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

Both. I'm not too much into the idea of sleeper ships, so hyperspace travel would have to exist for planets to be colonised, and I already decided that anyone engaging in a hyperspace trip would have to forego contacts with home for the duration of their journey. I'm not too sure how to handle intra-system travel though, or travels within the same sector.

 

what I think: (Martyavidianus here, btw)

hyperspace should be a new invention during the time you are working with.

Although in 4000 hears technology seemed to have stayed the same in the star wars universe.

sw engines are definitely not steam powered or nuclear powered. look at the engine of falcon and the executor. Some kind of light is generated. I don't know, fission?

 

Chyntuck I suggest:

* No blasters, people fight with slugthrowers and close combat weapons

* Artificial gravity is usually created by centripetal force.

* Travel between planets in the same system should be like traveling between Europe and America around 1900.

* Since it is harder to find and the travel to naturally liveable planets there should probably more colonise on dead planets or planets that are liveable but harsh. (If you want suggestions on how to make a planet liveable but harsh do I have some ideas)

* If I remember right so was it mentioned somewhere that one of the early hyperspace travelling civilizations used hyperspace canons to propel their ships through hyperspace, which could explain why it is considered a one way trip, you need a hyperspace canon on the other end to send ships back.

* If you can get your hands on it, I suggest looking at: Space: 1999; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Avatar; Elysium; - for some ideas for technology.

* At the same time I also think at least some areas should be more old school Planetary Romance, like the John Carter series.

* Most ships use sun sails. and should proboly look more archaic (maybe like Nautilus from the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movie (1954))

 

what about "Drive" (The Expanse short story) (2012) by James S.A. Corey as a reference?
It 's basically a new drive fuel system that can be faster than light. Not quite hyperspace, but fast.
you can also make communication systems not reaching the distance required. Or sabotage.

 

I'd also suggest that hyperspace travel is still slower than 'modern' GFFA travel. If Han Solo can make the trip from the Alderaan system to Yavin in, say, 8 hours, it might take your people 3-4 days, for example. Supplies are probably more problematic, too, if the trips take longer, you need to figure out how to conserve them, lots more dried & reconstituted stuff (kind of like Rey's rations).

I like the idea of slugthrowers instead of blasters, and communications iffy. I read somewhere that in GFFA, there is a system of hyperspace relay beacons, which would relay communications as well as send out signals helping ships orient themselves in space, like GPS. If this is very early, they may not yet be in place. Your communications are spotty and may rely on carrier drones sent back along the route (like carrier pigeons). Ship to ship communication might work only if you were within range.

And no bacta! I don't remember, from The Bacta War, when it was actually discovered and widely distributed. But perhaps injuries are more frequently fatal and take longer to heal from?

Have we laid out enough obstacles for your early explorers, Chyntuck?

 

Can't really help on technology.

I like @Mistress_Renata's comment about Bacta.

You don't like the idea of sleeper ships, but if the hyperdrive gives out, an emergency suspended animation facility might be useful. Take into account whether government or private mission, as to whether that would be provided.

The original reason I opened this post though, in the Prequels, the hyperspace rings for starfighters, also generated a time field so that the traveller would not age too much during the flight; thought I would raise the possibility that that tech might not exist.

The time you are writing for, may not have all the hyperspace lanes, and planets visited, that we are used to. Maybe only the Core has been discovered and mapped.

 

I want to ask about fanfic tagging preferences

Is it recommended to tag people when you update?

Will people be upset that you tagged without permission or upset because you didn't tag them?

by tagging I mean the @ symbol

 

Completely agree with Finds. I personally find it annoying when I am tagged without my asking to be tagged. It smells like you are pimping your fic. If I am interested, I will read. If you shove it in my face, I guarantee you I will not read your fic or anything else you post.

 

I have a ship mostly crewed by women and I plane to introduce a new (female) crewmember, and that made me think about if I should have them discuss menstruation and how they deal with it. What do people think?

 

Uhhhhh, no. Absolutely not. Would your all-male crew disuss bowel movements? Women deal with it. It's just biology. We don't discuss it.

Well, I am just full of strong opinions this morning, huh.

Edit - is there a reason why the crew is all-female? Should this be considered some kind of anomaly, as crews are usually more gender balanced? Just wondering.

 

While I don't have anything against that discussion per se, Gamiel , it feels like a matter that would have been sorted out long before the mission.

As for an all male crew, while I doubt that there would be a prolonged discussion about bowel movements, I bet farts would still be funny (if it was when they were kids).

Question: Anyone know the GFFA year that the New Jedi Order finished?

 

Thanks for the ideas Gamiel DARTH_MU Mistress_Renata Sith-I-5!

One more question: what functions should droids be able to perform in such an archaic era?

What purpose would the conversation serve? If it's just as a casual conversation among women, I don't think it's necessary. If it's supposed to show something about a particular situation (e.g. the crew often find themselves in remote places where obtaining basic toiletries is difficult and often face hygiene problems) then it could make sense.

Tagging readers without permission is considered pimping your fic as per this post of the FAQ (and that's before we get to divapilot's reaction, which I completely agree with ). You can ask readers if they want to be tagged/PM-ed for updates, as Finds said above; you'll probably have volunteers too.

 

Re: Tagging. Please don't tag people when you post a new chapter (unless they have asked for it). As people have said, it's against the FAQ because it is really annoying. Though there is a few circumstances where one-time random tagging in story threads is acceptable - say if Chyntuck gave me an idea for a plot, I'd probably tag her in that one particular post.

I agree with Chyn. I'm all for addressing realities of certain situations (I'm about to write a story that involves miscarriage and it isn't going to be glossed over). But casual conversations like that (particularly if there's a new crew member) just don't happen.

 

I'm sometimes in a position to respond to feedback, at the same time that I am posting a new chapter.

Should I avoid tagging for the response to their feedback, in case they think I am tagging to pimp my latest post?

 

That's a bit of a grey area, kinda in the same vein as quoting peoples' feedback (and not deleting the post and member #s) so that they receive a notification that you have quoted their post, and then immediately posting a new chapter (because I know a lot of users, myself included, will do replies and post a new chapter all at once).

Personally, I tag/directly quote people if their comment included a legitimate question or something else I want I want to reply to. But if I'm just giving a person a "Thanks" for their feedback, I don't.

 

Thank you. That helps.

 

By some of the answers I guess I worded my question wrong, when I wrote "discuss menstruation and how they deal with it" I meant that they ask the new gal what menstrual management items she is used to and tell her what kind the crew uses. If I included it the discussion would be part of the introduction round for the new gal where they tell her about the day-to-day life on the ship and why they do what they do.

First of: it is not all-female, just mostly-female.
Second: mostly it just happened, the navigator's design was based on a picture of a women so she become a women, the captain and mechanics become women because I wanted to use one of the species that have been declared one of the older spacefaring species and I chose devaronians and then I realised that we don't often see many female devaronians that don't shave so they become female devaronians who kept their fur. I don't remember why the two last gals become female. The two other crew members become male because one of them is a warrior from a stone age culture that were not mentioned using female warriors, the other become male because... I think it was because I wanted another guy.

What I remember so are gender balanced more the exception then the rule with most spaceship having a crew of only men or mostly men with one or two women. So I guess it could be considered some kind of anomaly

Maybe I misunderstand the question but what is wrong with having an all-female crew for colours sake?
Also, there is potential coolness in having a all-female crew?

Simple tasks or only one advanced; nothing that need it to actually "think"; you could have that two legged droids are only on the experimental stage. I suggest taking a look at all the robots that are used or being tested now and more-or-less use them.

Some more suggestions for your setting:
* spaceship classes are named after pre-medieval ship types (giving it an more ancient feel)
* all larger spaceship (is not all) uses sails (might be gravity-sails, sun-sails or some other kind of sails)
* smaller ships lack artificial gravity, only large ships have it.
* use old fashion words to describe stuff, Day of the Oprichnik might give you some ideas on how to do that but I don't know since I have not read the English version but the Swedish one was good for that.

 

Gamiel, I don't think discussing tampons is water cooler material. But I'm a male, so what do I know?

 

Women would not discuss "menstrual management." That's something a mother talks with her daughter about or a sister to a sister. Please don't include it. And furthermore it may not even be an issue. Maybe your species doesn't menstrate. Maybe they are on hormonal blockers to prevent pregnancy and it suppresses menstration so it's not even an issue.

As for why an all-woman crew simply for color or coolness isn't a good idea, first it serves no point in your story (and secondly it smacks of male gaze. Do they all wear bikinis, too?) Your plot details should have a logical or cultural reason for being there. For example, maybe it's a matriarchal society and women are deemed smarter and more adventurous.

 

I'm more worried about reverse d-----

All female is worse than all male equality wise.

 

My feeling is that unless the new gal joins the ship like she is running away to join the circus, there would be a preparatory stage, like astronaut training, psychology testing; something so that the crew don't realise that they don't get along when they are already parsecs from anywhere, with just a thin skin of metal between them and certain death.

So, any conversations about menstruation should have been sorted out long before your story takes place.

The only instances I can immediately come up with why it would, out of the blue (or preferred haemoglobin colour), become a conversational issue in-flight, would be if a crewmember was not already the adult version of her species, like Kes in Star Trek: Voyager, or a Lahsbee in the SW comics.

Or, to use divapilot 's example above, if the onboard supply of hormone blockers ran out / got destroyed / got flushed into space / or otherwise became unavailable / got left behind.

 

I think I'm going to participate in the OTP crack! ship competition. So, do people think Ciena Rhee (new Canon Young Adult book, Lost Stars trilogy?) and Luke? Is that a regular OTP or would it be considered crack!ship?

 

That would sound crack! to me, as Ms Rhee doesn't sound like she is in Luke's orbit / social circle.