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Random updates, coronavirus edition
Apr. 10th, 2020 02:44 pmWelp, I haven't posted in a while. The COVID-19 situation pretty neatly upended my life, as I'm sure it's done to most people. I've been working from home, which is something I actually dislike (and which usually doesn't result in more free time), and the ongoing stress and uncertainty about how long the pandemic will last has meant that I haven't been able to be very productive, writing-wise.
I'm still aiming to enter RevPit with Novel #3, so I'm trying to finalize some last edits this weekend. I hope I can do a full read-through before the submission window opens, but to be honest I've been having problems with my eyes ever since I started working from home, so I don't want to count on that.
In other news, I've been obsessively watching The Untamed. For anyone who's unfamiliar with the show, I would describe it as "Chinese Game of Thrones, except with more humor and a central gay romance." Words can't express how much I love this C-drama (which is only the second C-drama I've ever seen in my life, by the way). It's put me in the mood to watch more C-dramas and read more #ownvoices Chinese fantasy novels.
Between my love for The Untamed and reading—or more accurately, attempting to read—Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie (a space sci-fi novel that has been openly advertised as an original fic version of Finn/Poe fanfic from Star Wars), I've started thinking about how to go from fanfic/paying homage to a fandom you love to original fic. I mean, it's not a new idea; as much as I loathe even mentioning Fifty Shades of Grey, that was one of the first high-profile conversions of fanfic to original fic.
The difference between Bonds of Brass and Fifty Shades of Grey, though, is that FSoG acknowledges its fanfic roots, yet is considerably different enough that you don't really think about Twilight when you read it. The main characters aren't terribly reminiscent of Bella and Edward. (Note: This is all based on what I've heard, since I've never read FSoG myself.) BoB, however, has the audacity to portray its main characters on its cover as looking eerily similar to John Boyega and Oscar Isaac (which had to have been deliberate because, uh, just to state the obvious, not every black person has to look like John Boyega, and not every Latino person has to look like Oscar Isaac). The author herself has heavily marketed BoB as basically a Finn/Poe fanfic.
This resulted in a problem for me when I read it, because I was constantly thinking about not only the characters in the book, but how they compared to Finn and Poe from Star Wars.
Taking inspiration from other stories is fine; I mean, nothing is original, and people do it all the time. But I would be hesitant to straight-up advertise a book as basically a "fix-it fic" for another series, just with the serial numbers filed off.
I'm still aiming to enter RevPit with Novel #3, so I'm trying to finalize some last edits this weekend. I hope I can do a full read-through before the submission window opens, but to be honest I've been having problems with my eyes ever since I started working from home, so I don't want to count on that.
In other news, I've been obsessively watching The Untamed. For anyone who's unfamiliar with the show, I would describe it as "Chinese Game of Thrones, except with more humor and a central gay romance." Words can't express how much I love this C-drama (which is only the second C-drama I've ever seen in my life, by the way). It's put me in the mood to watch more C-dramas and read more #ownvoices Chinese fantasy novels.
Between my love for The Untamed and reading—or more accurately, attempting to read—Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie (a space sci-fi novel that has been openly advertised as an original fic version of Finn/Poe fanfic from Star Wars), I've started thinking about how to go from fanfic/paying homage to a fandom you love to original fic. I mean, it's not a new idea; as much as I loathe even mentioning Fifty Shades of Grey, that was one of the first high-profile conversions of fanfic to original fic.
The difference between Bonds of Brass and Fifty Shades of Grey, though, is that FSoG acknowledges its fanfic roots, yet is considerably different enough that you don't really think about Twilight when you read it. The main characters aren't terribly reminiscent of Bella and Edward. (Note: This is all based on what I've heard, since I've never read FSoG myself.) BoB, however, has the audacity to portray its main characters on its cover as looking eerily similar to John Boyega and Oscar Isaac (which had to have been deliberate because, uh, just to state the obvious, not every black person has to look like John Boyega, and not every Latino person has to look like Oscar Isaac). The author herself has heavily marketed BoB as basically a Finn/Poe fanfic.
This resulted in a problem for me when I read it, because I was constantly thinking about not only the characters in the book, but how they compared to Finn and Poe from Star Wars.
Taking inspiration from other stories is fine; I mean, nothing is original, and people do it all the time. But I would be hesitant to straight-up advertise a book as basically a "fix-it fic" for another series, just with the serial numbers filed off.
