I remember doing this a few months back...touched it up some, and
felt like sharing it again. :)


First written...sometime in the fall of 1997. Updated 2/10/98.

  This is something applicable to writers of all types, not just anime
fanfickers....

	Three major "good writing" types--elements of a story that will
grab and hold a reader.

  1. The Epic Weaver. The writer manages to draw together vast plots and
many diverse characters into one story, without losing sight of detail
and the individual storylines and people within the larger picture.
Thing that seem unrelated, perhaps, at first, are pulled together, as
well as the characters involved. And furthermore, it is accomplished in
a way that jumps between those varied lines before they join so as to
keep them all fresh in the mind of the reader, in a fashion that doesn't
confuse the reader through all the jumps.
  Imagine a person weaving a vast tapestry. He has to work from one end
to the other, going in separate, parallel lines that eventually build up
into one great big picture.
  Example: John Biles. The man's a genius for epics: Sailor Moon Z,
Dance of Shiva, even Lemon Sherbert. Large, grand stories which manage
to mesh seemingly unrelated plot points into one complete story.

  2. The Wordsmith. The writer carefully crafts his prose for maximum
effect. Word choice, word order, phrase and sentence order make huge
differences in a way something reads. Describing things in a roundabout
manner, rather than directly, makes the reader think a little about
what's being written--showing, rather than telling, the story. This is
especially used for shock and humor pieces, as the work is trying to
evoke a strong reaction of some type. And, of course, lemons....
  Imagine a blacksmith hammering out a tool or weapon. Precision and
strength is put into what is being forged, making a sharply defined
piece of work.
  Example: Hmm, I have trouble finding a definitive author on the anime 
fanfic scene.... RpM, perhaps? In TMTC and TPOH--the humor in them is
particularly potent through his careful selection of words.

  3. The Mood Shaper. Similar to the above, in that word choice is
important, but not so much for biting effect--rather, to give an overall
mood for the piece. Little comments and details give a sense of
completeness to the story. And then, the story itself is also shaped
along the lines of the mood. This is probably the hardest one of the
three to appreciate, because the background effect part works almost
subconsciously.
  Imagine an artist painting the background of a work. He puts in
selected colors, little details, etc. as a setup for what will be the
foreground. Then, the foreground comes in...and boy, does it ever.
  Example: Chris Davies. The small, seemingly insignificant things he
puts in his works set them apart from more normal fics. And the moods
expressed in his "Images of Tenchi" kind of just wrench at your head.

  (A fourth possibility was pointed out to me, that of the character-
based work, where the author writes a character in with such soul that
you can't help but be pulled in. It certainly is an excellent type of
writing for grabbing a reader, but I do find it to be a combination of
types 2 and 3: choosing the character's thoughts and words carefully for
impact, plus illustrating the feelings and observations of that
character so fully that you can just almost see them yourself....)

  Of these three, only the epic is something that you consciously plan
out for the story. The other two are elements that flow into the work as
it is being written. Also the one that is hardest to develop is the
epic. It is not something that can be "practiced" for; it seems to
either come naturally, or not at all. It takes a mind that is capable of
stringing together myriad points together, something difficult to
attain. Crafting words and painting moods are in a large part a
vocabulary-based effort, so it can be "studied" for, the way one would
study for the verbal section of a standardized test. But, just as some
people simply test well, these two also come more naturally for some,
compared to others.

  Of course, they are not exclusive, not in the least. Take Chris: he is
also an epic writer--Together Again, for example. He combines that with
his skills at "painting" for truly marvelous work. For RpM, TMTC and
TPOH are epic-scale works, too. And John Biles can also evoke moods
brilliantly--"The Kiss", for one. Then, when you can get someone who
does all three, well...no anime fanfic author comes to mind as a shining
example of that, so I'd give that one to Terry Pratchett. His Discworld
series utilizes all three elements beautifully. As for myself...
"wordsmithing" is probably the one I can do best--it's what makes NGEjd
better than my previous things. Since writing this, I've tried my hand
at "mood shaping" in my "I Mustn't Run Away" piece, and according to my
reader reactions, I seem to have succeeded. That one definitely wasn't
number 3 alone; I put in a good part of number 2 also. As for grand
epics...they are just beyond me. I wish I could. I really do.

  Any more types? Any comments?


>From Andrew Huang, brought to you by his computer, Oddzilla
Oddzilla says, "Mmmmm...Evanjellydonut...."
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~alhuang/
Harvard Anime Society, President