But meanwhile, if you're compelled to write a certain kind of story, write it. We don't do fan fiction here at all, so it's not the kind of thing Hatrackers could help you with, but as a writer, I find it's pretty important to follow my writer urges, if for no other reason than when I feel strongly about a particular story, I am more motivated to clear my schedule and actually write it. It's the things I'm wishy-washy about that never get finished (or written down in the first place.)

As many famous authors have said before - writers write.

Writing Fan Fiction may not be the best thing you can do. But... Who cares? Write what you want to write. It might not get published, but if your only reason for writing is being published, then you're probably not having much fun with it anyway.

I think Fan Fiction can be a great writing exercise. But I also think it can make people lazy, if they never write anything else.

On writing the story - is it the characters, universe, plot that you want? The characters are pretty standard fare for fantasy. You could easily base another "reluctant messiah" on Luke to start with. But your character will change as you grow him through the story.

Try writing the story with different names and see if it remains in the SW universe. If it differs enough - you've got something new. If it doesn't change, then like people have said - it's just for your entertainment.

Jeeze...

I saw that at the library the other day. Read the blurb. Sounded completely stupid. Just calling it as it is.

One of the reasons I'm writing a fanfic (something I abhored to do before) is that I don't have to waste time and energy to create a world and can concentrate on the characters and story. I'm good at creating worlds; my problem is characterization. I've used some characters from the official story but none of them are in the lead spot.

Also, writing this fanfic gives me time to work on my writing skills so when I get back to my own stuff, I will be better at it than before. Especially since I've never written in English before and this fanfic gives me the opportunity to do so. My English has improved tremendously in the meantime.

One major factor in my decision to write fanfiction was the constant rejection of my regular work. If I wasn't going to get published and / or paid...well, I might as well have some fun with writing.

For example, let's say I write a story where Han Solo becomes emperor and starts destroying planets for fun. I send it to Lucas (or whatever), they open it, read it, reject it. Then 10 years down the line a totally different "authorized" writer writes a story about Hano Solo becoming emperor. I try to sue them because they "stole" my idea.

The more likely scenario is that the publisher would send it back unopened. That way they are legally clear of any acts of copyright infringement.

I read this scenario somewhere, I think it was one of the SFWA "advice for writers" pages.

Also, for big universes like Star Wars I think they have huge continuity graphs and a random fan's story is not likely to fit into them.

I haven't read any Star Wars novels since I was in my early teens, but I remember enjoying them very much, particularly ones by Timothy Zahn about Admiral Thrawn, and a short story collection called "Tales of the Bounty Hunters" which included stories by Dave Wolverton and Robert J. Anderson. I intend to reread them sometime to see how they measure up to my current tastes.

No...its the kind of thing you can't post on Hatrack. Thats not the same thing. A person can still privately ask people here for private critiques and feedback.

Lucas used the "monomyth" to outline his story.

As for writing in the Star Wars universe, many of the best books did not have to be Star Wars books. I mean that while there were some characters that crossed over from the movies to literature, and occasionaly some of the larger mythology or history was relevant (the force, galactic rebellion, etc.) many times the characters (or at least characterizations) were wholly original. My mind goes to the later X-wing series with Wraith Squadron, which could have easily been about any scfi fighter pilot groups. Especially Star Fighters of Adumar, which feels like an original scifi creation transplanted into the Star Wars universe and remains one of my favorite scifi novels to this day.