Index The DownTime Pilot Index 3.0 - Feb/Mar Featured Fics (2/2), Rookie Challenge (2/21)

I should probably answer the discussion prompt now

Really I have to answer this in three parts because it's a tie.

My favorite original character pilot to write is Darvix "Dap" Zorvan. Originally he was a Red Shirt type character for a shortfic I dreamed up in high school that never made it past the first twenty pages. I spun him off into a Rogue Squadron long-fic later and, like I mentioned before, had so much fun I wound up using him in two more long-fics after that. Now it's at point where I've got a sort of universe based on his adventures that weaves into the EU canon.

As far as established canon characters goes, it's Wedge Antilles. I think the reason I enjoy writing him so much can be summed up by Aaron Allston: he's the GFFA's moral filter. He's as skilled as anyone, intensely loyal to his friends and family, and is as humble as any hero in the EU can be. The vast majority of my short-fics and vignettes seem to feature Wedge as the protagonist.

There's also one minor canon character that I'm writing more of now. Syal Antilles is a pilot I absolutely adore working with in fic. The backstory Allston set up in Legacy of the Force provided a great launching point for the last long-fic I wrote and it's been blast trying my hand at developing her character from that foundation

 

Yep! And the real danger in songfics is coming out too sentimental. I find angsty songfics to be tolerable, but most of the love songs are just too cheesy. Sorry, just my preferences.

Who is your favorite pilot character to write? Why? What about him/her makes him interesting to you?

I'd say it would be Wedge. He's the perfect, consumate straight man to everything pilot.

 

JP ? I totally agree. I'm such a hypocrite because I never read songfics (since most of them are way too sentimental) but I write them anyway.

Wedge is a wonderful character to write.

 

Very cool...I'll have to read about him.

I had to lol at the picture of the red shirt. Entirely appropriate.

 

JP - Hit the nail on the head there. They do tend to come out a bit too sappy for my tastes.

And wooo, another Wedge fan

Ah TV Tropes, my biggest timesink ever.

If you can make it through the Rise of a Rogue portion of the trilogy, the rest gets much better. By that point I was out of high school and had improved to a somewhat respectable level

Actually, I should get around to uploading my cleaned up copies of that trilogy...

 

Rise of a Rogue isn't that bad mate. Its a darn sight better than the majority of the stuff that people post. Its a good fic. ALthough I do prefer your Syal stuff.

 

I'm envious of everyone who can write Wedge. I've read fics where the characterization is so spot-on and perfect that it's obvious the character can't be anyone but Wedge. Whenever I try, though, he comes out way too bland and "generic". Admittedly that's a problem I have with some of my own characters too, but I've never been able to write the Nuances of Wedge to the degree that I'd like.

I've read very few songfics, so no opinion there.

I would like to join the "Cringe at my Early Stuff" club though. Most of my long fics have been rewritten at least once, and two more are in the pipeline to be. I keep all the old revisions for funsies, LOL.

 

My first long story was a pilot OC Mary Sue. I was 15 and she was a surgeon/Jedi/acepilot who was courted by Palpatine, outflew Wedge Antilles, replaced Admiral Ackbar after she betrayed the whole Alliance... Took down the director of CorSec and got away with it... I wrote 300 pages of her story in long-hand.

 

Alba - Thanks. I got a ton better writing Dap by the time Resurrection rolled around. You seem to have picked up that I rather enjoy writing Syal, though

Thumper - It took a lot of practice for me to write Wedge at a passable level. Capturing his humorous side is something I've felt comfortable with for a while but I didn't learn how to round out his personality until much later. Really I had a hard time with that up until I took a stab at writing a fic about him through the eyes of his oldest daughter Syal. Something in my head clicked at that point and characterizing him kind of fell into place.

It really is surprising how hard writing him can be!

Someday, someday I'm going to go back and rewrite the first part of the Dap trilogy. It's at a point with my revision a few years ago that it's at least presentable, but I would love to take another crack at writing it.

Ish - I've got a few Mary Sues buried in composition notebooks from high school that will never see the public's eyes. Though, I think everyone who has taken a serious stab at writing OCs has a shameful Mary Sue tale of their own

 

Mine is worse--it's posted on the archive.org section devoted to fanfix.com. Starts when she was Chief Medical Officer on the Death Star at the age of 14 and talked Princess Leia out of suicide...

 

I'd like to Rec a fic here.

The Kind Of Leader, The Type Of Man

Its a shortfic, but well written and it even managed to get a lot of emotion out of me. Worth a read.

Everyone has Mary Sues, I think I might even have a Gary Stu somewhere deep in the past.

 

I love that fic. I read it a few years back when it was originally posted and it's great.

 

I have written about OC pilots too and have now a plot bunny asking for words about a clone turned rebel turned pilot. He is still a clone in this fic Conscience



One of my OC's was Ace Juniska and he appeared in DNA ID

[image=http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk124/earlybird-obi-wan/forcenetart/acejuniska.jpg]

 

Yeah, I have just been scanning down the list of ones indexed here. It struck a chord so I thought I would post it again.

 

Avast, ye pilots! Aaaaaaaargh!

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/Lyli/Star%20Wars/yoda_pirate_.jpg]

 

Yarr. We be flyin' by the starlight to ports 'o call unknown.

(I am so very bad with the pirate speak)

 

Nay...NAY, I say Lane, ye be one of the best! Argh!

 

Yarrr! Ye not be so bad!

My method is to write the way I never do when actually writing and insert random 'Yarrs' at the start/end of sentences. Yarrr

 

Vjikings are cooler. And they have ljutefisk to threaten people with.

 

So hey all! A question (or two).

Something we're hoping to do here is feature fics and authors for a stretch of time (you may have noticed a reserved spot on the first page of the index for just such a thing).

Obviously the fics we have indexed here vary in length, so how does this sound? We'll feature two fics at a time, a long-fic that will be the fic-of-the-month and a short story/vignette that will serve as a fic-of-the-week.

At the end of that fic's time in the spotlight, the author (if they're available) gets to select what author and fic will be featured next.

A new longfic will be highlighted on the first of every month and a new shortfic will appear every Monday starting October 4th.

If that sounds hunky-dory to you, feel free to PM your suggestions for a featured short-fic and/or long-fic to the Pilot_Fic_Index sock! Myra and I will choose at random and throw them up on the first page. If you have other suggestions as to how we can feature authors and fics, let us know

And as always, we're looking for new people and fics. Tell (or kidnap) your friends

 

I'll toss a couple credits in if you don't mind.

I think it's a good idea and certainly worth trying out. Speaking strictly for myself, I'd probably have an easier time with it if the short fics/viggies were every two weeks instead of every week unless they were super short, especially if there's going to be a longer fic and possibly challenge responses in the mix as well. That's simply because I'm a very slow reader with a reading backlog, so it might not apply to anyone else.

 

Thumper - Yeah, I have to agree now. I was just talking this over with Myra and we should probably space these out a bit more. We might go to two/three weeks on short fics, maybe even a month just like the longfics.

 

My, it's alive! Someone's good at resuscitation.

 

Yep, I think that Thumper is right.


So, new discussion topic?

 

Sounds good with thumper's suggestions.