Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Wooly Rupert 02-04-04, 10:21 PM	So I recently unearthed a short story I wrote several years ago, and decided to re-do it. Well, that's gonna be a titanic undertaking, and I've no idea how long it will take. But when I'm done, what shall I do with it? Therein lies another problem. It's not like publishing it is a real option... So I decided to put it on-line. I found the Forgotten Realms section of fanfiction.net, but I've heard mixed reviews of that site. As I'm sure I'm not the only person on these forums who's decided to post FR fan fiction on-line, then it makes sense that some of y'all would know of good sites for doing this. So, what are those good sites? And what have your experiences with those sites been like? In case anyone is curious, my short story is set in and around Myth Drannor, about 4 years ago, in 1369 (which was about current when I first wrote it). Some characters from the Ruins of Myth Drannor boxed set put in brief appearances, but there are no iconic characters in the story -- nor do I have any plans to ever use iconic characters in me own fiction.
Wooly Rupert 02-06-04, 05:50 PM	:bump: No one has dealt with fan fiction websites?
Maaz, Technomancer 02-06-04, 06:06 PM	Have no fear you wooly wooly thing... Dungeons and Dragons FF (http://www.fanfiction.net/list.php?categoryid=1116)
Wooly Rupert 02-06-04, 06:14 PM	Originally posted by Maaz, Technomancer Have no fear you wooly wooly thing... Dungeons and Dragons FF (http://www.fanfiction.net/list.php?categoryid=1116) Thank you. But I have found a specific Forgotten Realms section of FF.net. I was just wondering if there was any other sites out there, and what people's experiences with FF.net and any other sites might have been.
Mystery Man 02-06-04, 06:35 PM	Candlekeep has a section for that type of thing. I think they're looking for FR fans to submit material.. Request for Realmslore (http://www.candlekeep.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1785) Or you could always make a blog. There's plenty of free hosting out there.
Wooly Rupert 02-06-04, 11:58 PM	Hmm... I think I'll drop the Candlekeep folks a line and see if they're just looking for Realmslore, or if fan fiction is something else they'd like... As for a blog, I'm not sure how well that would work for me. I have a Livejournal account, but this is gonna be one honkin' long story when I'm done. It was originally almost 20 pages, when I first wrote it. Now that I'm in the re-write, I'm almost afraid of how long it might wind up being. The point in the narrative that I'm at right now was at the bottom of the second page, originally. Now it's at the top of the sixth...
Darkmistress 02-07-04, 04:39 AM	I've been on FF.net since 2001. This is my experience with it: Edited by BigSister for inappropriate content However, FF.net provides fairly good service for free. It's easy to upload and organize your stuff, keep track of your reviews, and suchlike. The site goes down from time to time, but the downtimes are not major, and if Xing is to be believed, they are improving the server so that if there are problems, the site'll still be up while the staff do background maintainance.
Wooly Rupert 02-07-04, 07:01 AM	Thank you, Darkmistress. That was exactly the kind of info I was looking for. I do know several girls who are themselves lovers of fanfics, and I'd heard a lot of the same things about their various fandoms.... Know you of any alternatives?
Darkmistress 02-07-04, 08:12 AM	*shrugs helplessly* There's Henneth-Annun for LOTR/Tolkien-related fanfiction; it's got quality control, and good submission system. For FR? There's Lavender Eyes (http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/), a site tailored specifically for Drizzt-related fanfic, but again, no quality control. Also Dragon's Library (http://www.dragonlibrary.com/), but it hasn't been updated for a year or two. There are other sites that offer alternatives to FF.net (Soupfiction.net, Adultfanfiction.net, Fandomination.net), but frankly, aside from their lack of NC-17 and above ban, they are just as bad. Worse, in fact, because their smaller populations mean that there are less chance of finding good authors/reviewers. Appears you're stuck with FF.net. My condolences. :( (And if you do decide to join, well, welcome to the club.) Oh... There is Writing.com. But if you don't pay for membership, the free account is all but worthless. You can post up to five items -- one chapter of a multi-chapter story counts as one item. Writing.com also involves too much socializing (ala popularity contests) for my taste, but you might want to give it a whirl. It's not geared toward fanfiction, though, so all fanfiction is lumped together in one multi-fandom category.
Wooly Rupert 02-07-04, 08:22 AM	I know one of the people who runs fandomination.net.... I'd already ruled that one out, simply because I didn't see too much fantasy stuff on there. Following the advice of Mystery Man, I e-mailed Candlekeep.com, and found out that they have a fan fiction section. I've not perused it's contents yet, but I shall.
Darkmistress 02-07-04, 08:51 AM	They do? Funny, I've never noticed one before. But then, I only frequent the forum, and no more than the novels and software sections at that-- Oh. Wait, you mean this (http://www.candlekeep.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=12)? I don't really like submitting to forums. It's hard to archive your work and the feedback -- comments and the actual material you post get mixed up. Plus, from what I can see, people don't seem willing to say anything beyond "That's great. I look forward to seeing more." Which is to say, critiques can be rather scarce. As bad as FF.net's majority of members is, I've gotten a fair number of intelligent reviews that tell me what needs to be improved, what mistakes I should correct, and so on.
Wooly Rupert 02-08-04, 08:19 AM	Actually, I was referring to this section (http://www.candlekeep.com/campaign/logs.htm)... 'Tis not large, and I've not yet perused the stuff on there... It specifically states stories and novels written by fans of the Realms. I don't know if I'm all that interested in critiques, honestly... I'd not really looked at much beyond getting it out there for some friends to read. I'd simply not thought about it. But some critiques would prolly be a good thing to get. Of course, there's nothing stopping me from hitting both Candlekeep and FF.net...
Gez 02-08-04, 09:23 AM	Originally posted by Darkmistress I've been on FF.net since 2001. This is my experience with it: Edited by BigSister for inappropriate content So, I take it you don't have a great opinion on it. :D
Reefy 02-08-04, 01:54 PM	Originally posted by Gez So, I take it you don't have a great opinion on it. :D No, she didn't, and to be honest having had a browse there myself, I believe she's got a valid point.
TinySilverChalice 02-08-04, 02:26 PM	I'm glad I popped in on this discussion. I've just been posting my own FF here (note the sig link). It's probably not the best idea, but I assume if one is going to write in a shared world setting one is pretty much surendering any real right away anyway. Darkmistress, I value your oh-so-censored opinion very much. So which of these seems the best for real feedback and no "OMG Luv it right more l8tr!!!!!" BTW, how does tweeking a story to be set in a general fantasy setting for review on non-FF sites compare to just admitting where your inspriation comes from and keeping the story "doomed" to be FF?
Darkmistress 02-09-04, 12:07 AM	Why was that part of my post considered "inappropriate content"? Is saying negative things about another website censored here, now? What an interesting policy. So which of these seems the best for real feedback and no "OMG Luv it right more l8tr!!!!!" Frankly? Nowhere, I think. The best way to go, for me, is to have a pair of beta-readers or more. I proofread my work, usually at least five times, then send it to my betas -- who do enjoy my work, but will not hold back criticism. If it's corny, if it's purple, if it doesn't fit in with the fandom, if it's cliched to bleeding hell, I'll be told. (I do likewise for people I beta for. I'm infamous for it, but strangely enough, I still get reviewing/beta requests.) Writing.com's got people who are willing to give you honest feedback, but again, you have to get to know them. In certain fandoms of FF.net, you get honest critics aplenty; goes without saying that the more popular a fandom is, the more likely the chance of finding good authors/reviewers. Otherwise, you could try going to message boards where you know honest critics/non-fanpoodles frequent. Post a link, ask for opinions, etc. Protectors of the Plot Continuum message board offers this, more or less, mostly for LOTR fanfiction. Then there's the Godawful Fanfiction. BTW, how does tweeking a story to be set in a general fantasy setting for review on non-FF sites compare to just admitting where your inspriation comes from and keeping the story "doomed" to be FF? I've never tried that, really, though I'm somewhat tempted to. My fanfics are too specific, though, except for one. In my experience, it's best not to "tweak" a story like that. Sometimes, a fanfic works because it is a fanfic -- I enjoy writing my LOTR fanfic, post RoTK, because I get to explore Eowyn/Faramir relationship. Turning them to faceless, generic fantasy characters would defeat the whole point. But whatever floats your boat. Another thing is that some things are easily recognized as fanfiction-turned-original. Take my Star Wars fanfic. Let's say I use the find-and-replace feature, and replace "the Force" with, oh, "the Source", "Jedi" with "Random Good Guys with Special Powers", "Sith" with "Generic Bad Guys" and "Republic" with "Governing Body." The whole thing would still come off as extremely derivative of Star Wars and would be detrimental to your story. ("Ugh, another Star Wars clone, folk?")
WizO_BigSister 02-11-04, 04:18 AM	Saying negative things about any person or persons writing and ideas is fine. Insulting people, criticising their personality or character is NOT fine. It does not matter whether these people are members of this board, writers, designers, "real life" figures, members of another site or anything else. No matter who the people are flaming people is not acceptable on these boards.
Wooly Rupert 02-26-04, 01:45 AM	Getting back on topic, and bumping this one back up... I kinda took a hiatus from the re-write, but I got back on it today. So far, I'm on page 5 of the original but page 12 of the re-write! Thus far, I've added a lot more description and detail. I've added an extra encounter, as well. Now I'm in the middle of what was the first encounter, but is now the second. The next section is gonna be getting seriously revamped, and a lot of it is going into a new section -- it just makes sense to split it up, a bit. Plus, I just decided today to revamp the set-up for one of the last big events in the story. I think the revamp makes it work better. Of course, it necessitates another character, at least a very minor one... I still need to develop the magic sword... And now I'm trying to figure out where, in relation to the city, the Dawnspire is...
Wooly Rupert 03-23-04, 03:11 AM	:bump: Giving this thread another bump... I took another hiatus from writing. This time it was a combination of things. I had some other stuff going on that was distracting me, and on top of that, I couldn't figure out the best way to bring in this replacement character (he's a replacement in the sense that the original character concept was tossed out the window). The next section I write will be totally new, not a re-write. I'm doing this to intro the character now and give time for him to get integrated into the group, rather than meeting them en route to the BBEG like in the original. Where I am in the narrative now... In the original version, I'm at the bottom of page 9. In the new version, I'm on page 22. And I already know some things I need to tighten up on the first edit... I hope to work on this maņana before work. I should like to finish this sometime soon, so I can share it!