EU Writers vs SWFans Roleplayers

[Force Master Hunter]

Here's a strange thought I had. Yes, Yes, I know strange thoughts aren't exactly uncommon for me, but this is a fairly good one.

If you look around, there are some pretty good writers and people who KNOW about Star Wars at this board. So here is the thought.

If you took the best writers here and pitted them against the EU authors in a challenge.... who would win?

If you removed Zahn, I'd reckon the best we have here would do 'em in. With Zahn.... Hmmmm. That would be somethign to see

[Jax Ivanrue Tondry]

Now that would be something to see.

[Teka Kenobi]

I should really read some EU stuff..

[ReaperFett]

screw Zahn! Most people here try to stay within SW boundaries. He just made up his own little universe, and did what th hell he wanted.

Nest authors are Allston and Crispin. I would say one, possiblt two people are up to their standard. I'd say five or six max could hold up against any SW author (Noone here has had to single handedly write 300 pages yet, have they? You cant compare)


Take KW Jeter. He wrote the Bounty Hunter Wars. Terrible books, as they ruin Fett's character. However, I'd say that if he was asked to write the length we do, hed be as good.


And before anyone slates KJA (Youre round here somewhere), read Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina. He did the excellent Jawa short story. Best short Ive ever read.

[Lady Vader]

I've got EU books/sources/crap/whatchamacallits spilling out of the corners of my house. Stupid book case isn't big enough for everything. *grumble*

[ReaperFett]

its amzing how much space 35 Star Wars novels take up :)

[Lord Fire Blade]

Well Reaperfett, Mark has written over 800+ pages of material at SWFans alone, or at least that is what he has archived. The entire Dark Fury is 568 pages and I know both he and I have written up to now 82 pages for SCC. I think at the least you can compare him off. I personally have about 100 pages in total. I would suggest if you added it up you yourself would have a good deal more than you realise.

I dont know how he does it, but I think that's somewhere above half a million words in two years at the minimum. Maybe more. And he still cant spell. All that practice gone to waste.

I Personally have not read many Star Wars books, I'm not really interested. Probably the only real reason I am here is because Mark is. I do know I love reading what he produces (When he lets me! It's not fair, he doesn't let me read a lot of his writing!) and I really like reading what is here too. I appreciate Lady De'ville's writing a lot, because she brings forth female emotions quite well. I know Mark would like to write an official Star Wars book and that's one of the reasons he does write. I think he dreams someone associated with the publishers would contact him, based on what he does here.

There are other people here who have the talent to write really well too. And back on topic - Could the roleplayers here do better than the Authors? Yes, I think so. There is some real talent here just waiting to discovered.

[ReaperFett]

I dont know how he does it, but I think that's somewhere above half a million words in two years at the minimum. Maybe more. And he still cant spell. All that practice gone to waste.

lol:)


dont worry, when I said the numbers, he's one of them:) . DF is a great thing. Multi character, story, good writing.... and so on. That's what an author has to do. Not many here ever do that(I always avoid it:) )

I think the biggest comparison problem comes by the fact that an author has to write about many characters, while we don't. In a way, our writings are similar to Stackpole's, where one person does everything, and the others are subparts. Not many have to do that. Turn it on its head, let the authors work on their character mainly, and us have to do a balanced multi-character story, and Id say they'd be far better.

Have to remember of course, every SW author has wrote shedloads of books. SW was just the next step up. They should really be better than us, shouldnt they?

[Rock]

Yes, some could, but most are just here to have fun and play one character.

[ReaperFett]

I mean, last few weeks, I wrote five short stories. From earliest in Fetts life to latest:

pub56.ezboard.com/fgjofrm17.showMessage?topicID=107.topic (http://pub56.ezboard.com/fgjofrm17.showMessage?topicID=107.topic)(parts going down the thread
pub56.ezboard.com/fgjofrm17.showMessage?topicID=106.topic (http://pub56.ezboard.com/fgjofrm17.showMessage?topicID=106.topic)
pub56.ezboard.com/fgjofrm17.showMessage?topicID=104.topic (http://pub56.ezboard.com/fgjofrm17.showMessage?topicID=104.topic)
pub56.ezboard.com/fgjofrm17.showMessage?topicID=105.topic (http://pub56.ezboard.com/fgjofrm17.showMessage?topicID=105.topic)(Doubt I'll finish that one, second part later in the thread)
pub56.ezboard.com/fgjofrm2.showMessage?topicID=1023.topic (http://pub56.ezboard.com/fgjofrm2.showMessage?topicID=1023.topic)


Now, I'd say they are ok stories. Some bits quite good, some bits awful. Now compare them to KJA's Jawa story, and they suddenly become awful. Hes writing for one character, the Jawa himsef. I'm writing round one, Fett. His is well written. Mine is good ideas badly written.

Now, I spent a fair bit of time on them, and they aren't a patch on a similar sized thing from an author, and this is an author so many love to hate. If I wanted to even look average compared to that, I'd need to do a shedload more practice

[Elieen Cross]

And that in the end is the thing I like about this place. You have people like Mark who invents characters, stories, situations and more all the time and you have people who play one character only, but play it to the hilt.

Please, if I have suggested that there is anything wrong with how someone chooses to play, that is not my intention. We do as we wish and that is superb. What I was simply saying is that we do have people here who are fully capable - and have - created works of literature out of their time here.

What I think the point of this thread here is, would the authors of the EU be able to roleplay against us? Who would win out? That is my understanding anyway.

Roleplay has many and varied ways it can be done, but in the end it is a written art.

In places I go, I simply dont see the talent that we have here. It's almost a fair comment to say that this is where the best Roleplay writers migrate to and in the last two years I have seen the writing improve as roleplay has evolved. It's a fact that the only advertising this place needs is the work done here. Tell me where you get better, for I doubt there is.

Thence, I would think that the Authors may well find themselves facing quite a challenge to defeat what we have here.

And I would echo Jax's comment and add a slightly different version - what would you give to see it happen?

Well, why not? Challenge those authors. It could well be done you know.

[ReaperFett]

if Allston appeared, I'd let him win :)

[Evil Hobgoblin]

screw Zahn! Most people here try to stay within SW boundaries. He just made up his own little universe, and did what th hell he wanted.

I would say that that isn't entirely true. Zahn does provide a detailed background to Lucas' reality.

Certain things about SW just seem completely and totally unrealistic- Luke Skywalker destroying the Death Star with one shot, for example. Certainly we all know he has the Force on his side, but what about Vader? Vader is supposed to be the Dark Fricking Lord of the Fricking Sith. Why can't the Dark Fricking Lord of the Fricking Sith stop one Force Adept in an X-Wing?

Furthermore, WHY didn't he just SQUASH Skywalker after he'd dispatched Kenobi with one of his famous Force chokes? I've never liked that.

Zahn adds what I would describe as a human element to Lucas' themes, which are grandiose at times. Who here was really happy with Anakin Skywalker's immaculate conception? I was disappointed, even if I am willing to suspend my disbelief for the movie as a whole.


I think the biggest comparison problem comes by the fact that an author has to write about many characters, while we don't. In a way, our writings are similar to Stackpole's, where one person does everything, and the others are subparts. Not many have to do that. Turn it on its head, let the authors work on their character mainly, and us have to do a balanced multi-character story, and Id say they'd be far better.

I like that assessment. It's one of the problems I've always had with Stackpole's writing but could never put into words. Corran Horn, though impeccably written, is always the hero. Rogue Squadron typically follows along as best they can, but it is inevitably Corran Horn that trips the enemy trap in such a way that circumstance tumbles to his favor.

And if I ever find the time to plow through Cold Cigna Campaign's full set of RPs, you may see that sort of thing change about my writing. Pierce is supposed to be a leader, dammit, not a do-it-all James Bond!

P.S. I think I have a 50-50 shot at out-writing any EU author. :)

[ReaperFett]

You follow my Corran feelings:)

Its why Isards Revenge and I, Jedi arent as good for me. And then there's the Dark Tide Duology...

[Lady DeVille]

Tondry, I think your odds are a little better than that. I'd like to wrap up one of our RPs, change some of the character names into believeable ones and send it to a publisher to see what they say about it. Am I? Nah. But it'd be fun.

[Khendon S]

I wrote one hundred fifty pages before... but I didn't like the story so I just killed it. :o)

[Lord Maim]

I believe a lot of the people here have the raw talent, honed talent, or just pure natural ability to match up to quite a few of the Star Wars Authors. As far as a number of pages written, I am sure in our lifetimes we have all written sever thousand pages of text. I have personally written 3 unpublished novels, mostly unpublished because I want the story to be perfect before it is read by another living soul. So, yes I think it is possible. I know many here are better than me, and if I can write books I am sure they would have no real problems.

[Mortaniuss]

My main problem is this - Given a situation, I can really run with it; I go on and on with it, taking it in new directions and making it fairly entertaining to read. However, I can't for the life of me come up with original ideas. It's why I hardly ever start RPs of my own. Instead, I prefer to hop into other people's RPs. I let them do the hard work, and then I jump in and run with it. :)

[Lady DeVille]

Cheater! :)

[Rama Sha]

SW is untouchable......we can't write it and niether can EU writers. Even Lucas can't do it right anymore. It's on such a high pedstal that anyone who tries to write it successfully will fail. We just make attempts.

[Jeseth Cloak]

I have to concur with Rama... I don't think that there is a lot of writting out there that holds up to SW standards. Most of the time what we do just goes to sound like some sort of spin-off type sci-fi flick, which is exactly what this is really... SWFans.net has grown way beyond star wars, and we're at least 30 years ahead of a lot of stuff that EU has, right?