Help for Fanfic writers

Everything Evangelion Fanfiction related.

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Postby Hunter21 » Mon Jan 03, 2005 8:34 am

Thanks
EVANGERIONANIME is stupid

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Remember you're on Evageeks, where preset personal delusions outweigh reality.

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Postby Xanatose » Tue Jan 04, 2005 2:13 am

Good luck with your future experince in fanfiction. It's a rewarding experince if you coun't a few reviews from people you'll never meet and absolutely no material gain as a "reward." (^__^) I too write Evangelion fanfiction (though, in all honesty I've never been quick about it, and the majority of it is not yet posted, so I'm not known for it at all ;_; ) and I can tell you it's worth it if you take it for what it is -- a hobby. A nice, creative hobby, but just a hobby. Don't get too rapped up in it like I've seen some people do. ^_^;;

I assume that when you're done, you'll have the desire to share these works with the rest of the eva fanfiction community. Do you have any place to post it? If not a personal site, I would suggest you create an account on ff.net. Simple enough for any amateur just starting out, and the atmostphere isn't intimidating at all (though you could easily be lost in the crowed.)

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Postby Reichu » Tue Jan 04, 2005 8:29 am

Tabris wrote:This thread suggests it was Unit 08 who pierced her eye, since this was the only Unit not 'killed' (it only received a leg amputation). I've no idea about the arm, though, the MP Evas can't be seen very clearly at that point.


This is a VERY popular idea, but it never made a whole lot of sense to me. I dunno, I just have a rather hard time seeing how EVA-08 could have chucked the Spear like that when she couldn't even stand up... Heh, maybe I'm just being dense.
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Postby Tabris » Tue Jan 04, 2005 11:24 am

Reichu wrote:This is a VERY popular idea, but it never made a whole lot of sense to me. I dunno, I just have a rather hard time seeing how EVA-08 could have chucked the Spear like that when she couldn't even stand up... Heh, maybe I'm just being dense.


Somebody must have thrown it, though. I'll be honest, I can't tell the difference between the MP Evas, but an Eva that still possesses its brain matter and a functioning spinal column is a candidate in my book. :wink:

On topic: I can offer my services as a proofreader to any fanfic writers here requiring a precise (and if you wish, ruthless) beta. (Yes, I have far too much time on my hands at the moment).
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Postby Hunter21 » Tue Jan 04, 2005 6:48 pm

Good luck with your future experince in fanfiction. It's a rewarding experince if you coun't a few reviews from people you'll never meet and absolutely no material gain as a "reward."

This describes my job in real life, so it's nothing new.

I too write Evangelion fanfiction (though, in all honesty I've never been quick about it, and the majority of it is not yet posted, so I'm not known for it at all

I'm in the same boat. I have been sitting on a 100,000 word one for about 4 months that is only missing an epilogue that it doesn't need.

I can tell you it's worth it if you take it for what it is -- a hobby. A nice, creative hobby, but just a hobby. Don't get too rapped up in it like I've seen some people do

I only do it for fun or to release steam, and I rarely take anything I write too serious. (This might be a bad thing, but I don't care)

I assume that when you're done, you'll have the desire to share these works with the rest of the eva fanfiction community

Ummmmm....... :oops:

I would suggest you create an account on ff.net. Simple enough for any amateur just starting out, and the atmostphere isn't intimidating at all

Is it better than Evafics? I created an account there but have been greatly disappointed by how often that site freezes up on me. I even abandoned it's board because of that.

This is a VERY popular idea, but it never made a whole lot of sense to me. I dunno, I just have a rather hard time seeing how EVA-08 could have chucked the Spear like that when she couldn't even stand up... Heh, maybe I'm just being dense.

Since there is no real consensus on who threw the spears, does that mean I can pull whatever I want out of my ass, and get away with it. :wink:

This has to the longest post I have every done. (Sad isn't it)

On topic: I can offer my services as a proofreader to any fanfic writers here requiring a precise (and if you wish, ruthless) beta.

Questions:
1. How old are you?
2. What kind of fanfics do you like?
3. If you saw this would you run away from the fic:
A/N: Hello all I’m Hunter21, and I just want to let you people know how I approached my story so you can determine if you want to spend the time reading this garbage or not. This is definitely a WAFF. I wrote this because I was really bored/depressed/frustrated at work and needed something fun to do. If you are a stickler for Eva detail or like darkfics, you probably should stop reading this now. If you are looking for something fun, and don’t mind me playing a little with the characters you might like it. There will be a lot of zaniness, happiness, romance, a smidge of drama, minor violence, and some lemonish parts. (Oh…and if you are under 18 or are not allowed to read the lemonish parts where you are, you must skip them. I will warn you before hand so that you can easily do that.) Also be aware I am not taking myself very seriously as I write this because I am just doing it for my own personal pleasure. And most of all Have Fun.

4. I have a touch of dyslexia, so you have to be careful of flipped around phrases. These I don't mind being pointed out.
5. I am called bullheaded by my parents and friends quite often, so if you touch on something I really like, you might get a responce akin to 'Bite Me'. I don't mean it personally, I just like some of my ideas even if they do suck.
EVANGERIONANIME is stupid

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Remember you're on Evageeks, where preset personal delusions outweigh reality.

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Postby Tabris » Tue Jan 04, 2005 8:03 pm

1. How old are you?


Twenty-five.

2. What kind of fanfics do you like?


Any. Preferably something I have some knowledge about; I enjoy those ones more... thus, if it's an Eva fic, even better. As for genres, I have no real preference if I'm beta-ing. As a writer, I lean toward serious fiction, but really, any genre appeals to me. I like doing beta because it 'keeps me on my toes'.

3. If you saw this would you run away from the fic:


Not at all. <Indy>Nothing shocks me, I'm a scientist.</Indy>

4. I have a touch of dyslexia, so you have to be careful of flipped around phrases. These I don't mind being pointed out.

5. I am called bullheaded by my parents and friends quite often, so if you touch on something I really like, you might get a responce akin to 'Bite Me'. I don't mean it personally, I just like some of my ideas even if they do suck.


I can point them out if you wish... I wouldn't propose to change any of your ideas or story content, though. And I wouldn't profess to tell anyone that they suck, or pass judgement on their work in such a way. My judgement would be purely spelling/grammar oriented.

If there's something you'd like me to take a look at then, you could post me a link, or if you prefer e-mail I can give you mine.
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Postby ChronoX » Tue Jan 04, 2005 8:06 pm

I offer my services as well. I read several times faster than that of most people and also have too much time on my hands.
age: 14
Preferred fic type: any
and that opening needs a bit of work but otherwise fine.
"We are born, meant to die. If I am to die, then let it be with a sword in my hand, my enemies at my feet, and my blood on my body. Come forward, come forward, come forward! And let us all meet in bloody combat."-The Rose Lord, William Rose.

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Postby Reichu » Tue Jan 04, 2005 11:13 pm

Overall, I tend to think of this as one of the "holes in the plot you could drive a truck through." Maya's comment about the Eva Series reactivating after EVA-02 went down seems to imply, to me anyway, that they had all deactivated -- or were playing possum, rather -- as a result of whatever EVA-02 did to them. Nerv's monitors could tell whether or not they were active. If one of the fallen harpies had gotten back up to chuck a Spear at Kyoko-sama, wouldn't Maya have caught the activity on her laptop? Wouldn't there have been screams of, "Asuka! Look out!!"

My favorite theory is that Keel pushed a button over in Germany, and the Spear threw itself. Maybe it had little jet engines built-in and could be controlled via remote. :lol: More likely, it is a cosmic anomaly created by a force such as the Heart of Gold or the Emperor of Starbach's Plot Hole Device.
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Postby Dave » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:59 am

Dues ex Machina Reichu, and one hell of a good one at that. The best I've ever seen, unless of course I have no idea what I'm talking about. Which is quite likely.
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Postby Xanatose » Wed Jan 05, 2005 3:02 am

Hunter21 wrote:Is [ff.net] better than Evafics? I created an account there but have been greatly disappointed by how often that site freezes up on me. I even abandoned it's board because of that.


I assume you mean Evafics.org? If that's the case, I would say that it's not so much an issue of which is best as they both have something to offer that may compensate for what they lack and which ultamately causes their services to balance out.

I was around back when Evafics.org first got started, and my criticism back then still stands. The whole notion of having a quality control team is insanely bueracratic, specialized, and elitist. This gets to the heart of my issue with people who take fanfics too seriously. If you're story isn't good enough for these members, they just won't let it on their site. Luckily, they're standards didn't seem too high back when I was still visiting that site. I can't speak for recent developments though, because I haven't kept up with any changes in their policy or practices in about a year. So it's my mistake entirely if this isn't accurate. On the plus side, it had been meant to be an area where the wheat could be seperated from the chaff, and even if this function isn't performed as it should be under a best case scenerio, it still has the ability to say that writers aren't lost in the crowed, and their stories aren't buried after a few hours by dozens of other stories. Further, the reviewers do (or did? I'm not sure anymore) give advice back to the writer on how to improve -- something you can only hope reviewers will do once in a blue moon at ff.net

As for ff.net-- it's basically as I descirbed. It's a free service that will allow you to post anything within the peramiters of its policies. So follow the rules, and you'll get by just fine. Unfortunately, this free service comes with its drawbacks. The one most immediately noticed are the popups that pay for the site and make those accounts free for everyone. The other problem is that it also has a bueracracy that can be difficult to work with. I had an associate who I'm sad to say I don't talk to anymore (we just drifted a part) who was made to suffer for this. She had a rather popular story on ff.net that had garnered over 300 reviews, each of which mattered more to her than the actual story. It was important to her that so many people had been touched enough to contact her, that she was willing to continue working on the story even though she was personally disappointed in it. Unfortunately, one day someone--who to my knowledge was never identified--reported to the supervisors that she'd violated ff.net terms of service (specifically, stating that the story wasn't properly rated when even a cursory scan of the story would reveal that it was.) Without a word of warning, the story was deleted from the database and all of the reviews lost, which upset her to no end. She did take her story to Evafics, but that simply wasn't the same.

(And that must sound like a big push for evafics, and was one of the early horror stories that convinced people that it was the next stage in eva fanfic evolution, but you already heard how I feel about them, so take both sides for what you will.)

Beyond this single problem (which pretty much is a worst case scenerio), I've never had an issue with ff.net, and they are fairly user friendly. They even have step-by-step instructions to help you post; a bio area for your account, list and link to favorite authors and stories, and an option to form and join communites on the database. Overall, I'm content with them.

But in the end, I suggest that if you want ultamate self-relience for your own stories, get your own website, even if generic. There are plenty of fanfic writers who have.

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Postby Mr. Tines » Wed Jan 05, 2005 5:11 pm

Hunter21 wrote:
I can tell you it's worth it if you take it for what it is -- a hobby. A nice, creative hobby, but just a hobby. Don't get too rapped up in it like I've seen some people do

I only do it for fun or to release steam, and I rarely take anything I write too serious. (This might be a bad thing, but I don't care)


As someone who's been writing for fun stuff that may or may not be considered fan-fiction for longer than he cares to calculate - if it's not something you're doing as gainful employment, then follow the muse. You'll know when the creative fire is burning and where it wants to go.

I would suggest you create an account on ff.net. Simple enough for any amateur just starting out, and the atmostphere isn't intimidating at all

Is it better than Evafics? I created an account there but have been greatly disappointed by how often that site freezes up on me. I even abandoned it's board because of that.


My own experience - as a reader, ff.net - or just the Eva section of it - is just one huge mass, where it's difficult to find the stuff to one's taste, except via external references. As a writer, I tried evafics, and found their process glacially slow, and when they'd sat on a submission for a couple of months, gave feedback that seemed to indicate more an irreconcilable difference in tastes than anything else.

I would admit that having had web space of my own since the first free 1Mb on geopages a decade ago, the idea of doing anything else (and losing control over typography) didn't appeal to me too much. And by experiment, Google is more likely to find your fic on your own site than when lost amongst 2000-odd others on ff.net.


3. If you saw this would you run away from the fic:
A/N: Hello all I’m Hunter21, and I just want to let you people know how I approached my story so you can determine if you want to spend the time reading this garbage or not. This is definitely a WAFF. I wrote this because I was really bored/depressed/frustrated at work and needed something fun to do. If you are a stickler for Eva detail or like darkfics, you probably should stop reading this now. If you are looking for something fun, and don’t mind me playing a little with the characters you might like it. There will be a lot of zaniness, happiness, romance, a smidge of drama, minor violence, and some lemonish parts. (Oh…and if you are under 18 or are not allowed to read the lemonish parts where you are, you must skip them. I will warn you before hand so that you can easily do that.) Also be aware I am not taking myself very seriously as I write this because I am just doing it for my own personal pleasure. And most of all Have Fun.



I will admit to filtering the large corpus of Eva fics out there by looking for things that give an idea of what assumptions the author is making, what the broad outline of the story is about (more than just "WAFF" or "darkfic"), who gets paired with whom (especially if outside the obvious canon), and if it's a crossover, do I know the first thing about the newcomers (or is there enough to get me up to speed, as per Shin Kakumei Evangelion?) From then on, it depends whether the author's prejudices coincide closely enough with my own.

Your preface is, to my habits anyway, too much telling what the fic is not, rather than what it is.
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Postby Tabris » Wed Jan 05, 2005 10:23 pm

Additional: if I am beta-ing for you, I won't change your work or sentence structures around, unless you expressly ask me to. I'll correct punctuation errors and spelling mistakes, and if there's dodgy grammar, I'll sort that. But I won't re-write it as if I was writing your fic instead - that kind of makes beta-ing pointless, no?
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Postby ChronoX » Fri Jan 07, 2005 6:50 pm

So far so interesting hunter. No mistakes so farr. And does anyone know how to make a spoiler tag???
"We are born, meant to die. If I am to die, then let it be with a sword in my hand, my enemies at my feet, and my blood on my body. Come forward, come forward, come forward! And let us all meet in bloody combat."-The Rose Lord, William Rose.

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Postby Hunter21 » Fri Jan 07, 2005 7:36 pm

ChronoX wrote:So far so interesting hunter. No mistakes so farr.

That's hard to believe :lol:
And does anyone know how to make a spoiler tag
Just write spoiler in large font. But if it has anything to do with one of my fic just PM me. Theres no need to make others suffer for my delusions.
Last edited by Hunter21 on Sat Jan 08, 2005 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
EVANGERIONANIME is stupid

Come Join the Sakaki Fan Club!

Remember you're on Evageeks, where preset personal delusions outweigh reality.

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Postby ChronoX » Fri Jan 07, 2005 8:48 pm

ok, i was hoping that you had an im service or something so we could talk real-time but you don't so ohh well.
"We are born, meant to die. If I am to die, then let it be with a sword in my hand, my enemies at my feet, and my blood on my body. Come forward, come forward, come forward! And let us all meet in bloody combat."-The Rose Lord, William Rose.

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Postby Hunter21 » Sat Jan 08, 2005 1:58 pm

Mr. Tines wrote:I would admit that having had web space of my own since the first free 1Mb on geopages a decade ago, the idea of doing anything else (and losing control over typography) didn't appeal to me too much. And by experiment, Google is more likely to find your fic on your own site than when lost amongst 2000-odd others on ff.net.

Actually I have been looking at building a web page for some time now (Looks good on a resume). Are the Idiot books any good for that type of thing or is there a better way to learn?

I will admit to filtering the large corpus of Eva fics out there by looking for things that give an idea of what assumptions the author is making

I usually just look at the ending. If it doesn't have one (way too many out there like that) I ignore it. And if I don't like the pairings or what happens, I ignore it.

Your preface is, to my habits anyway, too much telling what the fic is not, rather than what it is

:P...... Actually I use that preface as a scare tatic so I can get pre-readers with a sense of humor. Super serious and over-analytical ones annoy me. I will improve it so it is more telling once I figure out what I want to do with it.
EVANGERIONANIME is stupid

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Remember you're on Evageeks, where preset personal delusions outweigh reality.

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Postby ChronoX » Sat Jan 08, 2005 3:53 pm

if you want to make a web page, use Macromedia Dreamweaver. It is really easy to use, if you know how to code, if you don't it is a bit harder cause you don't know some of the tags and stuff, but still realitivly easy.
"We are born, meant to die. If I am to die, then let it be with a sword in my hand, my enemies at my feet, and my blood on my body. Come forward, come forward, come forward! And let us all meet in bloody combat."-The Rose Lord, William Rose.

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Postby Mr. Tines » Sun Jan 09, 2005 6:06 am

Hunter21 wrote:Actually I have been looking at building a web page for some time now (Looks good on a resume). Are the Idiot books any good for that type of thing or is there a better way to learn?


The main thing is learning by doing. You can build web pages, including client-side scripts and CSS without needing a web server, just viewing the files in your browser (actually that should be browsers plural, as Internet Explorer has a set of quirks that other browsers don't have).

Admittedly, as an old-school coder, who uses Notepad or equivalent for web page construction (well, sometimes I use the W3C's Amaya HTML editor, but I still use Notepad for detailed final polishing), I probably get a little closer to the metal than is needed.

I'd suggest the tutorials at http://www.w3schools.com/ - they are up to date, and cover modern web standards, including CSS.
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Postby Tabris » Mon Jan 24, 2005 11:34 am

I'd recommend Mr. Tines' method and advice. Dreamweaver is all well and good, but being able to understand and manipulate the code yourself (and remove all the junk code Dreamweaver or Publisher etc. puts in of its own accord) isn't difficult at the basic level, which is all you really need. Obviously, making things fancy with Javascript or databases takes a little longer to learn, but CCS and HTML are easy to get to grips with, and knowledge = power. :)
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Postby Ryo » Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:49 am

Btw, I'm looking for a pre-reader as well. I'm the MS* author of "Crusaders of Evangelion" (deleted), "Zone" (on hold) and "War of a New Dawn," all three (except for CoE) on FFNET.



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