Hi Narc _ hiro from the Review Game here. Just giving some random reviews out of boredom haha...

I just wanna comment about this particular "law":

Anime really doesn't translate into good fiction.

- Anime is episodic. It has a lot of cool action sequences. It looks pretty. The characters are pretty. The men are pretty. The villains are pretty. Explosions are cool to watch. Big robots are cool to watch. Girls in short skirts beating up bad guys are cool to watch if you're a hormonally charged teenage boy. None of this translates well into written fiction. In fact, it will probably make your readers want to gag.

I agree that Anime is really meant to be episodic and they usually cater 'pretty' characters (aka Bishounens and Bishoujos). Anime is almost the synonymous (if not the same) as Manga. Fictionpress made a category here exclusive for anime-inspired stories. I, myself, usually write in this frame.

It's just kinda sad that the Manga section is now filled with fics that do not come near to a 'structurally-acceptable' work compared to how it was before (years ago... around 2002). Aside from the fact that it is now bombarded with male-to-male/yaoi stuff (which disgust me by the way - the reason why I pulled out one of my fics from that category), some are just too "overly fan-girl-ly" written (if you know what I mean) that they end up lacking depth and those kind of stuff.

However, Anime fictions sometimes are more meant to 'narrate' a story rather than to 'display' writing style. The writing style may sometimes feel and read weird, but you'll be surprised that they sometimes provide a more dynamic story compared to those with the 'strictly-bookish-writing-style-complete-with-vivi d-descriptions'.

Anime fictions tend to have a general 'lighter read'. That's probably why they may not translate into a good fiction, BUT they do translate to a good story, which is more important I guess since technicalities just come second. I personally prefer a story with not-so-good-grammar-but-overly-exciting story rather than a "Tolkien or Shakespeare-ishly"-written which has perfect grammar but boring plot.

Am I starting to get defensive here? Haha, sorry. I feel like energized or something this moment so I rant a lot. It's just that I'm an anime-fic writer myself and this is definitely not the first time I've encountered someone who thinks ill of our genre _

Just my two cents _

hiro

haha your awesome, i truly enjoyed reading this and nodding my had at almost every rule you wrote down.

Dear God, thank you. Thank you for seeing what fictionpress for what it is. It's a bunch of adolescent girls (nothing against girls, mind you) writing about OC-esque stories of teen drama. I pretty much thought I was alone out here in the midst of bubblegum fantasy and sweethearts. I agreed with every one of your pointers except for the obscure words rule. It's true, we live in a day and age where a writer using unusual words is snobbery. But even so, that doesn't mean that all writers must yield to poor word choice simply so a fifth grader can understand the story. I do think you meant that a writer shouldn't inundate a poor reader with five million obscure words in a story. However, I think that some stories deserve more lofty words depending on the style. Well, that's the end of my rant. Again, thank you, my level-headed friend.

By the way, I'm assuming you started the constructive criticism phenomenon? You are amazingly intelligent, and you seriously inspired me to write brutally honest, but helpful critiques.

I'd probably classify this as being an essay, versus being general fiction-after all, it's not fictional. :)

You make some good points, but I do have to point out two things:

1). I would much rather see a character that is well, if over described, than a character that is not described at all. If they lump everything together into one paragraph: "Melinda was 5'6" with green eyes and long brown hair, and she kept her fingernails painted bright red, to match her hot temper"-okay, I see your point. But if the description is scattered here and there in the story-"She pulled a chair over toward the counter, and began rummaging in the cabinet. There were some disadvantages to being only 5'2"-being unable to reach the top shelf in the kitchen cupboards was one of them"-it's actually sort of nice to be able to know that the author has developed the character (and their writing skills) to the point where they are able to describe them comfortably, in a way that is not awkward. Description, assuming that it is *not* lumped all together into one huge chunk, can be a great thing.

2). If a Mary Sue "works" in the setting of the story, chances are, it's not a Mary Sue. The character has been written to be just believable enough that while they may be teetering on the borderline, they're not a 'Sue. Even if they may be a 'Sue by ordinary standards, it's likely that there's something in the story that prevents them from being one-color changing eyes are the norm on the world they're written in, for example.

Aside from the above (which is strictly opinion), I found myself nodding along with most of what you said. The site *is* geared more toward the younger generation, and a lot of what you find on here is going to be complete and utter shite-it's how you review it that determines whether or not the author is going to improve. If I had to say anything more I'd probably add a note about how someone claiming to be an "English Major" who claims that your work is crap but can't cite any reasons as to why (or spells whatever reasons why *wrong*) likely isn't, and their opinion is worth ignoring . . . and that people that do nothing but post a list of typos/grammatical errors probably aren't worth listening to either (unless they're accompanied by critique).

Anyway, this is definitely better than many lists I've seen on the site-I'll most assuredly be looking at your actual fiction now. :)

Wow, this was cool. I agree with, like, every point. I was going to write a review citing specifics and how very much I agree with them, but then my review would be crazy-long, so I'll just tell you that I'm nodding my head in agreement over here.

I will specifically say that I'm glad you mentioned those weird character details people put into their stories. If someone says a character is 5'6", I just assume that the author is 5'6". If there's a scene in which a character watches Invader Zim and laughs at its dark humor, I know that the author shops at Hot Topic. Etc.

*is a teenage girl and often tries to weed out "bad" stories by looking at review counts* ;) I don't read slash, though.

Favourited, just because.

lmfao. "fictionpress attracts teenage girls" yeah and? ... :p

this is all pretty much true. i have, amazingly, found a writing site that actually has more males than females (:O) (they've also banned fan fiction) but it's only one of the many that i belong to

ahh fictionpress, you have your quirks but we love you anyway.

Gods I love you for writing this article. Honestly. "The Silver Scrolls," on here, by MarieSilver (I think her name is) gives a guideline for fantasy writing, and your humor reminds me of hers - both of which point out with sniper-rank accuracy the problems ('Laws') of FicPress.

And I hope EVERYONE at this website reads this. It will save us all a lot painful searches to find decent fiction in this place.

Lovely, lovely, lovely, and my deepest apologies because I haven't read much farther in your story since...well, whenever it was I read the 2nd. Really, I found it hard enough to get the time for my own. Maybe Spring Break...

Cheers from a fan

You seem to be moving toward hitting some good points, but what you have here too frequently drifts into overgeneralizations or just being pointless to have much impact. "Vanity presses, PublishAmerica, and dozens of other scams and ripoffs do not count". Doesn't count to who? What you mean in this point is, "Publishing on fictionpress does not make you a *professional* author." Anything that reproduces text is technically being "published."

I think the best part of this piece is "Mary-Sues are evil." followed by "Mary-Sues are not always evil." as I think that makes your piece make a lot more sense in terms of the effect you're going for. Three of your points do stand on their own as said here, though, as being true:

"Just because a published author did it, doesn’t mean it’s good writing."

"Having few reviews does not necessarily mean a bad story."

and "Having a ton of reviews does not necessarily mean a good story." I'm not sure I agree with everything you say in the paragraphs supporting them, but as arguments they are true.

Hey! This is great, Narc, you really pinned everything down, and your right about a lot of it. Especially all of the anime-based stories floating around that seem to have no plot or purpose whatsoever..

Anyways, keep up the great work!

- Saroo