ESSAYS
Perspectives of Universe 3000
By Khyron_Prime...10 June 2004
Three-thousand is a long ways away--one-thousand years is a long way into the future, and as I write this, now, more than ever, I am realising the inherent difficulty in the future-write such as is required for Robotech 3000. Writer's block?--maybe, but probably not. A hundred ideas come into my head: "I'd like to see this," but alas, the universe of 3000 does not accomodate that premise. Despite all of the designs that I have created for Robotech 3000 fans, there is a noticable difficulty that writers must face in work for the series. After all, writing is easiest when the topic is better understood, just as everyday events can be recorded in typical manner because they are just that: Typical. The more a writer understands of his topic, the more detail he can put into it--an understanding. And when the designers of the original Robotech created their stories, they were looking a mere sixty years into the future, where the topics that they understood would need to be advanced, but most still applicable. Now, when a writer is dealing with a jump such as is Robotech 3000, a different approach to the topic--a falsetto-think that allows the current human transport himself into a different state of mind. The best fan fiction writers have this--an altered mind-set to wholly transport their brain into a fully-developed, designed, moving, breathing world. When a writer jumps into the city aboard the SDF-1, he looks around, and analyses his surroundings using a way of thinking that is different than when he is not writing. For a Robotech 3000 writer, the key is the same, it just requires more effort. Robotech 3000 is like no other Robotech before it. The most difficult part lies not only in its future setting, but in the fact that the universe has yet to be fully-developed. An incomplete world is inherently difficult to write, filled with alleys that end in grey static. Here is where the writer must tighten his gut and use comparitive knowledge to design Robotech. What do you know about Robotech? What would fit in that situation? What accurately fills the gap that exists now, if this world is suddenly connected to your understood Robotech world-vision? This understood knowledge of how the world operates is essential to further design. Therein lies the key: Knowledge. An educated mind is one which develops further things to teach, and while this is simple to say, I hope that a short guide will encourage you to accept this and pursue your Robotech 3000 writings with pleasure and wonderous energy: 1) Read other's fiction and, if you like it, don't be afraid to use it. The sharing of setting saves you the time to developing a whole new design, and you can always make whatever changes to the previous creations that you desire. 2) Throw ideas onto the floor before they escape, because even an absurd statement like "There's three berzerk battloids raiding a candy store!" can begin an excellent story and force the introduction and development of both settings and characters that could later be used, if even in a totally different story. 3) The time jump is good for designers, redesigners, and sentimentalists alike. You can make a story of exclusively new characters with no relation to earlier works, make mecha and settings that take already-established designs and twist them into the new era, or go full-out old-school with a retro force attached to the story however you want. An Alliance stunt team that flies VF-1s in the year 3000 gets surprised by a local raid? Go for it! Mix 'em up, throw down something great! 4) Don't be afraid of others. If your fanfic contradicts someone else's work (even established or official storylines), know that your work is great in its originality; if you are proud of that, then all else doesn't matter.--Spit in the face of uniformity and make the best story possible! 5) Write with a purpose. If you know that your writing has a goal, you are more likely to give your all and in many cases, should you find that you'd written yourself into a corner, have a guiding force to persevere and make the story even better. Robotech 3000 is fun to write! Difficult to get into, but in the end...well, its that same will to persevere despite the difficulty that guides many of us, so fight on, Robotechie! Now, if you'll excuse me, *cough* I have a story to write about a late-night battloid candy raid... =)
