So you're commissioned to write an actual Star Trek book...

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction' started by Angry Fanboy, Jan 6, 2013.

  1. Angry Fanboy

    Angry Fanboy Captain Captain

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    Just a little conversation starter for a quiet Sunday evening:

    ...the incredible happens, and you're PM inbox flashes red with a message from an editor at Pocket Books who tells you that they've been monitoring your fan fiction writing and invites you to pitch a standalone Star Trek novel set within the confines of series continuity - that is TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT using existing characters who need to end the novel the same way they started it.

    I'm sure most of us have read the old submission guidelines at one point or another but I've included them below. ENT isn't mentioned since these come from before 2001 but you get the basic idea - the novels need to be set within the series and you can't kill people off or make massive changes to the characters or universe.









    So assuming my original unlikely/impossible scenario was to occur and you were invited to pitch a novel, which series would you chose and what do you think your story would be about? :)
     
  2. Sandoval

    Sandoval Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Nothing anyone comes up with here will be worse than The Laertian Gamble. Who the fuck was that guy sleeping with at Pocket Books?
     
  3. Angry Fanboy

    Angry Fanboy Captain Captain

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    Angry Fanboy

    Wasn't that the one where practically every page was a new chapter? :lol:
     
  4. MasterArminas

    MasterArminas Commander Red Shirt

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    I hate trying to force myself to write canon characters within the above guidelines. I prefer to do new takes on the universe at large, something like the New Frontier novels, where we have a new ship, a new crew, and an opportunity to explore folks we haven't met before. That's just me, but I tend to have better results with being able to shape my own characters, than trying to match what others have done before me. Like my own Star Trek: Republic.

    MA
     
  5. Count Zero

    Count Zero No nation but procrastination Moderator

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    I think it's funny how the novel line has broken all those rules in the last couple of years.

    Not sure I could come up with anything good. I'm terrible at plotting.
     
  6. Angry Fanboy

    Angry Fanboy Captain Captain

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    Angry Fanboy

    Ah but therein lies the game! :lol:

    As fan fiction writers we enjoy the scope to think 'outside the box' - Voyager getting home from my own short back-catalogue being a classic example.

    Telling an interesting, engaging story yet returning everything to normal at the end is possibly more challenging. :)
     
  7. Angry Fanboy

    Angry Fanboy Captain Captain

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    I think they've been able to play so fast and loose with Star Trek for a number of reasons - firstly from 2002 stories set in the 'present' of the 2370s ended with Nemesis.

    Secondly and more fundamentally Star Trek 'as we know it' essentially ending in 2005 has allowed them free reign since no one at Paramount is particularly bothered anymore.
     
  8. Sandoval

    Sandoval Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Re: Angry Fanboy

    Yes.
     
  9. Angry Fanboy

    Angry Fanboy Captain Captain

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    Angry Fanboy

    Yes The Laertian Gamble wasn't the best was it? :lol:
     
  10. T'Girl

    T'Girl Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I basically lost interest in the Star Trek novels when they left the Star Trek universe behind, and entered the current "Author-verse."

    Is your Captain Dahlgren named for the Samual Delany novel?

    :mallory:
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2013
  11. Bry_Sinclair

    Bry_Sinclair Vice Admiral Admiral

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    DS9 - During a festival that remembers and honours the dead, the station inhabitants are visited by friends and family members who have since passed away.

    VOY - Voyager is hit by an unknown energy wave that causes the crews memories and personalities to switch into the bodies of those nearest them.
     
  12. Defcon

    Defcon Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Some writers have explained this in the past.

    Those rules only apply to writers trying to break in. Basically it is a test to see if the aspiring writers are able to play by the rules before allowing them to have more freedom. Even if you're hired the story you submitted most likely will never see the light of day.

    (I'm only paraphrasing from memory here.)
     
  13. T'Girl

    T'Girl Vice Admiral Admiral

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    After being force to jettison the majority of the Enterprise's antimatter fuel stores, Captain Kirk plays a cat and mouse game with a patrolling Klingon warship. The story is partial told through a series of flash backs to (then) Lt. Kirk's time as a instructor in tactics at Starfleet Academy.

    Picard undertakes a diplomatic first contact mission to a new interstellar republic outside the Federation. His only path of contact is through a wide spread species that is a former member of the Federation, a people who left because they found the prime directive ethically inadequate. Explores the occasional failures in maintaining the Federation in one piece.

    :)
     
  14. Count Zero

    Count Zero No nation but procrastination Moderator

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    That sounds like an interesting premise.
     
  15. MasterArminas

    MasterArminas Commander Red Shirt

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    No, for the US Civil War era Admiral John Dahlgren, who designed the Dahlgren gun, a muzzle-loading naval gun.

    MA
     
  16. Rush Limborg

    Rush Limborg Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'd written a synopsis and pitch for my "first" Trek novel...but I've yet to get an agent and submit it.

    Anyway--

    Set during Season 7, DS9--shortly before "Penumbra". Sisko recieves a vision from the Prophets of a coming attempt to "divide the land". A mysterious young Bajoran questions Garack about means of mass destruction--and both are attacked by members of the Cult of the Pah-Wraiths. It turns out the young man was a former member himself--and left upon discovering a plot to "cleanse" the land.

    Soon after, a massive reservoir is desroyed by a "dirty bomb"--bringing a massive flood of radiation-tinted water to an entire province. As Bashir and Ezri spearhead a recovery effort, Sisko, Kira, and Garak must uncover the full plan of the Cult--before the Prophets' warnings come to tragic fruition....

    Along with the action-adventure main storyline (and a hint-of-romance-to-come subplot involving my favorite couple ;)), there is a direct parallel to the ongoing War on Terror (something which, in retrospect, makes storylines involving the Cult and the Circle from the series quite eerie in their ahead-of-time parallels...).

    BTW--anyone else notice the decided lack of TrekLit set during DS9 Season 7? I almost get the idea that the novel writers didn't care for series-Ezri too much--hence the near-total "re-vamp" for the relaunch....
     
  17. T'Girl

    T'Girl Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Excuse me Rush for pointing this out, but in your signature line I believe you transposed two words. Shouldn't it be ...

    "Then I shall RISE and FIGHT again."

    Unless this was deliberate on your part, in which case I'm just stupid.
     
  18. Rush Limborg

    Rush Limborg Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ^It's okay. I'd say I've seen both versions. ;)
     
  19. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    The problem with these guidelines is that the most interesting/fun stories don't use them.

    I'd do either TOS or Voyager. I never did like DS9 much, and TNG is so sanitized, it tends to bore me.
     
  20. Duncan MacLeod

    Duncan MacLeod Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I tell them thank you for the offer but I don't write when my hands are tied. Have a nice day.