Re-reading?!

. . .

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah-

My favourite things to read?  

@maverick-werewolf‘s shorts, doesn’t matter if they are themed after some of the games we play, or if it’s straight up Wulfgard.  Her work has been inspiring and soothing to my soul.

@chronicallyowlish‘s Welcome the Dawn is easily my favourite fic to read right now.  I love hopeful stories.  And that one encompasses every facet of hope and love that I adore.  

And would I ever?

I got back into writing doing exactly that.  A Valiant Remedy is a 200k word AU / extension to my yet to be finished original work.  In that, I took Sadja out of her world, and dropped her in something resembling our modern day reality.  Except there’s also zombies.  And a grouchy Chris Redfield.

And will I do it again? 

I hope so. 

The third season of my Dying Light Fan Fiction . . .

. . . is outlined.  For the first time, I'm actually seeing the ending in front of me.  Not just by thinking about it, but by flipping through the notepad that I've had with me from the start, where Latchkey Hero's first few words were written, and where I've plotted and outlined almost all of season two and three.

It's falling apart, I admit, but with all the abuse it's been getting I am not surprised.  And with abuse I mean waking up in the middle of the night, having an idea and figuring something out and dropping the thing three times before finding a pen.

But what delights me the most?  How absolutely perfectly it fit.

No one can tell me that this isn't a sign.  That Kyle Crane's and Zofia's journey isn't about to pause where it ought to, because they've done the unthinkable and been with me for two years of incredible joy and headache.  Mostly joy though.  And pride.  I am so proud of them.

Yeah, it was Latchkey's two year birthday on the 14th of April.  🎊

Neat.  Right?

So.  What now?  Now I got to write everything that I've outlined, and get back to posting once I've caught up.  Which, I'll be honest, feels a bit like I'm staring at the Mount Everest right now.  It's all a little scary.

But we got this.  748 words and counting.

Progress update....

The plotting has commenced. And sort of finished. I’ve wrapped up the bare bones of the plot arcs and finished most of part one in better detail. Time to start writing the first handful of chapters!

Oh. And I haven’t actually shared this on here, because I was too excited to think of it.  Look at what the lovely people at Gemly/Techland had to say about Season 1 and 2!

6. Favorite character you’ve written?

Of my own characters, Gale (The Nightingale) is likely my favourite. She’s the driving antagonist in my original series, and I’m a little proud of what I cooked up with her. 

Fandom? Kyle Crane, hands down. He’s so much fun to write.

9.Favorite/least favorite tropes?

Too many? Enemies / Friends to Lovers is easily one of my favourites. In particular if the pair doesn’t mesh on first glance. But I’ve also got a thing for Split Personality / Evil Within, and I might have written a whole story based on those two tropes above (Valiant).

Least favourite? Love triangles. 

54.Favorite first line/opening you’ve written?

“What do you folks do to have fun?” she asked him, and Chris wondered if strangling cheeky little shits like you, was an acceptable answer.

From How to Save a Life (2) in Valiant Remedy. 

.... and I think you should all give it a try.

I’ve got to bring prompt number three here, because I love it and I want to see as many people as possible do it and send what they have my way.

Here’s the link to the reddit post if you fancy a look, but otherwise:

sOCial media

Oh-Oh. Someone gave your character social media access. Gave them a Twitter account, or set them up with Facebook or Tumblr. Lead us through a day (Twitter) or a week (Facebook / Tumblr) of their posts. Make their little tweets, gif reblogs, or article likes (or whatever else you kids do on FB) tell us who they are.

12 favorite place to write

I used to have this really lovely café that I loved to go to. And I think I should pick that habit up again. It removes distractions, and I seem to need changes of scenery here and there, or things get stagnant in my writing. At home though, I like to write at the kitchen table. But only if the kitchen is clean.

20 favorite character to write

I want to say Chris Redfield. I really do. And I also thought I would. But nah, it's Kyle. Since Kyle Crane is an even blanker slate than Chris, I've had the opportunity to tack a lot of me on him. He's a joy to write. Plus, his narrative borrows a lot from Sadja, but removes the other-wordliness from it. On the other hand, Chris is my favourite to write about.

44 do you write linear or do you write future scenes if you feel like it?

Pretty linear. I like having a scene to look forward to.

6 how did writing change you?

There are a lot of things in my life that don't function right. That never have. But writing a Valiant Remedy, and all my little ficlets, and even to some extent Latchkey Hero, helped. As an example: Getting Taff into the passenger seat of a car that's driven by a man, that's just bad manners. I couldn't. So I wrote a whole story that's basically just a road trip with Chris Redfield at the wheel. It helped.

More so though, writing has given me a sense of community and belonging. I honestly think that finding the community on /r/fanfiction, and being a part of the Discord server out of it, has been one of the best things that ever happened to me. Plus, I made some great friends. @rinskiroo, @toastbre4d, and @deejaymil not being the only ones. 

Part 1: Introduction / Or: OCs are people too

More often than not, I bump into comments around how awful fics featuring original characters are, in particular if the original cast is part of the leading roles. Considering that every story I write is done with an original lead sharing screen time with the fan favourites, that stings a little.

I'm proud of Sadja and I'm absolutely in love with Zofia, and writing them has taught me a great deal. And I like how their influence has rubbed off on both Redfield and Crane, growing them beyond what canon restricted them to. Which is one of the reasons why I prefer stories with OCs in them (or AUs): Introducing an outside element and shaking up the status quo.

Original Characters aren't for everyone, and that's fine. But they aren't inherently bad.

A lot of people come to Fanfiction to read exclusively about their favourites. Some go in search of the smutty one-shots, others chase the high school AUs and whatnot, but they all have something in common: it's the execution that matters. The same applies to pieces featuring original characters, whether we're talking about a straightforward self insert, or an outsider added to the equation.

To be fair, in my experience stories with badly written original characters don't fall solely because of the OC. If the OC's characterisation is shoddy, then the canon cast isn't off any better. The difference is that we're more likely to give those a pass because we're projecting our own expectations on them, and glossing over flaws in the narrative from the author. We're aware of the character's weaknesses from the source material. Know about their pitfalls and their highlights. So if a fic doesn't play on any of those details, that's not a big deal. It doesn't need to. 

But if the OC doesn't display any, and comes across as unnecessarily flawless or otherwise flat, then oh boy here are the pitchforks.

So, how do we work on that? I've got a few ideas, but that’ll make for a long enough article to deserve its own spot.

Part 2: Characterising your OC (and the canon cast)