On Thu, 18 Apr 1996, Damon Jason Casale wrote:

There *are* certain things which you cannot get around, and which *should*
be in every story.  This has nothing to to with writing method, though.
I'm talking about things like plot, characterization, good grammar and
spelling, etc.  Other things, like good word "flow" to the story (not

    Just to butt in here...even that's not necessary.  There's *no* rule 
to writing.  Character studies can have essentially no plot and still 
be wonderful...Joyce's _Dubliners_ is a *great* example of this.  
"Autumn" wasn't exactly plot-filled, and that may be the best fic ever 
written, depending on how I feel at the moment.  ^_^  
    Characterization can be ignored when the action or plot takes precedent, 
like in an action movie or some highly enjoyable fics, or it can be 
selectively ignored to make the philosophical point that people don't have a 
character or anything making them wonderfully unique...I love doing that.
    When writing firsthand, bad writing is an almost necessary form of 
characterization.  If Kunou were to think in slang and sentence 
fragments, and still speak in the King's English, that'd say something.
    Then again, no characterization and no plot would be hard to pull off 
together... although I tried reading a Star Wars novel once...^_^...and 
these books sell something like a million copies.

the same kinds of phrases repeated over and over again, like "he said",
or "... and ..., then ...", etc.), are pluses, but not absolutely
necessary.

That's a biggie.  Smoothly written stories are instantly elevated 
above the clumsy.  I have a hard time just reading some of the fics with 
this problem.

Here's another must, then.  Listen to your readers, even if you don't
take their advice.  A (mostly) objective viewpoint will very likely help
a lot.

    Another thing I like to do is save the replies I recieve, even if I 
decide not to use the advice for what it was intended...if people bother to 
reply they must have something to say, and the idea is usually valid in 
some regard.  Similarly, if I offer (what I think is) good advice, and 
the author doesn't use it, I do it myself.  
    I've probably done one of these for everything I've written.   Sometimes 
the ideas for a story comes entirely from a reply...right now I'm 
working on something based almost entirely on the reply "shouldn't you 
explain what drove Nabiki to the dark side?" to a story. 
   Yes, if you made a reply to me, it's either floating in my inbox, or 
printed out and in a desk drawer to my left.  Save 'most every one.

				* Love *
                 Between two people, there is nothing that
                      can draw them closer together

Hmmm...IMHO, love is in a tie with hate.

Jeff

****jdrutsch@ucdavis.edu***********************Jeff Rutsch************* 
"Ranma's not a boy...he's a girl!"
"Akane is MY fiancee!  You TOUCH her, and I'll KILL you!"
"Ranma, change back into a boy while I buy you some time."
"But if I seem to act unkind/it's only me, it's not my mind."
"Ranma [sic],/give your heart to Akane [sic]. /Soon,/right away."
**^_^*****^_^*****^_^*****^_^*****^_^*****^_^*****^_^*****^_^*****^_^**