*plug* *plug* Writing project, somewhat finished
So people who still see this might remember that about six months ago I posted that I'd finished with my Mass Effect fanfiction.
Well, I just finished a retelling of Dragon Age: Origins. Link! There might always be spoilers in the comments - you might want to read it first, although be warned it's the size of a YA novel. :)
I've got much less reason to actually retell DA than ME. I didn't dislike the ending as much, and there's a lot more to the story than there is to any of the Mass Effect games: I did all three Mass Effect games in roughly thirty chapters of sixish thousand words each, making a hundred and eighty thousand (ish), and Alternative Origins (the misleading title, as I'm not using an alternative origin at all) clocks in at, uh, thirty-five chapters, ten of eight to ten thousand, twenty-four of four thousand and one of two thousand, for about the same number of words in itself.
So, why? Well, mostly I like writing about as much as I like roleplaying. It's like being the GM and all of the players simultaneously. So fanfiction is like using a published setting, and Stations of the Canon fanfiction (which is what I'm currently doing, *kinda*) is for me like using a published adventure. I've got a script there and ready for me, pretty much.
I'm enjoying writing, as I say: I seem to have settled on a heavily immersive style that owes more than I want to admit to Illuminatus! and Joyce and similar, although I've taken to heart Niven's advice that when there's something important to say, substance trumps style. My narrator for AO is supposed to have a strong accent, to the point that it would feel seriously wrong reading the story out loud myself, and while I've made successful forays into third person - and even have what I feel is a genuinely successful bit of second-person in the Mass Effect stuff - I really, really can't avoid the present tense (although you could make the case for AO being intended to be written in the aorist by someone who uses the present in place of the aorist). I've also got a couple of second-person fourth-wall breaks that I really like in AO.
What are my favourite bits of what I wrote? Thinking about it, it's the stuff I changed the most. AO18 and 19, which are mostly a scenery-chewing interlude that doesn't take place in the computer game's plot; Oriana's arc in FME, made up whole cloth because I always felt that Oriana was a wasted opportunity in Mass Effect; Jack's arc through AME and FME, because I loathe Jack's presentation in the computer game and wanted to give her a better story.
And, uh, I'm done with AO, now. Dragon Age 2 will be next, and it will be a challenge: I'm currently thinking I'll need multiple styles. The bloody thing has four *long* timeskips and has deliberately avoided the hero's journey and the three-act formula - on the other hand, it makes me angrier than Mass Effect 3, and Mass Effect 3 gave me some of the writing of which I'm proudest.
I hope there's someone out there who enjoys reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Well, I just finished a retelling of Dragon Age: Origins. Link! There might always be spoilers in the comments - you might want to read it first, although be warned it's the size of a YA novel. :)
I've got much less reason to actually retell DA than ME. I didn't dislike the ending as much, and there's a lot more to the story than there is to any of the Mass Effect games: I did all three Mass Effect games in roughly thirty chapters of sixish thousand words each, making a hundred and eighty thousand (ish), and Alternative Origins (the misleading title, as I'm not using an alternative origin at all) clocks in at, uh, thirty-five chapters, ten of eight to ten thousand, twenty-four of four thousand and one of two thousand, for about the same number of words in itself.
So, why? Well, mostly I like writing about as much as I like roleplaying. It's like being the GM and all of the players simultaneously. So fanfiction is like using a published setting, and Stations of the Canon fanfiction (which is what I'm currently doing, *kinda*) is for me like using a published adventure. I've got a script there and ready for me, pretty much.
I'm enjoying writing, as I say: I seem to have settled on a heavily immersive style that owes more than I want to admit to Illuminatus! and Joyce and similar, although I've taken to heart Niven's advice that when there's something important to say, substance trumps style. My narrator for AO is supposed to have a strong accent, to the point that it would feel seriously wrong reading the story out loud myself, and while I've made successful forays into third person - and even have what I feel is a genuinely successful bit of second-person in the Mass Effect stuff - I really, really can't avoid the present tense (although you could make the case for AO being intended to be written in the aorist by someone who uses the present in place of the aorist). I've also got a couple of second-person fourth-wall breaks that I really like in AO.
What are my favourite bits of what I wrote? Thinking about it, it's the stuff I changed the most. AO18 and 19, which are mostly a scenery-chewing interlude that doesn't take place in the computer game's plot; Oriana's arc in FME, made up whole cloth because I always felt that Oriana was a wasted opportunity in Mass Effect; Jack's arc through AME and FME, because I loathe Jack's presentation in the computer game and wanted to give her a better story.
And, uh, I'm done with AO, now. Dragon Age 2 will be next, and it will be a challenge: I'm currently thinking I'll need multiple styles. The bloody thing has four *long* timeskips and has deliberately avoided the hero's journey and the three-act formula - on the other hand, it makes me angrier than Mass Effect 3, and Mass Effect 3 gave me some of the writing of which I'm proudest.
I hope there's someone out there who enjoys reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.