User blog:Rhonda the stalker fan!/Total Drama Genesis Merge Announcement Blog

Hello everyone! So basically this is a blog to make some announcements regarding Total Drama Genesis! I have officially reached the merge in it! While that might sound silly that I’m so excited, I’ve been on the wiki for seven years and started this fic two years ago. To reach the halfway point (I’m possibly over halfway) is exciting!

Any who, this blog is just to share some announcements, thoughts and ask questions that I wanted to share now that we’ve reached the merge.

Thank You!
I’m not entirely certain who all reads Genesis, besides four core readers. I do want to thank everyone who has read, no matter where you are or when you started! I especially want to thank Zac, Gideon, Toad and Mana, who have kept reading and sharing their thoughts with me. It's been a huge help and improved the story greatly! The story wouldn't have gotten this far without you, so thank you!

If you haven’t read it, or started and never finished, now is a great time! I’m proud of what I’ve written and think it just gets better as you go.

I haven’t fully decided what’s going to happen in the merge, and there are several instances where I feel what I do will change depending on how readers feel about this or that character. So current reading can really impact that.

Formatting Changes
So if you read the last two TDG chapters, you might have noticed a slight format change. Basically there's an extra space between scene changes or different dialogue between different characters.

I felt like reading before was a bit confusing, all the scenes were kinda close. I want to know did this make reading easier? Was it weird? Did you notice? If it did, I'll go back and change the other chapters. If not, I'll change thirteen and fourteen.

Wheel Of Misfortune
So the first official challenge of the merge is going to be the Wheel of Misfortune from Total Drama Island’s first individual challenge! That’s where they spin a wheel and land on a torture.

I’m trying to make the wheel of torture a little more logical, like how you can pick tortures for others.

I’m also going for mostly new tortures than were on the original wheel. I have some ideas but I thought it would be fun to allow suggestions. So if you have any torture ideas or the wheel, let me know! I’ll have Rhonda credit these ideas as coming from you, so let me know how you want to be credited, i.e. as your username, real name, a codename, pun, etc.

Fan Favorite Award
I remember when reading Nayld’s Total Drama Amazon, that someone was awarded a fan favorite prize. Survivor use to do this and Big Brother still does. So I decided I wanted to try that!

Basically, the readers will vote on a contestant who they want to be the fan favorite and in story awarded a prize, ten thousand dollars. It's small in comparison to the grand prize, and even Island’s final prize, but still generous.

I was basically thinking of adding it as section on the talk page or as a separate blog; everyone gets one vote and explain why. I’d open it around final six or five, then close it at final 3. This way people won’t feel like they shouldn’t vote for the winner, since I want the fan favorite award to be for the fan favorite. It also won’t affect who wins or is eliminated, so don’t worry about that.

Big Brother and Survivor usually give viewers multiple votes each episode though, so I didn’t know if I should do it that way. Basically every reader has a vote (or votes), that they can cast before the next chapter in the merge.

Share your thoughts if you like the fan favorite award idea and which method you prefer.

Userboxes
On the wiki we use to do userboxes a lot, kind like badges that we decorated our userpage with. A fun way to say what stories we read and characters we liked. I always wanted to do those for my fic, so why not now?

Traditionally, a story would have userboxes of their characters that made the final seven or so. I don’t want to do this, since it can spoil who goes far. They also usually said something like, “This user hope Gwen wins.” But then when a character was eliminated, they would say, “This user wishes Gwen would’ve won.” I don’t want to do that either, again it spoils the story.

So here’s my thought process. Six to eight userboxes (depending on what the limit is). They each say, “This user is a fan of (character) from Total Drama Genesis.”

Which characters would get userboxes? I think that’s who you guys would want to have userboxes. I might choose a few I would like to have userboxes, but I think if readers are going to have them on their pages, it should be their favorites.

In the comments of this blog, tell me which Genesis contestants you want userboxes of. It can be anyone, from the first boost to anyone still in the merge. This means, the winner could or could not get a userbox. I may add one for the winner later if I really think they should have one, but again I don’t want to reveal spoilers so they might not. So please just share your thoughts on that ;)

Theme Songs
Another thing we do on the wiki is theme songs. What song fits a certain character best, that kind of thing.

I haven’t thought too much about this, but I want to do that too for Genesis cast. Here’s a few ideas for songs:

Drunk On Love by Rihanna for Lita

Happy by Marina and The Diamonds for Seraphina

God Help The Outcasts for Melissa

I’m not really set on any of those songs though. They were thought of early on, but maybe don’t fit the characters as well anymore. Drunk In Love might be too sexual for Lita, its been awhile since I listened to it. And Melissa’s might be more religious and or something more bubbly might fit better?

There is one theme that I’m pretty set on for a character, but actually changes depending on what happens with that character’s story. Also, not the National Anthem for Aiden if we can xD

If you have any suggestions for a theme, feel free! I’ll credit obviously. No genre off limits.

Mana did mention Regina Spektor’s Grand Hotel reminded him of the Pentagram and could be a theme, which I agree with! I like it and its devil imagery.

Winner Guessing Contest Second Chances
I’ll update this on talkpage to, but I just wanted to explain it here as well.

I have some spots left in the Winner Guessing Contest. If you were previously eliminated in the contest, or are eliminated through the merge, you can guess a second, empty choice. Just signify this by putting .2 in bold after your signature in your second guess.

Someone may have already guessed the winner, but I’m not entirely sold on who the winner is just yet, so don’t look into this second chance too much.

(Also, if the winner of either contest isn’t someone who has been trying to read, then they forfeit the prize and it’ll go to the next closest. It just doesn’t seem fair. It doesn’t mean you have to be caught up by the end of the contest, just that I know if you actually have made an effort to read).

Final Chapter Count
'''Warning: This is a slight spoiler for the latest chapter, chapter fourteen, of Genesis. Don’t read if you haven’t read it. '''

In the latest chapter, Rhonda reveals that they’ve been greenlit two extra episodes. My original intention was that there would be twenty six chapters, not counting a reunion special, mirroring the traditional number of episodes. If there are only twenty six chapters, there will be two eliminations in one chapter. These two extra episodes were meant to round up to twenty six episodes.

However, I realize that the first three chapters are technically one episode in-story. I’m thinking the story could now have twenty eight chapters. If this is done, then there would be only single eliminations and a chapter for a loser’s visit or something like that.

I’m partial to this idea, but if two extra chapters is too much for everyone then I won’t. So some feedback would be nice.

Finally Done Talking
Anyway, that’s everything I think! It's a lot, but I’m very excited to have reached the merge and excited for everyone to read what I have planned! I think reader feedback is important and I love incorporating it into my stories, so please share any thoughts, comments or feelings you have this! Thanks again <3