When we were newbie writers...

Hey, remember when you were just a newbie writer trying to make it here? I do, back when we were still in UBB, if anyone remembers that. Supposidly my first story posted here was A Jedi's Destiny, but I wouldn't call it that, since it was all ready written before I came here and never finished. Plus it was horrible and there is really no record of it except the name.

My real first one was Dreams and my first two readers were Return of the Wattowatta and Nomi Jade. Anyone else remember their newbie writer days here and their first story?

 

Oh, I remember mine, 'cause they weren't all that long ago. Plus, my first story is still my only story & I'm still writing on it.

Gah, I hate going back to read the beginning of my fic! My writing style has changed quite a bit since I started posting a year ago (whether it's better or not is open to debate), and now I just wince at most of what I posted back then. It's all I can do to not stop the story to go back & rewrite it all!

 

I look back at my first fic and I cringe in horror. Heck, I look back at the first half of Dark Mirror and wince. For that matter, I?m wincing at what I?m writing now (it feels like the Brady Bunch Time to revise?). Writing is definitely something that improves with time and experience.

 

I still consider myself a starting writer (because I haven't written much stuff yet), but I don't think I'm a newbie any more.

My first fic... well, it was called "The Force Guiding" an OC story set in JA (with Obi and Qui having minor roles). The main character was a total Mary Sue, many characterizations just didn't fit, the plot had many holes, and my writing was terrible. I once showed a snippet of what I considered to be a darkest part of the story to Ish and she said "Your characters are gasping too much". Well, considering that I didn't know any other expression for describing surprise and shock... It was fun to write though. My first reply came from Jemmiah, and I actually had a few loyal readers who stayed with me throughout the whole story - padmemicheline and Red Forever and some others.

Hmm. Maybe one day, when I get some new ideas, I may do a rewrite to it... but that's too soon to decide.

 

Writing is definitely something that improves with time and experience. I definitely agree with you on that, Gandolf!

 

I look back at my first story, A Broken Fairytale, and fight the urge to scream in horror. It was never finished b/c I couldn't think of how to go with it once I got into Ep. II and it sort of just fizzled away.

My first readers were Toni and SkySaber, to whom I am eternally grateful!

AQ

 

"The Circle" was my first fic and at the moment it's the only one I'm working on. There are others that will be finished eventually (really! honest!) and still others that I am happy to see plunge into the depths of the boards, never to be seen again.

I look back at the stuff I wrote a year ago and I cringe. The beginning of "The Circle" always makes me want to rip out my red pen and edit the whole thing. Yeesh. Talk about learning as you go.

 

My first fic was only a few months ago and I'm still frightened of it!!

 

Oh boy.....well, my first didn't even have a title....it came off pretty bad....I still haven't finished it, and to tell the truth, I really don't want to. It was that bad. But....well, I am in love with one of my current stories, because it is a lot better than anything I've written before. I am a lot happier with my writing now, but I know that in four months, I'll probably want to cry when I read what I'm writing now....

 

I've been here for a year now, and I must say that my writing has improved a LOT. My first fic was called A Different View, and it was simply horrid. I mean, as far as writing style went, it was all right, but the dialogue, spacing, and characterization was all off. Plus, the title and the plotline has been used about a million times.

What made matters worse was that Vader was some sympathetic fool, and Luke and Leia were the "brainy children" who could get out of any scrape with no problem.

For your sake, I pray you never find it

 

*thinks back to two and a half years ago* Well... one of the first things I did was join up with the HoJo (Caffinated Knights) I made a few insignificant posts in their stories. I then joined up on what I think was the first Earth Meets Star Wars Round Robin, dissappeared for a few months and posted on another fanfic board (One I even moderated for awhile) Came back here and posted my first "successful" own story (NOt my first lone fanfic... I'd never post that here ) I, The Jedi's Daughter. And now you know the story of the Lune

 

My first fic was "Without Her". I remember wishing that i could change the title of the thread so i could change the title itself. how things change!

I also remember asking what up meant...needless to say i jumped right into the boards without fear.

I cringe too...I'm torn between fixing it to follow what i believe now or leaving it to preserve my emotion and viewpoint at that point in time. Thus, I have yet to actually TRY to fix it. btw, I look back on things i wrote last week and wince!

 

So do I Vergie, so do I. I remember being scared to death at my first ISE (Internal Server Errors ran amock in the days of UBB... but how I miss it's Search option!)

 

I know only that my stories will forever be seen (or NOT seen, as the case may be) as "newbie fics".

 

My first fic was several months ago.

My writing style has since changed.

And since it's part of a series, it'll be really weird.




Anyways, the first fanfic thread I opened didn't start with a story post. I skipped all the way to the last page looking for a post




Fortunately, I had professional help.

 

My first fic, I cringe when I even think about it. My first AU....ugg. I took it down from FF.N b/c I pitied anyone bored enough to actually read it.

by the time I came here, I had gotten slightly better. I actually enjoy reading Up from slavery sometimes. That's the only real fic I finsihed on these boards. I'll get around to finished Thanin and CUD one of these years...and, yes, it'll probably be years. I haven't worked on Thanin in half a year and CUD in 3/4 of a year. Of course, my hiatus from fan fiction at all over the summer probably contributed to that.


word to the wise: if you take a long hiatus, start a good fic when you come back from it to get you back into shape.

 

I was just re-reading my first fic the other day. (Had to look up the link for another thread.)

Didn't take long to read it either. My first fic doesn't have many of those nasty responses cluttering up much space.

 

I still am a newbie writer.

I only have two fanfics I can call my own. One of them - my first one - is still in progress, the other is a one-poster, which, IMO, has a very predictable ending. Anything else that I've written are in round robins.



= Clare =

 

At the risk of sounding slightly big-headed, I quite like my first fic. It was Lions and Tigers and padawans, Oh My! and a humor round-robin to boot. I like it so much in fact that I started reposting it! *grin*

Although I do think my subsequent work is better.

 

When I was a newbie writer... *cringe*

Oh it's awful, I had the worst ideas in history, and everyone could see my direct influences from other sources. Oh the horror, the horror!

Since November of 2000, I've changed a lot! Thank goodness for small wonders...though I started writing fanfic in 1999, doing a lot of short stories.

I am forever grateful for the few readers I did have, but oh, I don't even want to remind myself of what a terrible writer I was. I'd like to think I've improved since then, while I was reading over Blue Orchids even in hopes of getting it archived, my goodness, even the beginning of THAT needed a lot of work, and that was by far my most successful. Always in my Heart and Before there were Lightsabers both please me, but I'm sure by the time I finish those, I'll even be cringing...

Newbie days, ah let me never relive those again. To all those newbies now, keep working, have faith, and ALWAYS strive for improvement.

 

Though I am officially retired from writing any serious fanfiction for a few months, my first fanfic ever was in fact the most successful of mine, and perhaps one of the most successful on the boards.

Talon Intelligence Squad, since then dubbed TIS, has had over 55 members and over 25 plus chapters, threads, and spin-offs.

It started on the old UBB forums and since then moved onto Snowboard, surviving the days of no markup codes and many, many board changes. I miss it terribly, but I am awfully proud of the members going on in my place to keep things going, keeping it a living sort of entity of the FanFic forums.

 

Hmmm...

My first here on the boards was an attempt to get feedback on a story I'd already finished ("Behind the Mask," the first draft of "Father's Heart"). Then I started "The Penitent," which only finished up a few months ago.

But I haven't been a newbie writer for a long time. So, the embarrassing newbie writer story:

When I was thirteen or fourteen -- sometime close to RotJ, anyway -- my friends and I made up five new girl characters to do a story that took place in the next generation, called Images of Darkness. Ciji Skywalker, Luke's 16-year-old daughter (he'd married Camie and been widowed ten years before the story began), was mine. She wasn't at all interested in training as a Jedi, but was strongly tempted by the Dark Side every time her cousin's soccer team (which she coached) lost a match. She did eventually get a bigger challenge from the Emperor's son (all right, bite the bullet... his name was Vito), a middle-aged guy who was secretly trying to get the Empire going on Anoat. The others were Biggs' niece, Danae, Han and and Leia's ditzy daughter Kata (who was in Jedi training), Han's much-younger sister, Jana, and Palpatine's granddaughter, Nina. Kata had a younger brother, Ben. They all lived on Endor. One fine night, during the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the end of the war -- all the adults were conveniently on Yavin to be recognized -- Vito kidnapped Ben, and the ladies "borrow" the Falcon to go after him. Nina offers them help. They all get separated. Ciji faces Vito by herself, gets stabbed (for some reason, the place is lit by fire only, and he uses throwing knives) and almost dies, which of course prompts Luke to lament what an awful father he has been, not paying enough attention to her because she's not in training. She lives and conquers her dark side. The end. (This story also involved a possible singing career, as an alternative to being a Sith...) (Oh, and how could I forget... throughout, Anakin's ghost was Ciji's one mentor. Luke wouldn't listen to him when he told him she was in trouble.)

And that was my first fanfic... Somehow I survived it.

 

I must be the only erson who actually liked my first fic. It's called "Almost Family". Unfortuanely, although people seemed to like it, it has a really low rating at the Archive . . .

 

LOL, I loved my first story here. But the saddest thing is that my first real story as I said was horrible, but the strangest thing is that it is also my largest. Also, my poor character Atrus was a true Mary Sue then. Thank goodness I rewrote her, or I don't think my writing would have lasted very long. Its cool to see everyone elses newbie memories!

 

My first is/was Through the Eyes of a Soldier, which is still being written, and is probably my best one.