Jaal Ama Darav (Official Thread)

I'm still writing!! When I don't have 10k words to translate/proofread...

I realize that's not much comfort considering that currently I'm writing 1 totally fringe fic, hahaha - but I have plans. I don't mind if there are barely any readers left along with barely any new MEA content, I'm still planning on finishing my Akksul, the R&D sequel and also a quarian fic because DAMN IT THERE ARE GOING TO BE MEA QUARIANS IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT. I gotta say though, having a vanishing readership isn't exactly encouraging - I'm doing it for the few I have left, sure, but I'm really disappointed that the whole fandom seems to be collapsing after the DLC news, like, there are still tons of awesome things about MEA to explore and many, many creative directions we can go. I know it's different when you know there's nothing to look forward to, but... we invented fanfictions to go beyond the scope of an original work to begin with, I don't see what's changed about that, apart from just being disappointed.

Anyway, I'll stop grousing over it, it's purely coming from my perspective as one of those writers, it was an awesome experience while it lasted - and I still love the way the stories turned out/are turning out.

Also Happy New Year, guys! My life has literally been turned upside down this holiday season and I'm kind of in a precarious situation in general, but that's not going to stop me.

I'll never stop reading your fics and it's more then just being a mass effect fan, I swear you could probably pull me into any of your stories, mass effect or not because you're just that damn good. I'm honestly a little surprised that more people are not that into all the fan-fiction now that there is no more DLC, some of my favorite fics are about character's where there is no longer new canon material being written. I mean for me that's all the more reason why I'm scampering for fics, I don't want to let some of the characters go.

Happy new year! I hope your life isn't causing you too much trouble and that everything turns around for the better. You're great person and if life kicks you in the shin, kick back.

 Oh and as for that Quarian fic, I'll be waiting.....

So!... I'm alive! And if you all will indulge me a moment, I will share why that's special news under wraps:



I'm going to respond to all of you soon, I just needed to put that out there because this is not a great day.

I'm glad that alert was false and that everyone is okay.

On the Jaal level, I'm playing the game again. I am close to going to Kadara, so that means I'll be able to start Jaal's personal quest before too much longer. Love that last part!

Chapter 9 of Heart of the Forge and on AO3 and Fanfiction.net!

Tags:
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janalilith
Caythleen
bekkael
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Obliviousmiss
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Akksul angst is everlasting in every moment...

Also, Onecrazymonkey1 , @lee80 and Jedi Qui-Gon - thank you guys for your kind words, it means a lot! Sorry for not responding sooner, it's just been totally crazy here. Nothing quite so dramatic since then, but in general. Otherwise things are good, as the above indicates I'm still in the writing, just extremely slowly, hahaha. Better than not writing at all! I really miss the bustle on here...

   So good.

Glad to hear things are going better! Hope things continue to improve.

So true, its up to fanfic writers to keep things going for now until we get a sequel. (I am not giving up hope!)

I am even planning on a Quarian Ark fanfic too.

Will be doing more Ryder and Jaal fanfics as well. They deserve a hard-won happy ending, and the loose ends that need tying up… such as the fact the Kett are still out there.

How would your Ryder react if they had a nightmare about something horrible happening to Jaal? Like...*shivers*...Exaltation?

Sakura Ryder would likely, especially if it involved Exaltation, awaken with a scream and a cold sweat.

Yes to all the things!!! There isn't enough MEA fanfiction around, and many of the ones I started were abandoned by the authors.

I will be sitting here, eagerly awaiting anything you fanfic authors publish.

Thanks for entertaining us with your stories.

I'm sorry to hear you had such a stressful relationship with FF.net, comments of that caliber are needlessly brutal! Writing fanfiction should be a safe space for both author and readers in my opinion, not everyone was born a professional writer and even the best of writers had to start somewhere and learn their craft, it's not something you learn overnight. Besides, we're doing this for free on our own time, that by itself should afford you some respect - the fact that your writing doesn't appeal to someone is just the nature of creative work, not everyone will be pleased and no one should expect that. I honestly never understood the amount of vitriol some people can pour into others who make a creative effort that doesn't meet their personal standards, I mean, it's not like they paid money or made commitments of any kind, if someone wants to offer feedback that the author can use that's great, but the things you quoted are way out of bounds.

For my part I got lucky in that respect so far; originally I was writing fanfictions almost a decade ago on a forum, not BSN, but by that time I had been writing quite a bit of other stuff so what I actually posted wasn't as poorly developed as my very first stumblings (my parents happen to be linguists specialized in literature, so I had the benefit of awesome feedback at home when I was first learning the craft) and then I stopped posting my stuff online for about 8 or so years. I had positive experiences for the most part, but I was super concerned about getting my "serious" writing moving instead of pouring all my creative juices into projects that would never be officially published and perhaps never really that special in a sea of similar fanfics, but honestly I had a lot of room for improvement still. I perfected my style actually by taking one of my OC fics from that very site, deleting it and turning it into a novel, the first one I ever finished - but it never amounted to much (mostly because I want to work over it again before submitting it, I only ever sent it to one or two publishers for consideration). Now that, along with a lot of my other "serious" or "turned serious" stuff, whether finished or partway done, is just sitting on my shelf waiting for me to find the time, inspiration and motivation to do this again... and meanwhile life happened and all that, now since MEA came out and I became a Jaal fan I found my way here and I decided to return to fanfictions because why the hell not? It's not like I was actually USING my free time to work on my serious stuff and I found MEA and everyone on this thread to be great motivation for me to at least write in general, just anything at all; that has had it's desired effect in turn, since then I've found my muse again in my main work.

For my new work, I was posting on Tumblr exclusively for a short time but readers kept asking me why I'm not on AO3 so I expanded there - I gotta say, the responses I got from readers on both sites were absolutely phenomenal (I haven't received a single negative criticism - not even a constructive one - it's all just amazingly positive), I am so pleased by how that whole experience turned out with my first "comeback" story. I did sign up for FF.net not long ago actually, just posting that first story since it's finished along with what I have for Akksul, but I haven't received any comments yet from anyone, so we'll see how that turns out - if anyone will even say anything now, considering the state of the fandom - but if I would start to get the kind of responses you described I think I'd just stop posting there. I go where I'm wanted and where the majority of readers actually want to read my stuff, it's not like I want to force my narratives on anyone. Still, right now my main concern is more about how few people are still around to read my niche stuff, that's why I wanted to expand to FF.net in the first place, tap into some unknown audiences.

Anyway, so my quarian chapter 1 is going pretty well so far! I'm really liking how my protagonist turned out. I've got about 5 or so chapters planned out in advance, although I'm still vacillating over some details - the thing that's holding me back now is that I haven't read the MEA tie-in novels yet and I don't want to go against anything canon inadvertently, but from what I've heard pretty much in-game knowledge should be enough for what I'm planning. I don't want this fic to be so much in the spotlight of the game's events, more on the periphery, dabbling in some alternative perspectives (I'm thinking e.g. Ryder is off doing xyz on, say, Elaaden and meanwhile my protagonist is hearing about it over on Voeld or something like that). At least, that's my skeleton plan, it might change totally as I advance in the actual story, but basically I want to expand on MEA and show a different side of it I guess you could say. Plus I'm still undecided about the romance - there's gotta be romance because I'm a sucker for romance narratives, so there's going to be something, I just don't know which way to jump yet. (Maybe I'll just keep readers in suspense and let it just unfold as it wills...)

I'm going to go off and plot now.

I finally got the time to kick back and read it and it was wonderful! I love how much the Moshae seems to troll Ryder  and while the wait for more chapters can be painful, it's always worth it in the end.

I'm glad you're alright, take care of yourself.