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Hi AC/FICTALKers. If you see this (11/12/2024) please see new post in General Discussions about Open Doors OTW Organization for Transformative Works) offering to help preserve the AC archive and let me know your thoughts:

https://absolutechaos.net/fictalk/index.php/topic,3415.msg125627.html#new

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Author Topic: Featured story of the month for December - Yesterday's Blue Skies by Just Marina  (Read 17012 times)

Rose

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Oh wow thank you so much :D Can I use this to reply to mare's request for a different summary?  :P LOL

If you update soon?  :D hehe
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Double Rainbow Fiction - So Bright and So Vivid...


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“I don’t believe in being serious about anything. I think life is too serious to be taken seriously.” —Ray Bradbury

marina

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Yay to finding some time to fill out the survey :)

1) Tell us one thing about your story that no one else knows?

When I came up with the title for this story I had no idea what it meant (would mean), the words just came to my head and I just had to find a way to include the meaning in the story later. Okay maybe mare and mersey already knew this but then I don’t think there’s anything about this story that mersey and mare don’t know except how’s going to end and you don’t want me telling that, do you?



2) How long did it take you to write this entire story?

Considering that the story isn’t finished yet I guess we can say that ‘way too long’, but the main part of the story was written over the course of a year. This story was so different from everything I’ve written before in so many ways, not only because of the sci-fi factor but because I prefer writing short stories and I usually write them very fast (I have experienced writers blocks that last years but when a story comes I’m one of those authors that’s always saying that the story writes itself), so this story was completely different for me because there were so many things to check, especially because of the language… in other words I never thought when I started that this story wouldn’t be finished by now.



3) Give us a summary different from the one you have posted on AC, with a few more spoilers to make people tune in.

Oh yay to this question because anything will be better than the summary I posted. I’ve wanted to change it for so long but I really don’t believe in changing things once they are posted (other than grammar, spelling, punctuaction and things like that).

How about: Sometime in a distant future planet Earth is no more than just a memory for the surviving members of the human race. It will be up to five boys with a written destiny to bring back yesterday’s blue skies, but trying to stay together as a family will be the toughest challenge that will come in their way.

Too cheesy, right? lol



4) If you could cast this story as a movie who would play the main roles and why?

Oh it would have to be undiscovered talent since I would like to have actors that really look like the boys (good actors). There’s a secondary character that I wrote with the image of Michael Vartan in mind (Jeff) but I saw Michael Vartan the other day and he is way too old for the role now since Jeff is supposed to be 19 when he first appears in the story. So if there’s a new guy in Hollywood that looks like Michael Vartan when he was in his early 20’s he gets the part.



5) Have you ever thought of giving up on the story and if you did what made you continue to work on it?

Contrary to what people may think, seeing that it’s taking me so long to finish it, I never wanted to give up on the story and still have two half written chapters somewhere that never managed to finish and post. I really really wish that things weren’t as complicated as they are in my life right now but then, even when my life was far from being complicated I never managed to spend the right amount of time writing this story (I’m just not good with schedules). Hopefully I’ll manage to find some time in a near future.



6) What was your writing process? (Outline, make it up as you go along, the characters wrote it, I am Tonja and plagerized lol)

I hope I will be able to remember how things were when I started because it was so long ago. Like most of my stories, and I’ve already said it (original fiction since I haven’t written more than a couple of fanfics), the story practically wrote itself. From out of nowhere this spaceship with the boys appeared in my head. I think that the younger versions of the characters (some of the flashbacks) were more clear for me when I started writing it and I guess that’s why people seem to like the flashbacks the most. During the first chapters I had no idea where the story was going. Now I know how I want to end it (I have known it for a while) but that might change in the process. Mersey was kind enough to help me with every chapter, correcting the gramar and editing them for me, but if you find mistakes don’t blame her because sometimes I would change/add some things minutes before posting the chapter since there’s always that ‘scene’ that comes to your mind in the last minute or the piece of dialogue that doesn’t seem right for the character and you just have to change, etc.



7) Who was your favorite character in this story and why?

I have to say Kevin. He was probably the most complicated to write from the three main ones too (although I see it as a group story I focused it more on Kevin, Nick and AJ) but I think he is coming up like an interesting character, heroic but with a ‘jerk’ side too.
 


8 ) You had to know this was coming, who was your least favorite?

He doesn’t appear in the story that much but I’ve come to realize that I don’t like the boys’ father that much. And yes, I just had to go back to my story to find his name because I didn’t even remember his name was Ryan.



9) Are all the boys in this one? If not why did you choose to exclude them?

Yep, they are all in this one.



10) If we like this story...then we'd love what story? (Could be by you or someone else) and obviously tell us why lol

I can’t recommend sci-fi stories because believe it or not I haven’t read more than a couple (I do like sci-fi movies though, big Star Wars fan here) and that was so long ago that it would be really difficult to find them but how about an AU? Do you girls like cowboy stories? Because Refuse has one that I remember reading long time ago and I really liked, it’s called “A Matter of Family”. The bad thing is that it isn’t finished and hasn’t been updated in forever but then if you are not hating my story for not being finished then you might want to give this one a try. By the way I always wanted to write a cowboy AU, in fact I started one at some point but I need to finish this story before even considering posting that one and I guess that answers the question about why I’m recommeding Refuse's story, I simply love the idea of the boys as cowboys  :P lol
« Last Edit: December 03, 2007, 12:36:34 PM by marina »
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marina

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I just read the prologue!!! So I've started at least!!!  :P   And it was really intriguing, so I'm sure I will be back here with more to say about it as I go.  ;D (cause we all know I can never shut up)

I'm loving your long reviews :D Thank you so much for finding the time to read the story :)
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honey

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I haven't read this, but I will be in a few weeks since she is nominated for a Felix award in a category I am judging :) So I look forward to catching up on it and congratulation s!

lol I just realized that you're my competition for Best AU and I just have to say, I bow down happily! lol. I am about chapter 12 now and I have been devouring this story!!! I could never be that imaginative. You have created this whole other universe and this entirely new history of new cultures and you're doing a wonderful job of it. I'm attempting to write a children's fantasy right now and it is so hard to have to just think up new people and places, so really, well done!

The thing I really love about this story the most is the relationships between the guys. All of the characters are so much like the way I picture them and Marina has just taken those personalities and embellished them wonderfully. The way they interact with each other just pulls me into the story. I love her characters and I really feel like I understand what they're going through because the way she's written it. It's like they are experiencing the story along with us. Does that make any sense?

I think it's really interesting how she uses mainly dialog. Seriously, like 90 % dialog and yet I understand the history of their people, I can picture the planet they're on and I know what's going on inside their heads.  I could never pull that off.

Awesome job Marina! I'm glad this one was featured because I never would have thought to read this story otherwise and I am just enjoying the hell out of it!

I only have one other thing to say at the moment...

If you haven't read this story, I hope you aren't afraid to give it a chance because it's a si-fi. I really think Mare is right. If you were ever going to read one, you should try this one because its great!!!  Give it a chance guys!!! It's wonderful!!!

Yay Marina!




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If Ryan looked at me the wrong way, I lost it. If Ryan looked at me the right way, I lost it. And whenever he tried to kiss me, something usually blew up. Someone ought to teach him a little control.

MonkeyAbu

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Well, I just wanted to say I took everyone's advice and read through the prologue before clocking out from working. I'm intrigued. I actually enjoy reading sci-fi fics as long as they are written well and you have done a wonderful job so far Marina. I do enjoy the simplicity in your use of dialogue, and how so far at least, you have leaned less on the detail aspect of paragraphs. Can't wait to read more!
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mare

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I'm so pleased to see everyone reading this one! :) Very nice!

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mare

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Okay Oprah is back. Sorry Maria, but you know how December is for me and I know you still love me anyway lol


A few questions for you

Where do you come up with the ideas for some of the names you use for things like planets, people and weapons?

What made you decide to write a sci fi? I know you aren't a sci fi writer really so how did this idea come about for you?

Why did you choose to write it in Aj's POV?
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honey

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Why did you choose to write it in Aj's POV?


oo good question,  was gonna ask that too.
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If Ryan looked at me the wrong way, I lost it. If Ryan looked at me the right way, I lost it. And whenever he tried to kiss me, something usually blew up. Someone ought to teach him a little control.

marina

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Okay Oprah is back. Sorry Maria, but you know how December is for me and I know you still love me anyway lol

Mmmmhhh Do I? LOL  :P Of course I do :-*

Okay here are my answers:

Where do you come up with the ideas for some of the names you use for things like planets, people and weapons?
The other languages I speak come handy for this. Most of the names for planets, creatures, etc. are me playing with words in other languages... you take one word in this language and another word in another language, put them together, mix the letters, things like that. That way most of those names 'mean' something when you know where they came from and how to read them. Now the weapons are just letters and numbers because weapons generally have numbers in them (usually because of the caliber, I think, but I played with that too) and I think there's a ship somewhere in the story that has its origin in Star Wars while the other spaceships and weapons are a mix of sci-fi references and air force/army terminology.

What made you decide to write a sci fi? I know you aren't a sci fi writer really so how did this idea come about for you?
It was one of those crazy ideas that came to my mind one night when I was in bed, some of those sometimes become stories and that's what happened to this one. There's a chance I had watched a sci-fi movie that week because for some reason I started to picture the boys as sci-fi heroes inside a spaceship and then I thought that could be an interestig story to write and decided to give it a try. I have to thank you and mersey too because if you girls hadn't encourage me to keep going I'm sure this story would still be just a fun idea floating around my head.

Why did you choose to write it in Aj's POV?
Well, Kevin and Nick are my favorite boys and I knew I wouldn't be comfortable writing a long story in their POVs (feeling I wasn't doing it right). Same thing with Howie and Brian but in their case because I don't know as much about them as I do about the other three guys, no matter that I love all five boys. So that pretty much left me with AJ, the one in the middle, and I started developing ideas from there. By then I had already decided that Kevin, Brian and Nick would be brothers, which was another reason to write the story in AJ's POV considering that he would be the one with all the 'mistery' in his life, especially regarding his father. In other words, he was the one who would be experiencing most of the drama, i.e. the 'middle child' wth all the problems, and I thought it would be good for the story to get a look at his thoughts.
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marina

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Awesome job Marina! I'm glad this one was featured because I never would have thought to read this story otherwise and I am just enjoying the hell out of it!

I only have one other thing to say at the moment...

If you haven't read this story, I hope you aren't afraid to give it a chance because it's a si-fi. I really think Mare is right. If you were ever going to read one, you should try this one because its great!!!  Give it a chance guys!!! It's wonderful!!!

Yay Marina!






Wow, once again thank you very much for all the nice words about the story.

We are competing for best AU? I didn't know that. I so hope to find time soon to read your story because I'm really curious now and it's never late to become a sci-fi reader lol

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marina

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Well, I just wanted to say I took everyone's advice and read through the prologue before clocking out from working. I'm intrigued. I actually enjoy reading sci-fi fics as long as they are written well and you have done a wonderful job so far Marina. I do enjoy the simplicity in your use of dialogue, and how so far at least, you have leaned less on the detail aspect of paragraphs. Can't wait to read more!

Thanks for giving it a try.

Since you are the second person mentioning the amount of dialogue I thought this would be a good moment to confess that I would have never imagined I would be getting good reviews for not being better at English lol Because I think in some chapters that's the main explanation for them being like 80% dialogue. Not that I don't like to write dialogues. In fact when writing original stories in my mother tongue I write A LOT of dialogue, I've written stories that are like 95% dialogue and I've received some really nice reviews/compliments on them them but usually I like to put a tad more detail in the descriptions (just a tiny bit more, not too much because detailed paragraphs full of description are just not my style). But when writing in English I just opted to go with more dialogues because that's the way the story comes to my head and writing the description would mean having to 'translate' the things I'm seeing in my head and since I hate to translate things in my stories and prefer just to write directly in English I end up with excess of dialogue lol
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honey

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It's ture, I do notice quite a bit of "mistakes" like that throughout the chapters, but they are all very clearly mistakes because you're writing in a foreign language and it never hinders the story. It's always close enough that I know what you're trying to say and I can always understand what's going on. So I simply tell myself she's doing great considering... and I overlook the mistakes that are throughout the chapters.

There are some fanfic writers out there who are doing their best and yet they simply don't know enough about the language to write a coherent sentence. I can't read those stories. But yours has never bothered me, and I think you'll find most of us on AC are the same way. We understand there is a language barrier and if the story is good, we can overlook it. A for effort though, because unless you count asking for some cheese and a coke in French, or saying a few really bad words in Spanish, I can't speak a lick of a different language.
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mare

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Maria I give you so much credit for not writing in your first language. I know how hard you are on yourself when it comes to editing yourself and picking at your mistakes but like Kelly said, some people who speak and write English as their first language don't do half as well as you do! lol

Here's another question for you

When you first came up with this idea, did you always know how you were going to end it? Or have you changed your mind a few times?

Do your reviews ever change your mind about how to write something?

When are we going to get an update?
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marina

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Maria I give you so much credit for not writing in your first language. I know how hard you are on yourself when it comes to editing yourself and picking at your mistakes but like Kelly said, some people who speak and write English as their first language don't do half as well as you do! lol

Here's another question for you



Thanks mare  :-*

Okay here are my answers once again ;)

When you first came up with this idea, did you always know how you were going to end it? Or have you changed your mind a few times?
I had no idea how I was going to end this story, considering that I didn't even know too much about the story at first, except that the boys had powers, it was the future and they were living in a spaceship hehe. It took me a while to come up with a way of ending the story and so far I haven't changed my mind about how I'm going to do it but I'm still not sure this is the 'awesome' ending I want, so no matter that I'm almost sure I'm not going to change that much of it, I'm still trying to make some little details work the right way (in my head, sadly not on paper yet).

Do your reviews ever change your mind about how to write something?
Nope...oh wait except for one thing. Usually I don't change things because of the reviews but for this story people were mentioning how much they liked the 'tiny BSBs' parts so I tried to add more memories of them as kids in the last chapters and I might keep doing it if I ever get another good idea for those.

When are we going to get an update?
Awww I wish I knew and I really wish I could say soon. 2008 could be a good year to finish this story (hopefully).
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mare

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I think you should update soon. And yay to the tiny guys flashbacks. I really hope that somewhere down the line you will write your little prequel to this story with all the tiny guys. lol

I am finally on vacation now :) YAY!!
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