Fanfiction Lounge

Oh Arceus I'm finally, finally awake again...

You know guys? Since July I haven't slept this good. Now, if only not alone, if you know what I mean...

Thanks to those who have commented on the FFL'sBTI.

icomeanon6 said:

solovino said:

Speaking of bold topics... I'll answer these later. I'm tired now.

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What is your opinion on a bold-topics index? Do you think it will be too hard to maintain?

Just kidding, solovino! ;)

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Not funny! :cheeky: -- I'll have to see how can I survive this.

Anyways, I expect to pick the missing topics from June/July sometime during this month, that if nothing else comes up.

The hard part is, obviously, scrolling across the Lounge and trying to identify the individual trends of conversation, as for this task I can't rely on a machine to do the work. Once I have identified the trends, I copy the relevant information (trend title, post ID, author and date) to a CSV file. Post title is copied automatically by my browser; all else has to be copied by-hand. Once I have the CSV file, I parse it with some Regex magic to create the BBCode list code.
Once that part is done, I have to pick every trend and check them more closely again, to search for relevant information such as duration, sparseness, seriousness and usable keywords to help me catalog the entries.

I would say the hardest part would be retaining my sanity while trudging through the entire contents of the Lounge...

Also, thanks for the applause. Let's see if I actually deserve it when once this year comes to end I have to update the list with the second half of the year ;) -- Giratina of Never-Turn-Back (and everyone else), if you have ideas to improve the design don't hesitate to pester me with them! I'm actually bad at visual design, one available now I picked from an old notification a college friend made. :D

I think I'm fresh enough now to participate in the funny conversations again.


What's the current wordcount on your active chaptered fics?

"Elusive Goals": ~26600 words (9 chapters + 4 snippets) whole, ~19340 words (3 ½ chapters) published.
"Sixth": ~26240 words (29 parts) whole, ~23880 words (21 parts) published.
[SWC] Entry: 4479 words whole
Total so far: ~47699 words published

Also...
Unnamed work pending design checks: 18600 words (14 snippets [plus a database], still unorganized) whole, 0 published.
"Final Fantasy VI: Scalar" (my first published fic, I'm about to rewrite ir): ~13700 words (6 chapters) whole, ~9100 words (4 chapters) published.

I have an announcement!
I have one, too! :rambo:


Have you ever implemented plot threads/sub-plots/mini-arcs/whatever in your stories? If they're not spoileriffic and you don't mind sharing, what were they?
Of course I have. Also I don't mind sharing as it always proves to help.
In "Sixth", there is a minor subplot with "The Guide", a strange item that legendaries have used to compile information about humans. I tried to take a kind-of humorous approach with it, what with Mew making unauthorized use of it. The Registeel is there for use in the next-to-last mini-arc. Other than that, the entire story is a recount of a loosely connected arc of sorts.
"Elusive Goals" (which I haven't updated in a while because I'm distracted by the shiny Bakphoon is gonna kill me!) is currently about to finish the first arc of the three that the story encompasses. The second arc is the Indigo Conference League itself. There are also some mini-arcs to develop the personalities of Darius' Pokémon, particularly Rapidash and a mini-arc that I intended to write to give it a HG&SS touch but that's currently on hiatus. There's also the hit team mini-arc...


To make it related to Fanfiction, perhaps we could talk about the kinds of medical procedures that your fic characters have had?
Well, poor Lileep was born created in a test-tube and even now the scientists are always poking him with objects. I hope he soon finds solace once he, let's say, changes owners.
Of my human characters I haven't though about this too much, but I originally had the idea that the "Trainer" in "Sixth", who is actually the Champion was terminally ill, hence why he was living in a scientific research base. I eventually dropped it, however.

Feign said:

My sister recently went and was told that one eye was slightly better than the other, but not enough for the need of glasses.

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When I went to eye doctor about four years ago, I was told that my left eye was pristine perfect and that kestrels and falcons would try to mob me and take it away, but my right eye was pretty much a compilation of clinical cases that all of the old doctors would joust each other to take... :D → :( Hence my glasses have a two-pages list of augments and corrections for the right crystal, and none for the left one (except for UV filtering). Go figure... :surprised:

Citrinin said:

I suppose this post is in recognition of everything that we have done, as a community, to make this forum what it is today. And it makes me proud to call myself a regular of the PFF&P. ^___^ I guess this is like the opposite of a rant. XD;

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Yeah, it's how things work here. We share stuff in a light-hearted enough manner that we are compelled and unafraid to try and contribute with the more serious stuff as well. I think I can call myself an FFL regulas now, and kinda proud of it. And, Citrinin, it's a tnar then! XD

I guess, just like other members here, I can safely say I'm happy to be here at PC and more specifically the Writer's Lounge, my fave section. The way people here love each other (and a certain member and the mod...) and the way even in freetalking we focus on writing, You people have helped me to develop my literary vein. It that counts for cookies, I'll try to have some enough of them baked.

To make it related to Fanfiction, perhaps we could talk about the kinds of medical procedures that your fic characters have had?

One of the relatively new characters in my main fic, namely Taylor, got his head split open in the first chapter he appeared in.



Also: This is my 666th post!

Also, also: Solovino, I believe you misspelled my name when you quoted me. Everyone keeps doing that! <obscure reference>I think I know what Guybrush Threepwood feels like.</obsucre reference>

<obscure reference>I think I know what Guybrush Threepwood feels like.</obsucre reference>

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It's not that obscure... icomeanon7. =P

To make it related to Fanfiction, perhaps we could talk about the kinds of medical procedures that your fic characters have had?

Hmm... I haven't really had much at all on medical procedures... I have had someone bump their head once and go to a Pokemon Centre to get that treated, but it's hardly anything major.

To make it related to Fanfiction, perhaps we could talk about the kinds of medical procedures that your fic characters have had?
I've had various characters in different stories undergo medical procedures of different types, some more interesting than others.

In an old story, Wounded Karma, I had eight main characters. All of them ended up being killed by the government and their genome synthesized, reordered into hermaphroditic forms, and their souls reimplanted in an effort to save the world from a vast male-caused sterilization. That story went through about six different iterations, so the details changed a lot.

In "I Like Your Shoes." a former research scientist is exposed to the fatal Grove's Disease and given the "treatment" of having his muscles stripped from his bones, implants screwed in, and the muscles glued back on.

I had a modern fantasy story concerning elves that had thousands of years ago activated a magic-based radiation bomb in an attempt to kill off their slave-children. They ended up dying in the process, so in the present the radiated satyrs are now kidnapping female descendants of Cuchulainn to remove the latent gene that could return their magic... These girls, as well as the main female, are raped and mutilated in magical ceremonies akin to medicinal surgery.

Will join in with the love, but no. :( Mainly because I'm not in a loving mood these days.

Anyhow, first I'll answer the bold topics:

Have you ever implemented plot threads/sub-plots/mini-arcs/whatever in your stories? If they're not spoileriffic and you don't mind sharing, what were they?
No. I pretty much only have one plot that my story covers, and that's it.

To make it related to Fanfiction, perhaps we could talk about the kinds of medical procedures that your fic characters have had?
In my Pokemon fic, a main character winds up in the hospital twice. Once for being poisoned by a Sandshrew. The other for being tossed around a stone castle by a Psychic-type.

My characters fair better in my Digimon fics, since the only time planned that they go to the hospital is for babies.

As for that other fandom I write in, one character goes to the hospital twice for getting beat up, once for being pregnant in a crackfic I want to write. He gets reconstructive surgery on his nose. He gnaws his knuckles off. And I'm sure that there's more, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

He also probably has to go to a hospital for walking into a door.

-

Now, everyone, should we kickstart again the redoing of the stickies in this Writer's Lounge? (Why is "writer" in the singular sense? My Lounge! *hiss*)

Have you ever implemented plot threads/sub-plots/mini-arcs/whatever in your stories? If they're not spoileriffic and you don't mind sharing, what were they?
Yes, though most have been rather short.

To make it related to Fanfiction, perhaps we could talk about the kinds of medical procedures that your fic characters have had?
Lisa had a guy nearly break her leg about halfway through, and had to get that taken care of. It put her out of action for a week.

And at the end, a guy punched her out after losing to her. Didn't require anything major, but she was already pretty sick when that happened...

Astinus said:

Now, everyone, should we kickstart again the redoing of the stickies in this Writer's Lounge? (Why is "writer" in the singular sense? My Lounge! *hiss*)

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Yeah, I think it's about time we should kickstart redoing the stickies. I'll try to help in any way I can. :)

What are these stickies you speak of? Stickied threads?

And I think I'm going to need to do something major for the Fanfiction section, seeing as everyone else is. Excuse me while I wrack my brain. *wrack wrack wrack* Ow...

The stickies was to be a compilation of things, as opposed to having several stickies. Of guides and such.

Astinus said:

Now, everyone, should we kickstart again the redoing of the stickies in this Writer's Lounge? (Why is "writer" in the singular sense? My Lounge! *hiss*)

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I'm all for doing the revamp of the stickies. :D

YATTA!

I'll get us more organized in a few minutes/hours/days. So we can get this started. I just have to figure out how to go about this.

You have my wholehearted support on this one. I pledge my fealty, my blade, my heart, my railgun and my soul. So yep.

You could force each of us to do some revisions... Ummm start by asking how to simplify things... What else?

I'm starting by asking what stickies should be kept and which ones should go. I just posted a new thread in this section just for this topic, so it doesn't get lost in typical Lounge talk.

Bay said:

Oh, I know what you can do now, Shrike! Finish A Haunting at the Old Chateau and make it bloodier.

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I want to, believe me. I plan to finish it sometime this year at least, possibly as early as after I finish TRINITY chapter 5, or maybe shoot for releasing it on Halloween or something. <_< I'm not sure if it'll actually be bloodier than part 1, especially considering Staravia's death by lawnmower, but it'll still have death in general and that's a good thing, right?!

txteclipse said:

Shrike: government testing of new weaponry for pokémon, by pokémon. In some kind of arena/battlefield type thing. Requirement: an Aggron with a rail gun.

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Eh, not something I'd normally do considering how all my attempts to write a tournament-style anything have failed, but it presents some possibilities. If I'm ever in the same mood I was in when I wrote my first corpse entry it could potentially be done...

Speaking of the corpse, I am sad it died. I demand that it be revived! Otherwise, this rather innocent little Quilava I'm holding gets its throat torn out by my rabid Zigzagoon Jehiel, before being chopped up and served to my other prisoners guests. It's a win-win situation for me! :D

Citrinin said:

One thing that's interested me with the answers to that question is that some people aren't keeping their fic all in the same document. If you don't mind me asking, what's the appeal of doing that? Personally, I'd find it quite inconvenient. o.o

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Organization and convenience, especially when I have chapters around 20 pages long. When I need to find out total length I'll just go through and copy them all into one temporary file, which may or may not be saved as a compilation document depending on the length of the fic.

Have you ever implemented plot threads/sub-plots/mini-arcs/whatever in your stories? If they're not spoileriffic and you don't mind sharing, what were they?
There's a lot of small threads that I try to carry throughout stories, usually involving the characters and their relationships and interactions, including budding romances (in TFC. Not TRINITY. Tashima and Havoc are definitely not romantically involved. Nope) and developing rivalries. As for more plot-like things, the backstories for the characters can generally be considered that. Especially in TRINITY, where Tashima and Havoc's backstory will be revealed gradually and in mostly reverse order.

A major example will be coming in the future with phase.beta and then gamma of TRINITY. The other day I worked out just how my part organization is working there and resolved the problem with me choosing to use the term "phase.alpha" for part 1 when Phase Alpha also refers to the alpha-type of Phase energy within the story. <_< phase.alpha will focus solely on the human resistance movement, phase.beta will add in a large focus on the Pokemon resistance movements, and phase.gamma will be where the focus shifts to outer space. phase.omega will then be the conclusion. Where this comes in is that through phase.beta, the focus will shift between the primary group of character (who, as of next chapter, will be called Icarus) including Tashima and Havoc, and a group of Pokemon resistance fighters. While the main story focuses on Icarus, the parts which will involve a focus on the Pokemon resistance can be considered sub-plot that will run throughout phase.beta. Matching that, phase.gamma will then also include parts that focus on Zack Atwater, the US Navy space superiority pilot from Waves.

Now I just need to decide on how to handle these shifts in focus, if perhaps the focus should shift mid-chapter, or every other chapter (for an entire chapter) or so. I still have the rest of phase.alpha to go without this though, so that can be decided later...

To make it related to Fanfiction, perhaps we could talk about the kinds of medical procedures that your fic characters have had?
Havoc had untold amounts of his organic tissue torn out and replaced by cybernetic components including the ever mysterious TRINITY power core. While he remained the same externally, he was changed around so much internally that at first he wasn't even sure if he needed to, or indeed if it was safe for him to eat anymore. I'd consider that a medical procedure, even if to CYPHER it was an experiment. In a more controlled setting Tashima also got his cybernetics of course, but that was before the story. It will be told in flashbacks though, so eventually it will be part of it.

In TFC there's then Zethro, who had to be rushed to the ER to repair the whole deep knife-wound to the throat that almost killed him in the first chapter thing. Later on in TFCv1 and v2 as well there will be a time when a couple of the main Pokemon get severely injured (well, tortured, actually) and almost die even after they get to the Pokemon Center. In that case though, it's not so much a medical procedure that saves them so much as it is, well, magic.

And in real life, last December I had my first major medical thing in probably a decade or longer. I had not one, not two, not three, but all four of my wisdom teeth surgically extracted all in one go. My parents were considering splitting them up, but I didn't want to go through recovery twice so I insisted on doing it all at once. Plus, due to the cost of the anesthesia it was cheaper to do them all at the same time anyway. The first three or so days were terrible, although fortunately the bleeding did at least stop being so bad after the first day. After those first few days it wasn't so bad although it was a few weeks until I could eat anything reasonably hard again without excruciating pain. I also had holes in my gum for around two months, and in fact I still have some slight indentations that are at least now closed over. I think that might be due to the fact that I technically could have used a bone graft to fill in a missing part of my lower jaw that one of the teeth had been laying in, but the only side-effect of not having it is that indentation which doesn't even hurt anything so we saved the money.

Citrinin said:

I just got glasses today, after 13 years of having naked eyes.

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I got my glasses when I was around eight or so. By now, I've had them so long I can't even imagine life without them. I can't even begin to think about how I lived without them, especially when I can't even clearly make out something three feet in front of me now. Of course I was better back when I first got them, but still. This past June or so I got a new pair which is actually weaker than my old ones were, confirming my suspicions that the old ones had been too strong...

And I am all for the revamp take two! Perhaps sometime else, when it's not 1 in the morning, I will contribute to the other thread with my own opinions. For now though I must be off to sleep for the annoyingness that are Thursdays. Wake up at 8:30, go to class 1 from 9:35-10:50, go to class 2 from 11-11:50. eat lunch, go to class 3 from 12:35-1:50, take a (small) break, go to work from 3-7, sit down and moan at how terrible my Thursdays are for the rest of the evening, finding time to finish the seemingly daily C++ practices we've been doing, until I finally go to bed for the technicality that is Friday (last class ends at noon and I have nothing else for the rest of the day. Except a train ride back home for this weekend).

Eh, not something I'd normally do considering how all my attempts to write a tournament-style anything have failed, but it presents some possibilities. If I'm ever in the same mood I was in when I wrote my first corpse entry it could potentially be done...

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I don't mean a tournament per-say, more like stick two heavily armed and armored pokemon in close proximity and watch the gory fireworks. Drug them with something that induces aggressiveness maybe. I dunno.

For some reason I keep thinking of maniacal, suicide-bomber Skitties. And Sentrets with flamethrowers, but that's probably a given. In that same vein, look at my adorable little dragon sandwiched between the two bigger ones down there! D'awww!

People of the Internets:

Due to the important level of announcements in the Lounge during the period from July 01 to September 03 ("today"), I have compiled most of the important announcements and added them to the Bold Topics Index for an "urgent" utility update. This includes announcements such as the project to check the stickies, the SWC announcement, etc...

This minor update also incorporates, for the fun of regular FFL members, some other moments of insanity that were being had during the times the announcements were made.

Now I'm rolling back to the period October 1 → December 31 2008 to collect the "general" (ie.. non-insanity) bold topics, but I'm taking this at a very slow pace as I'm waiting to see the announcement rate decay a bit here first.

solovino said:

I have compiled most of the important announcements and added them to the Bold Topics Index for an "urgent" utility update.

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Link no worky. Now I have to go back two whole pages to the other one. Ugh!

Link corrected. I pasted the thread ID from the wrong clipboard, lulz...

Thanks for letting me know, txt!

Well, who woulda thunk it. Character karma does exist.

Okay. To elaborate, I've been spending the last few days concocting some major development of a character of an as-of-yet-unwritten fic (I really shouldn't be saying that as much as I am) who just so happens to be blind and paralyzed from the waist down, not to mention have a total personality switch from his old character (the guy was originally one of my roleplay characters, but a cameo soon grew into what he was doing now). While brainstorming on further ways to (admittedly, hopefully non-painfully) develop him further and/or get started on the other five characters I've devoted myself to thinking about right now, I lost my balance on this really cheap one-person trampoline that's practically falling apart. Tripped on a loose piece of cloth, fell to the ground, left knee hit rug first. So it's slowly getting better and bending correctly without much pain, but... maybe I should get started on the other characters now? xD