Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Comments: Finding Lois Lane

As some of you may have noticed, I have a sort of audience participation fic going in the "Lois and Clark" section. I've resisted breaking character, but curiosity has got the better of me. Due to the format of the story, I haven't been getting any comments, and I'd very much like to know what people are thinking.

Are you reading it? What do you think of it? Are you enjoying it? Is it enough of a new angle, or is it too much like previous visitations? Should I keep posting?

Also, I'm wondering if anyone has guessed my identity. I suspect the boards owner may know, but I'm not sure.

While I'm writing, I'd also like to mention that I've been enjoying the responses, especially the one from Mr. Wells.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, I do know where Lois is, what happened to her, what she's doing now and a few other background details. The rest I'm making up as we go along. That is, Clark's actions are based on reader suggestions and other events are based on Clark's actions.

AltClark

I suppose there have been no "Comments" because we (at least I) didn't know it was an actual "fic in the making". I assumed it was just a little thread for fun. YES, keep posting! It is fun, I am really looking forward to seeing where this ends up (kinda like a choose your own adventure novel, except we get to make suggestions instead of actually controlling Clark).

Hopefully we don't end up getting Lois killed.

Now that we know it's a fic that we can reply to/participate in, it could be safely moved by the editors here to the Fanfic Folder instead of Lois and Clark. I don't think anyone would have known to reply if it started here.

-Breanna

Oh, some of us have been guessing, all right... my money's currently on Amac. But I may be entirely wrong!

I admit that I hadn't posted in the thread because it did seem a little similar to previous such exercises, in particular The Clark Letters, which is archived here if anyone's interested. But the 'story' does seem to be getting better, and your interventions are very nicely done - poignant, too, as opposed to Lois and Clark's in the original.

So keep it up, but don't forget to unmask sooner or later.


Wendy

count me in for "keep posting." i think it's been fun. looking forward to seeing what happens.

Paul

I really like it and can't wait to see what will come out of it either...

Carole

Definitely keep posting!

It's fun reading the different responses.

Tricia

It's very much fun!
So...keep posting, please!

I think it's a good idea and I have no idea who you might be! lol

~Sira

Oh keep posting! I'm afraid I don't have anything to contribute, but it's quite fun watching everyone else getting into the action and seeing what comes out of it.

Jen

As others have said, I wasn't aware this was a story and that you were looking for fdk until it was moved in here and a comments thread opened up for it, so that's why I haven't commented prior to now.

Certainly I think you should keep posting! It's fun. It may be a reworking of an idea that's been done in the past - The Clark Letters, as Wendy noted - but there are always new members coming along who haven't participated in this kind of thing and it's always fun and fresh for them. Even for the old hands too, who enjoy this kind of participation fanfic.

Besides, if we didn't revisit and rework ideas, half of us wouldn't be writing anything!

LabRat

I totally and completely agree with everything LabRat said.

Join the club, Breanna. I had no idea there were such kinds of stories, but they look amazing!

Anyway.

Keep posting and we'll join you

Oh, something more. It's not that I'm not dying to know <g>, but I think you should keep your identity a secret...

...until the story is finished.

AnnaBtG.(waiting for more soon )

Thank you for the comments, FOLCs. Sounds like the verdict is for me to keep posting. I'm glad to hear it.

Breanna,

I suppose it depends on your definition of "fanfic." I would consider "The Clark Letters" to be a fic. It's a story that uses characters from the show. This is just a thread for fun, but it's also a fic.

I'm sorry if I confused you by posting in the "Lois and Clark" section, but I thought it would be more in character to post there.

Wendy,

LabRat summed up my feelings fairly well. As I tried to indicate with my first post, I have read "The Clark Letters," but I'm also aware that it has been a couple of years since it was posted. There are new FOLCs now who never participated in that story, and I figured it would still be fun for the ones who had. I also figured that this was a new angle.

Thank you for your comments, too.

As for my identity, I will "unmask" when the story is complete or when I leave town on holiday later this summer, whichever comes first. Until then, I won't respond to guesses; eventually, you might guess right and then what would I do? I am, however, still interested in hearing your guesses. I hope you don't think that unfair.

I think that covers everyone. Thanks again for your comments, FOLCs. I'm glad you're enjoying the story. I'll keep posting. I hope you will keep posting, too.

AltClark

Hi!

Glad to see it's coming along good. Are you posting as Alt Lois too? or is that someone that you are working with? It seems that having her there will facilitate a quicker "rescue" but who knows, maybe you have a bunch of plans up your sleeve that will stop it

I hope you don't mind that I posted a picture of Tempus. I don't even know if Tempus is in your story, but he just might be and it'd be good for Lois to know what he looks like.

I almost put a pic of Lex up, but I figured she'd know who he is.

-Breanna

I've been gone on vacation this week and am just catching up now on the boards, so I missed the initial set-up and the moving of the thread from L&C to Fanfic. But I just wanted to pop in to say that I am enjoying the game/fic very much and definitely want you to keep posting it. I'm having a great time reading the responses (as I did with "The Clark Letters" and "The Lex Letters" before it) and I'm glad you decided to start a new story like this. Very clever, introducing us to Alt Clark!

I know who one of the 'actors' is (HG Wells, LOL on the response) but no idea who is playing Alt Clark and Alt Lois so far. I'm happy to learn more as the story plays out, though. It's all fun to me!

Kathy

Breanna,

No, I'm not AltLois. Nor am I working with her. I did not contact her prior to her first post and she didn't contact me.

As for posting pictures, don't worry about it. The idea here is that the audience gives the characters information and suggestions and the characters act on that information. So do share information and thoughts about whatever you think relevant. Just remember that things can be different from one universe to another.

Kathy,

Thank you for your comments, encouragement, and compliments, both here and privately. Your enthusiasm and laughter brought the fun back into this for me just when, thanks to various convergent circumstances, I needed it most.

AltClark

I'm sorry to have to make this post. I've been trying to avoid it.

Let me explain.

I've put a lot of time, effort, and thought into this whole thing. Probably more than you realise. I thought it would be worth it, though, because it would be fun. And it was, at first. But then responses tapered off and and I began to wonder if it was worth the trouble. Maybe I should have waited a bit more, but I, like any author, am also addicted to comments. So, I posted this thread.

That worked out well, and it was very encouraging. Then, just as I was getting back into it, I heard from a couple people who were very upset that I'd broken character. They said it had ruined the whole thing for them and that it was fundamentally wrong. Well, that ruined things for me for a while, but I told myself that I'd got such lovely comments from several other people and had even picked up a new reader or two.

Then I logged in to find "AltLois." I nearly gave up then and there, but some sympathy and encouragement from some fine FOLCs got me through that. I got things back on track and started enjoying it again.

Then, for the second time in as many days, a FOLC came in and, without so much as a "by your leave," attempted to create a deus-ex-machina ending.

It hurt me again, and, if I hadn't headed it off, would have ended the whole thing for me and everyone else.

Maybe I'm just being too possessive, but I can't help but think that it's both rude and thoughtless.

So, I'm going to make a two requests.

First, if you're enjoying this, please take the time to participate. Interact, make some suggestions, pick up on some of the clues. That's what makes it all fun, to me at least.

Second, please don't post anything that directly affects the story's universe without checking with me first. I have an email address listed on my profile (ckent@starplace.com). If you want to do something that directly affects the story's universe, especially if it's a major change (for example, something that would end the story in a single sweeping post), please ask permission before you do so. By the way, I'm also happy to answer private emails.

I'm sorry to have to ask that. Wells did a great job bringing another character into it, and he didn't even need to ask. More characters would have been fun, as they were in "The Clark Letters" and "The Lex Letters." We could have played off each other and had more participation and had fun, if people had kept themselves to constructive posts and used common sense and common courtesy.

Of course, if people really do want it all to end, then I'll just let the story die. I'd like to think, however, that that's not the opinion of the majority of the readers.

AltClark

Well, I have been enjoying it, and I should have posted in this thread to say so earlier than this. I've been a few days behind, so I just quickly read through to catch up, and I probably missed out on some of the details. I haven't been participating in the story thread because I haven't had a single solitary suggestion to date, but that doesn't stop my enjoyment of the story, and I've been glad that there have been others to jump in.

It didn't disturb me personally that you broke character to let us know that this was indeed a story, but I can understand why others might not like it. Since this has happened, AltClark, I am addressing my comments to you as the author as opposed to the character.

I'm now editing my post, as I just reread your initial post in this thread. So it seems that you have less of this mapped out in your mind than I had initially thought, although you do have certain other "key" elements that you'll obviously need to introduce at some point. And then of course you are responding to suggestions from your audience. Obviously it is then a problem if someone poses as a character that simply wouldn't fit into the story at that given time, but how is your audience to know that?

I actually had no idea, until reading your most recent post, that you weren't in fact also writing as the AltLois character. I'm sure that whoever was posing as AltLois was not trying to bring the story to an early end - I assume that he or she was simply trying to bring another random element into it. The same with this most recent suggestion that could have ended it all very quickly.

I think you did a very good job heading them both off, and that it's a credit to you - and your imagination - that you can essentially write solutions and answers to the suggestions that your audience is making, whether it's heading it off at the pass or running with it for a while. I imagine that's one of the reasons that you started doing this in the first place: to challenge yourself. From my viewpoint, at least, I doubt that these suggestions were made out of any malicious attempt to end the story prematurely or cause you difficulties. They were simply suggestions.

Now that you've requested that "major" things be floated by you, that will probably help. You say that you would welcome the addition of other characters, but if there is anyone that you would not want to see suddenly appear in your story, perhaps you should say so.

As an often-clueless bystander, that's my take on it, anyway...

KathyM

Kathy,

Thanks for your comments. I'm glad to hear you've been enjoying it.

I realise that there are problems with breaking character. It wasn't something I'd wanted to do. Like I said, responses dwindled rapidly, and I was beginning to wonder if people were actually reading. I can certainly understand FOLCs having trouble with my having broken character, and I don't blame them for speaking their minds. It was just disheartening to hear.

As to the "plot," there is very little that is set. I still don't know what's going to happen next or how Clark will find his Lois. Most of the details you see were invented between one post and the next.

I can't speak for the intentions of those who presented solutions, but I don't think I can agree with you that they were "suggestions." "Clark, I'm Lois. Here I am, come pick me up!" is not a suggestion. It doesn't add to the plot. It ends it suddenly and out of the blue. As I said, ending the plot means ending the story, for myself and for anyone else who was reading, enjoying, and maybe even planning to participate.

For me, the fun is in interacting with the readers, working with their suggestions, and exploring and expanding the universe with them. Yes, I do enjoy thinking on my feet, but I'd prefer that it be in reaction to a constructive post rather than scrambling to find a way to head off something that derails the whole plot.

On that note, I'd like to thank Andrus for stepping in on my behalf. I'd been thinking that I should find someone who wanted to play Andrus, that it was the only way to get the plot moving again without having Clark reject a simple and direct means to acomplishing his goal. I did try explaining that the solution wouldn't work, but, as you saw, the hint wasn't taken. So, imagine my surprise when I logged on to find an email from Andrus and a post that looked exactly like the one I'd been planning to suggest.

If you look at the post, you'll see that Andrus does interact directly with AltClark's universe, but the important thing is that it does so constructively. Rather than ending things, it reopens the possibilities.

So, thank you very much, Andrus. You saved the story.

Kathy, thanks again for your comments. I hope my view is clearer now, whether or not you agree.

AltClark

AltClark

I don't mind that you had broke character. I really do like this this fanfic...

I really this you are doing a very good job

I can't wait to see how this going go...

Meni

Hi Clark,

Welcome to this universe.

I am finding this developing fanfic very fascinating. I'm even considering participating, but I'm not sure. I'm not a writer, but I think I might have some suggestions as far as the investigation goes.

Meni,

Thank you for your comments. I'm glad you're enjoying the story. Thanks also for the assurance that my breaking character hasn't spoiled things for you.

MRlovesDC,

Thanks for the welcome. I'm glad to be here.

Don't worry. You don't have to be a "writer." If you have any ideas, please do post. Maybe they'll be dead ends, but even those can be fun. Maybe they'll lead to something interesting. Even the leads that don't pan out can sometimes be fun to write. I wouldn't have thought of including Dan, Mayson or the DEA if not for Kathy's suggestions. As far as I'm concerned, the more suggestions, the better. If you're still hesitant, think of it this way: the worst that can happen is nothing.

Thanks for posting here. I see it's your first post. I'm honoured.

AltClark