Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[Cresselia92]

Speaking of covers, I'm personally working on a banner for my story. Here's a very rough draft:

Spoiler

Hopefully I'll be able to get it finished for when I finish the second part of chapter two. :3

 

[Misfit Angel]

I've got a crappy cover i made for my story that i'm really considering redoing. I almost want to make a unique cover for each arc now that i think about it.

 

[Ryoma Maser]

The cover or the bound version of it or both? O:

Both.

 

[diamondpearl876]

Both.

Yes!!! I have to replace my copy because my bird chewed some of it lmao, and new readers have kindly pointed out typos for me to fix in there, but it’s pretty motivating to have your own completed stuff on the bookshelves! inb4 a visitor pulls it out and my fanfiction secret is revealed

 

[Misfit Angel]

inb4 a visitor pulls it out and my fanfiction secret is revealed

Thanks, now I know what I'm doing if I ever visit

 

[UselessBytes]

@diamondpearl876 Do you get your fics professionally bound or do you do it yourself? I've wanted to get some of my own stuff bound for a while.

 

[diamondpearl876]

@diamondpearl876 Do you get your fics professionally bound or do you do it yourself? I've wanted to get some of my own stuff bound for a while.

I used a self-publishing site called TheBookPatch. Very easy to use. And of course I couldn't sell any copies because it was fanfiction, but they didn't give me issues on buying one for myself.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

@diamondpearl876 thanks for the pointer, I'd be thrilled to have my fic in that form one day.

I'm doing alright — it's been a tough week of working hard (and extra hours) but on Thursday, my partner passed her digital marketing exam! Celebreated with a nice meal out. And now today, we're hanging out with a friend and then I'm going with him to an MtG event. Should be fun!

Feeling stronger every day. Soon I'll be pumping that wordcount up!

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Here's something I realised a long time ago, which came back to me when I was watching a review of Gold and Silver: the whole idea of Pokémon is that humans and Pokémon live together, helping each other. The Newverse goes against this idea by going on and on about how humans saw Pokémon as inferior, and it ends up turning into a shallow-edgy "Pokémon good, other sentient beings flawed" soapbox. I don't demand that fanfics be exactly like canon, it's just that I've come to understand why that's my pet peeve.

I've wanted to write a fanfic that challenges that idea for a while, but I don't want people to get mad at me for ragging on the Newverse.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Sorry for double-posting, but for a while I've felt that the description of A New Place, A New Attitude is inadequate. I just edited it, but I still think it feels too vague. The core idea behind it is this:

The theme of the Newverse, I've noticed, is valuing the bonds you've formed above anything material, and making the most of what was forced upon you by forming new bonds.

...But the way I described it in the description doesn't match any story in the anthology, and sounds too overdramatic.

The first few days were chaotic, and compromises had to be made... but in the aftermath of that chaos, new bonds were forged.

The general idea is that this anthology is snapshots of how the arrival of Pokémon on Equus affected EVERYONE. Most Newverse fanfics are about adult trainers finding their teams, with the My Little Pony elements as the means to an end, so I wanted to do something different.

 

[canisaries]

@Nitro Indigo Okay so hold on, I'm confused. What exactly is this Newverse thing? Googling isn't helping at all. Right now it sounds like it both is and isn't your own work.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

@canisaries The Newverse is the setting that it takes place in. On Fimficiton, it's accepted that people will sometimes write spinoffs to stories they like by other authors. If they get popular enough, a universe is formed.

 

[canisaries]

Okay, but that doesn't really tell me what kind of setting it is. Was it originally a MLP/Pokemon crossover or did you add one of those elements?

 

[Nitro Indigo]

It was originally a crossover.

 

[canisaries]

Okay, now that I understand the situation, I'll say that you probably want to highlight what makes your fic stand out from the rest. Like you said, you were doing (and wanted to do) something a little different, so if you've already thought it's a good enough premise to make a fic about, you should go all in with that premise. Vagueness is a bad thing to have if there are lots of fics to compete against, as you'll need to catch a potential reader's attention or lose it to another.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

The problem is, this story is an anthology, so it's not just about "one" thing. How about something like...

These are some tales of how everyone had to learn to make the most of what was forced upon them; amidst misunderstandings and chaos, new bonds are formed.

...As well as snapshots of a few of the stories?

I think the short description (that appears on listings and such) is even more inadequate:

A collection of stories about how the arrival of Pokémon on Equus changed everyone's lives forever.

Yeah, self... that's basically every Newverse fanfic. Since the theme is "forming new bonds", I think I should zero-in on that.

An anthology story on Fimfiction with a good description is Bedtime Stories.

(I worry that I sound too demanding when I'm asking for advice for my fanfics.)

EDIT: I've edited the long and short descriptions; you can view the short description at the top of a chapter on desktop. A common theme in my Newverse fanfics is children being separated from their parents.

EDIT2: I also got an idea for a cover a while ago: a spider web, because everyone is connected, and also because Bug-types are common in setting descriptions.

 

[UselessBytes]

Woo! Fancy new forums design

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I've started using the Year of the Dog skin, and it's way too boxy compared to the Bluebook skin I'm used to.

 

[Misfit Angel]

Woo! Fancy new forums design

It's gonna take some getting used to, but I like it.

Unfortunately, it looks like we lost the threadmarks feature. Dunno the status of it, but if you utilized it heavily as a means of linking your chapters without a table of contents, sit tight for a bit! I'll poke around and see what options we have. Silly me needs to learn to read.

 

[Juliko]

For some reason, my avatar on my posts and threads is all big and pixelated. I wonder if I can ask the mods to revert it back to normal, since my avatar is small?