Peer Reviews

Meghan R Doherty –

https://meghanrdoherty.wixsite.com/mysite

Meghan’s post about Saeyoung Choi from Mystic Messenger was an interesting read full of sweet moments. Though not a Mystic Messenger fan or player myself, I could appreciate the creative writing style of this piece, the events and points of the story flowing well from one to the next. The story is about Saeyoung getting ready for his first Christmas alone with his brother and then having his girlfriend come home early to him, and included some great descriptions of the character as well as an in depth look into his mentality. Even knowing nothing about Saeyoung beforehand, I feel like I now know much more about him now due to the way he all of his thoughts were described. Though the spelling and grammar could use editing, I did get insight into another fandom and a view of another person’s writing style. The speech and interaction between the characters was very sweet and enjoyable, and overall, it was a lovely piece of writing that I would gladly read more of.

Charisse Schuster –

https://charisseschu.wordpress.com/

Charisse’s story, entitled “The Widow Effect”, was a gripping story about Natasha Romanoff’s journey after the events of Civil War in which she was labelled a traitor. The plot concerns Natasha having children, and the need to keep them safe from the KGB before they are trained to be killers like she was. The structure of the fanfic is good, beginning briefly with background and then the summary of what Natasha had done after. Though her character’s personality was written well and quite accurately, there was no look into her mentality or thoughts which I personally would have liked to see, just a process of events. However, apart from the issues with confused tenses, spelling, and grammar, the story contains an intriguing plot and cliff-hanger that has you wanting more. The way her plan is described as well as all the events of the story made it fun to read, and is something I appreciated very much.

Brendan O’Neill –

www.autnerd.wordpress.com

Brendan’s Twine game was incredible. Each option and choice, the suspicious story line itself, and the need to find the perfect way out of the situation made the game absolutely thrilling. It begins with waking up in a room with the Doctor, who leads you to a room and asks you if you know what you are meant to do. You then encounter the Happy Bot who you are meant to talk to in a way that means you don’t end up dead. Each option the game gives you if full of suspense, and all the writing for each choice is both intriguing and descriptive. This is a well written game that continues on a loop until you find the right way out, making it addictive and very enjoyable to play. From this game I was given an insight as to what a Twine game with a good story that flows well from one plot point to another is. It was well designed and easy to play.

What I Got out of this :

Writing my own fanfic was an eye opening experience, as I realized how difficult it is to portray a character’s mentality in a believable story that concerns them outside of the main plot. Taking a character out of their own universe and doing what you would like would them is a fun experience and allows you to see the characters in your ideal situation, but it also means you need to be true to that character, give them a believable story, and make sure the story has plenty of ideas. This is something that took me a while to do, but when I began writing found that ideas came easily and I could make their relationship as soft as I wanted to. I learnt to make the story believable and understandable even for people who had never heard of the book series, and tried my best to delve deep into Andrew’s thoughts.

Fan-fiction is a creative and cathartic process that helps fans worldwide to imagine what they wanted to happen in a story, and allowed me to do the same.