The White Lotus Sentinel: Issue 5, 13 October

Issue 5, October 13, 2012	From the new editor Omashu Rocks Greetings fellow fanon authors and readers! Most of you probably probably know me or have at least seen my articles on this newsletter. If not, then allow me to introduce myself. My name is Omashu Rocks (it's a pun) and I currently sit on the Fanon Review Squad. In fact, I am the group's oldest active member, my first-ever review being one of Avatar: The Legend of Rokan. Apart from that, I had the pleasure of writing Avatar Brek and I have moved on to my current series, The House of Angkara as well as my short series, Political Animals. You may have read my Christmas-themed comedy one-shot, Deck the Halls!, and I am actually in the process of writing a Halloween Sequel. Aside from my writing, I am one of our wiki's Fanonbenders, and I consider the fanon side of the wiki to be more important than the canon side of the wiki. I try to help out just about every "needs help" fanon I come across and I want all of our readers to know that I'm always available if you have any fanon questions or concerns. As co-editor of this newsletter, I want to work with you to make the Fanon Portal stronger than it's ever been before. Let's not settle for just having a bunch of fanon series with no readers and almost no help grammar-wise. Let's really put in an effort to write spectacular legends and lend a hand to others who may be struggling. For that, I offer the following advice to authors in seven words. Outline Rough-Draft Action Emotion Cliff-hanger Thesaurus Review If an author applies each of these aspects into every chapter (maybe every other chapter for action and cliffhanger), they will have a successful fanon. However, I should mention one more KEY aspect. Popular authors are well-known readers Huh? What the heck does that mean? What it means is that if you want others to read your fanon, you have to read someone else's… actively. Comment regularly with detailed remarks, compliments, and constructive criticism on other fanons if you want people to check out yours. Trust me, I'm a doctor. (DISCLAIMER: I am not actually a doctor) That just about sums up all of my advice, so why not throw in some of my favorite fanons? My favorite classic fanon is Avatar: Energy Saga. My favorite lesser-known post-war fanon is The Adventures of Team Avatar. My favorite non-Aaang/Korra related fanon is The Avatar Rhythm. And my favorite non-Avatar centered fanon is Avatar: The Legend of Rokan. Enjoy the rest of the issue!
Your Fanon Friend Henryjh98 Heyy-o! What's popping? (duh, popcorn XD). Well, it's just me folks, welcome to my second edition of Your Fanon Friend. In the time that has passed since my last article, much has happened in the fanon world, such as Phantoms, User:AcerEvan/The Chronicles of Avatar: The Freedom Fighters|TCA:TFF}}, The Gaang Watches The Legend of Korra, Elements of Life, and many others winning Fanonbending! Congrats to all of you outstanding authors! 1st Fanon Commandment: Thou shall not discontinue fanon due to lack of readers. Don't worry; it may take a while, but you will get readers. Keep writing and don't give it up because people aren't reading it. Now, the fanon portal is receiving a lot more business than it has in the past. More and more readers and writers alike are flocking to the wiki to share in the beauty of words that we all love so much. New or returning authors are emerging from the pond of old users. Heck, our lovely admin Dcasawang is writing another fanon now! Check this out; the featured fanon voting is up, so go ahead and cast your vote for the best series, and the best fanon related article! Congrats to Heiress of the Nile by Lady Lostris and Phantoms by Aritiane for being nominated as the featured fanon series. And for the featured fanon articles are Heartless by Humble Imaginations and Foolproof by Minnichi. Congrats to both these chapters; but I am a fan of both, so may the best article win! Okay, so today I will be talking about a couple of my new favorite fanons! The first one, Elements of Life is a fantastic fanon by Typhoonmaster. Comprised of one-shots, they each tell a tale of a particular moral or value the author recognizes in life, whether it is humor, love, compassion, hatred, sadness, or achieving your goals. EoL is an inspiring fanon written beautifully by our wonderful Ty, and it does not have nearly the enough readers it deserves. I recommend it; it is amazing! Great job, Ty! Another series made up of a collection of one-shots; Helping One Another by Humble Imaginations. This is a bit different than EoL, for it is made up of one-shots only from the LoK and pre-LoK time period, not really delving much further than Tenzin's young life. Humble can rewrite episodes from certain characters' POVs and capture their emotions in a wonderful way. It is a captivating series that anyone would like. Now it's time for my last paragraph; Fanon Tips from the great, awesome. . . me! So I got this tip from a quote by JK Rowling, which is also my new quote of the issue: "It's imortant to remember that we all have magic inside us" — JK Rowling, author of Harry Potter This is so true. We all have magic, we all have talent inside of us. You just need to find your talent and tap into it. Never, ever think you are a bad writer, because you have the talent inside of you, and you will get it! Keep writing, and some day you will find the spring of talent and let if flow until you have an ocean of talent at your fingertips. Never let anyone's rude criticisms take you down. You will prevail, you will find the talent you have always had. Power through the hatred and let yourself shine. Never fear, you have talent in here. That was a great issue, in my opinion. I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it! Until next time, !! Ciao! *"Here" meaning mind and heart
	Writing Contest Mania AvatarRokusGhost A new fad is taking hold of the fanon portal. Ever since Minnichi published her “Epic Art for Epic Battles” contest at the beginning of the month, duplicated events with differing twists and genres have sprouted up like mushrooms about the fanon side of the wiki. Each involves the competitors writing their own short fanon scenes and one-shots based on a given premise. Excitement is in the air for all those involved, and the trend has spread like wildfire. During the months in-between canon seasons is the perfect time for the fanon side of the wiki to step up and help keep this site bustling with activity. Many of us still remember TAD’s fanon writing challenge last December. There were a handful of similar blogs earlier than that, starting with the fanon-writing portion of Joeyaa’s “Best of the Best” contest in August 2009, just following the merger. This is not the first time that these short fanon-writing events have been seen on here. However, this is the first time it has happened on such a scale as it has now. A few of the contests are offering prizes beyond the traditional userboxes, like the customized pieces of fan art promised by Minnichi to the top few placers in her writing contest, which is centered around writing action scenes. Simply put, this is the fanon portal as its best. Fanon authors, new and old alike are eager to participate and show off their writing prose on whatever path the theme of the blog and the letters of their nickname pave for them. It’s a great form of community cohesion and bonding where fanon users engage in the same activity, and on the same level as everyone else. Everyone who participates is a part of the experience, and everyone also adds to the thrill of it. A possible problem with the trend, though, is that they are all coming in at once. Although users are eager to participate, they only have a finite amount of time and energy for writing fanon stories on a daily basis. It would be great to see these blogs as often as possible, but in order to get the most out of them, it’s better not to have them all at the same time. If they’re spread out, it gives the writers a chance to catch their breath in between contests, but if it all happens at once, the writers have to pick and choose. Spreading them out maximizes participation and allows the positive trend to last longer. Many users are catching onto this, including Acer Indonesia, who has announced that his own contest will begin on October 27th. At least two more users plan to follow suit after him. By the time this article is read, Minnichi’s original contest will be either closed or closing up. If you still wish to play a part, though, never fear! More contests are yet to come. In the meantime, the following ones are currently active: A comedy writing contest by Omashu Rocks; submissions are due October 21st. A tragedy writing contest by MibuWolf; submissions are due November 1st. An “around the world” writing contest by Master Ratava; submissions appear to be due in early November. An imaginative writing contest by Humble Imaginations; no due date has been set yet.
Fanon Urban Dictionary Staff Community Fanon noun; A project that works 100% of the time, without fail. In fact, we should probably keep trying more, because the next one is sure to work out better than the previous ones. See: Our Story, The Blood Bath of Fanons, Vortex etc. "Hey, let's start a community fanon that everyone will lose interest in before two weeks pass!" Emptiness noun; Emotion felt after the suck-ish LOK Book 1 finale that inspired multiple alternative-ending fanons across the wiki. "What? So Amon is suddenly a Waterbender and his name is Noatak but it doesn't matter because he dies? Oh, the emptiness I feel after the series ended on such a bad note! I know, alternative ending!" Comments: noun; What comes after writing and publishing. Something every author looks forward to. *checks fanon page* "It's been 10 whole minutes since I published my latest 6,000-word chapter! Why has nobody commented yet?!" Henry Hyperactivity Disorder noun; A highly contagious disease named after the Henryjh98 virus, which causes many authors to feel super special by the same person. But in reality, the disease-inflicted soul just reads and praises everything. "He told me that my fanon was the best he's ever read!" "What? But he told me that my fanon should be nominated for the next featured series!" "And what about me? He said that mine was epically -" "Okay, let's all just stop for a minute. I think he has Henry Hyperactivity Disorder." "...Yeah. Probably. (Sigh)" Punctuation Paranoia noun; A delusional condition that develops after one becomes too attached to commas, semicolons, and apostrophes. Those symbols begin to define the very meaning of good fanons before long. "Oh, don't read that fanon. It's no good, I tell you." "...But I did read it. I don't know what you're talking about, I thought -" "ARE YOU BLIND?! Look at this! (points dramatically)" "So...they missed one comma after the quotation marks..." "Not just one, but two. TWO. I believe I've made my point." Fail Suspense noun; Something that tends to appear after authors run out of ideas to keep their readers 'on edge.' It usually results in a cheesy, cringe-worthy cliffhanger at the end of every chapter. "'And then...he turned around to see his best friend pointing a knife at him! Dun-dun-dunnn, to be continued...' (Next chapter) 'And THEN...he turned around to see his best friend attack the enemy instead!' Dun-dun-dun...' (Next chapter) 'And thennn...his best friend stabbed himself -'" "Okay STOP - just please, stop for a minute. My mind can't process all this fail suspense at once...please..." Songfic noun; The creation of an author who's run out of ideas, but who desperately wants to create a fanon nonetheless just to get their name out there. Moderators have gone far enough to try filtering these out on Fanfiction.net and deleting them on the spot, but their influence cannot be contained... "'So Minn, what do you think of the Wiki's fanon portal?" "A breath of fresh air! If I read another Zutara Songfic - no, if I read another 'NEVER MIND, I'll FIND SOMEONE LIKE YOUUU' in a fanfiction, I'm going to-" "Oh, that's nice. Can you review this for me?" "Um...okay. 'Note: This was inspired by Adele's -' (pause) You'd better get out of here before... (ominous music)" The Rocks Pun noun; Something that Mr. Rocks likes to use just to throw off new users. "Where can I find a good political fanon around here?" "Oh, you should go see Mr. Rocks about that." "(An hour later) I don't see a 'Mr. Rocks' anywhere, but I noticed an 'Omashu Rocks.'" "Yep, that's him." "Then why -" "Formality, that's all. Don't you know his reputation here?" "Yeah, but it sounds like - well, never mind. Thanks..."
	Favorite Fanon Module MateyY Haven't you ever wanted to have shortcuts to your favorite fanon stories without having to go from page to page? Well now it is possible! In a few simple steps, you will have a module that loads in the Wikia rail at the right side of the page on all pages (can be changed on request)! You will also be able to pick the page in which you want to list your favorite fanon stories, so that you have a shortcut to all you need! Also, you don't have to limit yourself to fanon; you can have any page linked on there. Step 1 The first step is to create (if you haven't already) or open your wikia.js. The full page name should be as follows: User:USERNAME/wikia.js. Then, just add this short snippet of code to the page: /* Load fanon module * Scripts by [[User:MateyY|MateyY]] */ importArticles({ type: "script", articles: [ "w:community:User:MateyY/Module.js", "w:community:User:MateyY/favoriteFanonModule.js" ] }); Also, add this and replace YOUR URL with the full url (including the protocol, such as http://). var fanonModule = { url: "YOUR URL" }; That will be the link to the page with your fanon list. Do not remove the quotations; case also matters. If you are confused, just create a page called User:USERNAME/Favorite Fanon and use the following snippet instead: var fanonModule = { url: "http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/User:USERNAME/Favorite_Fanon" }; Replace USERNAME with your username and replace all spaces with underscores. For help, feel free to contact me. Step 2 Next, create the page. Inside it, feel free to include any wiki markup. However, note that headings created with equal signs (=) will also be rendered with the edit link on their side. If you do not like that, you can escape that behavior by replacing, for example, == text == with <h2>text<h2>. Replace the number with the number in the tag of the equal signs you would have used otherwise: = text = to <h1>text</h1>. Do not use values greater than 6. You do not need to include a heading; if you do not, an heading level 1 will be displayed with the text "Favorite fanon". If you plan on using a custom heading, I strongly recommend you use the level one heading, because that way size is kept consistent. Step 3 Once you publish the page, reload your page by pressing Ctrl+F5 on the page with the list of fanon and your wikia.js. Do that every time you update your list. Now a list should appear in the Wikia rail, in a Wikia-style module. For more help, personalized feature requests, and/or suggestions/feedback, please contact me.

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