when the river meanders to the sea; the dresden files, original fic, and other things.
Yesterday, upon checking my friendslist, there were quite literally ten posts in a row linking to the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy trailer.
Allow me to be a gleeful lemming:
Oh, that's just going to be brilliant. For a John Le Carre novel set in the era of bad hair, anyway.
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You may not know this about me, but I am a rabid fan of The ( Read more... )
Allow me to be a gleeful lemming:
Click to viewOh, that's just going to be brilliant. For a John Le Carre novel set in the era of bad hair, anyway.
--
You may not know this about me, but I am a rabid fan of The ( Read more... )
1. Your sense is correct: There's a world of difference between being a good fanfic writer and a good original author, and pretty much the only way to get there is practice. I credit all the writing I've done for bb_shousetsu for turning me from one into the other, and that mostly through trial and error and more error. If you look back at my first submissions, they kind of read like fanfic for my own characters -- which is lame and a little embarrassing, but was an important part of learning how to make a story.
2. So I guess what I'm saying with #1 is that if your first attempt bombs, or comes out clunky, or even seems just vaguely unsatisfying, don't give up on it! And don't break your back trying to make it perfect to the point where you don't like it any more. If you have regrets, keep them in mind for next time. For heaven's sake, this is bb_shousetsu; all that matters, as my other editor is so fond of saying, is that you had a good time.
3. You're going to have to establish your characters' backstories, but please, please don't feel obligated to tell every inch of them. I know so much more about my characters than ever makes it into any story, but I'm not going to bore the reader by barfing all that information on them just to show that I went to the trouble of thinking it up. If you know that much about your characters, it'll come through, regardless of how much you actually say. As in a good magic trick, the hours of preparation should be invisible and the final product should look effortless.
4. And after those three serious tips, here's a bit of a 'cheat': part of the reason SSBB was inagurated was to give people a chance to take those fandom-AUs-that-are-basically-original-stories-anyway and turn them into actual original stories without losing a readership. If you've got one of those hanging around, it's not a bad jumping-off spot. In my time writing for SSBB, I have been a part of stories that started out as FFVII steampunk AU, Buffy steampunk AU, FFVII football AU, popslash, modernized Bibleslash, genderswapped Professor Layton.... (And those are just the ones that come to me off the top of my head.) And unless you knew what you were looking at, you probably wouldn't recognize any of those origins from the final products. So there's no shame in veils, thin or thick, so long as you can create something worth of reading out of it!
I'm so glad you've decided to come play! We're always in the market for new authors, and I'm excited about this upcoming issue!
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Some of the stories I've read at SSBB have been sort of crossover-AU things, where you can see shades of characters you might never have put together in the situation the author has developed, and that seems like a good, more native way to approach this type of original story. In part, by its very definition, you want to work in slash tropes for SSBB, and in plots you can grasp; it's the other work of developing setting and characterization and things I've become reliant and devoted to in fanfiction that present the challenge.
But it's a challenge I'm becoming more and more keen to take on, so we'll see how it goes.
Is there beta support in SSBB? Or are authors expected to find that on their own outside of the community?
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There's absolutely beta support! 2-4 weeks before the deadline (i.e., when we remember), we'll put up a post where beta-readers can comment and people who need betas can get in touch with them. If you've got your own people you know and trust, though, you should absolutely feel free to use them. If you're really looking for something in particular, though, you can make a post at bangbangwhimper and see if anyone's interested.
What I always find amusing is when someone tries to guess my source inspiration -- and guesses wrong. (It's extra-funny if they're all smug about it, and I'm left going, uh, I have no idea what show you're talking about.)
Good luck and happy writing!
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