Okay, so I've discovered some new fics that need recognition along with their authors.
LionLad: I haven't been so excited by a potential new author and a fic in a while. The author of Falling: The Fate of Ahsoka Tano, this guy totally rocks with his story chronicling Ahsoka from the time she becomes Anakin's padawan as she slowly but surely falls in love with him and starts down a dark path. It's seriously not getting the recognition it deserves and I think that's only because this is his first story and it's M rated. But this guy doesn't have the marks of a newbie author. It is awesome and with skill like this I looked at his profile to find more stories and was shocked to find none! This is a rare jewel in the archive and I welcome him. Check out his story.
wickedjedi13: Today has to be the day of one fic wonders as this author also has one story, but it's totally awesome. It's called Upward Over the Mountain and it chronicles what would have happened if Anakin stopped Padme from falling off the transport on the way to fight Dooku at the end of Attack of the Clones. It's not your typical Anakin and Padme romance so don't brush it off. I wouldn't recommend it if it weren't worthy of recognition.
Yesac: I tell you, I used to dismiss this guy, but the writing of his stories can't be denied. A lot of them focus on Anakin and Obi-wan's relationship (as brothers!) and he just finished a story called The Finer Shades of Why in which Dooku betrays Sidious long before Sidious draws Anakin back to couruscant to turn him. But instead of trying to get Anakin to be his apprentice who Dooku thinks is took wild to be a great apprentice, he wants Obi-wan. It gets really in-depth and this guy hits Dooku on the nail! An awesome read and he has other fics so he's a veteran.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Pet Peeve: The Angry,Annoyed, and Arrogant Author
You know, I was going through my old fanfiction.net account and found all the old authors that I had on my favorites who I was absolutely smitten with but lost interest in writing on the website for one reason or another... It's their choice. Whatever, but one of the authors left a reason in her profile when she told everyone and one of the reasons were, and I'm only paraphrasing here, that she was getting 'retarded feedback' in her pm's and reviews. Naturally, I kind of reared my head back at that because I'm like "retarded feedback?"
So I thought about it and I wanted to address that while it's nice to get those in-depth critical reviews where readers point out what they like and didn't like, point out inaccuracies and stuff, as an author, we should appreciate the reviews that are simple from the ones begging to update to the ones where they simply say 'cool chapter' and move on. Sure it's not that in-depth feedback we all crave but for the love of god everyone who reads isn't going to be some professional critic and give complete analysis of the chapters. I mean come on! These are readers looking for great reads and it's our job as the author to give it to them. In return we get encouragement in the form of reviews to keep writing. If you want a critic and in-depth feedback, get a beta reader!
I mean really, I'm pretty sure the more popular you are as an author the more 'feedback' you get and most of it is the simple 'update' and 'nice work' stuff. But guess what? I love to see it. I love to know that I brought someone joy with my writing and I'm just as equally excited whether it's critical feedback or just a one word review. I'm sure J.K Rowling, Stephanie Meyers and countless other authors get all kind of fan mail, some that probably wasn't worth the postage the reader used to send. But as the author we owe it to the writer to have gratitude because they read the story (whether you make money from it or not). That's why brings an author joy.
Since I'm on this subject though, let me also address those authors who can't take feedback. Now one of my favorite authors, who is not listed in my favorite authors might I add so don't go looking, got mad at a reviewer for giving him a critical review! The writer was only saying that his writing had become stagnant and there was room for some improvement in areas. But he/she mistook it for a flame. So I read it and saw that the tone of the review wasn't a flame. He was just telling the writer that he thought the story was rushed and to be honest, it might have been even though it was still a good story. Then he proceeded to say that he enjoyed the authors other stories but the particular one he was reviewing he just wasn't feeling.
Now when a reader says they liked your other stories but isn't feel one and points out reason why, that's not a flame. It was a critical review with honest feedback that was apparently meant as nothing personal. But the author had the gall to get angry and say it was a flame in the guise of critical feedback and then wrote a long post in their profile on it saying they don't need anyone telling him how to write because he had a degree and a book published with a less than credible publisher.
I must say it nearly turned me off from the writer completely because no one writes perfect and if you can't take the heat stay out of the kitchen.
Yes, ultimately an author is just that. The author meaning he can make the ultimate decision about where the story goes (even thought the reviewer was only trying to help improve the idea not change it) and the style of the writing, but one can't be so arrogant as to accuse someone of flaming when they point out something and give valid reason and then go as far as to say they enjoyed you other work. I had to stop myself from pming that person and giving them a piece of my mind and telling him that I don't care what degrees he has and that formal writing is different from creative writing and that his stories can sometimes lack creativity! Not to mention I know people with degrees who can't write an essay to save their live and makes me wonder how they got through school and that his so-called published work is published by a vanity press with no real credibility in the publishing world if he did his research... But that would have been a flame and so I refrained from doing so.
My point is as authors we must take much from the reader, from flames, to critiques, to not getting enough in-depth feedback. But that's the fun of it all and just because it may annoy you, that's no reason to just stop writing all together or to attack your readers and be arrogant about your writing like you know it all and there's not room for improvement from someone who may not have the credentials but brings up valid points.
Yeah, I know. This rant went longer than I wanted it too. But that just frustrated me so.
So I thought about it and I wanted to address that while it's nice to get those in-depth critical reviews where readers point out what they like and didn't like, point out inaccuracies and stuff, as an author, we should appreciate the reviews that are simple from the ones begging to update to the ones where they simply say 'cool chapter' and move on. Sure it's not that in-depth feedback we all crave but for the love of god everyone who reads isn't going to be some professional critic and give complete analysis of the chapters. I mean come on! These are readers looking for great reads and it's our job as the author to give it to them. In return we get encouragement in the form of reviews to keep writing. If you want a critic and in-depth feedback, get a beta reader!
I mean really, I'm pretty sure the more popular you are as an author the more 'feedback' you get and most of it is the simple 'update' and 'nice work' stuff. But guess what? I love to see it. I love to know that I brought someone joy with my writing and I'm just as equally excited whether it's critical feedback or just a one word review. I'm sure J.K Rowling, Stephanie Meyers and countless other authors get all kind of fan mail, some that probably wasn't worth the postage the reader used to send. But as the author we owe it to the writer to have gratitude because they read the story (whether you make money from it or not). That's why brings an author joy.
Since I'm on this subject though, let me also address those authors who can't take feedback. Now one of my favorite authors, who is not listed in my favorite authors might I add so don't go looking, got mad at a reviewer for giving him a critical review! The writer was only saying that his writing had become stagnant and there was room for some improvement in areas. But he/she mistook it for a flame. So I read it and saw that the tone of the review wasn't a flame. He was just telling the writer that he thought the story was rushed and to be honest, it might have been even though it was still a good story. Then he proceeded to say that he enjoyed the authors other stories but the particular one he was reviewing he just wasn't feeling.
Now when a reader says they liked your other stories but isn't feel one and points out reason why, that's not a flame. It was a critical review with honest feedback that was apparently meant as nothing personal. But the author had the gall to get angry and say it was a flame in the guise of critical feedback and then wrote a long post in their profile on it saying they don't need anyone telling him how to write because he had a degree and a book published with a less than credible publisher.
I must say it nearly turned me off from the writer completely because no one writes perfect and if you can't take the heat stay out of the kitchen.
Yes, ultimately an author is just that. The author meaning he can make the ultimate decision about where the story goes (even thought the reviewer was only trying to help improve the idea not change it) and the style of the writing, but one can't be so arrogant as to accuse someone of flaming when they point out something and give valid reason and then go as far as to say they enjoyed you other work. I had to stop myself from pming that person and giving them a piece of my mind and telling him that I don't care what degrees he has and that formal writing is different from creative writing and that his stories can sometimes lack creativity! Not to mention I know people with degrees who can't write an essay to save their live and makes me wonder how they got through school and that his so-called published work is published by a vanity press with no real credibility in the publishing world if he did his research... But that would have been a flame and so I refrained from doing so.
My point is as authors we must take much from the reader, from flames, to critiques, to not getting enough in-depth feedback. But that's the fun of it all and just because it may annoy you, that's no reason to just stop writing all together or to attack your readers and be arrogant about your writing like you know it all and there's not room for improvement from someone who may not have the credentials but brings up valid points.
Yeah, I know. This rant went longer than I wanted it too. But that just frustrated me so.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Sanctioned by an Angel Post Date!
Sanctioned by an Angel is done… well the first story. I really did want it to be one story but I got to this part where it really was another part of the story and better off having its own tale. So in essence, it's finished, but not finished and boy was it hard to write at first because I was trying to make it a romantic adventure when it was actually more of an adventurous romance. In other words, unlike my other stories that are adventures with romantic subplots, this one was a romance with some adventure in it.
It was fun trying my hand at a romance as I had never written one before and I had the issue of trying to make this and Ahsoka/Vader romance and not a Padmé/Vader romance with Ahsoka acting as Padmé (I know you probably didn't get that, but you'll see when I post it). Translation: I has to figure out what Ahsoka would do differently than Padme if she were in the same situation based on Ahsoka's actions in the show and Padme's reaction to Anakin's turn at the end of episode III.
And before anyone ask, I don't do anything M rated when it comes to relationships (I can't say the same for violence. I can rock some M rated violence). So no sex scenes but don't worry I'm not going to disappoint you with what I do have. I've decided that it'll be up on December 27, 2010 which is the same day I post the third Arc to Light of Liberty. So in the next three weeks I have my work cut out for me.
It was fun trying my hand at a romance as I had never written one before and I had the issue of trying to make this and Ahsoka/Vader romance and not a Padmé/Vader romance with Ahsoka acting as Padmé (I know you probably didn't get that, but you'll see when I post it). Translation: I has to figure out what Ahsoka would do differently than Padme if she were in the same situation based on Ahsoka's actions in the show and Padme's reaction to Anakin's turn at the end of episode III.
And before anyone ask, I don't do anything M rated when it comes to relationships (I can't say the same for violence. I can rock some M rated violence). So no sex scenes but don't worry I'm not going to disappoint you with what I do have. I've decided that it'll be up on December 27, 2010 which is the same day I post the third Arc to Light of Liberty. So in the next three weeks I have my work cut out for me.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Sanction By an Angel Update!
So I've been working on this story and it's been coming really well. But I had a hard time in the beginning because although it was Ahsoka and Vader essentially, I had to figure out what would make their chemistry different from Padme and Vader. I know I've done Anakin and Ahsoka but dealing with Vader is different even though Anakin and Vader have a lot of the same personality traits and one is just a guys fighting his demons and Vader is the same guy that gave in to his demons... Wait a minute. That was my essay for school. Sorry.
But you won't believe how hard it was to do that and I ended up having to find a way to write a really overused idea so that I could make it original, so that it could help me illustrate what I thought would be the difference between those two relationships... Once I got through that hurdle and then figured out a way to center this around Leia, Ahsoka, and Vader/Anakin and not just a romance focusing on the later two, the story started to come out perfectly fine. I'm really excited about it and think it will make a nice story.
This is actually shocking to me how much I like this coupling when I used to be a die hard Anakin and Padme. But now I love both and because Anakin and Padme stories are overdone, I went with writing about a couple that had a lot more newness to it. (Shrugs). I'm glad I cam up with Knows no Evil, but that's another story to work on. If all goes well, then Sanctioned by an Angel should be up in January or so.
But you won't believe how hard it was to do that and I ended up having to find a way to write a really overused idea so that I could make it original, so that it could help me illustrate what I thought would be the difference between those two relationships... Once I got through that hurdle and then figured out a way to center this around Leia, Ahsoka, and Vader/Anakin and not just a romance focusing on the later two, the story started to come out perfectly fine. I'm really excited about it and think it will make a nice story.
This is actually shocking to me how much I like this coupling when I used to be a die hard Anakin and Padme. But now I love both and because Anakin and Padme stories are overdone, I went with writing about a couple that had a lot more newness to it. (Shrugs). I'm glad I cam up with Knows no Evil, but that's another story to work on. If all goes well, then Sanctioned by an Angel should be up in January or so.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Brainstorm: Knows No Evil
So I was on theforce.net fanfic forums and read this story on there and it gave me the most brilliant idea ever. I've been trying to figure out a Anakin(Vader)/Padme story idea that I could write a story from and it gave me the idea. Ever wonder what would have happened if Anakin went on to Mustafar without checking on Padme first? What if Palpatine mentioned that he was sending Vader to Mustafar on the security holos instead when they had their epic duel and Anakin was burnt and everything? What if Obi-wan told Padme that Anakin was killed by Vader (from a certain point of view of course) and made her leave Coruscant to protect her from the sith? And then what happens when Vader finds her?
Can you see the potential in this? Anyway, here's the summary for it. And that's all I've got. It'll be a toss up between writing this or going on and doing Sanctioned by an angel. Your choice since I can't decided. Anyway, here's your summary:
Three years after the rise of the empire, Vader discovers his long thought dead wife hiding in a little known outer rim planet. The problem is Padme doesn't know who he is and thinks he killed Anakin Skywalker. But even though Vader isn't Anakin Skywalker anymore, he still loves her and so decides that he'll make Padme fall in love with him all over again, as a sith and without telling her who he used to be, to prove that he's still the man she loves and better.
It's just an idea right now, but can you see where this is going? Yeah... It's going to be good.
Can you see the potential in this? Anyway, here's the summary for it. And that's all I've got. It'll be a toss up between writing this or going on and doing Sanctioned by an angel. Your choice since I can't decided. Anyway, here's your summary:
Three years after the rise of the empire, Vader discovers his long thought dead wife hiding in a little known outer rim planet. The problem is Padme doesn't know who he is and thinks he killed Anakin Skywalker. But even though Vader isn't Anakin Skywalker anymore, he still loves her and so decides that he'll make Padme fall in love with him all over again, as a sith and without telling her who he used to be, to prove that he's still the man she loves and better.
It's just an idea right now, but can you see where this is going? Yeah... It's going to be good.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Sneak Peak: Forgive and Forget
Well I was reading some of my reviews in my Dark Ahsoka series and I realized how much potential the story still has. I still have to explain why Tarkin and Ahsoka don't get along, the story behind the Ladies in Waiting is something just waiting to be told and I figured I could do a Luke/Anakin piece too. So much to do and not enough time to do it. I wish I could just make a living off of writing fanfics and I would do this all day. In any case, I wanted to put up the sneak peak of Ascension from Darkness: Forgive and Forget, which will be out in January I think. But I really want Light of Liberty to be done yet I don't want to rush it. I do know it's going to have a third arc though. Anywho, here's the sneak peak:
She decided to investigate later
So as you can see, this is just the set up for the conflict. Obviously, Ami will play a huge role in this, but it won't overshadow the original star wars characters. You can get a lot of other stuff out of this too, but I'll let all of you speculate. If I told everything it would take the fun out of writing it. Lol.
“Ahsoka Amidala Skywalker Solo, get your little spoiled self back here!” they heard Han shout.
Leia sighed. “And there goes the moment.”
Both she and Luke got up and headed back into the Praxeum. When they stepped into the hall, they narrowly missed being run over by a blonde blur with Han skidding around the corner. One of the lights fell from the ceiling, narrowly missing falling on Han’s head.
Han swore a string of obscenities and Leia sighed as she reached out with the force and stayed her daughter in place. It was a difficult feat though. Not only had the eight year old girl inherited her grandfather’s looks, she also inherited his force talent. The girl had a knack for the force that not even Luke and Leia had at that age, and Luke was thrilled to have such a talented potential student. But the girl had one small problem.
Leia managed to get to the girl and grab her by the arm before the girl broke out of Leia’s force hold and tried to run off again.
“Hold on a minute young lady,” she said.
“Let me go,” the girl snapped.
“Ami,” Leia said to her. “What is it?”
“I was fixing the falcon and I did something on it daddy didn’t want me to do,” Ami said glaring at her father. Ami was her nickname. Leia never wanted to put pressure on her daughter that she had something big to live up to being named after two very powerful women in the galaxy so she started calling her Ami when she was four. “I was only trying to fix it.”
“I had already fixed it sweetheart,” Han said exasperated. “Now you messed it up again.”
“Only because you broke my concentration,” the eight year old snapped. “The force was guiding me through it and you ruined it.”
“Are you sure it was the force or was it your own desires?” Leia asked Ami softly. She expected the girl to sigh and admit yes, but Ami was never that relenting.
She snatched her arm out of her mother’s grasp and screamed. “I can’t stand you all. You treat me like I’m a child!”
“You are a child sweetie,” Leia said trying to comfort Ami.
Ami rolled her eyes and stomped her foot. “Ugh!” With that, the girl took off down the hall in a force induced run down the hall before Leia could try to stop her again.
Luke, feeling Leia and Han’s dismay in the force smiled sadly.
“Everyone has a problem child. She’ll grow out of it soon.”
Leia sighed as she went over to make sure Han was okay.
“I just don’t know what to do with her anymore Luke,” Leia replied. “I didn’t expect any of the attitude and anger issues until she was a teenager and hormones were going all over the place. I just don’t know what do,” she said with tears in her eyes. “I’ve tried everything, even taking time off and taking her out of school to go on vacations. Nothing’s working.”
“Hey,” Han said embracing Leia. “It’s okay. Don’t get yourself sick over this. We’ll figure it out.”
“Have you tried asking her why she’s so angry?” Luke asked.
Leia sighed. “It’s no use. She won’t tell me. She’s so secretive…”
“Well, I guess that means we should blame all of this on Dad,” Luke said jokingly. “She got it from him.”
“Don’t remind-.” Leia stopped and blinked. Luke started to ask her what was wrong until he did the same thing. Han looked between them and shook his head.
“Alright. What’s going on? You’re both doing that freaky force twin thing again,” he pointed out.
Then both of them exchanged an excited look before they too dashed down the hall in a force induced run ignoring Han’s shouts that if they were going to run to at least do it without the force so he could keep up with them.
The two dashed into the hanger and barreled into Anakin, just as he and Ahsoka stepped off the ramp of her shuttle.
“Dad,” they both said hugging him.
“Hey kids,” Anakin said smiling.
Ahsoka laughed. “You’d think you two were five years old with the way you all came running to see your father like that.”
“We’ve been so worried about you,” Leia said carefully when she pulled back.
“Yeah,” Luke agree standing next to his sister. “Are you alright?”
Anakin exchanged a subtle glance with Ahsoka and smiled. “Yes son. I’m fine.”
“That’s great,” Luke said. “Now come on. You’ve got to meet the students and-.”
“And I’m not here at all,” Ahsoka said rolling her eyes. “I’m just the girl who found your dad after he went missing and took care of him for the last five years. But don’t worry. I’m just peachy.”
“Sorry Ahsoka,” Luke said looking back at the woman with a grin.
“Nice to see you again,” Leia said carefully as she looked back and for the between her father and Ahsoka. She hadn’t missed the look they exchanged.
So as you can see, this is just the set up for the conflict. Obviously, Ami will play a huge role in this, but it won't overshadow the original star wars characters. You can get a lot of other stuff out of this too, but I'll let all of you speculate. If I told everything it would take the fun out of writing it. Lol.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Pet Peeve: Believable Romances
I've got a new pet peeve when it comes to fanfics now. You see, it's this coupling thing. Now mind you, I'm not a strictly canon person. I love non-cannon couplings (Hello? I write Anakin/Ahsoka). But as I was going through some stories in not only the Star Wars archive, but others, I couldn't believe how many canon and non-canon couplings there were stories about that didn't make the relationship realistic.
Now before you go off on me in the comments section, I, again, have no problems with non-canon couples. I support Harry/Hermione, Anakin/Ahsoka, Jack/Elizabeth, etc... But I have a problem when they aren't written with realism in mind. I mean if you're going to write one of these pairing you can't just say they had hidden feelings for each other without giving support from the actual work to prove that it's a possibility or developing the possibility of a relationship especially when your character(s) are already in a relationship! Take for instance the Obidala coupling. I don't have a problem with it, but God make it believable. I'm going to be a skeptic for two reason. One: There's no evidence in the movies to support Obi-wan has any feelings for Padme and Two: She's interested in Anakin. As a writer, your job is to make me believe! Not just write a story about them together because you like the coupling. And you know what writing like that does? It keeps the fans from the other different couplings from flaming the story and it makes them actually like the story and the couple.
It's like this, you can't just say there are hidden feelings without giving me evidence to support it. Make one little or big critical event happen that could turn couple down the path of romance and for God's sake believable. I do believe in the integrity of the character. Stay true to the character. Even if you make them evil, make me see an evil version of the character. It's like Darth Vader and Anakin. Same person, just one evil, one good. They both still have some of the basic characteristics of each other just on two opposite extremes.
Do you all get this? Now to make you non-canon people feel better, I have a pet peeve about canon couplings too. I was just looking around in the Iron Man: Armored Adventures section and you would not believe the stories I saw that made me almost hate the Pepper/Tony coupling. For those of you who don't watch it, Tony doesn't have much of a romantic bone in his body and he has the annoying tendency to brush people off and their feelings. So while it's pretty obvious Pepper is just about head over heals for him, there's nothing to show that Tony feels the same way except that he's protective of her, but that can be said about any of his friends. It's not until the end of season one where there are some hints that he might be a tad jealous of some other guy when Pepper starts focusing her attention on him. Anywho, I practically died when I saw all the fics with them as the main couple and a good majority took Tony like... way out of character or made this sudden jump that he really likes or loves Pepper. I do believe there's something way down deep inside, but not enough for that yet.
My point, even the canon couplings have to be written believable and it just irks me that no one is taking the time to think about the characters instead of saying, I like this couple so I'm going to write a story about them and to hell with how they really are.
I know. I know... It's called fanfiction, but even we fanfic writers have to have our standards. I'm not saying I'm perfect. I can name one or two scenes or situations in my fic where I pushed the line, but even proffessional writers do that, but my point is do try. Please so I won't waste fifteen minutes writing on this subject again.
Now before you go off on me in the comments section, I, again, have no problems with non-canon couples. I support Harry/Hermione, Anakin/Ahsoka, Jack/Elizabeth, etc... But I have a problem when they aren't written with realism in mind. I mean if you're going to write one of these pairing you can't just say they had hidden feelings for each other without giving support from the actual work to prove that it's a possibility or developing the possibility of a relationship especially when your character(s) are already in a relationship! Take for instance the Obidala coupling. I don't have a problem with it, but God make it believable. I'm going to be a skeptic for two reason. One: There's no evidence in the movies to support Obi-wan has any feelings for Padme and Two: She's interested in Anakin. As a writer, your job is to make me believe! Not just write a story about them together because you like the coupling. And you know what writing like that does? It keeps the fans from the other different couplings from flaming the story and it makes them actually like the story and the couple.
It's like this, you can't just say there are hidden feelings without giving me evidence to support it. Make one little or big critical event happen that could turn couple down the path of romance and for God's sake believable. I do believe in the integrity of the character. Stay true to the character. Even if you make them evil, make me see an evil version of the character. It's like Darth Vader and Anakin. Same person, just one evil, one good. They both still have some of the basic characteristics of each other just on two opposite extremes.
Do you all get this? Now to make you non-canon people feel better, I have a pet peeve about canon couplings too. I was just looking around in the Iron Man: Armored Adventures section and you would not believe the stories I saw that made me almost hate the Pepper/Tony coupling. For those of you who don't watch it, Tony doesn't have much of a romantic bone in his body and he has the annoying tendency to brush people off and their feelings. So while it's pretty obvious Pepper is just about head over heals for him, there's nothing to show that Tony feels the same way except that he's protective of her, but that can be said about any of his friends. It's not until the end of season one where there are some hints that he might be a tad jealous of some other guy when Pepper starts focusing her attention on him. Anywho, I practically died when I saw all the fics with them as the main couple and a good majority took Tony like... way out of character or made this sudden jump that he really likes or loves Pepper. I do believe there's something way down deep inside, but not enough for that yet.
My point, even the canon couplings have to be written believable and it just irks me that no one is taking the time to think about the characters instead of saying, I like this couple so I'm going to write a story about them and to hell with how they really are.
I know. I know... It's called fanfiction, but even we fanfic writers have to have our standards. I'm not saying I'm perfect. I can name one or two scenes or situations in my fic where I pushed the line, but even proffessional writers do that, but my point is do try. Please so I won't waste fifteen minutes writing on this subject again.
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