What's with all the fanfics?

Miyamoto Usagi · Post by **Miyamoto Usagi** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:03 am

rudel_ic wrote:It shouldn't bother anyone. If you ask me, do what you want to do until you get banned. And writing fanfics shouldn't be the first step to getting banned.

I'm a (hobbyistic) writer, just like you, but definitely not one who does fanfics. Imho that's just a waste of time when you can make original worlds. Shouldn't stop you though.

Bolded for emphasis.

I actually already have a few original worlds in the works. One is about 45% fleshed out, with the other two still in the planning stages. All three are worlds wherein High Fantasy is the general rule, with the biggest difference being the era. The one that's near-half done takes place in a Victorian-esque era (it's Steampunk, actually), and I daresay it's one of the most unique settings thought of.

The other two worlds are a Medieval world and a Modern world, both with elements of High Fantasy. You can find examples of the Modern world in my new fiction thread in the Randomness board. So far it's called Trugbild, though as it's still in the planning stages I haven't yet decided if it's the name of a city, country, or even the world.

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:26 am

Funny story: I used to design PnP RPG's when I was a kid, with unique settings, own rules, whole dynasties, never-seen classes and races.. It always was a blast to play in them, bringing my thoughts to life in a breathing world, sucking my friends into intrigues and feuds that only my universes could boil up.
I've still got some of them laying around, hidden in piles of graffitti blackbook pieces, rap-texts and sketches of naked women. Recently, I reviewed some of them. That was nostalgic..
Nowadays, I don't use the experience I gained back then to make new things. Instead, I work my ass off doing stuff that I don't care about, just to have something to eat.
It really makes me sad when I think about what could have become of those years of contribution into fictional worlds design.

Colicedus · Post by **Colicedus** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 4:11 am

have you considered writhing a book off the adventures you had and Publishing it?

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 4:32 am

I'm not a publisher.

Writing a book and getting it to the market is a big deal. Besides, the literary world is a very closed community. That's something a lot of people don't know.
Without an agent, it's hopeless. You won't get your stuff read by a publisher if it's not recommended by an agent.

Here's some internals of the process. I actually have a bunch of done material nobody wanted, so I had to learn this truth the hard way.

Silb · Post by **Silb** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 8:12 pm

Did you go through the process decribed in the link, with the query letter and such?

(btw, is it in German or in English?)

NickD · Post by **NickD** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:30 am

It's in English... Why are you asking that when you're speaking English right now?

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:10 am

Silb wrote:Did you go through the process decribed in the link, with the query letter and such?

No. The process described there is for getting an agent sign up because you have an idea. I had done work, nobody was patient enough to actually read it and thus it was a waste of time although it's done and good! I was 15 when I wrote it.

It could get some interest on the private market if I'd make a website and post it there, then somehow would bring a bunch of people to actually read those 300+ pages.. It's pointless though. Nobody cares about books on the internet.

It's about a 14-year-old boy who's trapped in his 100-souls-village, he's bored to death and a pop culture victim. One day, he goes to a party in a forest nearby. He gets completely drugged up, stumbles through the wood and gets lost. He falls down a hill into a river and gets unconscious.
When he wakes up, it's morning dawn, he lies at the bank of the river, and before him is a medieval-looking fortress. It seems as the fortress is undergoing a siege of some sort, the boy hears battle cries and such nearby. Completely puzzled, suffering a severe hangover and starving, he goes to investigate. The story develops...

It's german, of course. Nice guessing of my mother's tongue. How did you...? Googled my username? STALKER!!

Post by **Jeff** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:48 am

rudel_ic wrote:It could get some interest on the private market if I'd make a website and post it there, then somehow would bring a bunch of people to actually read those 300+ pages.. It's pointless though. Nobody cares about books on the internet.

Tell that to www.johndiesattheend.com

You should post it.

You should post a portion of it in a new thread.

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:33 am

I'd have to translate it while posting. And I'm not a good translator (it takes some serious skill to translate correctly and still getting the mood across).
But I'll seriously consider it and probably post when I find the time. I'm still working, programming at home, skating, making music, reading, socializing with friends... You get the point.

Silb · Post by **Silb** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 9:10 am

rudel_ic wrote:It's german, of course. Nice guessing of my mother's tongue. How did you...? Googled my username? STALKER!!

You must have mentioned it at some point; I don't know, in my mind it's "well-known" that you're german.

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 9:32 am

Impossible. I've always said I am european. But I've translated something somewhere in here, that may be what gave it away.

Zantalos · Post by **Zantalos** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:42 pm

Yeah, and you also rooted for the Germans in the World Cup and have a pretty good understanding of the German keyboard.

hehe, no I just did a search on you, because I'm a cheater.

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 6:13 pm

Zantalos wrote:Yeah, and you also rooted for the Germans in the World Cup and have a pretty good understanding of the German keyboard.

The first thing was just common sense since our team pretty much ruled the whole cup until these weird semifinals. And the second thing is trivial to look up in the interweb..

Zantalos · Post by **Zantalos** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:02 pm

lol, if I looked it up on the interweb, I would just say you're in a german speaking forum. I just searched the word german, coming from you on this forum.

But still, Silb must have a mind link set up because there's no way I would have guessed that, much less pick that up as a well known fact.

Silb · Post by **Silb** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:15 pm

Okay, I guess I have a superpower for automatically identifying German people.

###Entering Silb's mind
Silb's Mind $> read Info/Rudel.txt
-is European.
-translates German.
-knows German keyboard layout.
-supports Germany team.
-has a German-sounding name.
###superpower activation
>appending "-is German."
-likes skateboard.
-wrote story about a bored youth who tries acid.
-is older than anyone, ever.