1. Don't have the fic revolve around the character. This is a 
horrible, almost always-fatal mistake. Your audience, as a 
rule, doesn't care one fig for the new guy until he grows on 
them, and if the plot involves him from the get-go you'll have 
your masterpiece consigned to the Great Fanfic Dustheap.

Well I was lucky then. Although my was a Sailor Moon work I think what kept
it alive was simply the fact that I kept her mysterious for several
chapters while dropping hints. She observed Usagi and the others so that
might have helped as well. But I do agree though, starting with a
unfamiliar character can be frustrating, especially in Ranma fics. I'll
give them the benefit of the doubt though.

2. Why should Ranma & Co care? Your new guy shows up. He 
says hi. He's a martial artist. Well, big deal. Ranma & Co have 
their own problems, and new martial artists usually mean 
trouble. They aren't going to immediately latch on to him, 
invite him to stay in the dojo, etc. By doing so, all you're doing 
is insulting the reader's grasp of character development.

(nods) One of the fatal draw backs of Sailor Moon fics that have new
characters show up is that Usagi and the others seem to immediately either
trust them or whole heartedly hate them with no aparent reason. There's
ways around this, when I introduced Misako (ToYV) Chibi-Usa already knew her. 

  Perfect characters are boring, folks. I don't wanna read about 
a person who's good, nice, caring, considerate, and a decent 
martial artist. I want to read about someone like Lardizabal 

>from DnR, who's an out-and-out rotter at times, can't fight 

worth spit while not drunk, and can be truly obnoxious. (Note 
that even the author admits, however, that his introduction 
could have been handled better.) Or Skeride from Ranma 2096, 
who's basically a good person but who'd kill Akane at the drop 
of a hat if she found she was a ghost. Even the pros have 
trouble with this, at times - ask Richard Lawson about the 
comments he got on his initial version of Nouma.

In that list of perfections you forgot rich and a wiz at any homework a
specific character is having trouble with. One of the older Sailor Moon
intro lines is having a character tutor Usagi. The question is will
he/she/it turn out to be friend, foe, or love interest. Frank Bar's
"Ferrite" is an excellent character. He had failings that made him appear
to be more natural. I think the only real reason I got away with making
Sakuya a Nabiki clone (of sorts) was that Sakuya was going to be used in
Sailor Moon instead of Ranma. (Although I shudder to think at the
possibilities if the two of them ever met.)

4. Why are we here? Don't just have your fellow show up at the 
dojo to train. I mean, please, at least make it look like you put 
some thought into it. Original characters need motives, and 
ones that don't make the audience hit the 'd' key. 

The "Transfer Student" has assumed the "Character shos up a dojo to train"
role for Sailor Moon. As soon as I see "Transfer Student" the immediate
question is "Okay bad or good? And if he/she/it is good are they related to
one of the Senshi?" I think one of the most refressing character I seen was
Ben Harrison's "Tom" he was stationed in Tokyo and eventually met up with Amy.

  Resist the urge to make the character a tragic figure, 
bursting with angst. This, too, is the dreaded wish-
fulfillment, to be avoided at all costs. It's in the same 
category as daydreams of how sorry everyone would be if you 
died, or went blind. Fine as daydreams go, but don't inflict 
them on the rest of us.

I think a character who's tragic can be introduced, you just need to do it
slowly. I'm not saying I'm guiltless in this regard but... I agree if it's
just wish-fulfillment then yeah it ruins things.

5. Power.  How much of it should your character have? R1/2 is 
a story about martial artists, so it's reasonable to expect that 
your new guy might be one himself. But how good?

(nods) Yep this happens in Sailor Moon too. I think the most blatant of
power abuses is "Sailor Sun/Sol" or something along those lines or one of
the many "Sailor Earth" incarnations. Most give very little explianation
about the new character power levels. Take my original character of Sakuya,
yes she has "power" that is above the regular Senshi of the past but she
isn't very combat effective. Also compared with the Senshi of Crystal tokyo
she's actuall rather weak.

  Friendships may, at first, seem less worrisome than a 
romance. Don't be fooled by this. Avoid having Ranma and Co 
become best buddies with your new guy at the drop of a hat. 
Make it clear that although he may be likable enough, most of 
them will cheerfully ignore and take advantage of him if the 
situation calls for it.

I totally agree with you. People have a tendency to have new character pop
up in Sailor Moon and the Senshi openly accept them and by the thrid
episode the new character knows all about the Senshi but the Senshi don't
know squat about the knew character. In "Tales of Younger Jupiter" Minako
didn't trust the new character for a long time, neither did Rei to a point.
It was almost to the end before Minako start to loose her distrust but she
never completely lost it.

7. Self-insertions. This is a genre that requires considerable 
care.

  A note on Gaijin protagonists. If the character in your story 
is one, everyone will automatically assume it to be a self -
insertion. Whether it is or not. Just ask Greg Sandborn.

Yes that applies to Sailor Moon as well. At least for me it does and 98% of
the time they are from the states. I figure they could at least give some
varity, picture a Russian talking to Kasumi? Or a German for that matter.
The also seem to have an unfailing unknowledge of Japanese. I've been in
communication with one person and he has a fairly good grasp of English but
he misses some of the subtleties.

  Never come across as wiser than the cast. It may well be 
true, but this irritates the audience to no end. Nobody likes to 
see people blow their own horns.

Agreed.

Well that's my $0.02


Doug

"I write in broad tapestries, interweaving characters lives leaving
 the little details to the reader unless the detials are important."
	- Anne McCaffrey
	  From the book "Get off the White Unicorn"

"I am Sailor Chibi-Earth! And I will sit you in the corner!"
	- Tsukino Misako, ToYV#6

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