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Inspired by a recent thread on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jarodrussell's LJ.
The Machine was my first serious attempt at serial fiction, from 1993-4, after I'd decided that the parody-based Legion of Net.Heroes didn't fulfill all my writing drives (I'd also done some semi-serious Transformers fanfic before that, but didn't really want to do a continuing story in a setting where lawyers might come to take it away). The Patrol was a sort of Lensman/Green Lantern setting that had been posted to rec.arts.comics.creative and thrown open to anyone who wanted to participate, so participate I did. I created The Machine, setting out to look at the exceptions to the rules of the Patrol. I'd carve out my niche off in the borderlands, leaving the stories of "regular" Patrollers to the few writers who got there before me, so as to not step on their toes.
The Machine marked several other firsts for me. It was not only my first serious serial fiction, it was also the first time I walked away from a setting in disgust. And so far, the only (I've drifted away from writing in other settings, but not stormed out). I was, in many ways, a victim of my own success. It was also the first time I tried to write a series where I kept pace with the real world calendar, incorporating real world events where applicable (such as the Northridge quake of 1994). And it was the first time I took a set of characters from my old RPG campaigns and used them for more than just cameos (Astra, Cosmic Defender, Graymask and Captain Justice were all taken with modification from my very first Champions campaign. I tied their origins together better, but the power sets were essentially right out of that game).
But, back to the storming out.
You see, before I got involved, there was very little other interest in the Patrol setting. The creator never even wrote a followup to his introductory tale. So I spent several months writing story after story, expanding the setting and bringing in elements that I wanted to write about but couldn't fit into the semi-silly LNH stuff I was writing at the time (although I could occasionally cross over my LNH series into The Machine). I really put a lot of myself into The Machine, and built a setting I felt reflected what I thought made for a good superhero universe. And having made it such an attractive place, I drew in other writers. Some I invited (like Chris Tatro, who was in my RPG campaign at the time), some approached me for collaboration, others just started writing.
Unfortunately, that's where things started to fall apart. Several of these writers tended to dilute the uniqueness of the Machine by bringing in more and more rulebreakers...it seemed no one really wanted to write a regular Patroller. I'd set a standard for being non-standard, and people flocked to it. Additionally, while these other authors liked what I'd done with the place, most felt it needed some other things. Things I'd deliberately excluded, such as the cliche of the hero-hunting evil government agency. And since the creator had pretty much publicly abdicated by this point, there was no editorial control. No one owned the setting, anyone could do what they wanted. And while that sort of thing worked fine in the anarchic Legion of Net.Heroes, it didn't do so well in a serious setting. I couldn't just ignore all these other stories, not without breaking the "reality" of what I'd built.
And so, after failing to convince the other writers to go in other directions, I gave up and left. Things continued for a while afterward, and someone rose up to take the editorial role, but by that time I was no longer interested in going on. It had been my baby, and my baby had been taken away and raised in a stranger's house. Okay, a bit melodramatic, but I was pissed.
The lesson I took from this was that if I wanted to put any serious effort into writing superhero fiction and building a world for it, I would have to have editorial control. Others would be welcome to write in my playground, as long as they understood I had final cut. In turn, I would try to hold the reins as loosely as possible. So I created the Academy of Super-Heroes, based on the Champions campaign I ran in college. I've written ASH stories for 12 years now, and am just finishing up ASH #70. Several others have written in my universe, mostly leaving because they graduated and started writing for a living, but always parting amicably (as far as I can tell). Even one of the Patrol writers (ezrael) ended up writing in the ASH setting for a few years.
So, The Machine was sort of a trial run for me on a lot of things. If you look closely, you can see a lot of elements from that series echoed in ASH. Ah, nostalgia. Sometimes it does more than make you feel old. :)
jarodrussell's LJ.The Machine was my first serious attempt at serial fiction, from 1993-4, after I'd decided that the parody-based Legion of Net.Heroes didn't fulfill all my writing drives (I'd also done some semi-serious Transformers fanfic before that, but didn't really want to do a continuing story in a setting where lawyers might come to take it away). The Patrol was a sort of Lensman/Green Lantern setting that had been posted to rec.arts.comics.creative and thrown open to anyone who wanted to participate, so participate I did. I created The Machine, setting out to look at the exceptions to the rules of the Patrol. I'd carve out my niche off in the borderlands, leaving the stories of "regular" Patrollers to the few writers who got there before me, so as to not step on their toes.
The Machine marked several other firsts for me. It was not only my first serious serial fiction, it was also the first time I walked away from a setting in disgust. And so far, the only (I've drifted away from writing in other settings, but not stormed out). I was, in many ways, a victim of my own success. It was also the first time I tried to write a series where I kept pace with the real world calendar, incorporating real world events where applicable (such as the Northridge quake of 1994). And it was the first time I took a set of characters from my old RPG campaigns and used them for more than just cameos (Astra, Cosmic Defender, Graymask and Captain Justice were all taken with modification from my very first Champions campaign. I tied their origins together better, but the power sets were essentially right out of that game).
But, back to the storming out.
You see, before I got involved, there was very little other interest in the Patrol setting. The creator never even wrote a followup to his introductory tale. So I spent several months writing story after story, expanding the setting and bringing in elements that I wanted to write about but couldn't fit into the semi-silly LNH stuff I was writing at the time (although I could occasionally cross over my LNH series into The Machine). I really put a lot of myself into The Machine, and built a setting I felt reflected what I thought made for a good superhero universe. And having made it such an attractive place, I drew in other writers. Some I invited (like Chris Tatro, who was in my RPG campaign at the time), some approached me for collaboration, others just started writing.
Unfortunately, that's where things started to fall apart. Several of these writers tended to dilute the uniqueness of the Machine by bringing in more and more rulebreakers...it seemed no one really wanted to write a regular Patroller. I'd set a standard for being non-standard, and people flocked to it. Additionally, while these other authors liked what I'd done with the place, most felt it needed some other things. Things I'd deliberately excluded, such as the cliche of the hero-hunting evil government agency. And since the creator had pretty much publicly abdicated by this point, there was no editorial control. No one owned the setting, anyone could do what they wanted. And while that sort of thing worked fine in the anarchic Legion of Net.Heroes, it didn't do so well in a serious setting. I couldn't just ignore all these other stories, not without breaking the "reality" of what I'd built.
And so, after failing to convince the other writers to go in other directions, I gave up and left. Things continued for a while afterward, and someone rose up to take the editorial role, but by that time I was no longer interested in going on. It had been my baby, and my baby had been taken away and raised in a stranger's house. Okay, a bit melodramatic, but I was pissed.
The lesson I took from this was that if I wanted to put any serious effort into writing superhero fiction and building a world for it, I would have to have editorial control. Others would be welcome to write in my playground, as long as they understood I had final cut. In turn, I would try to hold the reins as loosely as possible. So I created the Academy of Super-Heroes, based on the Champions campaign I ran in college. I've written ASH stories for 12 years now, and am just finishing up ASH #70. Several others have written in my universe, mostly leaving because they graduated and started writing for a living, but always parting amicably (as far as I can tell). Even one of the Patrol writers (
ezrael) ended up writing in the ASH setting for a few years.So, The Machine was sort of a trial run for me on a lot of things. If you look closely, you can see a lot of elements from that series echoed in ASH. Ah, nostalgia. Sometimes it does more than make you feel old. :)
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(I just started reading Exarchs last week, and while it does have some silliness, it reads about as serious as Joe Casey's Majestic.)
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Unfortunately, just as I petered out on Crazy Guy, I also petered out on Exarchs once I tried to move forward with my old abandoned Crazy Guy threads.