No.79
What do you think of restart fics?
That is, fics where the general premise is that the protag goes back to the beginning of their life or some point with all their memories/skill/whatever.
For example:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7262793/1/Ashes-of-the-Pasthttps://www.fanfiction.net/s/4536005/1/Oh-God-Not-Againhttps://www.fanfiction.net/s/2636963/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Nightmares-of-Futures-PastPost any good restart fics you've read. Don't have to be completed.
No.82
I think that it usually has the problem of the author trying to substitute foreknowledge of the story for actual understanding of its plot and characters
usually the result is something like
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheStationsOfTheCanon No.90
I think the concept of a person going back to their younger life with more knowledge and experience is something that deeply resonates with all us miserable NEETs who ruined our lives and wish we could just go back and do it over again. Commonly, a story like this would be comedy, in the classic sense (things work out for our protagonist and it's all in good humor). You're going to have trouble getting people to take such a silly concept seriously enough for drama and tragedy. Most stories will probably be straight crack (and there's nothing wrong with that).
I'm working on a series of these for Harry Potter. Haven't posted them yet, because it's all unedited garbage. My masterpiece will follow Tom Riddle who did nothing wrong as he fixes society.
I never liked Oh God Not Again. It was too simple. I have a very refined taste when it comes to childish fantasies.
No.92
They're my guilty pleasure. Especially the bad ones. We need more of them.
>>82Shame this happens so much though.
No.98
I think it can be really well-done.
Particular theme I'd be interested in is something like Age of Apocalypse-ing. Going back, and then successfully neutralizing the main villain/source of conflict, then having to live through the repercussions of that event.
And then at the end/climax, once again a choice can be made to either stop the new villain, or go back and stop one's self from stopping the old villain.
Makes for excellent my-head-hurts type stories.
No.132
The ones I've read so far have been pretty generic. Most of them tended to basically rehash the same origin story with only one new addition or two. It's like they're afraid to build on what's already there or to be daring and work from scratch. Imagination and creativity is what really matters when writing something like a restart fic and sadly there are authors out there who just don't get that.
No.138
>>132I think a large part of that is fear of the unknown. When you're rehashing the plot you have at least a refrence point for how a character would behave ergo substituting real understanding.
Until you "own" their "voice" or reinvent them what feels like a coherent plot initially tends to collaps in an utterly directionless mess in which no one is motivated to do anything they're supposed to.