__/\/\__  _(_¬ ¬)_  \__\/__/

Welcome to Code Name D's Fan Fiction Underdround

 Let's take an example.  A young couple on a date in a romantic restaurant.  Then, without warning, the guy gets up from his chair, produces a small box and opens it while he bends down on one knee.  Popping the question so to speak.

Thank of POV as where you place the camera to record the action.  Unlike cinema, you don't have the advantage of using several cameras (and switching to each one as you please).  But you can quite literally focus this camera to read the mind of the character.

Script also has the advantage of being the most "TV" like.  Text has a hard time conveying sight gags and slap stick.  It's a lot funnier to watch a guy slip on a banana peal, than to read about a guy slipping on a banana peal.  Script however has the advantage to simply "inject" the event into the readers mind. "He slips on the banana", making the sight gag more effective.  This will also allow you to simulate TV like camera angels, such as zoom ins, close ups, and pans.

There is one other thing about script.  Traditionally, script is a production form, used by professionals who can decrepit the information, and fill in the gaps.  But when script is sent directly to the reader, that is whole form.  More detail needs to be included for example.

Take the above example.  Had this been a production form, the opening scene would say "Opening: John and Jane are in formal dress in a restaurant."  This cues in the wardrobe dept that a dress and suite will be needed for the actors, without dictating what kind of dress.

The reader however needs more than that.  For whole form, you are instilled to draw out in grater detail the dress that Jane is wearing.  In fact, doing so will make the script more enjoyable.

Then let's not forget the fact that each POV can be used to express the same idea, only in different ways, as I have just demonstrated above.  If one POV doesn't seem to work, then try another. (By the way, that is a grate tool for braking writers block.)

There can also be compromises.  It is not unheard of to switch from third person to Omniscient (all though it is not wise to change POV's during a particular act.) or even change how deeply you delve into the charters thoughts.  One minuet, focusing on what is going on inside the POV's head, and the next taking a more distant view point, and then back again for the next paragraph.

• Conflict – the tension that drives the story.  The role that an antagonist (villain) plays in the story.  Bad things happening to good people.
• Plot – The structure that conflict manifests itself in the story.  A schedule of events that are designed to capture the reader's attention.  How things unfold, and how those events affect the hero and villain.
• Experience – The "meat" of the story.  What the hero/villain sees, touches, hears, tastes, smells, feels and experience, and the emotions that they invoke.
• Background – The critical "details" that prevent the reader from becoming confused, or lost as the plot unfolds.  Presenting certain information, while leaving other information out.  Show, don't tell.  Here is where style and imagination come into play.

Here is a basic chart about conflict.

• Man vs nature.
•  Your basic servile against the forces of nature.  This includes your disater movies.
• Man vs man.
•  Melow drama (usually using a true "evil" villain)(Good vs evil)
•  Drama (using a villain or anti-hero that is not necessarily evil)(Most anime falls into this category)
• Man vs himself.
•  An individual forces to confront some unpleasant aspect of one self.

A good way to think about the plot of you story, is to draw it all out on a time line.  Bad guys attack here, good guys make a stand, good guys fall back, good guys come up with a plan, good guys kick bad guys but.

Of course, plot is far more than just a sequence of events.  A writer will manipulate a plot to best entertain the reader.  One strategy is commonly used to do this, is what I have called the "all is lost" point.  Things start out bad for your hero, then gets worse, until all is lost (or that's what it appears to be).  Then comes a dramatic turn around.
 

Plot is not just how things happen, but how you "sequence" the events to maximize the story.  Flash backs is one tool you can use to literally rewrite the flow of time so you can put the climatic battle at the end of the story.

The flash back is one such tool.  But hardly the only one.

Both components are a good start, but if you end there, your story will be about as exciting as what you are reading now.  Experience is the process witch the characters execute the plot.  But it's more than that.  The reader experiences every thing the charter's experiences.
 

With most fan fics I read, this component is the one that is missing.  Good conflict, good plot, but it's still boring because every thing happens so quickly, and with no detail.

Something else.  You may have noticed that all the name tags are "he said", "she said".  When your writing something, this becomes vary obvious.  So you pull out the old thesaurus and star using, exclaimed, spoke, uttered, sighed, whispered, snapped, and so forth.  But it isn't that important when you read it.  You barley notice.  The name tags are there to "queue" the reader as to who is speaking, so the word "said" is more than adequate for the job.

• Placement
• queue
• mid stream
• suffix
• self mention
• Addressing
• Implied
• Internal / External

This method is the least used name tag, and "Jack said" could easily be used in place as "he said".  All though that would be redundant.  It could have been left out all together as well, but would sound odd if you did omit it.

When ever your creating an original work, or just adding a new character, you need to consider this for the characters name.

Oh, but before I leave the topic, I have seen rhyming names used before where confusion is preferable.  Identical twins come to mind, but there may be other examples.  BTW: Jan and Ann still follow the ABC rule.

"Hi Jan."
"I am not Jan, I'm Ann."

With Fan Fiction, you are already working with a set list of characters.  For English fan fiction, this isn't much of a problem because the original author probably chose the names under the above rules.  However, this isn't necessarily so with anime fan fiction.  The reason why this is so is because of the language difference.  An English reader may really have to work to distinguish names where a Japanese reader may seem the name difference as obvious.  There isn't really much you can do about it except to use name tags religiously.

There is a reason, and it's a good one.  NOTHING ELSE WORKED AS WELL.  Sure they could have had Chekov not know Kahn, and vice versa.  The could have used Sulo to meet Kahn.  Who said they even had to use the original cast any way?

But none of them could match what was actually done.  Or at least, not on paper any way.  Seeing the side kick of his hated enemy was just what Kahn needed to push him over the edge.  The confrontation, even the simple act of Walter Koenig screaming as the slug crawled into his ear. (For some reson, his fans like to see him scream in pain.)  How could you beat that?

The writers of Wrath of Kahn decided they couldn't.  So, they exercised something called the "Creative license".  This is simply the "bending" of the rules for a better dramatic effect.  As silly as the Chekov and Kahn seen was, it was still a powerful seen that got the show started.  So it worked.

You can see creative license being used every where.  Some times in ways so subtle, you may never really notice.  Other times it's to make the story work, or even just for a gag.  The big thing to remember, is that it is still make believe, and not to be taken too seriously.  As was once said, "the play is the thing", not the details.

Take a typical cop show on TV, like N.Y.P.D. Blue.  Here is a TV show that is actually based vary closely on reality.  When there is a technical question, there is usually a way to find the answer.  A consultant on the show may know, or the director may even got to the headquarters of the New York Police Department.  All police departments (this is actually true by the way) have a public relations department..  All though this department isn't necessarily intended to help film directors, this is one of their functions, to answer such questions.

N.Y.P.D. Blue also gives me an opportunity to show you what happens when you cross the believability barrier.  The work comes of as silly, or inaccurate.  You could alienate any potential police officers who might otherwise like the show.  It's a good way to make enemies throw perjury, by being inaccurate.

The believability barrier is actually even more critical for science fiction and fantasy, because the boundary is more pliable.  But crossing it has even grater repercussions than contemporary fiction.  You end up looking really silly, or even just coming off as plane stupid.  Space opera give you the ability to play with the laws of physics when it comes to faster than light travel, but they have better have on a space helmet when they go outside the ship.  Not because they will suffocate if they do, but because you will come of as camp if you don't.  A clear case of you not doing your home work.

This proves only two things.  One that not having a good intro doesn't necessarily kill your story, and two, editors are not as stiff neck as I thought.  In all, your fan fiction can probably survive without a strong introduction.  But if you want to have you fan fic reach out to others outside your sphere, a cross over, or an original work.  Then a strong introduction will make or brake your fiction.

Well for fiction, the same thing applies.  You read a name, but you have no details to go with the name.  Even worse, this character doses some rather irrational things.  Well, to you, they're irrational, but only because you don't know that this character's history makes his actions vary relevant.  The point is, the reader just doesn't know.

• Decide what part of said characters past is important to your plot.
• Configure the plot to cover this relevant history before these key plot points.
• Begin the story with a complication produced by said history
• Flash Back to directly cover this history as it happened.
• Do not shy away from dialog or interaction.
• Avoid using "narration" or "summery" dialog.  Never just explain your characters history.