Krista Perry
15th May 2003, 07:31 PM
Thanks to the FFML Admins for approving this post. ^_^
AnimeFEST! 2003 is proud to once again announce our annual Fan
Fiction Contest, our way of helping fan authors share their works
with the public.
------------------
Rules
------------------
Entries must be under 4,000 words long.
For email entries, the documents should be saved as a plain text
file. MSWord and WordPerfect documents are acceptable.
A pen-name may be used. However, all entries must also include
the author's full real name, as well as phone number and home
address for contact purposes.
Complete stories, singles scenes, vignettes, excerpts, and other
forms of prose are permitted. Fics must contain at least one
recognizable anime or manga related character, setting or
situation. All anime or manga series used in the work must be
listed.
Eroticism, sexuality and innuendo, violent action and ludicrous
cartoon-style violence are allowed. "Lemons," fics with graphic
sexual content, are not acceptable. Coarse language should be
limited to that which is acceptable in a PG-13 rated movie.
Entries must not have been posted for general reading on the
Internet before September 15, 2002. These includes fanfics that
have been posted to personal web sites, archives, or mailing
lists.
Email submissions will be accepted until July 26, 2003. Snail
mail submissions will not be accepted.
------------------
Entry Instructions
------------------
E-Mail Submissions to: krista.perry@attbi.com
------------------
Judging and Prizes
------------------
This contest is open genre, which means any type of story may be
entered. The best stories are those that run the gamut of genres,
rather than focusing on just a single one (such as romance.)
It is very possible that the judges have not seen the series that
you're writing from. It's not a good idea to enter a story that
relies on the audience (read: the judges) having prior knowledge
of a certain event or character - they probably won't understand
the story.
Spelling, grammar, plot, characterization, style, and originality
of ideas will all be taken into account in scoring.
Winners will be notified at least 21 days before the convention.
If winners are unable to attend, they must make arrangements for
a representative to accept awards on their behalf.
The winning entries will be displayed at a special awards
ceremony, where the author or representative will have the
opportunity to read their work in front of an audience. (For
those with stage fright or for those who are unable to attend,
AnimeFEST! volunteers will be available to do the reading.)
The winning entries will be also published in the program book.
By submitting your work to the contest, you grant AnimeFEST!
permission to reprint it, in whole or in part, in its
publications, both printed and electronic.
Prizes will be given for Best Overall, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places,
and Honorable Mention.
Each winning author will receive a complementary AnimeFEST!
membership, a t-shirt, and an engraved acrylic award. In
addition, we are currently seeking prize donations from the anime
industry and specific prizes will be announced before or during
the award ceremony.
Further questions may be directed to Krista Perry at
krista.perry@attbi.com.
------------------
Writing Advice
Courtesy of Katsu no Miko (http://www.katsudon.net)
------------------
Katsu's got some advice for everyone!
Self Critique
Don't have a beta reader? Want to make your story better, but not
send it in for a critique? Become your own editor in five easy
steps.
Don't be afraid to rewrite. This is the cardinal rule; I know
that every story is your baby, and every word is precious, and
every scene is something you wanted...but you also have to
realize that it's not perfect. To carry the metaphor further,
stories are like kids--you might think that yours is perfect when
you look at it, but everyone else in the world sees it as a
misbehaving brat. Don't be afraid to look for things to fix.
Don't be scared to restructure your sentences. No story is
perfect in the first draft, or in any successive draft--but it
gets better each time you rewrite.
Kill your darlings. It's nearly a law that a story should lose
20-30% of its original size when it goes from first draft to
final draft. First drafts contain a lot of unnecessary words,
strings of adjectives and adverbs, or bits of purple prose that
you are extremely proud of. Going through your drafts means
tightening up your story, and making it more readable. I don't
care how twitterpated you are with one of your flowery
metaphors--if it doesn't fit, kill it. You adore the scene where
two of your characters go for a midnight stroll and find a ring,
right? But it doesn't really fit in with the story--it has to go.
Your readers will thank you.
Spell check, then spell check your spell check. To start with, do
the world a favor and spell check your stories. Nothing drives
readers into distraction more than strings of obviously
misspelled or type-oed words. Once you've spell checked, that's
great--now go over your story and check it yourself, without the
aide of a program. There are some words you may have misspelled
into other words, which no computerized spell checker can catch.
Also, sometimes computer spell checks will see a strange
misspelling, and just pick the word that it thinks is
right--which almost never is right. There's nothing more
disconcerting than reading along in a story and finding a phrase
like this. "The boy smiled, an expression full of mystery. 'If
you want to find out,' he said, 'you'll have to talk to him
yourself. Please come this wad.'" I rest my case.
Read your dialogue out loud. This is the best indication you'll
ever have of if it sounds right, makes sense, and flows properly.
If it feels weird to say it, chances are that it'll feel very
weird to read it.
Let it percolate. If you have time, let it sit for a few weeks,
then read it over. Without what you think your wrote in fresh in
your mind, you'll have a much better chance of catching strange
misspellings, nonsensical sentences, and other problems. If
you've just written the story, it's very difficult to edit it
yourself because you know exactly what it should say; so you read
what you think you wrote, rather than what you actually wrote.
------------------
Fanfic Cliches
Courtesy of Katsu no Miko (http://www.katsudon.net)
------------------
Fanfic Cliches
In the world of fanfiction, there's the good, the bad, and the
ugly. Unfortunately, the ugly and the bad have teamed up, and are
currently outnumbering the good by factors of ten.
Some stories are bad because they're poorly written. Others
contain putrid, cliche plots that lower IQ points in frightening
amounts. Take a look at the following list...if you are on the
side of all that is good and light, you'll want to avoid these
things.
"And then he sweatdropped."
Here's a big point. Anime is visual in nature. Some of what goes
on in it definitely does not translate over well to writing.
Unless you're working on bad slapstick, people don't "sweatdrop,"
"chibify," "super deform," or "facevault." There's no such thing
as "hammerspace," and "hentainess," "kawaiiness," and
"bishounen-ness" are not valid words, let alone valid adjectives.
Attempting to write your story like it's a play by play from an
actual anime episode is very disturbing to readers.
Mary Sue & SI
There are two characters that no reader ever wants to see. The
first is Mary Sue--an "original" character inserted into the
story. Mary Sue characters are always perfect, good looking, and
incredibly intelligent, more so than any of the series
characters. They also tend to be condescending and downright
annoying. Despite this, all of the same sex characters look up to
them, and all of the opposite sex characters want to hop into the
sack with them, for reasons that are flimsy at best and usually
out of character. Mary Sues are normally seen as proxies for the
author, since the normally end up with the author's favorite
character, after beating up the author's least favorite
character, of course. SI means "Self Insertion" -- the other
thing no reader wants to see. Self-Insertions are pretty similar
to Mary Sues, except in Self Insertion, the author outright
admits that they've written themselves into the story. SIs
normally have omniscient powers as well, and are able to alter
the universe at will, since they're the all-powerful author.
Let's say it together, kids: Barf.
"Pleas sir, come rite this wad."
Anyone other than me thinking "aroo?" There's a lot of stories
out there that get sent out without ever seeing a second draft,
or even a spell check for that matter. Spell check doesn't take
that long to do, is available at the click of a button in most
word processing programs, and your readers will thank you. It's
ok to write more than one draft of a story, after all. Please, do
your readers a favor, and not only check your spelling, but check
your grammar as well. Who knows, they might actually understand
what you're trying to say!
And everyone lived happily ever after, whether they wanted to or
not
I don't know what causes this, really I don't. The story starts
out with a romantically involved couple as its center. No
problem. Why on earth the author feels the need to make sure that
every single character in the series is paired off and happy is
beyond my ken. Sorry, but it's better to learn sooner than later:
life doesn't work that way, which is why it doesn't work in a
story. Plus, there's always the leftover characters, who aren't
particularly interested in anyone, but get paired off with
someone anyway just because it won't do to let anyone be single.
So no, pairing off the entire cast of Ranma isn't reasonable. It
gets even worse in yaoi fandoms, because then we have the unique
"Everybody is GAY and paired off" syndrome going as well. A
little romance doesn't hurt. A little too much is just silly.
"I'm SO depressed."
Anyone ever read "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?" Remember
Marvin, the terminally depressed robot? Not exactly a stimulating
conversational partner, since all he'd ever want to talk about
was how depressed he was. And oh yes, by the way, did he mention
he was depressed? Let me clue you in -- this isn't good writing
material either. If you want to leave your readers feeling like
they want to slash their own wrists, by all means write a story
that's twenty pages of non-stop "character feeling sorry for
himself and whining vocally about it." Even better, make the
character immortal and depressed. It's guaranteed to make even
the most cheerful people pop Valium like it's candy.
Pregnant men
'Nuff said. [Ok, so it's only a really common problem in Gundam
Wing fanfiction. Don't let the sickness spread.]
Badly inserted/written action scene
"And suddenly, without warning, ninjas jumped out from behind the
trashcans in the alley and off the roofs of the nearest
skyscraper where they'd been hanging on the window cleaning
scaffold. The prince drew his sword, with a dark sparkle in his
eye and sliced the head off the nearest one with a spiffy
overhand backward flip. 'Don't lose your head.' he said in his
dark voice." [coughcoughcough] That hurt to write, really it
did...seriously, don't just chuck an action sequence in just so
you get another opportunity to paint a tic-tac-toe board on the
nearest building with the fountaining blood of a faceless
opponent. Also, please keep in mind that there are some ways the
human body doesn't bend, and some action sequences just aren't
physically possible. Your action sequences should have the reader
cheering the good guy on, not falling asleep or laughing until
Coke comes out of their nose.
Badly inserted/written lemon scene
Okay, take what I said above and multiply it by ten, because
while there are quite a few people that can write decent action,
I've met less people than I have fingers (as in ten) that can
actually manage to write lemon scenes that don't cause brain
damage. I repeat: the human body only bend in certain ways.
Nonsensical verb tense change
Variety might be the spice of life, but do the world a favor,
pick a verb tense, and stick with it. It's really off putting to
find two or three different tenses in one sentence...not to
mention it's unreadable.
Nonsensical viewpoint change
First person or third. Pick one and stick with it. If you want to
change view between two characters, give your poor, long
suffering readers some indication before they get so confused
that their heads explode.
Useless gore
"Blood fountained out, painting arcs of dripping gore across the
nearest brick wall as he ripped another handful of bloody chunks
away, reveling in their warmth and vaguely squishy texture. Damn,
this was a good steak." ^.^ Just kidding about the steak part,
really. Realize that describing blood and gore in loving abandon
will make your readers wonder how you managed to get your story
on the web, considering that they don't normally let mental
patients have writing utensils...
"It's like Sailor Moon meets Iron Chef. It just doesn't work!"
Crossovers are difficult to deal with. (Unless you're writing
comedy, that is.) If you're crossing over two anime series, well,
you really need to have a good, foolproof explanation as to how
exactly this characters managed to get together in one place.
Sorry, "interdimensional space/time warp" is overdone and
completely unbelievable. Also, there's a certain type of
crossover...the "Anime Series meets popular TV show" which is
particularly nonsensical. I don't even like Melrose Place to
begin with...heaven spare me from having to read about it with
the regular cast replaced by characters from Tenchi Muyo...
Research: It's not just for scientists anymore!
Here's a real unique concept for you...want to write a story
where a character has a certain gun they use, or knows a martial
art style? Why not click that mouse or pick up that book and
actually do a little reading up on it? *gasp* What a concept.
Know what you're writing about, guys. If you don't, you'll
confuse the readers that don't know what the real story is, and
royally annoy the ones that do. I've already had a story to
critique where a character was inflicted in some sort of heart
problem that didn't jive with any of my medical knowledge. I tore
my hair out for three days while I went through the AMHA
database, without ever finding any real disease that it matched.
I was told later by the author that she "just made it up" because
she didn't feel like researching it out. Talk about annoyed...
See before you write
This one should be pretty obvious, but considering how few people
actually practice it, I feel like I should say something. You
know how real world research helps you write? Well, another thing
that helps you write fanfiction is actually *watching* the series
that you're writing from! Fanfiction has enough characterization
problems to begin with. Making it up without any basis in the
canon series deserves a cattle prod in the rear.
Stereotyping
Let's talk characterization. The big difference between good
characterization and bad characterization is one dimension; good
is three, bad is two. Bad characterization is "Usagi is whiney,
Rei is sarcastic and mean, Mina is an airhead, Makoto is a
violent tomboy, Ami is a brain with two legs" and nothing else.
All characters have their own set of motivations (not just one!),
and all of them are different--that's what makes them
interesting. Also, I have to note...when you have a author that
stereotypes badly, you can always tell which character is their
least favorite; not only do they have the most negative
stereotype and the least development, they also seem to get
beaten up and put down a lot by the other characters...
Purple prose
"It sat on the window sill, glittering silver and the green of
jungles in the hazy morning light. Sparks of incandescent beauty
fell from its sides, shattering along the walls, floor, and the
warm brown wood of my magnificent desk. Round is the most perfect
of shapes, one with no beginning or end, I reflected, like the
never-ending cycle of all life, never pausing. Then again, I
always do get maudlin before I drink my morning can of Mt.
Dew..." You have here an example of prose that has been smothered
until it turned purple. This might work if you're getting paid by
the word and are attempting to squeeze a couple extra bucks out
of a story, but also keep in mind that I've yet to meet anyone
that truly enjoyed reading "Moby Dick." (Which was a story that
could have been written in a paragraph or less.) Don't get stuck
on your descriptions; you might feel great if you can write
lovely, flowery prose, but it's a struggle to read.
Ittai!
Okay, time for my pet peeve. Let's talk foreign language in
stories. In anime fandom, lots of people like dropping what's
called "fanboy Japanese" into their stories, I guess under the
assumption that a few Japanese words makes it sound better.
Wrong. First of all, most people that do this don't have a
working understanding of the language, and use the words in ways
that make people that do know wince. My favorite example of this
is "koi." To people who have no Japanese knowledge beyond the
fanboy level, it's a cute little shortening of the word
"koibito," which means "beloved." To anyone that has more than a
passing relationship with Japanese, it means a lot more: "carp,"
"slow in the head," and the rude form of "to come" spring to
mind. Not a very flattering thing to be calling your loved one,
eh? Second, it's silly. Anime is in Japanese because that's what
the audience that originally watched it spoke. It is silly to
assume that if the characters were real, they would speak
Japanese. Gundam Wing is a prime example -- the only person out
of the entire cast that has any right to be dropping Japanese
phrases into their speech is Heero. Duo is American, so if
anything, he should speak English, complete with slang. Wufei is
Chinese. Neither of them have any reason to speak Japanese.
Including foreign language into a story throws the readers off
and destroys the flow of sentences. It may make you feel smart or
cool as the author, but enough is enough. Please, I don't want to
EVER read an anime character saying: "Ramen de hashi o tabemasu!"
[I ate my chopsticks using the ramen.] Thank you.
File courtesy of Katsudon.net
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`---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'
AnimeFEST! 2003 is proud to once again announce our annual Fan
Fiction Contest, our way of helping fan authors share their works
with the public.
------------------
Rules
------------------
Entries must be under 4,000 words long.
For email entries, the documents should be saved as a plain text
file. MSWord and WordPerfect documents are acceptable.
A pen-name may be used. However, all entries must also include
the author's full real name, as well as phone number and home
address for contact purposes.
Complete stories, singles scenes, vignettes, excerpts, and other
forms of prose are permitted. Fics must contain at least one
recognizable anime or manga related character, setting or
situation. All anime or manga series used in the work must be
listed.
Eroticism, sexuality and innuendo, violent action and ludicrous
cartoon-style violence are allowed. "Lemons," fics with graphic
sexual content, are not acceptable. Coarse language should be
limited to that which is acceptable in a PG-13 rated movie.
Entries must not have been posted for general reading on the
Internet before September 15, 2002. These includes fanfics that
have been posted to personal web sites, archives, or mailing
lists.
Email submissions will be accepted until July 26, 2003. Snail
mail submissions will not be accepted.
------------------
Entry Instructions
------------------
E-Mail Submissions to: krista.perry@attbi.com
------------------
Judging and Prizes
------------------
This contest is open genre, which means any type of story may be
entered. The best stories are those that run the gamut of genres,
rather than focusing on just a single one (such as romance.)
It is very possible that the judges have not seen the series that
you're writing from. It's not a good idea to enter a story that
relies on the audience (read: the judges) having prior knowledge
of a certain event or character - they probably won't understand
the story.
Spelling, grammar, plot, characterization, style, and originality
of ideas will all be taken into account in scoring.
Winners will be notified at least 21 days before the convention.
If winners are unable to attend, they must make arrangements for
a representative to accept awards on their behalf.
The winning entries will be displayed at a special awards
ceremony, where the author or representative will have the
opportunity to read their work in front of an audience. (For
those with stage fright or for those who are unable to attend,
AnimeFEST! volunteers will be available to do the reading.)
The winning entries will be also published in the program book.
By submitting your work to the contest, you grant AnimeFEST!
permission to reprint it, in whole or in part, in its
publications, both printed and electronic.
Prizes will be given for Best Overall, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places,
and Honorable Mention.
Each winning author will receive a complementary AnimeFEST!
membership, a t-shirt, and an engraved acrylic award. In
addition, we are currently seeking prize donations from the anime
industry and specific prizes will be announced before or during
the award ceremony.
Further questions may be directed to Krista Perry at
krista.perry@attbi.com.
------------------
Writing Advice
Courtesy of Katsu no Miko (http://www.katsudon.net)
------------------
Katsu's got some advice for everyone!
Self Critique
Don't have a beta reader? Want to make your story better, but not
send it in for a critique? Become your own editor in five easy
steps.
Don't be afraid to rewrite. This is the cardinal rule; I know
that every story is your baby, and every word is precious, and
every scene is something you wanted...but you also have to
realize that it's not perfect. To carry the metaphor further,
stories are like kids--you might think that yours is perfect when
you look at it, but everyone else in the world sees it as a
misbehaving brat. Don't be afraid to look for things to fix.
Don't be scared to restructure your sentences. No story is
perfect in the first draft, or in any successive draft--but it
gets better each time you rewrite.
Kill your darlings. It's nearly a law that a story should lose
20-30% of its original size when it goes from first draft to
final draft. First drafts contain a lot of unnecessary words,
strings of adjectives and adverbs, or bits of purple prose that
you are extremely proud of. Going through your drafts means
tightening up your story, and making it more readable. I don't
care how twitterpated you are with one of your flowery
metaphors--if it doesn't fit, kill it. You adore the scene where
two of your characters go for a midnight stroll and find a ring,
right? But it doesn't really fit in with the story--it has to go.
Your readers will thank you.
Spell check, then spell check your spell check. To start with, do
the world a favor and spell check your stories. Nothing drives
readers into distraction more than strings of obviously
misspelled or type-oed words. Once you've spell checked, that's
great--now go over your story and check it yourself, without the
aide of a program. There are some words you may have misspelled
into other words, which no computerized spell checker can catch.
Also, sometimes computer spell checks will see a strange
misspelling, and just pick the word that it thinks is
right--which almost never is right. There's nothing more
disconcerting than reading along in a story and finding a phrase
like this. "The boy smiled, an expression full of mystery. 'If
you want to find out,' he said, 'you'll have to talk to him
yourself. Please come this wad.'" I rest my case.
Read your dialogue out loud. This is the best indication you'll
ever have of if it sounds right, makes sense, and flows properly.
If it feels weird to say it, chances are that it'll feel very
weird to read it.
Let it percolate. If you have time, let it sit for a few weeks,
then read it over. Without what you think your wrote in fresh in
your mind, you'll have a much better chance of catching strange
misspellings, nonsensical sentences, and other problems. If
you've just written the story, it's very difficult to edit it
yourself because you know exactly what it should say; so you read
what you think you wrote, rather than what you actually wrote.
------------------
Fanfic Cliches
Courtesy of Katsu no Miko (http://www.katsudon.net)
------------------
Fanfic Cliches
In the world of fanfiction, there's the good, the bad, and the
ugly. Unfortunately, the ugly and the bad have teamed up, and are
currently outnumbering the good by factors of ten.
Some stories are bad because they're poorly written. Others
contain putrid, cliche plots that lower IQ points in frightening
amounts. Take a look at the following list...if you are on the
side of all that is good and light, you'll want to avoid these
things.
"And then he sweatdropped."
Here's a big point. Anime is visual in nature. Some of what goes
on in it definitely does not translate over well to writing.
Unless you're working on bad slapstick, people don't "sweatdrop,"
"chibify," "super deform," or "facevault." There's no such thing
as "hammerspace," and "hentainess," "kawaiiness," and
"bishounen-ness" are not valid words, let alone valid adjectives.
Attempting to write your story like it's a play by play from an
actual anime episode is very disturbing to readers.
Mary Sue & SI
There are two characters that no reader ever wants to see. The
first is Mary Sue--an "original" character inserted into the
story. Mary Sue characters are always perfect, good looking, and
incredibly intelligent, more so than any of the series
characters. They also tend to be condescending and downright
annoying. Despite this, all of the same sex characters look up to
them, and all of the opposite sex characters want to hop into the
sack with them, for reasons that are flimsy at best and usually
out of character. Mary Sues are normally seen as proxies for the
author, since the normally end up with the author's favorite
character, after beating up the author's least favorite
character, of course. SI means "Self Insertion" -- the other
thing no reader wants to see. Self-Insertions are pretty similar
to Mary Sues, except in Self Insertion, the author outright
admits that they've written themselves into the story. SIs
normally have omniscient powers as well, and are able to alter
the universe at will, since they're the all-powerful author.
Let's say it together, kids: Barf.
"Pleas sir, come rite this wad."
Anyone other than me thinking "aroo?" There's a lot of stories
out there that get sent out without ever seeing a second draft,
or even a spell check for that matter. Spell check doesn't take
that long to do, is available at the click of a button in most
word processing programs, and your readers will thank you. It's
ok to write more than one draft of a story, after all. Please, do
your readers a favor, and not only check your spelling, but check
your grammar as well. Who knows, they might actually understand
what you're trying to say!
And everyone lived happily ever after, whether they wanted to or
not
I don't know what causes this, really I don't. The story starts
out with a romantically involved couple as its center. No
problem. Why on earth the author feels the need to make sure that
every single character in the series is paired off and happy is
beyond my ken. Sorry, but it's better to learn sooner than later:
life doesn't work that way, which is why it doesn't work in a
story. Plus, there's always the leftover characters, who aren't
particularly interested in anyone, but get paired off with
someone anyway just because it won't do to let anyone be single.
So no, pairing off the entire cast of Ranma isn't reasonable. It
gets even worse in yaoi fandoms, because then we have the unique
"Everybody is GAY and paired off" syndrome going as well. A
little romance doesn't hurt. A little too much is just silly.
"I'm SO depressed."
Anyone ever read "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?" Remember
Marvin, the terminally depressed robot? Not exactly a stimulating
conversational partner, since all he'd ever want to talk about
was how depressed he was. And oh yes, by the way, did he mention
he was depressed? Let me clue you in -- this isn't good writing
material either. If you want to leave your readers feeling like
they want to slash their own wrists, by all means write a story
that's twenty pages of non-stop "character feeling sorry for
himself and whining vocally about it." Even better, make the
character immortal and depressed. It's guaranteed to make even
the most cheerful people pop Valium like it's candy.
Pregnant men
'Nuff said. [Ok, so it's only a really common problem in Gundam
Wing fanfiction. Don't let the sickness spread.]
Badly inserted/written action scene
"And suddenly, without warning, ninjas jumped out from behind the
trashcans in the alley and off the roofs of the nearest
skyscraper where they'd been hanging on the window cleaning
scaffold. The prince drew his sword, with a dark sparkle in his
eye and sliced the head off the nearest one with a spiffy
overhand backward flip. 'Don't lose your head.' he said in his
dark voice." [coughcoughcough] That hurt to write, really it
did...seriously, don't just chuck an action sequence in just so
you get another opportunity to paint a tic-tac-toe board on the
nearest building with the fountaining blood of a faceless
opponent. Also, please keep in mind that there are some ways the
human body doesn't bend, and some action sequences just aren't
physically possible. Your action sequences should have the reader
cheering the good guy on, not falling asleep or laughing until
Coke comes out of their nose.
Badly inserted/written lemon scene
Okay, take what I said above and multiply it by ten, because
while there are quite a few people that can write decent action,
I've met less people than I have fingers (as in ten) that can
actually manage to write lemon scenes that don't cause brain
damage. I repeat: the human body only bend in certain ways.
Nonsensical verb tense change
Variety might be the spice of life, but do the world a favor,
pick a verb tense, and stick with it. It's really off putting to
find two or three different tenses in one sentence...not to
mention it's unreadable.
Nonsensical viewpoint change
First person or third. Pick one and stick with it. If you want to
change view between two characters, give your poor, long
suffering readers some indication before they get so confused
that their heads explode.
Useless gore
"Blood fountained out, painting arcs of dripping gore across the
nearest brick wall as he ripped another handful of bloody chunks
away, reveling in their warmth and vaguely squishy texture. Damn,
this was a good steak." ^.^ Just kidding about the steak part,
really. Realize that describing blood and gore in loving abandon
will make your readers wonder how you managed to get your story
on the web, considering that they don't normally let mental
patients have writing utensils...
"It's like Sailor Moon meets Iron Chef. It just doesn't work!"
Crossovers are difficult to deal with. (Unless you're writing
comedy, that is.) If you're crossing over two anime series, well,
you really need to have a good, foolproof explanation as to how
exactly this characters managed to get together in one place.
Sorry, "interdimensional space/time warp" is overdone and
completely unbelievable. Also, there's a certain type of
crossover...the "Anime Series meets popular TV show" which is
particularly nonsensical. I don't even like Melrose Place to
begin with...heaven spare me from having to read about it with
the regular cast replaced by characters from Tenchi Muyo...
Research: It's not just for scientists anymore!
Here's a real unique concept for you...want to write a story
where a character has a certain gun they use, or knows a martial
art style? Why not click that mouse or pick up that book and
actually do a little reading up on it? *gasp* What a concept.
Know what you're writing about, guys. If you don't, you'll
confuse the readers that don't know what the real story is, and
royally annoy the ones that do. I've already had a story to
critique where a character was inflicted in some sort of heart
problem that didn't jive with any of my medical knowledge. I tore
my hair out for three days while I went through the AMHA
database, without ever finding any real disease that it matched.
I was told later by the author that she "just made it up" because
she didn't feel like researching it out. Talk about annoyed...
See before you write
This one should be pretty obvious, but considering how few people
actually practice it, I feel like I should say something. You
know how real world research helps you write? Well, another thing
that helps you write fanfiction is actually *watching* the series
that you're writing from! Fanfiction has enough characterization
problems to begin with. Making it up without any basis in the
canon series deserves a cattle prod in the rear.
Stereotyping
Let's talk characterization. The big difference between good
characterization and bad characterization is one dimension; good
is three, bad is two. Bad characterization is "Usagi is whiney,
Rei is sarcastic and mean, Mina is an airhead, Makoto is a
violent tomboy, Ami is a brain with two legs" and nothing else.
All characters have their own set of motivations (not just one!),
and all of them are different--that's what makes them
interesting. Also, I have to note...when you have a author that
stereotypes badly, you can always tell which character is their
least favorite; not only do they have the most negative
stereotype and the least development, they also seem to get
beaten up and put down a lot by the other characters...
Purple prose
"It sat on the window sill, glittering silver and the green of
jungles in the hazy morning light. Sparks of incandescent beauty
fell from its sides, shattering along the walls, floor, and the
warm brown wood of my magnificent desk. Round is the most perfect
of shapes, one with no beginning or end, I reflected, like the
never-ending cycle of all life, never pausing. Then again, I
always do get maudlin before I drink my morning can of Mt.
Dew..." You have here an example of prose that has been smothered
until it turned purple. This might work if you're getting paid by
the word and are attempting to squeeze a couple extra bucks out
of a story, but also keep in mind that I've yet to meet anyone
that truly enjoyed reading "Moby Dick." (Which was a story that
could have been written in a paragraph or less.) Don't get stuck
on your descriptions; you might feel great if you can write
lovely, flowery prose, but it's a struggle to read.
Ittai!
Okay, time for my pet peeve. Let's talk foreign language in
stories. In anime fandom, lots of people like dropping what's
called "fanboy Japanese" into their stories, I guess under the
assumption that a few Japanese words makes it sound better.
Wrong. First of all, most people that do this don't have a
working understanding of the language, and use the words in ways
that make people that do know wince. My favorite example of this
is "koi." To people who have no Japanese knowledge beyond the
fanboy level, it's a cute little shortening of the word
"koibito," which means "beloved." To anyone that has more than a
passing relationship with Japanese, it means a lot more: "carp,"
"slow in the head," and the rude form of "to come" spring to
mind. Not a very flattering thing to be calling your loved one,
eh? Second, it's silly. Anime is in Japanese because that's what
the audience that originally watched it spoke. It is silly to
assume that if the characters were real, they would speak
Japanese. Gundam Wing is a prime example -- the only person out
of the entire cast that has any right to be dropping Japanese
phrases into their speech is Heero. Duo is American, so if
anything, he should speak English, complete with slang. Wufei is
Chinese. Neither of them have any reason to speak Japanese.
Including foreign language into a story throws the readers off
and destroys the flow of sentences. It may make you feel smart or
cool as the author, but enough is enough. Please, I don't want to
EVER read an anime character saying: "Ramen de hashi o tabemasu!"
[I ate my chopsticks using the ramen.] Thank you.
File courtesy of Katsudon.net
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