100 Things I've Learned By Writing Fanfiction: #16: Why Are You Writing This Anyway

My friend Jess has been stuck with her story for a while now. I'm hoping that by bringing our old RP characters into her plot, we can resolve some of the long-standing issues and get her unstuck. So far it's going pretty well, but the more we work on it , the more we realize that it's going to be a LONG, complicated project. (I'm doing my best not to transmit my "curse" and make it five times longer just by being present.)

As I was thinking about her project, I remembered my experiences with my own AU stories, and I remembered several people asking me how I maintained my interest in such long, difficult projects. They would say things like "I can't spend more than a month or two on any fanfiction before I get bored with it or get stuck or find something that interests me more. How do you keep going?"

100 Things I've Learned By Writing Fanfiction: #15: Defining AU

These posts will also be available on my new WordPress account:
http://rosebfischer.wordpress.com/category/100-things/100-things-fanfiction/

I've been trying to stay away from "definition" posts in this series because I think there are already plenty of fandom dictionaries and encyclopedias floating around the Internet. My problem is that I did a casual search on the term "alternate universe" before I started working on my upcoming posts, and there were a lot of confusing or conflicting definitions. I want to make sure that my readers are on the same page here. For the purposes of this blog series, I'm going to use the definitions that I've been familiar with since way back in the age of the dinosaurs when fanfiction was mostly published in print fanzines. They are not the only valid definitions. They're probably not even the best definitions. They're just the ones I use.

Geez, Where Did This month Go???

Wow. This month has gotten away from me. I've been thinking about my 100 Things series a lot, but I guess I didn't realize how quickly October was going. This month, I've had the unexpected pleasure of getting to help a close friend work on her project for NanoWrimo. You can read all about that here.

My friend's project happens to be a Star Wars AU that she's been working on intermittently since shortly after I started my biggest and most intense fanfiction project, One Path, in 2007. Jessica and I were just chatting one night, and we realized that (1) her story really needed some solidly developed orginal characters, and (2) we happened to have the perfect ones to fit the theme and storylines of her project just sitting around our heads from a SW roleplay we did between 2005-2007. The only problem was that her story is set in the Old Republic Era, and their characters lived well after the Old Republic fell, sometime around 500 ABY. (Which, for anyone who isn't into Star Wars, would be 500 years after Star Wars: A New Hope.) So, we had a lot of adapting to do when it came to getting our characters into a much different time. In the Star Wars universe. I think we did pretty well. Other fans will have to be the judge, but I'm pretty excited.

I'm thrilled to see my friend writing again. She has been really struggling with her writing for several years now, and it's great to see her starting to enjoy it again. I'm happy to have a chance to work with her, and I'm happy to be able to give our old characters some new life and (hopefully) more satisfying outcomes this time around.

The process of working our characters into her plot has given me a lot to think about. Some of it relates directly to my section of the 100 Things series that relates to AUs. Others are just thoughts on writing fanfiction for fiction in general.

Posts I have coming are:

Defining AU
Why Are You Writing This Anyway?
Who Is This Mary Sue Chick Anyway?
Mary Sue and Why We Love Her
Mary Sue and Why We Hate Her
Nobody Cares About Your Dumb OC
Give Me A Good OC Any Day
Pathos, Angst, and the "Worst Possible" Scenario

I am still writing these posts with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, so you can blame any weirdness on Dragon tracks I missed during cleanup.

100 Things I Learned From Writing Fanfiction #14--Not Having a Beta Is Not the End of the World

Most people who have been writing fanfiction for any length of time have a horror story or two about a bad beta. There's the person who just doesn't understand your work, who has very different views of the fandom and its characters than you do and consistently says, "bad characterization" when the real problem is vastly different interpretations of the character, or nitpicks at things so much that it makes the story no fun to write. There's the person whose grammar or other writing skills are at a lower level than yours, and so never finds anything to correct. I've had a few betas who just turned out to be so annoying or weird that I couldn't work with them (again, not naming names.) Most commonly, the problem with betas is finding one who will follow through and read your story — or just finding one at all. I spend more time posting beta inquiries or emailing beta requests than is probably healthy. I have a form letter that I wrote up so I could copy-paste and add the relevant details when I'm looking for a beta. That's how many times I have to look for a new one. I've even considered writing up a permanent beta request post that I can link people to. Most requests don't get a response, and of those that do, I would say one out of five people actually agrees and follows through to read the material I send them.

Some of that is probably because my stories are ridiculously long, and I don't really write in very many "cool" or popular fandoms. I use examples from my Stargate and Star Wars work when I write this blog series because those fandoms are more well-known, but neither one is enjoying the height of its popularity anymore. Most of the franchises that I write for have pretty small fan communities. My experience is not unique, though. A quick browse through forum threads or LiveJournal communities or even Tumblr posts related to fanfiction will show way more people looking for beta readers — begging for beta readers — then there are beta readers volunteering their services.

So, the odds are, if you're writing a story of any length, you're going to have to get multiple beta readers for different periods of time. If you're like me, there will be long stretches when you don't have a beta reader because the ones you had are busy or have other commitments. Having a beta reader is fantastic, and I recommend it whenever possible, but if you don't have one, here are some things you can try. (Disclaimer: most of these don't work overly well for me, but you may have different experiences with them. Try them out and see what works.)

100 Things I Learned From Writing Fanfiction #13--Every Good Fic Writer Needs Good A Beta

 "Beta" or "beta reader" is a fandom term for a person or group of people who will read your story and offer suggestions for improvement before you publish it. Beta readers are volunteer proofreaders, continuity checkers, sounding boards, and general critique providers. Not every beta reader excels at every part of that job description, and you may need one type of beta more than you need another.

It's hard to find a good beta. I've heard people say that they just don't have time to have their stories beta read. I've had betas flake out on me mid-story and disappear without a trace (In fact, I have a confession to make. Back in the early 2000s, I volunteered to beta read someone's AU, my computer died, and by the time I got a new one, I had lost that person's contact info and the Yahoo group that we met on was no longer in existence — so, to the girl whose story I flaked on, I'm very sorry and I hope that one day you found a beta reader who helped you out, because you had a really good premise and I liked the chapters that I saw.) I've also had beta readers who seem to find fault with every single thing I wrote and every word choice I made. There's a fine line between being a tough editor and being an asshole, and some people just don't know where that line is.

So, given all of that, why would I say that every good fic writer needs a good beta?

100 Things I Learned From Writing Fanfiction #12--It Will Grow.

I've been working on a few of my projects by dictation while my arms try to heal. One of them is a fanfiction project  that I started back in 2010 and then put on hold in 2011 so that could take a hiatus from fandom activities. Originally, it was planned as a 50,000 word piece and it has now grown to 40,000 words before I have even finished the first major plot arc. So that lends me to three different blog topics, first and foremost being It Will Grow. Following that, I'd like to talk about beta readers. My first post on that topic is going to be Every Good Fic Writer Needs a Good Beta. The second will be Not Having a Beta Is Not the End of the World. So let's get started.

It's About Time! (My Thoughts on Motive 1x11, Brute Force, and Disability on television.)

Back in mid July, I went to the doctor for the ongoing problems with my arms. She said I had tendinitis in both of them and that I should not type or do anything hobby related that required the use of my arms or hands. It was only supposed to have lasted for about three or four days, but I'm still having problems, and at this point, I am going to assume that RSI is going to be a problem for a while.

Unlike the last time something happened to an arm, this affects both of them and makes it really hard to do any graphic work or to write. I decided to start using a text to speech program, and I've been working with it for a little over a month now. I'm getting pretty good at dictation, so I thought it was time to try a blog post.  Took all night and most of the day, but here it is.

(If there are more typos than usual, you can blame the text-to-speech software.)

I've been following ABC's Motive since it began airing in February.  I was intrigued by the premise: focusing a procedural drama on the connection between the killer and the victim and the events that led up to the murder instead of the police investigation/whodunit.  I was also drawn to the idea of a female protagonist (Detective Angie Flynn) who was also a single mother and a small team of co-investigators, as opposed to a whole unit like in some of the larger ensembles that are still airing.  Up until last night, I found the show interesting enough to keep watching, sometimes intriguing, but not really as exciting as I thought it had the potential to be.


I'm behind on the show.  I have a habit of letting episodes build up.  So last night I watched episode 1x11, Brute Force, and I was not only excited, but I was impressed.  I wish I could say that I was excited about what the show was doing with a recurring cast member, but I am really impressed with Detective Flynn for the first time.  I was excited about the episode's killer-of-the-week.

Spoilers after the jump.

100 Things I Learned From Writing Fanfiction: #11: There Are Big Old Jerks Out There

Edit: Somehow had this scheduled to post next month instead of last week.  I guess I don't have to write anything new yet! :P

As a counterpoint to my last post about awesome people, I feel I should point out there are also a lot of jerks out there.  I don't know whether it's because the internet gives people the illusion of anonymity or if it's just that there are jerks everywhere, but you will meet them.

I won't name anyone this time because I don't want the post to be about who did what to whom and when.  Anyone who gets involved in a fandom will meet up with jerks.  Sometimes they're forum moderators who're on a power trip.  Sometimes they're just dumb people who are so rabidly involved in their fandom or their particular sub-group of fans that they forget how to respectfully disagree. Sometimes they're just idiots who think that hobby related activity (especially online) means you get to suspend the rules of common courtesy and etiquette.

I don't like Joss Whedon's body of work.  I know, jaws have hit the floor all over the internet now.  I have nothing against the man; I just don't like most of his stuff.  The only exception is the movie Titan AE.  I don't like the new Battlestar Galactica either--although I did at first.  I've been personally attacked by members of those fandoms because I said I didn't like the shows.  (I have plenty of friends who're into Buffy or Firefly or BSG, so I'm not singling out those fandoms.  I'm just talking about my experiences.)

I've also met people who seemed to have no interest in reading (or watching) my work except to leave nasty comments.  (Which is entirely different than leaving constructive negative feedback) Most of those are anonymous but not all.

The most hurtful experiences I've had in fandom have been with people I considered friends.  I've had people suddenly turn on me for something I wrote in a story or said in a fan community that they didn't like.  There have been people who "got bored" or left a fandom for some other reason and seem to have decided that my friendship wasn't important anymore.

What I've learned is that you need a thick skin to be involved in fandom, and an even thicker one if you plan to create fanfiction or fanart of any kind.  It's great fun, and most of the people you'll encounter are wonderful, but you have to be prepared for the occasional jerks.  Try not to take their actions personally, and try to avoid engaging an argument wherever you can.

Kindle Worlds Announces Licensed Fanfiction

A few days ago, Amazon announced Kindle Worlds, a publishing platform for fanfiction authors.  The way it seems to work is that Amazon acquires licenses from the franchise owners and then gets a portion of profits for each sale.  There are only a handful of franchises on board for this, but Amazon promises more to come.

I have mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand, Kindle Worlds has the potential to prove something I've been saying for years: that fanfiction is not just the province of people who lack the creativity to write their own stories, and it has positive effects on media franchises which allow it rather than the commonly held misconception that it somehow equates with "stealing" an author's work and the profits to which the author is entitled.  (Whoo, long sentence.)   On the other other hand, Kindle Worlds raises the question of what exactly constitutes fanfiction.  I think fanfiction is something that fans have always done out of love and enjoyment.  If it becomes about profit and marketing, does it cease to be fanfiction and become a hybrid--some kind of free marketing tool for already bloated media franchises?  I'm not sure.

I am going to keep an eye on this.  I don't know if Amazon will be able to get enough franchises on board with this, but I admit--I would at least try it out if they had a license for anything I already enjoy. Tell me what you think.

100 Things I've Learned By Writing Fanfiction #10: There Are Awesome People Out There

This post was the very first idea I came up in the 100 Things Fanfiction series.   It's probably going to consist of a bunch of shout-outs to my friends, but that's okay.  My friends are the awesome people who inspired it.

Writing fanfiction (and generally being involved in fandom) has allowed me to meet several people that I count among my closet friends.  Some of them write fanfic, some don't.  Usually, we've struck up friendships when they started commenting on one of my stories, although I think a couple of them were on a message board with me about 8 years ago.

Aruna7 and I met when I commented on one of her SG-1 fanvids (which I would link to but I don't think is online anymore.  Little did I know that one innocent comment would lead to multiple ongoing collaborations and  a friendship that (I hope) will be lifelong.

Lhinneill, Cha_aka, and I have roleplayed together, read and helped one another with our stories, and generally shared our lives for almost as long as I can remember.  They're the first people I share anything I write with (except for One Path.) and the first people I think of when I'm stuck in a story.

Polgarawolf and I met through her comments on One Path, and since then we've probably exchanged enough commentary on Dune, Star Wars, and various other franchises to fill multiple books of analysis and criticism.  She's been my sounding board through a lot of story-related problems, and my fridge is full of snarky magnets she's sent me as gifts.

There are other people I've gotten to know on a more limited basis through my fic writing, but who's input and insightful comments on my stories have been invaluable to me.    Teddibear, Nrgbunny and Phantom-Jedi1 all stuck with me through epic-length stories, caught mistakes that even my betas missed, and inspired me to keep going when I might have given up.  I can't mention everyone; the post would start to read like one of those genealogy lists from the book of Genesis.

What I've learned is that fan art means more when you can share it with others.  Doing so will lead you to meet and make friends with people you might otherwise have never met.

100 Things I Learned By Writing Fanfiction #9: Finish Your Damn Story Before You Put It On The Internet

Suppose you are reading book.  You're about a third of the way in, just when it's getting good.  Suddenly, you turn the page, and there's nothing.  Just a blank white space.  You turn the page again and see something like this:

Sorry, I got stuck.  I'm not interested in these characters anymore, so I gave up and moved on to something else.

You keep flipping, hoping that it's a bad joke, but it isn't.  All the other pages are blank.

How mad  would you be at that author?

Why should your fanfic readers be less mad at you for abandoning your unfinished story?

Now suppose you pick up another book, get about halfway through, and you see another note.  This one says:

I realized I made a mistake.  I'm starting over from chapter 4.  Here's what's different.

How confused would you be?  How likely would you be to actually finish the book instead of just putting it down?

Do you think your fanfiction readers would be less confused?


Generally, I post my fanfics a chapter or two at a time as I write them, and I often write out of order, so that I have chunks of material from different time periods that need to be connected to one another.  I'm the last person to tell you that you should complete a whole manuscript before you post anything.

So then what exactly do I mean when I say "finish your story before you put it on the internet?"

100 Things I Learned by Writing Fanfiction # 8: Somebody Will Always Know More Than You

Aruna7 knows more about Star Wars than I do.  She probably knows more about Star Wars than any other person I've met, and she may know more about Star Wars than George Lucas on any given day.  When I first started writing Star Wars fanfiction, I was uncomfortable because I wasn't as well-versed in the GFFA as I would have liked.  I did as much research as I conceivably could, and then I started writing, relying on my friend to help me fill in details and check my characterization.

There are other fandoms where I feel (or have felt) more confident.  Stargate SG-1 is a good example.  (I know, I keep coming back to those two fandoms, but that's because I've spent most of my fanfic writing time in them.)  I'm sad to say I've forgotten a lot of my detailed knowledge of the canon now.  It's been about five years since I stopped writing SG-1 regularly, and my memory is fuzzy.

Even before that though, there were people in the SG-1 fandom who knew things I didn't.  It was great to have them around, but sometimes it presented challenges.  Fans get nitpicky.  Star Trek fans are known for being especially bad about this.  People can be rude, and you will find individuals who have nothing better to do than knock your story because you forgot a detail or made a choice they didn't like. They forget the time when they were new to the franchise and didn't know things either.  Sometimes I ran into people who thought they knew something and knocked my story unfairly.

So, what I've learned is to do my homework until I'm comfortable, then just go for it.   You'll never really know "enough" about a franchise--and you'll probably forget things anyway.   You'll continue to learn more as you go.  Fanfiction should be a labor of love, not a trivia contest. If you let yourself be intimidated or put off by what you don't know, you'll cheat yourself and anyone who might have enjoyed your story anyway.

Fic Rec: Sleepwalker

It's been several years since I've read a really good fanfiction in any fandom.  I found one this weekend and I was both relieved and excited because I was starting to feel alone as someone who enjoys well-thought out, character centered stories that feel like the world in the source material and keep the characters true to the way the franchise portrays them.

Alphalover has clearly put a lot of time, effort, and love into her Masters of the Universe story Sleepwalker.  I'm enjoying it greatly, so if you're an 80s child who loved He-Man and She-Ra, check it out and tell me what you think.

100 Things I Learned By Writing Fanfiction #7-Nobody Knows Everything

I know a lot about Stargate: SG-1.  It's my favorite television show ever.  Even so, it took me a long time to feel like I was capable of writing fanfiction for SG-1.  I didn't feel like I had enough of the characters' life stories or understood enough about the Goa'uld or 'gate technology.  If you don't watch Stargate and have no idea what I'm referring to, then substitute details from your own favorite franchise.

Can you write in the characters' voices and hear them the way they sound on the screen?

Can you remember details of their lives or the things they've said about "how stuff works?"


No?

Well, neither can I--at least not perfectly.  Neither can a TV's show's writers or the script writers for sequels.  (Look at the Highlander film franchise and its huge continuity problems for an a movie-related example.)

I first got involved in the Stargate fandom around 2005.  I met people who were way more knowledgeable about the show than I was, and when I started thinking about writing fanfiction, I asked a lot of questions.  I was probably annoying.  That's okay, because it made my stories better.

There were times, though, when I found that nobody knew what the answer was--or there were so many different answers circulating the fandom that I might as well just pick the one I liked best or make up my own and run with it.

You'll eventually get flack for that.  Somebody will come along and leave a review to tell you what you got wrong.  It may even be someone you know--someone you normally go to when you have questions.  That's one of the things that makes transformative writing different from most other kinds.  The audience gets to interact with the source material and with the new stories that are being created around it.

So am I saying that fanfic authors should just make up whatever they feel like? Not at all, but here's what I've learned from all the questions I asked:

Sometimes the answers you need just aren't available in canon.  If nobody seems to know for sure, pick something, make up as much detail as you need to, and go with it.  Just make sure that what you decide on is plausible, and stick with it.  Also, don't obsess too much about the things you don't know.  Fill in as much detail as you need to and leave the rest alone.  In most cases, nobody else knows either, and fanfiction is supposed to be fun.

Index| Masterlist

100 Things I Learned By Writing Fanfic #6: Give Me The Background

I just want to start out by saying that the "me" in the title is "me, the reader of your story."  I'm using myself as an example because I've been reading fanfiction for a long time, and there are some things that will consistently turn me off.

One of the biggest objections I hear about fanfiction is that fanfic authors ought to just make up their own stories.  In some cases, I agree.  I have a post planned in this series called [When It's Better As Original Fiction].  It's about a story of mine that started as fanfiction and, over time, became so divergent from its source material that I decided to make it an original novel instead.  In most cases, I think the problem is that authors need to give their audience a familiar place to start, and then take the audience along with the characters as they experience events that change them.  I see a lot of fic where the author just announces in the description or the author's notes that HUGE changes have occurred in the background or that the canon characters are somehow different-- "OOC"-- with no explanation as to what changed everything around.

You may think that's "innovative" and "different."  You'll probably find an audience who likes what you're doing too.  You'll absolutely lose me though.  There are some things (like one or two specific events) that you can just say are different and go forward, but if you've made drastic changes to a lot of things and people are behaving in weird, unusual ways, I'll feel cheated and stop reading.  Here's why.

100 Things I Learned By Writing Fanfiction # 5: You Will Lose Things

I just came across a comment that someone left me here about a story that she had written and lost.  I wish I could help, because I know this pain well, and there's nothing less satisfying than trying to reproduce something you wrote that you don't have anymore.  It seldom works.  If you manage to get something worthwhile, you're lucky.  You'll probably still feel a hollowness in your gut because it's not really what you want your readers to see.  It's just the best you can do the second time around.

Confession # 8: I Used To Be Terrified of Darth Vader

So, I don't like Anakin.  I love Darth Vader.  And I used to be terrified of Darth Vader all at the same time? Yes.  Well, technically no, I suppose.  I didn't know anything about Anakin for most of my life.  I already loved and was terrified by Darth Vader long before the Prequels came out.  Never let it be said that I am an uncomplicated woman.

I had a recurring nightmare about Vader for years.  It began in my early childhood, after I saw Star Wars, and it continued well into my adult life.  In the dream, Luke and Leia had been captured and were being held on a spaceship.  I think it was supposed to be Vader's flagship, Executor, but I'm not sure since Executor appeared in The Empire Strikes Back, and the ship in my dream looked more like Tantive IV, the one where Leia was boarded and captured in the original film.

Anyway, I snuck on board the ship and was trying to rescue the twins, but Vader knew I was there and found me.  The bulk of the dream consisted of me running through the white hallways with Vader chasing me.  Eventually he would draw his lightsaber and close in.  There were sometimes more details, depending on whether or not I made it to the twins.  If I did, there were some lines of dialogue, but only Vader did the talking, and the only other sounds in the whole dream were his breather (getting closer) and the snap-hiss of his lightsaber.

I didn't stop having that dream until around 2008, when I was deep in the heart of a Vader related project with Aruna7.

Short Personal Update

I've re-injured my arm.  It's doing all right, but I've gone back several steps in terms of my ability to type.  The 8 Confessions series is finished--I wrote up the last one a couple of weeks ago.  I've got a few posts in the 100 Things I Learned From Writing Fanfiction series and some informative/tutorial content on my other blog that I've been working on here and there.  I'll get those up in the coming weeks.  After that, it will depend on how my arm is doing.  Let's hope it's not another 4 month ordeal.

Confession #7-I Love Darth Vader

Earlier in this series, I wrote at length about how much I dislike Anakin Skywalker.  It should follow then that I hate Darth Vader, but I don't.  I was afraid of him for a long time (I'll talk more about that next week) and I always thought he was horrible to Princess Leia, but he intrigued me.  His dialogue with Obi-Wan in A New Hope showed me someone who was, for all his apparent strength, still trying to prove that he was better than his old teacher.  His interactions with Luke showed me someone who was capable of acting with honor--in a bizarre, twisted way.  So, I came to like Darth Vader a whole lot by the time he died.  I just wish that Anakin Skywalker had lived up to Vader's potential.

I learned to love him a whole lot more by writing about him.  I'll (hopefully) be talking about that again when I return to my 100 Things I Learned From Writing Fanfiction later this year.  Granted, the things I wrote about in my fanfiction were based on my own inferences and observations, so, maybe I love my own ideas of Vader's character a little more than the person we see on the screen but I'd like to think that I learned a little something about the Dark Lord from all the time I spent exploring that character.

Confession # 6-I Wanted to Marry Lando Calrissian

This is going to be a short post in comparison to most of the others in the series.  There really isn't a deep confession here.  Remember that I was a little girl when I first watched Star Wars.

I think I shipped Han and Leia before I knew what "shipping" a couple meant.  The term most likely hadn't been invented yet.  Either way, I knew that Han and Leia were going to get married someday.  I never liked Luke, so even though I thought it would be awesome to be Princess Leia's sister, there was no way I could marry him. 

Somehow, it occurred to me that I could marry Lando.  Lando was pretty awesome.  He was charming, funny, a little bit dangerous and prone to getting into trouble.  He probably needed to have a wife to keep him in line.  If I married him, I could have all kinds of adventures, and I'd probably get to hang out with Han and Leia all the time!  So, there you have it.

...I feel the need to mention that I also wanted to marry Michael Knight,  Danny Williams from the original Hawaii 5-0 and James T. Kirk.  I guess I was going to be a polygamist.

Confession # 5 I despise the Anakin/Padmé relationship, but I once shipped it.

My first exposure to Star Wars was as a young kid watching the Original Trilogy.  By the time I saw Return of the Jedi, I had my own ideas about Anakin Skywalker and his then nameless wife.  I'm sure that I'm not the only one.

I knew something horrible must have happened to Anakin, but I was under the impression that his marriage was a public event and that his wife was someone Obi-Wan took care of for some time after Anakin fell to the Dark Side.  On top of that, I just don't like unbalanced relationships, and I think "secret romance" is just about the cheapest plot device going.

So, okay.  I admit, I was predisposed to be uneasy with the direction things were heading in Attack of the Clones, but because it was Star Wars, I was prepared to let go of the story in my head and keep an open mind about the one unfolding on the screen.

Confession #4: I think the Sith were actually less disturbed than the Old Jedi.

I think the Sith are terribly misguided.  Their philosophy is flawed to a frightening extent, and their actions in the Star Wars franchise run the gamut from reprehensible to horrifying.  Emperor Palpatine is clearly sociopathic.  So, how can I say that I think they're less disturbed than the Jedi of the Old Republic?  I'll point you back to last week's post on the Old Order and let you decide for yourself.

I see the Sith as the other side of the same coin or the other end of the same Force-using spectrum that the Jedi are on.  Both groups take their philosophies on the Force to an unhealthy extreme, (which is why the Force needed to be brought back into balance, but that's another series altogether) and they use opposite but complimentary methods to achieve basically the same level of mystical power through it.

The Birth of Rose B. Fischer

Okay, this is kind of a personal post.  I'm placing it on both of my blogs and any other place I spend time on the internet.

Confession # 3: I think the Old Jedi Order was run by emotionally disturbed morons.

I know there are a lot of fans out there who think the Jedi are awesome.  You know, they run around in robes and wave big shiny swords with blades made of light.  They have cool mental powers, and they make a lot of mystic-sounding noise about peace, balance, and trusting their feelings.

A closer look at the Old Order Jedi we've seen in the Star Wars films shows a group of people who don't know anything about their own feelings beyond a vague kind of intuition that they get when the Force tugs them in one direction or another.  These people live very long lives, and anything we know about their backgrounds indicates that they've spent a great deal of that time involved in social or military conflicts.  So they know very little about external peace, but are expected to maintain a constant sense of inner peace.  The dichotomy leaves most of them pretty unbalanced and badly equipped to have relationships of any kind.

Confession #2-I Don't Like Anakin Skywalker Either

This one went longer than I planned.  I guess that's what happens when I try to write something a paragraph at a time over the course of a week.

I tried very hard to like Anakin.  He had a lot to recommend him.  Obi-Wan Kenobi--who is tied with Princess Leia as my favorite Star Wars character--gave him high praise in Star Wars: A New Hope.  He tells Luke that Anakin was "the best star fighter pilot in the galaxy, a cunning warrior...and he was a good friend."

Confession # 1: I Don't Like Luke Skywalker

When I first watched A New Hope, way back when it was just called "Star Wars," I thought Luke was a whiny little brat.  In The Empire Strikes Back, I saw him go from whiny to cocky and rude.  Yes, I'm well aware that it's probably an intentional character development arc, and I understand the progression of the protagonist from immature and (somewhat) self-centered to over-confident and then finally to the mystic hero and leader we saw in Return of the Jedi.  That doesn't mean I have any reason to like Luke.  I'm definitely sorry for him.  I sympathize with his feelings of being trapped on Tatooine.  I know he feels guilty and never had a real chance to grieve for Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. I cheered when I decided to go after Han and Leia because they were his friends and it was the right thing to do no matter what Yoda or Ben had to say.  He was put in a really awful position in Return of the Jedi.  None of those things make him interesting or likable.  They just make him a classic hero.

I always thought Star Wars would have been a much better series if the story had been told from Princess Leia's point of view, and if she had been allowed to explore her heritage as a Jedi along with her brother.  I don't like very much of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (that's a whole other post) but one of the things I like least was the utter failure of its writers to do justice to Leia Organa's character, especially when it came to her development as a Jedi.

That really has nothing to do with my dislike of Luke, but I wanted to say it and I figured this was as good a place as any.

Tune in next week to hear why I don't like Anakin either.

8 Confessions of A Star Wars Fan: Index

My arm is doing a little better, so I thought I'd try a short series of posts.  I recently talked with someone about the way that it seems like most of the things people in my fandoms enjoy about a franchise are things I really don't like.  This came about after that.

•  I don't like Luke Skywalker
• I don't like Anakin Skywalker either.
• I think the Old Jedi Order was run by emotionally disturbed morons.
• I think the Sith were actually less disturbed than the Old Jedi.
• I despise the Anakin/Padme relationship, but I once shipped it.
• I wanted to marry Lando Calrissian.
• I love Darth Vader
• I used to be terrified of Darth Vader.

More Cancelled Shows I Like

It just seems to be my lot in life to discover interesting television that nobody likes.  Okay, somebody must like them, but apparently not enough for ABC to be happy.

666 Park Avenue and Last Resort caught my eye a few weeks ago.  I happened to leave ABC's website running after a Castle Episode, heard the intro to 666 and was intrigued despite having previously written the show off for the over-the-top premise and villain straight out of an old radio serial.  Then the same thing happened with Last Resort.  I was on the phone when it started.

Neither show is really something that would normally interest me.  I don't enjoy horror as a genre, I don't care for shows that focus heavily on military action and the looming threat of nuclear war.  I haven't seen enough to offer a detailed commentary on either show, but 666 is more fun than frightening, and Last Resort was actually uplifting in a strange way.  Perhaps I'm just odd.

They're worth checking out if you're looking for a diversion.

My arm is starting to hurt, so that's all I'll say for now.

Ouch.

Just a quick note.  I've hurt my arm (again.) and typing is really difficult.  So I definitely will not be able to post any detailed text content (tutorials on Encompass Rose or commentary on Fandombouquet) for a while.  Probably until March.  Looks like I won't be participating in any of the writing challenges this winter either.  Maybe Nano in the fall, but I can't plan that far in advance.

Happy New Year

Yeah, I'm a little late.

But I hope everyone's doing well.  I have no living room at the moment.  The renovations that I've written about in my last couple of posts here are dragging on.  Most of my DVDs are still in storage, the TV is completely not accessible, and the most writing I've been able to do is an occasional tutorial over on my other design blog, Encompass--Rose.

I can't say when that will change.  I'd like to get back to my blog series here, but it's really difficult to write well thought out articles with dudes sawing and hammering in the hallway.

I'm behind in all my fandoms and it's going to be a while before I can catch up.

Hopefully, the second half of 2013 will see this blog pick up again.