FINALLY. After hitting a snag and having to backtrack eight pages, the hippopotamus of a Toriko fic (AKA: The Pirate Monstrosity) is finally moving again. The end is in sight. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I don’t usually post a fic before it’s done (unless it’s under special circumstances, like Boxing Day) so I’m really relieved that this behemoth is finally lumbering its way towards a conclusion. It was my first fic for the Toriko fandom, and I would have liked it to be my first FINISHED thing too, but that didn’t happen.
Writing in the Toriko fandom, though, has been kinda interesting. The first thing, I think, that writers have to tackle is the knowledge that it’s such a small fandom.
Actually, Toriko’s not the smallest of the fandom I’ve been in (because yeah, I know the feeling of writing something and having no one read it because the fandom seems to consists of … well … me.), but I think it’s been a pretty nice and welcoming place so far. That’s really cool, because it can get quite lonely in a tiny fandom.
Also, Toriko has made me change my writing style. Maybe I’m weird, but every different fandom has a different “feel” in its writing style. I don’t mean that it takes after certain popular fan authors (though that can happen and I’ve seen it happen) — it’s more like how every individual writer has to decide just how they’re going to write when writing a Toriko fic. Are they going to use mainly past tense? Is it going to be overly descriptive? Not so descriptive? Focus on action instead of emotion?
Finding a style for Toriko fanfic has been a headache and a half for me. I usually have a really purple prose writing style. That’s actually not a good thing and I’ve been working to curb it, especially since my take on that style does not suit the fandom at all.
Toriko fiction kinda seems to need a DIRECT! ACTION! GO GO GO! kinda style to me. Also, I find myself paying a lot more attention to the five senses … mainly because that’s what the main characters focus on as well.
It’s kinda really hurt my writing because I can’t quite gotten the balance yet of how to be descriptive without being TOO purple prose-y. I’ll start wandering back into my bad habit of wanting to do this weird “pensive” style, where things are very atmospheric … and it just. doesn’t. work. *headclutchy*
Another thing that is happening is that I find myself writing pages upon pages of exposition … that is, I’m “telling” a lot more than I’m “showing.” *Sighs*
I would like to blame the manga, since it does have these long tracts of EXPOSITION-Y EXPOSITION! (TM!) WHOLE panels dedicated solely to exposition, especially when Komatsu whips out a new toy.
HOWEVER … I can’t argue with the fact that while panels of exposition are an accepted technique in manga, in text, it really truly does suck! So it really isn’t the manga’s fault, it’s mine. When editing this hippo of a pirate fic, I’ll have to keep an eye out for the long tracts of exposition … and wow, right now, it’s really really painful how much of it there is. I need a beta. *Facepalm*
I’m also kinda really scared about whether or not the readers will hang in with me until the guys actually come in. T__T I kinda got caught up in world building and well … it takes twenty pages before most of the main characters show up. Gaaah. While acceptable in real fiction, in fanfiction, it’s usually a death knell. People come to read about their favorite characters … I’m taking my sweet time getting there. Oh boy.
I’m also kinda nervous about the fact that, in a small fandom, bad fic seems horribly magnified to a point where a somewhat bad fic in a normal sized fandom becomes an EXTREMELY bad hide-your-kids-hide-your-wife one in a small fandom. It kinda really, really makes me nervous — I don’t want to be the poster child for what-not-to-do-when-writing-in-a-small-fandom!
However, even if there’s not a lot of fics (and even FEWER writers), a good number of Toriko fanfic writers AND fics are actually pretty awesome so at least I have people around me that can provide good stuff for the fandom. X3 YAY!
It’s going to be interesting to see how … or if … it develops. I think there’s great potential in Toriko, at any rate. I hope we’ll keep attracting fans and more writers too. It can only get better, after all! WOO!
