Subject: Re: [FFML][Essay/rant]A Long Strange Walk '99
From: "Ranma Al'Thor" <ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu>
Date: 4/5/1999, 10:07 PM
To: ffml@fanfic.com

On Mon, 5 Apr 1999, Elsa Bibat wrote:


       All thoughts put into this essay/rant are opinions. 
Which means I also have the right to be wrong. That also 
means that some people will probably dispatch death squads 
for disagreeing with them. 

Biles:  Death Squad 1 on the March.


        Now let's look at that idea as it becomes a fanfic. Some people
just sit down and try to write that idea down. I sometimes imagine John
Walter Biles just sitting down and writing "Putting Your Heart In The
Right Place", probably one of the best debut works I've ever read. They
just plow through, letting the idea dance in the theater of the mind,
showing them what to write.


Well, I had been writing for 9 years when I wrote Putting Your Heart in
the Right Place.  But it had all been on paper, seen by a maximum of five
people, and had nothing to do with anime.  And most of it stunk, except
for two horror stories and a superhero story co-written with my girlfriend
of the time, an English major, who was about five times better than me. :)

But yes, I basically didn't plan out Right Place at all; it didn't even
turn out the way I planned it :)

         Some people plan it. Yes, plan it. They get down and write an outline, a 
skeletal framework. That's me. I put up the skeleton then I give the fic it's flesh. 

If I write an outline, I usually never finish the story.


        As we discuss the idea, we also touch on two of the subjects that are related
to it: Plagiarism and Originality. Now, originality in the fanfic scene today is a 
very hard thing to do. Most of the major series have all had the story possibilities
sucked out of them. Though Mark Page's "Usagi is Dead" and a few other recent 

I'd completely disagree.  The best way to damn your story to hell is to
make 'originality' your watchword.  Better to use a plot done 2000 times
and do it well than to try to be 'original' and create something which is
original because it was a dumb idea and no one else was stupid enough to
do it before or which is original because the idea is utterly
inappropriate.  I'm not saying originality is bad, but it's generally
better to write the stories that appeal to you, even if the idea's been
done before, than to say 'I must be original'.  I've never spent a moment
considering if one of my ideas was 'original'.  I have tried to make sure
I didn't accidentally plagiarize someone because I read something and
forgot it wasn't my own idea, but that's another story.

a fanfic about a series which people don't usually use for fanfics. If you're the only 

And then no one will read you, including the people who complain about
there only being Ranma and SM fics, but who won't actually let you know
they read it, if they did.  

        The Making of Ranma Saotome and the Temple of the Golden Wombat   

Wombats!  Woo woo!


         That is one of the unfavorable characterizations of Haruka. Doug 
doesn't like Haruka much, does he ? Not that I'm bashing him, but one
of the things I hate is unbalanced characterization. If you're going to show
the bad side, please give a show of the good side. Now, let's see a Haruka 
fan characterize her:

Some characters don't have a good side :0

It depends on the context.  I think you could have chosen a better piece
of text to show Haruka being treated too harshly; while I'll admit I
haven't read all of tales of Younger Venus, I saw nothing in the segment
you had shown that made me think it was an unfair characterization.
Haruka can be harsh when she thinks it is called for.  

Now, if he had shown Haruka pimpslapping an eight year old and firing a
rocketlauncher through an elderly grandmother's head to stop a youma, then
I would agree, but...


	Now, my advice about characterization is simple. Make it balanced.
Never make Ukyou, a saint or Akane, Evil Incarnate. Except if your story 

I'll disagree, somewhat.  Some characters ARE evil incarnate or good
incarnate in the source material. Now, no one in Ranma 1/2 is that way,
but if you can find Beryl's good side, or Belldandy's dark side, I'll be
impressed.  


	Second, try to perfect dialogue. Dialogue is an important of writing. It should
sound real as if it were delivered by the characters themselves. Try reciting the dialogue,

One of my big problems...most of my dialogue sounds like everyone has my
education, even if they're five...it's what they would say if they had my
education, but...

I have to say you read a LOT.  And that's a good thing. :)

John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu       
rhea@tass.org              http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net      http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/

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