Fanfiction Lounge

[Misheard Whisper]

Oh, I love putting Easter Eggs in my fics. Often they're ones nobody but people who actually know me would get, but sometimes they're slightly less obscure. I love confusing readers.

You know, my first three fanfics, three RPs, and a novel which I soon dropped, all had a main character (or in the case of the RPs, just 'character') with the same name, Kenji? The one in my chaptered fic was called Kenji Sasaki, which is where my first PC username came from. Funny how things work. I no longer use Japanese names unless the story is set in Japan. I was such a n00b.

 

[Citrinin]

If by Easter Eggs you mean subtle foreshadowing, I'm trying to do that with my fic at the moment. I love foreshadowing of both the obvious and subtle kinds, and I get really excited when I read a book with that in it. ^^

 

[Feign]

Easter eggs doesn't just have to be foreshadowing ;) rather, it can be subtle unimportant objects.

Like:

"The character glossed over the room searching for a pen, looking at the pokeball clock among other things."

The Pokeball clock, of course being featured in the first episode. It is much easier, however, to include easter eggs in games or movies. Basically something visual. That way the character does not have to mention it, and the viewer might get a hearty laugh.

Take the Matrix for example. The book safe (double meaning) where Neo kept the computer software is labelled as Simulation and Simulacra, which is loosely based on the matrix. The book safe adds the touch because the hollow inner is basically what the matrix to a human really would be.

Appearntly WoW has tons of Easter eggs too.

 

[Citrinin]

Ah, I see what you mean. :)

I'm familiar with the term in software, but the only parallel I could draw with that and writing was foreshadowing. :P

 

[Feign]

I've seen a wide aray of shows where they do show objects, almost purposely but end up being red herrings. Often times those are kids shows >.>

But there are some good ones out there that are significant.

*goes to bed*

 

[Venia Silente]

I though Easter Eggs means something like a hidden treat, a seemingly unimportant object only for the more avid or knowledgeable gamers to check. I'm not exactly familiar with how the concept is portrayed in writing, except that is similar to an incidental allusion or a "forgotten in the background" kind of reference, I'm more familiarized with the easter eggs for games (debug room, music test, things like that).


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGHHHHHHH Ninjaed during preview!!!! whatever, I'm just going to keep talking.


If it is more closely to an allusion, then no problemo: I always take the time to include one or two hidden references to the Pokémon games, or to current news during the time of my writing, or some other hidden things that require going to the Outside World to grasp. Like, for example, in the first chapter of "Elusive Goals" I put some references to Fire Red & Leaf Green (Tiksi, TR's infiltration of Silph Co., ... ), my most recent work "Sixth" has a reference to Esperanto being the universal language used by humans and a partial and more hidden reference to GSC/HGSSGSDS for those who know where to look. Oh, and a movie and meme allusion. Hax, even my Final Fantasy fics have one or two hidden references per chapter...
But since no one reviews me unless I poke'em (sorry, personal rant) I have no way to know if anyone did get those references...

Going by the definitoin you're getting, Feign, there are several examples of Easter Eggs (or something similar) on TV, but most of them are kinda mixed with product placement.
Going closer to the concept of allusion I'd guess the closest thing to a game-like Easter Egg would be a scene that is later revealed, or known before, to have been shot only once, or with no extras, which is what is called an "ad-libed take" I think. Or having two characters who are family and their corresponding actors are too. Or having crew members veiledly appear or be referenced during the show, like a scene of "24" where a Fed puts up pictures of a suspect and it is the producer of the show. You know, things like that...

Another kind of allusion is the "actually the real world" approach, like in the very first episode of NCIS that gives us the Air Force One and a President of the United States who is very obviously Bushy-Boy (yes, filmed circa 4 BO ~Before Obama~). But that is less EasterEgg-like and more please-the-general-audience stuff.

Oh whatever. Changing subject...

When creating your main character, what part of that character (might) resemble you the most? (looks, personality, life experience etc)

Their quirks and skills, their personality, mostly.

There's not much to do when it comes to "life experience" because it is something that should greatly vary between our world and the Pokémon world. Skills, on the other hand, allow me to better interact with the character and understand how does he want to do stuff.

As of personality, it is something that somehow ends up imprinted on my characters anyways so I don't worry too much about that, as long as it's just some basic similarity and not a copy-paste of my psyche (which is not a good thing to paste).

Now I should really go sleep. It's not like I'm going to suddenly sit down and start working on my thesis anyways...

 

[bobandbill]

Do you establish a dialogue with your reviewers?

Ayup, to varying degrees (depends on the review itself, I suppose - if it's a simple one-liner, it's a simple response likewise, usually, unless I want to know more...). I eventually get to the reviews one way or another.

And Easter eggs? My fic is filled with them. I've got a number of such things, and various types in-jokes as well, and even a thing where there's a pastry - or pastry-related item - mentioned within each chapter of mine.

...yeah, that's probably weird, but kinda fun to do as well. Many movies as well as mentioned like to use Easter Eggs at times (look at the Pixar films - there's all sorts of references to other movies they made), and also games have those as well (first one I can think of is Super Paper Mario, which had many references and easter eggs coming from the 2nd Paper Mario game).

They're good fun, have to say, and may even help keep or get the reader's attention some more. Or help to slip in a joke in an otherwise straight-forward scene which doesn't have much room for the comedy aspect... but that's more for when you actually want comedy, I suppose.

 

[Dragonfree]

Do you establish a dialogue with your reviewers?
I like to, but often I can't think of anything interesting to say - I mean, if they make a lot of constructive comments I can usually reply with my intentions with whatever parts they criticize and ask how I could do them better and so on, but if they just review quoting a bunch of lines they liked, I'm never sure what to say besides "Thanks for reviewing". It's easiest to get some sort of dialogue going if they have speculation or something like that, but they usually don't. :/

About easter eggs, I have a few in The Quest for the Legends - most notably, in the recent League chapters, we've seen three trainers that have had one-chapter appearances before in the fic, while the main characters only actually recognized one of them, leaving the others as something for observant readers to pick up on.

 

[Giratina ♀]

For Easter Eggs, I didn't include too many in Metal Coat. However, there was a scene in the original draft where a couple of characters discuss such things as The Murkrows, and something about an Arbok, Moltres, Raikou, and Aerodactyl. I don't know if I kept this part in the PokéCom edition of the fic, but those were all references to my early days of Neopets roleplaying, where I used a younger verson of one of the main characters quite frequently, and he had tiny robotic Pokémon running around.

 

[JX Valentine]

Do you establish a dialogue with your reviewers?

All the time. It's really just polite, and if a writer can say more than just a thank you, it means more to the reviewer. It means that the writer not only read the review carefully, but they got some meaning out of it. (Sometimes, doing this is impossible simply because there's such a thing as one-liners, but hey. For longer stuff, it's usually courtesy.)

As for myself, I like hearing what people have to say about my work. Sometimes, in replying, I clarify points that they might have missed. In other times, I might verbally go through a process of trying to think and modify my ideas so they can see that, yeah, I'm really working on the points they brought up. And other times (like the numbers of times Skunter, Shrike, and I totally were talking about AEM and not Stargate or whatnot, whatchoo talkin' 'bout Willis), it's just friendly conversation about what I'm writing about. Or a vague cousin of it, anyway.


On the subject of Easter eggs, yes, they're not necessarily foreshadowing. (In fact, they're usually not. Easter eggs tend to be irrelevant to the story unless they're also a Chekhov's gun.) They're actually more or less just subtle use of allusion or general inside-jokes.

That being said...

And Easter eggs? My fic is filled with them. I've got a number of such things, and various types in-jokes as well, and even a thing where there's a pastry - or pastry-related item - mentioned within each chapter of mine.

*high fives* 'Course, you're also working on a parody, so referencing everything ever just adds to the amusement. Or I just have a really weird sense of humor. In any case, if you end up with an Easter egg that's obvious product placement, I would love you.

And if we're all talking about Easter eggs in our fics, I've stated repeatedly that Anima Ex Machina's entire purpose is to constantly reference the sci-fi genre. I mean, when one of the main characters is a reference to the source of one of the most well-known quotes in sci-fi/horror movies (and possibly 80's movies at all), you just know where that's going. (Maybe I should make that completely obvious by having her actually use the quote. *strokes chin in thought*)

...yeah, that's probably weird, but kinda fun to do as well. Many movies as well as mentioned like to use Easter Eggs at times (look at the Pixar films - there's all sorts of references to other movies they made),

And don't forget Disney itself. Belle (Beauty and the Beast) in the Hunchback of Notre Dame and Sebastian (The Little Mermaid) in Aladdin for example.

Just had to input because there's dirtier references in Disney as well, so talking about this makes me grin.

 

[Bay]

Yeah, by Easter Eggs I mean moreso in-reference jokes. For instance, in chapter seven of NE,

"Well, I think Jenny is a beautiful name," Bunny stuttered. She was not sure how Jenny would react.

Can you see the Forrest Gump reference? XD

Another Easter Egg I did is a reference to another fic that also has the plates as somesort of main conflict. XD

And don't forget Disney itself. Belle (Beauty and the Beast) in the Hunchback of Notre Dame and Sebastian (The Little Mermaid) in Aladdin for example.

Just had to input because there's dirtier references in Disney as well, so talking about this makes me grin.

Haha, I remember Belle from that movie. And also...XD;

 

[walasaka]

When creating your main character, what part of that character (might) resemble you the most? (looks, personality, life experience etc)

Thought I may as well get involved :p

Generally I try to avoid making them resemble me too much. For example Mo in Remembering the Horror is nothing like me - he's a hard-ass who has grown bitter over time. I'm a little cynical in life, but I'm not particularly tall or strong and certainly not bitter.

Then again, I'm not a veteran!

What I might incorporate is something that's a part of my life, like the fact that I'm pretty good at different languages, or that Mo is from Austria, like I am. Just that I give it a Japanese name so that it sounds more like a different region of the Pokemon world rather than a real country (at least to people who don't speak Japanese). I've never liked real world crossover fics, I prefer it when you're in that world, forgetting about real life.

Establishing a dialogue with my reviewers? I would if there were some :) (hint hint)

Easter eggs: I try to put in a few that people will get, but whether they actually do remains a mistery.

I'll give you a question :)
Do you plan your fics or just bash at the keyboard? If you do plan, how?

 

[Dagzar]

Do you plan your fics or just bash at the keyboard? If you do plan, how?
I plan them completely. Not only do I vaguely know what happens in every single chapter of my fanfic, but I also have the chapters all titled. Last time I tried writing a fanfic without planning, I made gigantic plot holes and kept changing what I wanted in my plot so I sometimes accidently spoiled myself.

 

[Bay]

Do you plan your fics or just bash at the keyboard? If you do plan, how?
I plan my fics, but not full blown planning. I would just think about the beginning and end, a few ideas I would like to put in, and causes for certain conflicts. The middle part is where I don't plan so instead I used that part to build things off towards the ending. Sometimes I surprise myself. XD

 

[Misheard Whisper]

Do you plan your fics or just bash at the keyboard? If you do plan, how?
Option b). I fail at planning - if I ever try to plan a fic, it comes out sooooo wrong.

 

[JX Valentine]

Do you plan your fics or just bash at the keyboard? If you do plan, how?

A little from column A and a little from column B. I tend to have a rough idea of where the story is going, and I make notes about all kinds of random things to keep in mind for later. However, when I actually sit down and write a chapter, it's not unusual for me to just pound on the keyboard a lot and crap out a chapter. I usually don't make chapter-by-chapter outlines or anything like that simply because I inevitably forget I even made an outline for what I wanted to do in the chapter. And if I don't, the chapter just sounds forced, or I completely lose interest in writing the chapter that way. *shrug*

 

[Citrinin]

Do you plan your fics or just bash at the keyboard? If you do plan, how?
I think I'd be lost if I didn't plan a little bit. Every bit of foreshadowing has a plan behind it, and I have a rough idea of the plot. But, on the other hand, I also think it wouldn't be exciting for me if I didn't get to make up twists and turns as I went along. So, a bit of both. :P

 

[Lash]

Do you plan your fics or just bash at the keyboard? If you do plan, how?
I mainly plan all the events that are going to be in the chapter, make a way for everything to tie together in a logical sense, and how the ending events will relate to the next chapter without being completely confusing.

When you're writing what you planned/bashing the keyboard, do your ideas often change?
Yes. For the recently posted chapter 2 of my fic, I originally hadn't planned on my main character getting a PokeGear, and I planned the antagonist to meet him in a much different way. Nor did I plan that battle at the end that wounded his Hoothoot and Cyndaquil.

 

[¡Chucho!]

Do you plan your fics or just bash at the keyboard? If you do plan, how?

I used to have a plan on an OpenOffice document, but then I decided that it was pointless since I keep it all in my head anyway.

 

[Bay]

When you're writing what you planned/bashing the keyboard, do your ideas often change?
A LOT, even when I already have a chapter ready. :O For instance, Chapter 13 of NE I wrote before I posted the story, but after I posted Chapter 11, I suddenly got a better idea for Chapter 13 after looking through some episode pictures of the Kanto Grand Festival, so I completly rewrote that chapter. XD Another example is I originally didn't plan to have the huge chase scene in Chapter 16, but after watching both National Treasure movies and Eagle Eye, I went with it and got praised for one particular scene that was inspired by Eagle Eye. XD

I still get inspiration even after finishing a fic. XD