Fan Fiction a good way to write without worrying about First Rights

All right, you may think, well only teenagers write fan fiction. Once you get to be a woman of a certain age, forget about it. You are too old and dignified unless you are writing a Murder She Wrote fan fiction. Well I love to write fan fiction, I would love to write a story about NCIS, but have no idea whether Tony will fall in love, since I did write one about Law and Order: Criminal Intent and they did not follow my romantic inclinations, so I stick with shows that have been canceled or have not been around for some time.
I find in Fan fiction (I love crossovers) that if there are villains or space aliens, the Homo Dominants in Prey, that people love to even the playing field. Great, I watch a show and I see the people have no chance against these shape shifting aliens, so why suddenly make the aliens not being able to stand sunlight or all you have to do is to push them outside? Another thing I notice, that if in the story, the girl or boy who was raised by evil people, and then later on reforms and turns out to be nice, the reason was not that he or she came to his or her senses or someone convinced her that shooting everybody was wrong, but that she is really not the daughter of that evil person, but in reality the daughter of the handsome prince or the good doctor.
Now how do you make Crossovers? You have a connection. In some cases as in a future episode, the CSI team or rather Grissom has to go to New York to cooperate with the Without a Trace Team and even if it is not shown, or the show was canceled, you can use parts of each show to make the Crossover natural. For instance, I connected The Pretender with Prey, with two episode, Jarod jumping off a boat and swimming to shore, and jumping off a building onto Broot's car. Normally he would have died from that distance. In the same way, you can connect, since House is in Boston and since Boston Law is in Boston, if there is an episode where a lawyer has a sudden attack and taken to the hospital.
Now the good thing about Fan Fiction is that you can show your talent and practice on it. You do not have to worry that you are losing your first rights, unless you are given a contract to write a Star Trek or a Buffy, etc. story. You do have to tell everyone that the characters, other than the ones you made up, belong to the owners, the original writers, and to what station they gave them to, but that is all.
So get writing about your favorite Movie or TV characters in those spare moments and when you are not working on your novel and or short story.

Why OneTime a Day is Not Enough

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Now playing: 15-Elizabeth Harwood Quando m'en vo'
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Now playing: 13-Regine Crespin Un bel di vedremi
via FoxyTunes I am the type of person that if I stare at the computer too long, I get hypnotized by the monitor and soon I am falling asleep or at least, doing a facsimile thereof. I have tried the time thing, and found it did not work, nor did the word limit work. For one thing, sometimes I rush things so that at least I have the appearance of something being done, and another thing with the word limit, I might not have enough time. So I decided to do a little compromise
I call it the two period writing. The first one is I decide to write for an hour or so, just putting in the next two or more paragraphs and then go over them and check for those terrible reversal errors or passive sentences. Then in the afternoon or at night, I go over these paragraphs and try to make it much better.
Sometimes the second forty-five minutes becomes an hour, well because I am fussy. I am now more than half way through my novel and guess what, I found a better name for one of my characters, so the next revision I have to go through and change his name once again.

I find this much easier than writing all in the morning and then finding that I have not gone far enough because I spend a good deal time on one paragraph when I could be writing a whole page. So now I write a whole page (well not the 1000 word, but that will come back) and do a little correction, since I also have the page from my former draft and I am copying that plus also inserting and changing it around. In the evening, I have not had my former draft, so I can work on revising and correcting what I wrote that morning.

That is much better, but that does not sometimes work. I mean if I write in the morning, and there is something going on, then I find I have not written as much as I like. So I often wind up keeping the page open all day, and add a bit here and there. Then I check the word count to see if I get past my goal that right now is 500 words a day. That is what writing is like. You just cannot time it. Now if only I had a lap top, then I could write whenever I felt like it, not have to go to the computer room.

Fiction Writing:Confirming your ideas

I just got back from a trip across Canada to P.E.I. and through the States. Now while I was in Prince Edward Island, we went to visit the old forts that were now covered with sod, and read the plaque about the first French citizens who became the first permanent settlers of the Island. It was quite hilly and quite steep as we went from one top of the hidden fort to reach another top and it reminded me of the shows on England about the areas where the Britons had their defenses which now are covered with pasture and farmland, but if you are in a plane above can still see the outlines.

Well I did not see the outlines, us being on ground, but I am writing a novel about a man going into a strange land, and getting a feel how his legs and his heart felt as he went from one area to another, depending not on a car, but on his own transportation, be it horse or foot.

Now most research is done before the story starts. You go to a bakery and learn how they make bread, and then you incorporate a bakery in your story, but sometimes one can get understand how people's bodies reacted by later going through the same thing yourself or as much as you can take. And it also shows that you may not have been far wrong in telling, "how his heart almost burst and his shoulders ached as he climbed the crevice."

Fiction Writing: My Take on Critiques

I spent about half an hour looking for my Stephen King book on writing. I suppose he said something about critiquing, but I have no idea what it was. Anyway, my views are that for a beginner it is good, but as you get on, you become more selective as to who is to critique your novel. Unfortunately the ones whom you want is usually too busy.

You see, I was told you need to have a critique group to look at your work, but except for a nice author who gave me good suggestions about distances,, times and places and how to write a good first chapter, most of my critiques were crap. They made me disappointed, but I felt I had to have them, and for a time, I sent my work in and then I got On Writing by Stephen King and surprise! He did not like critiquing either. He did talk about creative writing classes, and if one could not take any, to get books on writing and study hard.

So now I go over a chapter at a time, and think does this move the story and it is much better than worrying about someone else's idea, because if I am not satisfied, neither is anyone else.

Fiction Writing: The Dialogue Thing

When I first started writing, the characters were engaged in some rather interesting conversations, interspersed with dialogs that moved the plot. However, most of it consisted of "hi, haven't seen you since last November," and "I think I feel a cold coming on," along with long monologues about their mission, whatever it was. I see the same thing on fan fiction stories where Jarod and Miss Parker have a long conversation, insulting each other. I was told that this was wrong, and wondered why. Surely character one does greet character two, and they do talk about the weather and stuff like that.

Instead I found that when you are writing a story, you are allowed so many pages and when this happens, you only put in the conversation that makes the plot go forward, also known as the dialog. So what you have is character one say, "Are all things in readiness for the invasion?" and character two replying, "Yes sir. The humans will not be expecting us. Hail Zerhx, our leader!"

So what does happen to the conversation they really would have? Well I suppose it goes into the description like this; Xery greeted Xerwe, his twin pod, speaking much about the weather on the planet Zerrx, the war with the Insect people of Wry, and the mating rituals that occurred in the month Qwer, the only time their race was fertile.

So in short, this is the difference between real life and fiction. In the latter, much of the conversation goes unsaid unless it is of earthshaking importance.

Fiction Writing; Wishful Thinking

In this day of Political Correctness, even writers try to make sure that those who were looked down on, the cripples, the poor, the deprived, the non-white are given a place of importance in fiction so that they are the heroes, the ones of importance so we will read the book or watch the movie and say, 'how wonderful!" forgetting that even supposed privileged people endured heartbreak.

I remember reading a book by one of my favorite authors where the hero had three people helping him, three with various forms of disability and the one who was the worse off actually got transported to another Universe where the political scene had changed: In that, the Democrats won: wishful thinking.

The fact is if you decide to make those former despised people the heroes, unless it is about someone who overcame his background, you run the risk of believing those of the privileged who got shafted, lost their jobs, or were in a car accident that resulted in them loosing their limbs actually deserved it. And have you seen that the recent trend in movies, where the villain is rich and white? When someone once despised becomes a hero or a hero's companion, then the wicked one must be one who in past novels would have been the hero's friends. So the man who answered the door or worked in the field, who begged in the street is now adored, while the business owner, the upper class one is now despised unless he happens to be, perhaps, the adopted son born in India, Nigeria, etc. and whose skin is as dark as midnight.

Most people hang around with people of their own background and culture. I was born in Scotland, of German English descent so most of my friends are Western European. A woman who was born in South Carolina and of Black African descent, most of her friends would be African American. A man born in Nigeria would make friends like him. So if the hero or heroine of the story lived in Texas and was a Mexican American , his friends more than likely would be that type and the only one surviving the massacre would not be that Dutch kid they befriended on the Cattle Drive.

What did they do wrong? Surely everyone deserves a chance, but that is what they did. They did not write the story or the play as what would have happened in real life (unless the hero was the only white kid in the ghetto and he thought he was black)- , They wrote the story to even up the field, they were engaged in wishful thinking.

Fiction Writing; Who do You Kill

Sooner or later, one of your characters is going to die. Usually it is a friend of the main character or of the villain. Now in action adventure movies, it is someone the main character loves, for instance his wife and his children, but it does not matter what race or ethnic group the victim belongs to because the whole point is to get the hero so angry that he will finish off the villains in as violent manner as he can.

In other movies and in writing it is different. Race and ethnicity does matter, according to the movies I saw, and the novel I am reading. It seems that back in the nineteen seventies, even with black exploitation movies, the Black community got so angry at them being portrayed at being drug dealers, that they demanded to be portrayed as good and moral citizens even when they were bad guys. Thus many movies and some writers have followed suit. Not only did they make the African American as the one with the moral code, they made sure that his death was shown with more sorrow and regret, and if at all possible, he survived when others died. Yet this never happened to the Italians, Chinese, or Japanese. We still see movies where they are portrayed equally in a good light and a bad light and when they die, no one mourns long and hard. But this is wrong.

When writing your novel or story, forget about who will be mad and decide what is believable. If there is a massive explosion, the bombs kill indiscriminately, and do not decide what race the victims are., and it has to do with percentages. If the majority of those trapped inside were white, then the survivors are more likely to be white. If the story was about a building exploding in Harlem, the survivors are more likely to be black. So think of not what would be acceptable, think of reality and do not discriminate or make up for past discriminations. Think not of what others would want you to write, think what would be more logical.

Fiction Writing; The Necessity of Research

I am writing on a Christian fantasy novel, no no witches with super natural powers, no flying demons that can materialize as men, or anything like Obi telling Luke to "feel the Force,"— although it does have at least three monsters in it. But like most fantasy novels, one has to invent names for the characters and give them a history.

Now people assume when you write a fantasy novel, you can make up names like Feran Fainthearted or Lalia of the Limmering Light, but most fantasy are based either in the far past (like before the Flood), in the time of Conan the Barbarian, on another world, or in the far future after a nuclear explosion or other disaster has destroyed most of humankind and left the survivors, savages. These are being pursued by mutants, creatures who were made by excessive radiation — at least, that was what was assumed in the 1950s before they learned that there would be no horrible mutants, they would all have died.

Anyway depending on what era or what planet the Fantasy novel is based on, one has to make sure the character names fit. For instance, the past, you may have to go to a web site on the original Indo Aryan languages and make names that are pre-Romance and pre-German. If the character is, for instance, an English man from the Thirteenth Century who somehow was transferred to the future, you go on the website for Medieval England, and write it the way, he would, not the way we would write it. If you go into the future, you will have to make names that record the past, if they came from Earth, and if they survived a disaster, you had to marry who was left, so you mght wind up with a name like Jeavan, or a combination of Jean and Ivan. If your character lives on another planet, and is not descended from Earth people, you can get away with calling him Xerfry, or make any other alien name you want. But if you want your characters to have an Earth origin, you have to decide whether these were pre Norsemen or pre Latins, in which you have to get a book on ancient names or go to the website. The same applies if you are writing about characters who were kidnapped from ancient China before Genghis Khan or Nubians who were taken aboard a space ship before the time of Rameses the Second. In the first place, you cannot use any Mongolian names or customs and in the second case, the people will not mention Rameses the Second having trouble with the Hebrews when the great god took them into the sky.

That is why research is necessary even for fantasy and science fiction. You have to understand not only the name, but the food they eat, and the culture and any changes that you make have to reflect their origins. So go to the Library, get on the Internet, find those history books, your copies of the Illiad and get on researching.

Fiction Writing; The First Draft

According to the Soap Operas and many non-writers, we just have to write once and that is it. Well surprise we have to do this first draft or as I call it, the pre-draft and when you compare it to the finished drafts, who could have written such garbage?

But that is what you have to do, keep writing chapter after chapter without correcting to get the whole story finished. After that is done, then you go back.

Now some people may write an outline or a summation of what the story will be about, but as you go along, the characters take over the story.

Quote; "Darn it, I wanted him to go in guns blasting, but what does he do? Hides behind the bushes and finds a piece of tinfoil, then calls his superior. Why the girl could be dead by now.!'

Yes, that idiot character police detective fouls up your plans for a gun battle by being extra cautious. So you have to write a different chapter from the one you intended. That is why the first draft never is like the one you have in your head. In fact, it seems rather childish sometimes. Your characters go on in long monologues telling their stories just as they do on the Soap Operas. You all know that when Rachel said to Mac, 'Remember when---" and we hear what happened last week or the day before. Instead of showing, you tell what is happening and when you send it off to your critique group, you get remarks like "your story is quite good but your dialogs are way too long.' or translated, 'your story stinks.'

Well I am on the sixth draft of my Novel and from what I heard, I have three more to go, if I live that long.

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Now playing: 08-Sumi Jo Der holle rache kocht in meinem herzen
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Now playing: 06-Joan Sutherland Casta diva
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Fiction Writing: Writing and Finance Savings

If you have a good paying job, or are in college, you probably have enough so that when you are ready to publish your novel, you just have to go to the Post Office and buy the stamps, plunk down the parcel and it is off. If it is rejected, you merely print out another 2000 or so pages, put more stamps plus the post card with extra stamps that they will send you back if it is rejected. In fact, you may be able to send it out to twenty before at lets say, a cost of $10.00 per send out or about $220. Now this is just a guess, the stamps might be $2.50 to $5.00, but even at that, for someone who makes $7.00 or less an hour, that is quite a bit of change.

So how do you get enough money and where do you put it? If you are an American, you may only need a savings and checking account, because most publishers are in the United States. I suppose it also applies to the United Kingdom and Australia, they have lots of publishers. However if you are a Canadian, although you can send your book to a Canadian publisher, you may find the most customers would be in the States. So you also need a good US. Savings account. Many banks in Canada have American money bank accounts and if you put so much a month, your interest and balance will add up.

It is also good to put money aside for unexpected, like the computer breaking down or you need a new printer. So instead of waiting until they die, why not take about $50 to $100 and put it in a high interest savings account? I will tell you what I did. I got a high interest savings account and I put an automatic deposit out of my pension. Not only that, I decided any money I got from myLot or any other internet went to save for a new computer plus a new printer. We decided to buy our paper in bulk instead of one at a time. I also decided to correct most of my work on the computer, thus saving paper except for the first two drafts. I got a basic American account to put money aside when I got a check and that was to pay for any stamps I would order. If my printer ran out of ink, I would get a refill rather than buy a new cartridge. I also decided to perfect my craft rather than send it off and get an automatic rejection. However that is going to take time because I am also working at home. Right now I can do one hour, but I am gradually increasing. So wish me luck.

Writing and Finances

One thing people forget is that you need more than just you brilliant imagination and quick verbosity to write. You need equipment. The days of taking out a quill or fountain pen, writing on a paper, and sending it off to the printer for him to print it is gone. The editor wants to see your work typewritten or computer written. If you cannot do it yourself, you have to hire someone to do it for you. So either you get a typewriter or a computer. If you make many mistakes, and throw paper in the waste basket, you look for a computer and that is where the trouble begins.

You say you are a writer and then you get the suggestion that any computer, or rather the cheapest one will do, but you realize that if you decide to write speculative fiction or historical fiction, your computer has to do more than just words. You need graphics. If you write articles, you may need to draw diagrams. Your desk might get messy, so the computer needs a flat panel monitor, plus the desk with the bookcase, or the separate bookcase, the boxes where you store your information and magazines and so on.

You need paper, a printer and with that, cartridges, postage stamps, envelopes, etc. Now if you had a good paying job, a university education, or a trade, this is no worry. After all, you can save for the computer in no time, a year at the most, and still pay the mortgage, the car, go on a trip once a year, clothes, games, eating out once in a while, and all that stuff that life requires.

This is why if you have a low paying job, that it is essential to save. So put money aside, open a savings account, and put so much fort nightly for your writing equipment, allow so much for the stamps, and you will be on your way to financially support your writing career.

Preparing to be a Writer: Education.

Although many suggest Creative Writing Course and Journalism, the path to be a writer is often hampered not by the lack of will, but by the type of preparation. In the old days, people learned at home and those whose parents were professors or professional people had a better chance of writing down their memoirs or stories than those whose parents were farmers. So those who take the academic stream are better able to engage others with their words than those who concentrate on mechanics, vocational training, and office work. In some States and Provinces, the requirements for English are the same, but in others, the standards for those who go to University are much higher. If you happen to live in one of those not so equal states and you decide to be a writer, you will have a hard time about it unless you are writing first person stories.

Unless you cannot avoid it, take the courses that will lead to University. Grades Ten to Twelve are very important because it is there you will acquire a college vocabulary and have access to more material, as well as development of thinking skills. However, if you have to switch to the general program in Grade Ten or Eleven because of a death in the family, or the sudden loss of money, you will have to learn on your own and usually you may not get a chance until your family is grown or you have acquired enough money to take night courses.

Someone who did not go to college or did not have the proper education cannot pick the right word out of the sky. The person, will have to work harder as I did and I am one whose circumstances forced me to change from the University to the Business program. I have Word Wrap on my computer, I have a couple of online dictionaries available, and I have the dreaded Word Grammar and Spelling Checker. There are some meanings whose nuances I am not sure of, and there are some words that are not part of my normal vocabulary because I missed hearing them in Business. The reason why there are books telling one how to improve your vocabulary is because of the division of learning structures in some schools. So if this is your case, it will be harder for you to become a writer, but not impossible.

Fiction Writing: Do you need a Creative Writing Course

Whenever you say you want to be a writer, there is always someone who tells you to take a creative writing course. Now if you are attending college or university, you can easily take one. The same applies if you are working and you can take a night school course. However not everyone has the time or money and if they did decide to go to school for an hour or so, it might mean the sacrifice of something necessary. In these cases, they might have to go to the library and get books on how to write. They also might have to buy books on writing or learn online. The point is there are many ways on learning to write. It is not creative writing or journalism or nothing. Writers Digest Book Club has many books as well as a magazine that would instruct you on how to write.

Now you may want to improve yourself later and take a course, but that is when you feel it is necessary or when you find you have gone so far and did not improve. But then again, even though you wanted to, you could not afford to. That is life. Do not worry about it, just do the exercises in that how to write book you bought and join an online critique group.

Writing; Setting a Time

I am back from my cruise, with a determination to continue with my novel. So far, I have found it hard because I was trying to make money by various online activities, that now include posting at myLot. Yes, this is the nickname I use. I have found it quite, well not lucrative, but almost, and enjoyable. My photos of the cruise are private. Sorry, but there are some there that I want to give to my Church for the concerts they have in the Spring and Summer.

Before I was writing my novel whenever I had time, but found I could not find any. So I tried a new tactic. Find a time when, although my brain is not in high gear, my endurance is. This left the first thing in the morning after Bible reading, of course.

So this is the rule of setting a time: The best time to write is when you can sit at the computer or typewriter longer without getting exhausted, falling asleep, or dreaming.
The second rule is decide on the minimum amount of time you will write.
The third rule is decide how long you are to write, and if you do not have a timer, get one.
The fourth rule is make sure you increase the time by one minute a day, not counting Sunday or if you are Jewish, Saturday, and so on. If you hold no religious affiliation, decide on one day off. This is to give yourself a break and you would not want to take an unfair advantage against those who value their holy days, do you?

Now the above is when you are typing, not when you sit around, with your journal or your laptop (lucky you!! grr!!) because that is when you get your thoughts or ideas. Some writers like to write on paper first, (oo, I love to crinkle it in my hands. It makes me feel so creative! Well I have poor wrists, and have developed a memory to compensate.), but I do not, because of the reason stated. I wish I could. There are times when I am visiting and I have a good idea, but if I wrote it down, it would not be legible enough to read.

Any suggestions as to how to make my wrists stronger and the left side of my left hand stronger, would be appreciated.

Found items

Well apparently my blouse, t-shirt, and pants were not stolen. The baggage handler or my husband must have put them in his suitcase instead. So I do not have to worry about what will happen on the next trip. There is still one broken vase to contend with. It was imported and I should have carried it with me, but we are only allowed twenty pounds. Anyway my husband liked the trip so much, that we plan to save more money for another one. I am also saving for a laptop so I can write on the trip. Oh and if we go to Vancouver, I will try to persuade my brother to get a computer.

We're back home

We are back home after a wonderful Alaska cruise *(except that I cut the back of my ankles -really should not wear anything other than leather) and the baggage handler who stole three items of my clothes_ a black pair of pants, checked blue and white t-shirt and a short sleeved blouse --sized 2x. I will be posting pictures, once I learn how to do them properly.
We were in Vancouver or rather Surrey. My husband wants to stay in Winnipeg, but I love the coast!!!! It gets too cold here in Winter.

The Alaskan Cruise

Tomorrow my husband and I go on our Alaskan Cruise. This is the first cruise I have been on other than the one that brought me, my dad and mom and my brother to North Vancouver from London, England. We later moved to Vancouver, but that is history. Right now about our trip. We're flying out to Vancouver where we will get the ship and go along the inlet, take in the sites, and then return to Vancouver in seven days.

We will then visit our relatives there including my brother for two or three days at which time, we will take the plane back to Manitoba. We will be taken quite a few pictures and I will try to post some here.

Some Authors Get The Help!

I just learned from my husband that I should really love Harry Potter because the author had a hard time as a single parent, she is an excellent writer, and that she was only rejected once. Oh yes and the publishers were so kind to help her with editing her book and she thought of the idea while riding in a train and had the whole seven books already decided, plus much of the plot.
Well she was a teacher before and that is a plus. You work in a profession such as being a doctor, a lawyer, a journalist, and teacher you are bound to not have many rejections. Of course writing about magic helps. That reminds me, except for one of those Sword and Sandal Movies, and the Bible plus sermons, no one has told much about Simon the Sorcerer, you know, the one who tried to bribe Saint Peter to give him the Holy Spirit. I can just see Simon the Sorcerer announcing his next trick while a beautiful woman in a short tunic, fastened on one shoulder.
"And now," he says, "I will suspend the moon by two ropes, but first I shall introduce my beautiful assistant, Lydia!" I was waiting for that line. It never came.
I saw the Harry Potter movies and I can tell you that it is hard to be a wizard. All the utensils rise in the air, they try to escape out the door, you have to watch for flying ghosts, not to mention cribbage and falling off a broomstick. By the way, what if they are caught in a forest fire? The Broomstick goes boom! Guess they should switch to electric brooms, but then there is the chance of being struck by lightening.

My New Cellphone

Actually it is my first and possibly my only cellphone. I have been saving up for it well even before I finished paying for my computer. Have not turned it on yet except in the store when I bought it. Evenings after six are free.
We already have a land line and am not getting rid of it. However when we go on our cruise and cannot get to a phone, I can use it. When we go to Great Britain sometime in the future (at least a couple of years) I can use it. Just have to find out what sims cost. Anyway it is a Sony Ericsson one of the best. Unfortunately it did not come in fushia or pink, but who's complaining? Black's good and it is a good camera phone as well.

Joined MyLot

Actually I joined about three months ago. It is just that I have been busy working those ptrs. Now I can do what I like: write. It is fun answering questions, asking world shattering questions such as "is the money you get per post based on the length of the words, sentence structure, or relevance of the subject." Now as soon as I get rid of my ptrs, I will post on the other paid to post sites I joined. Oh and my grandchild should come any moment now. Looking forward to that.

The Computer Question

Ah shall I keep the one I have? Can I afford to get a new one? Shall I have enough money to buy a MAC? My dream is that I buy something small at Future Shop or Best Buy.
Suddenly a bell goes off and thousands of balloons fall on my head, and they say I am the 1 billionth customer and for that, I have $30,000 or thereabouts to spend. So I gaze around and I spot this Mac computer, but then the quandry begins. I also want a lap top. So what one do I get? Ah decisions decisions.