Guns and Grapple:
Fanfiction

Ostercy is a talented and famous Tomb Raider Writer who have been into the Tomb Raider fandom since 1997. Ost loaded up a website in 2000 releasing the author's stories on the internet for all to read. The fan site "Ostercy TR Fables" also featured artwork by Agnes Heyer. Ostercy is considered as one of the best Tomb Raider Writers on the internet, the fan's version of Lara made her more realistic and life like, able of human faults, and isn't 100% perfect. Which I believe Lara should be. "I made up my own Lara. I was chiefly concerned that she shouldn't be a big wuss, that she should be very English (and a real Englishwoman, not "Mary Poppins"), that she should be an adult (not just a child in a woman's body) and that she shouldn't necessarily be a "goodie" or a "baddie". " Ost mentioned in our interview.

This is a straightforward question that is tricky to answer :) Firstly ask yourself 'why fan fiction?', and not just ordinary fiction? Sometimes a fanatical love of Lara doesn't necessary translate to readable stories. I personally think that one has to be able to bring a fresh perspective to Lara's world, and this might mean that one has to push the boundaries of the canon a little. If you don't, your story may be a bit dull and will not stand out from the hundreds of Tomb Raider tales already out there. Make sure you have a plot, and don't assume that being well known on a forum somewhere or getting lots of fan boys saying "Your story is awesome!!!" makes you a good writer. Write the story is as few words as is necessary and don't over use adverbs. Have good writers as your role models. Clive Cussler, Dan Brown, Anne Rice, Stephen King and J.K.Rowling, in my opinion, are not good writers. Cormac McCarthy, Michelle Paver, Jacqueline Wilson and Philip Pullman are, for me, good writers. Lastly if you can get a beta reader - fine - although choose a competent one. I've read some TR fan fiction that has been edited by a "professional editor" but yet which is practically unreadable. Do not despair if nobody reads your story, and reply to all criticism - constructive or non-constructive- with gratitude, humour, style and grace :)

I guess the answer to this is none of the above. I started trying to write after TR1 and 2, and although I took the trappings of the character and used what snippets of biography were available, I made up my own Lara. I was chiefly concerned that she shouldn't be a big wuss, that she should be very English (and a real Englishwoman, not "Mary Poppins"), that she should be an adult (not just a child in a woman's body) and that she shouldn't necessarily be a "goodie" or a "baddie". (If they put my version of Lara on TV I'd like to think that she'd have to be on cable, and not suitable for kids.) In retrospect, the game that most closely matches "my" Lara is that of Angel of Darkness, and -  like many other people - I find mad, bad Angelina Jolie (as herself, not as Lara) an inspiration. I also have to acknowledge a debt to the humour and style of the comic strip "Tank Girl".

I avoid words that are used instead of "said" like "growled", "shrieked", " yelled". I try and keep the text very dry and cool, and don't do purple prose unless Lara is having a bad acid trip or something equally atypical. I include swear words, drinking, smoking and violence against endangered species where necessary. I also try and put Lara in the real world. If she ends up in India looking for the Sankara Stones, I don't populate the place with central casting Indian extras and comic book villainous Rajahs, but try (possibly not very successfully) to write the actual country as it is, at whatever time period Lara is there. I also try and avoid archaeological clichés (unless I'm being satirical) like the Lost Ark, the Spear of Destiny, the Holy Grail, King Arthur, ancient gods and goddesses, the lost treasure of Black Beard the Pirate, Ancient Egypt, etc., unless there's some sort of twist to the tale like ... Black Beard was really a goodie or the Holy Grail was in reality evil. Finally I try and research whatever I'm writing about a least a little, and by research I don't just mean solely reading Wikipedia or using Google map :). If you are soaked in the background of your chosen story then you have the freedom to think about the plot.