Star Wars Fanon:Café Fanfic/July 2014

Café Fanfic is a discussion topic centered around fan-fiction. Authors are encouraged to contribute to the café's monthly discussion, which are designed to stimulate ideas and encourage engagement between members of the SWF fan-fiction writing community in a criticism-free zone.

Participants in Café Fanfic are also welcome to submit ideas for the next month's topic of discussion.

Previous topics can be found in the archive list at the bottom of the page.

There are three basic premises for Café Fanfic
 * 1) Please restrict this to stuff from your fan-fiction (written or possibly just conceptualized).
 * 2) You can suggest and make observations, but no condemning other people's work
 * 3) "I don't know" is a perfectly acceptable answer.


 * July's topic: How do you incorporate droids and droid characters into your fan-fiction? Do you find them easier or harder to write? How important do you make droid characters in your writing, in particular compared with popular canon droids like R2-D2, C-3PO, HK-47, or PROXY?

Sophia
Well, I've hardly written any droids so far, however, I do have one in mind to add to A Conqueror's Guide to the Echelon: Let Loose The Dogs of War. Incorporating a droid/droid character in general for my fan-fic, for me at least, may be somewhat difficult. I say this, because most of my fan-fiction which generally revolves around a pair of warring factions, does not really have much room in there for a droid or two. Here's a quote that would be in one of my fan-fiction stories at some point about this: "Droids are like animals. You have to tell them what to do. Isn't it better to do it yourself?" - Wisp Lee on the idea of creating LEGION for Imperium Alicata.

Compared to the popular canon droids, I think that droids have very little to no importance in my writing. And that would pretty much sum up my entry. Sophia McLaren -Cobb  19:34, July 9, 2014 (UTC)

Fiolli
I love the concept of droids in the Star Wars Universe, but I have a tinge of a technophobe streak in real life. That filters into my writing. Droids that would otherwise be background elements or incidental characters (like extras or the random unidentified waiter) are glossed in the stories. I simply don't consider them enough to have them there. In my revisions, this is one of the things I'm looking at incorporating. The principle droid I do have in my stories, Emra, is more than a minor character but she is not a focus character. I want my stories to try and dig into raw emotions, thoughts, and motives. These are things that droids generally do not have unless they are built into the characterization. That's why I love writing for Emra; it is a challenge to show that the automaton can have some measure of life to her.

One tactic that I've resorted to using is to accept my slight inherent bias against droids and put that into the story. Evening Delwynn likes and values Emra; she also views the droid as a droid. Delwynn is attached like one would be to a pet but doesn't coo over her with affection like one. She values the droid like a member of the team but understands that Emra is not. This might seem a little cold, but it simplifies my writing. Emra can still be a dutiful helper and team-player, but she is there to simply serve a purpose. I allow for other characters like Asana Lani or Dawn Starskipper to be more affectionate to Emra, because that can be done on the side and in shorter, easier-to-write passages. &mdash; Fiolli  20:34, July 9, 2014 (UTC)

Brandon
I think droids are an important part of Star Wars. The difficulty in writing them is making them useful, either to the plot or to your overall story (be it comedic or whatever else you may want to use them for). In The Jedi Guardian, I'll have a droid character&mdash;but with a twist. In the backstory of the novel, which is set almost 1,000 years after Return of the Jedi, droids have been recognized as sentient and given the same rights as organic beings. So the droid character in The Jedi Guardian will be on a quest to understand organics, and perhaps become a bit more human (for lack of a better term). - Brandon Rhea  (talk) 01:58, July 11, 2014 (UTC)
 * Will he be played by Brent Spiner, though? Atarumaster88  ( Talk page ) 03:48, July 11, 2014 (UTC)
 * Naturally. - Brandon Rhea Alliance Starbird.svg (talk) 14:23, July 11, 2014 (UTC)
 * Oh I see. Atarumaster88  ( Talk page ) 14:26, July 11, 2014 (UTC)

Atarumaster88
I agree with Brandon that droids are an important part of Star Wars. My difficulty with writing droids was finding a way to write one that was unique. I didn't want a droid character to be an R2-D2 knockoff, a C-3PO knockoff, an HK-47 knockoff, or even a P.R.O.X.Y. knockoff. I wanted one that was unique and not "Ataru's take on [insert canon droid personality]." As a result, it took me awhile to mature enough as a writer to come up with a droid character that I felt was unique and fit well with the story. In the end, I created J7-A0, a personal assistant droid. Rather than the "quirky" personalities that seem to pervade canonical droids, J7 is different in that he's primarily a friend. His motivations were to be devoted to watching out for his charge, Rhiannon Kraen. What keeps him from being stale is how he reinterprets his directives to help her fall in love with a man whom her parents wouldn't have initially approved of, because of how he views the positive impact of that relationship on Rhiannon. Atarumaster88 ( Talk page ) 16:42, July 21, 2014 (UTC)