SillySilenia

Cheetah and Lion Evade Needless Death After Running D I S A P P E A R A N C E

My worst review hands-down would have to be one time at FFN when someone put rape/incest/scat-porn in a terribly-written dialect of Flemish as a "review" on one of my stories.

Pen Name: SillySilenia Story link: http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600106243 Review replies link: N/A for now, might be upcoming. Type of fic: TwitFic Rating: Adult Fandom: Original > Misc > General Pairing: N/A Warnings: AFFO, Completed, ChallengeFic, NoSex, Oneshot

Based on a quick search in the Original Archive, could it be Daddy's Milk by Ramrod300? Summary: A father feeds his special milk to his infant son Abuse, Anal, Contro, Inc, M/M, Minor, Shouta, SoloM, Yaoi http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600102506

Aye, it's fixed. Thank you. =)

Okay, thank you. =)

Okay. =) As I said, wasn't sure where to put it.

In the archive drop down menu "forums" (when in a specific domain, such as HP, Naruto, etc.), the link leading to the Author Resources part of the forum is misspelled as Author Resouces. Not exactly a huge problem, just thought I'd let you know. I hope this is the right forum for it. It's not really a suggestion, but it doesn't fit into reporting or general staff questions either.

For me, it depends on the kind of fanfic it is. One-shots and drabbles generally are canon-character centric. This does not exclude them from having OCs completely, but I usually use them only if there is a need for them. As in, we know a person must have existed but we don't know anything about them, or for the sake of the one-shot must assume there has been such a character even if canon's logic alone does not necessarily dictate that. With that I mean, logic dictates that if we have a canon character that has been born, they must have (had) parents, even if canon does not tell us anything about them. Or that if character is a teacher, they must have had students. On the other hand, if I want to write a one-shot about a canon-character angsting about, say, the death of their pet rabbit, and remembering how they bought it at a pet shop, how they used to pet it, etc. the one-shot's logic dictates there must have been an employee at that pet shop that said character met. Canon's logic does not dictate such a thing unless canon explicitly tells us that a. canon character had/has a pet rabbit and b. character bought that rabbit themselves/was there when it was bought. Multi-chapter story depends on the time-period and the plot. If it's set in pre-story times, chances are we know the names of a few people from then and the personality of even fewer. Which means OCs are basically unavoidable in most cases. Same if it's set after the story's end, or in un(der)developed/"glossed-over" parts of the story, which happens when there are time-jumps, etc. Otherwise, it comes down to the plot. The further you deviate from canon, the more likely it is that there is need for OCs. In such cases, the OCs are in my case never the main-character of the story, but they can play an important role. Say, a character turns down a job they accepted in canon and did something else, that means one will have to deal with different characters. Some may be canon (especially if the different job is also established in canon, possibly even with the character debating which of the two jobs to choose, but just picked the other one in one's fanfic than in canon) but others will not be, especially if it's a job where a character has to interact with not just colleagues and their boss, but customers as well. There are thousands of examples like that possible, and that's when still dealing with fanfiction that's mostly character-centric and where the OCs' existence is dictated by in-story logic. (Can't be born without parents, can't teach without students, can't sell clothes without customers, etc.) Sometimes, OCs are necessary not because the story's logic dictates they should exist, but because you need a character to fill a role and all of the existing canon characters are for various reasons unable to fill that role. (Couple of possible reasons: wrong personality, wrong morals, wrong personal circumstances, wrong gender, wrong age, wrong appearance, race, religion, culture, nationality, etc. Yes, several of these may seem shallow or even prejudiced, but they can nonetheless be valid reasons why specific characters cannot fit a role. If for whatever reason you need a neo-nazi, that would exclude people of jewish faith, people of colour, etc. If you need a teacher at a male-only school, that would exclude females, newborns, children, teenagers, animals, aliens, prisoners, etc.) At that point, you have a limited number of choices - slightly change a canon character (preferably while giving enough in-story reasoning that their behaviour makes sense, even if it would be OOC for their canon counterpart to do such a thing), bend a canon character so out of shape that it's an OC-pretending-to-be-canon, or add in an OC. Depending on the reasoning why certain characters won't fit, the former may not even be an option. The second option is hard to do in a way that won't infuriate anyone who has a passing familiarity with the canon character. TL;DR: OCs are okay where OCs are for various reasons either needed or preferable to other options.

Considering that I am in the progress of uploading several one-shots and drabbles, a lot of which are in the General Category, I felt it best to make a single thread to reply to reviews for all of these, and to update when new one-shots/drabbles/etc. are up. Currently uploaded at AFF: Furious. Lee-centric. Lee is furious, Fred and George help him calm down. Drabble originally written in response to a competition/challenge at FFN. Complete, One-shot, No Sex. Harry's Poem. A little poem about Harry. Parody on several HP fanfic clichés. Abuse, AFFO, Angst, Complete, MCD, No Sex, One-shot, Parody. Shedding. Crack!fic. The Basilisk sheds her old skin. Suggestive language implying Basilisk/Hogwarts. AFFO, Complete, Contro, NoSex, One-shot ----------------------------------------------- Review Replies: Harry's Poem: DemonGoddess061: Thank you, dear. Glad to know you liked it. Emptypen: Thanks for the lovely compliment! =) lia200304: Happy to hear so, and thanks for the compliment. =) BronxWench: You're making me blush, dear. I'm very glad you weren't drinking that cup of coffee - wouldn't want you to get injured by my silliness. I enjoy giving those peeks, so I'm very happy to hear others like it as well. Thanks for your review and lovely words, my dear Wench. =) delia cerrano: But not sillier than me. I think a lot of us were saddened by Sirius' death, after all - and he's not real either. XD Thanks for the review and lovely words.

Author: SillySilenia Title: Harry's Poem Summary: A silly little poem about Harry Potter. Parody on some of the more common HP fanfiction clichés. (But not on any specific story) Warnings & Rating: Abuse, Angst, COMPLETE, MCD, NoSex, Oneshot, Parody. Rating: Adult. Feedback: Any feedback welcome. Fandom: Surprisingly enough, Harry Potter. Didn't expect that, did ya? Pairing: None Solo story or chaptered story: One-shot/Poem URL: http://hp.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600097136

Ensiferum's Lai Lai Hei.

Not for me; however, the problem seems to be a double slash before 'images' in the URL. Bringing that down to one slash worked for me.

Yet another reason to not leave a dog unattended in a car, eh? XD

Yes, returning characters make themselves known... if given the chance. Which is exactly why I don't give characters that get to return but still be "visible" for maybe a few lines total that chance. Worse if the character somehow has a personality, or rather, has established a personality. Just like with back-stories, all characters have a personality, I just don't always know it. Considering the hassle, I try to keep characters that get so little screen-time and in circumstances that don't require establishing a personality from establishing it anyway. (Sometimes, pretty much unimportant characters still need to show a personality because of circumstances, such as when their five minutes of fame is royally pissing off another character. Someone none of my established characters interact with directly (or indirectly) doesn't, however. I don't need to be bombed with background information and personality development of a character whose only role is walking past my character in a busy street - just like a hundred others)

I suspect it's not so much "to avoid making up a backstory for a character" as it is "for a lot of characters". Mind you, this is all conjecture based upon remarks and between-the-lines revelations that I've noticed through the years. I can't be 100% certain, as I'm not one of those aforementioned writers. However, many writers are unfortunately lazy. Just looking at how many stories (online and published) contradict themselves every other turn, include more spelling and grammar error's that a four-year-old's first letter and/or deal with stereotypes, rather than characters, has certainly shown me that much. My important characters tend to as well. Not quite all minor/side characters do, however.

As am I. (Hey, that's yet another similarity between us ) It's not my reason for writing fanfiction either, but I know that many people hate working on back-stories for their characters and how to add it into a story without it becoming a. info-dumpy or b. ass-pull. I would suppose that writing with characters that already have an established backstory would be attractive to them. Wouldn't so much say 'each', but yes, most certainly do.

Aye, you're completely right there. Teaches you how to think on what to say (whether you'll be saying it or your character(s) will) real fast, yet still have 'natural' responses. Good back-stories are sometimes difficult. I think that's what makes fanfiction so attractive to some people. Most characters already have a backstory, which you can change if you want, but if you don't want to, you have something to fall back on - and without having to even mention it, 'cause everyone already knows it. For me, tends to differ from character to characters. Some characters aren't hard to write a back-story for, others are as tight-lipped to their creator (me) or manipulator (me, if it's fanfiction) as they are to other characters. Looking to me like we're getting along for multiple reasons, including same kind of humour and same or similar opinion on most things related to writing. XD

Ah, you're proving the old saying "practice makes perfect", then. -nods- I can be highly sarcastic as well. Common trait in my family, too.

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I wish I could like that post more than once. Yeah, or complete, furious rage. Anger can result in sarcasm. Rage so bad a character is willing to torture another character to death is usually not a fitting moment for a dry remark. Most of those who can't tell the difference between sarcasm and whining are also those who can't tell the difference between descriptive and purple prose or between witty and boring. (-cough- Hey, those sound like key-characteristics of Sue-writers... how surprising-cough-) Aw, thanks for the compliment.

Broken Oval Doors Are Croaking In Old, Ugly Shack L E A P F R O G

You had me smirk at that bit of dialogue, Cuzosu. I agree, sarcasm and snark are wonderful in almost any circumstances. Pity that there are some people out there who apparently never got the key-word: almost. (That, and people who confuse 'sarcasm' with 'whine'). I like it as a writer, because I know it gives my characters backstories and a past without me having to info-dump. I like it as a reader, because it means someone actually thought about their story and what way they want to write it - means they've put in effort. Ah... but is wisdom not exactly that anyway? Paying heed to life's lessons, I mean.

Exactly. If for some reason you have to introduce a skill not long before the skill has to be used, it's better to not do it by having the skill-possessing character mention it out of the blue. (There are exceptions, of course. Can be humorous if done well, especially if followed up by a deadpan snarker along the lines of 'anything else you should have told us about before?', but it's just as easy to do it wrong.) Perhaps my favorite way is dropping some small hints here-and-there a bit earlier, simple sentences that don't necessarily attract attention but that do hint at the skill (at the very least, hint at it in hindsight), however, that's not always possible - especially when earlier chapters/books/episodes/cartoons/name-media-form-here have already been released. When not possible, I agree that the ways you mentioned would work very well. Or have it be a skill closely linked to one the readers already know the character possesses. (Say, you have a character that has a lot of experience with potions. It wouldn't be much of an issue to reveal they also have knowledge about poisons. Or, like you said, picking pockets and picking locks.) Though basically, I guess this all comes down to, "before you tie your plot into a nice pretzel-shape, at least have a clue how to get it straight again". It's difficult to pull something off as anything else than an Ass Pull when it is an Ass Pull. (Also, I apologize for using tvtropes terminology. )

I agree with you there, Cuzosu. I also prefer only having the history of a character explained as it comes up, or as it is important, etc. However, it takes skill to do that well - it can easily come across as handwaving or cheating or a cop-out if a writer suddenly reveals to the readers that, because of this or that, Character knows a handy skill just at the appropriate time for that to be revealed. "Nah, we're not going to rot in this dungeon forever, Char. A. Did I never tell you that I, Char. B, am a lock-picking expert because of my time spent with the Thieves' Guild? What do you mean, "Did you spend time with the Thieves' Guild? I never knew that!"?" Three chapters later, "Gimme that bow, Char B. I know he's still [incredible distance] away, but I've hit targets from further than that! You... you didn't know? Oh, right... before your time. Still got the skill, though. Practice daily. Yes, you've never seen me - I practice stealth and marksmanship at the same time."