Brainstorming

[Suet Seung]

I have some ideas on a future fanfic, but I don't think I'll be writing the fanfic until I have two of my current fanfic finished. As well as my cowritten fanfic with my two cowriters(hint hint read signature).

If you were someone from the time of ancient wuxia, where there were Emperors, Heroes and stuff.

If you had a choice of an Emperor or someone from jiang hu (Giang Ho), a common farmer, or other? Who would choose to love/like?

There's always stories how the girl who chooses the Emperor, like the series Empress Wu with Viodoll Fan she had a choice of a prince, a well-skilled fighter, and a smart scholar, she chose the prince and she wasn't always happy.

SO I hope you guys can brainstorm with me and express your opinion whether you would choose a crown prince, skilled fighter, scholar, etc and why?

On the other hand, for guys, would you choose a princess, a rich girl, a girl whose grown up in jiang hu?

Also Being a prince or princess doesn't meant they can't fight or that they're weak compared to people from jiang hu.

[legendarypeachmaster]

if i am a girl, which yet im not, i would choose the scholar.
because no matter he wants or not, the prince cant spend too much time with me (the question asks "would u", so i automatically used first person, but now it really sounds weird so im going to use "the girl" instead of "i")
he can't spend too much time with the girl because he has to also worry about his country. he is responsible for the lives of all his ppl therefore he wouldn't have too much free time.
the girl shouldn't chose the fighter because fighters usually have dangerous lives. no matter how tough they are, they are still living mostly in danger. the girl wouldn't want to worry about her husband or fiance or boyfriend getting hurt all the time.
out of the three choices, the scholar should be the most romantic one, because of poetry, art, and other stuff he can do.
for me--- in a guy's perspective--- the most romantic moment should be the guy putting make-ups for the girl: drawing her eye brows, fixing her hair style and everything. and in this case the girl wouldn't want a fighter with hands that soak in blood for all his life to put on her make-ups for her; neither does she want a guy who has no time to do so.
a fighter might be heroic, and a prince might be wealthy, but a scholar should be the person who understands and communicates love the most.

[legendarypeachmaster]

k, was it because i didn't read carefully or did u add in the part asking guys to choose a girl after i sent my reply.
so if im not forced to be a girl anymore, then i would like to choose a girl grown up in jiang hu.
because it's really fun to have a girl protecting me. for example, Duan Yu, typically weak (at the beginning) and slow and everything, but is protected by everyone around him. being this kind of guy is very relaxing, u just need to rely on ur luck. and it's really fun for readers to see how lucky will he get, so it's a very good choice to include this kind of character in a novel.

[kidd]

I would choose a scholar because I admired people who are intelligent and knowledgeable. So, I'm always attracted to characters who intellectual characters. I also like the polite and gentlemanly way a scholar carry himself. Bottomline is I always like character who excels in the 'wen' department more that the character who 'wu' department. This also include characters who have special skill like medicine, astrology etc.

[Eliar Swiftfire]

Well, for me...

It's gonna be a difficult choice between a scholar or the jiang hu swordsgal.

But for practical reasons, I'll choose the jiang ju swordsgal, cos' if I imagine myself in an era in the past, I doubt I would be the fighting type, and if I'm paired up with a scholar, both of us will die easily. Hah.

A swordsgal who looks pretty tough outside but actually rather vulnerable can be quite cute. Yeap.

[Mystery]

Why can we have a combination? A prince (power) who is well-learn (scholarly) and a great fighter. Those are just characteristics expected of a person who one day will govern a country. It's fiction, so we got to push the limits!

[Mithras]

Hmm... a toughie

In Wuxia times, my best buddy would be a cross dressing buddhist monk, who drinks yet loves buddha, and the romantic interest would revolve around a lying conniving prostitute with six fingers and her 3 female consorts who are tied to her though hope and fear.

I believe that this would be interesting, and it would also wreck the nicely estiblished upright ethos of teenie wuxia and jin yongnians. It would bring to wuxia a whole new darker level of the fictional ancient pysche, one in which appearences are only that and being heroic and just not only gets you killed, but is a laughable joke.

As Mystery said: 'It's fiction, so we got to push the limits!'

[kidd]

A prostitute as a female lead is pretty interesting and refreshing.

[Eliar Swiftfire]

Originally posted by Mithras
Hmm... a toughie

In Wuxia times, my best buddy would be a cross dressing buddhist monk, who drinks yet loves buddha, and the romantic interest would revolve around a lying conniving prostitute with six fingers and her 3 female consorts who are tied to her though hope and fear.

Heh. Kinky.

[MYF]

Kinda reminds me of M.Cervantes 'Don Quixote', hmmm... promising, but might offend dear Suet

Originally posted by Mithras
Hmm... a toughie

In Wuxia times, my best buddy would be a cross dressing buddhist monk, who drinks yet loves buddha, and the romantic interest would revolve around a lying conniving prostitute with six fingers and her 3 female consorts who are tied to her though hope and fear.

I believe that this would be interesting, and it would also wreck the nicely estiblished upright ethos of teenie wuxia and jin yongnians. It would bring to wuxia a whole new darker level of the fictional ancient pysche, one in which appearences are only that and being heroic and just not only gets you killed, but is a laughable joke.

As Mystery said: 'It's fiction, so we got to push the limits!'

[jeh]

I would choose a skilled fighter because I would feel safe when I'm around him. He can protect me. I like guys who are strong and can stand up for themselves so I would definitely not choose a scholar. Even though they're smart but in my mind, a scholar is too sissy. And I don't like those poems stuff, either. I wouldn't choose a prince because he wouldn't have much time for me. He is too busy worrying about his country and stuff. Plus, if I marry him, I would spend my whole life in the kingdom. That would be boring. I prefer going on adventures so that's another reason why I chose the skilled fighter.

[Kara]

I like it best when really evil guys fall in love- the type that would abandon everything to be with the girl they like despite being so evil.

[jetso]

If I was writing it, I would probably pick royalty or the swordsman, simply because writing it would be easier (my admirations to anyone who can make up a very clever character - with my limited intelligence, all my characters end up dumber than me.) For the same reasons, I have soft spots for scholary gentleman who have a tough streak (remembering the scholar in the Heroes Meet duels in RotCH)...

In Wuxia times, my best buddy would be a cross dressing buddhist monk, who drinks yet loves buddha, and the romantic interest would revolve around a lying conniving prostitute with six fingers and her 3 female consorts who are tied to her though hope and fear.

I believe that this would be interesting, and it would also wreck the nicely estiblished upright ethos of teenie wuxia and jin yongnians. It would bring to wuxia a whole new darker level of the fictional ancient pysche, one in which appearences are only that and being heroic and just not only gets you killed, but is a laughable joke.

As Mystery said: 'It's fiction, so we got to push the limits!'

Too true... The question seems to embrace stereotypes. (The scholar, the swordsman, the prince... etc...) Most people who wande around Jiang Hu would probably be a "Jack of all trades", knowing a bit of everything besides their specialisation. Just pick things up on the way... a scholar with a habit of flinching things or maybe a prince who actually likes his position in life... a swordsman who has issues about blood?

Wuxia fiction has a lot of stereotypes, as many as fantasy... I mean, who hasn't heard of the weak scholar who finds himself a powerful girlfriend? (etc)

Agreeing with Kara, redemption stories are great when handled well, which is rare. One needs a truly good villain who will transform believably due to factors other than simply and only love... or else it all becomes wishywashy or saccharine...

[trizz251]

if i use wuxia and most of the content is all about messed up plot, twist and turns and revenge, then would that be copying other's idea stated in the no plagarising thing, cause it's all basic ideas of a wuxia story, i want your opinion plz.

[Eliar Swiftfire]

If you're writing a murder mystery, and someone got MURDERED in it, you ain't copying someone else's idea.

[trizz251]

no, no, no, like in wuxia fiction how it's mostly based on revenge for your father or family and how the last generation affects the next, is that plagarism if i use aspects of that?

[Long]

Originally posted by trizz251
no, no, no, like in wuxia fiction how it's mostly based on revenge for your father or family and how the last generation affects the next, is that plagarism if i use aspects of that?

In my university days, I was told by my lecturer that - "plagiarism = the representation of the words or ideas of another as one's own".

Using global themes such as revenge for family, friends turning into foes, search for a sword, search for a kung fu manual, battle to be the best, ect... is not plagarism. It is how you tell it and the characters that you use to tell it that may be plagiarism.

I terms of writing a story, or novel plagiarism occurs when directly copying another author's plot, whereby when reading the two stories, they are nearly exactly identitical, except for very little minor things like the fact that the names of the characters, and the names of buildings are the same, ie someone writing a story called, "Jerry Potter", but the storyline, the characters, and the plot follows exactly the same plot as "Harry Potter".

For example if you wrote a story, based on a guy called, say for example, Miu Fung who's the Chief of the Beggar Clan. He later discovers he is actually born in Sai Ha (and his actual name is not Miu Fung but Qiu Fung). His father Qiu Yin San was accidently murdered by a bunch of wulin fighters on the outskirts of CHina. He thus leaves the Beggar Clan to find the truth. Then those around him dies at the hands of a mysterious man (who is actually his father Qiu Yin San) and he is framed for their deaths. He runs into a lady who's clever in disguise called, say, Ah Shu, who's also the servant of a elite figther called Lo Yung Fok and the daugther of Lin Jing Sit a Kithan prince who has many lovers. Qiu Fung then falls inlove but accidently kills Ah Shu with his own hands... ect... ie, A direct copy of the plot from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, except for a change in character names. THis would be plagarism.

It also includes for example using a copy righted character. For example if you have a character called, "Wong Yung" in your story and the description you have given of her matches the one given by Jin Yong then you're paliarising his idea.

But it wouldn't be palagrism if you had a character called "Wong Yung", who say is a male - works as an assassin and say "Kwok Jing" who is a female prostitute.

[trizz251]

thx and if i made up my whole story line wrote it our, then find out that someone had close enough story line to me just some differences here and there how do i prove that i created it

[Long]

Originally posted by trizz251
thx and if i made up my whole story line wrote it our, then find out that someone had close enough story line to me just some differences here and there how do i prove that i created it

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. But there have been court cases in both the US and Australia where author's have sued each other sighting that one plagiarised another's idea. I think in general the ruling has been:

1. Date of creation

2. Similiar plots, similiar themes, told through the perspective of totally different characters doesn't constitute plagraism, ie romance, love triangle - told through the eyes of three males and one female - the other story consists of a gay, two females, and one straight male.

3. Identical character names, similiar phyiscal discriptions, different personalities, and totally different plot - doesn't constitute plagraism.

Plagraism = nearly identical plots + nearly identical themes + nearly identical characters

ie story of love, love triangles/desires, involving a secretary, coworker, and manager in the workplace

another story of love, love traingle/desires, involving nurse, patient, doctor in the hospital

Believe me its very hard to prove plagarism in writing. Otherwise a lot of writers would be out of business. Just think of it this way - how many movies have you seen and stories have you read where they end with a man and woman kissing.

[trizz251]

and if i have a proof that i created it first, like from friends and i date my work, that would help prevent and provide evidence for plagarism or i can just patent and copyright my creation.