#also that Vulcan script doesn't say anything in reality

[bumblingbabooshka]

Tuvok and T’Pel take their kids to a museum in the city

[unhumanrights]

Potential Lower Decks fanfic and fanfic-adjacent ideas (and it turns out some talk about writing insecurity, which is the first four paragraphs so you can skip if you want)

LONG INTRO

I'm about to type a LOT of stuff. This whole post got longer than I thought it would.

So, I have my AO3 account, finally. I don't have any other creative projects. What's stopping me from writing some fanfic already?

MYSELF. I AM THE PROBLEM.

Okay, I'm exaggerating for comedic effect! I will admit to still being nervous about writing something that's not my own brainchild, though. "What if I get it wrong?" I ask myself. "What if it doesn't sound anything like the show?" I am working on convincing myself that neither question is that important. I may not get it EXACTLY right, and it may sound more like my versions of the characters than the canonical versions, but...who cares? As long as I'm doing my best and being true to the spirit, isn't that good enough? That's what I'm trying to tell myself. And also, self, no, it's not going to sound like the show. That doesn't make it WRONG. You're not a professional comedy writer, are you? No. You're not writing this for a paycheck, are you? No. So stop worrying about it!

I'm trying to tell myself this.

So, anyway, that was a long intro to say that I'm going to now do the other thing that writers do when they are scared to actually write: I'm going to talk about writing. And also plan a research project!

LOWER DECKS RESEARCH PROJECT

Actually, let's talk about the research project first. I thought I might do a second rewatch of Lower Decks, with the goal of writing dossiers for each character. Gather known facts, of course, but also take special note of dialogue and interaction. What the characters say, how they say it, what kinds of jokes are usually targeted at them, how they are with specific characters, you get it. A real resource for my own writing, and something I'd also like to put out there for others who might want to use it. Seems like a lot of work for fanfic, but I do love having a project, and this is a long-term one. Plus, it will train me to make detailed characters of my own. Also plus, it will make me feel like an anthropologist or a spy, gathering intel on my subjects, and I am a creep like that.

Okay, and now to talk about what I might want to write!

ACTUAL FANFIC IDEAS

I've already talked about some ideas I've had. Mostly, the AU stuff. My mind keeps going back to it, so it seems it may become a reality someday. I was thinking of changing the tentative name of "Spell Trek" that I came up with for my fantasy AU, since it's the name of a board game, but I figured it doesn't matter that much because it's not like I'm selling these stories, and I don't think there will be market confusion. Haven't come up with much else beyond some scattered thoughts for the setting, but I'm pretty sure it will be a straightforward conversion. You know, swap sci-fi for fantasy. Probably have them all flying around in airships instead of spaceships. Might be interplanar travel instead of interstellar. Phasers? Well, that's just a stun wand. Shields? That doesn't really change, it's just a magic shield instead of a science one. The biggest question I have right now (just popped into my head) is how to handle "warp." I have to figure out how planar travel works, I guess. I'd also have to think about whether I want to keep all the species intact or kind of play around with them a bit. Wouldn't be that hard to make Vulcans elves, or Klingons orcs. Plenty of worldbuilding to do, is the point.

The second idea I had, which is actually still applicable to the first, is the matter of story format. I've been toying around with different ways to write lately. I COULD just write in the traditional prose way, like you would find in a book. DIalogue, action, description. First or third person. You know.

I was thinking, though, that I might want to write scripts instead. I've toyed around with it when writing original fiction. I don't really follow the proper TV format, though. Very loose style. But I figured, if I wanted to emulate the show as closely as possible, then maybe a script makes sense for me. Not sure how many people want to read scripts, but maybe SOMEONE out there would like them.

Oh, on a related note, I was also thinking of writing stories as transcripts. Similar to the script, but particular style. I had three possible notions to go with this idea:

The Lower Deck Five (T'Lyn for the win), or maybe just a couple of them, decide to make a piece of ancient Earth entertainment known as a "podcast." "The Cerritos Experience," or something like that. Just a place to talk about missions, gossip, whatever. So, my stories would be transcripts of their podcasts. I think this one is my favorite.

Stories told through personal logs. Could just be one character's, or could be multiple characters' talking about the same events.

Perhaps Captain Freeman decides that she needs visual records of all missions from now on, so now away teams wear bodycams or have drones or something. Transcripts of the videos that they produce.

I don't know, there's just something I like about the simplicity of scripts and transcripts. You still have to have a good story to tell, but it feels easier, in a way. For my, anyway. Eh, I'll probably end up writing traditional prose, too, but I do want to experiment with one of these ideas (probably the podcast).

Sorry I wrote so much. Hey, you didn't HAVE to read it. Thanks if you did, though. Let me know if any of this sounds interesting.