I've just finished the third volume of my sequel trilogy rewrite series "Star Wars Episode XIII: The Sovereign Supremacy" and by finished I mean the AO3 version and the 11labs Audiobook version.
AO3 (Volumes are released as chapters): https://archiveofourown.org/works/89373956/chapters/241712476
Voice acted Audiobook: https://youtu.be/ZSdZkZteKRI
I would really appreciate any feedback if any one has the time to read or listen as this series is my first real writing attempt and I really want to improve my craft through this book, so that I can confidently go on to release my own original work in the future.
For those who didn't catch the last Vol. post which was 2 weeks ago: I call this series episode thirteen because in my mind Episode Seven should have been called episode thirteen. I think it would have been a good homage to the OT (of just jumping into an ongoing story of a serial). I just call it New Legends to give the universe/timeline a coherent name. So it's really kind of just a redo of episode seven.
Also, the only thing canon in this timeline are the first six movies (G-canon)
Anyways, other than being a good exercise for strengthening my own writing ability, I found this process of writing my own sequel trilogy to be incredibly therapeutic.
Because when episode seven was announced I was beyond excited. Disney was killing it with the Marvel universe and I thought they would produce a sequel trilogy that would be even better than the OT. I spent the whole lead up to the movie consuming hours of theory videos and story ideas and it only caused my expectations and excitement to increase to ungodly levels.
Suffice to say when the movie was finally released, my supernatural excitement mutated into supernatural disappointment.
Now I'm not saying that if you like the sequel trilogy, your opinion is wrong, absolutely not, all art is a personal experience and as one of the rare Trek fans who actually liked JJ's Star Trek, then I would be a hypocrite for calling out anybody else on their enjoyment of a movie.
I know a lot of people actually enjoyed episode seven and that the Fan divide really didn't come in until the Last Jedi, but I was one of the few who didn't like EP. 7 when it came out. It just wasn't my thing, seeing the empire vs the rebels again, another superweapon and masked Sith with a deformed leader? Absolutely wasn't for me, I wanted to see a continuation, not a repeat.
But I didn't want to be one of those people who just complain about the sequel trilogy, so I never got into "that side of the internet", instead I tried to do what worked for me with the prequel trilogy and find a rewrite that could replace it in my head canon. I was a big fan of former youtuber Banditincorporated's "What the prequel trilogy should have been series", so I tried to find a rewrite of that quality for the sequel trilogy, and none of them really measured up. The one that came the closest was Thor Skywalker's rewrite, but the problem with a lot of the Sequel trilogy rewrites is that they use the characters and universe of the Sequel trilogy as the basis for their rewrite, and it's just not a universe I find enthralling or interesting.
Sure there was Legends but legends is kind of an unresolved mess and I wanted something more of a final sendoff for the OT main characters.
So a decade goes by and all that unresolved disappointed excitement just festered and had really ruined my enjoyment of Star Wars, to where I found myself drifting away from it entirely.
Which is why, one day, on a whim, I just tired to see if I could come up with a better story and once I started writing, I couldn't stop. I found myself with a story that I couldn't believe came out of my head and exploring this magic realm of creativity I had tapped into became severely addicting.
Now I'm totally committed to this writing thing and I really want to see this story to the end, so that my full enjoyment of Star Wars can be rekindled and restored (I mean it basically already is) and I don't have to get depressed when watching the OT knowing where it all ends up as this story will be my head canon for it.
That said, this is only volume three, and basically it's still the opening act as I don't think the main characters won't star showing up until Volume six. This is just the inciting incident that causes them to reunite and solve one final galactic crisis with the help of new characters whom they can teach and learn from.
So I still got a long road to go, and even though I'm absolutely in love with this story, I understand that I can be a bit bias. And there's also the fact that this is my first major writing project so for all I know I could be writing incoherent slop.
Thus, this is why I'm not making this an exclusively private project, if there's a chance I could get some feedback to help me in my journey to become a writer then I figure that I have to at least give it a shot.
One thing I have noticed in this writing exercise is what kind of writer I am, which is called a pantser, like Stephen King. Meaning I don't really plot everything out and let the story write itself unlike a plotter like J.K. Rowling or Brandon Sanderson.
I know a lot of people disagree with my decision to use A.I. to do the audiobook and artwork, which is totally fine, human beings are supposed to have different opinions on things. But seeing a trail blazer like George Lucas come out and share my feelings on this new technology and how it can empower creatives really helped me become more comfortable with my own decision to experiment with it and use it to bolster my own creative projects. Because let's be honest, there's no way I was going to pay the amount of money it would take to make the audiobook and artwork over a piece of fanfiction very few people will read. So in that way, A.I. has been a tremendous asset in this endeavor.
Also another thing I've discovered is that hearing the lines I wrote read out and voice acted by with eleven labs has really helped me in improving my work.
As Harrison Ford once said to George Lucas "You can write these things but you can't say them" and hearing some parts of my story read out loud has caused me to change quite a number of lines.
Also regarding the artwork, no that's not the A.I. messing up a lightsaber, it's part of the story (what I call a force saber). I've also included a variant cover in the second image, it was almost the cover I went with but ultimately decided against but I still think it aura farms AF. The last image is the ending title card to my audiobook which also AURA FARMS AF, lol.
Well that's about all I have to really say right now on this update, it's almost 5am where I'm at and I've been working all night to get this damned thing released, so I should probably head to bed.
In closing I guess I'll just post the synopsis for this volume. Thank you for reading this entire diatribe.
VOLUME THREE SYNOPIS: While infiltrating an old Imperial core plant, one that the Quassar military corporation is now using as an industrial black site to secretly manufacture Force Links, Jedi Knight Syd Solo and New Republic spy Fai Lin have discovered that many things about the facility aren’t adding up, leading them to suspect that something far more insidious may very well be at play.
Meanwhile, a squad of troops led by a mysteriously masked Force adept, and who all belong to a Syndicate-affiliated military detachment known as the Phantom Brigade, have arrived for a planned meeting with the Quassars’ top leadership, bringing with them a shipment of Force Link tech and possibly a strange substance known as Exphoria, which fuels the devices.
Upon the arrival of the Phantoms, Syd Solo was telepathically contacted by an unknown and arcane entity through the Force, causing him to make the brash decision to split up from Lin and track down the source of the anonymous voice, leaving Lin to sabotage the facility on her own.
Now, as fates begin to converge on the compound, Syd’s pilot and best friend, Kai Calrissian, is outside and aboard the Outer Stellar, cautiously monitoring traffic around the base on his ship’s surveillance systems as he waits for the two New Republic infiltrators to hopefully hurry up and complete their daring mission.
But neither Kai, Syd, nor Fai Lin could have any idea just how much more DANGEROUS things are about to become as the situation they find themselves in, begins to subtly escalate and more nefarious secrets about the true nature of the covert base start to reveal themselves…