From: Jamie and Bridget Wilde <wildeman@psn.net>
Date: Wednesday, January 06, 1999 2:17 PM

Richard Lawson wrote:

The thing is, many early (and I mean *early* - circa 1993)
fanfics were written in this "dialogue mode with a bit so
explanatory text disguised as stage direction".  I really can't
explain why, except that maybe one person saw it written that way
and decided to do it themselves, and so on.

I always had a theory that it was to give it more of an anime feel
(since another general tendency of the first generation of fanfics
also tended to be more like episodic extensions of the anime,
without lots of the moodier genres that arose later...)

Mayhap.  Hard to say one way or the other.

And I still maintain that there are very, very few fanfics
written in "script format" that can't be improved upon by
converting them to prose.  I used to say there were *no*
fics that couldn't be improved such until I saw a fanfic by
Sebastian Weinberg (A Sam&Max parody starring Ukyou
and Kodachi) that I had to admit would be worsened by
converting it to prose.  It was only that way because it
was very heavy on dialogue, humor, and light physical action.

As a 99% prose writer who has dabbled in script format (Muppet Show
Tribute to Anime)

Did I ever tell you how great that was?  No, I don't think I did.  That was
really great.  I'd've paid money to see this put in production.  :)  And it
worked quite well in script format.

And "Waiting for Minako" works for me both because of
the near-total lack of action, and as a parody of the play
"Waiting for Godot."

Another person mentioned WfM, and I have to agree that it works best in
script format.

Unfortunately, sometimes I find that script format fics that don't use
the format for what it's worth turn me off excessively because they
feel... lazy.

Yes!  That's what I get from the majority of script fanfics... written that
way because the author didn't want to go through the work of setting up
descriptions and so forth.  And that turns me off.

I still maintain, however, that "script format" is inherently
inferior.  I'd urge all new fanfic writers to write in prose
format.  I'd also try to urge old fanfic writers except I'd know
such urgings would be in vain.  ^_^

Not sure that I'd agree with the "inherently inferior" part.  AS
IT IS USUALLY SEEN IN FANFICTION, yes, I'd agree that
the _results_ tend to be less satisfactory.  But script format
can be very rewarding when it is written AS A SCRIPT, not
as a shortcut.

I disagree a little.  Script format assumes a visual medium to flesh out
what the script leaves blank.  Without said visual medium, there's an
essential portion missing.

Bridget

-Richard