What to write? Looking for opinions

Emperor Tippy

Merchant of Death
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So I've got a few ideas lingering around but I'm having trouble deciding what to focus on, so I've decided to solicit opinions.

First up, rewrites and continuations of fics that I have already started.
1. Exploring Hell - This is a 40K SI fic with the SI as a really favored Rogue Trader. Book 1 is almost entirely complete but it needs a rewrite and polish. It's on the list because I want to actually complete a fic and it's almost entirely done (at least the first book). Beyond that though I'm lacking in 40K interest at the moment.

2. Gems of Infinite Potential - This is an MCU SI fic. It could also do with a rewrite/polish and it would fit better here on TS than on SB. My MCU interest is pretty low at the moment though.

Now onto new ideas:

1. Harry Potter SI as the younger brother (Marius) of Nymphadora Tonks (reborn October 31st 1976). Instead of RoB/a portal/ death, he just goes to sleep one night next to his heavily pregnant wife and wakes up as the newly born son of Andromeda & Ted Tonks. Marius vows to do whatever is necessary to get back to his wife he will be there when his first son is born; morality and cost be damned. While I have the story outlined, I'm honestly interested in writing this more to explore various ideas about magic and worldbuilding than because I have a story that I am dying to tell. This would also be book 1 of a multiverse exploration fic (as getting back home isn't exactly fast, easy, or without its perils and detours). The idea that I am currently most interested in.

2. Harry Potter SI as Sirius Black II , with slight age adjustments to make him the same year as Dumbledore. Dumbledore and Sirius end up friends/rivals in Hogwarts as while they are in different Houses and from very different backgrounds (Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, half blood son of a muggleborn and a middle class pureblood who was tossed in Azkaban vs. pureblood heir to a House that has been at societies peak for eons and whose father is the current Headmaster of Hogwarts) they are also the only students who can keep up with one another. Albus is a natural prodigy with magic on a scale almost without compare while Sirius is an SI with an adult mind (and maturity) who also enjoys foreknowledge. They both meet Gellert the summer after they graduated from Hogwarts, although canon changes as Ariana doesn't end up dead and the "rule the muggle" plans are substantially altered.

3. Mass Effect SI in LogicalPremise's variant of ME. SI is reborn as an Asari, the heiress of one of the Thirty a bit over 1200 years before ME canon starts (basically a contemporary of Benezia. She realizes quite fast that this is not canon ME and so is (to a great extent) shooting blind when it comes to foreknowledge/OoC knowledge. Still, she expects that the Reapers are going to show up within her lifetime and so preparing for them would be a very good idea. The SI's experience as a human gives her a psyche that is significantly at odds with the Asari norm (which does cause some conflicts but also has its benefits). This fic would likely be fairly time skip heavy

4. Arrow fic. Talia visits Lian Yu instead of Nyssa (searching for Yao Fei) and rescues Sara at the end of the Amazo arc. When Oliver shows up in Russia, he and Sara reconnect. Sara solves some of the stupid in Olivers plans for Starling, and so The Hood appears in Starling a few months before Oliver and Sara are "rescued" from Lian Yu. Lots of interpersonal conflict as Oliver & Sara are a couple and refuse to be seperated from one another (for both emotional and practical reasons).

5. Arrow fic. In Dead to Rights Felicity doesn't get magical, perfect plot timing, hacking powers and doesn't manage to break the encryption on the assassins cellphone in time for Oliver to intercept Deadshots hit on Malcom. Malcolm dies in Tommy's arms but not before Tommy finds out about the secret room and thinks his dad was The Hood (along with finding a lot of evidence for the Undertaking). He goes to Oliver and the two come clean to one another (about Oliver being the Hood and about Malcolm wanting to wipe out a good chunk of the city). The two decide to honor their fathers wishes (if not their methods) and commit to cleaning up the city. Problem is that I'm not sure where to really take this, it would probably work better as a "what if" one shot.


---
So thoughts and suggestions?
 

Emperor Tippy

Merchant of Death
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Didn't you have a ME Krogan SI? No plans to continue that?
Maybe eventually, but at the moment not really. Part of the issue with it is that I have to flesh out and develop the Asari as given the timelines involved they are about the only non Krogan characters of continued relevance until canon/near canon. In addition, some of the ideas and plot lines that I had for that fic would work better in the Asari fic.
 

Emperor Tippy

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@Emperor Tippy

You ever hear of Mage the Ascension or Exalted? Why not make a story for those verses?

MtA gets a resounding meh from me. Honestly the only WoD product that ever really interested me was/is VtM.

As for Exalted, I never really liked the concept much less how it was done so it never got more than an initial read through before being dumped onto the "not interested" list.
 
D

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I support option three, it would be interesting to see what twelve hundred years of attempts to prepare for the Reapers would do.
 

Gaouw

Active member
So, I'm happy that @Emperor Tippy is planning to write again. Yet I'm unhappy that you're not planning to continue several older stories of yours.

Well, If I really have to choose, my first option will be Gems, followed by Tank, and then HP.

Since Gems seems to be out of luck, and Tank isn't likely, HP or Asari story is fine.

Though one thing I notice about you is that you managed to paint a beautiful background and a solid plan of action for your MCs to take advantage of their foreknowledge, but somehow the stories puttered out when canon came close.

Why is that?
 

Emperor Tippy

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So, I'm happy that @Emperor Tippy is planning to write again. Yet I'm unhappy that you're not planning to continue several older stories of yours.

Well, If I really have to choose, my first option will be Gems, followed by Tank, and then HP.

Since Gems seems to be out of luck, and Tank isn't likely, HP or Asari story is fine.

Though one thing I notice about you is that you managed to paint a beautiful background and a solid plan of action for your MCs to take advantage of their foreknowledge, but somehow the stories puttered out when canon came close.

Why is that?

For Gem's? I hadn't seen Black Panther when I started writing it and trying to figure out how to mesh it in with the broader 'verse threw off my rhythm. Given that it was a story whose only real motivation was being annoyed at another fic, I was moderately surprised both how long it did manage to maintain my interest and how popular it was. One of the problems with that story in particular is that the Avengers (much less the broader cast of MCU characters that I was drawing from for that story) are a large ensemble cast.

Characterization is already one of my weaker areas when it comes to writing, and having to portray that whole cast was a bitch (and I, personally, don't think I did all that good of a job at it). Especially when they aren't wholly my characters and I have to try and replicate the feel and voice of the canon characters to at least some extent.

Honestly I could continue it right now. The next arc is a party in NYC where Nat, Raith, Elektra, and Matt are in attendance along with Fisk. The Hand (pretending to be some other terrorist group) attacks, figuring that Fisk is behind their current set of problems. Raith, Nat, and Elektra are all more than capable of ending things but they have no real way to do so without going public about who they are (and the Hand has sent some of their better enforcers to handle this little affair). Black Panther is also in attendance (timeline wise he is currently attending MIT and was in NYC for a UN function).

Raith calls Tony, who portals into NYC in his armor and goes to town. Taking advantage of the distraction, BP and his date (Dora Malage bodyguard) start laying the smackdown on the Hand soldiers inside.

Just not super interested in it at the moment, especially not when that fic really could use a rewrite if I am going to make it a longer term project.

Diaries of a Living Tank was always half assed. I know the broad strokes of the plot but never got around to even outlining the stuff in between those broad strokes. It also faced the problem that it was largely written because, at the time, I was too lazy to write the Asari fic and DoaLT was a spinoff idea of the Asari fic.

Knowledge is Power, which I really do want to get back to some day, simply ran into a need to replay ME2 that I never got around to.

The general problem though is that I rapidly lose interest in writing things that I already know. The reason that most of my fics get written in very large chunks all at once is that I am telling myself the story as I write them, and if I run into any kind of RL issue/cause that prevents me from typing up the story then I am very liable to move ahead in my head. Filling in the space in between, when I can type again, tends to get a 'meh'.

I write almost entirely for myself and don't get any real benefit out of writing. Nor do I care all that much about disappointing people online who I am highly unlikely to ever have to knowingly interact with in a manner that actually impacts my life.
 

Gaouw

Active member
I write almost entirely for myself and don't get any real benefit out of writing. Nor do I care all that much about disappointing people online who I am highly unlikely to ever have to knowingly interact with in a manner that actually impacts my life.
I totally agree with your opinion. I read stuff almost entirely for myself, and the only benefit I got is that I stave off the coming madness born out of boredom momentarily.

I also think that it is unlikely that I will ever interact IRL in a meaningful fashion with people that I interact with at the leisure forums (such as this site or SB and its ilk).

I do feel happy when my favorite story is coming out and feel disappointed when it's no longer written.

Maybe it's just me. Or not.

Hopefully, your muse inspires you to write a longer story before she drops her interest in it this time.

Will you at least move your past story here, please?

PS: Continuing Exploiting Existence is fine too. It's quite similar in vibe with Gems. So, yeah... Just saying, man.
 

Emperor Tippy

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Hopefully, your muse inspires you to write a longer story before she drops her interest in it this time.
Exploring Hell is 120,000 words. Gems is 66,000. Not exactly short ;)

Will you at least move your past story here, please?
Any of my stuff on SB that is updated will be updated here. New stuff might have the first chapter put on SB, but everything beyond that will be on here or QQ (depending on content).

PS: Continuing Exploiting Existence is fine too. It's quite similar in vibe with Gems. So, yeah... Just saying, man.
I'm debating whether I want to alter it slightly (at least going forward) so that it is accepted for the NSFW section here or whether I continue it on QQ. Although honestly, Power & Blood is the smut story that I am most keen on continuing. The next chapter of that will come whenever my lady decides that we are watching the later seasons of True Blood again.
 

Gaouw

Active member
Exploring Hell is 120,000 words. Gems is 66,000. Not exactly short ;)
Well, personally, I compare fic to Xianxia stories, so 100k word is just 1 or 2 chapters past prologue for me 😜

Any of my stuff on SB that is updated will be updated here. New stuff might have the first chapter put on SB, but everything beyond that will be on here or QQ (depending on content).

How about dead or hiatus stories? Or at least putting up a list of your old stories at least?

I'm debating whether I want to alter it slightly (at least going forward) so that it is accepted for the NSFW section here or whether I continue it on QQ. Although honestly, Power & Blood is the smut story that I am most keen on continuing. The next chapter of that will come whenever my lady decides that we are watching the later seasons of True Blood again.
I'm a bit turned off by that fandom due to Cambrian's long fic there. It's not bad, per se, but I just feel that the fandom is not quite so interesting for me. Hopefully you will change my mind. One could hope.
 

Emperor Tippy

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How about dead or hiatus stories? Or at least putting up a list of your old stories at least?
Maybe.

I'm a bit turned off by that fandom due to Cambrian's long fic there. It's not bad, per se, but I just feel that the fandom is not quite so interesting for me. Hopefully you will change my mind. One could hope.
That was Originals/Vampire Diaries, not True Blood. Different settings and different vampires (and different supernatural in general).
 

LifeisTiresome

Well-known member
MtA gets a resounding meh from me. Honestly the only WoD product that ever really interested me was/is VtM.

As for Exalted, I never really liked the concept much less how it was done so it never got more than an initial read through before being dumped onto the "not interested" list.
Oh. I was hoping to read some fics from you set in WoD. How about the New WoD? Don't like it either?
 

Emperor Tippy

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Oh. I was hoping to read some fics from you set in WoD. How about the New WoD? Don't like it either?
Nope. VtM, and the older versions at that, is about the only WW product that I liked well enough to become conversant enough in to write anything for.
 

MetalBird

Flying Through the Clouds
Well, if you are interested in another opinion, I would definitely want to see option 3 (the Mass Effect Asari one) or option 2 (the HP story about Sirius Black II). Both of them are interesting ideas and I would be curious to see what you could do with them.
 

Emperor Tippy

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have you thought about an si in the arrow verse
Several times, although it tends to die pretty much at the same spot regardless of variant chosen.

I never got interested in the Arrowverse beyond the Arrow (and only watched the first five seasons of that, and only liked the first three) so anything I write in said 'verse is going to be an AU ignoring pretty much everything except the first three seasons (and flashbacks) of Arrow.

Then comes the issue of what to do.

Is the SI dumped on Lian Yu or not is the first question. Assuming that he is, then the second question is when in the timeline. My personal preference is before Oliver arrives.

Then the second question, how does the SI survive Lian Yu. The island might have brought out Oliver's potential but he still had the potential to be the Hood/Green Arrow.

Realistically, it means giving the SI a power or powers. My actual inclination is towards Highlander immortality (well a variant of it).

Then comes the question of foreknowledge. Does the SI have knowledge of the Arrowverse or just the general DC metaverse?

My inclination is no simply because it is at least a largely mystery based show and foreknowledge can cause major plot issues. I mean knowing that Merlyn is the baddy early on changes everything.

After that came the plot issues. When does the SI get off the island? I'm actually semi-inclined to have him escape in the sub with Anatoly and then spend the next few years in Russia working with him, then deciding to go with Oliver when he decides to return to life.

The SI goes to Starling to, in many ways, be the dark mirror to Oliver. While Oliver removes the corrupt among the cities elite, the SI is focused on working from the bottom up via taking over the criminal underworld as the head of the Bratva and "civilizing" things.
 

marsolino

Member
Although honestly, Power & Blood is the smut story that I am most keen on continuing. The next chapter of that will come whenever my lady decides that we are watching the later seasons of True Blood again.
That story is one I'd really like to see continued, though I remember you did some years ago a Buffy insert in a vampire that in like, three chapters got the Gem of Amara melted in a cauldron and became sunlight immune, plus had some dealings with Wolfram and Hart. That one was really good and I'd like to see it again.

Between those you outlined in the first post... the SI as Sirius Black II sounds promising, you're a long time before canon starts and I'm all for a 'wizard-muggle' war story.
 

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