injuries/another computer meltdown, probably free. Depending on how many authors get involved, 2-3 posts per person per week would be extremely healthy. If we get up to 6 people, one per week would be good, too.

I'd rather do prequel era, myself. Character depends on... depends. Maybe Jedi. Maybe not. Also, are all authors going to know who the criminal mastermind is from the outset?

Message board definitely. Though this thread can serve until something else is decided.

*ponder, ponder, ponder...*

 

Alright, we have two people in, and two still deciding. Six or more total would definitely be a nice, healthy number.

As for final details, I'll get them down ASAP. But I encourage people to continue to throw ideas around. I want this to be a real group effort, not just "my baby".

And anyone else who wants to sign up, or is even considering it, let your voice be heard!

 

I vote for prequal era too... and as for the characters... maybe we could have a 'good guy' group and a 'bad guy' group. The bad being part of the master mind plot, and the good trying to be the people who figure out what is happening... but they don't really know what is going on until futher into the story. We could start it out by having posts that have no connection whatsoever to each other and you only find out that they do later in the story.

Kinda like Tom Clancy style (if you know what I mean)

Edit: Thanks Lordban for catching that... I really should start looking at my posts for typos...

 

Or "Clancy"

Prequel era seems a good idea to me ; anyways I'd go for the idea that everyone should know who's writing the mastermind, it'll prevent stepping on that character's toes accidentally.

 

Just a wild idea here. I never actually saw the film "The Star Chamber", with Michael Douglas, but I heard the basic premise. Anyway, what about a group of mercenaries which are secretly controlled by someone in the Senate (or even in the Jedi Order) who go out and "eliminate" anything that gets in the way of that particular person's politics? Except that the orders go through a middleman and are disguised so that nobody knows, not even the mercenaries? Just a series of interesting coincidences that eventually add up enough to make someone else suspicious?

 

Jane Jinn,

That's eerie. You hit the same basic idea as I did, almost exactly. Ah well, at least we know we're on the same page.

I was considering tying this RR in with Episode II, but that may not be a great idea. I'm a spoiler nut who hangs out in the AOTC spoiler forum, but some of you probably don't. As well, the fan fiction forum doesn't allow spoilers if I am correct.

Though the movie is opening in one month. Always something we can think about. Who is familar with details about Episode II, just out of curiosity?

Somewhat along these lines, I was kicking around the idea of this RR telling the tale of the battle between the Mandalorians (who are a mercenary group) and the Jedi. But again, it would have ties with Episode II for sure, even though it would take place long before Episode I. We may be better off going completely original.

Still, I thought I'd throw that out and see you guys have to say about it.

 

I know what all the costumes look like... and I've read through most of the Visual dictionary... then there are a few other tidbits that seem to reach me... but I try to stay away from spoilers. I can't help it if they find me

I vote for something completely original. And I was thinking, what if we've got the mercenary group, some Jedi, the master mind, and how about a hapless bystander that gets involved. A character that is really different, not something seen in fanfiction a lot.

Ooo.. and I just had another idea, what if we loosly based some kind of scandal on the whole Enron thing? That way there is a touch of realism.