Collection of short stories

Now we're getting somewhere.

If we want to have a website allowing for several sections, rating system, search functions and so on, that's quite something different then a forum, or a simple website. I can tell you that we need someone with experience in creating such an environment - and the best thing to get someone interested, is motivation.

Or we just move the effort into fanfiction.net - which has all the bells and whistles, costs nothing to run, and creates no hassle. The downside is that you share the platform with around 10.000 other fanfics.

Now, if people are undecided and you don't want to push them, create a poll. If you do have a vision of what you want to achieve (and I had the notion from your original post that you have), the get out Paint or Powerpoint, create a mockup of the site, post a list of sections or themens or genres or however you think it would be nice to organize what is there and what comes in.
Look and feel is the biggest motivator for net projects - show the people what the vision is, how it may all turn out, and they'll identify themselves with it.
 
Plywood Fiend said:
An idea which just sprung to mind is, (suitibly long dramatic pause) instead of having just unrelated fics or a long running series in which fans contribute to the same story, why not have both?

The website could contain different sections for different fan serieses with however many writers contributing to those, and others for stand alone stories. I doubt it'd make the thing too cluttered and it'd probably mean we'd be able to get more writers for the site.

There's something that's already did what you propose. It's called the Wing Commander Aces Club. It's only been around since 1995 or so.
 
Now we're getting somewhere.

If we want to have a website allowing for several sections, rating system, search functions and so on, that's quite something different then a forum, or a simple website. I can tell you that we need someone with experience in creating such an environment - and the best thing to get someone interested, is motivation.

Or we just move the effort into fanfiction.net - which has all the bells and whistles, costs nothing to run, and creates no hassle. The downside is that you share the platform with around 10.000 other fanfics.

Now, if people are undecided and you don't want to push them, create a poll. If you do have a vision of what you want to achieve (and I had the notion from your original post that you have), the get out Paint or Powerpoint, create a mockup of the site, post a list of sections or themens or genres or however you think it would be nice to organize what is there and what comes in.
Look and feel is the biggest motivator for net projects - show the people what the vision is, how it may all turn out, and they'll identify themselves with it.

So does anyone want to offer their help in this?
 
I would envision less of a fan fiction repository and more of a single-release set of stories written as an intentional tribute to Wing Commander. Chase the classic concept of a fanzine instead of trying to create a world dominating fan fiction resource overnight; nothing looks sadder than an empty website. People should work on building content to make a site like that necessary instead of vice versa.

It's great that you now have time to criticize peoples fanfic, Psych, but perhaps that time could be better used to fix inaccuracies in your own website, which has - through no fault of your own, mind you - been causing more problems for the community than improper military procedure in a piece of fiction posted to a relatively abandoned portion the message board ever could? I'm all for holding people to a harsh standard in their continuity (and in my professional life, their grammar), but there seems to be somewhat of a double standard here.

I'm happy to accept that you're too busy for Fleet Tactics, you have an important job... but don't tell us that and then keep posting to the same thread to make other people feel bad about their writing.
 
Big Thank You Loaf!!
Nice To Be Appreciated For Their Views/opinions

Score One The Little Guys Over Here :)
 
Now, now, just because Psych has something more important to worry about doesn't mean he's not right (G) Constantly working to better ones fact checking and grammar should be important for anyone interested in writing.
 
True, but then there are others who share their concerns as well and should be heard too.

For a moment I thought that Psych was getting a bit carried away, but then it is only from one point of view and there are a 101 different opinions we have not considered
 
Dahan said:
Big Thank You Loaf!!
Nice To Be Appreciated For Their Views/opinions

Score One The Little Guys Over Here :)

Yes thank you! Spell check will help only to a certain extent though. I like the idea of an editor(s) for our fanfic. Have we decided on a theme yet? I made an important announcement where my story is posted.
 
Yeap I read your annoucement, it really depends if you want to. If it makes it easier go for it
 
Well I have a suggestion which I will do once my series is done.
Complete the series and re-release as a Special Edition or Part Deux or something. It might give readers a chance to see one version and then see a extended edition. I got this idea while reading novel some time ago and the author re-release the same novel and added several extended pages scenes to it. I compared them both and found it quite interesting.
 
Hey guys.

A suggestion if you want a forum to plan/discuss your writing. On the Holding The Line Dot Net message board, we have a section for general Wing Commander fan fiction. You're welcome to use it for your project if you like. I would have to talk to my fellow Mods, but I'm pretty sure we can also set up a private forum for you to discuss plots and so on if you need. Plus we can host your stories in the site's (non-HTL) fiction library when it goes live.

Best, Raptor

http://www.holdingtheline.net/forum/
 
Just a check in on everyone or anyone who has completed a short story for our anthology?
To give everyone an update, Plywood and Fiend and I are in the works of creating a 'special' fan fiction for everyone which everyone would love.
I won't give you away any hints of what it is going to be about, but I will say if you like the Front Line Series then you should enjoy this little fiction we are creating.
 
Can I have a show of hands of those who are interested in the short story project and/or have started on it?
I like hear what people have in mind of writing
 
Still here, Dahan.

Concerning writing, I'm doing a warmup to get used to the atmosphere - so it'll be a somewhat cliche dogfight / hide'n seek story for the beginning, probably set just after the destruction of Kilrah. No big plot, not much creativity, just to get the whole pace and feel right.

I still feel a bit uneasy with the project, but let's see what others say before I start spouting suggestions again.
 
cool. good to hear some things are still going
just wondering if anyone has started on something please let me know I would like to read some of these short stories so I can talk to others on a site where we can post our stuff
 
Heya, Dahan.

I just wanted to post here as a follow-up to your referencing of this thread in some Nephilim post we were going back and forth on last week.

First off, I have to say this strikes me as a fantastic idea if you guys can pull it off! It's awesome to see the fan activity in the Wing Commander Universe with all the games, discussions, and written fan fictions that are slapped up all over these boards. It might help organize things a bit and inspire fans to get involved in some shorter (or longer?) fan fiction projects if there's a larger repository somewhere of peoples' work in this regard.

As for my relation to this offer/proposal, I'd definitely be interested, but I'm not sure the thing I'm working on currently (a trilogy follow-up to Prophecy & Secret Ops) would mesh well with this kind of new, fresh environment. In some ways, I fear it's probably a bit risky writing what I'm writing because the main characters of my stories are/were the main characters from the games (which I realize will likely open a whole can of worms when all is said and done!). It seems like more of what we're talking about in your proposal here is creating a new, separate cast of characters writers themselves come up with for whatever story they plan held in whatever time period they wish; to that end, at MOST, these new, individual-writer-created characters may have some small interaction with a known character from Wing Commander history, but likely done in such a way so as to not rock the boat and run the risk of writing a famous Wing Commander character in a way that readers criticize doesn't do that character justice. And unfortunately the way my trilogy is currently going, such a story that exists as the continuing adventures of a long list of known and loved (or hated) Wing Commander characters may be a bit too controversial for its own good let alone that of your site's, and thus may actually serve as a bit of a detriment to what you might be looking to accomplish right out of the starting gate with true-blue, fresh, original fan fiction.

Assuming I get this beast written (or at least the first third of it), and enough people are actually interested in hearing more, then my next task is to write the two follow-up stories to it to bring it to a final end. After that, I have another fan fiction project I've been promising myself to get to (based on the Starsiege, pre-Tribes, Universe), as well as a brand new original piece of space fiction I've concocted in my head that I'm hoping will find its place as my first actual original work that exists in a unique universe no one's quite seen before. By the time I get to this last, original project, I may be in a position to better serve the interests of this short story site you're putting together by cranking out my own original Wing Commander experience that draws on characters we haven't seen yet engaging in adventures during whatever part of the timeline. I'll need to brainstorm a bit more before I even consider getting started on that (I've already got so much on my mind that it's hard to plan that far ahead), but I'd definitely be willing to work on my own short stories for your site when I make it to that point, especially if the consensus is that my stories don't genuinely suck and will help add some level of popularity to your anthology. :)

As for this trilogy I'm working on...if it receives some level of praise among the fanbase, then I'll talk to you again about adding it to your future site, though I must warn you it grossly violates the established prerequisite of actually being a "short" story! If it's not well received, though, as I said - I don't want my mistakes to inadvertently snowball your chances of success with this awesome idea.

And lastly as for my opinions on the matter (not that they matter because I'm just an average shmoe!)...I have to admit that grammer, spelling, proper military procedure (which I'm sure psych and most others here know infinitely better than me!), and whatever else are probably directly proportional to how professional and impressive you want your fan-fiction database site to look in the eyes of others. If it has poorly written garbage all over the place, it'll likely attract a certain element of writer and reader in the future, whereas if it's a compilation of extraordinary talent, you'll be dealing with a whole other group of fans. So naturally, it'll fall to those putting their blood, sweat, and tears into realizing this utopic anthology to decide exactly what they want to do and how they want to do it. But I'm of the belief myself that it should perhaps try to allow sections for readers and writers of nearly every ilk (within reason, of course), though perhaps more prominently underscore the literary achievements of your most impressive and accomplished writer base. As for breaking it down from there, I don't think you could do it by genre - tragedy, comedy, etc. - simply because a decent writer with a good story will probably draw on elements from all those concepts and include them in their story (all the Wing Commander games - to some extent - did that, right?). I like the idea of having it divied up first by time period, and then from there it's anybody's guess (perhaps by popularity, written perfection, etc.?). At any rate, those are but a few ideas, take them or leave them. :) I'm just tossing it out there to give you something to think about.

...and lastly, I read back over things others have said about this idea, and I'm haunted by LOAF's words running like a broken record through my mind...about not taking the CIC Encyclopedia as gospel truth in the Wing Commander Universe...unfortunately, I'm kind of at a threshold on this first story where all I can respond to that is: "...whoops" :eek:

For better or worse,
Your fellow fan and writer,
FireFalcon ~};^
 
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