User:Daric Gaersmith/TES Fan Fiction Collection/Reading Fan Fiction/Kathodos

01:09, 27 May 2014 (GMT): I'm back playing Skyrim once again. I am not in ESO, so please don't ask. Userspace Links Cartography Gallery Genealogy In Game Characters Modding on the XBox Status Update Templatery TES Fan Fiction Collection To Do List Sandboxes — working on Alfwyn's map of Solstheim. — Apocryphal - the language on the Diiv Word Wall. — adding a referencing stylesheet to the Cite web references. — Empty or undefined. — Rewriting the proposed "guidelines" for DLC namespaces. See The Silencer's sandbox for more details. — new content for the Geode Vein page.

introduction   This page contains my review of Kathodos by Docta Corvina Kathodos I've been busy today revamping my userspace here on the UESP wiki, applying my custom Userspace Layout template and modifying the displayed titles of my pages. During this, I had a look at the Elder Scrolls specific tips for writing great fan fiction that I have collected so far, and in particular Docta Corvina's Fanfic-Writing Tips/Sounding board. From there I decided to check out Corvina's fan fic writing. I was immediately impressed with the disclaimer that Corvina has prepended to this tale, along with the elaborate graphic images and fontwork. This appears to be very similar to the quality of fan fiction presentation that I aspire to with my own works. Chapter 1 The author's extensive vocabulary, or exhaustive use of a thesaurus, is quite evident in this first chapter. The writing style seems overly descriptive, with a lot of attention to detail. This could prove exhausting in the long run (being that, at present this tale spans 18 chapters), but it is no doubt necessary at the outset of this tale to "sell" the characters and their environment to the reader. The first chapter of The Gaersmith Legacy will no doubt be just as overly descriptive for the same reasons. The question of audience comes to mind when reading this chapter. Who is the intended audience for Kathodos? It would seem to me that it is aimed at people who are very familiar with Skyrim. For example, this comment. "Best resign myself to the fact that Keerava will be swimming in my coin tonight." Who is Keerava? She wasn't mentioned previously in the story. It is assumed that the reader knows that Keerava is the innkeeper at The Bee and Barb in Riften. This is an important question for me to consider as I begin to write my own fan fiction. I'm writing my tale here on the UESP wiki, and as you can see from the Prologue, I sprinkle wikilinks throughout my text. However, I'm also copying my manuscript to Archive of Our Own, a website for all sorts of fandoms, not just the Elder Scrolls, and my writing there doesn't contain explanatory wikilinks. Therefore I need to be quite explicit when I introduce a new character, location, or anything fandom-specific, as I cannot assume that my reader will be "in the know". Another thing I found interesting from this first chapter of Kathodos is how the lead character both talks to herself and has unvocalized thoughts. The latter are written in italics, without quotation marks. I think this is a good writing technique, and one that I intend to implement in my own writing. The ending of this first chapter gives a mild hint at the main storyline of Kathodos. Penelope is seeking answers to something that had happened in her past. It is gentle, leading the reader lightly to the next chapter. The reader is drawn, enticed even, to the next chapter. It is nice to see this method used here, as opposed to the cliff-hanger endings that I'm used to, which push the reader on, urging them toward the next chapter. This reader is left intrigued by Kathodos, wanting to find out more.