Fanfic Writers' Virtual Water Cooler

[mathpiglet]

It's snowing!

Hot chocolate, anyone?

[Whytewytch]

It's snowing!

Hot chocolate, anyone?

It's freezing here in Florida, too. I had to put on long pants (vs shorts--I don't run around without bottoms on)! I had the AC off until about 5.

Spoiler:

I'm not really gloating. I miss snow horribly.

Anyone else having **time** issues? I've been so stressed and so busy lately that my poor little muse has run away. I shall have to bake some cookies to lure her home...

[selene0789]

Yes. My life has exploded into business with little room for writing, which sucks.

And it's been a cold snap here in DC too. Anybody from Van-groovy? How's the weather up/over there?

[SaraBahama]

They keep showing up. They drink all the coffee, don't start a new pot, eat all the goodies and leave a mess. Happens all the time.*sheesh*

So terribly unprofessional *but I'm afraid to complain...they might poke me with the soft cushions!*

Well it does mean I can finally post this!
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5.../Frenchmen.jpg

Bwhahaha! I never even thought of that! SO GOOD!! Thanks Choo!!

I came across this yesterday and was wondering what you all think about this (Twilight ) fanfic writer who basically changed the main characters' names (and probably occupations) of her fic/the movie and then published it as an original e-story. Apparently it's now a bestseller and she got snapped up by a publisher with a $5 million dollar contract and movie rights have also been sold...

I don't know the books (or the original fanfic) but from what I've seen of some of the reviews you either love it or hate it. The writing is apparently very mediocre at best and it seems the author uses a lot of repetition with some folks claiming she's got a rather limited vocabulary. Others think it's brilliant and even claim it's helped their own marriage.

The whole thing kinda made me wonder if something like this is a good or a bad thing for fanfiction's reputation. On one hand it's of course awesome for this woman to get snapped up by a publisher but on the other hand a lot of readers say she basically stole the characterization etc from the books/movie and that Meyer should sue her over copyright issues. Also, the poor writing probably won't help...

Generally, the opinion of fanfic is so low that I can't see the association doing any favors to fanfic writers. I do hope that if she has genuine talent, and the fanfic was a way to hone that talent, she will do well from here. I haven't read her stuff. I love how the media goes all sensational on it ("mommy porn"): journalism at it's most self-serving.

Anyone else having **time** issues? I've been so stressed and so busy lately that my poor little muse has run away. I shall have to bake some cookies to lure her home...

Busy & stessful RL doing a number on me here, as well. I have a document open in another screen and I'm trying to lure her back.

One of the difficulties I'm having is I can just *see* the scene in my head, but when I put it on paper it seems to lack the depth and technical beauty I saw in my head: kind of like catching a butterfly and tacking it to one of those displays: what you have is lifeless -it lacks the vibrancy of the original. Grr.

[Cold Fuzz]

Anyone else having **time** issues? I've been so stressed and so busy lately that my poor little muse has run away. I shall have to bake some cookies to lure her home...

Yeah, I'm having time issues right now. Real life has been brutal with time (and a number of other problems) lately and though I continually get lots of ideas from my Muse, writing them down has been difficult at best. The one good thing is, the ideas are percolating and the hard times now will emotionally resonate in the writing when the time comes.

[Princess Awinita]

Forget time issues, how about Muse-on-vacation-then-coming-back-ready-to-write-only-this-time-really-really-really-really-X24-times-zany-to-the-point-wherein-you-just-wanna-kill-your-muse-to-get-back-to-some-sense-of-normal activty for your muse ?

Yes, I have such acts of random muses >.<

[Starfist]

Work has been taking up a lot of my time over the last couple of weeks. And I think my muse has left me. I'm sure she'll come back at some point.

[Whytewytch]

Mine wants cookies. I haven't the time to bake and she won't take those store-bought thingys.

Fuzzy--hope you're right about the hard times. Been having some of those, as well. Mine are beginning to resolve; hope yours do, too. {{HUGS}}

Princess, at this point, I'd take my muse in any sort of writing mode she wanted to be in.

[Princess Awinita]

Princess, at this point, I'd take my muse in any sort of writing mode she wanted to be in.

You can have mine.....

wait

Waht the slag am I saying ?!

[SF_and_Coffee]

Time issues? Oh, hell yeah. I'm on stage crew for a local production of the musical "Ragtime", and we open ten days from now for a three-week run.

In fact, that's why I'm online right now; we finished rehearsal not quite two and a half hours ago, and I'm still a little too wired to sleep, even though I'm also exhausted.

[fems]

I actually finally have some more time to write and the muse seems agreeable. I think it's the chocolate I feed him.

[mathpiglet]

I keep my chocolate for myself.

[Princess Awinita]

hmmmm...... thinking over things makes one just want to ramble, So stop me if I go to far.

I've been thinking. I mean serously thinking over things of what I write and otherwise, I have something of a following and fanbase for some of my characters on DeviantART and only one or two readers that like my stuff on ffn. But I wonder, is it how I write the characters of Sam, jack or the team as a whole, compared to my own characters ? I mean, one review had a rather spiteful tone to it and never read further than the point mentioned in terms of how I wrote Carter. Now, I admit, I never really was a Carter fan {more of a Teyla nut myself} so I was unsure of how to write Carter in the right way or tone.

I will say one thing, it is possible to get Carter mad at someone enough to shot them in the knees.

Which is what Carter did, You see, according to a history I made up for a Au world that mixes Stargate with Michael Bay's Transformers and Hardy Boys mystry stories {to be honest I saw the classic series, thought Frank was cute as heck!}. I was told that I wrote Carter all wrong. That she'd never shoot out someones knees. I do not remember if I replied, but I now wonder, is it because of my lack of fan for Carter that I write her as a villian type ? She is ending up that way in a sense. Going so far as to kidnapping the daughter of the vice president of the USA, even when warned not to.

Personally I am having fun with this story, Seeing Carter in a new light. Jack even took Lake prisoner in the first story, Project Icegate, the first five or six chapters of that story took place at the SGC or on another planet once Jack clocked Lake in the head with a broken table leg. Seeing our favorite characters in a new light is actually fun and makes them feel more real, more human like, they were too perfect on the show to me, they needed a sense of what would happen if they went darker, if they had to kidnap or do such things to get information or the like.

What do you guys thing ? Am I making a bad call writing this kind of story where Carter goes lone commando and goes after Lake against advice not to. Or is it something worth trying to see how things go with the fans ?

What do you think guys ? I seriously want to know what you all think

[selene0789]

hmmmm...... thinking over things makes one just want to ramble, So stop me if I go to far.

I've been thinking. I mean serously thinking over things of what I write and otherwise, I have something of a following and fanbase for some of my characters on DeviantART and only one or two readers that like my stuff on ffn. But I wonder, is it how I write the characters of Sam, jack or the team as a whole, compared to my own characters ? I mean, one review had a rather spiteful tone to it and never read further than the point mentioned in terms of how I wrote Carter. Now, I admit, I never really was a Carter fan {more of a Teyla nut myself} so I was unsure of how to write Carter in the right way or tone.

I will say one thing, it is possible to get Carter mad at someone enough to shot them in the knees.

Which is what Carter did, You see, according to a history I made up for a Au world that mixes Stargate with Michael Bay's Transformers and Hardy Boys mystry stories {to be honest I saw the classic series, thought Frank was cute as heck!}. I was told that I wrote Carter all wrong. That she'd never shoot out someones knees. I do not remember if I replied, but I now wonder, is it because of my lack of fan for Carter that I write her as a villian type ? She is ending up that way in a sense. Going so far as to kidnapping the daughter of the vice president of the USA, even when warned not to.

Personally I am having fun with this story, Seeing Carter in a new light. Jack even took Lake prisoner in the first story, Project Icegate, the first five or six chapters of that story took place at the SGC or on another planet once Jack clocked Lake in the head with a broken table leg. Seeing our favorite characters in a new light is actually fun and makes them feel more real, more human like, they were too perfect on the show to me, they needed a sense of what would happen if they went darker, if they had to kidnap or do such things to get information or the like.

What do you guys thing ? Am I making a bad call writing this kind of story where Carter goes lone commando and goes after Lake against advice not to. Or is it something worth trying to see how things go with the fans ?

What do you think guys ? I seriously want to know what you all think

I'll have to read it myself to judge. Can you link it? I'll download onto my E-reader and read it today while I'm on my lunch break...

[SF_and_Coffee]

I never really was a Carter fan {more of a Teyla nut myself} so I was unsure of how to write Carter in the right way or tone.

A good author doesn't let not being a fan of a particular character prevent them from writing that character IN character.

I will say one thing, it is possible to get Carter mad at someone enough to shot them in the knees.

Not the Sam Carter we know from canon. She's far too professional for that. If that is what irritated your reader, I can completely sympathise with the reader.

Which is what Carter did, You see, according to a history I made up for a Au world that mixes Stargate with Michael Bay's Transformers and Hardy Boys mystry stories {to be honest I saw the classic series, thought Frank was cute as heck!}. I was told that I wrote Carter all wrong. That she'd never shoot out someones knees.

Carter is a professional military officer, and a civilized human being. She would never shoot at someone because she was angry at them. She would only shoot at someone in the line of duty, never under ANY other circumstances. It doesn't matter whether you like her or not; if you've read through some of the discussions we've had over in the Fanfic Pet Peeves thread, one major peeve from nearly everyone is writers who, because they don't like a particular character, choose to write that character as evil or bad or totally out of character due to their dislike. Don't be that writer.

I do not remember if I replied, but I now wonder, is it because of my lack of fan for Carter that I write her as a villian type ? She is ending up that way in a sense. Going so far as to kidnapping the daughter of the vice president of the USA, even when warned not to.

Again, this is something that Carter would NEVER dream of doing. She isn't a villain, and if you want to write stories that people will read and enjoy, don't write her as a villain. You don't have to be her biggest fan or anything like that in order to write her correctly, but please learn to respect the characters you write if you're going to use them. Otherwise, you're doing a disservice to yourself, your own talent, the canon characters, and your potential readers as well as the fandom in general.

Personally I am having fun with this story, Seeing Carter in a new light. Jack even took Lake prisoner in the first story, Project Icegate, the first five or six chapters of that story took place at the SGC or on another planet once Jack clocked Lake in the head with a broken table leg. Seeing our favorite characters in a new light is actually fun and makes them feel more real, more human like, they were too perfect on the show to me, they needed a sense of what would happen if they went darker, if they had to kidnap or do such things to get information or the like.

That isn't "seeing characters in a new light". That's trying to make characters be someone they aren't. Honestly, if you can't bring yourself to write canon characters as the people they are, perhaps rather than writing fanfic, you should concentrate on writing original fiction in which you can create your own characters who act the way you want them to act, and be unconstrained by the expectation of readers who come into a franchise's fanfic expecting it to at least basically resemble the franchise itself. Just a thought.

What do you guys thing ? Am I making a bad call writing this kind of story where Carter goes lone commando and goes after Lake against advice not to. Or is it something worth trying to see how things go with the fans ?

What do you think guys ? I seriously want to know what you all think

Honestly, yes, I think it's a mistake, and the lack of readership you've reported, along with the bad reviews, should probably be your biggest clue.