David M Lerman wrote:

  Dear ML,

This is my first post to this ML and I've just joined so if I'm
violating some unwritten netiquette rules, I apologize in advance.

  I am attempting to write an article on anime fan fiction. Would some kind
person please go through the types of fan fiction that exist (sadfic,
darkfic, etc..) and what qualifies a story for a particular label. Also,
where did the term "lemon" come from? For that matter, how did the
revengefic start? Are these terms common to the entire fanfic community on
the net?

"Lemon" I've heard used pretty consistently, but I've not heard of the
others.
I don't know where it came from though.

I'll try and answer these as they apply to myself; others will vary of
course.

 I would also appreciate it if some of the authors could email me some lines
about their motivations. Why do they write fan fiction? 

For me, it started on challenge and dares (strange as it may sound).

I was intro'd to fan-fic writing by Andy Combs (who was also responsible
for intro'ing me to anime in general), by the works of Christian Gadeken
(responsible for several quality Ranma 1/2 fanfics).  At the time, I was
heavy into roleplaying, and wrote my first "fanfic" as a side-segment
to a Role-playing game character.  On a whim, I posted it and got pretty
positive reviews.  Based on that, and prodded by Andy and some others,
I started KOC on the idea that my favorite anime series (no surprise,
KOR),
"deserved" some kind of continuation.  Also, at the time, KOR had
virtually
no fanfics out for it (as opposed to Ranma 1/2 which even back then had
loads of them) so it felt like an uncrowded field.

BSSR started as something to kill time between KOC (which was around
episode #10 
at the time).  Jason Meador (whose works are quite popular at anime con
art
shows) had drawn a piece of fan-art, which had the Ranma characters
(probably
his favorite anime), dressed in the Sailor Senshi outfits.  Regius
Gunawan,
who was one of our "regulars" during our weekly anime sessions in
Austin,
had joked to me, "What kind of story would I write with that?"  I
replied
"Well, how about..."  One thing led to another and I banged out episode
1
with virtually thought or planning.  Regius made some minor adjustments
(he knows the Ranma universe a hell of a lot better than me), and we
posted it.  The reviews were so positive, we went ahead and wrote
another.
And another.  And another. etc...

What determines what
type of stories they write? 

For me, it's the commitment to complete the series I started.
If you want to know about individual episodes, that's best described by
me as "letting the characters themselves tell the story".  Many of the
episodes of both series I write literally have plots that I derive by
simply asking "what would this/these characters do next?".  For KOC,
it's characters I created.  For BSSR, it's mostly the original Ranma
characters, albeit in unusual situations.

What draws authors to a particular anime series?

Probably personal preferences.  I started with KOC because I'm a fan
of KOR.  BSSR was started because I'm a fan of Ranma and sort of a fan
of Sailor Moon.

What changes have occurred in your perception of the base anime since as a
result of your writing?

For me, none if I can accomplish it.  I (and my cowriters and
prereaders)
do our utmost to maintain existing axioms and established characters.
If changes have occurred, then I consider it a failure.

How do you regard the issue of OOC? 

We take OOC extremely seriously.  As I detail above, many of my plots
and
storylines are based on the characters themselves.  If the characters
are astry, then I have no story.  More than once, we've spiked a
completed story episode because the characters were OOC.

And answers to
any other questions that you feel I should have asked.

 I would also like both authors and readers to send me some comments about
what they like about fanfic stories and what they dislike.

Likes:
Storylines that are true to the original story.
Stories that try to stretch and challenge the concept of the original
w/o 
breaking them.
Stories with strong character interaction (probably because of the
medium,
I have a tough time with ones that try to go for "flashy, visual
effects" because
fanfic by nature has no visuals).
Well-written parodies amuse me.

Dislikes:
OOC bugs the heck out of me.
Boring characters.  I have no problems with author-created original
characters; hell, both my series are loaded with them.  The ones I have
problems are the ones that are "perfect", "all-powerful", etc.  so much
so that I find myself wondering why I'm reading about this person.
A minor bug is when the author "talks" too much to the reader, even
though I've been guilty of that in my earlier works.  "Show don't tell".
Carelessness with cultural references.  This is a toughie, I admit 
especially for people who've never been to Japan.  Nonetheless, many
of the stories we write about depend on them, and having stuff that's
clearly wrong is annoying.  Not to say I've never made a mistake,
but it's not because I didn't try.  One can learn a lot from just
reading the literally tons of available non-fiction books out there
about Japan.
Minor nitpick:  sloppy work like careless punctuation and typos.

Hope this helps.

Stephen Tsai
-- 
Kimagure Productions|Kimura:  [Downcast.]  I-I guess I can be a little
    --present--     |naive sometimes...
 Orange College #26 |Egami:  [Amused tone after a long pull from his  
  Sailor Ranma #13  |cigar.] I know six-year-olds with more street
   *Coming Soon*    |smarts than y--ITE! [To Eiji.]  WHAT WAS THAT 
Stephen Tsai        |FOR?!?
stsai@netcom.com    |Kimagure Orange College Episode #27