Caroline:
> Though in a series you tend to have a heck of a lot more info about the
> character to go on, be it anime or manga or both. And for throw away
> characters, they are generally designed with an introduction in mind to
> show the readers how and why they are antagonists or protagonists. Or they
> are so throw away that it doesn't matter one way or another, and thus are
> fair game for fanfics. With new author-created characters for fanfics you
> don't have that luxury.

	I don't know if I can have that much confidence in anime/manga
characters anymore.  Character development is rarely a strength in the world
of anime/manga.  And if you mean development by just exposure, i.e. Kunou is
supposed to be developed just because he shows up a lot, I suppose that's
better than nothing, but not entirely all that better than just starting
from scratch.  

> Because of what they have done over 38 volumes of manga, and what you know
> of them through that. Unlike some new fanfic author-created character,
> where you have _nothing_ based on them at all.

	At least with Ranma 1/2 you can get away with most of the character
development with a few sentences of background information, like say,
Shampoo is just a girl obsessed with Ranma, and actually that describes
Ukyou too, or that Kunou is just plain insane, and you wouldn't be missing
much of the character background work that you're able to get through all 38
volumes of Ranma 1/2.

	I consider a character's background meaningful if it'd take me more
than a page to explain that character's personality/motives/etc, and most
characters simply aren't that complicated, and you can pretty much get
around whatever personality they may have had in one page or so of
'character bio' even if it's a brand new character.

> Yet, if things are written properly, you don't need a face, just a name.
> Look at all the original works out there that aren't fanfics. Some are
> better than others, but authors like Robert Jordan, Ann Rice, Terry
> Pratchett, etc, etc, etc, all manage to create new, original characters
> without requiring drawings or pictures. It's part of writing well so that
> you don't need such things.

	I think you're asking a bit too much there...

	Since fanfic tend to work off things that are inherently multimedia
in nature, I don't see why not to take advantage of it.  Knowing what
someone looks like can give you a better picture of what the person ought to
be.  
> Even published authors are not always that great at it, and fanfic authors
> can be much worse without having an editor to help them try to get what's
> in their head across in text.

	Of course.  No one said writing is easy.  I find that it helps to
have someone who has never seen whatever you're writing to give you an
opinion, because if the person has read/watch whatever you're writing,
they're going to mentally adapt what's written to fit with what they already
know about the subject.  

	Actually, it seems like the average fan is more interested in
vicariously living their fantasy with their favorite character in a
self-insertion model fanfic as opposed to actually caring about whether the
fanfic has any semblance to reality.  

Don
"I didn't know the snow can be so beautiful, even if it's in the country
Kiritsugu calls home."
Illyasviel Von Einzbern, "Assault, Miss little girl!" arc.

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.691 / Virus Database: 452 - Release Date: 5/26/2004