In the spirit of Revenge:

http://www.josephpalmer.com/fanfic/revenge/Revenge.shtml

and A Conversation with Nabiki

http://www.josephpalmer.com/fanfic/revenge/acwn.shtml

I had a chat with Nabiki to hash out my feelings about
the health of the FFML:


___________________________________________________


Nabiki Returns 2006

    "What's wrong with you anyway?"

    "Huh?"

    "You've left me in an elevator with Souichi for over 13
months. My lips hurt, and I really gotta pee."

    "Ah - Gomen."

    "Don't you pull that 'Gomenasai' crap on me -- you didn't
even use italics on a foreign word like you should, you
washed-up has-been hack."

    "Nabiki, I'm really busy right now, can we talk about this later?"

    "No. We'll talk now or I'll tell your wife all about the sort of
stuff you've been watching lately. You've been ignoring me and I
want to know why."

    "It's a long story."

    "I've got time."

    "Remember way back when -- the first time I unsubbed from the FFML?
I wrote then that I was leaving because I just wasn't getting out
of it what I once was. Maybe it was a Freudian slip, but the way I
wrote it was ambiguous - I thought I was I talking about the 'FFML',
but perhaps I was talking about writing in general. I've spent the
last few years in denial that it was only the FFML that had
lost my interest."

    "So then, why did you return to the list?"

    "To try to re-ignite that old flame."

    "Oh, you do care about me!" Nabiki beamed a smile.

    "Yeah, but it's a different world now. I released my first story
in 1994. That's before Sailor 'effing Moon you know? There were only
handful of series that people were writing for. Almost everyone who
read fanfiction knew enough about Ranma to read the fics. People read
fanfiction because they couldn't find enough Anime to fill their time.
Remember when there used to be fanfic contests? I used to use those as
deadlines to push myself to finish stories, but that meant that I had
top post it to RAAC and hope that my moderator would get to reviewing
it in time to meet the deadline. It really pissed me off to have my
story get moderated two days after a contest deadline after busting
my butt to get it in two days ahead of time. That's when I stopped
sending stories to RAAC. You know there's another thing, back then
there was a Lennon-McCartney kind of competition among the authors
to craft and produce well-written, high quality stories.

    "Which were you?"

    "Huh?"

    "Lennon or McCartney?"

    "Ringo Star, Okay?"

    "Okay. He was cute in 'Caveman'".

    "Anyway -- I tried to put myself inside your Nerima. Hell,
I even visited the real Nerima. I went to an onsen. I stayed
at a ryokan and slept on futons on tatami mats."

    "Itlaics!"

    "Sorry. These days when I go to an Anime Convention,
It's a lot of kids who weren't even born when Ranma started.
I don't have enough time to watch or care about every series
enough to be able to read a tiny fraction the fanfiction now.
These days the DVD stores are filled with series I've never
even heard of.

    "What's a DVD?"

    "It's like a CD for Video."

    "Cool! Will you buy me a player?"

    "Nabiki -- I'm pouring my heart out to you, the world has
changed in a thousand ways and you're just the same."

   "It's one of my better attributes, or so I've been
told", Nabiki sniffed. "Look, It's not like we're
engaged or anything." She leaned back against the wall
then slid down until she was sitting on the floor hugging
her knees. "You could... could write for other series."

   "Thanks, but that's another problem -- see I shouldn't
even be writing for you. You belong to someone else. It
didn't even cross my mind when I wrote 'Seasons', but
over the years I began to think that it was not such a
good thing to borrow you for my stories. I really loved
Takahashi's manga stories, and some of my favories are
from the Anime, but I began to feel like I was
trespassing on somone else's propery. I began to feel
like I should take off the training-wheels and write
originals."

   "Then why don't you?"

   "I don't have a good answer for you Nabiki. Part of it
is that I haven't even tried yet. Part of it is that I have
a readership for my fanfiction, and I'd have to start all
over again for my originals."

   "Is that so hard?"

   "Not hard, just scary, I suppose."

   "Are you going leave me in that goddam elevator?"

   "No, dear. I'll get you out, if it's the last thing
I ever write."


J.















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