Omakes : Planning on writing any?

Simple enough thread, post ideas you've had or written that would count as an Omake to your writing projects.

I have intents for one per book in Endless Conflict, usually something unrelated to the main plot.

The first one of which I've titled "The Great Pastime" is in essence a Baseball Episode. Made even better in that my initial aims for it will be a Whole Plot Homage to Casey At The Bat.

edited 20th Jul '11 7:37:45 PM by MajorTom

America's trademark sport. I get it! Ha ha.

I plan on including in their entirety the essays/journals/historical documents that are found interspersed within the story in bits and pieces.

Omake for AB!Beowulf's probably going to be supplemental information on my reconstruction of 6th century scandinavia, a behind the scenes of sorts showing where I got the ideas for reconstruction from—that is, where I got the idea of the distaff and thread-spinning as a basis for Beowulf's magic, why I changed Hrothgar's daughter's name, etc.

Project 154 isn't the right format for omake, and I haven't though about what sort of omake I would make for 154. However, I have written articles, notes, scripts and such, some of which may possibly make it into the actual story anyway depending on the content.

edited 20th Jul '11 7:36:15 PM by annebeeche

I'm the kind of guy who likes to go around collecting all the little bits of series fluff or assembling every piece of the Apocalyptic Log. It's great where a game or movie or book doesn't spell everything out for you- that way you're an actual active participant in the narrative. You need to think, to work out the full picture yourself rather than just having it spoon-fed to you like you're a baby. These background documents would shed light on the context of certain events in the world, and always be in-character as if they were written in-universe.

Off-topic note: How long has the page been named Bonus Material? Not that I mind - I'm glad to see the last of the senseless Gratuitous Japanese - but I was unaware that this had been renamed.

Back on topic: I have a lot of this stuff lying around. I think I've posted before how I think may be better at world-building then writing the actual story, so there tends to be enormous amounts of background material that never is mentioned once in my works. The stand-out here is my comics - despite being mostly comedic, I built an extensive universe for them, and my bonus material for them includes:

• "Style guides" for some of the main factions of the 'verse, with drawings and lots of notes under each.
• Maps, floor plans, et. cetera for some of the main locations.
• An encyclopedia of the history of the sci-fi elements.
• Several short comics set in the 'verse that don't actually involve any of the main characters and have no real plot relevance, but simply serve to flesh things out.
• A facsimile of the James B Agents' database on the major villains.

And much, much more! So in answer to the thread title question... yes.

Yes. There's plenty of "supporting data" for my primary work that I wrote down just so I wouldn't forget it; I also like world-building so this got a little excessive.

With a little cleanup, it would make a great sourcebook to aid in understanding the finer points of my story.

To be honest I tend to spend more time writing character profiles, timelines, in-universe documents and irrelevant Slice of Life scenes than I do writing the actual story.

@Bobby: wow, you too huh?

I spend a lot of time writing these, actually. I have omakes that I've published before my main story (which, actually, is important to a major story arc for two characters in a very unhappy marriage - it's the list of laws and statutes that enables their relationship to be so very destructive, along with their respective attitudes, of course. The wife's an alcoholic who absolutely refuses to follow said laws because she finds them oppressive and unfair, and the husband is too young for his role of leadership and feels angry and robbed of his chances for other relationships by his wife. Things head south quickly.) I've written two short stories for one couple in the past two days: one called "Chocolate Cake in a Bag" and another called, "All The Things She Said," both centering around the relationship between two female characters (one's the wife in the unhappy marriage); "Chocolate Cake..." is fluff with a sexual bent, while "All The Things She Said" is just plain fluff and "relationship spying" for me.

I spend a whole lot of time writing codes of laws, documents on the work's world, on the various creatures found within, character sheets (which I technically don't need, since I've got the whole "characters with opinions on freakin' everything in my head" going on when I write, and I know them all very well), and so on. I have a fondness for tableaus and short stories that are adjacent to the storyline - I use them to see what the characters want, if that makes any sense, and I can see how things work for that particular set of people, like the female couple, or the husband and wife, or the two brothers who claim to hate each other but actually might not. I do spend time writing the story, and I use the its page here to keep track of such details, and to provide information to any potential readers, but I find I really enjoy the Omake aspect, as well.

I have to join those who are saying that they like writing the bonus material more then the story itself.

I have plenty of these planned. If/when (fingers crossed) I get published, I'm hoping to include an Omake with the book; a short story entitled "Cora and the Dreamers" that explains the background of one of the Five Races in the original. I would also have a blog on my website that expounded upon things that were All There in the Manual, as well as stuff for the series.

As for my other 'verse, the Wordkeepers one, well, I only have two omake of sorts for that one. And one of them I'm loathe to explain, because it's the subject of a Noodle Incident in the second book, and sometimes it's more fun to leave that to the imagination. "I thought we were never speaking of the 'Candle Incident' again!"

I wrote a little tiny thing that shows the general solid attributes of each character (weight, height, age, etc.), as well as a more curious detail beneath: their kill count, separated into "humans" and "zombies". The most sane character also has the most human kills, just ahead of the least sane character in the story. The difference? The most sane character had emotional consequences attached to a number of the people they killed. The other character did not, and by the time they ever had to deal with the consequences of killing someone, they were too far off the deep end to be affected.