Sugoi-Con - Fan Fiction

So you want to write your own story about the characters and situations in your favorite anime series, but there already have been dozens of stories from other fan fiction authors. How do you come up with something original and make the story entertaining? Fan fiction authors talked about that at Sugoi-Con. Stan Bundy, who specializes in Robotech stories, said he was reading messages from a Robotech mailing list and listening to a radio station and heard "Scarborough Fair" by Simon and Garfunkel, and that inspired a new story line.
However, Ryan Mathews warned that "Good ideas don't mean good stories. You have to ask yourself why you're writing." While some authors will talk about how they need to create characters whose motivations and actions are revealed to the readers, Mathews likes the idea of using mysterious characters. He spoke about a villian he created for a story, a cold sociopath. "I didn't want the readers to know what was going on inside his head," Mathews said. That villain drew compliments from readers of the story.
Steven P. Cornett said fan fiction is easy to create for series where all of the possible stories have not been told by the original creators. Specifically, continuity gaps are great for fan fic writers, who can jump on the gaps and fill them with their own ideas. Cornett said his ideas come from anywhere; one was revealed to him while he was driving down a road. "That comes from life experience, just working and seeing the world," Cornett said. "Sometimes it'll pop out at you."

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