Plausible scenarios...

[Karmack]

... for storytelling, specifically for "personal" back-stories.  I was hoping to garner some opinions.  I am probably like a lot of SW fans, I am not immersed in the greater universe, most of what I know comes from the movies and reading articles on the Wookipedia.  :-)  So I don't know a lot of the stuff that came with Clone Wars, the various video games and many of the novels.

So when I start to think about creating a character, I go to what I know: The movie era.  Here's the rub: there are no Jedi in much of the time covered by the movies.  Specifically, during the Empire years and the early New Republic, which we only know very sketchy details about from Ep7.

That leaves me in a place I think a lot of folks are, a place where my character had to become Jedi (or Sith) with little or no real interaction with formal training and structure.

So...just how plausible is this?  How thorough was Order 66?  Did a couple of Jedi survive?  A lot?  Are they hiding?  And if they were in hiding, why didn't they come out and join the Rebellion?

Which makes me think that all but maybe a handful of Jedi were already fighting, and were killed by their Clone troops.  The rest died defending the Temple.  So, back to square one: is it plausible to create a character that finds some remnant of the Jedi order in hiding/exile and is trained, much the way Skywalker was himself trained by first Kenobi and then Yoda?

And does it matter?  After all, we're not exactly writing canon fiction anyway... 

[Darth Knox]

As you are essentially writing fan fiction you can be as creative as you want. Like you, my knowledge of Star Wars is limited to the movies. I never got into the old expanded universe. I'm not into the new EU stuff either and have never watched the clone wars or rebels shows.

When i was writing my character backstory i did a lot of research using starwars.wikia for dates, planets, alien species etc. i also used the jedi path and the book of sith too so that everything in my story would sound plausible and seem to fit into the SWU.

At the end of the day, though, it's your story, so just go for it.

If you're interested, here's my backstory http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=27744.0

[Darth Justicar]

I think the key is to treat the reader as intelligent and consider and address at least some of the points that you think may be objections--the things that made YOU wonder if it was plausible--in a clever way.  Doesn't mean you have to totally put your idea on trial, but I think that readers tend to respond most favorably when they feel their intelligence is respected.  If you think a logical reaction to something is "WTH?" then one potential way to handle it is to let a *credible* character (not a straw man or a hated/untrustworthy character) call some of it out and HAVE that WTH? reaction.

I have a story right now I am not sharing because frankly I realize some people will never accept the scenario or style under any circumstances, but I have still tried to make an effort to do things like respect real psychology (let people react in somewhat realistic ways, be confused, be angry when they should, maybe even try to flat reject the wild reality at first, and not react in stupid ways or ways that would seem unnecessarily degrading or hollow).  I also try to have some hints of real knowledge in other areas, and to consider which characters should have what information.  I have way more planned and understood behind the scenes than will ever be seen so that behaviors will be consistent with some sort of internal rule set even when that rule set is not fully visible to the reader OR even visible in full to all characters.  Even if subconsciously the reader will sense when you've done this.

Really, internal consistency is one of the most important things you can do.  Not everyone will ever accept your premise and your work may not be for those people, but if you are internally consistent and you respect your reader's intelligence, you are likely to connect with an audience.  And when you go out on a limb, these things make people more willing to follow you even if they too know you're out on a limb.  

[Darth Knox]

I think the key is to treat the reader as intelligent and consider and address at least some of the points that you think may be objections--the things that made YOU wonder if it was plausible--in a clever way.  Doesn't mean you have to totally put your idea on trial, but I think that readers tend to respond most favorably when they feel their intelligence is respected.  If you think a logical reaction to something is "WTH?" then one potential way to handle it is to let a *credible* character (not a straw man or a hated/untrustworthy character) call some of it out and HAVE that WTH? reaction.

I have a story right now I am not sharing because frankly I realize some people will never accept the scenario or style under any circumstances, but I have still tried to make an effort to do things like respect real psychology (let people react in somewhat realistic ways, be confused, be angry when they should, not react in stupid ways or ways that would seem unnecessarily degrading or hollow), also have some hints of real knowledge in other areas, consider which characters should have what information, and have way more planned and understood behind the scenes than will ever be seen so that behaviors will be consistent with some sort of internal rule set even when that rule set is not fully visible to the reader OR even visible in full to all characters.  Even if subconsciously the reader will sense when it is.

Really, internal consistency is one of the most important things you can do.  Not everyone will ever accept your premise and your work may not be for those people, but if you are internally consistent and you respect your reader's intelligence, you are likely to connect with an audience.  And when you go out on a limb, these things make people more willing to follow you even if they too know you're out on a limb. 

Yet another example of the wiseness and awesomeness of D. Justicar!
I'd love to read what you've written.

Also, Karmack, start with a basic premise and build your story from there, expanding as necessary with edits. Don't feel you have to have everything on-point and perfect with your first draft.

I'm sure whatever you come up with will be awesome and engaging to read

[Karmack]

Thanks.  :-)  I think I've pretty much adopted the approach both of you guys were advocating, but I had a sudden flash of illogical fear for some reason.  :-)  I should have this re-vamped back story posted in short order.  At least the beginning anyway...  I'm only up to about 0BBY...  ;-)

[Karmack]

I also need to figure out where "Deep Cover" fits in.  I wrote that a while back, its just a short blurp but it gives a hint at Karmack's life...

[Darth Knox]

Nice use of the word "blurp".

and "deep cover" can be a nice spin-off part of his backstory