This flood of criticism concerning Gaijin's fic has
hit upon something that has been annoying me a lot
recently and I figured I'd see if anyone else is
annoyed as well. It concerns the tendency of a lot of
authors to want to keep secrets.
(Note:In the following message I'm going to pretend I
actually know what I'm talking about for a while. I'm
criticizing myself as well as others here, its just a
lot easier to be an ass and act like I'm some kind
authority on the subject.)
Granted some things shouldn't be revealed early on a
story. For instance if we knew Darth Vader was Luke's
father from the beginning the moment where he finds
out wouldn't be nearly as good. On the other hand all
too often I see authors that hide too much.
If a character is acting oddly then I'm sorry but
there needs to be at least some initial explanation,
or some indication that the reader isn't supposed to
know why they are acting that way. If Darth Vader
saved Luke at the end for no apparent reason than that
would be bad right? Same goes with fics.
If Ranma is acting irritable and being a crybaby I
want to know why, or know that it's SUPPOSED to be a
mystery. For one thing with fanfiction it's natural
to first assume that nothing's really wrong and the
author is just using a strange interpretation of the
character. If something is different than Ranma at
least would notice and wonder. Or say something like
"damn this curse with its girly feelings."
In Star wars also, while we don't know everything
about Darth we get more information almost every time
he's mentioned. First he throttles someone with his
mind, then he bows before an emperor showing his
status, then we learn from yoda that he killed Luke's
father etc. This keeps us from feeling like we're
completely in the dark.
In the same way the background info of a story should
reveal itself bit by bit, and not be made so
mysterious that you don't have any idea what's going
on, or that you don't even realise it's there.
Say you're writing a story where Ranma's parents are
really aliens from Nebulan and Ranma is slowly
metamorphosing into a hybrid being capable of linking
Nebulan and Earth through an astral gate, thereby
saving both races from otherwise inevitable
destruction. It wouldn't really be a good idea to
start it out with usual scenes of Neriman conflict and
then have Ranma get a stomach ache or something and
then run around for a few chapters acting OOC until
finally the information is unloaded and the readers
let out a collective "Huh?"
Rather the first thing that happens should be that
Ranma wakes up with antennae on his head and wonders
how the hell they got there. Then there needs to be an
answer by the end of the chapter, even if it's wrong
or incomplete. Say Tofu suspects it might be the
infamous Olendrioctopoppypuss curse derived from a
culture of insectoid beings that inhabit the caverns
of the Bayankala mountains. And then maybe the next
chapter, just as Ranma's getting ready to leave for
China, his mother shows up with the same antennae, so
proud that her son is finally a man or something.
Of course there could be some other thing that clues
in the reader at first, but hopefully you get my point
about not being skimpy with the information. The
reader needs to feel that he or she knows at least
what he or she is supposed to know.
Now I'd say Gaijin's fic gets this far, and maybe most
of the people who post here regularly get this right,
but there is a subtler aspect to keeping secrets where
I think Gaijin and others may be lacking.
We all pretty much know that we're supposed to show
and not tell so much. But if you aren't going to tell,
then you NEED to show. In Star Wars, the don't just
have Darth show up in all his dark regalia once and
then replace him with a white piece of cardboard with
his name on it for the rest of the movie. Similarly,
if you're writing the Ranma is an alien fic for
instance you need to keep on mentioning those
antennae. Even though it may be OBVIOUS that Ranma
still has them, mention it again. Don't go too crazy
of course but always have that difference in the back
of you're mind as your write. Maybe Ranma wears a hat
to cover them, but they start to itch, or they're
ticklish. And everyone asks him about the hat. Things
like that.
Same with new characters. If someone has a strange
quirk mention it or reveal it almost everytime they're
in a scene. Banal differences like hair color, name,
sex, and so on aren't enough. Especially if you have a
whole slew of new characters, you need to reveal the
differences and often, otherwise it will seem like
they're all bleeding together and a reader won't be
able to keep track of them.
More importantly, if there's some underlying social
situation that's governing a character's actions you
need to mention that often as well because it's
important. It may seem OBVIOUS to as you are writing
and you may be able to point to a passage and say
"See! I explained that right here!" But if several
people miss it and don't enjoy the story because some
bit of information was hidden in text or was only
revealed in a previous chapter then OBVIOUSLY it needs
to be changed.
You can see I have a problem with the word "obviously"
Anytime I'm tempted to use the word I try to stop
myself and think of just how obvious what I'm saying
really is. Often, I find that I'm being a bit
conceited and that I should try to explain myself
better.
The more characters you have, the harder it is to slow
down and describe them to accentuate their differences
and remind the reader of what their goals are.
In a scene of a chapter that I recently got comments
on, I had a bunch of girls sitting in a karaoke bar
talking about some recent events. When I first wrote
it, I barely managed to give them all names. It was
all just talking heads. I figured that I really didn't
need to describe them, because they were only going to
be there for that scene and all that was important was
what they were saying. But after I got a comment back
that said something to the effect that all the
characters seemed to be faceless uninteresting voids,
I realized I had to put more description in. Far from
slowing down the pace, as I feared it would do, it
actually made it go a little smoother.
There is no point in keeping the appearances and
habits of characters a secret.
Anyway I just felt I had to say something because it
was bothering me. Maybe it's "obvious." Maybe I'm
wrong about some things or everything. I just feel
that in our hurry to get a whole bunch of readers to
say our fics are cool by saving info for a surprise we
are perhaps forgetting to let the reader in on the
joke.
-Zorknot
"I'm not going to do what you all think I'm going to
do, which is just FLIP OUT!"
-Jerry McGuire
=====
http://www.geocities.com/zorukonotsu/fanfics.html
http://www.fanfiction.net/~zorknot
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