It does not move me
It's not the kind of thing that I like

I guess that line from Kaiser Chiefs song "Nanananana" can pretty much sum up my earlier attitude to Hyperspace's (probably best) feature known as What's the Story?. I mean, my stance on the EU vs movies has already been made clear. In the beginning, I believed this to be a feature that EU and continuity buffs would get a kick out of. The first round came and went, nothing posted.

Second round started and I cautiously took a look at the whole feature, for the first time. It was Robert Colemans opera patron who needed a backstory. I wrote something in about 90 minutes about an enlightened art collector named Bervan Mehud who went out of his way to see beyond Republican propaganda and tried saving Jedi artifacts from Palpatine. I also managed to tie in his story with Tannon Prajis however, the connection was a bit far fetched. The backstory wasn't great by any means (I mean, 1 1/5 work isn't enough).

I wrote some more stories, but never took it serious. Not until the last round did I start writing in Word and put some more continuity thinking into my storylines.

Now that's probably the hardest thing for me, who has read very little EU. I've really only read the Thrawn trilogy, that's all, so I'm at a clear disadvantage to my fellow writers that pour over various sources to get their stories right. I've had to utilise Wookieepedia for the majority of my entries which maybe isn't as good as having an EU library at your disposal (however, I'm aware that several members of this site is working continuously to uphold correct information at Wookieepedia. Kudos to you!). I've also noticed this when comparing notes with my fellow writers that there are different approaches to the stories.

My notes usually consist of "I thought that this would be a cool idea for the character" or "I read about this in my history book and applied it to this character". This is the method Lucas has been using for many characters in Star Wars, most notably Palpatine (see this blog entry for more information) and I use the same approach, since history and social science are my favourite subjects and the ones I do well in. I can therefore apply real life situations to Star Wars and maybe there get a better understanding who my character should be or what motivates them. Of course, the other writers also have this approach, but they add it to a continuity context that I can't do. Whilst my notes usually sounds like a DVD-commentary ("I wanted to this with my character", "Due to character constraint, I couldn't add this" and so on) the other writers notes are filled with continuity issues they've retconned, obscure characters they've brought in from role playing games or books, fantastic connections between several characters and so on.

I'm always impressed by reading their stories since it's well written, yet packed with continuity that works. There's some kind of elegance in their stories that mine lack. Mine are more "fantastic", in a sense that they're tall tales and are weird even for the Star Wars galaxy. My fellow writers stories are more grounded in "Star Wars-reality", which isn't something easy to write (my main problem with the EU is that several writers have failed to remain in "Star Wars-reality").

So how does it feel and how does it work out being a movie purist and trying to write EU material at the same time? It's hard, that's for sure. You are at a disadvantage if you don't hold the EU to such a high regard, but I've found this to be very entertaining. You're creating a characters life and events that define the character in only 2000 character and that's a challenge.

I'm also feeling that for every passing round, that I'm becoming better and better at this. I'm more aware of the events in Star Wars and where I can place my character in these events. Much of this is thanks to my fellow writers, who have set fine examples for me, and I hope that, soon, a characters backstory will be credited to me. Many have given up because they're never picked, but perseverance is important and I believe that one day (or maybe already) I have/will had/have an idea that will strike gold.

So, to anyone who's ever hesitated about using this feature thinking that it's too hard or they don't know anything about EU or continuity, don't! Just post, even though it might have continuity errors, there still might be an idea, a name or even an event that can be used and then you've created a piece of Star Wars. That's my approach to it.

It's wrong to perceive this as a feature for EU and continuity buffs. It's something for everyone. Join in!