Okay, now I'm happy. I did something I never thought I'd do. I just completed a fan book for a story about...Partholon!
And there is no written rule on fanfiction.net about posting a fan book by P.C. Cast; so after I get some shuteye, I'll start correcting it so I can post it online. I usually hate what I write when I read it, but I have a good feeling about this one. I think I nailed it!
And there is no written rule on fanfiction.net about posting a fan book by P.C. Cast; so after I get some shuteye, I'll start correcting it so I can post it online. I usually hate what I write when I read it, but I have a good feeling about this one. I think I nailed it!
Congratulations! I hope you like it as much post-sleep as you do now - I'm usually really happy with things at first, and after a few hours (especially if I've slept), whatever I've written seems silly or just not quite right. Luckily, sometimes I can salvage it :p
ReplyDeleteI worked on it for a long time, and I still liked all the jokes and thought the quality was decent. I had to rewrite the ending a bunch of times, but I finally posted the most passable version. I'm still not happy with how it ends, but it was better than the other tries.
DeleteAt least you're brave enough to post, lol ... I've been writing and re-writing the same annoying story for five years ... I guess the best that can be said is that I haven't given up completely :p
DeleteI'm still stuck on my own stories, and I made up the characters at Queen Street. You'd be surprised how much the story changed.
DeleteMaybe not - I just wrote a 12,000-word chapter for a fanfic, and I've rewritten the thing about 5,000 times and the story has changed in many ways and changed back and in many ways not changed at all :p
DeleteI changed her name once, and the plot about a dozen times. She had been a secret agent, then a vampire, then a princess, then a mutant, then a mutant princess, and now just a mutant. The only constant has been the names of the places in my made-up world, which has changed in design a bunch of times.
Deletelol, I know how that is ... I'm currently writing the third chapter of a fic, and the first two are about 12,000 words each.
DeleteI have yet to reread and edit them, so the word count will almost definitely change ... but with my fingers crossed, I can almost say that I might, for the first time in almost ten years, have something to post. I really hope I get some positive feedback for a change; all I've gotten over the last bunch of years is hate.
Constant negativity is so hard to ignore. But at least those who get the bad reviews are doing something a hell of a lot better than posting them.
DeleteThat's very true ... I wish I could say I had never done it ... :p
DeleteSome authors deserve them, and some don't. I looked back awhile ago and saw that I had left a glowing review for a horrible book. I should have been negative.
DeleteI used to do that quite a bit, too — in 2005 and/or 2006, I was just getting into fanfiction and I was happily oblivious to the fact that most original characters are Mary Sues, and I would blaze happily through long stories and write the kinds of reviews I hoped to get on my own stories (not that I had any to post yet). Needless to say, looking back on the very few that are memorable enough, I think my reviews this time around (not that I ever plan to reread those first fics) would be very different.
DeleteThe nasty reviews I left were all (I think) for one writer, and if I have any defence, it's that her stories really were the absolute worst things I'd ever read. But I still wish I had just kept my mouth shut, and if not because I feel bad for her (I still sort of do), then because I just selfishly don't want to think I was ever so rude.
Oh well ... I've learned a lesson :p
She must have felt then the way we feel now.
DeleteI read an article once that promoted Mary Sue types, and I could not believe what I was reading. I have beautiful characters, and I have talented characters; but they're not the same person. Or related.
I've been struggling to write my own original book for almost two decades, and the character I loved the most was one I created for a fan story, who was terribly clumsy. She humiliated herself at everything she did, she wasn't part of a clique, and people always mocked her. I related to her so much, but it gave me a chance to see the humor other people see when I humiliate myself.
It's really cool that a character you created helped you understand something; I don't know if that's ever happened to me ...
DeleteI'm stuck on mine, too, but having a blast writing a fanfic right now ... even though it has OCs and I normally hate them all :p
... Promoted Mary Sues? Really? Blech!
Yeah, it basically said, "Your characters can be as Mary Sue as you want. They're YOUR characters. Haters gonna hate." I don't think they realize that people form opinions not just on the character, but on the author.
DeleteWell ... that's a good point, and I don't think it promotes Mary Sues as much as it promotes a writer's independence — it may be unfair for me to say this, but I've read a lot of similar fanfics, and I have to believe at least some of the writers wrote their stories in another person's style so as to get and please the number of reviewers the other writer got. I have definitely seen fanfiction used as a way to feel popular — I was guilty of it, too, when I posted my first stories.
DeleteHaving said all that, Mary Sues are incredibly annoying and they certainly drop a story's quality. I've read a bunch like that; the story's actually great, and then Mary Sue walks in, beautiful and overconfident but that's fine because she never, ever fails; she has far too many powers to fail.
I'm really hoping my OCs don't end up being called Mary Sues when (if?) I post what I'm working on ... but one of them IS a woman so there's a good chance. :(
Only if she's beautiful, smart, funny, kind, brave, has a good singing voice, a nice laugh, lots of money, a perfect smile, great hair, perfect skin, the perfect boyfriend, the cutest kid, the best-trained pet...blah, blah, blah. The list goes on. I think the more flaws a character has, the more realistic they become. I simply cannot enjoy a story line where everything is super. That's not life.
DeleteSo far, she does seem kind of like that, but I'm only 4.7 chapters in and she's hardly been around yet - I'm hoping people will give her a chance. Especially since she's not truly part of the plot and is more of a sad subplot. I'm not even sure she'll make it to chapter ten, if I write that many chapters. lol
DeleteI do have one character who's beautiful and kind. I guess it's not too Mary Sue if she has two out of...what, twenty traits of eligibility?
DeleteI'm hoping people can look past my character's appearance, especially since the goal is to write her out of the story ... lol
DeleteI don't know what to say, though; I'm torn between starting over and just keeping going, since people might actually like her. Who knows :p
Do you like her?
DeleteI gave in and restarted, so ... I think I might like her again. But it's too soon to tell, lol
DeleteGood luck!
DeleteThanks! :)
DeleteSo far, she seems good ... I hope I can keep liking her :p
I'm thinking about restarting my book, too...
DeleteI complicate the heck out of mine, which is the main reason I keep re-starting them :p
DeleteYeah, me too. Even my current version, which I told myself would be simpler.
Deletelol, we're so alike :p
Delete