Yaaah! I am so dead! I haven't done my homework and it's already 2003!

Er. That's besides the point. Well... The point is that English L'Arc fanfiction does not do Fanfiction justice. 

Before I continue elaborating the point, I must stress that things might have changed. I have not been heavily surfing the net recently due to the lack of net access, so I'm not very much in touch with it. But part of the reason why I don't really try is that last I hung around the level of fanfiction is horrible, so I couldn't be bothered anyway.

Because my Japanese sucks big time, I shall not elaborate about that, but rather focus on the Chinese and English fanfiction scene. Basically the English L'Arc fanfic scene is not much of one. Well, that is to say, when compared with DEG fics. The only good ones that I really did like and was both captivating in language and content were the ones by angel and hirai, but the sad (?) thing is that they lost interest in L'Arc soon after. Also, these two fics are alternate universe, which is a genre of fanfiction that is often threaded upon but is also more common.

The problem with L'Arc English fanfiction is that there is too many alternate universe L'Arc fanfiction. It is not bad in itself, rather, it sort of defeats part of the purpose of fanfiction as many of these are OOC... 

Now, it is not like many people can write without being OOC, since interpretation of characters are subjective, but whenever I see a very uke-ish Hyde I know that somebody has a problem from reading too many Mary Sues and Cinderella. 

There is a basis (according to Garcia Marquez anyway) of all fiction in reality, so basically, I suppose the only way to not be superbly OOC is to actually base the character on reality. There are many ways, especially for Hyde fans (hint) to base it on reality. Lyrics, interviews, whatever. It is slightly harder for non-front-man fans, since there is the absence of lyrics, but there are always solo works and interviews.

But that said, one thing is pretty obvious-- that is, when your knowledge of the band is not enough, do NOT flaunt what you know. This is very obvious, especially when people who know the band more than you do read the fic. Inaccuracies are bound to occur, but there are some indisputable occasions such as those mentioned in interviews. By Flaunt I mean everybody knows who the hell is the bassist or guitarist of L'Arc~en~Ciel, so whenever Hyde comes to the scene, please DO NOT introduce him as "Hyde, the vocalist of L'Arc~en~Ciel, steps in with a mike and sparkly eyes, yaddayadda..."

Fanfiction is written for fans; it is obvious that the person reading it would at least know who plays what. It only serves to illuminate what little the writer knows, not how much the writer knows. Unless it serves as an integral part of the story's theme, this really is not very advisable as it only lowers the reader's opinion of the fic and anyway it serves no purpose.

And the only reason I say English L'Arc fanfic scene sucks is that ever since angel and hirai's fic, I have not really stumbled upon good L'Arc fanfiction. And the fact is, there aren't many L'Arc fanfictions in the first place!

I suppose it is a vicious cycle. Writers feed readers, and if they're good enough they can influence readers to be good writers. But I suppose if I could be said to be a medium-grade writer (but if I were to write in Chinese I'd be a low-grade writer, since my Chinese sucks^_^;;;), and angel and hirai top-grade writers, then in Chinese fanficdom they have elite-grade writers.

Nijiya and Wufanxiongling are very good examples of Chinese elite-grade writers. Nijiya's Never Again, especially, is reality-based; her interpretation of characters are supple and are very acceptable even to picky readers like me and the imagery is powerful enough to sustain the entire story. 

Wufanxiongling tends towards AU TxH, but it is still ground more in reality than usual. There are elements of normal life often embedded in the story, and it is ground so well into reality that the "life" of her L'Arc characters are so vividly written so that the subtle character development is conveyed very well. Character development and meat-and-potatoes style is a powerful and unique ingredient in Wufanxiongling's works. (BtW, Wufanxiongling wrote an original doujin fiction before; I think it could be on par with Beijing Story.)

Then there are those who write along the same grain or thread, usually SxH or GxH  gangster literature and so forth, very memorable writer (though, personally I had some conflicts with them, but that was a long time ago) was Nanase. There is a Tahitian quality in her portrayal of Hyde and Sakura's gangster-lives. The reason I didn't continue reading her works after Mirage was because I quit the scene that she hung around in, because the scene constantly and deliberately made anti-tetsu remarks. (I disliked that kind of environment, especially since tetsu fans are always the ones making concessions for hyde fans, almost like The Little Prince's Children making concessions for adults. I don't know if things changed, but I refuse to go back to see if it did.)

The fact is there are not enough reality-based L'Arc fanfictions in English. Unless you count the SxH ones, which is really, by the way, over done, especially the 1997 bit. Unless the writer does it in a special way, which is more often not than yes, it is not advisable for the writer to write the 1997 scenario.

In Chinese L'Arc fanfiction, there are plenty of good HxT ones (or even TxH) that are based on reality. Although many of them tend to be slightly OOC (at best), and biased especially if they are written by Hyde fans (YES! I AM BIASED AGIANST THAT! Muwahahaha!), at least they have supple language and imagery that could sustain the novella-length fanfiction. Proportionately less of their fanfiction sucks compared to English; there are more writers than English L'Arc ficdom, however, they have less sucky writers than English L'Arc ficdom. And of course, proportionately more good fanfiction.

Of course, they have more variety too; GxT, TxT, SxT and so on. Recently GxT and KxT is very popular amongst xT fans, and among GxT writers LiYu is rather memorable for her fiction on an AU semi-neurotic Gackt obsessing over a resisting Tetsu. The concept of the story is much more interesting than many L'Arc English stories (the overdone angel-demon thingy...). 

In fluff, so far Yousei by Klein has left a very deep impression. A super-cute Tetchan yousei with a strong-willed Hyde yousei met up with Tetsuya Ogawa and Hideto Takarai-- the result was very manga-like. The narration of an adorable child-like Tetchan is coupled with a parallel of real-world Hyde and Tetsu relationship, thereby relating the story itself to reality and yet provides room for imagination. What about English fics? There is not so much imagination in English fluff; none of them has been memorable thus far (ok, I admit, not even my own).

The point of fanfiction is that it is harder to write than original fiction. The restriction is that characters must correspond to the real L'Arc members, so that they actually seem like fanfiction. Indeed, if characters could be replaced by any Tom Dick and Harry and thus by doing so would lose the characterisation of the person, then it definitely is not fanfiction. If Tetsu is a meanie who growls at anyone that comes near him like Kyo, then this is definitely not Tetsu. If Hyde is an Uke which bursts into tears every ten lines or so, then this cannot be Hyde.

Character development is thus needed to be present. Why do they do this? Because the formula used for writing their characters are based in reality, therefore they do this. Why does Tetsu grind his teeth when he sleeps in this fanfiction? Because he grinds his teeth when he sleeps in reality. So on and so forth. It can be present even in AU fiction. Indeed, the characters can be totally different, that is to say, if the fiction is AU then the character has definitely undergone a life that is totally different from what he has led in real life. If Tetsu was a mermaid in the story he couldn't be a human at the same time. But there is a way, which is difficult, to develop the story such that Tetsu fits into the role of the character very well-- so that Tetsu retains characteristics of a Tetsu in real life. This is even harder to achieve, which is why many English AU fanfics fail.

But if Chinese-speaking people can do that, why can't English speaking people do the same thing? Language aside; people from China speak Chinese as their first language. People like me, English speaking people, do not necessarily speak English as the first language (my first language is actually Chinese...^_^;). It is already a common barrier. Yet even content cannot be put on par with Chinese fanficdom. This is something to be mourned; part of the reason is that English L'Arc fanfic writers do not do character development well enough.

The spirit of fanfiction is versatile; it can be sad, it can be happy. It is up to the writer. It does not necessarily have to be on par with the band itself. Yet certain characteristics must be retained, and certain writing techniques could be employed to make the story sufficiently intense and supple.

The problem with English fanfiction content is that the spirit is not versatile enough (hello, too much anime fluff and DEG nihilism for you peeps), and the characteristics aren't being retained well enough. How do we retain it? We could get to know more about the band first. It's not like people can learn to read Chinese in a day, and translators could only do so much; there are not many translators of Chinese-> English in the first place. -_- 

At any rate... how do you improve your writing, fanfiction or otherwise? Quit reading Fried Rice and start reading something different, for once! It exposes the person to different writing styles and content. Neil Gaiman for example is a very versatile writer, and Terry Pratchett proves to be a very good laugh once in a while (Soul Music... The Truth... Good Omens... Neverwhere...). If your English really sucks, then read Christopher Pike; his writings are for teenagers; the language is relatively simple and yet the content is powerful. There are also arty farty stuff like TS Eliot (What the hell does the Wasteland mean?), detective stuff, sci-fi stuff, realism, superbly boring interpersonal relationships and hierarchy by Jane Austen, rambling male chauvinistic Romantics, et cetera. 

And of course... WRITE MORE! If you can't bring yourself to read the forementioned crap, then just do this. Practise makes perfect. It generally is true, and is really the basic thing that a writer can do to improve his or her standard.

And readers, that's where C&C comes in. Because writers sometimes cannot see what is good or bad about their own fiction. Another problem is that English readers are simply too stingy with their comments. Without comments, writers wouldn't know who's reading, or if people actually liked it. The lack of comments would thus discourage writers. So, why not shower comments on fanfic writers? It's free, takes just a click of a button, and really is the simplest and most basic way of appreciating others' efforts. Besides, the writers would be eternally grateful. It's the same rationale as signing a guestbook or having a counter (which my site doesn't...). Anyway, if readers can't do their part, then why should writers do theirs? It is really a vicious paradox, so we must change where we can.

But another point is that people write and don't post it up. One point is that readers tend to worship suckky-writers for no good reason. So even if your writing sucks, nobody is going to say it sucks. Notice that up till now I haven't singled out a piece of work to diss it. People are nice, that's about it. Also seems like Chinese L'Arc fic writers don't have that problem. I'm not too sure why; it probably is a cultural thing where people are more closely knitted than English fans so people tend to be less shy. And the fact is, we need--other than GOOD writers--MORE writers! There is simply too little of us circulating around. And when there is too little, there are less chances of good writers emerging. 

And let me tell you why fanfiction? Because it is the fan's way of expressing the way they construe what happened. The band is a piece of art; the last step to complete the piece of art is audience perception. Without expressing what we know of the band, the piece of art cannot be completed without an expression of audience perception.

And this is why the idea of L'Arc fanfiction rocks, even if the quality level sucks.