</lurk>

Hopefully you get the idea I've got a few more snippets, but I could never
connect them together into a workable story  especially since it is at
least two stories in one.

As I said at the start I've tried several times to make this idea work and
I've given up on it, so its available to anyone that wants to try it with
or without my sample snippets.

    I've always had a disdain for people 'throwing ideas in the air', as it
were, but I have no problem with trying to help someone refine an idea. I
think that you've got a rather interesting concept, and I have seen stories
that skirted close to your idea, but never really quite as far reaching as
yours proposes.

    Indeed, you are telling two stories in one, but there's nothing wrong
with that. It can be done, and done well. Since both parts of the story will
closely mirror each other, I don't think that is such a big problem at all.
I think your problem is how to make the idea a solid one. Indeed, the idea
that Jusenkyo magically alters not only Ranma but everyone else as well (and
clothing too, so it seems) is a major stretch at best, and a difficult plot
hole to dance around at worst. What you lack is plausability.

    Perhaps a different approach and way of thinking about the story would
help smoothen out your idea on how to handle this. Instead of saying that
the curse changes Ranma's gender AND alters the minds of everyone he
interacts with (as well as other things), perhaps it would be easier to say
that the curse transports Ranma's mind to an alternate reality where
he -was- born a girl who lives a somewhat similar life to his own, except
female. That would -easily- explain why Ranma's clothes changed when he got
splashed by the ladle lady. You also have more plausability to add such
deviances such as what you wrote in the story (Ranko being raped, Genma
having a bum knee, etc.)

    Now, with Ranma having such a curse, there would obviously be a female
version of him in the alternate reality with a similar curse. Perhaps slowly
over time they could find a way to communicate, and try to find a way to
anchor themselves to their proper reality... or if no such way to anchor
themselves could be devised, perhaps each could learn from each other on how
to live in both realities seamlessly. They could grow to form a
brother/sister relationship that offers support for the other when one has
one of those 'major deviances' in one reality or the other.

    Before you plan this too far, you want to consider how similar or how
different you want the two lives to be. If you decide that both lives are
very similar, then anything that happens in Ranma's male life happens in
Ranko's life as well, with only very small details being different, and
trying to keep track of things that happened in both lives are not an issue.
    If both lives are only kinda similar, then various things that happened
in Ranma's life could have happened in Ranko's, but under different
circumstances. EG: Where Ranma went through cat fist training and developed
aluriphobia, Ranko was molested by a kidnapper and then thrown into a pit
about to be burried alive, developing claustrophobia. It's your choice
whether Ranma automatically remembers (and feels) these experiences when he
changes realities, or if he ends up in a circumstance which would cause the
supporting cast to wonder why Ranma was having problems remembering certain
things yet remembering things that never happened.
    If both lives are very different, then yeah, you're telling two
completely different stories, and Ranma's life becomes a nightmare of trying
to keep track of two lives, but I don't think that's quite where you want to
go with that story.

    There's a lot of possibilities to this story, but as I said, I refuse to
use someone else's idea. This is your idea, and the very best person to tell
this story is you, and I'll be glad to preread for you and offer advice to
get you out of a plot hole along the way. ^v^ This is something I really
want to see you do. I don't pop out of lurk mode for just anything, y'know.


-Troy

<lurk>


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