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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

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

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction and Writing Resource' started by Luna_Nightshade, Nov 24, 2011.

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  1. Sith-I-5

    Sith-I-5 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 14, 2002
    Oh right, yes.

    Mara is a teenage girl here.
     
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  2. Raissa Baiard

    Raissa Baiard FFoF Artist Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 22, 1999
    [face_laugh] This actually might be worse for Mara than finding out she served the Emperor! “Wait...there’s a universe where I end up with...Luke?!?”

    Thanks to everyone for the advice. I guess I just need to stop being so hard on myself and just go with it. I take your point that emotions are frequently mushy and awkward and cheesy, especially where teens are involved. @pronker I like your advice about planning the details of the action and effect I want first. I’ll keep working on this scene and try not to get too caught up in making it perfect.
     
  3. WarmNyota_SweetAyesha

    WarmNyota_SweetAyesha Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Aug 31, 2004
    Superb tips for Raissa One more I'd add to the pile [face_batting] is start with dialogue and then fill in the nonverbal like introspection etc. Something else that might work well is to write out the extremes for each character: i.e., what Ezra and Mara would definitely not say or do in the scene. Anything outside of that will totally not be cheesy or out of character. I do agree though a degree, a healthy dollop of melodrama is part of the whole teen thing particularly given what Mara just experienced. [face_thinking]
     
  4. Sith-I-5

    Sith-I-5 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 14, 2002
    If these were books and not online, I'd suggest an anthology book of Mara's different ages:

    AzureAngel2's kindergartener;
    Your teenager;
    Any number of conventional age Jade fics;
    My TFA one with Luke and Rey.

    Or an AU where Ezra and Jade go to Cloud City instead of Han and Leia, and because of this Sith Temple vision, she is repulsed by Lando, because of how he leched after the former Emperor's Hand.
     
  5. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
  6. Thorn058

    Thorn058 Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2008
    In reading through what the scene was about I couldn’t help but have a plot bunny about a way I would write it if given the similar conditions. Having Mara experience the vision in a Barry Allen flashpoint type of way where she sees her entire life as The Hand in the briefest of moments really time. Have every detail etched in her memory. Or using a similar conventions to how they used the Nexus in Agents of Shield where she isn’t sure if she is asleep and dreaming her life with Ezra up and her real life she is the hand and has fully embraced the dark.
     
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  7. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    @Thorn058 -

    This already happened in Raissa's story.
     
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  8. Thorn058

    Thorn058 Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2008
    I think perhaps I need to go and read the story to get an idea of where the scene is going lol.
     
  9. Raissa Baiard

    Raissa Baiard FFoF Artist Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 22, 1999
    In the story, Mara’s just experienced the vision of herself and collapsed. I don’t think she’s lived every moment of her life as the Emperor’s Hand, but enough and in enough detail to know that she was a remorseless killer. She’s significantly shaken, because in this universe she was never taken and trained as Jedi with her family. She’s never considered that she even could be that kind of person.

    That gives me something to think about though...whether she continues to experience visions of that other self.[face_thinking]
    Well, if I can get through this scene and wrap up the story... they might just show up on Cloud City later. Which should be fun since Ezra doesn’t care much for Lando because of the way he hit on Sabine and Hera. (Wait...does that mean Ezra would get frozen in carbonite???)
     
  10. Thorn058

    Thorn058 Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2008
    I know doesn’t it scream out with possibilities. Interactions with Luke seeing herself killing him as the Hand in service to the emperor. Seeing how everyone in her circle of friends is as compared to what they would be if a different path had been real. Plot bunnies galore.

    Quick question one the problems I have in any of my works in progress is that even though I know how I want the story to end I have to write in a logical chronological fashion. I have had people suggest I write the best parts that I’m excited about and go back but that isn’t my style, I have to write how we get to point H by way of A B C and so not just jumping to H. Is this similar to the problems you are having?
     
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2018
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  11. Raissa Baiard

    Raissa Baiard FFoF Artist Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 22, 1999
    Yes, I do tend to work in a linear fashion. It’s hard for me to jump ahead in the story (though unfortunately that means sometimes I lose the really cool dialogue I had planned for H while I’m working my way through A B and C. :p).
     
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2018
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  12. pronker

    pronker Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 28, 2007
    [face_coffee] One of the techniques given for proofreading is 'read your fic aloud' (one chapter, if it's a long fic.) I've never done this, but has anyone? Does it help to feel the flow or pinpoint rough spots? Acting out scenes like lightsaber battles or acrobatic maneuvers helps a lot when you use dollies, though.[face_monkey]
     
  13. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Never read my stuff out loud. Some folks say that I have a "hard accent", whatever that may mean, but that's not the reason. I'm just afraid that it will suddenly look more stupid that way.

    As for linear writing? LOLNOPE. I have chapter 31 written, but I don't have chapter 12. :p
     
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  14. Thorn058

    Thorn058 Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2008
    I can't imagine writing that way but then again making an outline and character sheets or organized writing schedules is beyond me too lol
     
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  15. Mistress_Renata

    Mistress_Renata Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 9, 2000
    I missed this when it came out last month... 10 tips for Authors (like...buy a cat!) From the Guardian (newspaper).
     
  16. pronker

    pronker Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 28, 2007
    Excellent article!^:)^ A short story can be written on the bottle, but for a novel you need the mental speed that enables you to keep the whole pattern inside your head and ruthlessly sacrifice the sideshows from F. Scott Fitzgerald is especially good, when those plot bunnies proliferate and instead of one nice fat complete mature bunny you get lost in little runt bunnies that run away and get into trouble like Peter Rabbit, or wither, or something ... [face_batting]
     
  17. gizkaspice

    gizkaspice Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 27, 2013
    Yes, I absolutely recommend reading out loud, not just a fanfic , but any piece of writing. This allows you to catch grammatical errors and tests how the story flows because you have to read and listen to it.
    Cats are also good.
     
  18. Findswoman

    Findswoman Fanfic and Pancakes and Waffles Mod (in Pink) star 5 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Feb 27, 2014
    I have done this (I even do it in RL, in my real-life editing job from time to time)—though not often, because it can feel very self-conscious sometimes. :p But yes, when I have the courage to do it, I have found it can be immensely helpful in fine-tuning flow and word choice. Sometimes things that look all right in writing turn out to be really awkward once one actually utters them as spoken language.

    I love the dolly idea, though, and if I had more dollies suited to the characters that I tend most often to write about, I would totally do more of that. (Indeed, SW action figure customizing at the 1:6 scale used to be hobby of mine, so perhaps this is an incentive to get back into it.... #ykyaffw) :D
     
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  19. divapilot

    divapilot Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 30, 2005
    I will sometimes do that when there’s a lot of dialogue. I find it makes the dialogue smoother and more natural. Side benefit is that it also points out to me where I can cut out unnecessary words. As for linearity, I write those good chapter 31 scenes when they come, even if I’m on chapter 12. I will summarize the scene in the outline (which for me is actually a table) so I know I’ve got to get my characters there. Sometimes I use the scene; sometimes it gets jettisoned because going from chapter 12 to 31 just didn’t wind up leading there.
     
  20. Mistress_Renata

    Mistress_Renata Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 9, 2000
    YES! I do this, too. Excellent advice! And sometimes while writing 31, you realize that you need to add scene 22 so that there is a reason that the body is in the window seat.
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2018
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  21. Sith-I-5

    Sith-I-5 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 14, 2002
    I have been struggling for three years to write the boring part of a story, after jumping ahead to a more interesting part.

    On the other hand, I summarised the skipped five days of a recent fic, in a couple of lines.
     
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  22. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    Do anybody know what this kind of multi lensed... [is goggles the right word, we go with goggles] ...goggles are called? I see them apear here and there but have no idea what they are called.
    [​IMG]
     
  23. Phasmus

    Phasmus Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Jan 14, 2018
    Kinda looks like that that thing you often find in an ophthalmologist office [face_laugh]
     
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  24. Sith-I-5

    Sith-I-5 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 14, 2002
    I did the logical thing, and Googled "ophthalmologist equipment"

    That thing she is wearing, is called a phoropter.
     
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  25. Mistress_Renata

    Mistress_Renata Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 9, 2000
    I've been known to use paper airplanes when trying to write aerial combat scenes.

    Would love to see pix of some of your custom figures sometime, @Findswoman!