Subject: Re: [FFML] [spam][rant][fanfic-related] Flashbacks, and more!


On Tue, 5 Jan 1999, The Eternal Lost Lurker wrote:

Has anyone here ever run across this in a book of fictional prose? I 

would

assume not.
So my question is...
WHY do some fanfic authors feel compelled to use such breakers in 

their

fanfics, when it completely wrecks the flow of the story?

	And the follow-up to this, and a personal annoyance of mine, is
the other numerous 'fanfic-conventions' that you never find in normal
fiction.  Flashback indicators aside, there's the large number of
dialogue/thought indicators: asteriks, tildas, etc... Personally, I 

can't

think of a single novel I've read that does so.

One reason is that often such non-standard quotes are italicized in 
books, a feat which is not really possible in all-ASCII format.  The 
brackets/tildes/slashes/etc. are an attempt to get around the 
limitations of the medium.

Another technique I often do see used in books is the elimination of 
capitalization, punctuation and even spelling for things like telepathy.  
The problem with using that kind of technique here is that it often 
closely resembles gaffed typing--meaning the author gets exactly the 
wrong type of feedback.

	(The one convention that I actually do like is the "...".  I don't
know why.  It's just cute.)

Now, you see, that's the one that annoys me, except in "script format" 
fics, where it really does imply a "cut-to speechless character" type of 
thing.

	Then there's the occasional act of sheer laziness on the part of
an author: describing a character via episode or manga references (ie. 
'she was dressed just like in that OAV episode where...').

There is, of course, a correct way to do this:  write from a character's 
point of view, and reference it that way:

"Ranma gulped nervously.  Nabiki was wearing the same suit she had worm 
when they had been shipwrecked before Toma captured them.  
Unfortunately, the suit had not kept up with her growth, and she was now 
dangerously close to bursting out of the top straps completely." 

	There are other little nitpicks: things like situating the story,
giving pages of force-fed introductory details, for instance.  Is it
really necessary to say: this story takes place after v.32, but before
v.34, though the Googlesmash hyper-blast mongotechnique hasn't been 

learnt

yet?  If the reader is familiar with the series (and that, as far as I 

can

tell, is the greatest inherent benefit of fanfiction) then he/she will
figure it out pretty quickly.  

Actually, I've seen cases where the timing of the fic caused 
considerable confusion, especially in long-running series like Ranma.  
Granted, such notation should be kept as brief as possible, and can be 
safely cut back in subsequent chapters (meaning I should probably just 
eliminate it entirely from future chapters of Illuminations, I guess).

--Freemage

(Heh.  I knew I could slip in a shameless plug, eventually....)

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