Yeah, but I'm trying to avoid getting my characters too
powerful, or become heroes or solve all the original
character's problems and people are saying my story sucks.
Jack,
I'm among those who was a powerfully strong negative reaction to your
stories. Not necessarily because the story is poorly written (in fact,
it's got better prose than a lot of other stuff that comes out).
How to say this. We are not interested in how Jack suddenly acquires
the martial arts prowess to challenge Ranma et. al. Why should we? Why
should we care about Jack?
We could care even less about Jack making love to Shampoo. In fact,
that offends me a little. It's fine as a private fantasy - heck, I've
always had a thing for Nabiki myself - but to publicly display the
fantasy turns people off *in a hurry*. We like the Shampoo that's madly
in love with Ranma and will do anything to get him. We could care less
about the Shampoo that suddenly falls for Jack.
Part of it is the pure egotism involved. What makes Jack so special
that Shampoo would want him? What makes Jack so special that he gets to
move in with the Tendo family? What makes Jack so special that he gets
to become a powerful martial artist overnight?
I think that is the problem I - and some other people - have against
fanfics that star the authors. The pure hubris involved in writing such
a story is repulsive.
I'm not saying you're a bad person for thinking such things. Heck, I'll
publicly admit to fantasizing about finding myself in Nerima and
becoming deeply involved with the main characters. It's interesting to
me. I don't write about it, though, because I know it's not interesting
to anyone else.
Nor am I discouraging you from writing. The best writing flows from
your fantasy. If you're not sure how a character would react in a
certain situation, ask yourself, "How would I react?" and go from there.
But writing about yourself as an all-powerful character in a popular
anime series - heck, it just don't make people eager to read your stuff.
The above is, of course, my personal opinion. I, too, read the comments
about those popular otaku stories. I don't have any desire to read any
of them, no matter how good they are, for the reasons outlined above.
Call me narrow-minded, if you will - I won't argue. :)
Actually, to be truthful, I may read UF just because some people whose
opinion I respect say it's worthwhile. I'll give it a shot, but I'm
honestly not anticipating that I'll like it.
<sigh> I've pontificated long enough. This is nothing personal against
you, Jack. I would very much encourage you to keep writing. My only
advice is, keep yourself out of the story. :)