The Pub at the Edge of the Multiverse ~ Fanfiction Public Planning Thread

[Hydra of Ages]

'One monkey on a typewriter will, given enough time, produce the complete works of Shakespeare. Given enough monkeys, we'll soon possess a small library of literary masterpieces, and a reasonably sized planetoid comprised of fanfiction.'

 

 

People have often remarked, upon reading one of the many works of literature offered by YCM, "Who writes this crap?", usually followed by "Someone read this and thought it was GOOD?". The simple fact of the matter is that a single writer of YCM's primary demographic is statistically unlikely to produce anything of considerable worth.

 

Applying this to the infamous 'Infinite Monkey' equation, I have deduced the best way to solve this would be to multiply the number of minds reviewing the work and its basic concept, before it even touches a word processor.

 

And thus, the Pub at the Edge of the Multiverse was constructed. A thread from which people may discuss their various annoying muses, plot threads, and concepts in order to be assured that they do not, in fact, suck. Or, if you happen to be creatively bankrupt, you could attempt to cultivate a new crop of ideas before resorting to more drastic measures.

 

In a nutshell, here you may talk about your stories and the ideas attached to them. You can ask for help coming up with ideas, have people explain to you why your concepts are just bad to begin with, and even pick up a few writing tips if people are generous. There are just three rules to keep in mind-

 

1. Stay on topic. Conversations not directly related to a story idea are better placed elsewhere, and it bogs down people trying to use the thread for it's actual purpose. If you're posting often and your messages contain less than five or so sentences, there's a good chance you're going off topic.

 

2. No bloody advertising. I swear I'll stone the first person who posts just to get people to read their fic. In general, you shouldn't even be linking to your fanfics, simply enclose all the necessary information as concise as possible into your posts. No asking for characters in the form of a sign up either, that's just bad taste.

 

3. Jack Witt Clause is still in effect. People are allowed to be critical of your ideas, but personal attacks are out of line. Likewise, no whining. In general, if you have nothing constructive to say, don't post.

 

Above all, use common sense.

 

Well, that seems to be just about it. Have at it then.

[bury the year]

*stamps the Rinne Stamp of Approval on thread and stickies it*

 

To break this thing in, I have a general request. I have characters for a GX fic bouncing around and some hints of a plot, but nothing substantial yet. Ideas?

[Kaisu]

1 - Skip the entrance exams.

2 - Use different dorms.

3 - Forget the Spirit World

4 - Don't use the whole 'Legendary Almighty Gods' thing.

5 - I'm sure you don't use Mary Sues.

[LuffyLaxer]

For a GX Fic, Why not make a Evil Jaden? Something about a Deep Evil that corrupts the pure Hearted. Jaden Turns Evil and tries to destroy the school and everyone in it?

[CrabHelmet]

Go for psychological mind-screw. Have the duels be symbolic of other stuff. Basically, make Revolutionary Girl Utena-Gi-Oh.

[Hydra of Ages]

For a GX Fic' date=' Why not make a Evil Jaden? Something about a Deep Evil that corrupts the pure Hearted. Jaden Turns Evil and tries to destroy the school and everyone in it?

[/quote']

 

Didn't they already do that in the last season of Gx?

 

Go for psychological mind-screw. Have the duels be symbolic of other stuff. Basically' date=' make Revolutionary Girl Utena-Gi-Oh.

[/quote']

 

Didn't they already do that in the season after the last season of Gx, which never made it to english dubs?

 

In any case, my suggestion is to immediately differentiate yourself from every other Gx based fanfic ever posted. There are a variety of ways to go about it, from not setting it in Duel Academy at all, to making the character not a student. Or if the character is a student, making him part of Ra Yellow rather than blue or red.

 

Also, give some logical reasoning why dueling is the modus operandi of the villain. Some context is always nice. The usual one is that the villain's magic can only work if they defeat their opponent in a fair competition; if you go with that, I'd suggest once or twice subverting the people's expectations and have the Big Bad challenge the new dueling prodigy to a chess game or something.

 

In any case, that's all I have for actual writing tips (though I'm not certain why I'm giving you them. Eh). On another note, I'd really like to see a fic include the cards Victory Dragon, Meteo the Matchless, Testament of Arcane Lords, and all the rest of the set. I somehow think they'd be a far more interesting set of 'Gods' than the usually-used ones.

 

In addition, I just had an interesting thought. Perhaps Duel Spirits could be the main villains, or even the henchmen, but the protagonist is actually incapable of seeing them; if it comes down to it, he needs others to duel as proxy for him, or he just doesn't duel them at all.

[evilfusion]

*stamps the Rinne Stamp of Approval on thread and stickies it*

 

To break this thing in' date=' I have a general request. I have characters for a GX fic bouncing around and some hints of a plot, but nothing substantial yet. Ideas?

[/quote']

 

The main problem with some GX fics is they're so trapped in formula that they're almost all rehashes of each other. If the protagonist is a student, they have entrance exams, either dominating easily or winning despite unfair circumstances.

 

Like...what hints of a plot do you have? Using canon characters? Your own alongside canon? Completely original cast?

 

In addition' date=' I just had an interesting thought. Perhaps Duel Spirits could be the main villains, or even the henchmen, but the protagonist is actually incapable of seeing them; if it comes down to it, he needs others to duel as proxy for him, or he just doesn't duel them at all.

[/quote']

 

...thanks a lot. That sounds interesting enough for me to try myself.

[Hydra of Ages]

No problem.

 

Anyway, I'm personally thinking about doing an Ace Attorney fic. I've got two separate ideas, the first being a "what if?" in which Phoenix doesn't lose his badge (though the trial associated with it still happens, though in a different manner). The second idea is simply an extension from the end of Apollo Justice.

 

Either way, they'll have much of the same content, but the context will be different. I'm personally leaning towards the former, because I like how forcing Kristoph to play his cards early would flow naturally into the plot I want.

 

On the other hand, going the Apollo Justice route would be more Original Flavor, plus the main plot plays heavily with Apollo's past.

[bury the year]

Meh. On second thought, I think I'll try a KHR fic. Thanks, anyways~

[CrabHelmet]

Go for psychological mind-screw. Have the duels be symbolic of other stuff. Basically' date=' make Revolutionary Girl Utena-Gi-Oh.

[/quote']

 

Didn't they already do that in the season after the last season of Gx, which never made it to english dubs?

 

They pretended to be trying to do that, but the results were laughable. Half the duels were just normal school duels, often with the moral that you need to be having fun while saving the world or some similar rubbish, and the other half were against Teh Devil, where we found that the characters had really deep psychological issues with really deep symbolic stuff. For example, Manjoume Thunder's loss of a duel against Teh Devil symbolizes his fear that... he might lose a professional duel. No, seriously, that's it. The others have similar fears, like failing at teaching kids to duel or failing at running a dueling tournament. The duels are ultimately just symbolic of duels and are only about duels because nobody has any personality or interests beyond DUELDUELDUEL.

 

Basically, it was the usual stupidity, but the villain's ultimate goal was to merge everyone together or something, so everyone basically just saw that he was running an Instrumentality plot and assumed that that made the whole thing psychological mind screw, since apparently ripping off one plot element of Evangelion is equivalent to having an actual deconstruction.

[Weather Report - Stand]

Can I throw around a few character ideas I'm thinking of for my own fic, to see if they'll take off?

 

If so due to this being the plot of this entire topic, I guess I will. TELL ME WHAT YOU ALL WILL THINK OF MY IDEAZ! Because I don't know if they'll work or not.

 

Tyranno Hassleberry: A serious kid who doesn't smile or laugh much. Still supportive of others, he won't hesitate to scrap for the safety of others. Also hates rap with a passion, and uses the phrase 'HEY!! I HAVE DINO DNA!!" as an all-purpose excuse. He always gets away with it.

 

Aster Phoenix: A superstar duelist who always makes a spectacular entrance. ALWAYS. He isn't incredibly smart. Gets nicknamed 'Action Aster' by Jaden and the gang, which brings back a childhood trauma: When he was a child, his older brother ticked him into playing Action 52. He played through every game. He was never the same again... Also all of his monsters' names will follow the same formula: Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude Guy, Destiny Hero - Devilguy Dude, Destiny Hero - Diehard Guy Dude.

 

Bonaparte: A puppet Crowler uses, as if he were a living character. He has two children and his divorced wife lives in Norway.

 

In addition, I'm purposely going to add in a Mary Sue girl who Jaden falls in love with, becomes literally the most powerful (physically) character in the show, and can summon firearms from mid-air. Her main weakness is her blatant idiocy, actually joining the Society of Light and somewhat causing the third season to even occur. She doesn't live to see the fourth season.

 

So... yeah?

[Hydra of Ages]

Can I throw around a few character ideas I'm thinking of for my own fic' date=' to see if they'll take off?

 

If so due to this being the plot of this entire topic, I guess I will. TELL ME WHAT YOU ALL WILL THINK OF MY IDEAZ! Because I don't know if they'll work or not.

 

Tyranno Hassleberry: A serious kid who doesn't smile or laugh much. Still supportive of others, he won't hesitate to scrap for the safety of others. Also hates rap with a passion, and uses the phrase 'HEY!! I HAVE DINO DNA!!" as an all-purpose excuse. He always gets away with it.

 

Aster Phoenix: A superstar duelist who always makes a spectacular entrance. ALWAYS. He isn't incredibly smart. Gets nicknamed 'Action Aster' by Jaden and the gang, which brings back a childhood trauma: When he was a child, his older brother ticked him into playing Action 52. He played through every game. He was never the same again... Also all of his monsters' names will follow the same formula: Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude Guy, Destiny Hero - Devilguy Dude, Destiny Hero - Diehard Guy Dude.

 

Bonaparte: A puppet Crowler uses, as if he were a living character. He has two children and his divorced wife lives in Norway.

 

In addition, I'm purposely going to add in a Mary Sue girl who Jaden falls in love with, becomes literally the most powerful (physically) character in the show, and can summon firearms from mid-air. Her main weakness is her blatant idiocy, actually joining the Society of Light and somewhat causing the third season to even occur. She doesn't live to see the fourth season.

 

So... yeah?

[/quote']

 

If you do the Mary Sue thing, once she dies, nobody should remember her. Nobody.

 

Well, maybe Syrus, if only so he can be on his own again when he keeps asking about a girl nobody recalls.

 

the 'Action 52' thing with Phoenix seems a touch strained. You could give him a hero complex, bursting in to save the day whenever it would be convenient.

 

Bonaparte could be Napoleon. Just sayin'.

[Weather Report - Stand]

Can I throw around a few character ideas I'm thinking of for my own fic' date=' to see if they'll take off?

 

If so due to this being the plot of this entire topic, I guess I will. TELL ME WHAT YOU ALL WILL THINK OF MY IDEAZ! Because I don't know if they'll work or not.

 

Tyranno Hassleberry: A serious kid who doesn't smile or laugh much. Still supportive of others, he won't hesitate to scrap for the safety of others. Also hates rap with a passion, and uses the phrase 'HEY!! I HAVE DINO DNA!!" as an all-purpose excuse. He always gets away with it.

 

Aster Phoenix: A superstar duelist who always makes a spectacular entrance. ALWAYS. He isn't incredibly smart. Gets nicknamed 'Action Aster' by Jaden and the gang, which brings back a childhood trauma: When he was a child, his older brother ticked him into playing Action 52. He played through every game. He was never the same again... Also all of his monsters' names will follow the same formula: Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude Guy, Destiny Hero - Devilguy Dude, Destiny Hero - Diehard Guy Dude.

 

Bonaparte: A puppet Crowler uses, as if he were a living character. He has two children and his divorced wife lives in Norway.

 

In addition, I'm purposely going to add in a Mary Sue girl who Jaden falls in love with, becomes literally the most powerful (physically) character in the show, and can summon firearms from mid-air. Her main weakness is her blatant idiocy, actually joining the Society of Light and somewhat causing the third season to even occur. She doesn't live to see the fourth season.

 

So... yeah?

[/quote']

 

If you do the Mary Sue thing, once she dies, nobody should remember her. Nobody.

 

Well, maybe Syrus, if only so he can be on his own again when he keeps asking about a girl nobody recalls.

 

the 'Action 52' thing with Phoenix seems a touch strained. You could give him a hero complex, bursting in to save the day whenever it would be convenient.

 

Bonaparte could be Napoleon. Just sayin'.

 

With Ms. Sue (not true name), I think that COULD work, but I'm aiming for a sort of Cerberus Syndrome in a portion of the 3rd season, so seeing where it goes I COULD do that, or I could try something different. In addition, she will be SOMEWHAT psychotic, using her almighty powers in order to slay anything and everything she views as evil!! Too bad her views are stupid. She also has a sick obsession with Mann McOldsmobile, because as she views it, she'll probably kill herself in the near future. As such, it is a necessity to have offspring before this happens. And that means she needs to find somebody she can't destroy easily! And no, she never gets a child.

 

On Phoenix, maybe the hero complex sounds good. I may use that one. But I would like to keep the crappy 'Action Aster' joke in. Whenever somebody mistakenly calls him that, he either gets ragin' mad, or he goes comatose. It works because his 'failure' theme song will be in 8-bit!

 

And Napoleon is hilarious as a hand puppet. That and horrifying. Held by Crowler all the time? Twice as funny, twice as horrifying. The fact that he seems to have a personal life, children (Marcel, remember?) and recognized by most students as a living being? Just plain weird.

[Kaisu]

Give the Sue a catchphrase of 'BOOM! HEADSHOT!" whenever she kills someone. Even though she hit them in the stomach. And give her an infatuation with Syrus instead.

 

Deadly Mary Sue + Morbid Emo Sidekick = ... ;3

[Weather Report - Stand]

Give the Sue a catchphrase of 'BOOM! HEADSHOT!" whenever she kills someone. Even though she hit them in the stomach. And give her an infatuation with Syrus instead.

 

Deadly Mary Sue + Morbid Emo Sidekick = ... ;3

 

Hmm... she'd be good friends with Hassleberry... be lustful for Mann McOldsmobile... and find Syrus to be her cheerful sidekick? Hmm... and I also like the 'BOOM! HEADSHOT!' thing. Even if she decapitates an arm with a chainsaw, you know what she's gonna say.

 

Alternatively, she will randomly shout out her name, randomly generated out of japanese-sounding sounds:"SENKAIYOOOOOOOH!!" (I think it means rotating leaf or something)

[Infinitus]

Thinking of a World of Warcraft fic.

 

I was thinking something along the lines of an antagonist who releases the souls of people from the World of Spirits, which is pretty much what I'm going to call the place where you go when you release after you die, if anyone's played the game. As to why he is using them, I'll figure it out. Probably to summon something or to absorb them.

[Hydra of Ages]

Thinking of a World of Warcraft fic.

 

I was thinking something along the lines of an antagonist who releases the souls of people from the World of Spirits' date=' which is pretty much what I'm going to call the place where you go when you release after you die, if anyone's played the game. As to why he is using them, I'll figure it out. Probably to summon something or to absorb them.

[/quote']

 

That reminds me of a concept I once had when I was thinking of how to make a MMORPG plot that can account for the player's re-spawning. Basically, the idea that I had was that the player characters are somehow 'marked' heroes, who literally cannot die; instead, they reincarnate a short distance away, tired and a little worse for ware but still alive and intact.

 

After that, I started thinking of all the repercussions of a small population of nearly every fantastic race being essentially immortal. It led to some interesting ideas I've been wondering how to incorporate into a novel or fanfic or something.

[Umbra]

Thinking of a World of Warcraft fic.

 

I was thinking something along the lines of an antagonist who releases the souls of people from the World of Spirits' date=' which is pretty much what I'm going to call the place where you go when you release after you die, if anyone's played the game. As to why he is using them, I'll figure it out. Probably to summon something or to absorb them.

[/quote']

 

Well, if there's one thing Warcraft has, it's baddies that can be summoned. The entire Legion - or even Sargeras - could be used, as well as the Old Gods.

[Infinitus]

I was thinking of making something up, but I didn't think of that. I'm sure there's plenty of baddies that have hardly been use lying around in the Warcraft lore.

[Aesirson]

Infinitus, use this guy. Then make him say "Utgarde Pinnacle was merely a setback!" in the Prologue.

 

Anyway, I was thinking about a Science Fiction story. The humans has, not surprisingly, made Earth uninhabitable and they've sent an Ark with a bunch of humans and DNA samples from as many animal species and plants as possible. The Ark is set to orbit around Earth for ten years, but the situation down at the planet is not getting better, and with their resources almost gone the humans set off into the Milky Way to find a new inhabitable planet to live on. During their travel the resources only gets lower and many people dies, but after a year of starvation, pain and space traveling they find a planet that meets all the requirements of life. However, when the ship enters the planet's atmosphere it's motors dies and it crashes into the surface. Due to their weakness from the hunger, many people die, but around one hundred individuals survive. These individuals decide to explore the planet and finds a race of aliens who calls themselves "Aesir"...

 

Does this sound interesting enough?

[Hydra of Ages]

Infinitus' date=' use this guy. Then make him say "Utgarde Pinnacle was merely a setback!" in the Prologue.

 

Anyway, I was thinking about a Science Fiction story. The humans has, not surprisingly, made Earth uninhabitable and they've sent an Ark with a bunch of humans and DNA samples from as many animal species and plants as possible. The Ark is set to orbit around Earth for ten years, but the situation down at the planet is not getting better, and with their resources almost gone the humans set off into the Milky Way to find a new inhabitable planet to live on. During their travel the resources only gets lower and many people dies, but after a year of starvation, pain and space traveling they find a planet that meets all the requirements of life. However, when the ship enters the planet's atmosphere it's motors dies and it crashes into the surface. Due to their weakness from the hunger, many people die, but around one hundred individuals survive. These individuals decide to explore the planet and finds a race of aliens who calls themselves "Aesir"...

 

Does this sound interesting enough?

 

Seems like a rather ordinary 'Human Refugees' Sci-Fi plot, honestly. Needless to say, it's been done. You'll need a gimmick or something to hook readers.

[Aesirson]

Yea the starting plot is kind of genric, it's what happens later that is fun.

 

To not spoil the whole plot, let's just say they doesn't call themselves "Aesir" for no reason.

 

EDIT: I've got much of the plot already thought out. I mainly need suggestions for a name.

[CrabHelmet]

Your plot is about as cliche as SF plots get, and yet it still manages to make no sense - there's no sense sending a ship up for only ten years when the world obviously can't recover in that amount of time, and a mere year of traveling can't take you to any inhabitable planet without FTL, and if we had FTL then we'd have used it to explore other inhabitable planets already.

 

If the only elements of your story that you can post here are incredibly cliche, there's not much we can really say.

[Aesirson]

I don't know what FTL means, but I guess I will have to make the Evacuation-of-Earth part make more sense. Not really much I can do about the clichéness (that I can think of) right now, but I sense that I will have to really polish the start of the story a bit.

[CrabHelmet]

FTL = Faster-Than-Light. You won't find any other inhabitable planets in our solar system, and you won't find any other solar systems less than one light-year away.

 

One piece of advice I have is to skip over the cliche bit; start en route to the new planet or, better yet, already on the new planet. A cliche backstory is much more forgivable than a cliche main plot.