From: "Richard D. Lawson" <sterman@sprynet.com>

"Storm's End" is about redemption, about pulling yourself from the 
depths of despair.  Not that the journey is completed in the story, 
there's still a long way to go.  But you can see the light at the end 
of the tunnel, as it were.

 
Bingo.  That's a good use of angst.  In fact, often in the series,
Ranma will be taken down a peg or two from his usual overconfident
self, and because of it be able to grow a bit.  (Even if this is
rarely shown. :)  My main complaint is just senseless use of depressing
material, as you mention (Childhood's End), which seems to be pretty
rampant in the fanfic world, possibly even taking up more than its
fair share of the market... everything has a place, including lemons H_H
but the dominant theme should be the ones similar to the original work.
And when depressing themes are used, they need to be done well or the
work is little more than a shock-value deathorama.
 

What was your story, Stefan?  If it's got angst, I gotta read it.  :)

 
I've done a few.  The darkest ones were probably R1/2:Juyza's Lyric and
R1/2:Money... My first one, R1/2:March of the Pigs is known for having
enough Nine Inch Nails references to earn me a mention in the Fanfic
Drinking Game regarding it.  I can repost stories if anybody wants me
to. ^_^;
 
To keep things efficent, here's another reply (2 for the price of 1!)
 

From: Scott Baker <digihalo@atom.com>
Hey, man Im kind of new here, and this has *Always* been my style of 
writing, and if you don't like 'Angst' stories anymore, so-what..
don't read it. Is it bad that my stories end in a down note? I hope not 
because if everyone's stories where nice and cheerful..I would probably 
go crazy.  Later.

 
See above.  Angst has its place and I've used it a lot (and still do),
I'm just icking at the trend towards having stories kill one character,
drive another insane and feature a traumatizing, horrible event or six
just for the sake of being angsty.  Some of that is okay; too much of
it can be negative-adjective-here.