Behold my half-assed attempt at a fan fic.

[Darksi4190]

So I got a couple people interested in beta reading, so i'm going to post stuff here to get some constructive criticism. I don't have much worked out yet, other than a basic plot outline, some character names, and a brief portion of the introductory chapter. Its a SW/Macross X-over, so anyone with knowledge of those franchises would be most useful as a beta reader.

Anyone who's actually interested in reading the finished product should avoid this thread since there will be spoilers up the wazoo.

Come to think of it, I can't really come up with a title. All of the good crossover titles like "Galaxies at war," or "across the stars," or whatever have already been taken. hmm. "Songs of War?" no. "The Stars at War?" Pretty sure i've seen it before. Gah. for now it's just "Untitled SW/Macross X-over."

[Oxymoron]

"The unnamed porno crossover fanfic" ?

[Darksi4190]

Maybe if I weren't playing it seriously yes, but this isn't supposed to be a joke. I was leaning towards "Song/s of War," but I don't intend to really play up the musical aspect of the Macross universe. There won't be any idol singers or a love triangle. It's going to be a straight up tale of transforming jet fighters facing an invasion from another galaxy.

[Oxymoron]

"Symphonies of War" would have been a bitchin' title, tho'

[Darksi4190]

"Symphonies of War" would have been a bitchin' title, tho'

That actually does work. Gonna steal it if you don't mind. (I'll give you credit though.)

[Darksi4190]

Something i'd like to get an idea of, what's a "good" length for a fanfic chapter? Something that has enough content to avoid seeming empty, but not so much that it seems like i'm padding it excessively? I've been analyzing the word counts for chapters of fanfics that I like, and it seems like the first chapter that i'm working on isn't going to be nearly long enough.

[Galvanized]

It's probably not a good idea to get bogged down with how long it "should be" and just write out what you want to convey. If you can tell a good story in 1000 words or less go for it. If you need hundreds of pages that's fine too. Just so long as you don't just pad it out with pointless filler to take up more space. This isn't like school where a paper needs to be at least two pages, double spaced or you lose a letter grade.

[timmy]

Who are you?

[Infinity Biscuit]

He's a friend of mine. He's lurked here a while before finally deciding to post here

[Galvanized]

I found out about this place way back when, uh, I forget exactly when, but it had something to do with mk sheppard being stupid. So I signed up here after learning there was a place filled with people who didn't like what was going on over on that other site. Then a week later you all decided to stop talking about TEO because it was to not fun. Without the prospect of bitching about lame people I didn't feel like I had anything to contribute so I just kinda stopped lurking.

And that's the story of where I came from and why I'm here

[timmy]

Welcome aboard!

[Oxymoron]

Welcome aboard, Galvanized. A preference for a way to shorten your handle ? Gal' ?

Anyway Darksi, to answer your question about chapter length, Galvanized answer is appropriate. It'd be better to focus on the story you want to tell, rather than to risk padding or removing things in your chapters.

For example, I'm currently following a fanfiction which has, in standard, 40k words long chapters. And there's almost sixty of them thus far.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, There's another fanfic which has "chapters" of around 500 words, but with one or several being released everyday (and it also is a stylistic choice).

Really, it should be more about finding your own "rhythm" you're comfortable with. If you write 20k words long chapters, but it takes you two month to write them and tires you and they end up being full of errors and stuff... That means it's not something that works for you.

[Stofsk]

Welcome aboard, Galvanized. A preference for a way to shorten your handle ? Gal' ?

Dude. Nicknames 101. Nobody gets a say in what other people call them

[evilsoup]

take it from someone who knows: letting it get too long will lead you to lose interest and then you'll have a file on your computer constantly looking at you with those accusing eyes, the eyes! Damn the eyes!

not really about chapter length, but if you keep the overall thing fairly short then you'll have a better chance of actually finishing it, rather than a third-completed novel

[RogueIce]

I found out about this place way back when, uh, I forget exactly when, but it had something to do with mk sheppard being stupid. So I signed up here after learning there was a place filled with people who didn't like what was going on over on that other site. Then a week later you all decided to stop talking about TEO because it was to not fun. Without the prospect of bitching about lame people I didn't feel like I had anything to contribute so I just kinda stopped lurking.

So the moral of the story is that we should go back to complaining about TEO because otherwise it drives people away.

Ha ha take that Phant and others who complained about the TEO complaining.

[evilsoup]

I actually miss the whining a bit (just like I sometimes miss the 'haha look at these tbo lunatics' threads)
so you go ahead, chief

[Oxymoron]

Together, united into

making fun of stupid people

[RogueIce]

intellectual crucible lol

[Oxymoron]

I feel we may be getting off-topic, here.

[RogueIce]

Only slightly.

Anyway DS, to echo what's been said, write for as long as you think it needs to be to fit your story. I have seen short (like 2 to 3 pages) and long (10 or more pages) chapters, in the same book. I don't think there's any kind of rule here.

[timmy]

Here, we'll get you started

It was a dark and stormy night. On Coruscant.

[Darksi4190]

Here, we'll get you started

It was a dark and stormy night. On Coruscant.

Coruscant will not be involved. Most of the action takes place in the Macross galaxy.

[Veef]

There better be Space Kangaroos!

[Darksi4190]

If I put in Space Kangaroos, perhaps you won't "keeel" me?

[Veef]

Nope!