I also understand that there
are a number of 'well-written' Sailor Moon fanfics out there, but
I wouldn't touch a single one because I find the premise completely
intolerable.

  What premise would that be? I, personally, HATE Sailor Moon, yet that 
didn't stop me from writing a decent fanfic for it that didn't involve 
killing the Senshi (that might only be due to the fact that its a very 
unorthodoxed fic, too). 
  If the premise you speak of is love and justice, mine has neither. One 
of the fun things about bashing a series for a fanfic writer as myself 
is the many subtle ways to tear it apart from the inside.... 

Obligation to the owner?  What obligation?  I have obligations
listed under 17 USC 107, which defines what constitutes fair use.
There is no moral obligation unless I personally except it.  I 
doubt that you or anyone else could convince me that I owe 
anything to Carl Macek or Harmony Gold beyond my legal 
obligations.

  That works under parody. I assume Blade spoke of writing fics more 
true to the original story. If it is a parody or similar, then you can 
pretty much do whatever you want (that is what the aformentioned article 
is mainly about). If it is something that has the intent of maintaining 
the original flavor, then common courtesy reasons that you try to stick 
to it (but you don't have to; after all, it's only courtesy). You don't 
have to like certain characters, but you should respect them when you 
write them (this isn't a really good time to discuss 'respecting 
characters' you write, I think). 

Don't make up your own character and give him/her the face and name of 

a 

character someone else created.  That is disrespectful to the creator, 
and just shows that you don't have the talent or the guts to do real 
original characters.

Well, there's a nice piece of emotional logic.

  Heaven forbid those two words be used in the same sentence. 

I fail to see how you conclude that the use of the physical
and biographical attributes of an existing character (or
real personage), constitutes a lack of ability or 
willingness to produce "truly" original characters.  I
was under the impression that many folks considered
the personality attributes of a character far more 
important than a name or physical description.

  I think the idea was that you can't (shouldn't?) take someone, say, 
Ranma, and turn him into Bill Gates on a whim. That is not an original 
character-- it is changing an existing character to suit a whim. Most 
people don't like it because they expect a certain behavior out of said 
character, only to be given someone else entirely (and thus the myriad 
OOC debates since time eternal). 

Which, if it is released on the Net, one assumes it is.  If you don't 
care about an audience, don't release it.  There's too much horrible 
fanfic on the net already.

Here's a flash.  The number of GOOD fanfics on the net, mine
included, is ZERO.  Wow, I can make up numbers, too!  So,
who delegated the comittee on judging fanfic quality?

  Okay, people, now we're hitting the subjective area. 
  Incidentally, fanfic quality is rated in much the same way as 
published novels-- people buy it and like it. The more people who buy 
it, the more you can say people like it (even if some of them didn't 
like it-- just look at The Lost World). There's a reason why some books 
boast 'Million copies sold!' junk-- makes it look good (doesn't mean it 
IS good). 
  Typically for fanfiction, it's heaping praise. 

clearly what audience you want to reach.  Too many 
times I've read pseudo-literary essays that prescribe
general rules to catch the attention of the general 
reader.  That's pure bullshit.  Tell that to the guy 

No, they're general rules.  The vast majority of successful writers 

have 

followed them; yes, you can supplant the rules if you're gutsy and 
talented enough, but that is the exception, not the rule.

If you prefer, call that kind of thing a "general guideline".

Bull.  I consider them guidelines for reaching a specific
audience.  Once again, I make a notable exception the
concept of mechanics.

  Subjective. We don't need arguments on something subjective-- they 
could go on forever and never be resolved. 

about to say it's an abnormal stance.  I hardly see the
correlation between this arbitrary standard of
quality I keep hearing about an author's ability to
sell books (or write prolifically and maintain a
sufficiently broad readership).

  Mostly luck. A bizzare creature, man is. 

<shrug>  Precisely.  Some like plot oriented stories, some don't.  

Some 

like deep characters; some don't care.  That's why there's Sanctuary 

and 

still Urusei Yatsura.

Screw crossovers then.  Might as well throw out that Grave of the
Fire Flies / Pokemon script I was working on. =)  What's stopping
someone from developing the characters from Sanctuary in a Takahashi
fashion?  If somebody reads it, likes it, and if the author
gives a damn, then what's the big deal?  

  So what's your problem? 

However, this doesn't mean you can ignore quality; because the SUBJECT 
of a story is not the same as the story's quality.  Basic things like 
reasonably good usage of language, continuity (unless the story is of 

a 

sort that discourages that, and nearly all prose is NOT), sensical 
plotlines, and (if writing a fanfic) respect for the original 
characters, are not matters of taste but matters of quality.  Ignore 
them, and no matter what else you may do, your story is likely to be 
extremely poor writing.

Once again, if you have some sort of quantifiably to qualify your
arguments, I stand ready to receive them.  Otherwise, I must dismiss
this all as the opinions of a single reader (or fellow author).

  Reasonably good use of language: if the reader can't read it, he/she 
won't read it. It's that simple. 
  Respecting the original characters: just look at any OOC debate. 
  Continuity: there's a reason this word exists, and it is to make sure 
that Joe Schmoe doesn't know such-and-such before he should. In 
television and other pictoral stories, you can't have a character throw 
off his eye patch in one scene, only to have it back on in the next (or 
the eye patch being on the OTHER eye)-- I was actually really good at 
pointing these out in my last video production class. If you don't have 
continuity, you're bound to screw up your audience (unless you want to 
do it on PURPOSE-- remember King John's mole in Robin Hood: Men in 
Tights? "Sire, wasn't your mole on the... other side?"). 
  Sensical plotlines: sometimes this may not matter, but if you're 
planning on taking your story somewhere, there had better be some. Plot 
gives direction to a story, and if there doesn't exist one (or the 
reader can't find one), then the story looks sloppy. The plotline 
doesn't have to be totally mind-blowing, but it does have to be 
reasonable-- Breetai recalled Khyron's fleet, for instance, thus saving 
the SDF-1 from the enemy. (It only worked out because Breetai was pissed 
that Khyron was acting against his orders-- making it a chain of command 
issue, and thus plausible. If there was no reason given, or if the 
reason was because Breetai wanted to give the Micronians a break on a 
whim... nah.)

In any case, I wish you good luck in your fanfiction endeavors.

-The Reverend "I'll do whatever the hell I want to Robotech" Prez

General Sea Clamp: "Megatron is brilliant, but a rogue. He causes too 
much trouble.... I have arranged for a covert operative-- you know the 
one. He has been given our secretly-developed Transwarp cruiser, and 
will trace the Transwarp wave back to its source."
General Ramhorn: "If Megatron is found operating his own agenda, what 
are the covert agent's orders?" 
General Cicadacon: "TERMINATE, with EXTREME prejudice." 

"Decepticons FOREVER!!" --Ravage, former Decepticon
"You've gotten tricker since last time. I LIKE THAT!!"--Rampage
"If you go to Z'ha'dum, you will die." --Kosh, Babylon 5
"Master! You mustn't! People are watching!!"--Cherry, Saber Marionette J

--Razorclaw X
Author: "Wheel of Fire" and "The World's Worst Ranma Fanfic!"

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