You wrote:

Too often new writers think in terms of story, rather than in terms of 
words -- of building a story with words.  As a result, their early 
efforts are often overwritten and flowery.

Hmm.  I'll agree that many writers think in terms of story rather 
than words, but it seems to me that the result is quite often the 
opposite of what you describe: the story seems rather dry and is not 
creatively described.

This is especially true for anime fanfiction, since the stories that 
inspire us are not written as text, but as animation scripts.  That's 
why I often "cheat" and write stories in script format when I want to 
complete them quickly.  The hardest part about writing text for me is 
to describe actions and make them sound interesting.

------RM