The fanservice issue

Let's talk about fanservice today.

As you all know, fanservice in fanfiction is something you include in your story to please the fans. A moment of "giving the fans what they want" if you will.

But you can't simply write fanservice all the time, if you do your story may end up derailed and you could end up writing yourself into a corner.

Good ways to include fanservice are knowing what elements of your story people like, or what is popular in the franchise, or if most of your readers are male or female.

Let me give you an example.

A while ago I told you about a collaboration I'm writing with DaisukiFox titled Lost Together for the Ranma 1/2 section.

In this case we both knew what was popular amongst our readers and we also knew most of them are women, so we decided to include two scenes in our latest chapter that would not only advance the story but also work as fanservice of sorts.

To complement one of these scenes I suggested I drew an illustration showing that particular moment. Now, keep in mind I normally don't draw fanservice, (I normally don't draw at all) but in this case I thought it would be a good idea so I did my best.

So far the response for the chapter has been very positive, and it appears our readers are happy with the scenes we included, something I'm very glad about.

In case you're curious, here's the illustration I drew for the story; feel free to let me know what you think.

Should you write it? Well, that's not important. Let me tell you what's important.

So, you have this new great idea for a story set in your favorite franchise. You are very excited about it and think it's great.
But this is the point where you should ask yourself.
Should I write this?
Now, you may say that the whole point of fanfiction is to write whatever comes to your mind and that there are no limits.
And you would be correct.
So yes, you should write it. But the point then is not if you should or shouldn't.
The point is how.
You may have the idea, it may sound silly, it may be controversial, it may be something everybody else has done already (I'm looking at you thousands of Harley Quinn origin stories), and that is why you have to focus on how you're going to write it.
Because how you do it is what will set your story apart from the rest.
An original idea can only carry you so far.
A quirky or silly one can only capture attention up to a point.
That is why you have to pay attention and write your idea well, with good grammar, good presentation, good sentence structure, good characterization and attention to detail.
Because quality validates the idea no matter how strange, how controversial or how many times it's been done.
Or at least that is how it would ideally work. If all you want is attention, you can always write a popular pairing in your franchise of choice and end up with a ton of reviews regardless of quality, but that's something we can talk about some other time.

Relic from the seas, season 2

Splash Woman is one of the central characters in the story.

As I mentioned before, one of the stories I'm working on right now is Relic from the seas, based on the Mega Man series of videogames.

This story has been a bit of an experiment so far, as I've used it to practice keeping a regular updating schedule of at least one chapter every week, sometimes two or three, depending on the arc I'm writing and how long the chapters are. Something else I've tried is to divide the story by arcs and by seasons as that allowed me to take a break this month, which I needed to complete some very important, personal things in real life.

Well, the second season of the story is going to start in chapter 47 and will deal with at least a few of the elements that were only hinted at in the first three story arcs.

I already have most of season two drafted, so the updating process should go smoothly, unless I get busy in real life, but even then I'll still try to keep updating at least once a week.

Isn't it difficult at times?

I'm sure you've been there. You have an idea, you start writing it and everything seems to be going well and then... you just don't know how to continue. Or you write yourself into a corner. Or you lose interest. Or you take a break to deal with real life events and inspiration vanishes.

And then nothing in your story seems to work anymore and it ends up incomplete for months or years... or a decade.

There isn't any cure for that and no magic fixes either.

The only thing that you can do is to be disciplined, push through and write more, because this is the only way you may regain that lost motivation.

From the favorites list #1

Rockman Complete Works, for the PS1

From time to time I'll talk a little about some of the stories in my favorites' list at ff.net and to start I think the best option would be mentioning "Rockman: the Robot War" written by Ben 'Maelgrim' Roberts.

This fanfic is extremely well written and it's interesting for several reasons, mainly because it's a fantastic example of the 'adaptation expansion' trope done right; Maelgrim spends enough time developing and explaining the reasons as to why the universe the story is set in works the way it does, characterization is brilliant and all the protagonists receive their fair share of attention. The narrative is superb and even if the story is a little long, reading from beginning to end is completely satisfying.

Calling it the most influential Mega Man fanfic ever written is not an overstatement, this one is really that good and it is constantly being referenced or used as a foundation by other writers in the fandom, even after so many years. Two good examples of this are the works of Erico (and to a lesser extent Magus), but we'll talk about that later, since Erico's work in particular deserves its own entry.

Maelgrim has written other stories as well, amongst them a novella adapting the original Castlevania game that is also a nice read and, most importantly, a sequel to Rockman: the Robot War, which is unfortunately incomplete as it has not been updated since 2012.

That said, consider giving Rockman: the Robot War a read, it really is worth your time even if you aren't a fan of the Mega Man franchise.

Link to Maelgrim's FFN profile:
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/97007/Maelgrim
 

What's easier for you to write?

When it comes to fanfiction (and to writing in general, really), finding out what is easier for you to write is important, because it affects how much you produce. If you like writing romance, you'll have an easier time when you focus on that genre, for example.

Something that also helps as far as fanfiction writing goes, is how much you like the property you're creating a story for, if you really like one franchise it will be easier for you to write for it. Another thing that affects this is if you like the idea you're developing; the more you like it, the easier completing it will be.

All of that affects production.

In my case, I have tried many genres, going from action to comedy to romance and horror. I've found that most of my stories tend to gravitate towards a mix between action and drama, but family themes and elements of what some people would call horror tend to appear in my writing from time to time.

Thinking of it, I believe I have an easier time when I focus on ideas rather than genres, because that means I can plot the story beforehand.

In the end it's all about finding what works best for you.

Raditz fanart.

This time I'll talk a little about another of my stories.

The story is titled We Belong to Him. The basic plot is that Raditz ends up being the only survivor of the fight with Goku and Piccolo, and decides to take Gohan with him, the twist that makes this different from the stories that follow that path is that here, Chi Chi goes with Raditz, something that changes the whole "Raditz trains Gohan" dynamic quite a lot.

The story is incomplete at this point, I'll try to go back to it sometime soon since I would really like to complete it and I already have it fully mapped out. I just have to figure out how to continue it, which has not been easy.

Anyway, a while ago I got a Raditz fanart (only pencils) so I decided to ink it to make the illustration look cleaner.

Here's the Raditz fanart, pencils by Horacio Sandoval, inks by me.

(If anyone ever wants to color it I'd be grateful).

Ranma 1/2 collaboration with DaisukiFox

Lost Together is a story I've been co-writing with DaisukiFox, who focuses mostly on Ranma 1/2 Alternate Universe fanfiction, particularly for the female Ranma & Ryoga pairing.

We had a false start a couple of years ago, but we eventually picked it up again and we're on chapter 5 already, with good reception so far, too!

This is the cover we're using for the story, it's a Ryoga/Ranma-Chan fanart I found a while ago, unfortunately I could never find the original artist but congratulations to him or her for such a great job.

Link to DaisukiFox's fanfiction.net's profile:
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/1778497/DaisukiFox

I'll post more about the writing process for this story later, because collaborating with another writer is a very interesting and rewarding experience.

Some extras

X helmet art by Vibina

Now that I completed the second arc of Relic from the Seas I think I'll share some information regarding the writing process of the Lumine arc.

*Some spoilers ahead*

I created Lumine's 8 Maverick generals trying to make them as different from the ones in the X games as possible. I tried not to repeat any animal, the exception being shark based Tsunami Mako. Designing the special weapons was also a little difficult, so I simply based them on the personalities of the individual maverick.

Something that ended up working in my favor was giving two mavericks to each of the four hunters featured in the arc (X, Zero, Axl and Vile), because this helped make those eight chapters more interesting and less repetitive.

Bringing back locations from previous games (Laguz Island from X-treme 2, for example) helped me set the story in the X timeline better, and it's a good way to connect it to events that happened before.

The Sigma-MK9, or Sigma copy, was actually an idea that I wanted to include even before I decided Lumine would be the main villain of the second arc. Hey, this is a Mega Man X story, of course Sigma had to show up at some point.

Another detail is that for each Maverick "stage" I used music from the games for inspiration when designing it, that was something new for me, but I think it helped make the chapters devoted to each Maverick General better.

There are many deleted scenes in this arc. Sadly, they are truly deleted and lost, but they were not that good in my opinion. Most of them involved the navigators doing things that, once I took a second look, were either stupid or too out of character.

One extra I want to share with you is the Maverick layout I used when planning which hunter would fight each one. You may find it interesting.

List of mavericks	Special Weapon	Weakness	Locations	Hunter
Tsunami Mako OST: Inami Temple (Rainy turtloid theme)	Tsunami Wave	X buster / Triple bomb	Deep Sea laboratory (sea)	X
Bomb Triceratopon OST: Metal Shark Player theme	Triple bomb	Ice Slither	Missile factory (City)	Vile
Thunderbolt Falcon OST: Destroy the time bombs (Skiver Theme)	Thunder Striker	Flash claw	Aeronautics research center (Mountain)	Axl
Claw Leoparder OST: Sting Chameleon theme.	Flash claw	Acid bubble	Archaeological Excavation camp  (grassland)	Vile
Flame Scorpion OST: Tunnel Rhino theme	Fire stinger	Tsunami wave	Military base (desert)	Axl
Acidflow Venus Trap OST: Toxic Seahorse theme	Acid bubble	Magnet barrier / Ice Slither (charged)	Abandoned weather tower (Jungle)	X
Magnetoid Mole OST: Morph Moth theme.	Magnet barrier	Thunder Striker	Geothermal plant (mine)	Zero
Frostbite Fox OST: Snow Base Area 2 (Frost Walrus)	Ice Slither	Fire stinger	Air purifier central (Frozen forest)	Zero.
Boss ambush All mavericks at once	removed	removed	removed	removed
Mandala Q-5 OST: Gate’s stage 1	Attack: Spinning lasers	Acid bubble	Secret factory first ring. Main warehouse	Axl. He gets hurt.
Sigma Body MK-9 OST: Doppler stage 3	Attacks: Ice axe & Flame axe.	Ice Spear Missile / Burning Riot Missile	Secret factory second ring.	Vile. He gets hurt
Lumine OST: Sigma battle 1, MMX1	Can use the eight special weapons.	Fire stinger / Thunder Striker	Secret factory third ring.	X, Zero
Emperor Lumine OST: Kaiser Sigma battle	Eight special weapons & Nightmare extinction attack.	Laser Trident, (charged)	Secret factory fourth ring.	X, Zero

Relic from the seas illustration

One of the stories I'm writing right now and that I've been focusing on is Relic from the Seas, which tells the story of how Splash Woman from the classic Mega Man games is found in a capsule 100 years in the future and how she interacts with the characters from the Mega Man X series.

Right now the story is in the last chapters of the second arc, and in one of those chapters there's a scene that involves Sigma fighting Vile. I was asked what this version of Sigma looks like and since it would be hard to describe it I ended up drawing it instead.

Keep in mind I am not good at drawing. I did take one of those "how to make comic books" courses years ago and they covered some tips on how to draw, but I have not drawn anything seriously in a long time.

That said, here's the Sigma versus Vile illustration. It's black and white because, sadly, coloring is totally beyond my abilities.

I must say I kind of like how it turned out all things considered.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog.

Here, I'll write things related to the stories I am writing, or about writing fanfiction in general or why I have written some stories or why I have some of them on hiatus.

I hope you find some of that interesting enough to check back once in a while.