9962 réponses à ce sujet

[MeredithvL]

Thank you for your welcome, you people are such a warm group!

@ Seracen: Oh, I loooooved FF7. I always thought that Sephiroth is one of the coolest characters they ever made for a video game. I admit I probably fangirled a little with him. A little.
If you plan to see 'V'... please do yourself a favor and don't see the reboot. The '80s series might look a little strange, with the hairstyles and all, but still it could run over the reboot with a truck. Also, I really liked Morena Baccarin in Firefly... but as Anna she's a big NO. Only good part in the reboot is when Jane Badler makes her appearance, I forced myself to watch the series up to that chapter.

@ enayasoul: I'm surprised that you liked 'V' reboot after having seen the original series. I think the characters lacked strength. The woman who replaced Donovan... no, sorry, I couldn't believe a single word she said as an actress.
Regarding my work, as I said I lost what I wrote about 'V', right now my only fiction is about Mass Effect. My nick in fanfiction.net is the same as here

[Seracen]

So, the life drama just dropped, as I knew it would. Try as I might, I am still 3-5 chapters from the end of the story.

Here's hoping I can not only find the time to finish the story, but also have the inspiration to do so. It just seems sad that I could get 50 chapters and 300 pages in, just to stop now.

Blargh, I am tempted to ask a favor of my primary beta to "ghost write" the chapters for me, for me to tweak later.

I'd only feel comfortable asking her, as we have collaborated on a few other stories thus far. Still, I sort of want this to be all mine. Currently, I shall plug away a few paragraphs a day.

Hope to have the thing done soon [endrant]...curse you real life!!!!

[MrStoob]

Oh, is ranting season open?

I've mentioned earlier that my main work at the mo has had its ups and downs and whatnot. In the last 5 chapters or so, I feel I've really found a groove with the piece ('only' 30 chapts in like lol) and I've enjoyed writing it. None of it is overly complicated plot-wise in the current flow so I can breeze along concentrating on the characters/interactions/fluff, which is the kind of stuff I prefer writing anyway. But! I'm writing in a void at the mo. Now I know there are people reading it, so that's okay. But no-one is saying a damn thing. It'd be nice to know what it is that makes them return, or what they don't like, or anything really! If I was barely getting any readers, at least I could think: right, failed venture, let's do something new. By the way, any creative who says they never read their reviews is a liar. If you didn't want to know what people think, you wouldn't ask them by putting it out there. Anyhoo, it's just a little frustrating. I'm half tempted (I've already thought of this obv) where the squad go on a mission, all wearing clown honkers on the soles of their shoes,

*honk honk honk*
"Why are we wearing these again, Commander?"
"I've already explained it once, I'm not explaining it again!"

and leave it at that with no further mention of it ever again, just to see if anyone is awake. lol

[Drussius]

MrStoob wrote...

I'm half tempted (I've already thought of this obv) where the squad go on a mission, all wearing clown honkers on the soles of their shoes,

*honk honk honk*
"Why are we wearing these again, Commander?"
"I've already explained it once, I'm not explaining it again!"

and leave it at that with no further mention of it ever again, just to see if anyone is awake. lol

Okay, I have to ask... Have you ever seen the movie Real Men with John Ritter and James Belushi?

"Who're those clowns?"
Clowns immediately scatter and hide after being spotted.
"Holy S***! Clown attack!"
Ritter and Belushi likewise take cover.
"What's going on?"
"They're putting some of the CIA's best operatives in clown suits so they won't be recognized."
"So they won't be recognized?"
"Yeah, they've gone bad."
"Bad clowns???"
Clowns continue to advance from cover to cover, dashing place to place with little honking sounds and the jingling of bells attached to their outfits...

This is the scene that immediately and rather vividly leapt into my head on your example. Maybe Shepard and company wanted to avoid being recognized?

[MrStoob]

Drussius wrote...

MrStoob wrote...

I'm half tempted (I've already thought of this obv) where the squad go on a mission, all wearing clown honkers on the soles of their shoes,

*honk honk honk*
"Why are we wearing these again, Commander?"
"I've already explained it once, I'm not explaining it again!"

and leave it at that with no further mention of it ever again, just to see if anyone is awake. lol

Okay, I have to ask... Have you ever seen the movie Real Men with John Ritter and James Belushi?

"Who're those clowns?"
Clowns immediately scatter and hide after being spotted.
"Holy S***! Clown attack!"
Ritter and Belushi likewise take cover.
"What's going on?"
"They're putting some of the CIA's best operatives in clown suits so they won't be recognized."
"So they won't be recognized?"
"Yeah, they've gone bad."
"Bad clowns???"
Clowns continue to advance from cover to cover, dashing place to place with little honking sounds and the jingling of bells attached to their outfits...

This is the scene that immediately and rather vividly leapt into my head on your example. Maybe Shepard and company wanted to avoid being recognized?

No!  No explanation! 

But no, can't say I've seen it.  The opening gag sounds like Police Squad.  

Modifié par MrStoob, 27 juillet 2013 - 11:37 .

[MeredithvL]

MrStoob wrote...

Now I know there are people reading it, so that's okay. But no-one is saying a damn thing. It'd be nice to know what it is that makes them return, or what they don't like, or anything really!

This happens a lot, and there's really only one explanation for this: people are lazy. I have real life friends reading my fanfic. When I find them, you know, face to face, they tell me "Oh, Mer, I really enjoyed the last chapter you posted!" and then I ask them why didn't they leave a review on ff.net and they reply "I was lazy".

Modifié par MeredithvL, 27 juillet 2013 - 08:25 .

[MrStoob]

MeredithvL wrote...

MrStoob wrote...

Now I know there are people reading it, so that's okay. But no-one is saying a damn thing. It'd be nice to know what it is that makes them return, or what they don't like, or anything really!

This happens a lot, and there's really only one explanation for this: people are lazy. I have real life friends reading my fanfic. When I find them, you know, face to face, they tell me "Oh, Mer, I really enjoyed the last chapter you posted!" and then I ask them why didn't they leave a review on ff.net and they reply "I was lazy".

I think I was spoilt somewhat on my first book.  Regular reviews and regular posters.  I had a few regulars in the first few chapters of the current one but nothing for a good while now.  Well untl someone reviews "Please, for the love of god, stop posting this crap!  Why are you still doing this?" then, meh, onward.

[MeredithvL]

MrStoob wrote...

I think I was spoilt somewhat on my first book.  Regular reviews and regular posters.  I had a few regulars in the first few chapters of the current one but nothing for a good while now.  Well untl someone reviews "Please, for the love of god, stop posting this crap!  Why are you still doing this?" then, meh, onward.

Sometimes I feel that the only way I'd get regular reviews is if I made a story containing explicit sexual encounters, or if I made pure fluff between the characters. Those stories have tons of reviews. Mine has 41 posted chapters and only 22 reviews

But yes, keep posting! After all, if you enjoy writing the story, that's what matters, and if it was bad people would say it. People are very vocal when they dislike something. If they read a story that make them angry or confused or otherwise brought negative emotions on them, they are more likely to express it than if they actually enjoyed what they had just read.

[MrStoob]

MeredithvL wrote...
Sometimes I feel that the only way I'd get regular reviews is if I made a story containing explicit sexual encounters, or if I made pure fluff between the characters.

Or clown honkers!  

[mahlerbone]

I guess this is the place to post? It's my first attempt at a fanfic story. I would love to get some real criticism. I took inspiration from the credit's song in Mass Effect 1.

http://www.fanfictio...nce-and-for-All

[MeredithvL]

mahlerbone wrote...

I guess this is the place to post? It's my first attempt at a fanfic story. I would love to get some real criticism. I took inspiration from the credit's song in Mass Effect 1.

http://www.fanfictio...nce-and-for-All

I think you should actually post here, so your story gets added to the list:
http://social.biowar.../index/16202367

If you post it here in this thread, it will get lost among the many posts and pages of this thread. I'll give a look to your story, though.

Modifié par MeredithvL, 28 juillet 2013 - 01:15 .

[fluffywalrus]

MeredithvL wrote...

MrStoob wrote...

I think I was spoilt somewhat on my first book.  Regular reviews and regular posters.  I had a few regulars in the first few chapters of the current one but nothing for a good while now.  Well untl someone reviews "Please, for the love of god, stop posting this crap!  Why are you still doing this?" then, meh, onward.

Sometimes I feel that the only way I'd get regular reviews is if I made a story containing explicit sexual encounters, or if I made pure fluff between the characters. Those stories have tons of reviews. Mine has 41 posted chapters and only 22 reviews

But yes, keep posting! After all, if you enjoy writing the story, that's what matters, and if it was bad people would say it. People are very vocal when they dislike something. If they read a story that make them angry or confused or otherwise brought negative emotions on them, they are more likely to express it than if they actually enjoyed what they had just read.

Haha, for like, twenty chapters, people were practically begging for me to have my pairing get together in Feathers.  That tension led to a bunch of reviews about said tension and said characters... I haven't had any explicit encounters (though admittedly a semi-risque close call did happen), and my story's not ALL fluff...I just find room for fluff here and there, but I've also admittedly placed the 'romance' between Shep and Liara on a similar priority level when writing as the main plot, so perhaps that's one part.

Also, some people live and die by tagging. Not may read my origin fic because it was tagged as  "Shepard(F)" alone, and "Drama/Hurt/Comfort". A lot of people read stories for some shred of romance, sexual or not, and Feathers absolutely decimated my view and visitor numbers immediately because I had it listed as "Shepard(F)/Liara" and "Drama/Romance". Just keep in mind that tagging does matter. Some people filter by genre, by character, my story length, etc.

I wouldn't worry too much about reviews. Honestly, not a lot of people review when a fandom's source material is inactive. At least, that's what I've been told, and it makes sense, to a degree. ME3 is over a year old now, and gamers are fickle when it comes to fandoms they follow, I find.

Like you said, writing for you is the most important part. I've got a bunch of writing on my computer I haven't published, and I might never publish it, but it was a lot of fun either way. Writing's the important thing;; it's nice to have an audience, but IMO it's not all that necessary to have one, or a big one at that.

Modifié par fluffywalrus, 28 juillet 2013 - 12:43 .

[mahlerbone]

MeredithvL wrote...

mahlerbone wrote...

I guess this is the place to post? It's my first attempt at a fanfic story. I would love to get some real criticism. I took inspiration from the credit's song in Mass Effect 1.

http://www.fanfictio...nce-and-for-All

I think you should actually post here, so your story gets added to the list:
http://social.biowar.../index/16202367

If you post it here, it will get lost among the many posts and pages of this thread. I'll give a look to your story, though.

Appreciate it!

[MeredithvL]

mahlerbone wrote...

Appreciate it!

I just left you a review. Great story!

[mahlerbone]

MeredithvL wrote...

mahlerbone wrote...

Appreciate it!

I just left you a review. Great story!

Thank you! I appreciate it

[Ignis Mors]

MeredithvL wrote...

MrStoob wrote...

I think I was spoilt somewhat on my first book.  Regular reviews and regular posters.  I had a few regulars in the first few chapters of the current one but nothing for a good while now.  Well untl someone reviews "Please, for the love of god, stop posting this crap!  Why are you still doing this?" then, meh, onward.

Sometimes I feel that the only way I'd get regular reviews is if I made a story containing explicit sexual encounters, or if I made pure fluff between the characters. Those stories have tons of reviews. Mine has 41 posted chapters and only 22 reviews

But yes, keep posting! After all, if you enjoy writing the story, that's what matters, and if it was bad people would say it. People are very vocal when they dislike something. If they read a story that make them angry or confused or otherwise brought negative emotions on them, they are more likely to express it than if they actually enjoyed what they had just read.

Heh, I have had precisely one person who regularly reviews Meus Mundus, and a different person who regularly reviews my KoTOR fic. And Meredith, I've only recently gotten to the point where I was past the number of reviews compared to the number of chapters I had up for my main fic, and it's got sixty-five chapters up. It is really, really, really hard to get a large number of reviews with a fic that is focused on story and not fluff between characters or porn. A story that is trying to be more like the Lord of the Rings or Wheel of Time rather than a not-terrible Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey is rarely popular on ff.net. Most readers don't want that, for some reason. (Though I seriously think that most fanfiction is in serious need of an editor armed with a freaking flamethrower to just burn through the garbage. Just in the last week I've checked out two new fics, and NEITHER of them used quotation marks for direct quotations. I literally quit less than halfway through the first chapter of both of them, since I couldn't follow how it was written.)

[MeredithvL]

Ignis Mors wrote...

A story that is trying to be more like the Lord of the Rings or Wheel of Time rather than a not-terrible Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey is rarely popular on ff.net. Most readers don't want that, for some reason.

I know, and seriously I don't understand why. When you play Mass Effect, you play a powerful story, full of choices and hard decisions, philosophical questions and moral dilemas. It's not about who romanced who, although romance is a part of life and Bioware doesn't shy away from it. And yet, people are done playing the game, and they want to read mostly about... fluff and porn? I don't get it, but what can I say, I don't feel I'm well adjusted to society quite often, if being well adjusted means I have to share the same culture that created something like Twilight.

Ignis Mors wrote...

(Though I seriously think that most fanfiction is in serious need of an editor armed with a freaking flamethrower to just burn through the garbage. Just in the last week I've checked out two new fics, and NEITHER of them used quotation marks for direct quotations. I literally quit less than halfway through the first chapter of both of them, since I couldn't follow how it was written.)

Yes, been there myself, it's terrible sometimes. But sometimes I begin reading a story on ff.net and the author seem to be able to spell and use grammar well (English is not my first language, but I manage) and then I keep reading... and they turn the characters of the series into something they are NOT. For instance, those fics that turn female Shepard into a needy girly girl popping tons of children out of her womb and baking cookies. Don't get me wrong, I can see how some people's Shepard would want to be a mother and that's fine, but that doesn't mean that she has to change her personality after the war! Or those fics that turn Garrus into an abusive boyfriend or something like that. I read some very good stories on that site, but others, as you say, need an editor with a flamethrower.

Oh, and I joined your group of Liara Haters in your signature. I don't hate her that much but I feel that she was a forced character, as if Bioware absolutely wanted us to totally adore her and they were all the time saying "look at her, just look at her, and love her, love her pretty pleaaaaseeee??"

[MrStoob]

Ignis Mors wrote...

MeredithvL wrote...

MrStoob wrote...

I think I was spoilt somewhat on my first book.  Regular reviews and regular posters.  I had a few regulars in the first few chapters of the current one but nothing for a good while now.  Well untl someone reviews "Please, for the love of god, stop posting this crap!  Why are you still doing this?" then, meh, onward.

Sometimes I feel that the only way I'd get regular reviews is if I made a story containing explicit sexual encounters, or if I made pure fluff between the characters. Those stories have tons of reviews. Mine has 41 posted chapters and only 22 reviews

But yes, keep posting! After all, if you enjoy writing the story, that's what matters, and if it was bad people would say it. People are very vocal when they dislike something. If they read a story that make them angry or confused or otherwise brought negative emotions on them, they are more likely to express it than if they actually enjoyed what they had just read.

Heh, I have had precisely one person who regularly reviews Meus Mundus, and a different person who regularly reviews my KoTOR fic. And Meredith, I've only recently gotten to the point where I was past the number of reviews compared to the number of chapters I had up for my main fic, and it's got sixty-five chapters up. It is really, really, really hard to get a large number of reviews with a fic that is focused on story and not fluff between characters or porn. A story that is trying to be more like the Lord of the Rings or Wheel of Time rather than a not-terrible Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey is rarely popular on ff.net. Most readers don't want that, for some reason. (Though I seriously think that most fanfiction is in serious need of an editor armed with a freaking flamethrower to just burn through the garbage. Just in the last week I've checked out two new fics, and NEITHER of them used quotation marks for direct quotations. I literally quit less than halfway through the first chapter of both of them, since I couldn't follow how it was written.)

Hm.  That all makes me think I took the wrong tact when I started my 2nd book, and probably also why people are still reading.  My post-war book has lots of exposition, 'we'll get there in a minute' type plots, drastic lore/science bending, and questionable motivations all around, so that would explain less readership if your premise on non-fluff holds true.  However... I have managed to get some of my fluff in there along the way, emotional outbursts, romantic confrontations, soul-searching, silly scenes, and such like.  So again, if you are correct, that might keep 'em coming lol.

It's funny really.  In the early chapters of the book, when I was still getting the odd comment, there was a couple that basically said, "Not really into the story, but I'm still enjoying the writing."  Which really, you can't ask for more than that, eh?  It didn't make me change the story or its direction, I don't believe one should, but I felt the same way as them really lol.  Coherent story writing over a long piece, when you have to do the WHOLE thing, and not rely on a pre-built plot arc, is hard.  

[MeredithvL]

MrStoob wrote...

My post-war book has lots of exposition, 'we'll get there in a minute' type plots, drastic lore/science bending, and questionable motivations all around, so that would explain less readership if your premise on non-fluff holds true.  However... I have managed to get some of my fluff in there along the way, emotional outbursts, romantic confrontations, soul-searching, silly scenes, and such like.  So again, if you are correct, that might keep 'em coming lol.

Oh, I'm not saying that some people don't want to read more serious stories, because they do. Whenever I post a new chapter of my fic, I have several visits even before ff.net updates the site and puts my story on their list. It's just that they don't leave any reviews. When I had to take a break from writing because of personal matters, some of them sent me private messages saying "Did you abandon the story? Please don't!". I'm just saying that, from what I've seen in that site, stories with the "romance" tag get more followers and reviews.

MrStoob wrote...

It's funny really.  In the early chapters of the book, when I was still getting the odd comment, there was a couple that basically said, "Not really into the story, but I'm still enjoying the writing."  Which really, you can't ask for more than that, eh?  It didn't make me change the story or its direction, I don't believe one should, but I felt the same way as them really lol.  Coherent story writing over a long piece, when you have to do the WHOLE thing, and not rely on a pre-built plot arc, is hard.  

Yes, that's why you have to keep a lot of notes, make charts, whatever works for you. I've been helping myself with some novel writing sites, to get tips on how to write better stories. I find myself struggling sometimes about small details to keep coherence sometimes, like "was this character informed that this particular minor thing is happening?" and I have to check my notes. Yesterday, the scene happened in a room that I had described before, and suddenly I asked myself "did this room have a window?". It was a minor detail, but I absolutely had to check previous chapters before I could write any further, because the detail hadn't been relevant enough to make it to my notes.

Sometimes I find myself also reading stories that are well written but for instance they are about a LI I don't really care about, but I still enjoy the writing. What I find strange however, is that you kept writing a story you really weren't into, but still didn't feel like making changes to it. Would you care to explain why?

[MrStoob]

MeredithvL wrote...
Sometimes I find myself also reading stories that are well written but for instance they are about a LI I don't really care about, but I still enjoy the writing. What I find strange however, is that you kept writing a story you really weren't into, but still didn't feel like making changes to it. Would you care to explain why?

I think it was probably that while the flow of the story at the time was being awkward and I'd have to admit, that may well come out in the writing, I had an idea of where I wanted the story to be in the future that I knew would be more comfortable for me to write.  TBH, the way I write, other than a single line broad 'end game', I write on the fly so these things happen.  I like to write that way, to have a broad premise and riff it from there.  Like I said above, I am enjoying writing it a lot more recently, it just seems to have taken a lot of effort to get here with this one!

[MeredithvL]

MrStoob wrote...

I think it was probably that while the flow of the story at the time was being awkward and I'd have to admit, that may well come out in the writing, I had an idea of where I wanted the story to be in the future that I knew would be more comfortable for me to write.  TBH, the way I write, other than a single line broad 'end game', I write on the fly so these things happen.  I like to write that way, to have a broad premise and riff it from there.  Like I said above, I am enjoying writing it a lot more recently, it just seems to have taken a lot of effort to get here with this one!

Well, the way you describe it, it seems like it had been a learning process for you, and perhaps your next story will come more to your liking without having to suffer that long, initial effort.
Personally, writing on the fly never worked for me. Before I sit to actually write I need an outline: I start from here, I want to get there, this list of things happen in the middle. Of course, a lot of new elements appear as I am actually working on each individual chapter and I have to update the outline constantly, but having that outline allows me to stay on track. If I didn't have it, I think my stories would be about "whatever was on my mind" at the time I sat to write that individual chapter.

[Drussius]

I'm with Stoob on this one. But this is not a new conversation either. Lots of people like outlines or detailed flow charts even, and that's fine. It certainly can't hurt to know exactly where you're going and what plot points need to be tied up. But I personally write entirely on the fly. My fanfic started with me saying to myself "I'd like to explore things happening elsewhere during the war. Terra Nova is mentioned, but no details were ever given other than that the occupation was 'light'. I could do something with that!" And I proceeded to write 67 chapters and over 600K words in just under a year. No plan. Just vague ideas and the odd scene that I really wanted to work in.

That's how I've always written. I tried outlines a few times when I was younger, but I always felt too constrained by my preconceived notions of what the story was supposed to be. 9 times out of 10, I would come up with a better idea halfway through, scrap the outline, rewrite some earlier scenes to adjust to the new direction, and end up with a totally different story than I started writing. Eventually I just decided that I should skip the early stage altogether and write on the fly from the start.

MeredithvL wrote...

MrStoob wrote...

My post-war book has lots of exposition, 'we'll get there in a minute' type plots, drastic lore/science bending, and questionable motivations all around, so that would explain less readership if your premise on non-fluff holds true.  However... I have managed to get some of my fluff in there along the way, emotional outbursts, romantic confrontations, soul-searching, silly scenes, and such like.  So again, if you are correct, that might keep 'em coming lol.

Oh, I'm not saying that some people don't want to read more serious stories, because they do. Whenever I post a new chapter of my fic, I have several visits even before ff.net updates the site and puts my story on their list. It's just that they don't leave any reviews. When I had to take a break from writing because of personal matters, some of them sent me private messages saying "Did you abandon the story? Please don't!". I'm just saying that, from what I've seen in that site, stories with the "romance" tag get more followers and reviews.

Just wanted to offer my deduction on this one: The games are full of action, heavy choices, dramatic tension and the like, while the romances, while acknowledged, are a very small part of the game overall. And they should be, IMO. I enjoy them, but I play for the story, and I think that Bioware has generally done an excellent job of balancing the romances against the plot... Enough romance to make romantically-inclined players happy without overshadowing the story.

However, I think many fans are very taken with the romantic plots in the games and want them expanded upon. If they want all action and game-like tension, they can just replay the games. But the romances... you can't really experience them along a different path or the like. They are what they are. My eldest daughter talks about it frequently. She says they would make a killing with an all-romance DLC that added hours of romantic fluff and cutscenes to the games. And while I wouldn't buy it for myself, I'd have to agree that she's right. There are enough people who enjoy the romantic subplots that it would probably be an excellent seller. I'd have to buy it just for my daughter.

[Ignis Mors]

That probably would sell well, Drussius, and you're probably right about one reason for the more romance heavy stuff doing better on the site. But, I personally think that it is also due to the fact that a lot of people honestly think that there is no such thing as a good fanfiction story, that it is just good for exploring the romances. I think that the stigma attached to fanfiction has made most of the story-driven fics not do as well as a lot of them deserve.
Also, Drussius, my writing style is similar to yours. I've tried doing outlines, but it always ended up being too strict, too structured for me. I tend to lean towards chaos in most things. (If you knew me in real life and saw my bedroom you would definitely agree. Thing is usually something that might get me in trouble for health and safety violations.)
Also, I'm of the opinion of, "If your action and tension is just like that in the game, you're doing it wrong." why take this medium of self-expression that is based off of other people's works, and just copy/paste the action/plot, but change a little bit of the characters actions? It doesn't work for me. And, I swear the site needs an editor that goes in and fixes spelling/punctuation. I was reading an otherwise good chapter of a fic regarding Miranda's loyalty mission that was written from the first person perspective, BUT THEY DIDN'T CAPITALIZE ANY OF THE I's. Sorry if that seems a bit inconsequential, but I come from a family where you could be in the middle of telling a story at a family dinner and you will be interrupted for using me when you were supposed to use I.
Anyways, question time! What individual chapter of the ones you've already published in any or all of your fics has been the hardest for you to write, and why? Mine, in Meus Mundus was the 47th 'cause Shep dumped Miranda 'cause she was having a few issues. And in Crucible Effect it was the latest one because it was Thane's mission because I cannot do that one mission right for some reason. As for my KoTOR fic, it was probably chapter five, 'cause of an interaction that Revan was having that was not coming out right. It seemed very... awkward to me.
Oh, and Meredith, glad to have another Liara hater on board. And, your reasons are great. I didn't think of those when I was playing it, I was too busy raging about not having Miri, Thane, Legion, Samara, Mordin, Grunt, Wrex, Jack, Kasumi, Zaeed(rest in peace, Robin Sachs. Sorry, got off topic.), and... ah, can't remember the other one who drew a short straw. Oh, wait, Jacob. The person who went completely OOC in 3. At least to me. The way I read him was he was a man who honor meant a lot to him because he didn't want to be like his father. It helped me empathize with the guy, even if he was kinda dull. Anyways, that's enough rambling for one night.

Modifié par Ignis Mors, 29 juillet 2013 - 07:52 .

[MrStoob]

RE: Difficult chapters to write

The hardest to write, and I will admit some failure here, mainly in the build up (duuh), was a long coming confrontation of a love triangle. I had envisaged how each of the characters would react to the event but putting it into words was difficult. This kind of thing is usually one of my fortes but this particular one was massive in terms of the characters in the triangle for my fic at least, and I just don't think I was quite happy with the way I got their 'desperation' out. Like I said, I think the badly managed build up didn't help. Cue comments such as "Well that was jarring..."

@Meredith: Indeed, I have learned a lot over the process about some of my strengths and weaknesses, and areas to consider more in future. Not so much in the planning, but the feel. For eg: I should have known the above chapter wasn't right and paused on it.

RE: Romance VS Sci-fi/Action/Drama/Adventure/etc

My ME fics generally go under 'Sci-fi/Drama', as there is no 'Space Opera' option. I watched gamermd83 do her play through of Citadel (Sheploo/Ash) and when it got to Liara's scene, without the romance, md was really disappointed she didn't get a bit more about Liara, "Awww, I want to romance Liara now, just to see more about her." kind of thing. So I'm not sure myself, if it's entirely because of the 'romance' tag, or because there's more opportunity for inner thoughts and vulnerabilities in a romance arc.

My romance stuff isn't all skipping through the meadows making blue babies anyway. It's no fun if two people just love each other and live happily ever after. There must be tension and jeopardy!

[fluffywalrus]

The hardest chapter I've had to write was likely the big ol' death scene in my prequel. I got Mass Effect around the time when it came out, and I'd spent hours milling over who my Shepard was, filling out her back story, and an OC I included was a big part of it. I'd known those characters for years, and it was hard to let one of them go like that.

And as for the "serious" vs "romance" thing, I think it comes down to readers wanting more interactions with the characters they're fond of. Romances are just the easiest, most stable way to get that, because a lot of the more "serious" stories focusing on the mass effect plot (whether re-tellings or variations on it) don't really do much of anything in terms of expanding the game's cast in any meaningful way. If you've got a story that's 100k or so words and I don't know any more about Garrus or Wrex or Liara or Tali than I would in the game, that's a failure in my eyes. There's no excuse not to fill out some of the characters, because it's the best way to reel the readers in, to grow their interest, let them know they'll get a different experience than they got with the game.
Because when I finished ME3, wanted more time with those characters. I didn't give a crap about the ending, I was cool with it, even though it hurt like a knife twisting in my ribcage. I wanted more time with all the wonderful characters I'd gotten to know, and that's what fanfiction is for, primarily. That's the pattern I've seen in every fandom. People start reading a story for the characters, and they stay for the interactions and the story. In general, they don't skim through and go "Oh hey, someone's doing a story of Shep's journey through ME1-3, that could be interesting" or "Hrm, Shep's taking on a bunch of batarians? I always wanted to read about that."
No, they read for the characters, for the promise of 'more'. Which is why the romance stories work so well, because they take what you got in the game and give more. Whereas, solely story-driven fics don't tend to be able to offer much on first glance, because you can't really give more than the game, outside of Post-ME3 fics at least...you can just give 'different', which is appealing too, just to a lesser degree for a lot of people.

Combine that with people wanting a happy ending for Shep, and you get a big reason why the romance fics in our fandom are so popular. They give 'more', and they give a nicer ending. So when people are scouring through the thousands of stories for something to read, it's a lot easier to pick a sure-bet than something that could just be unsatisfying.

Modifié par fluffywalrus, 29 juillet 2013 - 09:32 .