Some bonehead mistakes, common in fanfic, to avoid...

[Buster's Uncle]

On a related note, not everybody is into -- yaoi, for example - whatever floats your boat and all, but you'll save yourself a world of aggravation in feedback on any non-vanilla/het character shipping if you warn the squares off up front; likewise, I'm afraid, if the vanilla is too NC17, though do be sure to post those somewhere not this forum.

(It can be said to be a good thing that you can find any (legal and moral) kink that entertains you on the innerwebs, but also fair to have places where people who don't want their nose rubbed in that dirty sex stuff can be comfortable, which AC2 has some aspirations to be.  Keep it down to a PG13 here, please.  We'll try to be cool and work it out with authors in possible borderline cases...)

[Valka]

...I tried to look it up, and I don't think it was Stephen Goldin after all.

Wasn't Piper a pirate or something outlandish like that?  ISTR a red hat with a feather in it, and she actually commanded a small mercenary fleet...  Yeah.  The author clearly thought her OC was awesome, and was so, so, wrong.

Piper was a Starfleet officer, and she did not command a mercenary fleet. You might be thinking of Black Fire, in which Spock commanded a pirate fleet. He became a 23rd century equivalent of the "charming rogue" pirate/highwayman character. This novel was based on a fanfic novel (I have the original fanzine it was published in). Of course there were parts that were heavily edited to make it fit in with Pocket's editorial standards.

[Buster's Uncle]

Somebody had a pet character named Hunter, who commanded Hunter's Squadron -which was sorta privateerish- in two novels, I think; probably conflating with that.

I actually recall Black Fire -alternate timeline where Vulcans dominate, mediocre book- somewhat, but not a Sue/pet character therein.  Something about the timeline really not working out well for Kirk's place in life was a major element.

...I read absolutely everything -and that means even Mission to Horatius twice- in the way of a ST novel up to about 1987...


A note on slang...

I am a native of the Southeastern US, and I wouldn't write a Star Trek character saying "y'all" (unless Dr. McCoy was drinking, maybe.)

Well, I've noticed a thing (is it only British slang, or other Commonwealth countries?) where sometimes -presumably English- fanfic authors screw up and use the English equivalent, "you lot" in the mouths of non-UK characters.  -Likewise be aware that 'fanny' means butt in American, not ladyparts, and phrases like "you must do" sound great for some Doctor Who characters, but all wrong for Star Trek ones, usually.

It's something to be aware of, is all.

[Valka]

Somebody had a pet character named Hunter, who commanded Hunter's Squadron -which was sorta privateerish- in two novels, I think; probably conflating with that.

Hunter was introduced in The Entropy Effect, by Vonda McIntyre. She introduced another OC who was somewhat Mary Sue-ish: Mandala Flynn.

I actually recall Black Fire -alternate timeline where Vulcans dominate, mediocre book- somewhat, but no Sue/pet character therein.

That was Killing Time, in which the Vulcans dominated in an alternate timeline. Spock was the captain, Kirk was a lowly ensign, and the original version was slightly slashy.

[Buster's Uncle]

...I read absolutely everything -and that means even Mission to Horatius twice- in the way of a ST novel up to about 1987...

Just not lately.

ISTR Kirk being worse off than just low-ranking; an element of hurt/comfort there, I guess...


Should we get into laying out/defining some fannish terms that come up a lot in fanfic circles?  I've used OC a couple times without explaining it means Original Character in this context...

[Valka]

Yes, that would be a good idea.

[Buster's Uncle]

Hmm.  Its own thread, I think.  ?

[Valka]

Yep.

[Buster's Uncle]

You could probably do that better than I, though I'll certainly pitch in where I can...

[Valka]

Okay, but I'd appreciate a couple of days to decide on how to do it. And I've got RL stuff going on (still sorting books and other stuff).

[vonbach]

Cool lets write stories in leet speak.

4lph4 c3n7ur1 rul35!

[Buster's Uncle]

See what I said about commas, folks?

[vonbach]

Yes, I get it. You feel the need to signal how intellectually superior you are. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Nah, that was already established. 


Seriously though - write us a story in leet-speak.  I reckon it'd be a challenge to make it any good, but I'd be impressed if someone pulled it off.

[Valka]

If he rites a story in leet-speak, ai gets tu rite a story in lolspeek.

We can has deal?