Douglas Helm wrote:

David Johnston Wrote :

But then isn't the whole point of the story that nobody knows what
might be going behind Nabiki's facade?

That was the original point, given that it wasn't firstly written for Nabiki
though I might have required a little more...

Which does bring up a characterisation issue.  A lot of people 
write suicide fics to deal with their own thoughts about suicide.
But since this is supposedly Nabiki's suicide there is one thing 
that is out of synch.  While Nabiki would probably not commit 
suicide as a matter of honour, she would have enough education
in the idea of it that she would realise that counseling is not
the answer for a suicide that is genuinely a matter of honour.
That kind of ethical structure may be stupid in her eyes, but
it isn't a mental illness or the result of transient emotional
agitation.  Nor do I think that Nabiki would consider counselling
to be appropriate for any mental problem anyway.  At least, not for
her.  Which of course makes her a good candidate for suicide. 

Hey, how many shrinks does it take to change a lightbulb?
Only one, but it has to _want_ to change. 
  

Then...

Keener wrote:

<Snip a story about a girl and a knife, NOT a very sweet combination but
often a sobbering one>

I've scene Akane, Ranma and a couple of the "crazy" ones commit suicide but
I've never scene Nabiki do it before...

She does it in the Ranma 2096 storyline after she accidentally gets 
Kasumi killed.  Although she is resurrected 
after a fashion, a century or so later, she's never really the same.  
Somebody else wrote a Ranma-Nabiki romance where she attempts suicide,
and that sparks the relationship.  

detail about who and what was going on. An interesting bit would have a
situation viewed from the person commiting sucide. Have them interperate
the situation wrongly and those around them unable or unknowing enough
to set the character straight. Then the suicide becomes like an
unstoppable frieght train that the reader simply CAN'T stop no matter
who they try.

An interesting path, given my orignal intent though I think I'll shelve that
one and save it for later.

      Two, a twist (better for a short story) Here, more clues are given
about the nature of the situation but only enough to mislead the reader.
Then when the name is acctually read, the whole horror of the event is
doubled, or if the audience has come to accept what is about to happen
and suddenly, thier saftey blacket is torn from beneath them. Something
like the diary bemoaning "He doesn't love me!" and then having it be
about Kasumi and Tofu instead of Akane and Ranma.

      Three, whatever you can come up with. It'd would be a shame to waste
such potential!

Thank you, well I'll certainly consider it. It would be a challange to see
if I can broaden the scope of this fic more without losing my original
purpose...

You know how I'd do it?  I'd rip off Citizen Kane.  Nabiki commits (or 
attempts) suicide.  Then Ranma tries to figure out why, goes around 
collecting concrete motives, all of which are misleading or false, and 
in the end never really figures that "Rosebud" was Hearst's pet name
for Marion Davies' private part*...er I mean never figures out the real 
motive.

*The sled?  Idiotic.  What boy would call his sled "Rosebud"?  A film
universally lauded as a classic, and it all revolves around a lightly
camouflaged piece of coarse mockery.