Okay, this is longish and has a few asides. I'll tag out the asides so you guys can focus on the meat.
--- I found myself back online (after a six month hiatus) on March 1 and, since then, much has changed here on the FFML. Having been on the FFML for ten years now, without as much as a peep over the latter half, I think I can now safely say what I've been mulling over for the last few months. Now, I - that is, Switch - have been trying to get off my ass to write for the last few months, since I now have some free time on my hands, I've been deliberating over no longer writing fanfiction. <nostalgia> See, before I started, I was all into fanfiction, particularly Ranma fanfiction, and had read the large majority of what was available at the time on RAAC. A bunch of us, my friends from high school, meantime were joking about making a fanfiction comic. We decided to use the name "Nikholas F. Toledo" as our collective pseudonym; years later, this became the Nikholas F. Toledo Zu, with the "core" six members. We started out when Stargazer's ronin ML came into being, posting Vector's "Time and Time Again", Pervert's "Split Ends", goo's "Untitled", my own "Switch" and "Whoremonger" and Rain Man (then Don Juan)'s "The Three-Fold God's Path". Our poorly designed geocities website (by yours truly) had Yebah's artwork, accounting for all the members at the time. When the FFML came back online, the Zu had increased to include our first non-producing member (Scruples), more writers (Hollie ["The Pitcher", "Rogues"] and NomaD ["The Leper", "Lunar Urge"]), more non-writers (Blitz, Gee), Datzo ["Stellaris"], Jewel, elf ["Reunions and Tragedies" and "Through the Looking Glass"]. Radler ["Angel's Chronicles"] was later assimilated, followed by a creative group under the name of Pinball ["Illycia"], the writing "twins" Mayhem ["Memories", "Twenty Less Lonely People in the World" and as many spamfics as I did] and Chaos ["Chaos" and "Wyrd"], and the amalgamation "Father" [who was, at the time, me and the Scriviner, and I think Rain Man, poised to write "Wandering Boy Bob" chapter 3.5]. The geocities site closed, we moved to webjump, and to my mydestiny site, and were grateful (as are we all) to Philip Mak when we moved to anifics. During this time, the membership ballooned some more with Attar, Llewe and Katana [the other half of "HollieKatana", writer of "Variations on a Theme"]. During the downtime that followed this (I remember contributing twice to improfanfic.com), we actually added three more members (by then, we were re-envisioning what the Zu would be doing) adding Zer0, Hana and Itami. Years after this, I got a bit of free time once more, and concluded book one of "Switch". Now is four years after that time. (elf and I had posted a chapter of "Follow Suit" in that duration.) </nostalgia> <contact> During this entire time, this email account that I control has been the only point of contact with the FFML (barring others who have accounts here, like Radler and the others who occasionally lurked). We weren't savvy enough to have some sort of automatic redirection system such that when a post arrives, say C&Cing chapter 15 of Radler's "Angel's Chronicles", that Radler would immediately receive it in the mail. When we started, only a couple of us had internet access at home, so since I was playing editor to everyone's pieces, it had come to be that I would get the chapters, run through them, then post to the FFML. Clearly, now that everyone in the Zu has internet access in some form, this is no longer necessary. In fact, those among us who actually still write frequently now use fanfiction.net as a venue. This direction is good for everyone involved. The main problem with me being the sole point of contact meant that the Zu denizens could not actively participate in discussions on the list, and we were virtually masks that occasionally spouted fanfiction. I tried to be active (with participation on the Synopsis List, and occasional review duties), but it still meant no direct link between you and your favorite Zu writer. The fact of the matter is that I no longer have contact with about half of the members of the Zu. When people joined, they were already in college (with one notable exception); by now all of us have left the academe (with one notable exception that comes to mind) and have moved on to jobs, and marriage (I count five members married, with more on the way; interestingly, there are also two couples within the roster, implying somewhat that the Zu is co-ed). Once upon a time, we were all (except Rain Man, our first Overseas Correspondent) tucked here in the Philippines (land of Bleedman, for those in the know); now we have members in the US, Canada and Singapore, with more plans of migration being processed. </contact> The common avenue for members of the Zu still active in the fanfiction scene (whether reading or writing) is fanfiction.net. We've been on there for a few years now, but the ff.net account was originally "where old fanfics went to rest", followed by "where old unfinished fanfics tried to get finished". I am planning on migrating the body of Zu work there. This leads me to make some decisions, as does any time I sift through Zu fanfics: continue or ignore? As can be noted, I'm all for continue, but I am increasingly trying to wean myself off of writing fanfiction and back to writing original fiction, like I had more than twelve years ago. However, I'm not a big fan of letting an unfinished work stay unfinished. So, this is where you guys come in. I'll open some forums for some stories, initially "Switch" and "Age Don't Matter", and I will share plot points and ideas that have been percolating in my noggin for more or less five years, and hope to get some discussion going. I'd love for someone to pick up the titles and see them to their just conclusions, but I'm realistically hoping for just continuing by committee until satisfaction is obtained, in whatever form. In fact, I'm no longer certain that these titles each still have an audience, much less one interested in contributing to its continuation and culmination, but, at the very least, I offload these ideas and make them available to those who may even be partially interested. I've been asking the other members who are interested in the same deal. At the moment, Rain Man's "The Three-Fold God's Path" has been in a long-delayed rewrite, and thus won't be available. Likewise, elf plans to rewrite both "Reunions and Tragedies" and "Through the Looking Glass". Forums and uploads will follow when they will, over the course of the next month or so. If any of you have a favorite unfinished Zu story that you would like to see open-sourced this way, drop a message directly to me: I'll confer with the author(s). You can also share your thoughts on why this is a good or a bad idea. Either way, drop by the page at http://www.fanfiction.net/~nikholasftoledozu. And don't spam the entire list with things they wouldn't really need or want to hear. :p Thanks to everyone that keeps the FFML running, and sharing, and thriving. Nikholas "Switch" F. Toledo Keeper of the Zu --- .-------Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List--------. | Administrators - [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Unsubscribing - [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject | `------------ FAQ URL coming soon.... -------------'
