The Last Poster Wins! [v22]

[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.

[Scytherwolf]

I'm actually writing a novel right now (though it's been slow going lately XD). I don't plan to publish it though, it's mainly just for fun, like my fanfiction stories.

Sometimes I kind of feel like a weirdo for still writing something I started in 2007 when I had just barely gotten into the online fanfiction world and had no idea what I was doing. But I can't help still loving my old stories and wanting to finish them. I still read the stuff I wrote as a kid and enjoy it. Plus with my main pokemon story, I think seeing the improvement from the first chapters is cool.

Of course I understand why people don't want to finish their old stories. I realize I'm an outlier. xD

[Neo Emolga]

I'm actually writing a novel right now (though it's been slow going lately XD). I don't plan to publish it though, it's mainly just for fun, like my fanfiction stories.

Sometimes I kind of feel like a weirdo for still writing something I started in 2007 when I had just barely gotten into the online fanfiction world and had no idea what I was doing. But I can't help still loving my old stories and wanting to finish them. I still read the stuff I wrote as a kid and enjoy it. Plus with my main pokemon story, I think seeing the improvement from the first chapters is cool.

Of course I understand why people don't want to finish their old stories. I realize I'm an outlier. xD

I have a bunch of old stories I never finished. Sometimes it's because you had that bang awesome idea that you had to get down on paper, but then you never thought about how it's supposed to keep going and get to the end once all the juicy stuff got covered. I feel that way with the PMD fic I started long ago back when PMD was fresh and new. It started great and was fun and it eventually went to Nowhereland because I had absolutely nothing in mind for an ending or even a real conflict at hand.

The manuscript I've been trying to get published was started back in 2007 too, so that's not weird to me you're still going with something you started eleven years ago! I tried to start a sequel to it, but yeah, it's just not hitting any sweet spots and originally I didn't intend for it to have sequels so it's probably better off not going that route.

[Scytherwolf]

I have a bunch of old stories I never finished. Sometimes it's because you had that bang awesome idea that you had to get down on paper, but then you never thought about how it's supposed to keep going and get to the end once all the juicy stuff got covered. I feel that way with the PMD fic I started long ago back when PMD was fresh and new. It started great and was fun and it eventually went to Nowhereland because I had absolutely nothing in mind for an ending or even a real conflict at hand.

The manuscript I've been trying to get published was started back in 2007 too, so that's not weird to me you're still going with something you started eleven years ago! I tried to start a sequel to it, but yeah, it's just not hitting any sweet spots and originally I didn't intend for it to have sequels so it's probably better off not going that route.

Oh wow that's really cool! I also have a super old PMD story (from 2008). I started revising the old chapters so that I could continue it. Still gotta finish doing that. XD

[Chakramaster]

I'd love to be able to start my own, but I'm not the best at starting something out. I can build something after it's started, but starting out is the toughest part. Then ending...oh man is that hard.

[Neo Emolga]

I'd love to be able to start my own, but I'm not the best at starting something out. I can build something after it's started, but starting out is the toughest part. Then ending...oh man is that hard.

It's actually better to start working on your ending right at the very beginning and have in mind what you want everything to lead up to. Imagine something awesome and epic for a final conclusion and create a "wouldn't it be cool if there was a final battle where X, Y, and Z happened and there was all this other cool stuff like A, B, C, and D?" Well, since you don't want to randomly drop all that stuff in when it doesn't make sense, you set yourself reasons and means for all those things to be there at the end by setting them up as milestones along the way. And by making those things, you also start making strides toward a setting that allows them to be there. Such as if you want the final battle to involve a horde of cyborg ninjas riding ice dragons taking on a swarm of colossal demonic insects because you think that would be awesome as a final battle, well, that just means you need a reason and means for those things to at least be at the end and that's something you can set either at the beginning or have something that appears in the middle and gets the proper development it needs to show up properly in that final showdown. And of course you want all your plot devices to work this same way, also. You can picture it like a bunch of railways all converging from different towns and stations all going to one grand central station at the end.

But yeah, it's best to work on your ending and conclusion early, because it will at least give you a destination to go to. And it's okay if you take a few detours along the way. That's normal with story-writing, but you still want to have your eyes set on what you want everything to lead up to. That's your goal and destination and the journey to get to that gives you good motivation.

[Chakramaster]

It's actually better to start working on your ending right at the very beginning and have in mind what you want everything to lead up to. Imagine something awesome and epic for a final conclusion and create a "wouldn't it be cool if there was a final battle where X, Y, and Z happened and there was all this other cool stuff like A, B, C, and D?" Well, since you don't want to randomly drop all that stuff in when it doesn't make sense, you set yourself reasons and means for all those things to be there at the end by setting them up as milestones along the way. And by making those things, you also start making strides toward a setting that allows them to be there. Such as if you want the final battle to involve a horde of cyborg ninjas riding ice dragons taking on a swarm of colossal demonic insects because you think that would be awesome as a final battle, well, that just means you need a reason and means for those things to at least be at the end and that's something you can set either at the beginning or have something that appears in the middle and gets the proper development it needs to show up properly in that final showdown. And of course you want all your plot devices to work this same way, also. You can picture it like a bunch of railways all converging from different towns and stations all going to one grand central station at the end.

But yeah, it's best to work on your ending and conclusion early, because it will at least give you a destination to go to. And it's okay if you take a few detours along the way. That's normal with story-writing, but you still want to have your eyes set on what you want everything to lead up to. That's your goal and destination and the journey to get to that gives you good motivation.

True in every way yeah, but the important phase is starting out first and foremost. Not knowing what kind of characters I want and who will be there from start to finish and enemies (possibly some turn good in the end). It doesn't help start it. That's key to the starting one.

As for the ending yeah it'd be good to have in mind an idea for the end at least. It may change a bit as you work there. As you write you may come up with new andbetter ideas to improve certain storytelling. It makes for something possibly more creative. Where one minute it can be just about a Pikachu searching through some destroyed building and finding some item or someone's previous item left behind and suddenly it gets changed and instead the Pikachu is searching that same debris, but instead the floor gives way and it's searching through some catacomes underground now. A hidden dungeon! Things like that

[Chibi Altaria]

I'd love to be able to start my own, but I'm not the best at starting something out. I can build something after it's started, but starting out is the toughest part. Then ending...oh man is that hard.

Funnily enough I usually have the ending planned out before anything else. xD And the beginning is rather easy, too. It's the stuff that happens in between that's hardest for me. You always have to justify your choices and keep the end goal in mind, so it's kinda hard to write a story without that aha.

[Chakramaster]

Funnily enough I usually have the ending planned out before anything else. xD And the beginning is rather easy, too. It's the stuff that happens in between that's hardest for me. You always have to justify your choices and keep the end goal in mind, so it's kinda hard to write a story without that aha.

I can't xD. I want to have characters and an end goal in mind. Otherwise I'm like "how do I end this? Who is going to be there for the end?" Otherwise I blow the story up somehow by spontaneous explosions.

[Noblejanobii]

The struggle is real!