On Sun, 23 Jun 1996, Richard D. Lawson wrote:
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?
It's a good piont. It's hard to feel much empathy for a character generated
by someone elses ego.
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.
Taht sort of stuff is probably best left alone. On the other hand,
Twister proved that you can get away with it.
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?
Blind luck? Story mechanics?
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.
You can always tell when the authors head got so large that he had to go out
the garage door to get out of his house. Massively powerful characters
ruin the story. I have never liked Herb or Saffuron for that reason, so it
applies for Rumiko-san's characters as much as FF ones.
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.
You're not a true Ranma otaku if you don't!
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.
Very important this. NEVER discourage another writer, esp. if you're
yourself!
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.
Yeah. It's a poersonal thing. A nice idea, but it's going to lack general
interest in the end.
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. :)
You're narrow minded. NO. I agree with you, actually.
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.
You have either more free time, or a kinder heart. I, for one, simply
can't be bothered.
<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. :)
This is good tip for everyone!
Here's a thought, though...
What if someone adds a character that is NOT them and is pure fiction? Is
that okay? Or is it really just the same as an author fics? Opinions?