I don't see why not. Just try to keep it logical. As an example, in my fic I've merged Ageira and Cryer into one super-corporation (it's in the hopefully soon-to-be-posted fourth chapter). As far as I can tell there's no reason why something like that couldn't happen. I would stay away from "crossovers" though. They may be fun in mods sometimes but they tend not to work so well in proper stories.

Ultimately you decide what you write and the readers decide if it works.

-----------

And another thing...

SPAM OTHER PEOPLE'S THREADS

Apparently they love it.

Edited by - CODENAME on 10/14/2004 7:03:54 PM

no need to go Over The Top CODENAME, i mean yes it can be annoying when someone posts "when is chapter 15 coming out?" but usually the person that makes the fic will answer that question in the thread and everyone will then be able to see that.

Personally i don't see any problem with it

I still say it would be better to drop the author an e-mail. Realistically he/she is more likely to respond and, if the author gets inundated with questions, he may just post all the relevant information himself. There is another way to get the information, spam can get threads locked, and every worthless post just breaks up the continuity of the story; I don't want to have to skip over a page or so of "where are you, Insert Name Here?" questions in order to get to the next bit of the story. For those three reasons I maintain that spamming should be avoided at all costs (unless the writer specifically gives it the OK).

I agree with GP.
I don't see any problems with it. I for one love it when people respond in my fanfics, I can never get enough of it. Short little posts are okay, but it is unnessicary to ask a bunch of times. And don't go over the top like someone did in Neuromancer's story, getting the thread locked.

Code, once a fanfic is complete, the non-story posts can be eddited out so the story is whole, so the extras at the moment won't harm anything.

Some above wrote about ground battle and so forth. Just keep it Freelancer related. If non-freelancer, post it in the Amazing story froum.

Yes, the out of story posts are never a problem, because they can be easily edited out by copy-paste into word. Also, if the story makes it into either the Fan Fiction page, or the Fan Fic Collection, then readers can get the stories without the other posts even easier than copy-paste.

Picard, glad to see that you've joined the FF Writers Club! Pull up a chair, and start writing!

Well, I seem to be outvoted. So I guess I should change that post...

There. Done. I hope that's more to your liking.

Edited by - CODENAME on 10/14/2004 7:05:34 PM

Is now a sticky, but it will be cleaned up from time to time of spam or useless posts that are not writting sugjestions. And another Mod may decide to unsticky it as well. Enjoy!

*note* Also, uncheck the Add Sig box when posting in this thread, Thanks
*2nd note* No flaming others ideas. If you disagree, then disagree.

Michael

Please read the Faq before posting.
When in doubt, search it out.
Looking for a mod or ship, check in Here
You have entered a "Flame Free" area, please extinguish all lights and secure all combustibles, Thanks!
Remember, one of these, can provide a lot of information.



Edited by - Finalday on 10/15/2004 5:38:18 AM

Well, I wouldn't consider my self a "young writer." I am fourteen years old, not nearly as old as some of you other writers here at TLR(no offense meant), but like with my two stories, Captured and Chaos Theory, I just make up the chapters as I type them. When I am ready to post them, I pull up TLR on Internet Explorer, copy 'n' paste, then do a spell check. And finally, post it. I will usually go back and proof read to make sure I didn't make any mistakes, (I am Japanese, I can speak almost perfect English, but my spelling is just atrocious to say the least). If I find a mistake I will edit it out, or try at least.

If you stop getting feedback on your story, then just keep writing it. I should know from my experience with Captured and especially Chaos Theory. After I didn't get any feed back for almost a month, I just gave up. And I just recently continued it. The people who posted in Chaos Theory seemed to like it, and that is what drove me to continue it.

My point is, if you are not getting feedback on your story, then don't give up.



_______________________________________________________________


Ooh, pretty. How do I blow it up?

I've just found what may be the ultimate grammar resource. The Guide to Grammar and Writing is unbelieveable. I imagine that anyone for whom English is a second language will find it immensely useful. From Abbreviations to Zero Articles, this site has it all. I'm certainly going to spend some time going over the basic rules of syntax and looking for some style tips. I suggest you all do as well.

Thanks for making this a sticky, Final. Somehow I think it will stay stuck for a while as you seem to be the only Mod who graces us plebs with your presence.

A tool for those without a word prosessor program. ieSpell - A Spell Checker for Internet Explorer Link It can help some what for making things more readable.

Edit Update *Download* OpenOffice 1.1.3 is a FREE word type program for which to write your stories, edit them and then copy and Paste them to TLR.

Edited by - Finalday on 10/27/2004 8:12:07 PM

I am somewhat of a writer in my spare time, and I can say that all of the advice in this forum is NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY. If you follow these tips, (what I've seen so far anyway) your writing will improve. Garuanteed. I am a perfectionist myself and can't bear to have mistakes in my writing. (Err, stories that is.) Nevertheless, they appear. A lot. The best way to deal with any problem in a story is to reread it, say 10 to 20 times or more. This will help you to eliminate spelling and grammar errors and will also help you to see if your story conveys meaning accurately and attractively. In other words: if the story says what you want it to say and if it says it clearly. Take your time, people. So far I like what I see, let's see if you can make me love it. There are some intriguing plots out there, just make sure that they're presented well.

Something was said about taking advice from older writers. I'm curious about the average age, I mean, who is older anyway? I'm 16 of next month. I want to see how that puts me in relation to everyone else.

Thx. Keep it up!

1. "Gawd forbid that the author should know what she's talking about" - research is good. It may be tedious, but if you're researching something that you like (e.g., info about a fandom you're writing in - assuming logically that you do like the fandom), what's the problem? If you don't know about something, Google it up. Or avoid writing about it altogether if you're so damn lazy.

2. "The grammar and formatting the likes of this will bruise fruits and make babies cry" - grammar isn't everything, but without it, you have nothing. A clue: publishers/editors take one look at your manuscript, find lots of grammatical errors, and it lands straight in "rejected" box. There is a reason for this: presentation is damn important. No matter if you think your ideas are brilliant, it won't even be read if you don't make it readable.

3. "And they kissed. And they groped each other. And they made passionate love amidst moans and tiger-like groans" - whatever you may think of such material, I suggest that you pick up books with decently written erotic scenes before attempting one yourself. Especially if you've never done the horizontal tango before. Otherwise, just don't. (Actually, do. They give me a good laugh. But I don't think that's usually the author's intention...)

4. Do yourself a favor and click on this http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/loth/n/e/ ... e.jpg.html link. Then examine your Warrior Sue character. Kill said Sue immediately if many characteristics fit.

5. I stress: research is important beyond important. Writing a LOTR fic with only knowledge from the movie, or writing a FR fic with only knowledge from The Dark Elf Trilogy, is often akin to writing a World War II fiction with only, "I watched a WW movie!" as your credentials. Research in tangential subjects is no less important. I'll tell you why: I've seen characters named as following in LOTR fanfiction: Harem, Lithium, Pangea, Valar/Vala, Anduin, and many more that should never have been anywhere but a parody. (Lithium! It's like naming your child Arsenic, for god's sake. Pangea? Why not Europe? Anduin? So does she have a sister named Mississippi? Vala? Ok, I'm sure you name your son "Jesus Christ", too...)

Common Misconceptions and Why They Don't Work

1. "If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all" - is one of the weakest of weak arguments I've ever seen. If no one ever speaks out negatively, I can tell you that we'd still be in the Stone Age. Or, at the very least, Hitler's reign would have lasted until the man died of old age. And then, that school of thought would still be acceptable today.

2. "If you don't like it, don't read it" - and I'm supposed to know whether I like something or not... how? Summaries don't really help, and many authors are poor at writing a summary within the limited space FF.net gives. Only after I've read, say, the first chapter I can decide. Even then, the fact that I've just read something bad is stuck with me like a scar; I can't just wipe it out and therefore have to voice my opinion in a review. See no. 1.

3. "This is a free country, so I can write whatever I want to" - last I checked, FF.net is not a country. Secondly, if you can write whatever you want to, then what's stopping me from doing the same in my reviews?

4. "This is my fic, so I can write whatever I want to" - sure you can. If you own the characters, setting, and the like. If you are using someone else's creations, for decency's sake, show the original source some respect.

5. "You flame me because you're jealous of me" - gag, retch, choke! Yes, it's an actual quote - albeit with corrected spelling and grammar. Folk, I never am jealous of horrid grammar, abominable punctuation, inability to accept criticism, tendency to write overdone plot, inability to separate one's self from one's writing, etc. And no, I'm not jealous of your packs of, "u r so kelwz, legoals iz so hotz!" reviews. I'd rather have one intelligent, evaluating review over hundreds or thousands of rave reviews.

6. "There's no such thing as out-of-character. You are the author; you define the characters" - hell yes. Again, only if you are the owner of the characters in question. If not, the original author(s) define the characters. (Yes. This is another real quote.)

7. "There are people who write worse than I do. Why are you picking on me?" - So... d'ya think a murderer can say to the judge, "There are people with higher body counts than mine. Why was I arrested?"

8. "I write for myself/for fun! I don't care what you have to say, meanie!" - To this I say: bull. If you wrote for yourself and didn't care, you wouldn't have put anything up for public consumption in the first place. Doing so means that you have written with an audience in mind. And if you didn't care about feedback, you'd have kept your writing to yourself.

Top Ten Signs that suggest a Godawful Writer

1. You have "NOT A MARY SUE!!!!" in your summary.
2. You use l337 and/or chatroom writing (u r so kewlz la~).
3. You equate negative reviews to flame.
4. You think multi-colored hair/eyes is "cool". (Blonde with black streaks, hair with silver, blue, red, green, etc.)
5. Your summary includes "I suck at summaries, but read it anyway" and/or "read and review plz" or "I know it sucks, but read it anyway." (Come on, if you know it's bad, then what do you expect complete strangers to do...? Pat you on the head?)
6. Your "flamers" have better grammar, spelling or punctuation than you.
7. You write rant(s) at the end, or beginning, of your chapters about said "flamers" who, yes, have better writing/typing skills than you.
8. You don't understand the logic: "If you don't want negative reviews, don't post."
9. You have the tendency to use more than one exclamation marks, all-caps, and strange punctuation. (Like these: ~text~ is for thoughts, *text* is for speech, -text- is for Elvish. Creativity is good, I suppose, but these really are hard to read. Stick with the conventional italics or bold.)
10. Script format. (I'm sure there are good script fics somewhere. I have never seen any done well, however. So there.)


From: http://www.fanfiction.net/~winterfox

Some usefull information for all the fanfic writers out here.

Sorry, I guess I never actually named my first FL story...
I'll edit it and name it "Child of Sirius, The Story of Robert Lamb"

Also, are you including stories that have yet to be completed? If so, then please include my "Victory at All Costs," and "Stranger to Sirius," stories. If not, then we can wait until they are completed.

About the Unofficial Thread of CYOF 2, don't consider it an RPG. Stinger said that I could leave it up as a reference for all the CYOF players, since a lot was learned and changed in it.

Shouldn't this be its own sticky thread? Like the Mod and Program lists in the Modding Forums? I think it could be easily lost in here.

EDIT- I just noticed that you have two links to the CYOF 1 Thread. Might want to change that...

Edited by - ww2jacob on 11/15/2004 3:33:51 PM