[FFML] Continuing Old Fiction

[Nikholas F. Toledo Zu]

Okay, this is longish and has a few asides.  I'll tag out the asides 
so you guys can focus on the meat.

---

I found myself back online (after a six month hiatus) on March 1 and, 
since then, much has changed here on the FFML.  Having been on the 
FFML for ten years now, without as much as a peep over the latter 
half, I think I can now safely say what I've been mulling over for 
the last few months.

Now, I - that is, Switch - have been trying to get off my ass to 
write for the last few months, since I now have some free time on my 
hands, I've been deliberating over no longer writing fanfiction.

<nostalgia>

See, before I started, I was all into fanfiction, particularly Ranma 
fanfiction, and had read the large majority of what was available at 
the time on RAAC.  A bunch of us, my friends from high school, 
meantime were joking about making a fanfiction comic.  We decided to 
use the name "Nikholas F. Toledo" as our collective pseudonym; years 
later, this became the Nikholas F. Toledo Zu, with the "core" six 
members.  We started out when Stargazer's ronin ML came into being, 
posting Vector's "Time and Time Again", Pervert's "Split Ends", goo's 
"Untitled", my own "Switch" and "Whoremonger" and Rain Man (then Don 
Juan)'s "The Three-Fold God's Path".  Our poorly designed geocities 
website (by yours truly) had Yebah's artwork, accounting for all the 
members at the time.

When the FFML came back online, the Zu had increased to include our 
first non-producing member (Scruples), more writers (Hollie ["The 
Pitcher", "Rogues"] and NomaD ["The Leper", "Lunar Urge"]), more 
non-writers (Blitz, Gee), Datzo ["Stellaris"], Jewel, elf ["Reunions 
and Tragedies" and "Through the Looking Glass"].  Radler ["Angel's 
Chronicles"] was later assimilated, followed by a creative group 
under the name of Pinball ["Illycia"], the writing "twins" Mayhem 
["Memories", "Twenty Less Lonely People in the World" and as many 
spamfics as I did] and Chaos ["Chaos" and "Wyrd"], and the 
amalgamation "Father" [who was, at the time, me and the Scriviner, 
and I think Rain Man, poised to write "Wandering Boy Bob" chapter 3.5].

The geocities site closed, we moved to webjump, and to my mydestiny 
site, and were grateful (as are we all) to Philip Mak when we moved 
to anifics.  During this time, the membership ballooned some more 
with Attar, Llewe and Katana [the other half of "HollieKatana", 
writer of "Variations on a Theme"].

During the downtime that followed this (I remember contributing twice 
to improfanfic.com), we actually added three more members (by then, 
we were re-envisioning what the Zu would be doing) adding Zer0, Hana and Itami.

Years after this, I got a bit of free time once more, and concluded 
book one of "Switch".  Now is four years after that time.  (elf and I 
had posted a chapter of "Follow Suit" in that duration.)

</nostalgia>

<contact>

During this entire time, this email account that I control has been 
the only point of contact with the FFML (barring others who have 
accounts here, like Radler and the others who occasionally 
lurked).  We weren't savvy enough to have some sort of automatic 
redirection system such that when a post arrives, say C&Cing chapter 
15 of Radler's "Angel's Chronicles", that Radler would immediately 
receive it in the mail.  When we started, only a couple of us had 
internet access at home, so since I was playing editor to everyone's 
pieces, it had come to be that I would get the chapters, run through 
them, then post to the FFML.

Clearly, now that everyone in the Zu has internet access in some 
form, this is no longer necessary.  In fact, those among us who 
actually still write frequently now use fanfiction.net as a venue.

This direction is good for everyone involved.  The main problem with 
me being the sole point of contact meant that the Zu denizens could 
not actively participate in discussions on the list, and we were 
virtually masks that occasionally spouted fanfiction.  I tried to be 
active (with participation on the Synopsis List, and occasional 
review duties), but it still meant no direct link between you and 
your favorite Zu writer.

The fact of the matter is that I no longer have contact with about 
half of the members of the Zu.  When people joined, they were already 
in college (with one notable exception); by now all of us have left 
the academe (with one notable exception that comes to mind) and have 
moved on to jobs, and marriage (I count five members married, with 
more on the way; interestingly, there are also two couples within the 
roster, implying somewhat that the Zu is co-ed).  Once upon a time, 
we were all (except Rain Man, our first Overseas Correspondent) 
tucked here in the Philippines (land of Bleedman, for those in the 
know); now we have members in the US, Canada and Singapore, with more 
plans of migration being processed.

</contact>

The common avenue for members of the Zu still active in the 
fanfiction scene (whether reading or writing) is 
fanfiction.net.  We've been on there for a few years now, but the 
ff.net account was originally "where old fanfics went to rest", 
followed by "where old unfinished fanfics tried to get finished".  I 
am planning on migrating the body of Zu work there.

This leads me to make some decisions, as does any time I sift through 
Zu fanfics: continue or ignore?  As can be noted, I'm all for 
continue, but I am increasingly trying to wean myself off of writing 
fanfiction and back to writing original fiction, like I had more than 
twelve years ago.  However, I'm not a big fan of letting an 
unfinished work stay unfinished.

So, this is where you guys come in.  I'll open some forums for some 
stories, initially "Switch" and "Age Don't Matter", and I will share 
plot points and ideas that have been percolating in my noggin for 
more or less five years, and hope to get some discussion going.  I'd 
love for someone to pick up the titles and see them to their just 
conclusions, but I'm realistically hoping for just continuing by 
committee until satisfaction is obtained, in whatever form.  In fact, 
I'm no longer certain that these titles each still have an audience, 
much less one interested in contributing to its continuation and 
culmination, but, at the very least, I offload these ideas and make 
them available to those who may even be partially interested.

I've been asking the other members who are interested in the same 
deal.  At the moment, Rain Man's "The Three-Fold God's Path" has been 
in a long-delayed rewrite, and thus won't be available.  Likewise, 
elf plans to rewrite both "Reunions and Tragedies" and "Through the 
Looking Glass".  Forums and uploads will follow when they will, over 
the course of the next month or so.

If any of you have a favorite unfinished Zu story that you would like 
to see open-sourced this way, drop a message directly to me: I'll 
confer with the author(s).  You can also share your thoughts on why 
this is a good or a bad idea.  Either way, drop by the page at 
http://www.fanfiction.net/~nikholasftoledozu.  And don't spam the 
entire list with things they wouldn't really need or want to hear. :p

Thanks to everyone that keeps the FFML running, and sharing, and thriving.

Nikholas "Switch" F. Toledo
Keeper of the Zu