So...what makes a good fanfic?

With the plots...something new, but with a hint of familiarity to it, so
that it doesn't seem totally off the wall.

Characters...KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS, DAMMIT!!!!  Sorry.  With the stories I
have done that I actually think are really spiffy, this is where I
emphasized.  If you know your characters, you know how they are going to
act in certain situations.  I have almost cried for characters on occasion,
from knowing the characters so intimately.  If you know the characters well
enough, they will almost write the story for you.  I have also put off a
story until I get a better feel for a character (Akari...I'm knowing her
a little better now...)

Scenery and mood...The characters must  have a stage on which to perform...
make it a beautiful one.  Let the weather, the light, the descriptions sing
out the picture to the reader.

Structure...Pick a structure you can build with.  A script format is good
for more humorous stories and in stories with excessive dialogue, but
usually it is more difficult for the author to present the desired picture.
A prose format is more difficult to write with...the author is called on to
supply more description and scenery...but the picture shines through more
clearly.

The first two fanfics I finished were "Sunrise" and "Contagion", both during
the Christmas holiday.  I did a little experimenting with the styles of each
of them. My thoughts on both of them:

"Sunrise" - serious fanfic, with a dark mood throughout most of the story,
though it has its bright moments.  I chose a prose format, and tried to make
it as descriptive as possible.  I seriously focused on the characters,
particularly Ranma, as this version was seriously changed from the normal
form - grim, determined, more introspective - as a result of what had
happened in the events preceding the story.  Probably the greatest influence
on the overall style of the fanfic was Shannon Richmeyer's "Nightshadow",
as I found the mood and overall form of the story to be similar to what I
wanted.  One thing I learned from that story that I used in Sunrise was the
use of a song at the beginning to establish a mood to the story.  Overall,
I was pleased with the result: a dark fanfic designed to hold the reader's
attention and show them a Ranma that few had even thought of seeing before:
an adult, cursed permanently, stripped of everything she was, seeking two
things: revenge and peace from her inner demons.

"Contagion" - This was a more lighthearted fanfic, meant more for humor than
anything else.  Like most Ranma fanfics of this type, I wanted to establish
a wacky, yet slightly sentimental, atmosphere similar to the early anime
episodes.  I chose a script format for the story, as elegant prose can
sometimes distract from the humor of the story.  The characters were the
usual crew, though the decisions I made as to how the group would react to
this newest crisis some people would (and did) disagree with.  The primary
influence on the structure of the story was John Biles' classic, "Putting
Your Heart in the Right Place".  It was that feel to the story - that
sentimental humor - that I wanted to instill in my fanfic.  However, I didn't
want to make it a pure script format, as I felt that a little more description
in parts would be a good thing.  Overall, I was less pleased with the way
this fanfic turned out, primarily because I was more familiar with the
characters in Sunrise.  Also, I made some revisions to the ending and the
style of the fanfic between its original posting on the Solaris feed about
a month and a half ago and its posting on here this coming weekend.

One last thing:  About length...An English teacher I had in high school said
it best:  However long it takes to get the desired product.  This can be 100
lines (as in my little snippit, "A Man I'll Never Be") or 10000 lines.  It
makes little difference.  If lines are added as fluff, it'll be recognized
as fluff.

Oh well...those are my thoughts, anyway.

Nightelf
nwl9354@tamvm1.tamu.edu