Kefren on 29/2/2008 at 17:10

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A long time ago I had an idea of working on a novel that told the stories of SS1 and SS2. However I didn't plan to start from scratch (I knew I wouldn't complete it - I have two unpublished novels and many short stories under my belt, but most of my time is spent on writing that might help me make a living!) Instead the idea was to go through every fanfic, asking for permission to incorporate them into this big story. Then I would incorporate the logs in chronological order, and/or flesh them into new scenes; and edit and fit in other fanfics where permission was given (obviously with full credit in the notes, including what bits were incorporated). I planned to include everything canon too - e.g. the story from the manual, live emails from the games. So everything would be in the order that events took place, but edited to be more like a novel. It might be a nice complement to the excellent (http://www.shamusyoung.com/shocked/) Free Radical by Shamus Young.

I was then going to pack it up on (http://www.lulu.com/uk/) Lulu, which is a great way to get things printed nicely (e.g. it is so much easier to read a thing like Free Radical when printed in paperback format). People could download the pdf for free, or get print copies at just the cost of the printing.

The other advantage would be that it could be altered after feedback (I have done this with items on Lulu in the past) - incorporating things I might have missed, missing logs or emails, re-arrangements etc.

Real life has intruded, as ever, so I was going to drop the plan completely. However on a long bus journey at the weekend I took printouts of four stories with me to pass the time - Ghiran (Kevin Czarnecki), Unrest (Chris S.), The Iterative Man (RocketMan) and Return of SHODAN (Alex Davidson), and it got me thinking about this again.

Perhaps one way to take it forward would be to just compile a load of the fanfics (instead of re-writing them into a novel), perhaps with a bit of editing? An SS compilation, in the same way that you can buy zombie story compilations. The option of people being able to download a free document, or get a print copy from Lulu, would still be there - but it would be a lot less time.

What do people think?

If it was worthwhile, then I would come up with a list of possible stories (I will put them in a separate post in a minute). Then would be the task of tracking people down to get permission to include the item (obviously without the author's permission it wouldn't get included) and possibly to edit it; and to find out if there are later versions of the story, or to see if they want to do any more work on it first.

If we later heard from other people, or new stories were written, then they could be added to later versions (until the lawyers step in and say we can't print fanfics out because of the copyrighted intellectual property included...)

:grr:

Kefren on 29/2/2008 at 17:37

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Well, that is a list of the things I know of. If this seems like a popular idea then I could start editing the list with notes -

whether it was something that was worth including;
if we have contact details;
if I have contacted them;
whether they gave permission to include the item and/or edit it;
if there are later versions of the story, or the author is going to edit it themselves first.

Some of the story writers may be on TTLG still.

(I'll be happy in many ways if it isn't a popular idea - since then I can forget the idea and won't need to commit any time.)

Kolya on 1/3/2008 at 16:57

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When the Chinese clients had left his bureau the hacker returned to his neural networked chair. The screen lit up and a quarantined copy of SHODAN dressed up in bondage pants and stays jangled a pair of handcuffs at the viewer.
Kieron Gillen - hacker extraordinaire - donned his black and red rubber mask and then strapped himself to the chair while SHODAN repeated her familar speech for the nth time:

"L-L-Look at you hacker, a pathetic creature ..."

It literally send jolts down his spine.

"Yeah, you filthy bitch, talk dirty to me." he screamed, his voice muffled behind the gag ball...

Kolya on 2/3/2008 at 01:35

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At least you know now, how I felt when I had to read Kieron Gillen, trying to psychoanalyze SS2.

PANTING AND SWEATING AS YOU RUN THROUGH MY CORRIDORS? - I don't have to tell you what that means, right? Mwuhahahaha!

...

I hate people who do that. It's just like trying to read Alice and someone has to come by and tell you how the rabbit hole isn't really a rabbit hole, NOOOO! It's a VAGINA!! What did you think?! And really it's all about taking drugs! The caterpillar is the worst! And Carroll was a pedo!

It fucks with your head. You start to believe all that crap and these people feel incredibly clever for destroying something great, just because they can't cope with it as it is and therefore feel the need to explain it somehow.

AxTng1 on 2/3/2008 at 04:56

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At least it's original.