FanFic: Write an Episode for Your Favorite TV Show

By Chris Stewart

When I was an early teen, a girlfriend and I used to write episodes for our favorite TV show, Battlestar Galactica. The original, not the imposter (you can see what side I'm on you BG fans).

You remember: Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, Lorne Greene. We loved it. And we wrote 200 page 'scripts' for the show (more TV movies than TV shows) for about a year. They probably weighed more on the side of romance than science fiction (I had a crush on Benedict; she had a crush on Hatch), but they were great practice at character development and sustaining a storyline.

I haven't done this in years, but have come across others doing it, which has been a nice surprise. Not many people know this, but I'm a mad Doctor Who fan from way back. I watched the show (now 'Classic Who') on PBS television for over 20 years, then switched to Netflix and YouTube when MPT pulled the show and the new series started (don't get me started on that).

I'm not a big sci fi TV/movie watcher, but there are a few that I can't resist and Doctor Who is one of them. I was thrilled when it returned with new Doctors and episodes (I'm more partial to Eccleston than Tennant as the Doctor, I have to say), and have come across many blogs where fans are taking matters into their own hands and writing scenes and episodes of their own to develop the relationship between the Doctor and his companions, as well as his back story, and producing funny, technical, dramatic stories to boot. It reminded me how great it was to write like this 'way back when.'

If you still don't know what I'm talking about, first: time to come out from under your rock. Second, it's called FANFIC (fan fiction), and it's a fabulous exercise that I encourage you to try. The characters and structure are already in place for you, all you have to do is think up a story and start writing. Take the show to a place you've always wanted it to go. Write the story leading up to the start of the show. Write its final episode. Anything goes.

So try writing outside your genre. If you normally write romance, try a cop show. If you write humorous pieces, try a hospital drama. Sci fi is fun because there are so many possibilities - romance, science, drama, history, humor, politics.

If TV doesn't appeal, pick your favorite book and write a little something from the point of view of a minor character. Or continue the story that you think takes place after the book ends.

Period fiction is very popular as we've all seen with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, or Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Those are a little extreme; there's plenty on Amazon and the web of a more serious nature. You could go blind reading the amount of Jane Austen fanfic out there.

It's a great way to practice your craft and take some risks in your writing, without pressure. And it's fun. Remember writing being fun? We all also need a reminder to shake things up, to try something different, to allow for imperfection and experimentation.

There are many sites devoted to fanfic for specific shows, a Google search will easily turn them up, but if you want to see just how large this universe is, check out the comprehensive website: http://www.fanfiction.net.

(Only the DW fans will get this reference, but here goes anyway):

So, c'mon you literary fiction writers or poets, show me some Spock!


Chris Stewart is program director for literary arts with the Maryland State Arts Council. A teacher/mentor of prose and poetry, she lives in Baltimore. Check out her new Sense and Sensibility-inspired project at www.embarkingoncourseofstudy.com

Journalist Claims he has lived in the Dark End of the Spectrum

By Anthony S. Policastro

I recently received this intriguing comment from Vic Livingston, a journalist from Philadelphia regarding my thriller/mystery, DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM.

What is intriguing is that he talks about many scary technologies used by the government that I had mentioned in my book, which by the way is fiction.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

"Mr. Policastro: I have been a victim of the real dark end of the spectrum for six years (that I know about). Please react to this posting, from today's Washingtonpost.com/thefix, as well as my articles and first-person victim account linked at the bottom. My telecommunications are subject to interception and spiking so I don't know if you will ever see this. I will check back here daily for the next few days. -- Vic Livingston

SECRET MULTI-AGENCY FED PROGRAM SILENTLY TORTURES, IMPAIRS, PERSECUTES U.S. CITIZENS WITH MICROWAVE/LASER RADIATION AND LOCAL VIGILANTISM, SAYS MAINSTREAM JOURNALIST

* Thousands of Americans, deemed to be "dissidents" or undesirables, targeted by Bush legacy program for debilitating microwave/laser assault, held hostage in their own homes to fed-supported vigilante "community policing" stalking units, equipped with warrantless GPS devices, who vandalize and terrorize as local police look the other way.

* "Directed energy weapons," portable units and a nationwide installation employing cell towers and satellites, induce weakness, exhaustion, head and body aches, physical and neurological impairment, strokes, aneurysms, cancer -- and many victims do not realize what is making them sick.

* Regional Homeland Security- administered "fusion centers" reportedly serve as command centers for covert electromagnetic radiation attacks, pervasive surveillance, financial sabotage of those identified as "dissidents," "trouble-makers" or slandered as threats to society.

* Use of microwave weaponry to torture and impair political opponents recently confirmed by deposed Honduras President Manuel Zelaya.

* Pleas for justice, to local police and FBI, go unanswered -- as do demands for a Department of Justice Civil Rights Division investigation and congressional hearings.

"These are crimes against humanity and the Constitution, being perpetrated under the cover of national security and 'safe streets' by multiple federal and local agencies and commands -- an American genocide hiding in plain sight, enabled by the naivete of those who think 'it can't happen here.'"

-- Victor Livingston, former reporter for WTXF-TV Philadelphia, Phila. Bulletin, N.Y. Daily News, St. Petersburg Times; producer/host, MSG Network Sports Business Report; columnist, NowPublic.com/scrivener.

JOURNO TO FBI: SEIZE CONTROL OF DHS-RUN FUSION CENTERS
TO STOP SILENT MICROWAVE / LASER ATTACKS ON U.S. CITIZENS

http://nowpublic.com/world/govt-tortures-me-silent-microwave-weapons-ousted-s-prez
http://nowpublic.com/world/gestapo-usa-govt-funded-vigilante-network-terrorizes-america OR (if links are corrupted / disabled): http://NowPublic.com/scrivener RE: "GESTAPO USA""

Is Our Literary Legacy Threatened by ebooks?

We hear it all the time. The electronic book readers like Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s eReader are going to be the downfall of printed books. If you believe that you may have been one of the folks in Columbus’ day who believed the world was flat. Don’t worry. It won’t happen at least for a very long time.

What do you think?

The Publisher, OUTER BANKS PUBLISHING GROUP, Nov. 2009

Read the rest of the story at Outer Banks Publishing Group.