On Tue, 2 Jan 1996, Bert Van Vliet wrote:

To each his own I guess^_^

Too true.  Most (I said MOST folks, not all) Ranma-fics make me ill...

The only real Ranmafics I've read that were able to hold my interest were
TP#1, and 'Life's Dulse Moments'.  Sorry, but I just couldn't keep my
interest up for some of the others.

	What Ranma fics seem to lack in quality they make up for in
quantity ...  in spades.  I don't think there's an exceptionally high
percentage of duds in the Ranma genre of fan works, but there are
certainly a lot more to be sub-par. 
	IMHO, one of the most alarming things happening at the moment is the 
progressive canonization of Ranma fics.  The stories seem to resemble the 
series less and less (which, again IMHO, is OK) and come to resemble 
_each_other_ even more (which is almost guaranteed to be a _bad_thing_).  
	Someone pointed out that, in the series, Akane just doesn't bash
Ranma every three minutes.  Nevertheless, a convention of constant 
superdimensional malletwork seems to be an everpresent facet of Ranma 
fics.  Akane just doesn't cook all _that_ frequently in the course of 
Nettouhen (judging from those that I've seen, and the synopses I've read) 
... and yet one would be hard pressed to find a fic where Akane _wasn't_ 
feeling hurt after trying <unsucessfully> to ram something toxic down 
Ranma's throat.  The gags were, and perhaps are, funny.  Taken as a 
whole, however, Ranma fics seem to be dangerously close to a point of 
saturation.  Then again, what the hell do I know...
	The thing I like about BGC fics, and the reason I think Roy has 
basically missed the entire point in amalgamating BGC fics with used 
undergarments, is that there are a fair number of works ... and yet there 
doesn't seem to be the same degree of repetitiveness and <dare I say it?> 
stagnation in the fanworks as a whole.  Maybe there's just more room in 
plot and characterization ... or perhaps it's just a function of the 
audience it appeals to, but I think there is a definite difference.

As for other fanfics, I've been considering attempting  a Lodoss War fanfic,
but that's purely a notion right now.

That's one of the most interesting ideas I've seen on here in weeks.  
Little, or no (?) work has been done with the Lodoss universe.  You've 
got magic, romance, violence and babes with really big ears.  What more 
could an author want?

CHL