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// File 000 - A Fan Fiction Writers Trade Secrets 
// Story: The Lost Files of Dr. Walter D. Arceaion 
// by Arceaion 
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Hello everyone and welcome to the first official chapter of The Lost Files of Dr. Walter D. Arceaion, for the first segment I felt I should actually start at the beginning and where better that the story that started it all? Before we begin however I will say that this chapter is special as I'll be going in to the real world mechanics of what starting out was like as well as explaining certain things that we will get to in a bit. 

Background
So long before I started Return of the Reaper of Life I was a bit of what's know as a lurker which means that I didn't use an account but still visited this site often. In fact I was this way for several years and during that time I read hundreds of stories with many now saved to my favorites since I actually have an account. But that's a story for another time, what I was getting to before I was thrown off topic was that this story actually went into development a few years before I made my account. 

Development Process 
Problems as a new writer
Now from the get go Return of the Reaper of Life had some major problems not only due to the fact it was my first story but if you go back you'll see I in fact used a different format and my spelling was horrible. Of course errors in my spelling were not the only ones made, I actually had to submit this story three times as the first time the spelling was too bad, second time whoever read it said it wasn't a MLP story. It was this reason that I added the part with Twilight in it as it was the only way who ever was reviewing it would allow me to post it. Because of this the entire story was thrown off and I was forced to introduce the main  characters at rushed pace with the main 6 being added way sooner than I wanted them to be. Anyway it was the third attempt that allowed the story to be posted and I thank whoever permitted me to post it. You know I look back on my early days on this site with some fondness, I mean I would want to go back to them as they were filled with so much trouble and I've improved so much but still never in my wildest dreams did I think that I'd be sitting here 2 years later with 327 followers, and six stories that were featured whit some being featured multiple times. 

Actual Development
So I think that covers as much of the early problems I had  when I first started out, so why don't we move on to the stories development and proceedings. To start off this massive explanation of the behind the scenes I want to say that while I knew what I wanted to do with the story I only had a loose frame work to build off of, this would become a staple in my writing with most of my stories it being off the top of my head and written the moment. Often times I will only lay out the mare basics of a time line with only the key events set i stone and the characters will simply have to get there on their own. Because of this writing style I'm free to explore the characters personality, motives and actions at anytime. TO me there are three major factors for story telling, the setting, the character and how it can all be fit together realistically. Examples of this being that everything in my world has some form of mechanic or explainable cause/ reason behind it; you will never get me to write a story and have the answer to a question be simply 'It's magic'. The reason for this is that I find such answers to be unimaginative and break the immersion of the reader, now many of these mechanics are things you have to guess at how they work because they aren't explained in a straight answer but rather a more round-about way as to purposefully confuse the reader.

Next is character and character development, to me the characters must be have some level of both reliability and realistic approach. By this a mean the character must have an in depth personality with desires, dreams and emotions. Before I even write them into the story I create a massive character sheet that covers everything from the'r name and age to backstory, powers, and anything else I can think of that would fir the character. Now the second part, the 'realistic approach' part ties in to the everything must have a reason mechanic of my story telling. By following this realistic approach I'm able to justify everything the character does and allows the reader to not simply say that's impossible. 

I would also like to give a big shout out to JohnrId03 for assisting me in the development of the characters to  Return of the Reaper and many of the characters in Assassin's Creed: Dawns Rising I may have made them and developed them but it was JohnrId03 that polished them off and turn them from diamonds in the rough to the sparkling and clean cut beauties they are .

And finally we come to setting, now this is often seen as the easiest however it's often not. Creating a setting requires weeks of research and understanding. for example, if I want to create a western town I first go online and look up old western town and look at them getting an idea of what I'm going to be writing. Next I look up information about the old west and what it was like settling there, from how environment and it surrounding looked and affects the people there to even what food was available or what rations they had. After that I begin creating the story building back ground characters or characters that will be used as well as simple mentioned characters to give the town some life. Finally I insert the main character or characters altering the interaction and everyday life of those affected by the main character. This approach often gives me an extremely lifelike approach however due to my lack of writing skills it';s often hard to wright it well so a lot of this information is never used. As I grow as an author you will find I will become incorporating the little details I have in my head and you'll get a better story. 

Editing and Editors
Let it be know that in my opinion editing is not what makes or breaks a story, editing can contribute to the overall impact of the story but in most cases a reader will overlook a few spelling errors if your story is worth reading. Of course if you red close I said a few spelling errors, spelling is important and you do have to edit as it shows you take pride in your work and have a degree of professionalism . Most people don't actually edit themselves but rather let an editor do it for them. I don't do this so to any of you who are reading this and are editors, you have my deepest respect and deserve more credit than your given. While editing is not a make or break point it is still perhaps the most important thing to do and all editors deserve your respect and praise for their hard and dedicated work. 

Now during the writing of  Return of the Reaper I actually had a dedicated Editor who was an old friend and fellow author for the site Fanfiction.net. However the guy was... not the best person. He took my ideas and changed them by copying other people and passing their work of as his brilliant ideas and since I had no idea he was doing this I simply said okay and posted them. This would inevitably lead to one of the authors of some stolen content to accuse me of stealing his ideas and after looking i to it I was so not very... happy. Turns out the guy was doing the same shit with his own stories as well stealing my ideas and passing them off as his own work. I reported him and his account was terminated but to this day I don't trusty anyone with my personal documents. It's for this reason I don't have an editor and I do it myself.





The Reason I told you this story is so that you don't go through what I did. Anyway on this morbid note I feel I leave you and bid you adieu, I hope you enjoyed this insider look as it's the only time I share such information. After this chapter the True Files will begin. I've hidden so many secrets, but it's time I show you my hand.