General Fan Fiction Discussion

Your own tale of two mecha.
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ShadowCell
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

To be honest, you really don't need a whole lot of artistic talent to hack together some mecha of your own. You don't even really need to draw them, as long as you can visualize them in your head and provide a decent enough description of what they look like for the reader to do the same.

You can post that story here with or without borrowed mecha designs. I'm just saying I don't like it when people do design borrowing.
Rob DS Zeta
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

Description is one of my bad points. When I do it, I tend to bog you down with details to the point where you stop reading. Heck, even I've found myself overwhelmed by my work.

Anyway, you're the boss around here, and I'm too much of a derp to do anything that the boss doesn't like. I like to stay within the favor of those whom make the decisions.
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ShadowCell
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

Um, I would only remove a story here or something if it was violating the rules or if the poster requested it, not because I didn't like it, but okay.
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

I didn't expect that you would. I can tell that you're not some psycho dictator.

Oh well. I just had a writer's block rampage and deleted the fic anyway.

Thanks for the chat, sir. Always good to get to know the mods.
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DAG101
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

Rob DS Zeta wrote:I didn't expect that you would. I can tell that you're not some psycho dictator.

Oh well. I just had a writer's block rampage and deleted the fic anyway.

Thanks for the chat, sir. Always good to get to know the mods.
never delete anything you write.
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

D
DAG101 wrote:
Rob DS Zeta wrote:I didn't expect that you would. I can tell that you're not some psycho dictator.

Oh well. I just had a writer's block rampage and deleted the fic anyway.

Thanks for the chat, sir. Always good to get to know the mods.
never delete anything you write.
Dude. It's fanfiction.

I still have my local copy, I just removed it from the sight of others (on Fanfictiondotnet). It was a real crappy fic, so I think I am justified in taking it down when the quality is not up to snuff.
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tehprognoob
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

personally, having to write up specs for mecha tire me out and is really annoying, which is why my fanfic only has 2 mecha specs and at least 4 or 5 models of machines. big b, from whom i took much inspiration...
damn it, im really lazy :S
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Rob DS Zeta
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

I wrote up basic specs for both of them (SEED-ified specs, that is).
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Antares
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

There's a difference between recycling design and recycling design ideas. Personally I don't mind if you liked a particular mecha in GW and then incorporate it into a mecha in CE. What can become problematic is if you copy the design as it is, meaning bringing some Psycommu -stuff to CE directly without any regard to the original tech levels of the world you're writing into. Consistency is something of a pet peeve of mine when reading fanfiction; the stuff has to fit together somehow and not look like a patchwork of things you like all slapped together for awesome. :)

I finished my story a little time ago and I've found it worthwhile to go through it yet again and edit it into a more traditional story (previous was vaguely script-based, the new one is not). I also get to hack away unnecessary descriptions and details of the surroundings. It's almost liberating to go through it and realize who controlling the perspective can become an overwhelming aspect of the text when you visualize something and want the reader to visualize it too. My advise there is to visualize it plainly, and hope the reader catches on, rather than explain it to the point that it bores the living daylights out of the reader. When reading text people tend to visualize in their imagination all the time. While providing supplementary images can help, and actually enrich the story, you may find that people tune off your visual examples and formulate their own. Why try to control something that can't be controlled (reliably) when it sucks away your own creativity when you stop to worry about it? :)

On the other hand, mecha descriptions are most helpful for the writer him/herself, when you don't have to go back to check on what you had written about your mecha previously. Keep it consistent and the reader will catch on, even if they don't have the description. Of course you can add it for additional tech spec -goodness, but you shouldn't worry about that (either). :)
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ShadowCell
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

It's also worth pointing out that the majority of what you might see listed on the average MAHQ mecha profile page is really not necessary for the reader to know what's going on. Rare is the reader whose suspension of disbelief will be broken if you don't supply the mecha's dry weight, turn-around time, exact thrust output in kilograms to three significant figures, and the exact number of rounds its Vulcan gun holds. All you really need are some basic relative rankings--ex. this mecha is better than that one, this beam cannon is stronger than that one, this weapon does this, that system does that--and a decent enough description of what it looks like. Rather than describe every nook and crevice on the machine's body, it's better to describe it in terms of the other machines in that universe that it looks like; for example, describing a hypothetical CE-ized Gelgoog as basically a really beefy ZAKU Warrior.
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Big B
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

tehprognoob wrote:personally, having to write up specs for mecha tire me out and is really annoying, which is why my fanfic only has 2 mecha specs and at least 4 or 5 models of machines. big b, from whom i took much inspiration...
damn it, im really lazy :S
I like using specs mainly to help both myself and readers keep the stuff straight. There's a lot of stuff to keep track of, and it can be confusing. When you've come up with 30 different machines, remembering what thing has what weapons can be kinda hard, especially when everything and everyone isn't in every installment you write.
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tehprognoob
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

whats hunger games?
and annoncement: my gundam vindicator is officially on hiatus until i can sort things out and maybe finish planning an xover implanning.
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Rob DS Zeta
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

So, if I want to post a fic, I just make a new topic, name said topic after the story, and then post it?
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ShadowCell
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Re: General Fan Fiction Discussion

yeah.

and on that note, i should start a new one of these threads.
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