Monday, July 3, 2006
Hello, everyone. I have an important announcement to make – I will no longer be releasing chapters of "Toa-Hero." Also, I have taken the liberty of deleting the 22 chapters that I have already posted.
The reason why I did all of this was to protect my ideas. By putting out my ideas for the whole world to see without any sort of legal protection, I run the risk of having them stolen. One of the biggest problems with writing fanfiction is that the writer has no legal way to protect his/her writing or ideas, as the entertainment source and sometimes even the characters upon which they are based are already copyrighted. Therefore, rather than have my ideas be stolen, I have taken this story off of the website.
So, where to now? It's onto the next step – finding my own story (that I can actually copyright). I am grateful for this experience of writing fanfiction though. I think writing fanfiction here has been like an internship – I didn't get paid in cash, but I feel that I learned some things that are more valuable than money.
As of this date, "Toa-Hero" has made a couple of records in the Bionicle section of this website that I think are worth mentioning. First, it has gotten the most reviews of any Bionicle fanfic on this website – 240, to be exact. The story with the second highest number of reviews has 150. The most significant record that this story's made is that it's been the only Bionicle fanfic to be updated consistently every week for five months (Feb. 4 – July 4, 2006).
In addition, approximately 70 people have read "Toa-Hero," and 20 people have listed it as one of their favorite stories. Also, since I want to be a children's author, I think this achievement is significant – the portion of the story that I've posted is 6,000 words longer than the average length of one of Greg Farshtey's books (which is approximately 24,000 words per book).
To the Bionicle creators: Greetings. Should you so happen to be reading this, I have a business proposition for you. As you have seen, this story has been quite successful. Though "Toa-Hero" doesn't fit into your official Bionicle timeline, I would be willing to have my story (in its entirety) be published in a sort of fan-written book or series, whichever you should choose. I'd be willing to negotiate a contract as an independent contractor so if you're interested, feel free to e-mail me at w h a l e s h a r k 7 g m a i l . c o m you.
To everyone: Well, it's been a pleasure. Thank you to all of you who reviewed. Your support has been greatly appreciated. Also, thank you to everyone for reading, whether or not you ever actually reviewed.
The best of luck,
Whale Shark 7