Excerpts from mail.fanfic: 18-Apr-96 Re: [FanFic] The Nature of .. by
"Mr. the Rutsch"@ucdavis
On Thu, 18 Apr 1996, Damon Jason Casale wrote:
There *are* certain things which you cannot get around, and which
*should* be in every story. This has nothing to to with writing
method, though. I'm talking about things like plot, characterization,
good grammar and spelling, etc. Other things, like good word "flow" to
the story (not
Just to butt in here...even that's not necessary. There's *no* rule
to writing. Character studies can have essentially no plot and still
be wonderful...
I must disagree. I've read several "character" pieces: pieces with all
characterization and little to no plot. I absolutely hated them. Maybe
that's just my personal taste, but I can't stand something that doesn't
tell a story.
Joyce's _Dubliners_ is a *great* example of this.
Haven't read it.
"Autumn" wasn't exactly plot-filled, and that may be the best fic ever
written, depending on how I feel at the moment. ^_^
I've read almost zero Ranma, and very likely won't read any again. (that
is Ranma, right?)
Characterization can be ignored when the action or plot takes
precedent, like in an action movie or some highly enjoyable fics, or it
can be selectively ignored to make the philosophical point that people
don't have a character or anything making them wonderfully unique...I
love doing that.
A story that has little or no characterization falls flat to me. Yes,
people can tell an otherwise great story. Even published writers have
managed this. But it's a sad state of affairs that the story has to be
that unbalanced. An example: "The Lost World", by Michael Crighton.
When writing firsthand, bad writing is an almost necessary form of
characterization. If Kunou were to think in slang and sentence
fragments, and still speak in the King's English, that'd say something.
I've done that myself. But that's no excuse for having "bad writing"
in the rest of the story. Example here: Putting a quoted thought,
followed by a sentence. [ "That's right," he turned around and put down
the sword. ] I've seen Bentley do that a lot in his stories.
Then again, no characterization and no plot would be hard to pull off
together... although I tried reading a Star Wars novel once...^_^...and
these books sell something like a million copies.
I've never read any of the Star Wars stuff. I can't stand any of it,
written or on screen.
the same kinds of phrases repeated over and over again, like "he said",
or "... and ..., then ...", etc.), are pluses, but not absolutely
necessary.
That's a biggie. Smoothly written stories are instantly elevated
above the clumsy. I have a hard time just reading some of the fics with
this problem.
Michael Chrighton was a big offender, here. Again, "The Lost World".
Here's another must, then. Listen to your readers, even if you don't
take their advice. A (mostly) objective viewpoint will very likely help
a lot.
Another thing I like to do is save the replies I recieve, even if I
decide not to use the advice for what it was intended...if people bother
to reply they must have something to say, and the idea is usually valid
in some regard. Similarly, if I offer (what I think is) good advice, and
the author doesn't use it, I do it myself.
I've probably done one of these for everything I've written.
Sometimes the ideas for a story comes entirely from a reply...right now
I'm working on something based almost entirely on the reply "shouldn't
you explain what drove Nabiki to the dark side?" to a story.
Yes, if you made a reply to me, it's either floating in my inbox, or
printed out and in a desk drawer to my left. Save 'most every one.
Well, here's an interesting tale to tell on that note. During the Poker
game spam, Mike White wrote an out of continuity bit, which had him
reflecting a "laser" that my ship in orbit had fired. It was supposed to
have just carved a message on the sidewalk and then stopped, but Mike
apparently didn't get that at the time, and tried to "reflect" it. I
replied to him: "I'll remember that, Mike", since he couldn't leave it
in.
A few nights later, I had a wierd dream (read "fanfic idea"), and mentioned
his offense to him. "You know what I remembered most about your post?
It was beautifully written. How about working on a BGC fic with me?"
Something along those lines. I liked his writing, even from just reading
that, (and knowing that he liked BGC) to ask him. Right now, we're working
on a pre-Knight Sabers story, passing ideas and dialogue back and forth
on IRC. Things seem to be progressing, too. ^_^
* Love *
Between two people, there is nothing that
can draw them closer together
Hmmm...IMHO, love is in a tie with hate.
That would only be obsessive hate. I think love, in general, wins. ^_^
Damon Casale, scyth@andrew.cmu.edu
* Love *
Between two people, there is nothing that
can draw them closer together