Some comments on replies to my last "fanfic writing" post. Put together so I
wouldn't run up against my 15 minute cut-off point with my provider.
From: "Mr. the Rutsch" <jdrutsch@ucdavis.edu>
That's usually the *point* of such fanfics, not an unfortunate by-
product. "Angel's Spit" just showed you that Akane didn't love
Ranma anymore, leaving the reader to wonder why. In my mind,
that's *far* more interesting than any author-given explanation
could have been. In real life, and even in anime, few things have
tidy explanations...Why can't fanfic be the same way?
I would have to say that it can't be the same way because you're using
someone else's characters. If you are writing your own characters and
situations, then you could set everything up the way you want it to.
But then you also have to work at setting up the initial situation. In
the mentioned story, Akane doesn't love Ranma anymore. But the
original is a romantic comedy; Akane must end up openly loving
(and eventually marrying) Ranma - that is the nature of romantic
comedy, especially when the principles fight as much as they do. The
story only makes you wonder because it deviates from the nature of
the original without explaining it. It might have been more
interesting (and emotionally involving) for the reader to watch the
characters grow apart and then end on the aforementioned fanfic.
But that would depend on the ability of the writer.
Another argument could be that as the reader usually gets a "god's
eye" view of the characters, especially in regards to thoughts and
emotions. We, as the readers, are privy to more than what we would
see in real life, and therefore are entitled to the whole thing, or just
the basics.
purpose. But if you are devastated by what you put the character
through even though you planned it, then it was the right decision.
That rule probably only applies to darkfics ^_^.
Not necessarily. When the reader is drawn into the story so that it
has an emotional impact, then that person can be devastated by it.
But "devastated" might be too negative a word. Perhaps "moved".
I dunnow. Having to suspend belief can make for a fun read.
"Must" sounds so definite. I'm an impartial judge, but I thought the
first "Take Off Your Clothes" was pretty cool, and that made a story
out of not being within the bounds of the characters.
But did it attempt to tie into the original? I don't believe it did. The
majority of fanfics try to tie-in, at least to start off with, so that they
can make the "twist" more effective. But in tying it in, you have to
take in account everything in the original (unless you specify a cut-
off) because you're using characters with established backgrounds.
It's sometimes acceptable to ignore that the setting is Japan. How
effective would "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" be if it was accurate to
the subtle nuances of Japanese culture? I know most of it would
have gone over *my* head...
I suppose the point is that knowledge can impede the enjoyment of
the story. Its not that it necessarily goes over the reader's head, but
that the background is there for those who have that knowledge,
rather than leaving it blank or contradicting the real thing. The
question is that by ignoring the setting, you are ignoring a part of
what defines the character in the original, and will it make a
difference? For those with the knowledge of those things, it may.
For example, in December's End, I took the story from Christmas to
New Year's. If I had wrote it based on the american culture in which
I grew up, then I would have had a huge emphasis on Christmas and
maybe a couple of firecrackers going off on New Year's. But Ranma
1/2 is set in Japan - which means that Christmas is just a day for
maybe a party and New Year's is the big event (unless my source is
out of date) with the first three days of the New Year being national
holidays. It wouldn't make a difference for readers who didn't know
this; but if I did know this, I'd be saying to myself "how hard could it
be to look this up - doesn't this guy care about accuracy?".
From: Shannon and Tim Richmeyer <trichm@iu.net>
Humm...gotta' disagree with you there. If you have a good handle on
the characters, they will be themselves no matter what situation you
put them in. Though of course, you do have to have a good grasp of
the characters and how they work.
That argument assumes that the writer has that "good grasp" on the
characters. A fanfic writer could say "I'd like to write a story about
Ranma hating Ryoga and Mousse so much that he kills them. It'd be
really dark." and write the story. But Ranma doesn't hate either
Ryoga and Mousse (irritated, sure). But to make the story work,
Ranma's hate is created and emphasized to make it believable that
Ranma could get to the point of killing the others. But if the hate is
never explained, then the story doesn't fit with the original; which
would then be an example of the plot leading the characters away
from their normal characterization.
Humm...back to Ranma fics again. Isn't that what motivates most
fics? Wanting to get more out of the story than the slapstick and
unending, never advancing romances? I believe that the more, how
shall we say, out of bounds?, plot lines are the ones that are most
enjoyed.
But we're not talking about plot, we're talking about tone, though
some stories go more naturally with some tones. Wanting to write in
a specific tone can lead to a certain type of story, but not necessarily.
The real question to ask yourself is why you're changing the tone.
Is there a valid plot reason for it? Or is it the plot?
Isn't it one and the same?
I don't believe so. Tone is a tool to effectively tell the story. But at
the heart of the fanfic is a story. Tone is no more the story than any
other tool would be; witty dialogue, effective evocation of images (for
those into that), slapstick, etc. can all be expanded so that it takes up
a lot of pages, but it still wouldn't be a story. If you can take a fanfic
and boil it down to one or two lines, then that would be a fanfic
where a concept didn't get developed, probably because there was a
concentration on something else other than the story (such as tone,
witty dialogue, etc.) that occupied the writer more than the story did.
Humm...again I have to disagree. I just did a really short, very dark
fic. (6,000 characters, faint, fall down! ^_^) The focus is on one
character, the events that lead the character to where it was in the
fic are explained and I don't think that the ending was unsatisfying.
Not at all happy, but not unsatisfying. For anyone who's read the
Video Clip, was it?
But in your example, you explained what changes occured to lead the
character to that point. And I would assume that in the fanfic you
explored the effect of the changes on the character, rather than just
setting up the premise and then ending it.
And stop using your commentary to shamelessly plug your own
stories. Only I can do that. ;)
Ack! A smiley! I hate them.
The error is, of course, that New York is east of Los Angeles, so
the sun is not going to set in front of Ranma. But this is only a
basic error. Some mangas demand a much higher level of
research.
Shouldn't this go in the continuity section?
Err... no. I'm not talking about tying it into the manga, though that
could be part of it. Going back to the Gunsmith Cats example, it
would be continuity to know that Rally likes to use the Sig-Sauer (or
whatever it is - I'm not into guns, which is why that idea about the
bomb will never get written). But it would be research to know
country of origin, cost, optimal firing range, cartridge capacity (and
anything else about it). In the manga episode where Rally goes
against the guy with a CZ75, she knows she can't beat it with her
saturday night special because she knows how close she has to get for
an accurate shot, and knows that she can't close the distance before
the guy killed her.