[FFML] Re: Advice needed...



How lucky can you get? (well, other than being castrated by a cape buffalo while gathering honey, having to stitch up your wounds with a thorn bush, dragging yourself to a water hole where you lay helpless for weeks surviving on insects and grubs, are given up for dead by your family before making your way home . . . you can't get much luckier)
 Your post your question on the same day I'm test driving my new ergonomic keyboard. (Plus have internet connection . . . almost. Still
working out the bugs in the rest of the computer)
NOW, on to your answers - - -









"Sebastian Palm" <winchester@telia.com> wrote:

Hi! Don't bite the newbie, please...



IRON FFMLER: "First we saute the newbie in a nice red-wine sauce . . ."


I know that the 'Ranma falls into pool of drowned goddess' has been done
over and over for a while, but I think I found a way to put a new spin
on it - rather than using AMG as the crossover source, I figured I'd use
Tenchi...



@@Rule ONE: it is useless to put makeup on a corpse. A good story is a good story and a bad one still stinks. 

1: Characterization
2: Characterization
3: Characterization
Followed by
4: Dynamic tension
5: Dynamic Tension
6: Dynamic Tension
 and
7: Plot

Create interesting characters and give them a problem 
to solve. The idea in and of itself is neither good nor bad.
It's what you DO with the idea. 
@@@@


The premise is that for one reason or another, Tsunami has spent the
last couple of millenia trapped at Jusenkyo. The "pool of drowned x"
thing is a sham - Tsunami amuses herself with giving the customers the
form they deserve, and the Guide plays along. But when Tsunami takes a
look at Ranma's soul, she finds something interresting



TSUNAMI: "HEY! Judge Crater!"



(for those who don't know who Judge Crater is:
http://home.texoma.net/~hardini/judge_crater.html)




- a potential

soul-mate, someone that can actually get her out of this dreadful place.
Of course, this involves Ranma having Tsunami along for the ride...


TSUNMAI: "Watch out for that dragon. You're going too fast. I need to use the restroom. We're lost aren't we? I TOLD you stop and ask for directions----"
RANMA:" 'Everyone goes to Tokyo Disney' he said,'Let's go the Cursed Pools
this summer' he said. Stupid old man."
GENMA: "Riiibbitt!"
RANMA: "Shut up and eat your flies."


The way I figure, the only parts of the Tenchi cast that are actually
going to be involved here are Tsunami, Tokimi and possibly Washuu. The
'normal' NWC is quite enough for general mayhem anyway...



TENCHI: "I have a CONTRACT!"
WASHUU: "I have protoculture, and I'm not afraid to use it."


Does this story sound workable? Would people read it?


@@If it has well developed characters doing interesting things.
There is no magical plot that automatically equals a good story.
I can think of two or three different ways to develop this idea
and I'm quite sure that other authors could think of many more.

Is it workable? Certainly.
Will people read it? There's no way to know that until it's written. A lot
depends on your audience, which is fluid. Most best selling authors spent
years and had hundreds of rejections before being accepted. And quite a number of writers who were world famous in their lifetime are unknown now. It's no different with fanfiction. 
@@@@@


Second story idea: Genma is not really that dishonorable, just
overenthusiastic and prone to overestimating himself and others.




GENMA: "It's simple, boy. Just believe in yourself and you can do it."
RANMA: <staring down into canyon, wearing chicken suit> "I believe I'm going to dieeeeeee!"
GENMA: "FLAP boy! FLAAAP . . .Strange. It should have worked."




 Thus,

after signing the infamous suicide pledge, he takes his son on a
training trip, and within six months winds up having a part time
daughter.



PART-TIMER: "I get Y1250 an hour, double time for overtime and weekends off."



This prompts Genma to take a good long look at his own life

and faults, and he winds up burning the book he got the directions to
Jusenkyo from, along with the Neko-Ken manual...




RANMA: "Stupid old man, we're lost!"
GENMA: "We'll ask directions at that police call box."
DR. WHO: "Getting you back home will be no problem at all. . ."


In their quest for a cure, they manage to get lost. Very lost. 20 years
in feudal Japan lost - with a 2:1 time dilation, meaning that only one
decade passed here before they got back. The result is a Ranma with
complete control of his "curse", swords, and an attitude towards
wannabes best summed up as 'go away and eviscerate yourself, your
exisance bothers me' - which infuriates Akane, and scares Kuno
witless... (In this alterverse, the key to mastering the curse is to
actually want and love both forms - which means that the younger the
victim the easier it gets. A character like Taro, for instance, would
have mastered it by age two...)

Same two questions as above...

@@Same answer as above. Interesting people doing interesting things makes an interesting story.
Personally an uber-Ranma isn't very interesting to me. Where's the dynamic
tension? I'd much rather see a Ranma with a problem to solve. That's what you need to tell us. NOT that he's got an attitude but what is the conflict? The fact that he infuriates Akane is nothing new. Ranma infuriates everyone at some time or another. And simply scaring Kuno isn't much fun either. Now, if it turns out that his little time trip makes him the rightful heir to the Imperial throne, he and the Tendou's are hereditary enemies, Kuno is his loyal Samurai retainer . . .
NOW you've got some conflict. ^_^

This is what is missing from both of your ideas. What is the conflict? The
Dymamic Tension? What is the "Problem to solve?" Without that, you don't have a story. (There are exceptions, of course. See Joseph Palmers wonderful "Colors" or "Seasons" series, for instance)

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