The Last Poster Wins! [v22]

[Chibi Altaria]

I had that happen while trying to rewrite Trial of Juno. I even changed a bunch of things and had intentions for a completely different ending, but the whole time, I just felt like wanting to write something new. As a result, I just got tired of it and dropped out of doing it.

I would say use Team Stormriders as inspiration for something fresh and new. That's probably what I'm going to do with Trial of Juno, but it will be without the Pokémon and instead have personified animalistic characters instead (think Redwall, Zootopia, Star Fox, etc). That way I can publish it too without the copyright violation nonsense.

Yeah, I still actually have another story planned out that is...well not all that similar to StormRiders, but it uses certain elements from the story. Not to mention it's set in the same land. xD I'm thinking that if I do try to rewrite TSR I'll have this huge pressure to actually finish it and it just won't happen. ;O;

And good on you, Neo! I used to write a tonne of short stories involving animals when I was younger. But these days I tend to only write fan-fiction if anything, so I might start with that for a bit again until my writing skills get more up to scratch. xD I still hope to see your work published one day. What happened to that other manuscript you were wanting to publish? Did no one accept it? 3:

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, I still actually have another story planned out that is...well not all that similar to StormRiders, but it uses certain elements from the story. Not to mention it's set in the same land. xD I'm thinking that if I do try to rewrite TSR I'll have this huge pressure to actually finish it and it just won't happen. ;O;

And good on you, Neo! I used to write a tonne of short stories involving animals when I was younger. But these days I tend to only write fan-fiction if anything, so I might start with that for a bit again until my writing skills get more up to scratch. xD I still hope to see your work published one day. What happened to that other manuscript you were wanting to publish? Did no one accept it? 3:

Yeah, if you're already having that feeling about rewriting StormRiders, I wouldn't even try it. As much as I was really enchanted by that story the first time I read it, I understand that things have changed since then and while it was a great story and had awesome characters, I think it's best to try a new path. It will feel more like a new discovery rather than a rerun. As I discovered with Trial of Juno, a lot of the things I did way back then are things I know better not to do now. The first time I wrote it, the character personalities were highly lacking. But even after changing things, it still never felt quite right and there were just some things I couldn't change without causing so much disruption. And if I were to change so much about it, why not just start with something new?

Not to mention I grew to really dislike how TOJ starts off. Everywhere I've posted it, people were turned off by how the story begins and the personality of the main character so much so that they didn't keep with it until things changed later on in the story. And I have tried like crazy to come up with a better opening but no, there's too much that happens later on that relies on things opening up the way they do and to change that would be knocking out the main foundations of the whole darn thing. The main character was meant to be a complete jerk in the beginning of the story so that he could become someone better later on. No dice. Most people just assumed he was going to be like that for the whole story.

I see fan fiction as a good place to experiment and learn new things from. So even though you can't publish it, you can still get valuable feedback from it. Heck, what I learned from feedback I got from TOJ will definitely help. The mistakes I made with TOJ (especially with the opening) won't be made again and I know what I can do better. People hated my main character because he starts as a bully and later on, to them it felt like he's only doing what he does for the fame. For this new story, I intend to create a very selfless character that doesn't care about getting credit and does what he does for a cause, not for applause, but all the while the reader will see there's so much genuine good to this guy. And unlike Trial of Juno where Juno was this prophesied warrior that everyone immediately admired, this guy will essentially be an ordinary soldier fighting in the shadows of some other prophesied warrior that gets all the positive attention. He'll grow and rise above the ridicule from his own allies and hell he has to go through from his enemies, but he'll always stick to the shadows and not believe in fame, glory, medals or recognition. Even when he's the only reason things worked out for the better. The impacts he makes will go without credit and the heroic efforts he does won't ever go to his name in the history books. And all the while, he'll be okay with this.

There were some good things about Trial of Juno, though. I liked the bond Juno the Pikachu had with Blazewing the Latias. I'd want to keep that kind of thing going for this new story and I would like this guy's mount to be some kind of dragon. I liked the idea of Juno fighting through the hellish underworld of Pokémon and then even having to walk through the heavenly afterlife realm as well, unable to rest because of the mission. And the other thing I wanted to experiment with was to have the good guys look like the bad guys. The main character, his allies, their weapons, and their stuff will involve darkness, black magic, shadows, and will look like rag-tag vermin and vile cretins, but they're actually good-hearted, have light senses of humor, have hopes and aspirations, loving families, and codes of honor. Meanwhile, their enemies will be these pretentious, condescending, holier-than-thou, "our religion of light justifies our cruelty" types that are beautiful-looking, regal, and powerful that I hope my readers will adore TO HATE. After watching Game of Thrones, I know what kind of stuff made people loathe Joffery and Ramsay and I plan to make great use of that.

As for that other manuscript, the agents I tried contacting didn't go for it. Right now, one of my coworkers, who is a technical writer, is reviewing it. She only just started with it and unfortunately she's been really busy, so things are kind of in a deadlock with it right now. I'm going to try a few more agents once she's done and has reviewed it, but if no one wants to take it on, I'll probably just self-publish. From what I've heard, publishing houses only take less than 1% of the submissions they get. And I have a feeling out of that 1%, they're all probably manuscripts by friends and family members.