Subject: Questionnaire: The Nature of Love
From: Richard Lawson
Date: 11/17/1996, 3:40 AM
To: Fanfic Mailing List
Reply-to:
sterman@sprynet.com

Okay, I'm beginning to rewrite parts of "The Nature of Love".  I'd like
your help.

Reactions to this fanfic have fallen into two categories.  One reaction
(and the most vocal) has been, "Die!  Die with festering boils!  Die! 
Die!".  I even managed to be a contributing factor in driving Nightelf
off the FFML.  The other has been "This is really good."  It's kinda
split down the middle, leaning towards "good".

Of the many, many different kinds of C&C I've gotten, the biggest
complaint has been about the ending.  So, if you have the time and
inclination, I'd like your thoughts on a few topics:

1)  Ranma's adoption.  In an effort to resolve Nodoka's obsession with
uniting the Saotome and Tendo clans, I had Ranma become a Tendo, and the
inheritor of the dojo over Akane, who wasn't much interested.  Some
people thought this was too pat, too easy.  I can change this, but leave
a major conflict (Nodoka vs. Ranma) unresolved.  Maybe it's better that
way, too.  Whaddya think?

2)  Ranma's gender-switching.  Some people thought it too unrealistic
that, even if Ranma chose Kentaro, she would choose to retain the
ability to become a guy, that she would still want to.  They felt that
to choose Kentaro was to choose to be a woman full-time.  I guess I
could do this, either by having the chisuiton (the ladle thingy) still
in Ranma's possession in this universe, or I can simply have Ranma
declare that she will never become male if she can help it - cold
showers forever.  Whaddya think?

3)  Ranma thinking of two women kissing when he kisses Akane.  If Ranma
thinks this, then it would make no sense for Ranma to ask Kentaro to
become a woman (I know it's just a test, but people thought that Kentaro
simply wouldn't believe Ranma' request for this reason).  I put it in
there to show that Ranma is still gender-confused; after all, he's just
spent six years as a woman, and has made major strides towards accepting
herself as a woman; that can't all be forgotten overnight.  Should I
throw out the kissing thing and show the confusion some other way? 
Should I ignore this altoghether?

4)  Endings!  I asked for alternate lines.  Here are some that I got,
let me know what you think.

One person said I should just change "guaranteed" to "certain" :

She shut him in the one way certain to get his attention.

Another, longer ending:

Ranma silently placed her fingers on his lips, her eyes holding a bit of
amusement as she looked at the man she loved, the man that she finally
realized that she would give up everything for if need be.  During the
few years that she had been a woman, she had learned a few things about
relationships and love, most especially how the soul was the most
important part of the person.  She bent her head upwards and placed her
lips on Kentaro's knowing that their souls would now be one.

One person said I should cut off the story just a little sooner:

"At least this time I don't have a damn koi on my chest..."
"Wh..."

One person offered a whole slew of alternate last lines:

He had a hard time speaking again.

She shut him up.

Those were his last words for quite some time.

Some time later, he verified that was indeed no koi on her breast.  But
that's a story for another time.   

A fleeting image of Ranma being thrown in the small pond near the dojo
passed throught his head.  He pictured her shaking the koi out of her
blouse.  Then his mind focused on more important things, like the woman
he loved in his arms.  She never gave him a chance to voice his
questions.

5)  Should I completely rewrite the ending so that Akane comes in, kills
Kentaro, dumps the Nannichuan water on Ranma, and we have a Ranma/Akane
lemon right there before they live happily ever after?

I'm not really going to do that last one.  I just needed to add
something Kun-chan would support whole-heartedly.  :)



I received lots of good C&C on other parts of the story as well, some of
which I'm actually going to listen to.  :)

As a whole, however, the point of the fanfic - Ranma choosing to live as
a woman, and choosing Kentaro over Akane - will remain unchanged.

I learned a painful lesson from my disaster of a Ukyo fanfic.  I asked
for everyone's opinion, and tried to use it all, to accommodate
everyone's C&C in my story.  The result was that the story
disintegrated, and I've given up on it altogether.  I know now that I
can't please all of the people all of the time.  I'm going to write the
story I want.  I value C&C, and find it very valuable.  Extremely
valuable.  However, there will be times I'll ignore it, either because
my interpretation is different or I simply don't agree.  That doesn't
mean I hate you for offering C&C.  Heck, I even appreciated Kun-chan's
feedback.  At the very least, I knew that my story had affected her
deeply.

With a story like this, which delves into some controversial subjects
and characterizations, people are going to be of very different minds. 
For every piece of email I got which said that my story was good and the
characters believable, I got another that said that the characters were
too OOC and that the story suffered as a result.  In this instance, I'm
going to go with the lessons I learned and keep the story and
characterizations I wrote more-or-less intact.

However, I still want your help on the issues I raised.  If you feel
like taking the time to answer, I'd super-appreciate it.

Thanks to everyone for all of the excellent C&C.

-- -Richard sterman@sprynet.com -------------------------------------------------- All my fanfics can be found at: http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/sterman/fanfic.htm --------------------------------------------------