The One With LAA~ LAA~ LA LAAAA~!!!
Watch this…
Then watch this, but do keep in mind that the following video is very dirty so children, get your parents to watch it with you!
=)
- Derick
Linear Series
Remember that post about me wanting to do Project M.I.G.H.T. in a non-linear manner so that other readers can enter the series by reading any book that they like first?
Yeah, that idea has gone to hell.
I realised that it’s actually a lot more fun – non to mention easier – to write it in a linear manner so it’s to hell with this non-linear idea. If you want to read this series, you start with book one and you work your way up from there.
Now of course this does not mean that the non-linear idea was a bad idea. I’ll definitely want to experiment with it again and hopefully with success, but it’s just not going to work with Project M.I.G.H.T. without bringing down the quality of the series.
As for Specimen Three: Ixion, the chapter outline is going well and as I’ve mentioned before, this story is going to be a lot more fast-paced than the previous two stories. It’s going to be action after action, with some breaks in between for you to catch your breath, before I smack you across the face with another action-packed chapter. I don’t want to do just the same old “girl falls in love guy, guy falls in love with girl” routine, I want to add a deeper story to it and in Specimen Three, you’re going to learn a lot more about the series’ plot.
Specimen One: Mythias basically set the foundation of the series plot – you learn about Project M.I.G.H.T. and that someone is trying to create the fifth.
Specimen Two: Ixion tells you that the fifth has been created and that the fifth is being used to kill them one by one.
Specimen Three: Geralt is going to reveal A BLOODY LOT more on the surface and if you’re a sharp reader who can interpret and link different informations, you’re going to find one or two MAJOR plot keys that will give you a much better picture of what’s actually going on.
And of course, you’re all going to meet the fourth =)
- Derick
No Bloody Flow
I can’t get a flow going with Specimen Three when I only have the energy to write like once or twice every week. The whole story is a complete mess right now with no structure or flow or direction. Every character just pops up and you won’t feel attached to any of them while reading. Geralt is a freaking robot with no emotions. And the main character is the polar opposite of what I initially planned her to be like.
But the solution isn’t for me to wait until my internship is over (9 more weeks exactly) because when internship is over, I have other matters in the future like National Service and my day job.
The solution – I already have one, haha - is to get a chapter-by-chapter plan out before I begin on the first draft.
It’s basically what I did for Her Hero and His Love but what I didn’t like about that was that the story felt constrained. And more importantly, I find it a lot more fun to just have guidelines or checkpoints for different parts of the story, and allow the story to just grow and manifest itself from the start when I begin to write.
They’re two different styles of writing that authors have been debating over which one is better. And while I prefer to let a story grow on its own, I think it’s clear that that way of writing isn’t going to work out for me at this point of time when I’m in my internship.
Chapter-by-Chapter Plan, that’s what I’ll be working on now =)
- Derick
The One With Being Emo
These days in what little time I have after work, I’ve been blog-hopping all over the internet trying to find inspirations for new characters. The female lead in Specimen Three: Geralt was inspired by a blogger – not a famous one - and so were two other supporting characters. It’s a really fun way to get inspired and to find out how a person’s character is like through their writing is really quite an intriguing process.
Today’s search led me to two very interesting people.
First, we have a guy who practically has the ‘F’ word in every single bloody posts since the first. It’s like a compulsive disorder that he suffers from which causes him to HAVE to swear in every single one of his post. But when I look at the guy’s pictures, he doesn’t look that much of a vulgar person – even though he obviously is – and he actually came off to look like quite a nice guy.
Then we have the emo guy.
Emo guy is a friend of ‘F’ guy by the way and they both enjoy swearing – and being emo – though ‘F’ guy is much, much more passionate about it.
Emo guy is almost never happy and when he is, he’ll only be as such in the first half of his post before the second half takes a nose-dive. And I notice that ‘F’ guy as well as a lot of bloggers are like that as well. They like to post emo song lyrics - which completely waste my time considering that I’m actually doing research - and talk about the great topic of LIFE like they’re some eighty year old philosopher.
It’s all really quite entertaining, haha, because it really makes you wonder whether they’re really that sad in life. And at times I’m rather impressed as well because some of the things they say are really thought provoking… until I find out that they’re either actually lyrics from a song written by a professional, or quotes from an actual philosopher -.-
In other words they didn’t come up with those thought provoking questions or sentences.
Unfortunately, neither ‘F’ guy nor emo guy made it into Specimen Three because they’re friends of my friend so if I were to feature them in my story, their characters would be ridiculed beyond ridiculation – which isn’t a real word mind you.
So far only female bloggers have inspired me. They’re a lot more versatile with their writing and they like to take and post lots of pictures - helps with the description - and they have so much more interesting lives. Guys are almost always blogging about how the world and everyone’s mother hate them. The ones who do blog about interesting stuff don’t make it into my blog because they themselves aren’t interesting -_-”
I can’t exactly blame them for not being interesting enough though, considering that I was comparing them with Mythias, Ixion and Geralt. But at least they do inspire - to an extent - different characteristics which I use to create a whole new character. And that’s really good enough actually.
Alright, just one last statement before I end this post.
I tried some new things the past few days, sadly, however, all – bloody hell, really all - of them failed quite horribly *facepalm*
And that’s all.
- Derick
The One With Gee and Sorry, Sorry… Military-Style
If this was Singapore, National Service would be something that I’d look forward to.
Gee & Sorry Sorry by Korean Military
- Derick
Descriptions!
I noticed that Specimen Two: Ixion was still lacking in the descriptions department – a problem which Specimen One: Mythias suffered from. So this time, I’m going to add in a ton of descriptions for Specimen Three: Geralt. Odds are I’ll probably go over and the whole story will be too descriptive, but I think it’s the best way to force myself to describe more now before I slowly tone it down in Specimen Four: ???.
Progress is slow because I just begun my internship two weeks ago. It lasts for three whole months and I’m still adjusting so right now I’m really too tired to write much once I get home after work.
My aim is to finish Specimen Three and Specimen Four before the middle of next year which is when I will be required to enter National Service (army). I have no idea how that will be like but I’ll probably only have like the weekends to write once it begins. And it’ll continue that way for a few months.
The good thing is that during that period I’ll be able to do a lot of reading so that will definitely help make the final story a much more well-written work =)
- Derick
The One With That Wedding Dance
Now here’s a wedding that I’d gladly attend NOT just for the free food =)
- Derick
The One With Time
Time was the title I used for Specimen Two: Ixion when I posted it up on Soshified’s fanfic section, with the reason being that I was introducing the members there to the series for the first time, so a title like “Specimen Two: Ixion” was going to confuse them a little.
Now, so far I haven’t gotten a single feedback for Specimen Two – got 2 votes though – but I’m not too dismayed by that because the response over at Soshified was quite overwhelming.
(Click for larger version)
Now that is by no means a record-breaking feat or proof that my fanfic was the best there. Most new fanfics do not reach such a high post count and view count, while other veteran and better fanfics will reach my number of view count quite easily but it won’t be as easy for them to reach my post count so quickly.
Basically what it means is that my fanfic was at best, I think, considered as ‘above average’ over there, but I am still amazed and extremely happy. Why?
Here’s why.
For most fanfictions, there is this thing called a PM List which is basically a list of people who wants you to PM (Private Message) them when you have a new chapter posted up. In other words they want to follow your story.
28 people.
Meh, if you’re Stephanie Meyer, J.K Rowling or Stephen King then yeah, 28 people is insignificant. But I’m freaking Derick W J Tan, the silly little writer from Singapore who barely anyone knows exists, and knowing that I have 28 eager readers who wants to follow my story is a HUGE accomplishment for me. And the thing about fanfictions is that there are a lot of what we call ’silent readers’, people who basically follow your fanfiction without commenting. So the actual amount could be a lot more than just 28.
The best way for you to understand the kind of comments that I’m getting there is for you to get an account at Soshified and read them yourself. But here are a few examples:
(I’m quoting and not taking screenshots because the forum’s layout makes it difficult to post the full image here directly)
“I’m glad I took the time to read your fic, it’s really interesting and the writing is fantastic!~” - cph
“this line is hilarious. rofl omg. Fany! hahahahaha i can’t stop laughing. i seriously love your story! omg i love it! you have no idea how much i love ur story. it’s just fabulous! excellent! perfect! lmao omg. Fany is too cute in here. way too cute. i think..i’m getting high on cuteness or something. lmao wow i totally love this chapter. little Fany is just jjang! how can you not love this girl? hahah” - mlight
“I ended up reading all the chapters in one go and can’t help but comment on your overall writing style. I’m no English Pro/Major, but even I can tell that you have a very good grasp on the English techniques/syntax. Combined with a higher vocabulary, a very imaginative plot and humor, you get a very detailed story that flows nicely and keeps the readers intrigued and entertained. I also absolutely love reading your fictions because you take the time to edit. It’s nice to give my eyes, and my mind, a rest because I tended to go OCD over little bits of grammar.” - aZnNeRd
“Holy moley! taht chapter well those two chapters were amazing! so dramatic
I really like ixy and tiffany they are really cute together even though he is made up lol” - linalee7
“what can i say other than GREAT? thsi fan fic is so original and i love the plot + storyline. i can’t wait to read what happens next in the story and why sooyoung doesn’t remember anything after she was adopted.” - whosfanareyou
“I love the way you write! It’s very unpredictable and has plently of twists and turns. The plotline is awesome and your portrayal of SNSD is very realistic.” - CDY
There are like so many more comments – those up there are only from the first eight pages. You have to get an account and go through them yourself to really see what kind of reactions I’m getting.
Alright, so we got the post counts, we got the view counts, we got the people who wants follow my story and we got some of the content of the comments.
But some of you still think that they don’t really prove much. The members there could only be reading because I had these SNSD girls inside my story, and that they’re not even interested in the plot or the series at all.
We need statistic.
OK.
(Click for larger version)
Fine, so most of them enjoyed the story - some didn’t, which is normal - and a number of them is willing to pay for the story while others don’t because they don’t shop online.
It still doesn’t prove that they enjoy the SERIES.
OK.
An RD PM List (Release Date PM List) is basically a list of members who would like to be notified of the release dates for the sequels in Project M.I.G.H.T. when I get them.
In other words they want to follow the series.
To you, the number of people in that list may not be many but to me, I find it A LOT. I’m still quite a new writer and I’m not all that great so the thought of having like more than ten people who wants to see the end to this series really gives me the motivation to take it through all the way.
Specimen Three: Geralt is currently underway and right now I can promise you that there will be a hell lot more action in this story than the previous two put together. I want to see Singapore BURN and EXPLODE and buildings falling like the esplanade crumbling to dust to reveal a freaking giant durian, and giant flaming asteroids crashing into the merlion with a lot more action scenes that what’s normally depicted by our local TV serials. And the series plot will move forward drastically because of the role Geralt plays with his occupation.
Put it this way, there will be so much action in the story that mediacorp (our local TV station) will never adapt it into a TV show or movie because of the insane budget it’ll have to come with =X
That’s right, Hollywood, I’m looking at you right now =)
- Derick
