TTCoBS: Life on the Slide

Date: 08/23/2001
From: Brand_S

The True Confessions of Brand_S

Life on the Slide

One of the good things about Sliders' cancellation, in my opinion, was the newfound opportunities for fanfic writers. When it happened, I was ready to milk it for all it was worth. I got started making my own fanfic series.

The first title was "Multiversal." I eventually realized that that title really really sucks ass, at least for a fanfic series. I ended up changing it to "Life on the Slide." The star was a Logan double, Logan Mallory. #2 was Ryan Simms, who had been spending the last few years in a mental institution. (Hey, if you were convinced that sliding was real, where the hell do you think YOU'D end up?) #3 was Terrence Bergman, a doctor of psychology and Ryan's shrink. It had been five years since his wife and daughter died; since then he'd been in a constant state of despair and grief. Acquired midway through the season would be Logan's frivolous little brother, Jeremiah, who in a fit of impulsiveness slid on his own up until then.

One of the notable things about this series was my intention to introduce new technology to the Sliders world:

· A timer that could detect the conditions of a world before opening a vortex there. It could detect altitude by gravitational pull readings. It could detect temperature, the state of matter at the vortex's opening, oxygen concentration, and various other things. It would then send the sliders to a world, but if the world was chosen randomly from a set, the timer would filter out from consideration any world in which the sliders would die upon landing.
· A device that detects the quantum signature of every particle it can detect, then slides each particle to its world of origination. This would then end up as a transporter for any slider to go home instantly... but if those clothes came from another world, prepare to land nekkid. We would learn later in the series that Logan's parents each came from different worlds, which majorly fucked up her signature.
· A timer with a simplistic, Victorian design which was shaped like a disc and whose face was Arabic (as in "classic") instead of digital. One hand gave days, another hours, then minutes, then seconds. If I could draw worth a damn, it'd look really cool.

One of the people who got me going on this was slidefan, a friend I made in the early days. After some e-mail correspondence, he suddenly stopped replying. Months later, I saw him in a chat. The next day, he was gone. I'd never see him on that chat again. About a year after that, I saw him on AIM. Again, he disappeared. I swear, this guy was avoiding me. I never figured out why. One minute, he accepted my offer to partner up with me on this. The next, no slidefan.

I ended up advertising this series endlessly, but the reception was... zero. In all this time, only ONE person took any interest in it: Yeontoo. Bless that woman's soul, Yeontoo gave me lots of great advice and helped me develop this series to incredible proportions. It was like that episode "The Guardian," where all the kids picked on Quinn but that teacher was always really nice. It felt great to have all that support. Too bad she was only one person in a sea of Sliders fans.

At any rate, on some vague off-the-cuff advice (in part) from stuslide, I wrote down in a txt file all my notes for this project. I had episode summaries, paths of character development, everything. As I got started writing episodes of this series, I made an ad. I figured I needed pictures of the stars, but I didn't have a scanner yet. So I grabbed some from pictures off the Internet. For Logan, I found a picture of Zoe McLellan. For Ryan, Nick Lea. (Not the hardest decisions in the world.) Being creations of my mind, Terrence and Jeremiah were a little harder. I ended up using a picture of Montel Williams for the former and Paulo Costanzo for the latter. Hey, I just wanted the viewer to get a good visual as soon as possible! I had this bad-ass ad all rarened to go, so I showed it to some people on AIM. These people, all my friends, responded with hysterical laughter.

But the series was serious.

I was crushed. These were my friends, and they were laughing at my ideas! The more details I gave, the more they laughed! What the fuck kind of friends were THESE supposed to be? I cut off all interaction with them for about a week before my cowardly ass came back. But with something like that, you forgive, but you don't forget. I'm glad I don't have AIM anymore. I don't know if I could put up with that again. I don't want to name names, since it would cause more unnecessary tension than I feel like generating. Suffice it to say, they're not who you think they are.

So I summarily dropped the idea. It was more trouble than it was worth. I was preaching to an audience of one. Granted, I appreciated having the one there, but I can't write a long series knowing nobody will read it. Besides, the only other people I confided the idea too obviously didn't think it was the greatest idea I ever had. What was the point? Thankfully, I eventually found another supporter in Slider_Quinn21. I gave him every last one of my ideas.

· Slider_Quinn21
This guy doesn't get a lot of attention, although not for lack of trying. I really think more "Sliders" fans should be like him. He's stuck with this place through thick and thin, more than I ever have, and he finds a way to duck all the bullshit. Man, he's doing what I wish I had done. Thankfully, his fanfic is more successful than mine, although it's getting to the point where that's not much of an accomplishment.

All my ideas for alternate episodes are his now. And trust me, some of my best work lay in those ideas. You motherfuckers don't know what you were ignoring, I tells ya. But every writer has his/her own frustrations, I guess. You take the good with the bad.

Can't help myself.

Date: 08/23/2001
From: Tigs

Ok, first off, I hope I wasn't one of the ones who laughed. If I was, apologies.

Secondly, do you think no one else has ever had their good ideas shredded by friends? Hell, half the fanfic I've written hasn't gotten any response from people I thought of as friends. Yeah it hurt. But I'm by no means unique in having been rejected or ignored. Neither are you.

Thirdly, if that's why you don't have AIM--the real reason. That's kind of sad.

I hope you aren't offended. If you are, well, that's too bad. We've all been rejected or laughed at by friends. Most of us have also been dropped by friends. It sucks, but it's life.

I probably should open-apple-a and delete this, but I won't. I hope these confessions aren't your swan song. If they are, good luck.

ktf
Tigs

I hear your Pain™.

Date: 08/23/2001
From: SpaceTime

BvE went from double-digit replies to nothing. And hell, that was even about the people here.

Tigs is right - people aren't always gonna read what you write. I shouldn't have even bothered with my "Fuck this. [FF]" post. I should just write for me and if it develops a following, kick ass. That's certainly what I'm doing with my next story.

Write for you. Forget about the others, unless they praise you, because then it's the greatest feeling in the world. :)

Peace,
ST

Don't be so hard on yourself

Date: 08/23/2001
From: Slider_Quinn21

S-

You have some damn good fanfic ideas. It will be VERY hard to go through a single Earth 214 Season 7 fanfic without seeing an element from your ideas. Some are fantastic and extremely interesting.

But you knew that. Everyone else was the problem...

So, don't be so hard on yourself. My fanfic is only more popular(if, in fact, it is) for two reasons.

1.I throw it into every conversation I have with someone here, and even with people who don't know what Sliders is.

2.Blinker and Recall317. E214 would've been Dorky Pt2 without them.

So, just to reassure you, your ideas are stitched firmly into E214 Season 7. And I'll make sure that you're credited. I was going to throw them into S6, but I honestly don't think that Season 6 is good enough for them...

In fact, I should be contacting you about a few of them very soon...

Thank you for the kind words,
Quinn
http://slidersweb.net/otherworlds/214

Original URL http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/545/26584
Nominated by Joey_Starr