Anime Weekend Atlanta 5 - Fan Fiction Writers |
 You can love
them or hate them, but you shouldn't ignore them. That's the feeling of
the fan fiction writers who appeared at an AWA panel on Friday afternoon,
the first discussion of the convention. (From left to right) T.J. Hamilton,
Keener Barnes, Matt Lewis and Ken Arrmondee said that they love creating
stories based on their favorite anime characters, but it's worthwhile only
if people react when the stories are posted online, whether on a web site
or the fan fiction mailing list. |
 Barnes (in
the black shirt) said that "Every comment, whether `It's cool!' or `It
sucks!' is payment for the fiction. He wrote an unusual story based on
the Ryoga character from Ranma 1/2 and plans to follow that with a story
describing the early career of Ryoko from Tenchi-Muyo as a space pirate.
Why write those stories? The fan fic authors said they want often to fill
in the blanks left by the producers of their favorite shows (and Tenchi,
which left many plot lines unsolved from the original OVA series, is a
good example). And they also want to find a new slant on old favorites.
"What I see in the characters is not how you see the characters. I look
for something different," said Lewis. |
 Arrmondee and
the other authors then tackled the question of the "SI" or self-insert
when a fan fic writer literally puts himself into the story line. "sometimes
you create this original character and figure everyone will complain that
it's a self-insert," Arrmondee said. Those self-inserts are interesting
only when they create genuine conflict among the character in a story.
An all-powerful character without flaws or weaknesses means no conflict
and nothing to draw the reader into the tale, the authors said. |
 Writer Steve
Carner was a late arrival at the panel, but had some interesting observations
about collaborative fanfic where several writers create one story. On top
of that, some authors take collaboration to the extreme and mix as many
anime characters into one story as they can find. Carner said he's working
on one battle royal involving characters from Ranma, Urusei Yatsura, Cutey
Honey, 3x3 Eyes, Inu-Yasha "...and probably a few series I haven't heard
about."
One point was the same among the writers: no one expects to be paid for their work. |
