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Okay, we've been through this already. This is a poignant topic,
considering that it appears that more and more original works are beginning
to pop up on this list. Is that a bad thing? No (many professional authors
out there were once fanfic writers). The reasons for writing original fics
(or metafiction, for those versed in non-anime fanfics) are myriad,
something I won't cover here, nor will I talk about the apparent pro- and
con- camps that seem to be setting up right now and giving each other dirty
stares.
As Matt commented before, original fics is a niche genre, one that has to be
handled skillfully. Readership is little, especially if you're already
known for other fanfic series (I can tell you, readership for all my
original fics combined is fractional, compared to even a single installment
of one of my various other fanfics, let alone TOS or SMAX). Unless you've
hit the "magic button" that everyone likes (Kumiko the Demon Girl), been
there for a long time (Macho Caballo) or are a critical fave (Okari,
Kaori-chan), chances are you're not going to get much readership on it.
It's just the way it works. Most original fics leave a bad taste in
peoples' mouths anyway, as it's merely a weak rewrite of an established
series (anyone remember the "Ranma" fic that had nothing to do with anything
Takahashi save the main character's name?) or something like that thereof.
Which comes to what you desired: C&C. One, I don't care for script format.
Prose is much nicer and allows you to play with imagery more than script.
Script to me is something that is meant to be orated and acted, not to sit
down by the old fireplace and curl up with. Secondly, as has been mentioned
before, the script seems like the recycle of a thousand plots before it.
Granted, as the old saying goes, there are only 12 original tales and the
rest are all distillations thereof, but an author careful in his craft can
make that distillation seem fresh and pure. Frankly, you haven't done that
here.
Thirdly, this is a social group (via mailing list), not a guerrila threat
zone. Demanding C&C when not dishing it out (and granted, I'll not hurl the
first stone as I rarely C&C in public) is plain rude and boorish. You want
C&C, you must give it.
Lastly, you want your original fic to be read? How about taking a chance
with it in another venue? Put it in a contest, submit it to a pulp (Matt's
aforementioned magazine is a great example), or better still - give the
readers something worth their time. The story you have, if tweaked here and
there and converted to prose, has great potential, but not in the form it's
in.
Ja ne,
--Rob
rob@yogipigs.org <mailto:rob@yogipigs.org> / mara@megami.net
<mailto:mara@megami.net>
AIM: mitsukaicom
Mitsukai! - http://www.mitsukai.com
Studio YOGIPIGS - http://www.yogipigs.org
Sailor Moon AX - http://www.yogipigs.org/sailormoon-ax/
A Long Strange Webpage - http://www.yogipigs.org/ALSW/
"We're so wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully
Wonderfully pretty
Oh you know that I'd do anything for you
We should have each other to tea huh?
We should have each other with cream
Then curl up by the fire
And sleep for awhile
It's the grooviest thing
It's the perfect dream
Into the sea
You and me
All these years and no one heard
I'll show you in spring
It's a treacherous thing
We missed you hissed -
The lovecats."
--The Cure