Subject: Re: [FFML] (essay) Alternative Universe Stories
From: Hunter Kid
Date: 9/18/1997, 8:27 PM
To: fanfic@fanfic.com

<snip essay>

Nice essay. :)  As an addendum:

Although an alterniverse story is essentially a 'what if' story, it can
also include *several* what-ifs.  I did this myself in my 'Mirror Images'
story, where Ranma chooses Ukyou over okonomiyaki which causes a disruption
to the timeframe but *also* there's some other changes in the past that
aren't even remotely connected to that, such as that Happousai named Tarou,
but he didn't baptize him in the spring, and that Ms. Kenzan (Konatsu's
mother) had twins instead of a single boy.

One what-if, unless it spawns a *lot* of changes, can be boring, though - a
good example (no offense to the author) is the fanfic 'Ranko 1/2,' which is
so similar to the original that it's almost plagarism.  Because of this, I
got annoyed and didn't read past the first book.  

Hunter Kid
http://www.serve.com/guilds/ranma/
guilds@mail.serve.com