The Fanfiction Forum E-zine ~ May/June Bumper Edition!!!

[Houndoom_Lover]

This is a good artical- no, wait magizine. This is a sad little review in it, because I think I'm still sleepy, and kinda soggy on this inside.

I love the Writer comic thing, and all the deep TPM related articals. I'll have to make sure next month I get an artical in.

[mistysakura]

Is This Growing Up: It's a bit of a late response, since you've remembered how to write, eh? :D But I was going to say -- hell no! Just look at all the adult writers around you! Are they all child prodigies with growth hormones? :P But seriously, as a child, yeah it's easier to grow an obsession over something like writing, to be bubbling with ideas, to rush blindly into every project without thinking everything through and worrying about every last plot hole. And maybe the joy from writing is more... uncensored. Y'know, it's like how we reminisce about the innocence of youth. But writing as an adult is enjoyable in a different way. While writing doesn't come half as easily to me now, I feel proud because I know what good writing is and all my struggles are towards that goal. I know that the frustrations of editing actually come up with something worthwhile. Sure, I'm not confident most of the time, and I do doubt my efforts. But from a more mature perspective, I'd rather have that doubt than be ignorant. And although I'm still not happy with the way I write, when I compare what I write now to what I wrote then, I still feel proud. :)

My Language Studies and TPM: Wow, that's a ton of languages! I've only really learnt one language: Japanese; the others were native/semi-mative to me. So I'm in awe of you for learning so much, and writing English so well. I'm tutoring Japanese at the moment, and I find it difficult because sometimes I don't know myself whether something is grammatically correct -- I'll just neatly sidestep the problem and offer an alternative sentence :P But it's so much fun. I'm the opposite to you -- I'm not that interested in grammar (in English, anyway), but I love, love, love analysis. It's the reason I read -- to explore the full meaning of texts, find all the little things the writer has put in there, appreciate their genius. But I know some people think that takes the pure enjoyment out of reading, so I guess I understand. It's great to hear that languages have opened up so many opportunities for you, and it's funny to think that we're from all corners of the planet, but we're reading this e-zine together...

www.ThePokemasters.Community: Over these holidays, I think I'm going to try to track some of the famous names down and get them to send me the legendary fics that we're always trying to find in the Searching for a Fic thread.

Atoning for the Sins of the Past: Aww, it sucks that there can't be two fics called 'Destiny's Way'! Way to disencourage a young writer. Your description of the deaths makes me want to go and read TPML now -- I really enjoy that sort of symbolic stuff. Hehe, you've done way more good than bad at TPM over the years. You have an impressive record of finishing fics, probably more than any other writer here, and most of them are critically acclaimed. Besides, no one remembers the bad stuff (unless it was so bad it scarred someone's life). Is this going to be a series? They way you finished it, it sounds like it might. I look forward to reading more of your adventures!

My sin: aside from writing bad fanfics as a kid, I plagiarised. I stole a scene from When Destinies Collide. :P Luckily, I never published that particular chapter. Sorry, Ryan. :P

I Am Not Ashamed! Well, I'm a lot more open these days. Quite a few people know I wrote fanfiction, and still hang out on a fanfiction forum. Most people don't know the fandom, but hey. They're surprisingly open to it, probably because some of them have ventured into writing or reading fanfiction at some stage. Besides, I take creative writing at uni, so I can't be that pathetic, right? ...right? But really, once you start talking about fanfiction, it's surprising how many people have read it at some stage. Even if they don't recognise it as fanfiction. Even if they just wrote a story about their favourite characters and left it on a PC somewhere, while continuing to mock fanficcers. And if not, surely they've obsessed over a TV series or a film. It's not that different, really. Once I start talking about fanfiction from that perspective, people seem to get it.

Thanks for putting that bumper issue together, Gavin! Definitely worth the wait. :)

[Chris 2.1]

What a great issue! MS I do intend to write a few more on the sins of my past, so I'm glad you enjoyed it.

This issue was fantastic. I feel if we can produce something like this every two months, why not bring out the e-zine every two months? This issue was a great collaboration between the members of our community and I loved every article. Is there perhaps too much pressure every month?

I also did like the shift into editorials. To be honest I find some of the articles that are based ON fic writing can be a bit stiff. Like the one on the three types of hero; its not that fun when you turn a broad creative world into a paint-by-numbers. Here though, with the editorials, we get to settle into the minds of our writers. It's really cool.

Looking forward to the next one!

[Gavin Luper]

Would love some new blood in the e-zine too, MLG!

Everyone should feel free to send in your editorials to us - it makes it a lot richer I think to have a whole range of members contributing (like this issue, we had 5 altogether which was great) instead of a standard two or three.

What does everyone else think of Chris' suggestion to always have a bi-monthly e-zine?

[Lady Vulpix]

Wow, great issue! I wish I could have taken a part in its production. I'm so busy these days! :(

Anyway, the grammar article has left me thinking. The English language has a number of arbitrary "don't do this" rules, like "don't start a sentence with 'and'" or "don't end a sentence with a preposition". Is there any point to those rules, which don't make the language any easier to use or understand, but instead only make things harder? Who wrote them, and why?

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

I think doing one every month might be asking to much of the members who still write. The bi-montly-issue could be a solution. I vote in favor.

[PancaKe]

I like the idea of bi-monthly.

Then we'd have time to run things like comps, writing sprints and stuff on the off months.

However; the only problem is articles going out of date. Not a HUGE problem, but still something to think about

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Anyway, the grammar article has left me thinking. The English language has a number of arbitrary "don't do this" rules, like "don't start a sentence with 'and'" or "don't end a sentence with a preposition". Is there any point to those rules, which don't make the language any easier to use or understand, but instead only make things harder? Who wrote them, and why?

Heh, indeed, every language has those, even Finnish. Someone has said that Chinese or Japanese grammar is more flexible, but at least the level they teach in study books is quite fixed in my opinion. As much as I love grammar, no matter what the language is, I wonder this question, too.

Oh, and every two months would also suit me better.

And this issue is fantastic! Me being in it is not the only reason why.