285 réponses à ce sujet

[skcih-deraj]

Meta Ray Mek wrote...

I don't like fics that focus solely on OCs because it makes me wish the author would take that creative energy and write their own wholly original work. Plus if I wanted to read fan fiction around fan characters... I'd read purely original fiction.

However, I don't mind taking bit characters (like Gavorn, Wasea, Aethyta or any of the quarian Admirals) and giving them more fleshed out personalities, while still keeping some of their identifiable traits. I have an easier time reading those.

Now that said, I'm not opposed to creating fan characters to fill in "stopgaps" for roles that wouldn't otherwise work by shoehorning in a canon character that wouldn't normally fit. I have a couple Spectres, a dalatrass and a C-Sec detective. But I wouldn't write a fan fic centered around any of them because then I end up taking the ideas and replacing the characters/world with my own creations elsewhere. >_>

 I gree that completly. I have an OC of mine with her own story... absolutly no one read it. (70 hits the first day... 2 more by the end of the week)

[skcih-deraj]

Severyx wrote...

As far as I can tell, the only reason Tali joined aboard the SR2 in ME2 to begin with is her friendship with Shepard. (S)He seems to be the only thing the lovable quarian will put above the interests of the Migrant Fleet in terms of loyalty and priority. With that in mind, if there's any reason for Shepard to be involved in her decision, she'd probably pick Shepard over the Migrant Fleet UNLESS she's currently in the middle of an assignment, which she'd probably finish out first like with Haestrom. If Shepard isn't really a factor, my guess is that she would remain on the Migrant Fleet.

Hope this helped!

True thanks helps it does. But would she go back to the Normandy if the reapers just steam rolled through the Migrant Fleet? That I'm not so sure of.

[Severyx]

Meta Ray Mek wrote...

I don't like fics that focus solely on OCs because it makes me wish the author would take that creative energy and write their own wholly original work. Plus if I wanted to read fan fiction around fan characters... I'd read purely original fiction.

However, I don't mind taking bit characters (like Gavorn, Wasea, Aethyta or any of the quarian Admirals) and giving them more fleshed out personalities, while still keeping some of their identifiable traits. I have an easier time reading those.

Now that said, I'm not opposed to creating fan characters to fill in "stopgaps" for roles that wouldn't otherwise work by shoehorning in a canon character that wouldn't normally fit. I have a couple Spectres, a dalatrass and a C-Sec detective. But I wouldn't write a fan fic centered around any of them because then I end up taking the ideas and replacing the characters/world with my own creations elsewhere. >_>

Original characters in an established setting have pros and cons of all sorts. From a writing perspective, it's a great place to start with original work since creating a setting as deep, expansive and fleshed out as Mass Effect's is by no means a small feat. As a beginning writer, this allows me to both work with established canon and introduce new characters, entirely different plotlines and go to 'unexplored areas' of a familiar place. The best of both worlds, I guess.

With completely original work, there is exponentially more things that need to be kept track of, which can be troublesome for newer writers like myself. There aren't huge surprises from the get-go either because you have to build the world the reader is perceiving before you can travel to unexpected places, since until that point everything is just new.

In addition, writing OCs in an established setting like Mass Effect's allows the writer to further flesh out the universe and even expand upon the established canon. A good writer will do this with believability. For the readers, it's a great place to be since you have recognizable, familiar people and places in the peripheral while the focus is on something completely new.

I'm not saying you're wrong, Meta Ray Mek. In fact, I have a completely original setting I've been piecing together for about a year now. I'm just defending (possibly unecessarily?) original character writers from your equally valid opinion.

To each their own, I suppose, right?

[ElectricZ]

Severyx wrote...

Original characters in an established setting have pros and cons of all sorts. From a writing perspective, it's a great place to start with original work since creating a setting as deep, expansive and fleshed out as Mass Effect's is by no means a small feat. As a beginning writer, this allows me to both work with established canon and introduce new characters, entirely different plotlines and go to 'unexplored areas' of a familiar place. The best of both worlds, I guess.

With completely original work, there is exponentially more things that need to be kept track of, which can be troublesome for newer writers like myself. There aren't huge surprises from the get-go either because you have to build the world the reader is perceiving before you can travel to unexpected places, since until that point everything is just new.

In addition, writing OCs in an established setting like Mass Effect's allows the writer to further flesh out the universe and even expand upon the established canon. A good writer will do this with believability. For the readers, it's a great place to be since you have recognizable, familiar people and places in the peripheral while the focus is on something completely new.

I'm not saying you're wrong, Meta Ray Mek. In fact, I have a completely original setting I've been piecing together for about a year now. I'm just defending (possibly unecessarily?) original character writers from your equally valid opinion.

To each their own, I suppose, right?

I can see both sides of this argument. The main thing about fanfic for me is that it gets me to write. I've got all kinds of ideas and half-started projects that I've had in the "recent documents" folder of my computer for years. YEARS. I've never actually completed them, let alone shown them to anybody.

Fanfic, on the other hand, has given me an outlet to publish. It's not a book, It's not a magazine. It's not some anthology for sale at a con. It's me taking characters and settings created by Bioware and adding to them.

But the main thing is, I'm writing and putting it out there for people to see. Really, that's a huge step for any aspiring writer, wannabe or serious artist alike. It doesn't matter if you're Steven King, J.K. Rowling and Shakespere all rolled into one if you never let anybody read it. It also doesn't matter if you're the worst writer in the history of humanity -- you'll never get better if you don't let people critique it.

The bottom line is that if you want to write, no matter what you're doing it so someone can read it. Fanfic is the perfect way to get started. It's not just about having premade characters and settings, it's about writing what you know and care about, which is the most basic advice any writer is told from the start. If it happens to be Mass Effect, go to town!

Creating OC's in the established universe gives you a potential built-in audience... and if you're writing just for fun, that's all you really need, isn't it? Once again, why write something if no one is ever going to read it?

[Nevara]

 I'm working on Chapter 10 of my fanfic "Destination: No Man's Land"  and hit a brick wall with how to set up the chapter even though I know where I'm going.  It's just putting it in the proper context without overdoing it.But I agree that the only reason I write is for my own amusement and if others like it then its even better than I thought.  

[Severyx]

Attention Mass Effect Fanfic readers and writers! For those of you familiar with IRC, I've created a Mass Effect community IRC channel! There's a thread over here about it if you want to know more.

It'd be a great place to discuss Mass Effect fanfiction as well as ME in general in addition to this thread, so I figured I'd let you all know.

[ElectricZ]

OK been doing the Fanfiction.net thing for a bit, and have noticed a few patterns that I thought would be interesting to share.

1. People mainly just surf the first page of the stories list. I can tell by the # of hits a story gets when it drops of the front page. Not any different than any other forum, including BSN. But the vast majority of people just skim that first page. The moral of the story being small chapters and quick updates will keep people clicking... Bad news for those who tend to go for more substantial updates.

2. A good chunk of readers just look at the first chapter or the latest chapter. Again, no different than any other forum where people see something new, click it, read a few lines and then move on. The first/last chapter check is probably are readers trying to get a better feel for the writing style or the direction of the story. This really drives home the need to have a good hook at the beginning.

3. It's a popularity contest. Put Tali or Garrus in your story, you'll get the hits and reviews. Other characters, not so much. This goes even from chapter to chapter within the same story. I've got a story that primarily dealt with Garrus, Tali and Miranda that got pretty consistent feedback over all chapters -- except for one chapter that consisted solely of a conversation between Jacob and Miranda and both the hits and reviews plummeted. This highlights the plight of those brave authors who use mainly OC's in their works, or choose to write about the less popular characters. But, people like what they like...

4. Over the course of the year that I've been writing ME fanfic, the number of peak visitors when posting a new story or chapter has dropped from a high of 388 in March 2010 to an average of 250 or so now. That would follow as the longer the game is out, the more people drift away to other forms of entertainment leaving the hard core fans behind. That, or people who don't fancy my stuff remember the name and don't click on it.

Note that all of this is purely based on Mass Effect -- it's the only kind of fic I deal in. Checking out the different genres, ME is middle of the pack in popularity as far as # of stories, but doesn't hold a candle to Naruto, Harry Potter, Twilight and Star Wars in other genres, or even Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy in the game genre. If anybody would like to share their observations for these other genres, I'd be very interested in hearing about it!

Modifié par ElectricZ, 19 mai 2011 - 03:38 .

[Severyx]

ElectricZ wrote...

OK been doing the Fanfiction.net thing for a bit, and have noticed a few patterns that I thought would be interesting to share.

1. People mainly just surf the first page of stories. I can tell by the # of hits a story gets when it drops of the front page. Not any different than any other forum, including BSN. But the vast majority of people just skim that first page. The moral of the story being small chapters and quick updates will keep people clicking... Bad news for those who tend to go for more substantial updates.

Sad face for me. I update once every week or every other week. My chapters are very rarely under 6K words a piece, and I proofread. Not something I'll really change for more hits, though.

2. A good chunk of readers just look at the first chapter or the latest chapter. Again, no different than any other forum where people see something new, click it, read a few lines and then move on. The first/last chapter check is probably are readers trying to get a better feel for the writing style or the direction of the story. This really drives home the need to have a good hook at the beginning.

I'm actually not too worried about this. You'd have to ask my readers, but I think my writing has been fairly consistent since chapter one, so it's up to the reader to decide whether or not they liked the way the story started. I don't exactly have a major hook in the first chapter of my fic, though, which could contribute to low views.

3. It's a popularity contest. Put Tali or Garrus in your story, you'll get the hits and reviews. Other characters, not so much. This goes even from chapter to chapter within the same story. I've got a story that primarily dealt with Garrus, Tali and Miranda that got pretty consistent feedback over all chapters -- except for one chapter that consisted solely of a conversation between Jacob and Miranda and both the hits and reviews plummeted. This highlights the plight of those brave authors who use mainly OC's in their works, or choose to write about the less popular characters. But, people like what they like...

Even bigger sad face. D: Everything about my fic other than a few references, short appearances and the universe, is original content. Still wish FF.net allowed for 'Original Content' in the search listing.

4. Over the course of the year that I've been writing ME fanfic, the number of peak visitors when posting a new story or chapter has dropped from a high of 388 in March 2010 to an average of 250 or so now. That would follow as the longer the game is out, the more people drift away to other forms of entertainment leaving the hard core fans behind. That, or people who don't fancy my stuff remember the name and don't click on it.

I've certainly been noticing a much lower hit number in recent months, but it's far to broad a detail to attribute to something so specific. I also happen to think that the final days of school are ramping down in the US (which is where the majority of my readers tend to be), which means finals and whatnot. I can easily understand that people will want to hold off on FF.net in favor of studying.

Big thanks for keeping an eye on trends, though. I can't really contribute much on these considering I only have one unfinished OC fic, but I can certainly contribute something! Mainly just my two cents.

Also, I'm noticing a lot of fanfiction threads going up in the this forum. I hope people will share more about their experiences with Mass Effect fanfiction. It's definitely a growing medium of entertainment.

Modifié par Severyx, 19 mai 2011 - 03:28 .

[ElectricZ]

Severyx wrote...

Sad face for me. I update once every week or every other week. My chapters are very rarely under 6K words a piece, and I proofread. Not something I'll really change for more hits, though.

Eh, no need for a sadface. You're not under a press deadline, and your readers probably appreciate the effort.

I'm actually not too worried about this. You'd have to ask my readers, but I think my writing has been fairly consistent since chapter one, so it's up to the reader to decide whether or not they liked the way the story started. I don't exactly have a major hook in the first chapter of my fic, though, which could contribute to low views.

And really, from what I can see, the majority of visitors I get are people just clicking down the list of front page stories who don't stop to read at all, when compared to the much smaller percentage who stick around for further chapters. I used to get all excited when I saw 300 visitors, but actually looking at the graphs, the number of people actually reading the stories instead of clicking on them is much smaller.

Even bigger sad face. D: Everything about my fic other than a few references, short appearances and the universe, is original content. Still wish FF.net allowed for 'Original Content' in the search listing.

That's a tough row to hoe as has been discussed before. Kudos to you for branching out, though. Ever thought of "sanitizing" the ME elements and turning it into a completely original work?

I've certainly been noticing a much lower hit number in recent months, but it's far to broad a detail to attribute to something so specific. I also happen to think that the final days of school are ramping down in the US (which is where the majority of my readers tend to be), which means finals and whatnot. I can easily understand that people will want to hold off on FF.net in favor of studying.

True, so it's up to us old fossils who've left all that behind to keep the flame alive while the young whippersnappers concentrate on making their futures as bright as possible. I do think waning interest in the subject matter is to blame, though. There will probably be an upsurge as ME3 approaches.

[ElectricZ]

Just another quick question to ME authors... Has the impending arrival of ME3 or any of the spoilers about plot made you change the direction of any of your works, or caused you to abandon them altogether?

I strived to keep all my first fics as canon as possible but my current fic has been blown completely out of the water, so I basically slapped a disclaimer on it saying it was going to be "alternate universe." Damn those Bioware developers for not checking with me first.

[AnimaTempli101]

As a writer of a story in its early stages most would expect I'd adapt but I'd planned it all out first so I'm just going to add Author's Notes saying that the storyline was set in stone before ME3 came out.

[Severyx]

ElectricZ wrote...

Just another quick question to ME authors... Has the impending arrival of ME3 or any of the spoilers about plot made you change the direction of any of your works, or caused you to abandon them altogether?

I strived to keep all my first fics as canon as possible but my current fic has been blown completely out of the water, so I basically slapped a disclaimer on it saying it was going to be "alternate universe." Damn those Bioware developers for not checking with me first.

Hahaha. Actually, it hasn't (thank GOD), and I've been keeping a very close eye for that very reason. My fic is set right around the time of the Arrival DLC, but is in no way affected. I'd explain, but I think saying 'Read and you'll find out ' answers that and plugs my story all in one shot.  Teehee.

That's not to say I've had to change things in the past. There was a point in the beginning of my fic where the main character went to have a brief chat with Liara on Illium. Obviously Liara isn't there post-LotSB, so I had to go back and adjust it a bit to make it canon. I have to make sure it's as canon as possible, but with new things for people to experience. That's the fun part of original content, after all.

[themark443]

ElectricZ wrote...

OK been doing the Fanfiction.net thing for a bit, and have noticed a few patterns that I thought would be interesting to share.

1. People mainly just surf the first page of the stories list. I can tell by the # of hits a story gets when it drops of the front page. Not any different than any other forum, including BSN. But the vast majority of people just skim that first page. The moral of the story being small chapters and quick updates will keep people clicking... Bad news for those who tend to go for more substantial updates.

2. A good chunk of readers just look at the first chapter or the latest chapter. Again, no different than any other forum where people see something new, click it, read a few lines and then move on. The first/last chapter check is probably are readers trying to get a better feel for the writing style or the direction of the story. This really drives home the need to have a good hook at the beginning.

3. It's a popularity contest. Put Tali or Garrus in your story, you'll get the hits and reviews. Other characters, not so much. This goes even from chapter to chapter within the same story. I've got a story that primarily dealt with Garrus, Tali and Miranda that got pretty consistent feedback over all chapters -- except for one chapter that consisted solely of a conversation between Jacob and Miranda and both the hits and reviews plummeted. This highlights the plight of those brave authors who use mainly OC's in their works, or choose to write about the less popular characters. But, people like what they like...

4. Over the course of the year that I've been writing ME fanfic, the number of peak visitors when posting a new story or chapter has dropped from a high of 388 in March 2010 to an average of 250 or so now. That would follow as the longer the game is out, the more people drift away to other forms of entertainment leaving the hard core fans behind. That, or people who don't fancy my stuff remember the name and don't click on it.

Note that all of this is purely based on Mass Effect -- it's the only kind of fic I deal in. Checking out the different genres, ME is middle of the pack in popularity as far as # of stories, but doesn't hold a candle to Naruto, Harry Potter, Twilight and Star Wars in other genres, or even Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy in the game genre. If anybody would like to share their observations for these other genres, I'd be very interested in hearing about it!

1. Gonna have to agree with the first page thing. Although for some strange reason, I always get more hits on the second day after I put up a new chapter. As for fast updates and small chapters, I don't really see it. It takes me about a week (or less) to put up a new chapter (mine tend to be 8k-10k word length) after that the hits just keep on coming.

2. I'd say that's true. Most of my readers have been following me from day one. I don't get too many newbies anymore (then again, I don't get a lot of vocal readers anyway so I have no idea if their new or not).

3. Oh yeah it's a total popularity contest. I swear virtually every story is either OC/Tali, Shepard/Tali, Shepard/Garrus, Shepard/Kaidan, and Shepard/Liara. There's always exceptions to that though but they're in the minority. The fic I'm working on is an OC/Miranda and people seem to like it.

4. My best month was probably April...had a 170 average through most of it. Since then, it's been a big drop. The highest number I got this month for a single day was 485. I'm not sure what the reason for the decline is but I think it might have to do with all of the finals people have. I mainly deal in ME too so I can't judge on other genres.

Just to add one more thing: As far as popularity goes, I couldn't care less about numbers. As long as people read it and like it, that's good enough for me.  

[skcih-deraj]

ElectricZ wrote...

Just another quick question to ME authors... Has the impending arrival of ME3 or any of the spoilers about plot made you change the direction of any of your works, or caused you to abandon them altogether?

I strived to keep all my first fics as canon as possible but my current fic has been blown completely out of the water, so I basically slapped a disclaimer on it saying it was going to be "alternate universe." Damn those Bioware developers for not checking with me first.

Not in the least really. If anything they've given me some new ideas on where to take the story and how to get to the end. Oh and I did notice what you mentioned a few posts ago. People on FF.net seem to look through the first page and if you have an OC or a story abou a less popular character it doesn't get read that much.

I kind of hope the killing of a rather popular character would pull in some readers. (it worked fabulously!)   The number of readers spiked after that. Its just reveiws I lack really, my numbers are pretty good as far as I can tell.

[LuxDragon]

I also find that having a well-written first page/prologue draws audiences. If your start starts off too slow (Turrle slow) then people get put off. Start with mystery, drama, conflict, or intrigue pulls people in nicely and they'll be likely to read the rest of the story.

[themark443]

As far as the arrival of ME3 goes, it doesn't affect me in the least. I've gotten everything set up to stop after the Arrival DLC. I plan on playing through ME3 a few times to get the main plot and all other details nailed down before I start up again.

[GuardianAngel470]

I have a mostly OC story that is tied into Shepard's story if any of you want to read it. It briefly features Garrus but when I uploaded the first chapter I expected him to play a larger role than he eventually did.

It isn't the one in my sig, that's all Garrus and Shepard. You all can find it here: http://www.fanfictio...ver_It_Takes_v2

To name a few of the key OC's, a turian spectre named Risha, a human Admiral named Farla, an Alliance marine named Torez, a mother named Dima Petrova, and Risha's team of five.

[fainmaca]

ElectricZ wrote...
1. People mainly just surf the first page of the stories list. I can tell by the # of hits a story gets when it drops of the front page. Not any different than any other forum, including BSN. But the vast majority of people just skim that first page. The moral of the story being small chapters and quick updates will keep people clicking... Bad news for those who tend to go for more substantial updates.

That's true. And that's why I often find myself timing my releases so that the story stays on the front page during the rush hour. I find that five PM GMT is one of the best times to do it. You get the home from school/evening time browsing of Europe, and the whole day for the USA/Canada. Unfortunately my story averages 15/20K words per chapter now (not bad considering the first chapter was one and a half), so I am physically incapable of writing any faster than a chapter a week. In fact, my latest chapter was leaning towards a 30k word count, so I had to split it in half, releasing the first half of the mission yesterday and the second sometime next week.

2. A good chunk of readers just look at the first chapter or the latest chapter. Again, no different than any other forum where people see something new, click it, read a few lines and then move on. The first/last chapter check is probably are readers trying to get a better feel for the writing style or the direction of the story. This really drives home the need to have a good hook at the beginning.

Again, I find this to be true as well. My first chapter hogs about one third of my total hits compared to the twenty five others. I'm actually planning to rewrite my first chapter, as some of my reviewers have stated that it doesn't quite sit right with them. (Cerberus could do with a small tweak to make their actions a little more understandable).

3. It's a popularity contest. Put Tali or Garrus in your story, you'll get the hits and reviews. Other characters, not so much. This goes even from chapter to chapter within the same story. I've got a story that primarily dealt with Garrus, Tali and Miranda that got pretty consistent feedback over all chapters -- except for one chapter that consisted solely of a conversation between Jacob and Miranda and both the hits and reviews plummeted. This highlights the plight of those brave authors who use mainly OC's in their works, or choose to write about the less popular characters. But, people like what they like...

True again, and your characters also shape your fanbase, not just in ME fics, but across the entire board. For example, on looking at the faves list of all the people following my story, their faves list is almost entirely Harry Potter, as are the fics they've written themselves. Different characters, different fanbases. No doubt other writers find themselves attracting readers who've got almost entirely Twilight, or Naruto or something else on their lists. 

My fic features a Shepard who romanced Jack, but the romance holds no more prominenece in the fic than it did in the game. Nevertheless, the fact that this Shep is a Jackolyte has limited the market this story will appeal to. In fact, I'm considering taking Shepard/Jack off the summary because of the minor role the romance takes in the overarching plot of fighting Reapers.

4. Over the course of the year that I've been writing ME fanfic, the number of peak visitors when posting a new story or chapter has dropped from a high of 388 in March 2010 to an average of 250 or so now. That would follow as the longer the game is out, the more people drift away to other forms of entertainment leaving the hard core fans behind. That, or people who don't fancy my stuff remember the name and don't click on it.

I find that an update day for me nets about 400 hits, halfing each day after that for a couple of days. Most days seem to reach an average of 100-150. It's only after a week of inactivity that I drop into single figures. Seeing as I only started writing in January, I can't really say how the interest has dropped. If anything, for me it just keeps on growing.

The one thing I don't seem to see much of is reviews. My reviews only average about two a chapter. I don't know if that's maybe just that my fanbase isn't the most vocal one, or something else. Maybe I should just assume that I'm too awesome to criticise!

ElectricZ wrote...

Just another quick question to ME authors... Has the impending arrival of ME3 or any of the spoilers about plot made you change the direction of any of your works, or caused you to abandon them altogether?

I strived to keep all my first fics as canon as possible but my current fic has been blown completely out of the water, so I basically slapped a disclaimer on it saying it was going to be "alternate universe." Damn those Bioware developers for not checking with me first.

As I started my fanfic between LoTSB and Arrival, there was still some of ME2's story left to be told, and nothing except for the preview trailer about ME3. Seeing as I'm writing what I'd like ME3 to be at least a little like, of course it's not going to be in harmony with what Bioware announce. However, I have made modifications to my plans, particularly after playing Arrival.

Just a second: SPOILER ALERT! I'm about to talk about stuff both from ME2 and from my own fic, so if you don't want either ruined for you, watch out!
I've had my plan for how the Reapers arrive for a good while now, almost since I started forming the idea of the story in my head. Needless to say, Arrival dealt with it in a very different (and in my opinion, much less exciting) way.  However, those actions have shaped certain parts of my story, making my Batarian squad member more confrontational at times and increasing the tension. However, at the same time I modified the canon for my own story, changing the true purpose of Object Rho so that my own story still made sense. End result: the same stuff you saw on screen happened, from Kenson's enslavement down to the detonation of the Alpha Relay, but it had a different purpose. Rather than heralding the arrival of the Reapers, it was merely one of their plans being set in motion to disrupt the Galaxy while they arrived. (In case you're curious, they were going to use Object Rho and the Relay to send a signal to lock up all relays in the network, paralysing the Galaxy while they blew up a sun to get into the Galaxy and start their harvest. Needless to say, Shepard stopped that, though he was too late to save the star they blew up.) SPOILERS END.

So now I've basically ruled that, given the fluid nature of all the news we're hearing about the game, I cannot make my story sync up to what we don't know yet. Therefore my story deviates from established canon after Arrival, with small deviations already starting durng that DLC.

[Timberley]

ElectricZ wrote...

Just another quick question to ME authors... Has the impending arrival of ME3 or any of the spoilers about plot made you change the direction of any of your works, or caused you to abandon them altogether?

I strived to keep all my first fics as canon as possible but my current fic has been blown completely out of the water, so I basically slapped a disclaimer on it saying it was going to be "alternate universe." Damn those Bioware developers for not checking with me first.

Not yet, but I can see myself pausing the fic I'm writing until ME3's come out.  I write OC fan fic, mainly due to the challenge of introducing a character to the setting.  I write my own original fiction too, but as characterisation is one of my weak points I use fanfic as a way of working that out without worrying about the setting too much.

However, I have noticed that BW does tend to muddy the waters with their established characters, leaving some minor (non-game) events open to interpretation.  For example, the character of Banes from ME1, who is currently featured in my fic.  Dr Michel knew him, as did Captain Anderson.  Suffice to say, he clearly has some sort of reputation, but beyond knowing them, working for some 'black ops outfit', running rackets with krogan muscle, and being dead, anything else is open to interpretation.  One man's independent contractor is another man's mercenary and all that.

Oh, and all of our fics are AU, as the canon (according to Bioware) is what we make it.  So, killing the Rachni Queen on Noveria is canon for one person, but not for another, and both are right!  Even the official books and comics are one form of canon, which is correct for them, but maybe not for you.  

So, whilst you can have an ME2-era fic where Udina is your Councilor, and this is as valid as having Anderson instead.

Bonkers really.  But, having said that, I try and avoid those decisions having a massive impact on my fiction.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Just my thoughts anyway.

Tim

[Severyx]

Timberley wrote...

However, I have noticed that BW does tend to muddy the waters with their established characters, leaving some minor (non-game) events open to interpretation.  For example, the character of Banes from ME1, who is currently featured in my fic.  Dr Michel knew him, as did Captain Anderson.  Suffice to say, he clearly has some sort of reputation, but beyond knowing them, working for some 'black ops outfit', running rackets with krogan muscle, and being dead, anything else is open to interpretation.  One man's independent contractor is another man's mercenary and all that.

This is what makes writing for (and reading about) the Mass Effect universe so great. There's plenty enough established details to flesh the universe out, and the games do an excellent job of showing how all this works together through Shepard's story. But as the novels have shown us, you don't need to have anybody even slightly related to anyone from the games to have a good Mass Effect story, and still have it follow the canon.

The beauty here is that you can, in your writing, visit places adjacent to where Shep's been. One example: Shepard visits the Zakera ward in ME1 and ME2. There are four other wards completely untouched aside from minor references in ME2. In my fic, 'Going Dark', the main character can visit the Kithoi Ward, and everything I paint there could be considered canon because BioWare has yet to establish otherwise.

Oh, and all of our fics are AU, as the canon (according to Bioware) is what we make it.  So, killing the Rachni Queen on Noveria is canon for one person, but not for another, and both are right!  Even the official books and comics are one form of canon, which is correct for them, but maybe not for you. [smilie]../../../images/forum/emoticons/w00t.png[/smilie]

One thing I've found that works in potentially making the story 'canon for everyone' is to just stay away from all of the events of the games/comics/novels and such in the current timeframe of your story. You may have events that are related to the game's generic canon in ways not seen by a player of Shepard, but as long as you avoid directly interfering with what players might have potentially chosen (including not referencing specific choices from each game), then what you write up could potentially be seen as canon no matter what choices anyone might have made. It can be a tough angle to work from at times, since we see everything through the perspective of Shepard in the games, but it's a whole new level when done right. And it's one of my fundamental ideas when writing my OC story.

Modifié par Severyx, 21 mai 2011 - 02:18 .

[ElectricZ]

[quote]fainmaca wrote...

That's true. And that's why I often find myself timing my releases so that the story stays on the front page during the rush hour. I find that five PM GMT is one of the best times to do it. You get the home from school/evening time browsing of Europe, and the whole day for the USA/Canada. Unfortunately my story averages 15/20K words per chapter now (not bad considering the first chapter was one and a half), so I am physically incapable of writing any faster than a chapter a week. In fact, my latest chapter was leaning towards a 30k word count, so I had to split it in half, releasing the first half of the mission yesterday and the second sometime next week. [/quote]

Your throughput is amazing... I'm lucky to get 3K out per week and actually kind of have that as a target now. Do you write each chapter with a break in mind, or do you let them flow together?

Looking back at the stats page there's a definite pattern to work hours, evening and weekends, but all in all over a period of time there's a fairly consistant number of people clicking on Mass Effect fanfics regardless of when they are posted in my experience.

[quote]Again, I find this to be true as well. My first chapter hogs about one third of my total hits compared to the twenty five others. I'm actually planning to rewrite my first chapter, as some of my reviewers have stated that it doesn't quite sit right with them. (Cerberus could do with a small tweak to make their actions a little more understandable).[/quote]

And I think probably that first burst of hits can probably be written off as false postivies. These are people who click on a story just because its on the front page. That's actually kind of what got me looking at metrics to begin with.  I was trying to figure out how many people were reading vs just clicking through. Plus, there's duplication in that if someone is interested in reading a new chapter, they will first have to click on the story, adding a hit, and then scroll down to the one they want to read, giving a "true" hit. Looking at the #'s per chapter I think gives a more realistic idea of who's reading my stuff. 


[quote\\For example, on looking at the faves list of all the people following my story, their faves list is almost entirely Harry Potter, as are the fics they've written themselves. Different characters, different fanbases. No doubt other writers find themselves attracting readers who've got almost entirely Twilight, or Naruto or something else on their lists. [/quote]

I'd really be interested in hearing what kind of readership the average Twilight or HP fic gets, just purely from a numbers standpoint.

[quote]The one thing I don't seem to see much of is reviews. My reviews only average about two a chapter. I don't know if that's maybe just that my fanbase isn't the most vocal one, or something else. Maybe I should just assume that I'm too awesome to criticise!
[/quote]

Feedback's the only way to tell what you are doing is working or not, isn't it? I don't think there's a writer out there, fanfic or otherwise who doesn't appreciate someone, somewhere saying "cool story," or even someone poking holes in the story. It means you affected someone enough they took the time to write a response. It's a buzz, and we all dig it.

There's also a definite corrilation between the number of reviews a story has and the number of clicks it gets since it's the one stat available to a reader on the main page that gives any indication of the impact a story is making (not necessarily quality), right or wrong. Of course, a story with a bazillion reviews might be the author and a critic arguing back and forth over the proper use of apostrophies in a quarian's name, where another might not have that many reviews but has actually been favorited by a hundred people.

I've wondered if FF.NET shouln't introduce some kind of rating/voting system but I think I understand why they have just stuck with the review count. Fandom being what it is, they'd get people voting stories up because it had their favorite character, and voting down ones they didn't like so "their" faves would be on top... Or friends of an author boosting numbers... or etc...

As has been said here a number of times, if you like to write, write and forget what the public has to say. But there's no doubt we're all writing something because we want it to be read.

[Timberley]

Severyx wrote...

This is what makes writing for (and reading about) the Mass Effect universe so great. There's plenty enough established details to flesh the universe out, and the games do an excellent job of showing how all this works together through Shepard's story. But as the novels have shown us, you don't need to have anybody even slightly related to anyone from the games to have a good Mass Effect story, and still have it follow the canon.

/snip-the-quote-Dibbler

One thing I've found that works in potentially making the story 'canon for everyone' is to just stay away from all of the events of the games/comics/novels and such in the current timeframe of your story. You may have events that are related to the game's generic canon in ways not seen by a player of Shepard, but as long as you avoid directly interfering with what players might have potentially chosen (including not referencing specific choices from each game), then what you write up could potentially be seen as canon no matter what choices anyone might have made. It can be a tough angle to work from at times, since we see everything through the perspective of Shepard in the games, but it's a whole new level when done right. And it's one of my fundamental ideas when writing my OC story.

Oh I agree completely.  My OC story that I'm writing tries to steer clear of anything that's overly Shepard-related, though I do have my characters visiting locales and people before Shepard's arrived on the scene.  Some places you can go to and not have anything to do with Shepard's arc. 

I do find myself wondering about the little details though, such as: what does an omni-tool (and not the orange-yellow hologram part) look like?  What does a Bio-amp look like?  All little things, and things I've had to envisage myself, but due to the lack of information about them (other than the effects they have and such in-game) I've created my look, which may or may not be the look.  For example, I've envisaged a day-to-day omni-tool too look like similar to this:



But, it does have smaller 'bays' built into the wristband that hold capsules of omni-gel.  Is this what a 'civilian' (i.e. not built into armour) omni-tool looks like?  None of us know, but it's a starting place.

I know that these little things don't hugely matter (unless they're a plot point), but I like having that image in my mind, as it allows for greater description of events or characters.

And yes, ElectricZ, I write because I enjoy writing.  But I do like having people look at and critique my work.  FF.net's great, but I do like your idea of a ranking system or somesuch.

Tim

Modifié par Timberley, 22 mai 2011 - 03:59 .

[fainmaca]

ElectricZ wrote...
Your throughput is amazing... I'm lucky to get 3K out per week and actually kind of have that as a target now. Do you write each chapter with a break in mind, or do you let them flow together?
 

It's not always easy. I usually find that I release a chapter and then have to take a day or two as a sort of vacation. However, I've calculated that I must release a chapter a week if I'm going to finish this in time for ME3's release. I couldn't believe I was glad that it got delayed a couple of months! Most people went 'oh no', but I was happy I had more time to finish this!

As I'm writing a theoretical Mass Effect 3 plot, each Chapter represents a single mission or the interlude between those missions. So generally my chapters end with the Normandy arriving somewhere or with Shepard and his team heading home. With the latest chapter, the one that needed splitting in half, I found myself writing from several different viewpoints, so I was able to split the chapter at one of those scene shifts, just after the first major goal of the mission had been accomplished.

EDIT: In fact, on thinking about it, chapters of that length sort of become stories of their own. It would be more appropriate to think of my project as a collection of 'episodes' running along a single arc. The main problem for me with a problem this size is the fact that I've made the plot changeable. I have my readers vote on certain key decisions in the story which will have a significant impact, good or bad, on the endgame. For example, they've already voted to decide the fate of the Krogan and of Omega, decisions which were not morally black and white. This means I have to bear those changeable circumstances in mind the further on in the plot I get, while still tying together as much of the plot of the first two games as possible. I've even got potential romance options in place for a Femshep and a Maleshep, even though the protagonist of my plot is a Maleshep who is romancing Jack.

Feedback's the only way to tell what you are doing is working or not, isn't it? I don't think there's a writer out there, fanfic or otherwise who doesn't appreciate someone, somewhere saying "cool story," or even someone poking holes in the story. It means you affected someone enough they took the time to write a response. It's a buzz, and we all dig it.

There's also a definite corrilation between the number of reviews a story has and the number of clicks it gets since it's the one stat available to a reader on the main page that gives any indication of the impact a story is making (not necessarily quality), right or wrong. Of course, a story with a bazillion reviews might be the author and a critic arguing back and forth over the proper use of apostrophies in a quarian's name, where another might not have that many reviews but has actually been favorited by a hundred people.

I've wondered if FF.NET shouln't introduce some kind of rating/voting system but I think I understand why they have just stuck with the review count. Fandom being what it is, they'd get people voting stories up because it had their favorite character, and voting down ones they didn't like so "their" faves would be on top... Or friends of an author boosting numbers... or etc...

As has been said here a number of times, if you like to write, write and forget what the public has to say. But there's no doubt we're all writing something because we want it to be read.

It's always encouraging to hear back from your readers, even if it's just a quick 'good job' or it's alright, but this and that could be better'. But I agree that it should be getting the story out there that matters. Good, bad or ugly, expression is important.

A rating system would be cool, but as you said it would eventually suffer from the same corrosion that any other system on the internet endures. The review system seems to be working well enough, although again as you said it can be misleading.

Modifié par fainmaca, 22 mai 2011 - 08:02 .

[Severyx]

@ElectricZ: I'm not so sure 'just clicking through to the last chapter' could be a reliable way to measure click-throughs, since FF.net has a link next to the story's title that allows you to jump straight to the last chapter. Since you're paying so much attention to this to gather trend information, I figured I should point that out even though you probably already know.

@Timberley: (and back to Mass Effect related stuff) I know what you mean about the small details. It's true that some minuscule details, such as the actual look of the omni-tool, are too 'detail-y' to think about. For those such things, I generally let the reader's imagination fill in the blanks. All I have to do is stay consistent with how it's accessed. Despite this, I've envisioned the omni-tool to be something mounted to your arm (perhaps like a pip-boy?), but still removable. Everything you would interact with would be like a haptic adaptive interface projected by the omni-tool that you don't need special gloves for, since it is noted that an omni-tool is somehow linked to your DNA. The novels say that omni-tools are small objects you hold, but that completely goes against the way the games display them, and personally, I think that particular 'model' is very lackluster when compared to the concept of the game's omni-tool. There are a lot of other details I've thought of regarding the omni-tool, but I won't get into those right now.

Other small Mass Effect things I've always wondered about:
- How does any/every major quarian exosuit function work?
- Why don't asari generate electrical charge when using biotics?
- How do helmets get stored when not in use (folding helmets in ME3 would be sweet) seeing as how they can generally be quickly accessed on demand?
- What do combat drones really look like? (Surely a floating ball of layered light isn't what it would really look like)

These are just a slice of things I've come across writing my fic. Granted, I'm glad that BioWare hasn't touched on every teensy subject we players/writers think up. It's this well-balanced mix of established vs. not really established that allows people to think of certain things in some colorful ways. Not to mention that I'd rather not tax the writers to that level of detail.

[ElectricZ]

Severyx wrote...

@ElectricZ: I'm not so sure 'just clicking through to the last chapter' could be a reliable way to measure click-throughs, since FF.net has a link next to the story's title that allows you to jump straight to the last chapter. Since you're paying so much attention to this to gather trend information, I figured I should point that out even though you probably already know.

See now, I didn't know that! Ya learn something new every day. Thanks for dropping some science on me.  That does throw a wrinkle to my counting method but no biggie... There's no marketing or census data riding on this, I am just curious about peoples reading habits.

These are just a slice of things I've come across writing my fic. Granted, I'm glad that BioWare hasn't touched on every teensy subject we players/writers think up. It's this well-balanced mix of established vs. not really established that allows people to think of certain things in some colorful ways. Not to mention that I'd rather not tax the writers to that level of detail.

That's an excellent point. It's far too easy to go overboard in trying to flesh out the minor details. While we're all taught to be good, descriptive writers, it's all to easy to describe every little technology and actioon in full detail only to end up with three paragraphs explaining how Zaeed replaces a heatsink in his rifle... bringing what should be a pulse-pounding thrill-a-minute firefight to a screeching halt. Trying to think up the tech is fun, but if it doesn't advance the plot it just turns into an info dump.

On the other hand if it does affect the plot it's important to figure out. Something that BW has been extremely vague about are ship speeds and transit times between systems when not using a Mass Relay. How long does it take to get from the Charon Relay to Earth? How long does interstellar travel take between two systems in the same cluster? In the game it doesn't matter, since you're not dealing with a plot in which a clock is ticking until you actually get the IFF and then it's measured in missions, not minutes or hours or days. That kind of stuff works in a video game, but getting that kind of thing wrong in a written narrative will really mess up the works...