Thursday, March 10, 2011

Return to Fan Fiction?! + Return to Novel-Writing

Did I manage to go an entire month without posting here? Wow. Well, my birthday was at the end of last month. Just wanted to put that out there.

Anyway, last month saw my return to fan fiction. What is fan fiction? Fan fiction is written literature (almost exclusively novellas; however, fan fiction novels, short stories, and even poems have also been written) that takes elements from one or more existing books, movies, TV shows, video games, etc. Commonly, these include the characters, setting, and even plot. Pieces of fan fiction are always unofficial, hence the "fan" part of "fan fiction."

Like I said, I have recently returned to fan fiction. That's right: this is not my first piece of fan fiction. Back in summer '09, I began working on a Legend of Zelda fan fiction (it's on the Master List with a link included) of which I only made it to nine chapters before tossing it aside. Why did I toss it aside? Because it was getting pretty stupid. I have always tended to look down on fan fiction, considering it "unoriginal art," lacking creativity on the part of the writer. Given this fact, I have no idea why I decided to return to fan fiction. I think something snapped inside my head a month ago, and I went insane. Or something to that effect.

Back in January, I began watching the English-dubbed French animated series Code Lyoko again, of which I'd first watched a good portion of the first season back in 2004 or so. It is a tween/teen cartoon/CGI science fiction series following the adventures of five junior high/high school-aged boarding students who go into a virtual world called Lyoko, which is located inside of a supercomputer in the basement of a defunct automobile factory, in order to battle an evil entity known as X.A.N.A., which is intent on escaping Lyoko and taking over Earth. X.A.N.A. (which doesn't really stand for anything, as far as the fanbase knows) has the power to manipulate things on Earth, including the ability to possess animals and people.

Why am I talking about Code Lyoko? Because that's what my new fan fiction is based on! The fan fiction, which is updated chapter-by-chapter exclusively on the Zelda Universe Forums, is titled Code Lyoko: Virtualization and is the first in a trilogy of fan fiction pieces known as Code Lyoko: More Than a Game. The first three chapters are currently available, with the fourth chapter temporarily on hold (just for a couple weeks to a month).


With my return to writing fan fiction, I have also decided to stop writing short stories for a little while so I can dedicate my writing time to more long-term projects (such as the fan fiction). I'm not getting back to writing any of my on-hold projects yet, but I'm instead starting something new.

My new novel is titled The Current and is inspired by the lyrics of a  Blue Man Group song of the same name. I believe the song was also played during the end credits of Terminator 3 although I have not seen this movie, so I'm not sure. It is science fiction (of course), and it takes place in post-disaster--I've recently become hesitant to say "post-apocalyptic," as this implies taking place after the complete destruction of the entire planet--Earth, when the human race has moved underground.

After intense pollution completely removed the ozone layer over time, even the smallest ray of sunshine is lethal. One man, Joseph Harding, who is a worker in the mines in which the workers mine a mineral that provides power for the city, has surface access, and he takes his children up to the surface a few nights a week. He just needs to make sure that he, his children, and his friend, Nelson Lambert (who likes to tag along), get below ground by sunrise. Joseph is also paranoid that there is a secret message hidden in his grandfather's letters. His grandfather had spent years searching the expansive network of caverns beneath the surface for something that would produce ozone or, at the very least, provide some sort of shield for the planet that would block out many of the sun's harmful rays. Meanwhile, Joseph must maintain his job performance in the mines in order to keep his surface access. Unfortunately, he has his mind wrapped up in his grandfather's letters, which doesn't do much to help his performance at work. One day, he has a very painful experience while traveling down the mysterious jet stream of air known as the Current when trying to get to the cavern where the mine workers were mining in. This costs him his job...unless he repeats the training course, which would significantly cut down on his surface time and the time to look at his grandfather's letters. Eventually, he finds the time to look at the letters...and he finally discovers a clue: coordinates for a cavern halfway around the world. The only way to get there? The Current. Joseph sets off, along with Nelson, on a long "scavenger hunt" to find the source of a shield from the sun's harmful rays.

And that's a long teaser for my new novel, The Current! I will begin work on the first chapter today, and it will likely be up today, too. It will be available on the ZU Forums, as well as on Figment.