Writing fanfiction
I'm currently following lots of writing related blogs on tumblr to help me stay motivated and inspired, and it works wonderfully so far. Some of the blogs are really great, they're inspirational, offer comprehensive advice, and have hundreds of ideas to get you started.
I know I haven't really been sharing anything, even though I said I would. I wrote so much stuff, but nothing is properly finished or edited, and right now I'm concentrating more on getting my ideas out of my head and down on paper, rather than spending time on re-working stuff to make it presentable. Of course, I will do that eventually, despite being a little self-conscious about the more random ideas of mine...
Since I write solely for myself, I don't filter my ideas for what is suitable for a possible audience, and sometime when I sit back and look at what I've written I wonder if anyone who isn't me could even remotely relate to the story-idea. I sometimes worry, because compared to what the fandom is used to fanfiction-wise, my story-ideas seem unusual and somehow weird.
Speaking of which, I once read an absolutely brilliant fanfiction about Hyde and Gackt as hitman working for opposing criminal syndicates. It was only the prologue and the first one or two chapters, but the story was unbelievably well written and thought-out. What I loved was that even though it was set in an alternate universe, Hyde and Gackt seemed very in-character and were acting and behaving totally plausibly. And though they were both different people in the story (as in, not rockstars), you could still very easily tell that they were indeed Gackt and Hyde. I was deeply impressed. It's a shame that the author gave up on the story so soon, because it was one of my favorites and it had the potential to be nothing less than epic. Also, it wasn't Gakuhai. At least not in the early stages. Bonus.
I thought of this story again, because I'm currently working on something similar. Not similar in plot and story-idea, but in the sense of having/creating an alternate universe. The catch with my story is, it's not entirely AU, meaning they're themselves, rockstars, only that the reality is slightly different for one of them. This makes it really hard to keep the whole thing plausible, authentic, and the characters in-character. I probably went way over my head writing this, but it's an idea that I've had for ages and even tried putting into a story years ago. I never finished it and it was very poorly written.
So what makes me think I can write it now? I don't actually think I can write it, I'm just writing it anyway. It's not a remake of the old story, either. It's a whole different way of exploring the general idea. There are multiple ways this idea could be laid out in a story/plot, and this is just another approach. So far I like what I wrote.
I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about some of my favorite fanfictions. Sadly, I don't even remember the title of the one I just mentioned, or I would have made an attempt to find it. Though, I don't think it's still on the net...
I did, however, find another pretty old fanfiction, that I read and adored ages ago. While writing Lin's diary chapters I had to think of this fanfiction, because it also deals with what happens after Moon Child. Though my story is technically set during the end of the movie, this one is set right after the movie ends, with Sho and Kei still alive. The story follows them exploring the possibilities of their new vampire lives, until a villain appears on the scene. It's a mighty vampire that poses a great threat to Sho and Kei, and sends them on an action-filled, thrilling, and mystical adventure that is amazingly well written, deals with the vampires' origins, and has some of the best in-character writing of Sho and Kei that I've ever seen. Especially considering that it's vampire-Sho, which we know next to nothing about. But this story features a very believable and authentic version of him.
There's also only VERY slightly ShoxKei in this story. While the focus does lie on the relationship between the two, it can easily be interpreted as platonic, with the exception of one single kiss happening, that holds no heavy meaning or indication.
The only (very small thing) I'd have to point out as criticism is a part of the prologue where Sho says he's never been anywhere but Mallepa, which can't be true because by the time they're both waiting for the sun in the car Sho had been away from Mallepa for years, returning only shortly before he met up with Kei. That kind of stood out a little.
The story (written by Becca Abbott) is titled Moon Grave, and you can read it here. It's worth it.
Another fanfiction I absolutely adore is Minerva's Gift. It's a Crisis Core fanfic centering around Cloud and Genesis. The lifestream sends Cloud back in time, before the events of Crisis Core, where he has to find a way to prevent all the bad things from happening while also having to put up with Genesis becoming his mentor/trainer at Shinra. It's well written, very detailed, and the characters, especially Genesis, are perfectly in-character. Perfectly.
What I totally love about this fanfic are the detailed descriptions of the characters' thoughts, motivations, intentions, and the well thought-out, thrillingly staged and entertaining choreographed fights. The fights are fast-paced, vivid, plausible, and most importantly strategic. Everything is taken into consideration, the bodyweight, the length/weight of the weapons, the materia in use (and how to use it best), the weaknesses/strengths of the characters, and the psychological part of every fight. You know exactly why or how a character plans his next move, what strategy he has in mind, and in what way he reacts or response to a move his enemy makes.
Seriously, I've never read such well thought-out and written-out fights EVER. If you love Final Fantasy and know your stuff, you will thoroughly enjoy this story. During the fight scenes you feel like you're playing the game. It's freaking awesome.
Also, the characterization is top-notch, like I said before. The characters are defined through their thoughts, as much as through their actions, gestures and silence. It's incredible how perfectly Genesis is portrayed here.
To top it off, this fanfiction almost has novel length! I'm deeply impressed every time I think of or read this fanfic again.
Unfortunately, the author has long since taken this story down. Originally she wanted to move it from fanficton.net to AO3, but it never happened, and now it can't be found online anywhere. I have a copy saved on my harddrive luckily, but it's really sad that no one can read it online anymore.
Should you be interested in reading the story, I'd love to send you a copy via mail. :)
The third fanfiction I want to talk about is called Master. It's a story about Gackt and Hyde that is partly AU. The catch is that Hyde is a real vampire. It's set before the shooting of Moon Child and centers around Gackt trying to recruit Hyde for his movie. Of course he has no idea that Hyde is a vampire. It might sound funnier than it actually is. The story is VERY dark, and thus its humor is also relatively dark and scarce. There is a lot of violence, blood and gore. Also, yaoi, sadly.
It's nothing you can't ignore or skip, but I still think it would've been so much cooler if this hadn't been Gakuhai. What I love is that even though Gackt and Hyde might end up as a pairing, through the most part of the story they absolutely hate each other's guts. And that's what makes this story so awesome. There is a real, cruel and merciless rivalry going on between the two that ranges from psychological warfare down to bloody fist fights. I love that.
The characters are as much in-character as is possible for an AU themed story like this. Personally, I don't have any problems recognizing Gackt and Hyde in their fictional counterparts. Though, at some points both might come off as a tad too brutal and ruthless. That's probably not everyone's taste. I love it. :)
Again, I can't find this story online anymore. I have a copy, thank God, but I can't offer you a link, though I would really, really like to. So if you're interested and want to read this story, just message me and I'll send you a copy via mail.
I'm sure there are other great fanfictions out there, but these really stand out thanks to their unique ideas and exceptionally amazing writing.
My ideas can certainly compete with those, but my writing sadly can't. Also, it takes me ages to complete only one story.
I know I haven't really been sharing anything, even though I said I would. I wrote so much stuff, but nothing is properly finished or edited, and right now I'm concentrating more on getting my ideas out of my head and down on paper, rather than spending time on re-working stuff to make it presentable. Of course, I will do that eventually, despite being a little self-conscious about the more random ideas of mine...
Since I write solely for myself, I don't filter my ideas for what is suitable for a possible audience, and sometime when I sit back and look at what I've written I wonder if anyone who isn't me could even remotely relate to the story-idea. I sometimes worry, because compared to what the fandom is used to fanfiction-wise, my story-ideas seem unusual and somehow weird.
Speaking of which, I once read an absolutely brilliant fanfiction about Hyde and Gackt as hitman working for opposing criminal syndicates. It was only the prologue and the first one or two chapters, but the story was unbelievably well written and thought-out. What I loved was that even though it was set in an alternate universe, Hyde and Gackt seemed very in-character and were acting and behaving totally plausibly. And though they were both different people in the story (as in, not rockstars), you could still very easily tell that they were indeed Gackt and Hyde. I was deeply impressed. It's a shame that the author gave up on the story so soon, because it was one of my favorites and it had the potential to be nothing less than epic. Also, it wasn't Gakuhai. At least not in the early stages. Bonus.
I thought of this story again, because I'm currently working on something similar. Not similar in plot and story-idea, but in the sense of having/creating an alternate universe. The catch with my story is, it's not entirely AU, meaning they're themselves, rockstars, only that the reality is slightly different for one of them. This makes it really hard to keep the whole thing plausible, authentic, and the characters in-character. I probably went way over my head writing this, but it's an idea that I've had for ages and even tried putting into a story years ago. I never finished it and it was very poorly written.
So what makes me think I can write it now? I don't actually think I can write it, I'm just writing it anyway. It's not a remake of the old story, either. It's a whole different way of exploring the general idea. There are multiple ways this idea could be laid out in a story/plot, and this is just another approach. So far I like what I wrote.
I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about some of my favorite fanfictions. Sadly, I don't even remember the title of the one I just mentioned, or I would have made an attempt to find it. Though, I don't think it's still on the net...
I did, however, find another pretty old fanfiction, that I read and adored ages ago. While writing Lin's diary chapters I had to think of this fanfiction, because it also deals with what happens after Moon Child. Though my story is technically set during the end of the movie, this one is set right after the movie ends, with Sho and Kei still alive. The story follows them exploring the possibilities of their new vampire lives, until a villain appears on the scene. It's a mighty vampire that poses a great threat to Sho and Kei, and sends them on an action-filled, thrilling, and mystical adventure that is amazingly well written, deals with the vampires' origins, and has some of the best in-character writing of Sho and Kei that I've ever seen. Especially considering that it's vampire-Sho, which we know next to nothing about. But this story features a very believable and authentic version of him.
There's also only VERY slightly ShoxKei in this story. While the focus does lie on the relationship between the two, it can easily be interpreted as platonic, with the exception of one single kiss happening, that holds no heavy meaning or indication.
The only (very small thing) I'd have to point out as criticism is a part of the prologue where Sho says he's never been anywhere but Mallepa, which can't be true because by the time they're both waiting for the sun in the car Sho had been away from Mallepa for years, returning only shortly before he met up with Kei. That kind of stood out a little.
The story (written by Becca Abbott) is titled Moon Grave, and you can read it here. It's worth it.
Another fanfiction I absolutely adore is Minerva's Gift. It's a Crisis Core fanfic centering around Cloud and Genesis. The lifestream sends Cloud back in time, before the events of Crisis Core, where he has to find a way to prevent all the bad things from happening while also having to put up with Genesis becoming his mentor/trainer at Shinra. It's well written, very detailed, and the characters, especially Genesis, are perfectly in-character. Perfectly.
What I totally love about this fanfic are the detailed descriptions of the characters' thoughts, motivations, intentions, and the well thought-out, thrillingly staged and entertaining choreographed fights. The fights are fast-paced, vivid, plausible, and most importantly strategic. Everything is taken into consideration, the bodyweight, the length/weight of the weapons, the materia in use (and how to use it best), the weaknesses/strengths of the characters, and the psychological part of every fight. You know exactly why or how a character plans his next move, what strategy he has in mind, and in what way he reacts or response to a move his enemy makes.
Seriously, I've never read such well thought-out and written-out fights EVER. If you love Final Fantasy and know your stuff, you will thoroughly enjoy this story. During the fight scenes you feel like you're playing the game. It's freaking awesome.
Also, the characterization is top-notch, like I said before. The characters are defined through their thoughts, as much as through their actions, gestures and silence. It's incredible how perfectly Genesis is portrayed here.
To top it off, this fanfiction almost has novel length! I'm deeply impressed every time I think of or read this fanfic again.
Unfortunately, the author has long since taken this story down. Originally she wanted to move it from fanficton.net to AO3, but it never happened, and now it can't be found online anywhere. I have a copy saved on my harddrive luckily, but it's really sad that no one can read it online anymore.
Should you be interested in reading the story, I'd love to send you a copy via mail. :)
The third fanfiction I want to talk about is called Master. It's a story about Gackt and Hyde that is partly AU. The catch is that Hyde is a real vampire. It's set before the shooting of Moon Child and centers around Gackt trying to recruit Hyde for his movie. Of course he has no idea that Hyde is a vampire. It might sound funnier than it actually is. The story is VERY dark, and thus its humor is also relatively dark and scarce. There is a lot of violence, blood and gore. Also, yaoi, sadly.
It's nothing you can't ignore or skip, but I still think it would've been so much cooler if this hadn't been Gakuhai. What I love is that even though Gackt and Hyde might end up as a pairing, through the most part of the story they absolutely hate each other's guts. And that's what makes this story so awesome. There is a real, cruel and merciless rivalry going on between the two that ranges from psychological warfare down to bloody fist fights. I love that.
The characters are as much in-character as is possible for an AU themed story like this. Personally, I don't have any problems recognizing Gackt and Hyde in their fictional counterparts. Though, at some points both might come off as a tad too brutal and ruthless. That's probably not everyone's taste. I love it. :)
Again, I can't find this story online anymore. I have a copy, thank God, but I can't offer you a link, though I would really, really like to. So if you're interested and want to read this story, just message me and I'll send you a copy via mail.
I'm sure there are other great fanfictions out there, but these really stand out thanks to their unique ideas and exceptionally amazing writing.
My ideas can certainly compete with those, but my writing sadly can't. Also, it takes me ages to complete only one story.