From: Ranma Al'Thor, ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu
On Fri, 23 Aug 1996, Greg Sandborn wrote:
First of all, I was quite surprised to see such luminary' names
responding to this subject in the manner they did. To learn that
Caroline Seawright or John Biles (for-crying-out-loud) have the same
problems as the rest of us mere mortals' is a real eye-opener.
Well, with all my other problems, I sure don't have to worry about my ego
shrinking to death :)
I hope I never have to worry about my ego at all. :) I keep it caged up
pretty well, but sometimes it gets loose...
That leaves us with maybe 25 people who are potential responders. Now
we come to the rather tricky part of the numbers; how to respond. From my
standpoint, virtually all the fanfics fall into two categories; those
that are so good I feel almost embarrassed to soil them with my clumsy
effort at praise, and those who I can't bring myself to comment on
because they are so bad I don't know where to begin (And I *refuse* to
say something stupid like: the whole idea is crap- give it up.)
I've only said that about ONE story...
I don't think I've said that about any story... though I have been
tempted a couple of times. Honestly, I don't think I ever get to the
point where I feel that way about a story -- because if I get partway
through the story and am not enjoying it, I usually just drop it and move
on to the next. Too many messages, not enough time. (I'm lagged to 410
messages now, not counting the longer fics I filed to read later, when I
have time.) And since in some cases the same fics I couldn't find an
interest in have been roundly praised by others, I put these fics down as
a case of Your Mileage May Vary; and hence don't send in a 'couldn't
finish it' C&C, since there's a decent chance it's just personal taste.
Usually, I only comment on stories if I have:
1. Read the whole thing or at least all that is available. Otherwise, I
end up making WRONG assumptions that render my points moot.
Agreed. There have been times where I missed or even skipped the first
few parts of a fic, because I didn't find them interesting, then picked
up a later part because that part *was* interesting.
Which brings up another point -- an author has to be careful about how
much time he spends in setup before getting to the 'meat' that makes his
story special. If the first part a fic spends most of its time in setup,
acting like a more-or-less generic 'series x' fic, then there's a good
chance I'll pass it up along with the rest of the series -- unless, as I
said, I catch a later episode and enjoy it. Starting a fic with Ranma and
Akane fighting isn't particularly interesting to me; it's been done
dozens of times in fanfics. Is there something different about this
fight? Why is it different from all the other times it's been used in the
stories? Yes, it's a staple of their relationship, but that isn't enough
to hang a story on; the author has to make a creative use of it. "A Rock
and a Hard Place" skirted the line of 'generic Ranma fic' in the first
part, but kept me interested by the the hints that the recent fight might
have gone too far. Richard did this in "Thy Inward Love" as well; this
time Ranma *did* go too far, and the consequenses of that act are what
finally break the stasis in their relationship and get the story's events
moving.
Ghu. This is another example of why I never get as much done as I'd like;
things have a tendency to balloon on me. Like the revision I did on one
of my web sites, which tied me up all last week; it was supposed to be a
quick cut-and-paste reorganization and minor updating that would take a
couple of hours, and turned into a complete re-write of over half the
site. (And around 300K worth of work... ye cats!)
2. Think the story needs picky commentary, because that's what I tend to
do if I comment at all :)
Yup. I seem to have two modes, short paragraph of general reactions, and
a full-blown analysis. Whenever I set out writing something more specific
than a one paragraph reaction, it always ends up as a complete analysis,
because I keep finding things I want to comment on. I don't seem to have
any control over this. <wry g>
3. And have enough time to actually sit down and do it. My average
commentary takes a long time. Some of my Mystery Fanfic Theatres have
taken 5-7 hours to do.
That's about the average time it takes to do one of my Windir/Frito/Lyra
reviews as well; I'm not a fast writer. :(
Travis Butler
(The Professor, formerly of Myth and Magick!, Lawrence, KS;
tbutler@tfs.net, now from the Wandering Powerbook;
<http://www.tfs.net/personal/tbutler/>;
Mac page <http://www.tfs.net/business/tbutler/>)
...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.