Things That Never Happened to Dooku, Unfortunately: Help Me, Master Dooku, You're My Only Hope

[persephone_kore]

Title: Things That Never Happened to Dooku, Unfortunately
Authors: Persephone_Kore, Dreagoddess
Characters: Dooku, Obi-Wan
Genre: AU, drama
Summary: Several ways Dooku's life could have gone differently. Thing two: Obi-Wan, feeling somewhat overwhelmed, seeks out Qui-Gon's old master for advice on his new apprentice.
Notes: I think this may be my

Comments

[persephone_kore]

But I do know you, or at least I recognize you; you've commented on SBTT (which isn't dead, I swear, just... uh, sleeping... I'd really better get on the ball if I want to start something else for NaNo, huh?) before and I appreciated it there too. :)

I'm so glad you like it. And to tell the truth, I've actually felt a little bit guilty sometimes for writing little snapshots of the way an AU starts, without following out the consequences. That was part of why Drea and I borrowed the "Five Things That Never Happened" format -- somehow as part of an established fanfic style (or meme?) it seemed more reasonable to write several ways things could have started to go differently without necessarily exploring at length how differently they would have gone. (Especially since some elements would repeat, with minor variations. Palpatine's still out there, every time -- well, since we didn't do the one where Dooku went to Naboo around age 20 and came back with a baby -- and there are all these things that could have gone "wrong" and derailed his plans, but also all these times when he does experience a setback and handles it; the idea of trying to write multiple storylines following through dealing with him, and making them different enough to keep people interested, boggles my mind.) ...Anyway, the point of all that was supposed to be that I admire detailed plotting (er...story plotting, not Palpatine's) and am impressed by your long AU even though I have not seen it.

And I guess it's obvious we think they would make a good combination, too. :) I think a lot of it would be that they would be good for each other -- stirring Dooku out of a focus that in the canon timeline would have ended with his serving Sidious, and relieving Obi-Wan of... what I suspect was a feeling that he had to figure out how to be the perfect Master all by himself.

[lianna_blanca]

Well, I didn't think you'd remember me from the SBTT comments, but I thank you for doing so.

I suppose you've just made a perfect explaination of the difference between the styles of writers; I could never write a short story - I always have to explore its future. Hence the reason my own fanfic is so long; I need to bring Anakin's journey all the way to the point where every loose end is tied up with a bow, else I'll go mad. And I know there are some authors like me - I get the impression that some of FernWithy's stories are like that - and I just can't understand how short story authors do it. I guess it's like trying to understand the thinking of someone with a completely different personality.

I'm babbling; sorry. I was actually trying to get around to a way to say: I'm flattered that you're impressed by my story. And I find it highly amusing that you can be impressed without having read it.

Not having known about livejournal for very long, I'd also like to ask you, if there's any listing you know of (somewhat like the HP genfic listing, but for work-in-progress) on which I could mention my story if I choose to post the mostly-finished draft on here - or do these things spread mostly by word of mouth? Few of my friends know Star Wars well enough to give me feedback, but it seems to work well enough for you, and I think I'd could use the help in my fic.

[persephone_kore]

You were memorable. :)

It occurs to me that it's interesting if, as a reader, you can enjoy a very open-ended short story that wouldn't satisfy your sense of... completeness if you'd written it.

And I actually do want to write an AU that follows out the consequences of a change on Anakin's story among others -- except I need cowriters for it *laughing* -- but I can think of more interesting ways to kick off the change than I can think of follow-throughs that are different enough in more than minor ways for people to want to read them.

I was actually trying to get around to a way to say: I'm flattered that you're impressed by my story. And I find it highly amusing that you can be impressed without having read it.

Well, I'm impressed conceptually. *g*

As for where to try to get people to read your fic... I'm afraid I only recently got into participating in Star Wars fandom pretty recently myself. I know there are Star Wars fic communities, and generally speaking I doubt many of them are going to object if you post a WIP; but I'm not familiar enough with them to guess where your fic would be appropriate to promote. I had sort of collected interesting-looking HP fans' LJs on my list for a while, and was surprised (and pleased!) when people I didn't know came over too.

swfanfic looks like it should do at a basic level; I don't know what response is like, having only just found it, but its content is as general as you would imagine from the name. You could post headers with links to your new chapters as you get them put up. Now, while it certainly doesn't appear they have a problem with WIPs, I think they do assume that any given chapter is the final edited product, so you might want to be careful how you phrase asking for comments so that they don't think you've mistaken them for a beta service; but it sounds like it would be fair to say you're putting up a nearly-final version of the fic but plan another revision before you try posting or archiving it anywhere you can no longer fix things easily.

I can't find a Star Wars genfic community on LJ at all. Weird.

You could also, if the fic doesn't go seriously beyond PG, make an account and post at boards.theforce.net -- it's a bit tricky for getting advice in that they don't allow unsolicited negative comments and because of the messageboard format your fic can slide down into oblivion very rapidly if you don't happen to catch someone's attention immediately and there are a lot of people posting (but then, with a chaptered one you have a legitimate reason to post to the thread again), but even with the restriction people's responses and questions can give you an idea of what gets people's attention, what makes them wonder, whether you want to play up the question or answer it sooner/better, whatever. ;) And they do have a beta-finding thread and some other ones intended to help newcomers, in the fanfic boards. I know they don't mind WIPs.

[lianna_blanca]

Funny that posting a story on the 'net can get so complicated.

Thanks for all this. At least now I have some idea of what it'd be like. For the record, I think I'll wait with public postings of any versions; if my story is as good as I hope (that is to say, good enough that people want to read the end), I'll end up waiting months between posts, and I don't like doing that to people. Perhaps I'll make things harder for myself in the long run (if it turns out there's a major plot hole or mischaracterisation) but at least I won't make promises, then dissapoint people. I hate doing that. And I ought to start looking for a beta-reader anyway...

"It occurs to me that it's interesting if, as a reader, you can enjoy a very open-ended short story that wouldn't satisfy your sense of... completeness if you'd written it."

I suppose it's just that - *I* didn't write it, so it's not my responsibility. But usually when I read a story that has ANY potential for continuation, or just deeper exploration, ideas fly around my head for at least the next few days (fanfic of fanfic, I suppose). I feel bad because it's still someone else's work, but it's part of the enjoyment, and a pretty good indication that they wrote their fanfic well.