Ewok Poet, I just did a word count to check and that one's well over 500 words long, so no for the second challenge. It's solely a Winter Challenge.

I totally understand the falling asleep thing; happens to me when I get free time too. Wishing you better luck next time (and remember, if you still want to write it there's the OC Index thread, or you could refit it to a new challenge.)

 

Hope you don't mind lists. The first three Qs are for you, the last...for anybody, though there's one or two people I'd say no to, based on creative differences.

1) Sorry that I assumed it was shorter, I just vaguely remembered seeing a mention that it fits both challenges, but given that I've been dreaming of this board throughout the week (and of my left ear falling off...which is a different story), my subconscious could have made that up.

2) Refitting the story is what I had on my mind, though I am scared of competition, to a certain extent. I don't write humans at the moment and even once I do, there won't be the two things people like to read most, so...kinda scared of embarrassing myself.

3) Do I PM you, the sock, either or both if I was to propose a discussion topic for this thread? Might be slightly controversial, but I think it's interesting.

4) I need a beta who's better with the more technical aspects of the GFFA and the post-ROTJ timeline, for the upcoming vignettes that may end up as sort of a prequel to my OC story/stories or beginning of the first story.

 

Ewok Poet
1. Don't worry about it; I had to go check too.

2. There's no requirement of genre (or species) for things, and I think that OC writers generally have a liking for new and different tales. Please do share something if you want to. I'm sure we'll enjoy reading.

3. Under the current rules you don't need special permission to start a discussion here. I like seeing spontaneous discussions (so long as we're on-topic enough to suit the mods) and I think earlybird feels the same.

If you want to contact someone just to make sure that you won't be double-posting on top of a new official topic (and thus yours or theirs might get lost in the shuffle) feel free to PM either the sock or one of the thread keepers unless they ask otherwise at some time. (Reminder to everyone: it's going to be just earlybird-obi-wan running this after I'm done helping count and post results for the Winter Challenge.)

4. Try posting in the Beta Reader index: http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...x-april-2008-update-new-info-survey.22308091/

 

Yeah, mine is way over 500 words. I don't think I can write anything that short

 

Me neither. I actually manage to get to 500 last night and then I thought: "Whom am I kidding? This is NOT a story, if I don't expand on this, it will be a couple of paragraphs!" XD

 

New Discussion for February: Shipping OC's

Do you "ship" any of your OC's (basically, enjoy writing their romantic relationship -- or reading it if there's someone else who writes the same characters in an RPG/round robin/etc.)? And if not, are there other kinds of character relationships that you like writing and would like to talk about?

Do you normally pair your OC's with other OC's or with canon characters? Could you see them ending up with anyone else, or is there One True Pairing?

If you have an OC pairing (OC/OC or OC/canon) that you ship, what is it that appeals to you most about these two characters together? What about them makes you smile?

 

There's one little thing missing here - people shipping pairings created by others. I am pretty sure it's happening a lot.

 

My current OCs were shipped with another person's OCs by a third party.

 

I ship my OCs all the time, but only with each other. I don't interfere with canon ships by inserting my own characters. (I ain't a home wrecker!). I've had two major pairings (Alida/Bruno and Bree/Blue) and they are pretty different, although I see clear parallels in the relationships. I'm not sure if its because I'm essentially writing the same characters with different hairstyles or if because in both cases, I'm writing from the female OC's pov.

As for the next question, if they could be paired with anyone else, naw. This is wuv. Twue wuv. It's like they were made for each other!

What do I like about the pairings? With A/B, it was how Bruno smooths out the edges on Alida's passions. She's fireworks and he's calm water. With B/B, it's how they work so hard to integrate their very divergent lives. Bree is ridiculously wealthy and comes from one of the most powerful families in the galaxy. Blue's on parole. Essentially I'm rewriting "Aladdin" without the talking animals.


TrakNar, did the other person ship your OCs without you knowing it? I have had other authors borrow my OCs but I always knew about it first. Weird - does that make it fanfic fanfic?

 

I will ship my OCs with canon characters only if they were not paired up with anybody in the profics. For example Ben Skywalker. I don't want the poor boy to end up a monk.

 

divapilot We sort of knew, but only knew after we heard of the ship. But now, that person has decided to give up shipping and RPing and that has made me sad.

 

Do you "ship" any of your OC's And if not, are there other kinds of character relationships that you like writing and would like to talk about? --I pair all of my OCs up. I also give canon characters companions, either canon or OCs. I think all the characters we love should be happy. I also have a tendency of giving these characters a bunch of OC children.

Do you normally pair your OC's with other OC's or with canon characters? Could you see them ending up with anyone else, or is there One True Pairing? Both. As I said earlier, I usually don't hook up a canon character with an OC unless he/she was unattached in the profics. Now, I sometimes have canon characters with an OC and then they come to their senses and marry their profic intended spouse. So I have had Luke with an OC who dies and he hooks up with Mara. I like keeping my favorite couples together. Luke/Mara, Tenel Ka/Jacen, and the rest. My OCs have both canon and OC mates. My two main couples are OC/OC. I did have one OC hook up with Jysella Horn (who I believe was unattached in the profics). I also had to give Talon Karrde a wife and kids. I love his character.

If you have an OC pairing (OC/OC or OC/canon) that you ship, what is it that appeals to you most about these two characters together? What about them makes you smile? Right now I am writing a Dear Diary Challenge about my OC Talon Tantiss and his wife Zylie. This is the third year I have written about this OC couple. What I liked about them was they knew each other as children and disliked each other...or at least they liked to annoy each other. When they became adults they were reunited and hit it off. Tantiss was my wild child and he was tamed by his future wife. He gets into far less trouble now.

 

Do you "ship" any of your OC's (basically, enjoy writing their romantic relationship -- or reading it if there's someone else who writes the same characters in an RPG/round robin/etc.)? And if not, are there other kinds of character relationships that you like writing and would like to talk about? My first two major OCs have been thought up in the last month or so and, at this moment, I don't plan to ship any of them with anyone. I plan to focus on other types of relationships - such as friendships, mentor and student and so on. In fact, I kinda want somebody else's OC to mentor my OC for a while, and then give up on her, for good reasons.

Do you normally pair your OC's with other OC's or with canon characters? Could you see them ending up with anyone else, or is there One True Pairing? I would probably pair an OC with another OC, if I had to. But so far, no such plans in sight.

If you have an OC pairing (OC/OC or OC/canon) that you ship, what is it that appeals to you most about these two characters together? What about them makes you smile? N/A

 

As I mentioned up thread, Raissa and Doran have always been meant to be a couple, so they definitely are a One True Pairing. I think they go well together because they both have a strong sense of honor (though Doran hides his under layers of snark and cynicism) and they share a dry sense of humor. Right now, they're officially padawan and teacher, and the transition to a romantic relationship isn't going to be easy for them. Doran's last girlfriend left him at a spaceport with a "Dear Doran" letter, then showed up in his cantina to kick him the gut again (metaphorically speaking; Alyse is too sweet and passive to really kick anyone) and Raissa a little too starchy Imperial officer at times.

As far as shipping OC/canon, I never meant to....and then a certain Alderaanian Princess started playing dejarik with the Young Lord Vader. Poor Clarys was only meant to be a way to get Luke and Obi-wan together, and then I realized that it's partially her kindness that opens a door for Luke. She is starting to see him as a person and not Lord Vader, and he is beginning to like her in spite of himself. So, yeah, things could get shippy for these two, which could make for some interesting dynamics when Mara comes back into the picture. Or it could lead to an angsty teenage love triangle.

I will say that writing romance is hard for me, because, as a general rule, I don't like pure romance. I like romance when it's part of a larger story, but I don't enjoy your average rom-com or chick flick. I guess I must do okay with it though, as waaaay back in the day, I had a story nominated for "best romance".

 

Do you "ship" any of your OC's (basically, enjoy writing their romantic relationship -- or reading it if there's someone else who writes the same characters in an RPG/round robin/etc.)? And if not, are there other kinds of character relationships that you like writing and would like to talk about?


I enjoy writing about OC pairings when I get around to writing about them. Standard romantic relationships are not particular specialty, so it can be awkward to write about them, even between characters that popped up out of my head. (Maybe the fact they all came out like Athena did from Zeus' noggin might be part of the trouble...that leaves me with a perpetual headache). I use the instrument of romance as a means of character development, so that can be enjoyable to write, particularly for those characters who were strongly opposed to that kind of attachment because they had big missions to fulfill in life (Meaithe Akam and Aduman Nical in particular, although Nellith Kaido felt that way in her previous lifetime as Lyra Melides...in later incarnations she is not against love, although she does generally prefer casual sex because it's just easier to handle).

The character relationships I really enjoy writing are the teacher/student ones. Passing on knowledge is VERY important in my AU, because it lies at the heart of reforming a new society after the passing of the Empire, along with advancing souls along through the cycle of life/death/rebirth. Aduman has a padawan, Chevor Mikayzd, who becomes part of Aduman's quest for knowledge about life after death due to the tragic end of a romance. (Yes, a Jedi Master did a bad, bad thing by having a forbidden attachment, and it takes to him some dark places until he discovers there is some kind of afterlife. Unlike Anakin, he doesn't fall into the Dark, although in my AU there is an afterlife for every living being, not just certain Jedi). Aduman and Chevor both learn the necessary knowledge, pass into the Afterlife, then become guides to later generations of the living including Luke.

Do you normally pair your OC's with other OC's or with canon characters? Could you see them ending up with anyone else, or is there One True Pairing?

I've paired only one OC with a canon character who eventually went on to have a different partner in the EU. In my defense, I began writing this particular OC (Version 0.1.0 admittedly) several years before Heir to the Empire was released. By the time I began putting my stories on the Internet, the EU had been up and roaring for several years, but I didn't care for it and saw no need to throw out my pairing to make way for the other one that was already looming on the horizon. This bothered several people who read some of my stories and told me I **had** to include that pairing because of canon status. This kind of criticism (also because I didn't adhere to the EU in general, and some people are narrow-minded and uncreative) led to me pulling most of my stories off the Web. I'm still hesitant to put those stories back up because that OC/Canon pairing is still in there. But now that the definition of canon has been changed again, maybe I can start putting them back up in the future.

 

Where are the stories we're meant to vote for, btw?

 

On p. 15—click here.

 

Thanks, just PM'd the sock.

 

Hey, surprise! It's February and Valentine's Day!

Okay, 'shipping. Well, as strange as it may seem, I normally don't write romantic relationships -- as a matter of fact, Ἀνάγκη is my first attempt at writing a romance of any sort, and when I first started I thought it was hell. Now I think I found my pace, so it's much less difficult, but I still find the need to alternate between romance chapters and drama/adventure chapters to feel that the story has substance. I think that basically my difficulties stem from the fact that, when I write, I focus a lot on the themes I want my fic to elaborate on, and romance is just a backdrop. So I've been struggling a bit to make the romance "real", not just a plot device. Another aspect of the same issue is that I first came up with Ayesha and her story, and then chose the canon character I'd pair her with because that character made sense for what I wanted to do, so I'm not too sure if this qualifies as a One True Pairing.

I actually enjoy reading OC/canon pairings in AUs, even if in profic the canon character has an "official" partner, because OCs make for different dynamics (like the Clarys/Luke Raissa Baiard is hinting at in Under A Dark Sky, which I find brilliant.)

Other relationships that I enjoy writing (both in fanfic and original fic) are the parent-child relationship and relationships between friends, especially groups of friends. I tend to put a lot of RL stuff in there, between tributes to my parents and dynamics borrowed from my rat pack, so it's always a pleasant moment to write this sort of thing. I haven't tried to write a relationship between siblings, because I'm a single child and I find it a bit daunting, but I'll have to write those chapters soon, so if anyone has any resources on this theme, it would be lovely.

Lastly, what appeals most to me about the Ayesha/Thrawn pairing is that they don't really "get" each other. They're entirely different people with entirely different backgrounds and entirely different preoccupations, so writing dialogue scenes in particular is very entertaining, because they seem to understand each other but they're often talking past each other. Of course, that will make me smile only until things go wrong...

 

Shipping. Okay, this is a complicated topic for Cushy. I often ship OCs because I believe everyone needs and deserves love. However, I almost always will only ship characters in a way I consider morally sound (IE no sex before marriage). In my current Emerging from Shadows I am shipping Wilhuff Tarkin with my OC Lady Hannah because I am not gonna perpetuate the womaniser nonsense of the EU. I am considering pairing Gilad Pellaeon with an OC to avoid said nonsense with him as well. Am considering letting Hannah and Wilhuff have another son. If I give Gilad a Lady he will likely have at least two sons.

Cushy is a One True Pairing girl.

Cushy often dislikes reading 'romance' because it often isn't conveyed to my standards. I dislike casual relationships. I love to write and read male/male platonic friendship-love or male elder/female youngling bonding IE: grandpapa/granddaughter or adopted father/daughter.

Cushy enjoys Wilhuff/Hannah and Thimen/Vomkor because they are romantics and they aren't jeered for it but celebrated by their wives for their standards and manners. I like that these couples are supportive of one another and reverence their mate. In short I enjoy being different to many relationships I have read.

Cushy also prefers to ship interspecies relationships because for Cushy it speaks against racism and I strive to promote equality and that all have merit regardless of ancestry.

 

The bold part applies to my epic, though it does not contains OCs (yet). It could've been a cold-hearted adventure, it could have been total mush, but instead of it, I chose to consider both things equally important. I had a picture that everything had to end with and I had to arrive to that picture somehow. And yeah, that picture is currently in everybody's faces whenever I post, because Valentine's Day, as you said.

And eeek, a spoiler. Then again, it was pretty obvious from the first moment. In fact, a little bit *too* obvious.

You're making me want to read that before her other two stories!

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes to ALL of this.

OMG, I have to get to this! Sounds like my mind of a relationship to read about. Of course, unless this is AU, the story is bound to have a tragic ending; but I somehow sense that they will part before that.

Some don't, really. But I don't think Tarkin is one of those and I just cannot see people dedicated to their cause, whatever it is, having the time to be out and about like that.

Also, pretty sure everybody in EU is a womaniser for no apparent reason. I never understood why, for example, they had to give Luke so many love interests. Then again, with one of them being a computer, that could be played for laughs on purpose.

As for your "rule", being a person who's not into it at any given time, the reason I don't mind people breaking that rule is the mortifying idea of being legally tied to a person who's into...weird stuff. Another thing that rings true to me is that other species may not care about such a rule, or many other things that matter to us.

I play the idea of "breaking the rule" for laughs in my current story - one character thinks of it as an accolade and while her opinion changes over time, her aimless reasoning is sort of played for laughs.

Then I think you'll like the third in series of the epics I'm currently writing, as there's going to be a lot of that.

This is a very, very good reasoning. When an artist first creates art for themselves and then for their audience, that's a big thing! If one creates mainly for the audience, against their own wishes, it's no longer art, at least not in my eyes. With your writing ability, you could create something typical to please everybody; but you are doing what YOU feel is right and that's how it should be.

Amen to that.

 

That may work for some, Poet, but not for Cushy. In my stories all characters will come to abide by the same morality standards or the segments that don't will no longer be dealt with beyond a certain point. I don't buy 'certain cultures don't abide X'. Things can go however a writer desires. Cushy writes her standards in her stuff. I'm not into rule breaking unless it's to show a conversion or growth arc.

Cushy disagrees. Cushy doesn't feel it is sound to see XYZ person is *unworthy* of love or affection.

 

Fair enough.

 

With a week to go to Valentine day here is another non competitive challenge.
Write a story based on this quote

Oh my darling Valentine

 

Half-completed, as it's something that didn't make it to the festivities challenge due to length and the winter's challenge due to procrasination. Hope I can get it done today.