63 replies to this topic

[Qwerty]

Discuss DLibrasnow's fanfiction, In Search Of Secrets here.

[DLibrasnow]

I know it doesn't fit with what is canon.

[Qwerty]

I'm sure it's a good read, I'll hopefully be getting to it soon.

[DLibrasnow]

Thanks Devin...of course I am sometimes my worst critic and looking over it there is a lot of work for a book editor to get their teeth into

[DLibrasnow]

Have you had a chance to check it out yet Devin?

[Qwerty]

Not yet as this has been a busy weekend, I'll certainly post here once I have.

[DLibrasnow]

Cool. I've had one CBner email me with their comments, but I'd be interested in hearing any other constructive criticism on the work. I was planning on posting the next part over the weekend but I got distracted by Easter.

[Qwerty]

The story itself is interesting from beginning to end. While not to spoil things for future readers - I soon found out how right you are in that it doesn't exactly fit into the normal canon.

[DLibrasnow]

Yeah, forget the Bond canon. I'd be interested in how other CBners planned out their fan fiction. Did they write a brief outline, a detailed outline or what?
Me. Well I wrote out a quite detailed outline and I see the prelude somewhat like a most recent precredits sequences ie Something that gives some foreshadowing of the plot and yet is essentially separate from the main body of the novel.

[Skudor]

Yeah, forget the Bond canon. I'd be interested in how other CBners planned out their fan fiction. Did they write a brief outline, a detailed outline or what?
Me. Well I wrote out a quite detailed outline and I see the prelude somewhat like a most recent precredits sequences ie Something that gives some foreshadowing of the plot and yet is essentially separate from the main body of the novel.

I haven't written any fanfiction myself. However, I always assumed that most serious authors would write quite a detailed outline before ever writing a word of the actual story. Apparently this varies a lot and it's not uncommon to just write away and let the plot take you wherever.

One of my favourite authors has some good tips on his website:
http://members.ozema...inei/links.html
(see the topic 'writing tips' on the left)

[DLibrasnow]

Thanks Skudor. I think one has to have some outline worked out for where your plot is going.
I like to give pointers early on. if you read the first part of In Search of Secrets, then I introduce a number of the elements and back stories (in passing) that will play a part in the plot.
One of my favorite authors is Clive Cussler and he is an expert at tying together elements introduced very early on in his novels into the plot.

By the way, I apologize for how violent the prelude is.

[Bond_Bishop]

Good read!

[DLibrasnow]

I'm glad you liked it Bond_Bishop...the second installment (technically Chpt. 1) should be up by Monday morning

[DLibrasnow]

Well Chapter 1 is almost ready. I scrapped the original basis for the book after I decided that everyone seemed to be doing Young Bond these days and I didn't want to be seen as trying to jump on the bandwagon (even though I put the plot together more than two years ago).

So the plot has been entirely revamped and Chapter 1 (named "Death for Breakfast") should be up by Monday.

[Lazenby880]

I read over the prelude to In Search Of Secrets and was impressed. You certainly hold the reader's imagination - and shock them too. It's also good to read a piece of work that dares to be different - which your prelude undeniably is. One criticism: 'He knew that... He looked up... He did this... He did that...' ALthough not too obvious there is an over-reliance on these sentences.

Looking forward to Death For Breakfast whenever it is ready for consumption.

[DLibrasnow]

I read over the prelude to In Search Of Secrets and was impressed. You certainly hold the reader's imagination - and shock them too. It's also good to read a piece of work that dares to be different - which your prelude undeniably is. One criticism: 'He knew that... He looked up... He did this... He did that...' ALthough not too obvious there is an over-reliance on these sentences.

Looking forward to Death For Breakfast whenever it is ready for consumption.

Thanks for the tip and compliment....actually Death For Breakfast is written but an unrelated thread here on CBn meant that I needed to rewrite it a little - something I haven't done yet.

[DLibrasnow]

Finally, I decided to post the chapter Death for Breakfast. It's not what I had hoped for, but I feel like digging back into this fanfic. I think I just needed to be away from it for a bit.

Incidently, if anyone feels strongly that Adm. Hargreaves was never M, they probably shouldn't read this fanfic LOL.

[Qwerty]

Here you all are!:

Chapter 1; Death For Breakfast up now!

[DLibrasnow]

Thanks Devin.

[Lazenby880]

It might need a slight polish - it ends a little abruptly and the later paragraphs could flow more effectively - but I am really enjoying this. Granted, I especially liked the prelude, and I have little doubt that some may not like what you have done with the 'canon'/'continuity'. However, this could shape up to be a most enjoyable piece of fan fiction:

As the morning wore on and the bright sun began to beat down unrelentingly he remained motionless and rested his head against the hard cold butt of the rifle. Feeling it slip occasionally he readjusted it every so often only slightly to nestle it even tighter into the crook of his arm.
It

[Qwerty]

I'm enjoying reading this thus far. This is meant to be taken as a compliment: the opening and overall mood of the fanfic reminds me somewhat of The Bourne Identity / Supremacy. Keep it going.

[Lazenby880]

This is meant to be taken as a compliment: the opening and overall mood of the fanfic reminds me somewhat of The Bourne Identity / Supremacy.

The brilliant movies or the hideous novels?

[DLibrasnow]

It might need a slight polish - it ends a little abruptly and the later paragraphs could flow more effectively - but I am really enjoying this.

Thank you and I'm glad you are enjoying this fanfic.

I chose the flashbacks style of telling the story in this chapter because I didn't want a whole series of chapters where Bond meets with M (who I decided to refer to generally as The Admiral for those who believe that Admiral Hargreves was never M), the Quartermaster and then travels to Maryland. Instead I wanted to land the reader right in the midst of an "interesting" situation ie. lying in wait for a target.

Yes, It did end abruptly, and I was a little concerned by that, but I think you will understand why it ended where it did when you read the forthcoming chapters.

Most of all I applaud DLibrasnow for being willing to do something different; part of the appeal, for me anyway, of In Search Of Secrets thus far is the fact that the author has dared to be unconventional.

Hope you keep going with this as with a little tweaking at the end In Search Of Secrets could be something very good indeed.

One of the advantages of fanfiction is the possibility of thinking outside of the box and working outside of an IFP mandate. It also allows us to tweak (and in some cases ignore outright) the continuity/canon.

I am hoping that the prelude and this chapter leave many questions in the readers mind that will drive them to want to read the rest of the fanfic.

[Qwerty]

This is meant to be taken as a compliment: the opening and overall mood of the fanfic reminds me somewhat of The Bourne Identity / Supremacy.

The brilliant movies or the hideous novels?

The films.

[DLibrasnow]

This is meant to be taken as a compliment: the opening and overall mood of the fanfic reminds me somewhat of The Bourne Identity / Supremacy.

The brilliant movies or the hideous novels?

The films.

Wow, high praise indeed.

[DLibrasnow]

Chapter 2 has the working title "The predator in all of us" but that could change.

[DLibrasnow]

Any chance we can have the "1941" date removed from the prelude? I decided I don;t want that set in a certain time-period and I cannot edit it for some reason.
Also, perhaps this story should carry a warning so little kiddies don't read it. The chapter I am working on right now is becoming even more violent than the prelude.

[Qwerty]

Date removed. I suggest you add the warning at the start of the next addition to the story perhaps?

[DLibrasnow]

Thanks Qwerty.

The next chapter That Predatory Instinct has just been added (yes, I changed the title).

Enjoy

[spynovelfan]

Darren, I've just read the opening section, but here were my thoughts, for what they're worth. (There are lots of spoilers, for those who haven't read it yet.)

There are a few very original ideas driving this.

1. You look at Bond's parents. I've always found that interesting. Vickers is an arms company, so effectively his father was an arms dealer. Already interestting, but you've just cut to the chase and challenged that and said 'No, he was also a spy'. Very refreshing, and a great premise.

2. Then you've given us a Bond-film-style pretitle sequence featuring a radical reworking of one of the few things we thought we knew about James Bond's life. Andrew as James works very nicely at the start - comes as a shock to realise what's going on. Nice echoes of Casino Royale. Nice backstory stuff.

3. The traitor - a very clever idea. Sent a chill through my spine. I wonder how chilly it would be if we'd discovered that Andrew had been a traitor - or if Andrew had given in somehow to the traitor. It would be extremely shocking if Bond's entire career had been a lie - and that without his knowledge he was somehow a double agent. But yes, this is all very good stuff.

And enjoyable, too. My main concern was the language. You had some lovely details in there - the game knife, for instance, the curtain of white making Andrew lose his bearings, and many more - but you're often let down by sloppy grammar and spelling, and by overegging the pudding. The spelling is easily fixed - just run a spell-check! I know it might not seem important to you, but it really holds me back as a reader (and will others, too). A few typos are inevitable - you have "above her wait" instead of waist, for instance - but stuff like 'the Russians power' and 'Your finished' really slowed me down, because I had to reread to figure out what you meant. I love to see characters really straining and muscles screaming, but I think you've overdone things in a few points. I'd try to trim it down. Perhaps lose some adjectives. Here's a paragraph to show you what I mean:

'He didn