The Fanfic Panel Page The fanfic summit was less of a panel, more like a meeting of fanfic writers. It was interesting, hearing what made some of the writers tick, and it did have a few messages for those of us that don't quite qualify to be in a panel ourselves. Here's a picture of the fanfic panel (most of them, one person kinda stood there quietly, almost being a moderator).

Here are the names and curiousities of the panelists.

LeVar Bouyer, a fanfic writer since 1996 and writes mostly Sailor Moon fanfics. His webpage is www.marecrisium.cjb.net.

Kevin Callahan, not much said in the flyer handed out during the panel, hmm...

Anne Cross(a.k.a. Juniper) is another panelist, her webpage is www.eyrie-productions.com.

Erica Friedman was another very outspoken panelist who apparently doesn't read fanfiction, but writes it anyway. She's known for her Yuri genre fictions, and her page is www.worldshaking.com and she also founded www.fanficrevolution.org.

Andrew Huang is a slow writer (hey, like me!) who is known for his Evangelion fictions. His fictions can be read at www.hcs.harvard.edu/~alhuang/anime/fanfic/myfics/ .

Elizabeth Mendoza was also mentioned, but unfortunately, she wasn't present at the panel.

Here are a few things I took note of during the panel...

Writing bad fanfics is just fine...just don't post it anywhere. It's okay, really, we all have our dirty little secrets that just don't need to be seen anywhere.

A few things fanfic writers shouldn't do
Unformatted text (indentation and paragraph breaks are a great thing, really).
Overuse of Japanese (as in, I'm sure there are a few words for that in English).
Phrases such as "and then," "appeared to," and so on.
Passive, weak writing.
WWW.FANFICTION.NET
Self-inserts (a.k.a. Mary sues) Writing tips were shared...

If you are writing in first person, it is appropriate to use the present tense. Most fictions, however, use the past tense, third person.

As for improvfic, or round robins, be careful because too many cooks can spoil a good piece, especially with writing a fic.

Voice
One voice defines how a story feels when one is reading it.
Another type of voice determines your sense of character. Try getting into the head of a character while you are writing about him or her. If you are writing a character that you really hate, be careful that you keep true to the character, and not turn it into something that you do like.

Criticism
If you receive a flame, the best thing to do is ignore. The person is an ass, anyway, and if
you respond, he/she will continue the abuse.
In giving praise or criticism, please use more than one sentence to describe the story. It
makes more sense, and can give the author an idea for other stories (perhaps).
In receiving strange or negative feedback, it's always important to be able to laugh at the
crazy ones. Um, unless you're a nut yourself (in that case, sorry!). Some things to remember about writing... Sometimes the best of us need a vacation from writing, other times we can't write because of writer's block, real life can crashing in on the best of us, several things can stop us from writing, but we will get back to it.

Writing is sometimes difficult, whether it's because you're struggling with a lemon (sexually explicit story), or because it's the 24th chapter of your Sailor Moon epic and it's getting difficult, you still have to work on it.

Series that the panelists have written about
Evangelion
Fruits Basket
Utena
Card Captor Sakura
Noir
Gundam Wing
Kimagure Orange Road
Airbats
Core(Gore?)
Magic Knights Rayearth
Ronin Warriors
Sailor Moon And last, but never least, the authors stressed the importance of pre-readers (beta readers, or editors). Always check the spelling and grammar of your fanfics. Make your characters feel real, and be believable. If you don't want to write about a Heero Yuy the Gundam Wing pilot who's a cold bastard most of the time, write your own original story about a dark-haired, blue-eyed prince who rescues another prince, or wherever your own imagination takes you. And, no matter what, keep writing!

Please note that these contents are my own notes and observations from attending this panel, so please do not steal them for your own site. You don't want me to get mad, do you? Of course NOT! Thank you for not stealing!

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