Hey, my names Dan. I'm new here and trying to write a fan fiction of a Post Sysco DS9 type of story similar to Picard. I would like to know which way I should go, if everybody would like to see it follow Emissary Ben Sysco or Jake, Ezri Dax, Nog and whom ever is still cannonicly around?
FanFic Idea
- Thread starter Dan Troup
- Start date
Hey Dan,
My suggestion is not to worry about what we want, but write what/who you are interested about. Because at the end of the day if you're not interested, you're not going to get far in finish your story/stories or writing period. I wouldn't even worry about canon either. It's all fiction and right now there's a Literature Canon that's going away, the Star Trek Online canon that's also going away or changing due to CBS Trek and what its doing with the canon. But it's up to you whether you even want to adhere to any of it, or even the canon of the older series and movies. That's the fun of fan fiction.
I recall a fan fiction series which went in another direction mid-way through DS9 and explored a war with ancient gods. Fan fiction is limitless in what you want to do. Heck, not adhering to canon might get you more readers than sticking to it, with fan fiction writers curious and intrigued by where you are taking the story, characters, and the altered Trek galaxy.
All that said, it appears you want to try to adhere to live-action canon for this story. The 'danger' is with ST: Picard, Lower Decks, and Prodigy putting out new canon work now (not to mention DISCO fleshing out the future), this could limit where you are going or can go because what you write always stands the change of being decanonized the very next week a new episode comes out. But right now, you got a lot of daylight after 2376. To my knowledge there's only been a few mentions of DS9 stuff on Lower Decks. I think Mariner served on the station, I'm assuming during the series' run, and Miles O'Brien will be revered in the distant future. Quarks is also a franchise now in PIC's time.
The closest else to DS9 'canon' right now was the writers' room session in the DS9 documentary, What We Left Behind, where the writers came out with a pilot episode for Season 8. I don't think it would be a bad place to start at all to expand on what they started.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/What_We_Left_Behind
If you're concerned about canon, you can look up Deep Space 9 on Memory Alpha and Memory Beta - links follow:
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Portal:Main
https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page
You should probably have a look at those resources and get an idea how to use them. But my best advice would be to go your own way and to not try to follow too closely what anyone else is doing (whether franchise and fandom.) Focus on writing a great story and if you use ideas from other fans, be sure to credit them. Use Memory Alpha and Beta as resources, not shackles.
Job #1 is creating an interesting story, interesting character arcs, some mystery, some humor, some action, some intrigue, maybe a little romance. Have fun with it! And don't be afraid to reach out for beta-readers - they can be your best ally (they can also be your worst enemy...)
Thanks!! rbs
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Portal:Main
https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page
You should probably have a look at those resources and get an idea how to use them. But my best advice would be to go your own way and to not try to follow too closely what anyone else is doing (whether franchise and fandom.) Focus on writing a great story and if you use ideas from other fans, be sure to credit them. Use Memory Alpha and Beta as resources, not shackles.
Job #1 is creating an interesting story, interesting character arcs, some mystery, some humor, some action, some intrigue, maybe a little romance. Have fun with it! And don't be afraid to reach out for beta-readers - they can be your best ally (they can also be your worst enemy...)
Thanks!! rbs
If you're concerned about what readers will want, then before anything else, you'll definitely want to double-check the spellings of major characters' names, like Sisko. That's one thing that's an instant turn-off for many readers.
As for the story: obviously, you want to make sure that you're writing a story you enjoy writing. Otherwise, the quality will suffer no matter what.
That said, writing about canon characters always runs the risk of the real TV show later contradicting it. On the other hand, you can always go back and change certain details in your story, to make it keep up with canon. (That's what I plan to do with my own story.) Since "Picard" doesn't seem too concerned with DS9, I'd say you can probably do anything you want with those characters, and the show isn't likely to contradict anything.
As for the story: obviously, you want to make sure that you're writing a story you enjoy writing. Otherwise, the quality will suffer no matter what.
That said, writing about canon characters always runs the risk of the real TV show later contradicting it. On the other hand, you can always go back and change certain details in your story, to make it keep up with canon. (That's what I plan to do with my own story.) Since "Picard" doesn't seem too concerned with DS9, I'd say you can probably do anything you want with those characters, and the show isn't likely to contradict anything.
