FanFic Contest

AnimeFEST! 2003 is proud to once again announce our annual Fan Fiction Contest, our way of helping fan authors share their works with the public.

Rules

Entries must be under 4,000 words long.
For email entries, the documents should be saved as a plain text file. MSWord and WordPerfect documents are acceptable.
A pen-name may be used. However, all entries must also include the author's full real name, as well as phone number and home address for contact purposes.
Complete stories, singles scenes, vignettes, excerpts, and other forms of prose are permitted. Fics must contain at least one recognizable anime or manga related character, setting or situation. All anime or manga series used in the work must be listed.
Eroticism, sexuality and innuendo, violent action and ludicrous cartoon-style violence are allowed. "Lemons," fics with graphic sexual content, are not acceptable. Coarse language should be limited to that which is acceptable in a PG-13 rated movie.
Entries must not have been posted for general reading on the Internet before September 15, 2002. These includes fanfics that have been posted to personal web sites, archives, or mailing lists.
Email submissions will be accepted until July 26, 2003. Snail mail submissions will not be accepted.

Entry Instructions

E-Mail Submissions to: kperry@animefest.org

Judging and Prizes

This contest is open genre, which means any type of story may be entered. The best stories are those that run the gamut of genres, rather than focusing on just a single one (such as romance.)
It is very possible that the judges have not seen the series that you're writing from. It's not a good idea to enter a story that relies on the audience (read: the judges) having prior knowledge of a certain event or character - they probably won't understand the story.
Spelling, grammar, plot, characterization, style, and originality of ideas will all be taken into account in scoring.
Winners will be notified at least 21 days before the convention. If winners are unable to attend, they must make arrangements for a representative to accept awards on their behalf.
The winning entries will be displayed at a special awards ceremony, where the author or representative will have the opportunity to read their work in front of an audience. (For those with stage fright or for those who are unable to attend, AnimeFEST! volunteers will be available to do the reading.)
The winning entries will be also published in the program book.
By submitting your work to the contest, you grant AnimeFEST! permission to reprint it, in whole or in part, in its publications, both printed and electronic.
Prizes will be given for Best Overall, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places, and Honorable Mention.
Each winning author will receive a complementary AnimeFEST! membership, a t-shirt, and an engraved acrylic award. In addition, we are currently seeking prize donations from the anime industry and specific prizes will be announced before or during the award ceremony.

Further questions may be directed to Krista Perry at kperry@animefest.org.

Writing Advice

Courtesy of Katsu no Miko (www.katsudon.net)

Katsu's got some advice for everyone!

Self Critique

Don't have a beta reader? Want to make your story better, but not send it in for a critique? Become your own editor in five easy steps.

Don't be afraid to rewrite. This is the cardinal rule; I know that every story is your baby, and every word is precious, and every scene is something you wanted...but you also have to realize that it's not perfect. To carry the metaphor further, stories are like kids--you might think that yours is perfect when you look at it, but everyone else in the world sees it as a misbehaving brat. Don't be afraid to look for things to fix. Don't be scared to restructure your sentences. No story is perfect in the first draft, or in any successive draft--but it gets better each time you rewrite.

Kill your darlings. It's nearly a law that a story should lose 20-30% of its original size when it goes from first draft to final draft. First drafts contain a lot of unnecessary words, strings of adjectives and adverbs, or bits of purple prose that you are extremely proud of. Going through your drafts means tightening up your story, and making it more readable. I don't care how twitterpated you are with one of your flowery metaphors--if it doesn't fit, kill it. You adore the scene where two of your characters go for a midnight stroll and find a ring, right? But it doesn't really fit in with the story--it has to go. Your readers will thank you.

Spell check, then spell check your spell check. To start with, do the world a favor and spell check your stories. Nothing drives readers into distraction more than strings of obviously misspelled or type-oed words. Once you've spell checked, that's great--now go over your story and check it yourself, without the aid of a program. There are some words you may have misspelled into other words, which no computerized spell checker can catch. Also, sometimes computer spell checks will see a strange misspelling, and just pick the word that it thinks is right--which almost never is right. There's nothing more disconcerting than reading along in a story and finding a phrase like this. "The boy smiled, an expression full of mystery. 'If you want to find out,' he said, 'you'll have to talk to him yourself. Please come this wad.'" I rest my case.

Read your dialogue out loud. This is the best indication you'll ever have of if it sounds right, makes sense, and flows properly. If it feels weird to say it, chances are that it'll feel very weird to read it.

Let it percolate. If you have time, let it sit for a few weeks, then read it over. Without what you think your wrote in fresh in your mind, you'll have a much better chance of catching strange misspellings, nonsensical sentences, and other problems. If you've just written the story, it's very difficult to edit it yourself because you know exactly what it should say; so you read what you think you wrote, rather than what you actually wrote.

Fanfic Cliches

Courtesy of Katsu no Miko (www.katsudon.net)

In the world of fanfiction, there's the good, the bad, and the ugly. Unfortunately, the ugly and the bad have teamed up, and are currently outnumbering the good by factors of ten.

Some stories are bad because they're poorly written. Others contain putrid, cliche plots that lower IQ points in frightening amounts. Take a look at the following list...if you are on the side of all that is good and light, you'll want to avoid these things.

"And then he sweatdropped."

Here's a big point. Anime is visual in nature. Some of what goes on in it definitely does not translate over well to writing. Unless you're working on bad slapstick, people don't "sweatdrop," "chibify," "super deform," or "facevault." There's no such thing as "hammerspace," and "hentainess," "kawaiiness," and "bishounen-ness" are not valid words, let alone valid adjectives. Attempting to write your story like it's a play by play from an actual anime episode is very disturbing to readers.

Mary Sue & SI

There are two characters that no reader ever wants to see. The first is Mary Sue--an "original" character inserted into the story. Mary Sue characters are always perfect, good looking, and incredibly intelligent, more so than any of the series characters. They also tend to be condescending and downright annoying. Despite this, all of the same sex characters look up to them, and all of the opposite sex characters want to hop into the sack with them, for reasons that are flimsy at best and usually out of character. Mary Sues are normally seen as proxies for the author, since the normally end up with the author's favorite character, after beating up the author's least favorite character, of course. SI means "Self Insertion" -- the other thing no reader wants to see. Self-Insertions are pretty similar to Mary Sues, except in Self Insertion, the author outright admits that they've written themselves into the story. SIs normally have omniscient powers as well, and are able to alter the universe at will, since they're the all-powerful author. Let's say it together, kids: Barf.

"Pleas sir, come rite this wad."

Anyone other than me thinking "aroo?" There's a lot of stories out there that get sent out without ever seeing a second draft, or even a spell check for that matter. Spell check doesn't take that long to do, is available at the click of a button in most word processing programs, and your readers will thank you. It's ok to write more than one draft of a story, after all. Please, do your readers a favor, and not only check your spelling, but check your grammar as well. Who knows, they might actually understand what you're trying to say!

And everyone lived happily ever after, whether they wanted to or not I don't know what causes this, really I don't. The story starts out with a romantically involved couple as its center. No problem. Why on earth the author feels the need to make sure that every single character in the series is paired off and happy is beyond my ken. Sorry, but it's better to learn sooner than later: life doesn't work that way, which is why it doesn't work in a story. Plus, there's always the leftover characters, who aren't particularly interested in anyone, but get paired off with someone anyway just because it won't do to let anyone be single. So no, pairing off the entire cast of Ranma isn't reasonable. It gets even worse in yaoi fandoms, because then we have the unique "Everybody is GAY and paired off" syndrome going as well. A little romance doesn't hurt. A little too much is just silly.

"I'm SO depressed."

Anyone ever read "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?" Remember Marvin, the terminally depressed robot? Not exactly a stimulating conversational partner, since all he'd ever want to talk about was how depressed he was. And oh yes, by the way, did he mention he was depressed? Let me clue you in -- this isn't good writing material either. If you want to leave your readers feeling like they want to slash their own wrists, by all means write a story that's twenty pages of non-stop "character feeling sorry for himself and whining vocally about it." Even better, make the character immortal and depressed. It's guaranteed to make even the most cheerful people pop Valium like it's candy.

Pregnant men

'Nuff said. [Ok, so it's only a really common problem in Gundam Wing fanfiction. Don't let the sickness spread.]

Badly inserted/written action scene

"And suddenly, without warning, ninjas jumped out from behind the trashcans in the alley and off the roofs of the nearest skyscraper where they'd been hanging on the window cleaning scaffold. The prince drew his sword, with a dark sparkle in his eye and sliced the head off the nearest one with a spiffy overhand backward flip. 'Don't lose your head.' he said in his dark voice." [coughcoughcough] That hurt to write, really it did...seriously, don't just chuck an action sequence in just so you get another opportunity to paint a tic-tac-toe board on the nearest building with the fountaining blood of a faceless opponent. Also, please keep in mind that there are some ways the human body doesn't bend, and some action sequences just aren't physically possible. Your action sequences should have the reader cheering the good guy on, not falling asleep or laughing until Coke comes out of their nose.

Badly inserted/written lemon scene

Okay, take what I said above and multiply it by ten, because while there are quite a few people that can write decent action, I've met less people than I have fingers (as in ten) that can actually manage to write lemon scenes that don't cause brain damage. I repeat: the human body only bend in certain ways.

Nonsensical verb tense change

Variety might be the spice of life, but do the world a favor, pick a verb tense, and stick with it. It's really off putting to find two or three different tenses in one sentence...not to mention it's unreadable.

Nonsensical viewpoint change

First person or third. Pick one and stick with it. If you want to change view between two characters, give your poor, long suffering readers some indication before they get so confused that their heads explode.

Useless gore

"Blood fountained out, painting arcs of dripping gore across the nearest brick wall as he ripped another handful of bloody chunks away, reveling in their warmth and vaguely squishy texture. Damn, this was a good steak." ^.^ Just kidding about the steak part, really. Realize that describing blood and gore in loving abandon will make your readers wonder how you managed to get your story on the web, considering that they don't normally let mental patients have writing utensils...

"It's like Sailor Moon meets Iron Chef. It just doesn't work!"

Crossovers are difficult to deal with. (Unless you're writing comedy, that is.) If you're crossing over two anime series, well, you really need to have a good, foolproof explanation as to how exactly this characters managed to get together in one place. Sorry, "interdimensional space/time warp" is overdone and completely unbelievable. Also, there's a certain type of crossover...the "Anime Series meets popular TV show" which is particularly nonsensical. I don't even like Melrose Place to begin with...heaven spare me from having to read about it with the regular cast replaced by characters from Tenchi Muyo...

Research: It's not just for scientists anymore!

Here's a real unique concept for you...want to write a story where a character has a certain gun they use, or knows a martial art style? Why not click that mouse or pick up that book and actually do a little reading up on it? *gasp* What a concept. Know what you're writing about, guys. If you don't, you'll confuse the readers that don't know what the real story is, and royally annoy the ones that do. I've already had a story to critique where a character was inflicted in some sort of heart problem that didn't jive with any of my medical knowledge. I tore my hair out for three days while I went through the AMHA database, without ever finding any real disease that it matched. I was told later by the author that she "just made it up" because she didn't feel like researching it out. Talk about annoyed...

See before you write

This one should be pretty obvious, but considering how few people actually practice it, I feel like I should say something. You know how real world research helps you write? Well, another thing that helps you write fanfiction is actually *watching* the series that you're writing from! Fanfiction has enough characterization problems to begin with. Making it up without any basis in the canon series deserves a cattle prod in the rear.

Stereotyping

Let's talk characterization. The big difference between good characterization and bad characterization is one dimension; good is three, bad is two. Bad characterization is "Usagi is whiney, Rei is sarcastic and mean, Mina is an airhead, Makoto is a violent tomboy, Ami is a brain with two legs" and nothing else. All characters have their own set of motivations (not just one!), and all of them are different--that's what makes them interesting. Also, I have to note...when you have a author that stereotypes badly, you can always tell which character is their least favorite; not only do they have the most negative stereotype and the least development, they also seem to get beaten up and put down a lot by the other characters...

Purple prose

"It sat on the window sill, glittering silver and the green of jungles in the hazy morning light. Sparks of incandescent beauty fell from its sides, shattering along the walls, floor, and the warm brown wood of my magnificent desk. Round is the most perfect of shapes, one with no beginning or end, I reflected, like the never-ending cycle of all life, never pausing. Then again, I always do get maudlin before I drink my morning can of Mt. Dew..." You have here an example of prose that has been smothered until it turned purple. This might work if you're getting paid by the word and are attempting to squeeze a couple extra bucks out of a story, but also keep in mind that I've yet to meet anyone that truly enjoyed reading "Moby Dick." (Which was a story that could have been written in a paragraph or less.) Don't get stuck on your descriptions; you might feel great if you can write lovely, flowery prose, but it's a struggle to read.

Ittai!

Okay, time for my pet peeve. Let's talk foreign language in stories. In anime fandom, lots of people like dropping what's called "fanboy Japanese" into their stories, I guess under the assumption that a few Japanese words makes it sound better. Wrong. First of all, most people that do this don't have a working understanding of the language, and use the words in ways that make people that do know wince. My favorite example of this is "koi." To people who have no Japanese knowledge beyond the fanboy level, it's a cute little shortening of the word "koibito," which means "beloved." To anyone that has more than a passing relationship with Japanese, it means a lot more: "carp," "slow in the head," and the rude form of "to come" spring to mind. Not a very flattering thing to be calling your loved one, eh? Second, it's silly. Anime is in Japanese because that's what the audience that originally watched it spoke. It is silly to assume that if the characters were real, they would speak Japanese. Gundam Wing is a prime example -- the only person out of the entire cast that has any right to be dropping Japanese phrases into their speech is Heero. Duo is American, so if anything, he should speak English, complete with slang. Wufei is Chinese. Neither of them have any reason to speak Japanese. Including foreign language into a story throws the readers off and destroys the flow of sentences. It may make you feel smart or cool as the author, but enough is enough. Please, I don't want to EVER read an anime character saying: "Ramen de hashi o tabemasu!" [I ate my chopsticks using the ramen.] Thank you.