Question....

[said_scarlett]

This is for folks who write fan fiction for both anime and books/live action series.

Do you find it more difficult to write anime fan fiction than to write book/live action? If so, what are the exact problems you encounter? How do you find the two genres vary? Do you notice differences in writing dialogue or in description?

And I'm not asking about just animated genre fan fiction, but specifically anime. As we've seen, I am slowly toeing the shallow end of the anime fan fiction pool, so that's what's raised the questions. Any input is greatly appreciated!

Comments

[regann]

The problem I have with writing for anime versus live-action genres has to do with maintaining style; namely, how much of the anime style do I preserve in the written word. Because, let's face it, there are certain very unrealistic but universally (within anime) recognizable actions/phrases/etc. that convey very specific emotions and feelings. I'm talking about things like blushes or face faults, etc. How does one write a face fault? Or, conversely, how does a writer translate that into a more realistic action that can be expressed in writing and hold roughly the same meaning? This is my biggest problem with writing anime; I usually make a conscious effort give up some the quintessential anime-ish staples and write my characters in the same manner I would if they were living, breathing people, thus abandoning all over-the-top actions that are used in anime for their more naturalistic counterparts. This is particularly true when I'm writing for an anime set in the modern world (as opposed to some fantasy world) and if I'm trying to write something very serious or indepth in terms of characterization.

Other authors, however, do the exact opposite and try to write in a way that preserves the visual images of how a character acts and moves, even down to these specific kind of actions such as a face fault to show disbelief or the BLINK to show confusion, etc. I've tried this myself in writing anime humor with limited success.

This is probably why I've only written heavily in one anime fandom to date, lol. There was similar problems with some video game fandoms but to lesser extent, especially since I write Final Fantasy stuff for the most part, namely VIII and X which are realistic enough stylistically that they've already detached much from the anime-ish repetoire of action that was used by the sprites in earlier games, like FF7.

I started with video games and moved into live action, which I've found to be hard in its own way because I have a harder time imagining what I'm writing -- not necessarily a problem I have with anime. Of course, writing for books like HP is the easiest of all because everything already exists in my head and I'm not trying to put into words purely visual ideas, the movies notwithstanding.

Um...I'll stop now. ^_~

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

You know, that's it exactly. So much of anime is untranslatable visual cues. Another big thing for me is speech patterns, since I watch all my anime subbed rather than dubbed. I'm getting speech patterns in a language I know maybe six words of. That's a huge stumbling block when I'm trying to write dialogue. The exceptions, I've noticed, are things I've read manga for. Like I feel pretty comfortable with the speech patterns of the cast of Fruits Basket, but if I tried writing for, say.... Revolutionary Girl Utena or Urotsukidoji, I'd be at a loss.

I try to stay as true to the original medium as possible when I write fan fiction. And the original medium is one that doesn't generally translate well. It has to be changed in some manner, to write it well.

Thank you, so much, for your input!