On Sun, 25 Feb 1996, Jon K. Hayashi wrote:

Now that I'm finally free of December's End, I will do my victory dance! 
(per Susano Orbatos, "Orion")

Congrats, Jonno!

I've never started a thread before, so here's one that's puzzled me since I 
started writing (adapted for fanfics):

What qualities make a good fanfic?  What qualities make a bad fanfic?  Is there
any sort of quantifiable that beginning writers can use or is it simply "I 
liked that one."?  How much of it is mechanics vs. type of story vs. genre?

Hm... a solid plot can overcome any type of story type, imho.
Not gonna name any particular stories, though... ^_^

Mechanics are considerably important, not overwhelmingly, but
the mood of the story is kinda killed when suddenly the reader
hits a typo landmine.

Considering this is a "typed" genre, I personally prefer the
"Novel" format to the "script" format.  However, as I said,
a good story will make that sort of thing not matter at all.

A big thing, I hope that I'm doing (and possibly failing) , and that the 
better fanfic writers DO employ, is that they either (A) keep known 
characters well "In Character" and (B) Not make new characters 
TOO two-dimensional and simple, give a little depth to'em.

-rod m