Workday Wednesday - Fanfics

I find that most of my stories these days start as fanfics. What’s a fanfic, you ask? Well, it’s a story that takes place in a pre-existing story-verse or uses someone else’s characters. For example, [and I can’t believe this would be the best known example] 50 Shades of Grey started out as a Twilight fanfic. The author took the characters Edward and Bella and said “what if I make these two have all sorts of sex?”

Actually, most fanfics that are out there are basically “what if [insert two or more characters] had sex?”

I don’t write that kind of fanfic.

I write “author inserted” fanfic.

I write stories where the main character is new to the story-verse and is a perfect version of what I would do in the story. The best example I can think of of this is Dante’s Inferno. I mean he made Virgil, an actual person, his best bud and guide.

The first story I ever finished [because I have a problem] was an Andromeda fanfic. It’s actually where my internet persona is named. Enigma Harper. My main character in an Andromeda fanfic.

Here’s an excerpt…

You would not believe how much I loved this show.
Andromeda was basically just Canadian Star Trek.
And yes, that's Kevin Sorbo.

After classes I toured the space station. It was huge. It was like a small planet. My favorite part of the tour was the docking bay. Ships came everywhere to get supplies. All the different beings that got out of the ships were amazing. There were several ships that I wouldn't mind travelling on. I started to dream about the many places I would go. I must've been quite out of it because I finally snapped out when someone tapped my shoulder.

"Um. excuse me, miss. I've been all around the galaxy and I have never seen a finer looking alien."
"What? Finer? I don't understand your..." I glanced at the round metallic disk inserted into the side of his neck, "AI slang."
Now he looked confused. "AI? I ain't no robot, lady, if I can call you that. I am all human. Straight from Mother Earth, herself."
"Well, I'm sorry if I offended you. I couldn't tell with that thing in your neck."
"What? My data port? This is really useful. I can connect online with my ship and go to the source of any problem."
"You have a ship? Which one?"
He pointed to a beautiful ship. I don't think I could describe it justly.
"That's her. The Andromeda Ascendant."
"Named after the chained maiden in Greek mythology. Was offered as a sacrifice to the Cetus to save Ethiopia."
He stared at me, slack jawed.
"What?" I looked around. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No. I just never met an alien that knew so much about ancient Earth culture."
"Oh. I know much about every culture in the galaxy. Like the infamous Krikket Wars and ... Why do you have that look on your face?"
"I was just thinking. Do you know anything about the Commonwealth?"
"Just that is was a great thing until it fell, and that some 300 year old High Guard captain is trying to pull it back together."
"Where are you staying? I need to tell Dylan about you."
"At the University, in the Lowi Wing. My name is Enigma." I held out my hand.
"Harper," he shook it, "do you mind visitors?"
"No, not at all. I live by myself."
"I'll see you tonight then."
"Sure."
He walked off. I think he was planning something. He wasn't too bad looking. Better than most back home. I decided to write Mother about my day.

Keep in mind I wrote this … 15 years ago. Goodness, has it really been that long? Anyway, as you can see I borrowed a lot from what was influencing me at the time. Greek mythology and Douglas Adams. And I didn’t edit any of the spelling errors. Believe me, there are a bunch of errors all over the place.

I hope you learned a bit today. If anything, I hope you enjoyed my humble beginnings.

Harper, OUT! 

on writing...

I like to write. Okay, I know that is a blatant understatement, but I feel it needs to be said. Also, if I didn't state the obvious, I wouldn't have a lot to say most of the time.

Anyways, I like to write, but mainly I like to write fanfic. Yes, I'm one of those people. Though I don't do the fanfic porn, but I do like to take random characters from other places and put them in relationships of my choosing.

I'm working on 3 such stories right now. I wrote on multiple stories because every so often I get writer's block on one at the same time the dam breaks on another.

I usually don't like sharing my stories with other people before they are finished, but something in me just wants to share.

Okay, so my first one is an In Plain Sight story that actually stars a friend of mine. Usually I place some perfect version of myself in as the romantic lead (cause truthfully when you're writing your protagonist is always some part of yourself), but this time it morphed into my friend. I had 2 different stories going with this idea, both with the same main character. They were essentially the same story, but the backgrounds were different. My star, Alexandria "Xandi" Powell, was in a relationship with Marshall. One version, she was in the program, and the other she wasn't. The one were she was in the program died quickly as I really didn't think it fit the character. I mean, it would be a cool twist, but it didn't work out. So I ran with the later and soon I had her beat beyond recognition and in the hospital.

My stories land in the hospital a lot. I like to attribute that to the fact that I'm very morbid. But I digress...

My second story is a Criminal Minds story. My star this time is Orla Wallace-Lynch. She's a genius who, because of some special circumstances, is writing fluff pieces for a local newspaper. She could have gone on to be a famous cellist, but she had a son when she was 16 and that stopped her dreams. As the story progresses, we find that her son's father has come back to town, which is a problem as he is a serial killer. The love connection in this one is with Reid. What can I say, I like geeks. And there is nothing wrong with that!

The one that I've been putting the most time in recently is my CSI:NY fanfic, though I'm trying to stray away from the actually cast and focus on a very minor character, Reed Garrett.

Only now did I realise that 2 of my characters are in love with a guy named Reed (Reid). Weird.

Anyways, my girl this time is named Alma (no last name yet) and she's a theatre student at New School University. Her downfall is that she's got a photographic, eidetic memory which may not seem like a bad thing, but she is also epileptic. I'm not too far into this story, so I don't know how everything runs together yet, but something horrible is going to happen. It's just how my mind works. Most likely I will be killing off her roommate, but she's kinda annoying, so it's worth it.

I do have other non-fanfic stories locked in various notebooks floating around me room. One I'm really proud of and trying to adapt into a screenplay. Yes, I said screenplay. I would love to work in the movies, mainly behind the scenes. I want to direct something so badly! I have a clip on YouTube that I did for a class. The only problem my teacher had with it was that I didn't fade in from black at the beginning. Other than that he said it was darn near perfect. But you can judge for yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGNTBOC9tdY

I've gotten off topic... And lost my train of thought.... Oh shoot!.....

Well, that's about it for me today. I've been typing out my stories so I have them on a flash drive. That way I can edit them at any point instead of trying to find the individual notebook and working in that. So I'm off to continue typing things out.

Laters...

Fiser, OUT!