"How to Write Better SI" Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo,belongs to Pioneer LDC, and AIC. All rights reserved. James P. Zale is property of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ $.$ Hello, Having seen some of the poor exuses for fanfics done under the guise of "self" insertion, I decided that the best way to change what's gone wrong is to help those who would write SI's of thier own. And the only way I can think to do that is to build one with you. First off I strongly suggest you read the Fic "Culture Shock", by Guitaro the Metalhead (that might be spelled wrong). The Best SI I've ever read, it breaks off from most of the anoying tendancies that most SI's follow. ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ Step one. Good points. Though most people don't forget to give thier SI's good points. I'm not so sure they're the author's good points. So what you should do at this point is just a little quiet self reflection. What is it that makes people like me? >I'm Funny >I'm some what intelegent. >I'm usualy a pretty peaceful guy. These are some (if not all) of MY good points. If your going to write a "Self Insertion", then I stongly suggest that you start with yourself. There is probably nobody in this world you could write better than yourself. ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ Step two. Bad points. I've read a few (and written one) SI's where the SIed character(s) can do any good and no wrong. Having lived in this world for Twenty-one years without becoming a millionare I get the feeling that this MAY not be true. Whether we like to admit it or not we all have bad points. Might as well just embrace them, right? >(and this is my favorite) I shouldn't be aloud to dress my self some days. >I'm easily drawn into arguments. >I'm not especialy good looking. >I sing okay for me, but it pisses of the neighbors. Yeah, I got a favorite personality flaw. Once again, these are mine, get your own. These are actualy more important to the story than your good points. Most of the drama is probably going to come from the people that don't like you. ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ Step three. Powers. Goose: I want to be super strong. . . Geani: Okay. Goose: And invincible. . . Geani: Got it. Goose: And I want to fly! Geani: Done! and after the smoke clears the Goose is turned into Rouge (of X-Men). For this part of your SI experience I highly suggest you rent the movie 'Bedazzeled'. Then you see that these things have thier good and bad points too. Take Rouge for example. She's supper strong, almost indestructable, she can fly. But for all that she can't touch anyone with out the danger of killing them, or with out having them stuck in her head. Now there have been cases where powers came with out trade-offs. Take Superman, super strong, flys, indestrucable. And The only trade-off was all the personality he'd ever have. Personaly, I prefer the drama of the trade-offs. Also, powers are not nesesarily tied in to personality. Gambit. He's a really smooth character, charming, a thief, the kind of personality that I'd have guessed as a telepath. He blows stuff up. The powers your character has may or may not have tie ins to the personality depending on how long they have had them. Take Ryouko for instance. She's been a hard core ass kicker all her life, and if you're writing a Tenchi fanfic you know how she is. When you create your character(s) you must concider what the powers are, what thier trade-offs are, how long they've had them, and how they effect the personality. This will help in adding drama. ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ Part four. Existing characters. There is a reason these are called TENCHI fanfics. We really should concider the existing Tenchi characters. As with your own character, you should also concidrer the good AND bad points of them as well. Ryouko is tough as all get on, but she's very impulsive. Mihoshi isn't the brghtest penny in the fountain, but she's dedicated. Ayeka is polite and well mannered, but she's also an eletist bitch. Tenchi isn't a coward like many say, in fact he has a tendancy to rush into thing hot headed (for better understanding see the fic 'Same as it Ever Was. . ' by Robert J. Cannard). Wasyuu is a genius, but I'm convinded she has ADD or some thing, because sometimes she invents things with seemingly no better reason than she's bored. Please explain to me why she really needed a mecca-Wasyuu in the first place. Noboyuki is a bit perverted, but he's the one who lets the girls stay in HIS house. It goes on like this for everyone. And when writing fanfics you should concider the good and bad in all characters (Kagato was an unsavory guy, But he made Tenchi look like a hero). ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ Part Five. Villians. This, you may need, seeing as how Tenchi Killed all of his. Exept Nagi and Yugi, figures he'd let the girls go. With Villians you need to concider the same things as your powers (what they do and for how long) as well as his (thier) personality and what makes him (them) the Villian(s). I've seen one Villian that didn't need a reason to be bad, but since Shakespere wrote him, he could get away with it. Remember that your Villian(s) is a character to, and subject to all the rules also. Also, bear in mind the possibility that your villian(s) doesn't Have to hate your hero(s). While you're at the video store pick up 'Heat' with Robert DiNero ad Al Pacino. They sit down and have coffee together. ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ Part six. Plot holes. Believe it or not these come up quite ofen. And as far as I've seen there are thre ways to deal with them. One, Fill them in. Two, ignore them. Or three, revel in thier glory! Reveling in the glory of plot holes. Coming to a plot hole in your story and saying "Okay here's my plot hole, live with it or die with it!" As far as I know only one person has done this, and your looking at him. This was done for comedic value (cheap at twice the price) in a fic I called 'I Fell Through A Plot Hole'. This is a poor way to handle the situation. Ignoring the fact that abnormal things are happening at all. This is okay if your writing Death Match fanfics. As for the other 95% of fanfics this leaves you looking foolish. So it looks like we'll be doing this the hard way, Filling them in. But be careful when doing this, this to can go wrong. Remeber Wasyuu is supposed to be a genius, so it isn't fair to blame her for everything. Some of the places you may run into plot holes are introducing your character into the story, explaining thier powers, over coming the language barrier (which they ignored in the show), introducing your villian(s), and defeating your villian(s). Basicaly throughout your whole story. Your best bet would be to have someone else read your story and tell you what parts don't make sense. Don't worry if not everything makes sense to everyone, just make sure that your general idea is understood. ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ Part seven. Resolution. Not just defeating the villian(s), but what happens after that. But since these are Tenchi this isn't so important. I guess if the girls can mill about at infinitum, maybe you can to. Just don't expect the rest of us to read Six chapters of you sitting on your butt(s) chewing the fat with the Ten-crew with out an end in sight. Well that's all the help I can think of. So get out there, research, and remeber that if your character is the be-all and end-all your probaly going to piss of all of us normal people. Until we meet again, SLIDE! ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ Authors notes: Yes this was inspired by 'SI is bad Kiddies' (I don't know who wrote it), but instead of just pointing out that there is a problem, I wanted to help avoid them. Now comes the part of the Authors notes where you tell the reader where they can find you out here in web world. In my case it would be the e-mail address wildeyak2069@hotmail.com, or the web site www.geocities.com/jakethegoose2069/Wildeyak_Tenchi_Fanart. You can use your own e-mail and web site, or you can use my website, just make sure you tell people that it's MY website.