?Once Upon A Time... A Galaxy!!? - Writing STAR WARS Fan Fiction

Okay... something I've not seen discussed here that I recall.

We're all here to write STAR WARS fanfic, right...

So, how, exactly, do we make our fanfic STAR WARS?!

Discuss...?

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Use canon characters?

That's a good question, actually, especially for people who write OCs and like to use original worlds, environments, that kind of thing.

I suppose it's really hard to draw the line between "original" fic and "Star Wars" fic. Especially if you're able to write a great story without referencing Jedi, Sith, Force, Naboo, Solo, smuggler...

I think what makes a Star Wars fic a Star Wars fic is that, even if it's a new setting, and one that could theoretically exist in another scifi/fantasy fandom, there's just something about it that's immediately recognised as "Star Wars." I couldn't tell you what that is right now, but it's just sort of that feeling that this is taking place in the GFFA.

An interesting question is, do purely Star Wars plots exist?

 

For me, there's two reasons to fanfic no matter what the genre is. First is love of canon characters, and second's the drive to explore the 'world' created.

However when I've done the latter, I have gotten into debates whether it's true fanfiction because I rarely if ever use canon characters when I'm delving into the 'world'.

The way I look at is that if the universe is just as rich and vibrant as the characters, it's just as valid to explore as it is to go into different facets of the characters we've grown to love.

One of the wip fics I've got slowly taking shape (Lordy that's starting to really pile up with a .doc here and there *laughs)is involving the earliest times of when the assorted mystics started gathering to form the fledgeling Jedi order.

Some would concider that not true fanfic while others would start prodding me to write faster on it.

 

Write stuff that isn't just on one planet, one species.

 

I think using elements of Star Wars plays a great part in this. I don't mean, necessarily, canon characters. There's billions and billions of lifeforms in the Star Wars galaxy alone.

Using original characters, settings, etc is great. I do it a lot. What makes it Star Wars for me are the themes, the way things come together, the elements of the universe around them. For example, you don't have to be the Pope or a member of the Roman Arch Dioses to be a Catholic. By the same token, a Jedi on the planet Rubascrub (yes, that's intentionally ridiculous!) doesn't have to be Yoda's former padawan, or even a member of the Coruscant Temple. Corellian ships are sold galaxy wide. You can be an Ithorian and fly a Corellian light stock freighter YT-1300.

There are little things that permeate the Star Wars universe that make it what it is, and they're things that are universal throughout every place you can imagine in it. Using the above example, if you walk into a friend's house, if you see a crucifix hanging over the door, chances are he's Catholic, even if you didn't know that before. If you see the hannuka candlelabra in the window and a Star of David laying around, he may be Jewish. These are details you notice without being beat upside the head with them.

Just a little ramble on the subject

 

What makes it Star Wars for me are the issues, the setting, and an insane dose of attention to keeping it all coherent - even when writing an AU, I try to integrate it into the rest of the Star Wars continuity I am aware of as best I can

 

I write Star Wars fanfic for Ewoks!





They make good stew

 

Speciesist. Gungans make much better gumbo ingredients.

 

Both make better cooks than Luke - he left Vader on the barbecue for more than twenty years and still has not return to take him off the fire

 

Stormtrooper pies! Stormtrooper pies! Will anybody buy my stormtrooper pies!

Right, that's that thread derailed.

*opens up a local branch of Shadeleader & McEwok*

A free bar of Borskolate for everyone!!

Seriously, though - is this, in some way, STAR WARS?

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Hmmm... I don't know...

For one thing, even among soft-scifi, Star Wars is rather unique...

For another, the whole good vs. evil thing is very well defined... Recently scifi seems to be all about the nihilism...

I'll think on this over the weekend...

 

According to Karen Traviss there will be Ewok stew in the books to come, so yes, this is Star Wars.

With that said, writing Star Wars fanfiction for me is reproducing this moment - 1977, an opening scroll followed by a speck of engines powering the Tantive being chase by a enormous-humongous-gynormando Star Destroyer

*jaw drops*

I was hooked.

If only once I can make my readers feel like that, then I will be a happy Star Wars fanfiction writer

 

DarthIshtar: Write stuff that isn't just on one planet, one species.



Words to live by, and I couldn't agree more.


JD.

 

I think it's just by adopting and integrating all of the things that make the OT so great. The mythic tie-ins (battle between good and evil) that are tempered by the crazy action and the one-liners and the romance. There's also the issue of transformation of characters...Vaderkin's redemption, Han going from being a selfish mercenary to a dedicated patriot. Luke getting to the point where he's not so whiney. The great contrast of all the planets. Those moments where you're really not sure they're all gonna make it.

You know. All the things that made us fall in love with the movies in the first place.

Thoughts?

[EDIT] With that said, writing Star Wars fanfiction for me is reproducing this moment - 1977, an opening scroll followed by a speck of engines powering the Tantive being chase by a enormous-humongous-gynormando Star Destroyer

*jaw drops*

I was hooked.

If only once I can make my readers feel like that, then I will be a happy Star Wars fanfiction writer

Yeah. Like that.

 

I agree, Jaina. Those are the kinds of things that seem to give stories that Star Wars "feel". It doesn't seem to be any one thing in particular, more a combination of those different aspects and themes.

It's definitely a good question...

 

Ishie -- Write stuff that isn't just on one planet, one species.

Ah, but if you did that you could quite possibly be writing Doctor Who fic. But that wouldn't be true without the TARDIS, so never mind.

I guess what makes it SW fan fic is the Sith, and the Jedi and the Force and all the things of the movies and books. Not just the characters. We do have OC driven stories afterall, don't we?