Fanfic Brainstorm Thread

[Sparky She-Demon]

This thread is being created for the purpose of being a place where writers can work out ideas and others can help them work the ideas out and point out plot holes.

The thread can also be used for those who are having trouble coming up with titles and/or summaries for new stories. Summaries can be real bears to write!

Constructive Criticism is welcome, but no trolls.

[fems]

Nice!

*subscribes to thread*

Considering our brief discussion about titles (and summaries) a few days ago this thread might also be useful for those of us struggling to come up with a title/summary for a new story. It would just be a bit difficult to describe the story in order to come up with a summary when one hasn't got a summary yet, but I'm sure we'll manage regardless!

[Sparky She-Demon]

So... what would be a good way for Cora too meet the team? Before, during, or after "Cold Lazarus"?

[fems]

So... what would be a good way for Cora too meet the team? Before, during, or after "Cold Lazarus"?

I think it really depends on how you're going to handle the story and how far you're going to take it, canonically speaking as well as episode/season-wise. Are you planning on simply regurgitating whole season one with the mere addition of Cora (and how her emotional trauma affects Sara, Jack and everything else)? Because, personally, I hate the kind of stories where an author adds or replaces one character and simply copy/pastes large parts of each episode's transcript with a few extra lines by said character (or if one is replaced giving the new character the old one's lines). Or do you have plans to change the course of the season? Perhaps you will focus more on the personal lives rather than the missions the teams go on, which means the characters will also mingle outside of the SGC and learn about each other's families/backgrounds. Or maybe your story will only go up until a certain episode of season one, with most of the focus on Sara, Jack and Cora.

All of the above would affect how the team interacts and therefore whether the others know Cora (and Sara, depending on how big a role she's playing and whether she and Jack are still married, back together again or divorced) or not, since Sam didn't even know Jack had a family prior to Cold Lazarus in the show - and presumably the same goes for Teal'c.

[Sparky She-Demon]

There's going to be some personal life stuff, mingling outside the SGC and stuff like that. Certain missions may be obliquely mentioned, but it won't be the focus. Cora's going to be interacting with the team, and Cassie will also come into play as well.

Sara and Jack are divorced. He still went on the first Abydos mission.

Daniel's probably the only one who at least knows about Cora, correct?

As for how far I'm going in the series, I don't know just yet. Definetely beyond season 1.

[fems]

I think it would depend on if you go with the original pilot or the Final Cut version in which the scene where Kawalsky expresses surprise about Jack having (had) a kid was cut, since they were supposed to be BFFs. That would influence who knows about Cora; it could be just Daniel or also the crew from the first mission to Abydos or Kawalsky at the very least.

If you are going to rewrite episodes to fit the story line you've come up with then you have to make it obvious to the readers what the exact changes are: so, if you decide to introduce Cora (and perhaps the death of Charlie) prior to Cold Lazarus but still want to include the episode itself for the sake of Crystal!Charlie then change the scene where Daniel explains about Charlie and Sara to Sam.

In my opinion, you've got three options here:

1) Stick to canon and introduce Cora (who is living with Sara?) during or after Cold Lazarus after Sam, and presumably Teal'c, learn about Charlie and Sara.

2) Change it by introducing Cora to the team prior to CL, perhaps through a team meeting or something. Or have Daniel inquire about how she's doing once he's back from Abydos and somewhat settled in (this could also be used if you stick to no. 1 but want to clue the readers in about Daniel knowing of Cora and what happened with Charlie and instead insert it in the pilot scene where Daniel asks about Sara).

3) Do a combination of the above, either with the team already having met Cora prior to CL or meeting her during CL but have Sam (and presumably Teal'c) be unaware of Charlie's death and just know that Cora has some emotional/developmental issues depending on how you have Charlie's death affecting her. That way you can keep the scene with Sam and Daniel in CL but instead of Sam commenting on how she didn't know Jack had a life outside of the SGC have her be surprised at knowing about Cora (and Sara) but not Charlie and what happened to him.

[Sparky She-Demon]

I've never seen the final cut version, though it always didn't quite make sense to me that Kawalsky didn't know about Jack having a kid since they seemed to be good friends.

Think I'll do the bit where Daniel asks how Cora's doing. And have the other two not know about Jack's life outside of the SGC. Basically the combo idea.

Definetely should watch both of those episodes in the short term future!

Thanks for helping me work out the kinks for "Half Life".

[fems]

In my opinion the final cut version is not an improvement, but unfortunately the original pilot doesn't get sold anymore in my country and I got the new version in my collector's box...

Glad I could help out! Good luck with the chapter!

[Sparky She-Demon]

In my opinion the final cut version is not an improvement, but unfortunately the original pilot doesn't get sold anymore in my country and I got the new version in my collector's box...

Glad I could help out! Good luck with the chapter!

There's going to be more that I'm going to be asking you about in the short term future. I have the original pilot both on my iPod and on DVD.

[fems]

I don't mind brainstorming a bit because I tend to do a lot of it myself (with A Karswyll) and it's really helpful, but you've got to figure out a lot of it yourself too. It's your story, after all. So, as long as you don't expect me or someone else here to write the story (or difficult and important scenes/chapters) for you, it should all work out.

Brainstorming is about getting inspiration and ideas and not handing things on a silver platter, after all!

[Sparky She-Demon]

I don't mind brainstorming a bit because I tend to do a lot of it myself (with A Karswyll) and it's really helpful, but you've got to figure out a lot of it yourself too. It's your story, after all. So, as long as you don't expect me or someone else here to write the story (or difficult and important scenes/chapters) for you, it should all work out.

Brainstorming is about getting inspiration and ideas and not handing things on a silver platter, after all!

I'm aware of that and does that mean I can't ask for advice about those difficult scenes?

[fems]

You can, of course, ask for advice but try to give us a description of how you envision the scene or the possible scenes from which you cannot choose. That way, we can give our opinions on what would work best or give you options to choose from (like I did about Cora meeting the team).

That shows us you've given it a lot of thought and have weighed the possible scenarios but either cannot choose one direction or are unsure of what would be the best outcome of a certain situation.

I'm not saying you don't do that, because I can't know what you have or haven't done prior to asking for help on the forum. However, by simply asking "how should I do this?", "how should I write this?" or "what would this person say to that event?" you give the impression you want us to tackle the hard parts and don't bother thinking it through yourself. Also, the advice given by us might not be helpful at all if it comes down to the same thing you'd already come up with but didn't bother to mention.

I hope that makes sense. Don't be afraid to ask for help but don't expect us to write your story for you, either.

[Sparky She-Demon]

This is a story that I really want to get right. I've done research for how Cora may act shortly thereafter and in the years to come. She's going to be really messed up for a really long time. I think I've got the situation with the shooting down pretty well.

Working on the first day back at school after the accident and the funeral. It starts out okay for her, but it doesn't end well.

[Starfist]

Sounds like an interesting read Sparky.

Ok a quick question... as we're 'brainstorming'.

What do you think of these titles...

'I Hate Temporal Theory'
'I Hate Temporal Theory Too'
'I Thought I'd Told You I Hated Temporal Theory'

A planned trilogy of which part 1 is undergoing a re-write.

[Whytewytch]

Interesting idea for a thread. Will catch up on reading another time. ATM, it's bedtime!