On Fri, 18 Dec 1998, Christopher Angel wrote:

While all the points were somewhat valid, I think that anyone thinking of
writing an SI must realize that a self-insertion MUST BE WRITTEN JUST LIKE
ANY OTHER STORY.  That means that above and beyong ANYTHING else you
consider, you have to take a good long look at the story you're writing.  If
your story "sucks" AS A STORY, then it's going to "suck" as a
self-insertion.
That's it people.  Everything else is just window dressing on the above.

	Oh, c'mon, as a theory of writing the above is even less useful
than the essay -- which, while I didn't fully agree with it, wasn't bad. 
It's easy to say a story, above all else, can't 'suck': what 'sucks' for
one genre, however, might work quite well for another.  What works in
comedy doesn't for tragedy, or drama, or action-adventure, or
ironic-self-deprecating-angst-melodrama, or whatever.  The essay did try
to outline some of the particular concerns unique to the ever-dreaded
self-insertion. 
	Besides, I thought it was kinda neat finding out that Wesley "I
made sure to pack a warm sweater before taking off to explore the infinte
dimensions of space/time" Crusher was a Rodenberry SI.
 

Now can we avoid these threads in the future?

	Probably not.  The FFML _is_ supposed to be a writers' forum --
I'd rather see well-written essays on the craft of writing from the likes
of Taleswapper and Weinberg instead of another 'best-babe' discussion (or
another of its spammy variants).

	-Mike Noakes
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