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Character-Insertion: It'll always be the dream.

Started by Carthrat, January 30, 2005, 10:01:23 PM

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Carthrat

An ever-running concept in fanfiction remains the 'Self-Insertion'; wherein the author inserts a representation of himself into the existing canon of some popular series of fiction, weather it be anime, a book, live acting, or even the bible.

Typically, such stories are looked upon with contempt by members of the more discerning community. Such characters are traditionally overpowered maniacs who show up to solve problems and look cool. They may succeed at the former, but tend to fail at the latter, becuase these characters tend to have no flaws (or worse, contrived flaws), incredible powers, and ridiculous knowledge. Exceptions are few and far between.

In history, however, a (relatively) new slant on the idea has come; what if the 'inserted' were instead supplanted into the bodies of these characters of fiction? Thus, Aspirant Author 1 can become, say, Ranma! He has a ready-made package of flaws and skills, only with a bold new twist: a real persons mind!

Sadly, this concept is probably more flawed than the original. At least the previous authors were putting in some effort on their original characters. In this version, the inserted has almost no work to do (except, of course, showing up with all his brilliant OOC knowledge and handily making everything run smoothly.)

However, a tentative solution has been found. These stories often suffer from huge egos and a lack of moderation; not to mention that nobody really cares about original characters. Aside from getting down to the serious business of being skilled at storycrafting (hah!), a new avenue has been found- and previous implemented!

The concept of round-robin stories has also been fraught with peril. However, a new work of fiction is *already underway*. A story in which hapless individuals are, in fact, inserted into certain characters from popular anime-fiction. However, to defeat the incredible ego-problems that strike down some fics, the round-robin style ensures that favourtism to the inserted is significantly reduced- thus creating a hopefully moderate story for the masses to enjoy!

Can two wrongs really make a right? Only time will tell. The story in question, Merry-Go-Round, is presently being written, though a release date is unreleasable at this time. It's being written by BeanBandit, Rai, Merc, and Carthrat- surely, with such a collection of great minds, it can't fail!
[19:14] <Annerose> Aww, mouth not outpacing brain after all?
[19:14] <Candide> My brain caught up

Anastasia

I like the last line. Ah, optimism.

Okay. I'm not sure about the length offhand, but it looks okay if it squeezes in fine.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Dracos

A note, I'd like everything that goes in the newspaper to be accessible database style, so that later we can get both searchable archives by newspaper or by article.  If we could do that, it'd be cool. =)

Dracos
Well, Goodbye.