Discussion The Scribble Pad (Fanfic Writing Discussions)

We can start a new club! Writers Staring Down Intimidating Andor Plot Bunnies.

 

I retconned an OC to be Ghorman and started writing a prequel about him

 

I'll take any excuse to share my fancasting, dated as it is now....

Talon Karrde - Cliff Simon (Ba'al in Stargate:SG-1)
Aves - Joel McHale (I also like Shawn Reaves from Tru Calling)
Dankin - Casey Affleck (Ocean's 11)
Odonnl - Adam Scott (Parks & Rec)
Ghent - Fran Kantz (Dollhouse)
Mara Jade - I'm kinda opposed to casting her, but you could do a lot worse than Molly Quinn. I believe she has natural red-gold hair at least.
Kyp Durron - Darren Criss (or maybe Rider Strong?)
Jaina Solo - Rachel Leigh Cook (or Alexa PenaVega (Spy Kids) for YJK Jaina)
Jacen Solo (YJK) - Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Tenal Ka Djo - Diana Agron (Quinn on Glee)
Shirlee Faughn - Hayden Panettiere (with short hair)
Booster Terrick - Brian Stokes Mitchell (Cam Winston on Frasier - this one is very random and I can't really explain it)
Mirax Terrick - Claudia Black (Vala on Stagate:SG-1, preferably with pigtails)
Shada D'ukal - Zuleikha Robinson (Yves on The Lone Gunmen; Morena Baccarin would be an ok alternate)
Ben Skywalker - Logan Huffman (V, 2009 tv show)
Benji Skywalker (OC) - Zac Efron (Charlie St. Cloud poster - I haven't seen the movie)
And for maximum obscurity, Jai Raventhorn - Amanda Righetti (I saved a photo on my computer long ago, and I do not even know what it is from)

(Is it obvious I stopped caring about Star Wars canon circa 1999? This was both fun nostalgia and made me feel old and out of touch.)

 

Mod edit: While this is good news, this thread (or any resource thread) is not the place to promote specific fics. Thank you.

EDIT: My apologies, I was simply updating my New years resolution.

 

Hey for people who write really long stories: how do you decide when to start posting? I have a lot of story written but it's not completely finished and I don't want to like ... have to go back and retcon something if I change my mind later? Does that make sense?

 

If you do a lot of editing and rewriting, I'd wait. But if it's just a matter of having a backlog, you can totally start posting before it's done.

 

I only have the one really long story so far, and sometimes I think I should have waited to start posting just because finishing it has taken so much longer than I expected because I keep getting distracted by other stories But I did specifically wait until I was sure I knew where it was going, how it would end, how I'd get there, and that nothing in the first half of the story was going to change, because yeah, I was afraid of this exact thing, that I'd go in a different direction and have continuity problems with what was already posted. I feel like that's probably the biggest concern, just being sure that what you have already is the foundation you need for what's to come.

 

@vader_incarnate For me there's three things:

1. I need to have an outline of the entire story. This can be pretty bare-bones if it isn't a story with too many subplots (along the lines of "this happens, then this happens, then this happens, then this happens" etc.); but I'll go for a full detailed chapter-by-chapter outline if I have multiple overlapping storylines that will all converge far down the road.

2. I draft the final scene/chapter to make sure that this is the ending I'm committing to. By this I mean to actually write it as it will appear in the posted story (or close enough), not just to describe what happens in it in the form of bullet points.

3. I draft enough chapters to have a buffer that'll keep me going for 4-6 weeks once I start posting, in case I get sidetracked in the future and can't write my chapter of the week for whatever reason.

It's not a silver bullet because there's the small matter of not getting sidetracked by other plot bunnies or DRL, but it's the best I've got

 

My Writing and Reporting professor in Journalism school once commented that "Reporters don't get paid to start stories, they get paid to finish them." That quote stuck with me and I've carried it into all of my writing.

Obviously, no one here is getting paid, we're just doing this for the personal satisfaction, but my approach to fanfic is that none of my stories get published until they're completely finished, and I've had time to set them aside and then go back and edit them. (And, in some cases, had someone else edit them as well.) I know plenty of people would find this unworkable, and I don't expect anyone else to write or post this way; however, it helps prevent gaping plot holes and other big issues.