Dear Mr. Cannonshop. A letter from your fav fanfic character.

[monbvol]

Being more serious I actually do know why I'm not terribly popular.

1. I am not very prolific.  Seriously just putting stuff out there is a major part of it.

2. I do not like self promoting.  I really don't.  I'm the type that believes if my shit is good other people will talk about it for me.

3. Being completely honest with myself I'm not that great at it.  Not terrible either.  Just a very solid okay at best.  Certainly the odd gem or bits that have a certain charm or just work but I doubt I could ever write for a living.

[ckosacranoid]

I still have to point out that cannonshop still has not told miss not just what she has done for you to put up ageist the wall every 6 months and shoot her per say?

As for herb, I know that every thing had to be written for the storyline line and like I said, have to poke at some of you guys with something funny then trying to be an ******.

Besides,  cannonshop did ask in the ideas thread to redo one of his stories. So if any one would like to hire the young lady she would love you for it for something new and different to do.

[monbvol]

I know I couldn't do it justice just yet.

I need to get better at large ensemble cast stories before I could even think about it.  Even then I'd want to use my own characters and put my own spin on slowly but surely a small cog becomes a big cog, and one that rights the machine.

[Cannonshop]

I know I couldn't do it justice just yet.

I need to get better at large ensemble cast stories before I could even think about it.  Even then I'd want to use my own characters and put my own spin on slowly but surely a small cog becomes a big cog, and one that rights the machine.

the only way to really get good at 'large ensemble' writing, is to experiment, Monbvol.  One of the reasons I do it, is I'll hit a 'stall point' with a given character, so I switch position or perspective while part of my brain is still trying to work through, and hit the 'what's going on with x,y, or z characters?' button.

usually frees up the jam a bit and advances the over-all story.  (best examples would be the battles on Tharkad in "The Horde Returns" and then, the feddie front's action in that same story, interleavened with Liz doing politics).

basically following Stephen King's rule as he outlines in his nonfiction work "Danse Macabre", which breaks down to 'write SOMETHING every day'  (his rule was to start off with a modest goal of three words, this usually turns into a sentence, then a paragraph...)

Now, most of the really GOOD fanfic writers (which doesn't include me on that venn diagram, as I write some pretty out-there shit) do it the smart way and do their work on Word, OpenOffice, Google Docs (which is great if you're working with a collaborator as it includes a chatroom function so you can communicate realtime), or some other word-processing system that lets you do your spellchecks and editing before subjecting other people (in the audience) to your scribbles.

I post 'cold' which means that an observant type, can catch my thought process as it happens.  (Which, I guess, is a little like performing live-you get immediate feedback if people care enough, but Everyone sees it when you screw up.)

My better stories don't follow this most of the time, but then, I've found I actually have tended to do better work when collaborating with someone else. 

I attribute this mostly to the imposed discipline needed for cooperating with someone who has (most of the time) a real life that isn't 'go to work, come home, kill time, sleep, go to work'.

even there, I make an effort to follow King's Rule and always get at MINIMUM a sentence or two done per day no matter how blocked I'm feeling.

[Dreadpool]

I am really sorry Cannonshop for writing this but this idea would not for the life of me go away. With how much you put out fics I thought I would share an idea of breaking the fourth wall to give someone a chance to vent at you. I do hope you take it in the fun that I am intending this with.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Mr. Cannonshop,
  MY name is Miss Ngo. You should know me very well with how much you seem to really hate me for some reason. I am not sure what I have done to make it so that you seem to hate me so much and go out of your way to wreak my life in so many ways.
  Did I sleep with your wife? Hurt your kids? Kill your dog? Wreak your truck? Burn your house down? Turn you down at the bar for going home with you? Just what is it that drives you to wreak my life?
 You always seem to send me to drug rehab in every story just about. Then you kill my father, after that, you kill my eldest brother and make the other one almost every time become a damn Jade Turkey. Then it's causing my mother to shoot me in the shower every damn time. Then we get into putting in taking enough drugs to cause a Whale to OD on them because you give that damn disease that I will die screaming in pain before I am 40 years old.
After that, I always end up having to shoot the damn idiot you put in charge of running my planet and clean up the mess somehow. Now and then I get help from my elder brother's girlfriend. Most of the time I do not get any help. I then spend a few years getting the Coast Guard cleaned up and working right with some damn good firepower. I will give you that those Cutters you keep giving them are nice to have.
Sometimes I get to have kids somehow, some of them die before they are born, some I get to raise somewhat and other times you turn me into my parents for raising them and they raise themselves.
Do you know the thing that makes me mad the most? Half the time I do not even get to have a damn sex life and die a virgin you jerk. When I do I end up married to a bloody Clanner of all things. I have gotten to sleep with Jamie Wolf once there is something different at least. Then you killed me a few months later.
  When you do give a cure I am up dying somehow to someone killing me or killing myself because something happens. Can I not have a storyline that gives me something fun to look forward to and not be your dark side play toy for once

If you can not come up with something else I am going on strike and getting one of the forum writers to give me a story.
I would also Signel to write me as a mech warrior for something fun for once and see if could use that Clint he loves called Rose at all?

 I could ask Drac for something different?

I would ask Gio...but by the time he gets around to finishing his current Transformers story and starting anything else my great-grandkids would be dead. Then again he is the only person keeping the Cali Neb setup going with contact it seems.

I have not seen Armirs anywhere in a while to have written anything.

 I know Hotspot has not done anything in years...sigh.

I would not even ask Herb or his cats to write anything.....we would all get nuked and glow in the dark...sigh.

I would try that Dreamland writer but he all ready stated I could not ask Kat or Kali out on a date dang it.

I know there are many others that could do something and I am willing to work for anyone else at this point to get a good story that does not get me killed or a drug user could I please have a sex life is it too much to ask about? Any chance to get someone to get a date with the Black Widow herself by any chance? I mean she is pretty damn hot for an older lady still.

So in closing is there any chance for something fun instead of the normal stuff we keep reusing? I know there was something in a short thought that you gave me the magic of some type I can not recall just what happened after that. Do not make me take my world and go to the Cali Neb and have our hideout with the transformers or even the empire or even give the magic users a try.

Not with any love at all.
Miss Ngo.

Should Cannonshop disregard this letter, the next step would be for his characters to waylay him in a secluded alley one dark and stormy night, then to interview him (without the benefit of tea & biscuits) about the way they've been written....

[monbvol]

the only way to really get good at 'large ensemble' writing, is to experiment, Monbvol.  One of the reasons I do it, is I'll hit a 'stall point' with a given character, so I switch position or perspective while part of my brain is still trying to work through, and hit the 'what's going on with x,y, or z characters?' button.

usually frees up the jam a bit and advances the over-all story.  (best examples would be the battles on Tharkad in "The Horde Returns" and then, the feddie front's action in that same story, interleavened with Liz doing politics).

basically following Stephen King's rule as he outlines in his nonfiction work "Danse Macabre", which breaks down to 'write SOMETHING every day'  (his rule was to start off with a modest goal of three words, this usually turns into a sentence, then a paragraph...)

Now, most of the really GOOD fanfic writers (which doesn't include me on that venn diagram, as I write some pretty out-there shit) do it the smart way and do their work on Word, OpenOffice, Google Docs (which is great if you're working with a collaborator as it includes a chatroom function so you can communicate realtime), or some other word-processing system that lets you do your spellchecks and editing before subjecting other people (in the audience) to your scribbles.

I post 'cold' which means that an observant type, can catch my thought process as it happens.  (Which, I guess, is a little like performing live-you get immediate feedback if people care enough, but Everyone sees it when you screw up.)

My better stories don't follow this most of the time, but then, I've found I actually have tended to do better work when collaborating with someone else. 

I attribute this mostly to the imposed discipline needed for cooperating with someone who has (most of the time) a real life that isn't 'go to work, come home, kill time, sleep, go to work'.

even there, I make an effort to follow King's Rule and always get at MINIMUM a sentence or two done per day no matter how blocked I'm feeling.

I'll point out I did say just yet.  Random Events is very much me trying to force myself into dealing with a lot of my typical weaknesses.  Which includes seeing if I can maintain focus on a larger cast of characters than I usually do without some starting off okay but quickly falling off into the background.

I'm very similar in my writing style in that I'll at most have a general plan of themes I want to execute but the specifics are usually made up on the spot and I don't use word processing.

As far as writing something every day, well maybe once I am not loosing 2.5-3 hours a day just getting to/from work and don't have the stress of the uncertainty of not knowing where I will live in the near future hanging over my head I'll get better about that.

[mikecj]

I would be terrified if a Ngo story ended "and they all lived happily ever after!"

[Cannonshop]

I would be terrified if a Ngo story ended "and they all lived happily ever after!"

I've actually done one already.

[Dave Talley]

I like Liz because she is a flawed Mary Sue
 She is sort of Miles Vorkosigan without the promised bbetter body at the end,
assuming she actually survives  at all,
She also useful for showing exactly what will happen without a firmly controlled
nobility or military , she is also funny and useful for deflating noble egos on a
 steady basid

[mikecj]

I've actually done one already.

   How on Earth did I miss that?  Which one please?

[Wrangler]

I believe it was Modular Self-Reconfiguring Robot.

[Deathrider6]

  "My better stories don't follow this most of the time, but then, I've found I actually have tended to do better work when collaborating with someone else. " -Cannonshop.

   The aforementioned quote is true as long as both parties can keep things on the rails. I have done many collaborations with Cannonshop in the past, but it takes work. We burnt up a lot of phone time doing it too. That being said I look forward to doing so again once we make the time and things on both ends settle down.

[Daryk]

I eagerly await that time!