New Fan Fiction Idea #28

I'd like to toy with this, but I know it will fall short of the state of inspiration I had for Phoenix Wright: Ace Tribute.

Working Title: Tributes and Tribulations

Fandom: Phoenix Wright (Ace Attorney)/Hunger Games crossover

Genre Tags: Suspense/(I never know what to tag Hunger Games stories)

Length: Multichapter

Protagonist: Viola Cadaverini (15 years old, District 9).

Other Main Character: Furio Tigre (18 years old, District 9).

Antagonists: The other tributes, taken mostly from Trials and Tribulations and aged appropriately. Includes Ron DeLite, Desiree DeLite, Luke Atmey, a Hawthorne or two, Terry Fawles, Glen Elg and Lisa Basil (most certainly District 3), Shelly de Killer, and Adrian Andrews.

Setting: An early Games, in the vicinity of the 15th. The arena is mostly beach- and island-like.

Plot: There are certain... problems in District 9 we need to take care of, as you know well. What would you believe to be the best place to strike?
If I'm not mistaken, two vital pieces seem to be eligible for the Games...
Do you mean... rigging the reapings, sir?
Something of the sort. And there are a few in other districts whom we may want to take care of as well...
Viola is reaped in spite of her family name, and a certain grandfather assigns Furio to get her back alive.

Point of View: First person (Viola).

New Fan Fiction Idea #7

Working Title: The Bard Games

Fandom: Shakespeare and Hunger Games crossover

Genre Tags: I never know how to label HG works. Let's say Horror/Suspense.

Length: Long multichapter

Protagonist: Othello Moor (District 11)

Other Main Characters: Romeo Montague (District 3)
Hamlet Prince (District 5)
Ophelia (District 5)
Macbeth Findlay (District 6)
Antonio Venis (District 8), volunteering for Bassanio
Portia Belmont (District 8)
Nerissa (District 9)
Desdemona (District 10)
Cleopatra Feyra (District 11) 

Antagonists: Our Career pack consists of
Caesar Julius (District 1)
Lady McBeth (District 1)
Antony (District 2)
Brutus (District 4)
Juliet Capulet (District 4)
Others with a clearly negative role in the story are
Iago Ensign (District 10)
Shylock (District 12)

Plot: A Hunger Games, from reapings to final kill, plus an epilogue. It's going to be one of the earlier Games.

Setting: A large, polygonal arena. It is split down the middle by a river (with a few rickety wooden bridges); on one side is ground, the other a wooden jungle-gym of sorts. The wooden part inclines, with the river side being the lowest and the edge of the arena being the highest. The section is split into nine rectangles (as in an octothorpe) with each rectangle containing a different type of wood. The other side of the arena is flat ground, rather muddy, for a stretch  but eventually leads to a three-storey sort of loft area. Also wooden, the area starts with a ground layer with decent barriers and, through a single ladder, leads up to two more levels, each less stable than the last. Various mutts, edible and otherwise plants, and traps dot the arena. The Cornucopia is just to the ground side of the river. 

Point of View: First-person, switching between each of the 24 tributes as appropriate.

I'm really looking forward to this one, although my cast list is incomplete, and I'll have to read more Shakespeare to fill it out. A reread of Macbeth could be nice, too. I still need to come up with surnames for a lot of the characters.

Protagonist assignment is arbitrary. At this point it seems Othello's alliance is going to get a good bit of screen time.

Still working out the setting, although the basic form is going to stay the same.

New Fan Fiction Idea #6

Working Title: +Anima

Fandom: +Anima/Hetalia: Axis Powers crossover

Genre Tags: Adventure/Friendship

Length: Multichapter, about as long as a novelisation of +Anima.

Protagonist: Italy as Cooro.

Other Main Characters: England/"Bushy" as Myrrha/"Husky".
Sweden as Senri.
Belgium as Nana.

Antagonist: Germany as Igneous.
Spain as Fly.

Plot: A retelling of +Anima, with the above cast (as well as substitutions for more minor characters) and whatever changes they require.

Setting: Same as the original manga.

Point of View: Third-person, omniscient.

I'm still debating the naming. I may do country names or human names, though probably not the original +Anima names.

The description is so sparse because it's quite close to the original and is really more of a casting issue. There are some differences—for example, England ends up in Astarian waters because his ship was attacked by pirates, rather than Husky being left to drown and escaping the capital through waterways. 

New Fan Fiction Idea #5

Working Title: The Loony Bin

Fandom: Hetalia: Axis Powers

Genre Tags: Drama/Angst

Length: Multichapter, at least one for each patient.

Protagonist: Alicia, a university freshman of average build with dark hair in a low ponytail. She's an introvert who enjoys solitude as much as hanging out with her friends, she takes schoolwork seriously, and she's very easily affected by "the evils of the world," as it were.

Other Main Characters: Alfred, the bulimic patient. Sophomore-age university student who's quite cheerful unless the situation has anything to do with food or he thinks someone is calling him fat. This would be an absurd thing for someone to call him, of course, although I'm still debating whether he should be a "classic" bulimic or one that "purges" through obsessive exercise. Either way, he had a great American football scholarship before his situation got bad.
Ludwig, the obsessive-compulsive patient. Mid-twenties, he usually refuses to leave his room, nor does he often let others in. He is friends with Feliciano, when he's Feliciano. He has a good heart, but his situation makes it difficult for him to do much for others.
Feliciano/Romano, the dissociative identity patient. Feliciano is very cheerful and a bit passive, while Romano is intolerably uncooperative and hateful. Generally, he switches his hair part when transitioning between identities. He would probably be able to function decently in society if he didn't have such terrible memory issues.
Arthur, the major depressive patient. The officials at the asylum have gone to... rather extreme measures to prevent him from killing himself. He rarely interacts with others; on those occasions, he does so acrimoniously. He very rarely shows a glimpse of any positive emotion.
Raivis, the paranoid schizophrenic patient. He will interact with others if they're nice enough, though not without harbouring suspicions. He will, however, push all others away when he has hallucinations of his torturer, and, if he thinks they are his torturer, he may do so violently. He's normally very quiet but can be cheerful.
Ivan, the antisocial patient. He's very excited to interact with others but rarely has the opportunity as he always tries to maim them somehow. He is not allowed anywhere near Raivis no matter his mood.
Francis, the narcissistic patient. As he manages to hit on Alicia enough within a few seconds for her to flee, he doesn't get much screen time. He's really quite pleasant normally, but if he decides someone is attractive enough and they don't reciprocate, he gets violent. He also doesn't take affronts to his appearance or cooking, but rarely do those crop up.
Kiku, the schizophrenic patient. He doesn't talk much, nor does he express emotion. In his world, he is vanquishing evil spirits. He does so with an authentic katana that somehow has not been taken from him.
Eduard, the manager of the asylum. He's very calm and a bit numb to the chaos. He just does his best to help the patients in what little ways he's able.

Antagonist: Sometimes the patients, sometimes Eduard when he doesn't have quite the right idea as to what is most helpful for a patient. Otherwise, lack of funding is a huge setback.

Setting: A typical university city, though I'm not entirely sure where. The main factor is that this particular asylum is a private one, poorly-funded, and the only one in a convenient radius.

Plot: For a psychology project with few guidelines, Alicia decides to interview the staff of the little asylum/institute she stumbled across one day. She ends up trying to communicate with the patients as well and forming some bonds. But there are some things seriously wrong with this place, and she has to decide if she can handle taking it upon herself to change them.

Point of View: Third-person, omniscient.

I got this idea some time ago, but I doubt I would be willing to do the research involved. All of my knowledge is from my one term of general psychology, which doesn't bode well for a dark disorder-oriented fiction. Although I could always look up things on Wikipedia. [is killed by every teacher ever]

Also, I like the discord between the title and the actual fiction, but I'm not sure if it would really work that well.

New Fan Fiction Idea #4

One of those ideas I've had for a while but keep forgetting to put down.

Working Title: When Fangirls Attack

Fandom: Hetalia: Axis Powers

Genre Tags: Humour/Parody, or Romance/Parody

Length: Multichapter

Protagonist: England

Antagonist: Hordes of fangirls

Setting: Modern day, mostly in the vicinity of England's house.

Plot: England is feeling unloved one day and decides the best remedy is to summon his fangirls. Unfortunately, he slips up a bit in the spell, and hordes of fangirls for several nations (somehow also provided with shirts in the image of the flag of their preferred nations) appear. Now England has to stop them from mobbing their beloved ones, starting fan wars, and, most of all, ordering him to make out with nations he'd really rather not.

Point of View: Third person, limited to England.

It's basically a merciless satire of yaoi fangirls, with some prodding at us "normal" fangirls as well.

New Fan Fiction Idea #3

I strangely really wanted to write this for a while, but now I've decided it's just too... down-and-dirty? for me. I might as well post the idea, though.

Working Title: This, That, and Rock 'n' Roll

Fandom: Hetalia: Axis Powers, human alternate-universe

Genre Tags: Drama, possibly also Friendship or Angst

Length: Definitely multichapter; maybe even a two- or three-part series.

Protagonists: "The Allies," a rock band consisting (predictably) of the Allies. Francis is the frontman/vocalist, Arthur is the lead guitarist, Alfred is the drummer, Ivan is the bassist, and Yao is keyboard/rhythm guitar. Of the "this, that, and rock 'n' roll," all qualify for the third category, but Francis is particularly caught up in the "this" and Arthur in the "that." Ivan is widely known to be an unconvicted murderer of sorts. Everyone but certain fangirls and the hardcore fans thinks Yao is a girl.  Alfred is Alfred.

Antagonists: Most conflict arises within the group. There are also plenty of band-related people that can be manipulative, as well as the possibility of a battle with some new band called "The Axis"...

Setting: Modern day-ish America.

Plot: It's basically a biography of the band, from formation through changes (the drummer is replaced by someone with an uncannily similar appearance, for example) until the complete breakup.

Point of View: Third person, limited to various members at various times.

I could try to clean it up and write it, but it doesn't seem like that would do the story justice.

Writing Tools

What do you use to write?

I've never really been one for writing on paper. I do exchange letters with a friend--who gave me a fancy pen and ink!--but my handwriting is too junky and slow for writing my stories that way to appeal to me. Also, marking out ink annoys me. I have done some writing with pencil in journal, though only out of necessity. I jotted down sections of my NaNo novel whenever I could, which usually wasn't near a computer. I've also written pieces of What If in a drawing journal because I was at church camp with no computer access. Basically, I don't like writing in hand in general, but if I need to write enough, I'll do it.

On the other hand, I've never tried any fancy writing software. There were all of these discounts offered to NaNoWriMo winners, and I've heard people singing the praises of Scrivener and some other things in the NaNo forums. I've never tried any, because they all tend to cost money, but I don't know it would be worth it. I've made it this far on Microsoft Word and the fanfiction.net Document Editor. Then again, I'm not quite published, am I? I may look more into these things, though I seriously doubt I would ever spend money on it, because I'm just terribly cheap.

Does anyone have experience with writing software, or detailed recommendations? Coupons? Tips on improving handwriting?

New Fiction Idea #14

This was somehow inspired by having to read and discuss part of The Communist Manifesto in class. (Also, I'm totally imagining Russia lingering over "In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end" with a sort of (*0*) face and interpreting it to mean it would make everyone friends with him... Anyway.)

Title: Backbone (could be changed)

Genre: U/Dystopian Fiction

Protagonist: Hannah Sherman, a seventeen-year-old blonde who's a bit underfed but very strong from the harsh work she endures. She's a bit of a tired cynic who very much wishes she could just create guitar music but knows she has no chance and thus buckles down for her farm work.

Other Main Characters: Ian Cariaga, a twenty-something man with dark hair and a pale complexion. He is tall with an unimpressively average build, acts a bit feverish in general, and will avoid work whenever possible.
Corey Fisher, a nineteen-year-old male with hazel eyes and dark brown hair. He's the same height as Hannah and rather bony. He's a whiz at composing music, and he's usually quite light-hearted, but he holds a grudge against the government.

Antagonist: The government? (Yay, dystopia.)
Everyone Hannah meets in her journey could potentially be a threat if they bring her up too often, even if they give her a lot of help and aren't themselves suspicious of her.

Setting: Hannah has grown up working in the intolerably difficult fields of Gherrum, around no known family and few good friends. The heat can get extreme, there is almost no health service, there are no excuses not to work, and an air of hopelessness hangs over the place. Completely unknown to the field workers, factory workers miners, etc. is a great state to the north, Fyllan. With those below supporting them materially, they are free to do anything. There are no families, only communities; whatever one's passion is is what that person does, where in the state they live, and who they are. People draw inspiration from others in their group and are free to move from group to group as they please (although if they can't find one they like enough... things can get bad for them). It's overall an extremely pleasant place full of fulfilled dreams and all that good stuff.

Plot: Ian, one of the lucky chosen from birth to be raised in Fyllan, is a bit mentally off and, more importantly, wholly undedicated to work. After many missed opportunities, he suddenly disappears from his latest community and is transported to Gherrum. In the much stricter environment, it is impossible for him to continue to be unproductive, but he still complains like nothing else—this and his instability combined allow few to listen to him. Hannah, however, does—and one day Ian manages to tell her about Fyllan. Hannah is inspired to escape there and live out her dream. She manages it somehow, joining with the community of musicians (which has subdivisions, of course, but we need not get into that yet) and very much befriending Corey. Still, the shadow of her birth determination to Gherrum hangs over her, and she must face several issues before she can enjoy her guitar work in peace.

Point of View: Third person, limited to Hannah.

This actually seems to have combined with an idea written for a Scribes meeting. I don't mind that.

I'm not sure exactly which way the plot goes once Hannah gets to Fyllan, aside from her being in hiding somewhat, but this is in its earliest stages. Any comments or suggestions are welcome, as always.

New Fan Fiction Idea #2

Had this idea a while ago, but a Western Thought study session just brought it back to mind.

Title: [something incredibly stupid translated into Italian] (could be changed)

Fandom: Hetalia: Axis Powers

Genre Tags: Humour, possibly Parody or Friendship

Length: Multichapter, though with shorter individual chapters

Protagonist: Germany

Antagonist: ...Italy, I guess.

Setting: Either modern-day or WWII-ish. That vague setting where all of the training things take place.

Plot: Italy slacks off hopelessly in training. Italy will cheerfully run himself ragged to successfully act out an opera. Solution? Compose an opera that will put Italy through all sorts of training exercises without him realizing it. At least, Germany thinks it's worth a shot.

Point of View: Third person, limited to Germany.

I feel like this could be incredibly fun. I'm not sure about trying to put an entire opera into just novel format, but I could be swayed. I've always wanted to compose some sort of silly opera.

The Thing About Fan Fiction…

...is that it has no hope of being published. Aside from my usual phases of panic that everything I write is rubbish and would never sell, the writing that consumes almost all of my time is absolutely unsellable due to copyright.

If my goal is to get published, then it seems logical that I should spend more time on publishable writing than fan fiction. Certainly I'm not about to stop updating Break Out or The Long and Winding Road, but updating as quickly as I feel the need to takes up time I could be using more productively towards getting published. I do feel like any writing is a good way to get experience, but just look at my other posts—I have tons of original fiction ideas to toy with. Still, fan fiction has the benefit of attracting attention while in-progress, so I don't have to wait until I'm done to get feedback on my writing.

Fan fiction is a different beast than original fiction, as I've very much come to consider in the process of converting The Long and Winding Road from one to the other. Even if they do share a lot of elements, there are also quite a few differences, so the experience I get from fan fiction isn't 100% going towards what I could use in original fiction.

Basically, it just comes down to how productive I want to be. More original fiction time = less fan fiction time. I do want to have fun, though it seems a little weird for fan fiction to be my inception-hobby with writing as my hobby and something else altogether as my occupation. It's a weird balancing act that I'm definitely going to have to shift if I want to make progress on publishable original fiction.

I'm not sure just how or how much I'm going to wean myself off of fan fiction. I hate to disappoint readers, so I don't expect to change any habits as far as already-published (on fanfiction.net) works go, but I feel like I might shift to a slower-updating existence once the second of my big series is over.

Does anyone else have experience with or tips for this?

Life, the Author, and Everything

Life and I have a complicated relationship. Throw in writing, and we have quite a love-hate triangle, constantly battling over each other's hearts and, mostly, time.

How do you balance writing with life? I usually do well enough, but this year has been a brutal tug-of-war in life's favour. Several classes are to blame, though I'm most upset about chemistry (taking it for the third time, after scoring a 5 on the AP test and getting A's every other time—needless to say, it's a hugely frustrating way to tear through time without actually learning anything). I have to kick myself into NaNoWriMo mode to get out 500 words or so of Break Out after a weary day, and I can forget about seriously pursuing other stories at the same time.

Of course, writing is very much based off life, so I'll handle whatever happens knowing I can use it somehow. Perhaps not always quite so optimistically as I just made it sound, but nonetheless handle it.

Time is really the only good weapon life tends to use against me. Crushing stress about exams—I go to writing for freedom. Death of awesome uncle—I apologized to readers if the quality was bad and kept writing, anyway. But loads of chemistry lab work and research paper outlines—there go my hopes of writing (and escape) for the next few days.

Ah, well. I'm sure this happens to everyone.

What You Want to Hear

As you can tell, I've been posting a decent variety of things on this blog. My question is, what do you like best? Seeing my ideas? Seeing how I think about writing or how I write?

Would something else be a good addition? Would you like to see me comment on other writings? Do you want more samples of my writing here? What could I add to make this more appealing to you, the reader?

Is there anything that would help me get a greater audience, as far as content goes?

I'd just like to know if there's anything on this blog I could do better.

New Fan Fiction Idea #1

While I normally put short synopses of fan fiction ideas on my fan fiction profile, I figured it wouldn't hurt to put some up in more detail here. Also, there can be some ideas that hit me but disappear from mind by the next time I update my profile (like this one has done frequently).

Title: Weird New World (could be changed)

Fandom: Hetalia: Axis Powers

Genre Tags: Fantasy/not sure what else. Probably Humour, but possibly Friendship or Adventure.

Length: Multichapter

Protagonist: England

Other Main Characters: America, Romania, Norway, Sealand... It'll probably be an ensemble-type thing.

Antagonist: Unknown. There will likely be friction within the group, but that alone would be a rather boring driving force.

Setting: Modern-day earth on the macro scale. A university-like campus cut off from the outside world on a smaller scale.

Plot: Everything is normal, blah, blah, blah. Then out of nowhere a glittering wave encompasses the earth, and all normal laws of physics and such are moot. At the same time, England's magic suddenly has a 100% success rate (as do other experienced casters') and requires no incantation. After a random nation (Estonia originally, though I'll probably change my mind) dies for no reason, the magicians among them work together to make a safe place for the others to gather where normality is restored. To combat the chaos in the rest of the world, however, the magic-users decide to acquaint the others with spells to bring the rest of earth (and the solar system?) into normality, but the classes don't go smoothly.

Point of View: Third person, limited to various characters at different times but mostly England.

So I haven't really worked on this one much since it first popped into my head, but at least it now seems to have some sort of plot beyond the establishment of the school. I still have no idea where to go as far as reasons for the wave/antagonists go. It feels like it could be a lot of fun if I get to it, though.

Writing Spaces

Where do you like to write?

When I'm at school, I usually do my writing on my plugged-in laptop on my desk. I've heard some people like to turn out the lights so nothing else in the room distracts them, but that's a big no for me. A glowing screen in the dark makes my eyes hurt (and may be part of the reason movies give me headaches). Just above the shelf I have my radio/iHome/alarm clock, whose writing use I have explained earlier. My phone is nearby in its weird little stand, though that's not a big deal because I rarely text people, and they rarely call me. I sit sort of slumped back in my vaguely-cushy rocking chair with a foot on the weird low shelf inside my desk.

Given my schedule and my need to do homework during gaps in the day, I do most of my writing in the evenings. Say, 16:00–16:50 (when I leave for supper) and then off and on until 21:40 (when I do my Bible study). Of course, I do things in the evenings on occasion, mostly Scribes meetings and dorm events, but most of it is writing or reading or poking about Neopets and some of the rest of the Internet.

I have done some writing after 22:00 or during the school day, but that's only on special occasions, usually when the end of a chapter is close enough. I can fuss with typing after my Bible study, but my brain doesn't function that well once it gets that late, and I'll turn in soon afterwards, so I usually won't bother starting something I can't finish. I think the only time I've stayed up significantly late writing was when I was doing chapter 48 of The Rules. My roommate was quite surprised to find me up.

At home, I do most of my writing with the laptop unplugged in my little corner of the couch. It's my attempt to be sort of sociable around my parents (and I don't get good Wi-Fi reception in my room). Given the lack of classes, I'll type anytime then.

I did have to stretch myself for NaNo. I brought a lined journal and jotted down things before classes, waiting for an omelette to cook (at someone else's hands! I'd burn the place down), and on one occasion during a basketball game on my phone (this is not recommended under any normal conditions). When it's that urgent, I can block out all of the people a bit better, but for the most part it's just distracting. If I'm in the throes of writer's block, I might try to type with other people chatting around me. I actually did that for the last chapter of Unsurvivable, and a joke somehow led to a friend (the same boy who elaborated on the zombie restaurant idea, incidentally) typing enough of the chapter for me to get back with it.

I am guilty of distracting myself with the Internet while I type. I'll drag some of my (Neopets) Habitarium P3's into their homes to rest, or check my email, or look at some recent reviews. I feel like I do these things so often it hurts my productivity, but it's difficult to stop. I can't even up and switch the Internet off, or I'll lose what I'm typing on (fanfiction.net's) Doc Editor, and I'm too OCD to type up my fan fictions elsewhere.

(And, yes, I've decided to start putting more links in my posts. Why not?)

Plot in General

I can't do real plots.

Possibly that's an exaggeration, but I have to wonder sometimes. I rely on fan fiction for worlds and characters, but that's not all. Brutal series? Hunger Games plot. The Rules? Ditto. I don't really plot. I just throw people together and make them kill each other. My possible +Anima fan fiction is just a retelling, and the only roleplays I can keep up are OC tournaments, which is a pretty rigid standard plot (though it can wander off on its own at times).

As far as making do with my own ideas, it's shaky. Break Out is incredibly difficult—it's now not so much a question of "Who dies this chapter?" any more as it is "What do I reveal about the cause of The Rules in this chapter?" The Long and Winding Road is definitely no easier. I have a few definite antagonists and know there's a lot of walking, but it doesn't feel like enough to sustain a real story. Trying to throw in a chain of romantic events on top of that is so out of my element I don't even know what I'm trying to do sometimes. My original fictions don't get enough attention right now for them to have any real semblances of plot.

Maybe I'm too caught up in trying to prove myself or something when I don't feel like there's much there to prove. My readers have a history of thinking of me differently, but they don't pay money to read my things, nor do they have to worry about getting to know characters (though there are some exceptions for the latter). I don't know whether to not worry about trying to sell anything at all, given I don't have a great tendency to finish original works anyway, or to push myself to get better, however I go about doing that. Apparently I haven't been doing it right the past few years, because I can't read Unsurvivable any more easily than I can read Brutal. Maybe the 2YN course will help. Maybe I should go with more outlines. Maybe I should just listen to the advice of everyone in the world and keep writing as a secret little hobby only to keep my head from exploding from life. Maybe I should sign up for psychiatric help. Who knows?

What is plot, anyway? Introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement, right? But what is it like in the real world of novelling? I mean, people can't even settle on when the climax of Hamlet is, and that work tends to be considered decent. Is it all really just about keeping people's interest, or is it the pretty little literature class mountain diagram, or is it just whatever weird stuff you want to put on a page? Is there anything in particular that makes a plot good? Terrible? Just okay?

Eh, I'm just having one of those "why do I bother writing" days, I guess. I'll probably get over it, but advice would still help.

New Fiction Idea #10

For those of you who don't know my fan fiction life:

I started a crossover series with human!Hetalians fighting in the Hunger Games. I finished said crossover series. Depressed at no longer having a premise to kill the Hetalians, I thought up a premise that wasn't a crossover with the Hunger Games. Then I went back and decided to continue earlier series and abandoned the non-crossover idea. Before I picked it up again, I tried to see if it would work as an original fiction. I haven't put much thought into it since breaking down and writing The Rules in its originally-intended form, but here's what I ended up with.

Title: The Rules

Genre: Horror/Suspense

Protagonist: Lars, a twenty-something man with very curly blonde hair. He tends to focus too much on work rather than his family, but he does love them.

Other Main Characters/Antagonists: Shelby, a nine-year-old with light blonde hair and Lars' daughter.
Leah, a fourteen-year-old with hair like her father (Lars), she likes to bicker with her sister but is actually pretty brave.
John, a sixty-something man with grey hair and thick glasses. He is a devout Evangelical Christian minister and widower.
Leslie, a brunette party girl in her early twenties. She's very giggly and enthusiastic, and she does not yet know she's pregnant.
Stuart, an African-American man in his early twenties. He's been Leslie's friend since junior high, and he's been crushing on her for a while.
Stephen, a high school loser with cropped brown hair. He's a coward and is fine with using dirty tricks to get what he wants.
Vanessa, a 17-year-old girl with her dark hair in a bun. She's very much the bookish type and only ended up at a party after much coaxing. She gets a bit unhinged after she figures out what Stephen did to her at and after said party.
Rick, an African-American man in his thirties with a habit of selling prescription painkillers. He has a heart, though he's very self-centered.
Cassandra, a twenty-something woman with scraggly dirty blonde hair. She's very much addicted to prescription painkillers and suffering from it (in case her abusive husband wasn't enough to wreck her mentally).
William, a twenty-something Indian businessman. He's quite intelligent and charming, though things can quickly get out of hand if he's angered (which is a rare enough occasion).
Sharon, a very pretty Arabic woman and William's recent wife. She's quiet but graceful.
Chester, a 19-year-old Video Game Design major with wavy blonde hair. He gets really into games and will consider some fairly serious things as games.

Setting: A modern-day cheap, somewhat run-down hotel. It's haunted by a previous victim of The Rules and staffed by people who know what's going on but can't stop it.

Plot: The hotel guests wake and arrive for breakfast at the same time. When they head back to their rooms, on each bed is a note (which may sound familiar) that reads:

The Rules

1. For each of you, there is a certain person in this hotel you must kill.

2. If you kill your person, you will go home.

3. If you do not kill your person, you will not go home.

4. Enjoy your newfound immortality while it lasts.

Accompanying the note is one six-shot revolver for each occupant of the room. Vanessa is the first to experiment (firing on Stephen), and soon the hotel devolves into murderous chaos as the occupants try to escape or kill their people while they're still coming back to life.

Point of View: First person, switching between each guest.

I've certainly worked some things out about this alternate version, though I've very much let it rest as the fan fiction version came out. The bit on immortality seems a bit harder to swallow here (maybe a setting change would somehow fix it, though I can't imagine how), and I'm just overall not sure about it. It's certainly an option to toy with, though.

Fame (What's Your Name)

So, Break Out has finally arrived. It's really been worrying me because its readers have such high expectations, and it's in such a different vein than The Rules, being off the island for the most part.

Even so, I went ahead and whipped up the first (and second) chapter and posted. 23 reviews, 10 favourites, and 19 story alerts are the results, as of today. I can't say how much I freaked out upon opening my inbox to over a page of emails notifying me of these things.

It's really nice feeling famous again, especially when very few are interested in The Long and Winding Road. Between that, Unsurvivable having almost 100 reviews less than its predecessor, and the direction Break Out is going, I was terrified everyone has either moved on or would after seeing how different the sequel is. Certainly it's a bit early to judge, but since most of the 23 reviews are people being extremely excited just to see a chapter posted, I think I'll be optimistic about the fans I have outside the BDDSG.

Of course, I always love my BDDSG'ers and being able to count on regulars like OWL-F reviewing.

It's just the difference between feeling loved and feeling outright famous, I guess. Of course, once I felt so famous I decided to compare myself with other Hetalia fan fictions... That brought the mood down quite quickly. No matter the criteria, there are always some 7 pages of stories with double what I have.

That's all right, though. I'll just pretend that all of that is only because they include yaoi and turn the other way. I may do some catering to the audience, but I'm not going to break with everything I do just to get more reviews. Certainly other factors are going to be involved, likely among them quality of writing, but those are impossible to figure out without analyzing all of those ahead of me, and I'm not going to bother with that. A loyal fanbase is a loyal fanbase, however much buzz they give your work.

Also, the title of this post is from the David Bowie song, for those confused.

New Short Story Idea #1

I'm really not much of a short story person. I've certainly done oneshots before, but always as accompaniment to some larger whole, usually something like the Brutal series. This is one idea that struck me, though, that I couldn't do in a whole novel. We'll see if it ever happens.

Title: "That We May Live" (could be changed)

Genre: Romance, I think

Main Characters: Annie Bernard, a young woman with boy-short black hair and a general attractiveness about her.
Phillip Durham, a young man with short brown hair that's rather scrawny.

Setting: Modern-day America during Veterans' Day.

Plot: Annie visits the grave of her grandfather, a war veteran. She decorates the headstone with flowers and prepares to plant a small flag, but she loses her grip, and the flag blows to the next plot, an empty one. Phillip, visiting his aunt's grave for similar reasons, is at the next plot and manages to catch the flag before it can go any further. He hands it back to Annie, who thanks him. The two strike up some patriotic conversation about being blessed with the people who fight and die that they might live. As Annie starts back for her grandfather's plot, Phillip stops her for a moment and, apologising if it sounded callous but bringing up the point of their being able to live, asks for her number.
It ends after skipping to some time later. The empty plot is now marked with headstones for Annie and Phillip Durham.

Point of View: Third person, static or omniscient.

Inspired by visiting an ancestor's grave that by some strange coincidence was two plots (one empty) away from ancestors on the other side of the family.

Plotting and Planning

What do you all do for plotting? I've heard a popular strategy in NaNoWriMo is making outlines and writing from them, and Novelist's Boot Camp requires very extensive outlining.

I really can't handle it, to the point I'm not sure if I can go with the NBC strategy. I have problems outlining essays—anything for which I have to outline ends up choppy with extremely questionable/terrible transitions. I may not hit absolutely everything without an outline, but at least I feel like it flows. That's just for nonfiction, too—something that draws only from my own inspiration is going to feel much worse than usual if I try to make it fit something.

On the other hand, I can't just decide to write a chapter (*cough* first chapter of Break Out *cough*) and write it. I need to have some prior plan in my head, and I have plotted "outlines" of entire chapters like this. Actually, I think it's more like making a movie of it, though I do end up with a few loose phrases I want to incorporate (a lot of which I actually don't, incidentally...).

I'm not sure exactly how much organization I'm trying to get—or how much I need to get. It's an art, I guess. Until then, pantsing it is.

New Manga Idea #3

I started this a long time ago, before I could draw, and had a friend do the art for me. We've since parted ways, and I feel like I've lost too much of the story to really reclaim it, but it's worth mentioning.

Title: Countdown (or C0un7d0wn)

Genre: Undecided, likely shounen

Protagonist: Shil, a redheaded 16-year-old with half-green, half-purple eyes. He's rather good-natured and likes playing the hero. He has the ability to see how long everyone has to live in the form of a digital clock-type display over their heads. The clock shows their natural life span unless an impending threat to their life arrives.

Other Main Characters: Frass, a crabby 16-year-old with spiky blue hair. He's a childhood friend of Shil.
Keed, a brunette 17-year-old who keeps his mid-length hair in a ponytail. He's a bit of a jokester and incredibly (magically, I assume) strong. He also lives in a glass house, but I don't remember why.
Tulip, a 16-year-old with bra-length blonde hair. She's feisty but warms up to people easily enough. She can telepathically control a length of cloth that can only be cut by the blade of a death god.
Karin, a wheelchair-bound 17-year-old with black hair in a low ponytail. She's sweet but quiet around strangers. She and Keed eventually fall in love.

Antagonists: I have completely forgotten, or I may have never determined any.

Setting: A modern-day fantastic universe.

Plot: Shil struggles to save the world one person at a time while keeping up with school and friends. Eventually (I don't recall how) he and his friends start mixing with the bad guys and death gods. In this struggle, he finally finds out the origin of his powers (spoiler: his mother is a death god).

I definitely need to develop it more if I plan to go anywhere with it. At this point I don't.