Whee! My turn! ;)
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.
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
;) Great taste this man has.
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've read the stories, and read the reasons, but somehow I just get the
feeling somethings wrong. *shrug* Just my two cents.
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.
?? That implies everybody who does it has a massive ego, but, as I like to
believe,there are always exceptions to a rule when it comes to human
personalities. I.e. No one else is you, so don't think their reasons are
always the ones you think they are.
There are a lot more reasons than the one you mentioned that makes a
people insert an avatar into their story.
My own? (at least the ones I think are mine ;)
1. I'd read ALL of UF the previous month and liked the style.
2. I'd never written before and it seemed the easiest way to make a
believeable character if I used my own.
3. I made up a story idea, and reason for Twister's powers that I thought
was neat. And stuck with it.
So what if I used my own template? I was new to writing. As to the ego, I
don't really consider Twister to be 'myself' anymore. The char has changed
too much. So he has the same name. Whoop de do. B> I would've gotten less
flack on this point if I used a different template but why should that
make a diff?
*shrug*
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.
Snort. Then what's the problem of actually putting yourself in it? ;)
It certainly helps you think about it.
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.
Funny, I don't get that. ;)
But then again, how many people have said(the quoted material, not my
comment ;) that about things that become immensely popular after several
years.
Actually, I think it all depends, or mostly at least, on HOW the story is
written. Your character could be Death, and the story still be great. And
that HAS been done. B>
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. :)
Erk. Don't read my first, I cringed when I re-read it a year after writing
it. Despite what I did, my writing has improved.
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.
The first two core files are like my first story, not too much depth
and/or drama. Later stories became much better and thought out.
<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. :)
(Unless you can get away with it! ;)
Myself, TP is the only story where I'd put myself in. To do it again would
be repetative. Besides, I've got other ideas piled up in my head. ;)
Twister.
| Twister (also known as Darren Steffler ;)
| e-mail at twister@tendo-dojo.ranma.net
| Big Heapum Fan of: Ranma 1/2, Bubblegum Crisis, Dirty Pair, Gundam, and
| the rest of the known anime universe.