My poor two cents...

A Lot of fics start as a single scene for me.
Hidden Talents one was simply a scene of Ryoga playing the piano and
singing voices. I didn't know where, why, how he had got the ability, if it
was a central point or what. I just envisioned this scene and decided to
write a fic incorporating it.
The same with HT 4, 5, 6, 7
Sometimes it is a thematic idea that pops into my head... (basically, an
idea or plot that pops several scenes into my head at once, when I dream it
up.)
Ranma/X-Men came from that. I saw the casts intermingling and decided to
write a story on it. This style is admittadly tough to do long stories
over. It didn't take me long to come up with an idea to link the two
casts... (Shampoo/Psylocke missing, Logan/Cologne old friends) but I had
the first ten pages written and I had NO IDEA who the main villian was
going to be. Same with Ranma/YUA, I'm just now getting hazy ideas on what's
going to happen.
Anyways, thats what I do. No plots, no outlines. Just scenes, and a story
unfolds from there.

(Hey, currently have a vision of Ryoga and Ranma hanging off the side of a
cliff. The two fall, and Ryoga punches his hand through the cliffwall and
Ranma grabs his other hand. They're hanging precariously, unknown how long
Ryoga can hold them both {is he hurt?} Ranma looks up and tels him to
{Protect Akane?} and let him go. Save himself. Ryoga grits teeth, thinks on
how tempting it would be, flashes of memory real quick {make up nice stuff,
b-day?} Decides he can't/ Ranma is his friend. "You go.... WE go.")

Have no idea where this came from. Were they fighting each other? Somebody
else? Is the bad guy a Ranma character? A new villian? Is Akane in danger?
How is this scene going to end?
I have no answers to any of these questions. Just this scene. And I know
that I want this scene in a fanfic.

-Sweet water and light laughter

Ray "The Texas Ryoga"