Advice For Sailor Moon Fanfic Authors!
Do you want to write Sailor Moon fanfiction?
Wondering where to start?
Here
is some advice from Tuxedo Will, a great friend of mine who has helped
me and many other authors make the most of their writing abilities!
"Tuxedo" Will's Advice for New/Struggling Sailor Moon Fanfic Authors:
The first thing I'd say to any author who
wants to write is don't do it
until you've read at least 25 SM fanfics
by a number of different
authors. This gives you a chance to see
various writing styles and
ideas. You can see what they did right
and what they did wrong. Next,
come up with an original unique idea.
There are certain concepts that
have been driven into the ground by their
excessive use. That's not to
say there may not be something interesting
left to explore but think
long and hard before you use ANY of the
following concepts:
1) Resurrecting the Generals. They're
dead believe it or not. I've read
at least 100 fanfics
where they get resurrected and either seek out
revenge or SM turns
them good and they fight with TK/SM against a
new threat. Jadeite
seems especially likely for resurrection. The
Generals often get
romantically involved with the Senshi when
resurrected for good.
2) Long lost siblings of Usagi/Mamoru.
Twins are popular. Sometimes new
exchange students.
Normally if female, they become a new Senshi like
Sailor Earth/Sun. Males
become some type of knight with Senshi
powers. The new siblings
are normally given a Silver Millennium
background mysteriously
remembered during the fanfic.
3) Self-insertions. The author places
themselves or fantasies of
themselves in. These
are SUPERego fests. Don't do it! We aren't
interested in your
fantasies how you become a flawless all-powerful
character and save
the world. Male self-insertions always have their
favorite Senshi fall
madly in love with them. Female self-insertions
become new Senshi and
the girls all highly respect her and some male
character falls for
her. OOC is the norm here.
4) Exchange students from the author's
home country. It happens a lot.
They show up in Usagi's
class, the girls befriend them, and they
turn out to be a new
Senshi or villains. The exchange students
always speak perfect
Japanese and live lavishly with no visible
means of support.
5) Senshi head for the author's home
country. One or more of the girls
go to a foreign country
either on vacation, to runaway, to pursue an
enemy, or move permanently
to with/without their family. The USA,
Canada, and Australia
are popular destinations. Again, all the
Senshi speak perfect
English, have unlimited money, no problems
being away from family
for weeks, and no immigration problems. They
often befriend a self-insertion
type character who sometimes returns
to Japan with them.
6) Author's version of the Silver
Millennium. Popular to have Queen
Serenity's husband
and show the girls growing up during the Silver
Millennium. Endymion's
mother if mentioned is named Gaia. Often
involves romance between
the girls and the Generals. Of course,
Princess Serenity and
Prince Endymion's love interest is usually
shown from an early
age.
7) Usagi/Mamoru Michiru/Haruka Ami/Urawa
Lita/Ken Naru/Nephrite
Rei/Yuuichiro Chibi-Usa/Hotaru
relationship or romance fanfics.
Many, many of them
and little difference between most.
8) Sixth season fanfics. Author creates
a new enemy for the girls to
combat after Galaxia
is destroyed. Usually a few years later when
the girls are 18 to
22 years old. Often new powerups and attacks are
included.
9) Create your own Senshi team. An
entire group of new
Senshi/Knights/Guardians/whatever
show up. Usually with new
crystals, rocks, baubles,
or powers and save the world. Sometimes
are male, with that,
it guarantees they fall in love with their
opposite numbers. Sometimes
it's the children/descendants of the
Senshi and a new generation
fights evil while the old one basically
kicks back.
10) Evil Senshi. One or more of the Senshi
or Mamoru turn evil and cause
mayhem for awhile before
the others heal or destroy them. This
includes the category
of evil Senshi clones and author created evil
Senshi.
11) Killing a major character. Normally
Usagi or Mamoru. Often used as a
vehicle for a new love
interest or leader to show. For example, kill
Usagi to get Rei with
Mamoru or kill Mamoru to get Usagi with Seiya.
Sometimes this is used
simply to show what a hole their death makes
in the others' lives.
12) Your own ending to SMR after Episode
72 where DiC left off in the
English dub. Likely
to become third season fanfics with the recent
release of the remainder
of SMR (see #8) by DiC.
13) Crossovers. Mixing SM with another
universe. Difficult to pull off
well and normally just
doesn't work. It requires the reader to have
to like the series
you are using for the crossover. This dilutes
readership at a minimum.
Popular crossover series are Star Trek,
Ranma, X-Men, Bubble
Gum Crisis, and Pokeman.
14) A fifth General. A new previously unknown
General of Queen Beryl's
takes over from the
ashes of the Dark Kingdom and assumes the
Throne. He/She's out
for revenge. Sometimes resurrects one or more
of the old Generals.
Popular name for him/her is Quartzite, Crystal,
Calcite, Obsidian,
or ???-ite. Sometimes is the husband, sibling, or
offspring of Queen
Beryl.
15) Non-SM fanfics. These are fanfics which
claim to be SM but you can
read 30 pages and not
see a familiar name. Set prior to the girls'
birth in the Silver
Millennium, after Chibi-Usa becomes Queen of
Crystal Tokyo, or in
some weird alternate universe.
16) New jewelry/powerups. This is where
the author figures their
favorite Senshi or
all the Senshi don't already have enough jewelry
or power. The author
creates new crystals, rocks, or baubles to
compensate for that.
This usually means another powerup as well. SM
canon says that their
forms in Stars are their final forms. The SM
FAQ has a long list
of attacks and forms for each Senshi. This is
enough! I once asked
an author why he gave Mercury in that case a
new bauble, powerup,
and attack, his answer was "Because I can".
IMHO, this is most
author's true reason to do this.
17) Amnesia. One of the major characters
gets amnesia. Usually Usagi or
Mamoru. The amnesia
victim runs off and lives another life while the
remaining Senshi look
for him/her in vain sometimes for years. This
is often used to get
a created character in a friendship or romance
with the amnesia victim.
Another is the amnesia victim stays and the
others work to help
the person regain their memory. At a critical
moment, the amnesia
ends and the victim rejoins them.
18) Naru becomes a Senshi. Yes Juuban's
favorite youma bait is really
Sailor Earth/Sun. She
saves the day of course. Naru is often given a
Silver Millennium past.
19) Usagi and Mamoru? NO WAY! These are
where the author decides Usagi
and Mamoru are not
a couple. Their relationship ends either
temporarily or permanently.
Sometimes it's a fling while the other
person doesn't know
it's happening. Usually Usagi is matched with
Seiya, Motoki, Rei,
or a created character. Mamoru gets Rei, Ami,
Setsuna, or a created
character.
20) In-between season fanfics. For example,
set after Ail and Ann leave
but before Chibi-Usa
arrives. Used as an excuse to introduce an
author created enemy
for the girls to defeat or as a quiet period to
explore Usagi and Mamoru's
romance.
21) SM Canon... What's that? These are
fanfics where the author decides
Naoko-san is wrong.
The author writes completely new settings,
relationships, plots,
etc. Usually SM name replacement with
characters which are
the closest match in the original story. For
example, taking a fairy
tale and doing name replacement to SM names
or taking an old creative
writing assignment and doing name
replacement. This does
not include fanfics which try to be canon but
are wrong due to poor
author research.
22) First person musings. These are fanfics
where one major character
(usually Usagi, Ami,
Rei, Mamoru, or Haruka) rambles on about their
life, the universe,
and their relationships after some profound
event in the series.
These read something like the character's diary
entry and sometimes
actually take that form. Often it's set at a
point when Mamoru has
just broke up with Usagi.
23) Usagi/Mamoru wedding. These are fanfics
about the wedding
preparation, the wedding
itself, and the immediate aftermath of the
wedding between Usagi
and Mamoru. Yes, it seems the wedding can
never go smoothly.
There are more overused concepts but this
is a good start of ones to
avoid unless you are sure you've really
got a jewel of an idea.
Keep the girls in character!!! Often there
are unexplained and/or sudden
shifts in personalities of the major characters.
Keep them in character
unless there's a plot device which makes
it necessary to change their
personality.
Keep child characters as children. If you
are going to have any
characters under 10 years old in your
fanfic, be very careful of their
vocabulary and understanding. I've seen
characters 2 to 6 years old
(that truly are that age and not "chibi"ed)
that have vocabulary and
understanding of concepts of much older
children or teens. When I see a
5 year old character with the same vocabulary
level as 16 year old Ami
in a fanfic, I shudder.
Read the SM FAQ and episode scripts/synopsis!!!
Don't even attempt a
fanfic until you research the period you
are writing the fanfic about
fully. Technical details are important
and the SM FAQ is a wonderful
resource. This includes using the proper
Senshi heights, ages, school
grade level, attack/transformation phrases,
etc. for the period your
fanfic is set. Episode scripts or synopsis
(such as found in "Tuxedo"
Will's Scripts Archive) are invaluable
to research the period you are
doing.
Explain or at least imply an explanation
of non-canon concepts. Authors
like to add elements out of left field
and not explain them.
Extrapolation from known facts is fine
but the greater you are away from
SM canon, the more it should be explained.
Don't expect the reader to
take anything not said by Naoko-san for
granted otherwise.
Refrain from over-describing author created
items such as fuku
additions, weapons, baubles, etc. For
example, droning on for 5KB in
detail describing the Senshi's new fuku
after an author created powerup
is ridiculous. Just give a few sentences
and if more details are needed,
spread them later. A corollary to this
is over-describing canon
transformations, attacks, and fuku. We
all have seen the Senshi
transform. 5KB about it only causes a
flow break in the fanfic.
Have a definite start and ending in mind
before you begin to write.
There are a bunch of fanfics that have
great starts. The author has a
really good idea but has no idea where
to go after about 3 or 4
chapters. The story then meanders about
for awhile and usually is never
finished.
Use a spellchecker and editor. I can't
believe how many authors release
stories with misspelled words. Yeah, you
can't catch them all. I'm
talking about dozens and dozens of spelling/grammar
errors where it's
obvious the author never even proofread
the story. Use a spellchecker.
Get another person to edit the fanfic.
Get proofreaders/betareaders.
Think of it this way, if you don't care
enough to go to this trouble,
then why should we take the trouble to
read it?
Delineate paragraphs. Either skip a line
between or indent a fixed
amount of space for each paragraph. It's
really hard to read something
all strung together. Recommended indentations
are 5 or 8 spaces i.e.
first character of first sentence of each
paragraph is in column 6 or 9.
In addition, watch your page width. 70
or 72 characters per line are
standard. I use and recommend 72 characters.
Select a good title. There are a number
of authors who select titles
which have nothing to do with anything
in the fanfic. Popular are
"Sailor Moon x" where x = some letter
of the alphabet or letter group
which is not a word like SSX. All single
letters been used (I've seen 3
SM D's for example). Be careful using
these words in a title. Like the
overused concepts, these are overused
words in SM titles: beginning,
black, crystal, dark, destined/destiny,
guardian, jewel, knight, love,
millennium, stone, and time. Do research
in the large SM Archive's
indexes to make sure you do not select
a title already in use or very
similar to one already in use by another
author.
DO NOT PLAGIARIZE!!! There are a few fanfic
authors who seem to think it
is their right to plagiarize another fanfic
author's fanfics/ideas/plot
elements, write a prequel/sequel/revision
of another author's fanfic, or
use original non-canon SM characters created
by another fanfic author.
Don't do it! If you want to do something
based on another's work that
you think is great, seek out and GAIN
permission of the original author
BEFORE you start writing. BTW, the original
author MUST be given full
credit for the elements, characters, or
plotlines you have been granted
permission to use. Archive administrators
including myself will not post
fanfics which plagiarize known works.
Rate your story. Tell the reader beforehand
if you are going to have
graphic violence or a lemon scent or objectionable
language. MPAA or
equivalent movie ratings are a good idea.
Release new chapters on a regular schedule.
Sometimes authors go for
months between releases of new chapters
or simply stop without
explanation. Please avoid trial balloons.
These almost always are never
finished. If you don't want to commit
to no more than say a month
between chapters AND finishing the story,
then don't bother to start it.
Unfinished stories is a major personal
peeve for me and many readers.
Release enough story in a chapter. Writing
less than 5KB and calling
that a chapter should be avoided. I've
seen the author's notes for a
chapter literally twice as long as the
chapter itself! I recommend 15KB
releases at a minimum. You can make your
chapters less than 5KB if you
must but then, release 3 chapters in one
release.
Don't get discouraged. Authors write fanfics
and expect a hundred
glowing comments to flow in the next day.
It WON'T happen. 99% of the
readers don't comment even if they like
it. It's not unusual for a new
author to get no comments whatsoever.
Usually a fanfic has to truly be
something special to drum up any comments.
If your only reason for
writing is to get glowing comments from
your fellow moonies, you
probably shouldn't be writing. If you're
writing for the sheer enjoyment
of it and comments are just gravy to that
enjoyment, keep at it.
Good luck on your story. When you have
it done, submit it for candidacy
to join "Tuxedo" Will's SM Fanfic Archive.
Ja ne,
"Tuxedo" Will
Keeper of "Tuxedo" Will's SM Fanfics/Scripts
Archives
SM Fanfic Author and Editor
http://members.xoom.com/questails/gateway.htm
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