Date this was updated: 10/30/07

"You cannot twist the rules until you LEARN the rules." -WeLcOmE2pArAdIsE, talking about writing fanfiction.

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Fanfiction Rants:

Why do I bother putting this in its own section? Well, the answer is simple, my fellow authors. It's because it deserves its own section, and it deserves to be the very first. Why? So I know that people will read this. My bio was much too long and I had to make cuts. So here we go, my fanfiction rants.

Rant 1: Now, you all probably know this by now, but my reviews aren't necessarily going to praising your work. I like to read it through and pick out little details, try to interpret it, etc. Some fics are much longer than others so sometimes for the longer fics I won't exactly remember all the minute details, but for shorter fics, just expect the review to be longer than the story. But to expand on this topic, I believe that even the newest members of fanfiction have the potential to spell at least most things correctly, use proper grammar (all right, face it, if you didn't pass English then you shouldn't be writing stories), at least try to get the characters right (don't worry, even the best get it wrong sometimes), respect all the main characters, as opposed to bashing them, and to come up with a decent idea, cliched or not. Now, seeing that the Teen Titans fandom is filled with kids who can't even do even one of those things, I figure I help these kids reach up to their potential. I mean come on! I had WAY better spelling and grammar skills when I was 10 compared to the other 10-year-olds on here! I learned in 5th grade that you had to make a new paragraph every time someone new speaks (but one of my friends who transferred to my school in 7th grade didn't learn that until she kind of failed on her short story, even though I TOLD HER SO, but anyways). So really, if you're young I don't expect you to come up with the greatest plot with the best developed characters, right? But I do expect you to spell things correctly and use punctuation and capitalization when needed. You learned that in first grade! Or at least I did, probably even before that. Every sentence begins with a capital and ends with a period, right? Am I right? Good.

Rant 2: I detest flames. I have only written about 3 or 4 within 2 years, but those were only because I was in a bit of a bad mood... and I felt offended about what they wrote, so to speak. But on a normal occasion when I don't like the story, I don't flame. That's just mean and immature. I mean really, flaming will not decrease the amount of mediocre writers on here! The best solution is to tell the author what they are doing wrong AND how they can fix it. Of course, there are times when an intelligent flame will be allowed to go past me, but it all just depends on how the story was written and if the meanness was really necessary. And then there are times when the immature flamer will attack everyone he knows without reason and just say stupid things... and then there arethe pairing flamers, oh don't even get me started! Do you know how many times I have gotten flamed for liking CyRae? I mean honestly! It's just a cartoon!

Rant 3: We all know the phrase, "This is fanfiction so I can write about whatever I want!" right? We also know that this phrase is abused well too often, right? I mean yes, this IS fanfiction and you don't have to go EXACTLY with the canon, but the point of fanfiction is to create a plot using a fandom's characters. You need to draw the line somewhere, and that line has been drawn to coming up with different non-canon couples for your plot. You shouldn't change a character's personality, you shouldn't cut main characters just because you don't like them (poor Cyborg has been a victim well too often T_T), you shouldn't treat a character like crap (NO BASHING), etc, etc. Any good author should just know where the line is. You new authors out there will just have to learn for yourself why this line is so important.

Rant 4: Bashing. Ah yes, bashing. I don't like it. You should not treat canon characters like crap because I'd be willing to bet that they are better characters than you would be able to create. You should be ashamed, to call yourself a Teen Titans fan yet you treat one of the most important characters in it like they mean absolutely nothing to the show, when in reality they mean a LOT. Take Starfire for example. In How Long is Forever, the team drastically fell apart without her. Do you think your favorite character would like it if you bashed her and called her a slut? Or take Terra. You really think season 2 would have been better if Slade were trying to break apart Beast Boy's and Raven's love for each other rather than having a stranger come to the tower, leave, come back, betray, and then die to save the city? I don't think so. Or even Malchior. He treated Raven like crap, and he deserved to be killed by her, but why bash him? He's already dead and besides, we wouldn't have had Spellbound, a really cool and wonderful episode, without him.

Pairing bashing is stupid too. Just because someone thinks that RobRae is awesome but you don't, that doesn't give you the right to go up to that person and tell them to go to Hell for thinking differently from you. Wow, free-thinkers. They're so horrible! We all need to think exactly like I do or else God will smite us all:insert sweatdrop smilie here:

And author bashing. So what if a person is stupid or wrote a bad story? You don't publicly humiliate that person by name! Now I know, I just put up a story that might cause some controversy, but I'm not personally bashing any authors. I'm satirizing the fact that a certian plot is way overused. It has nothing to do with the people who wrote a story like that. It has to do with how sick I am of that plot and I had the gull to show how sick of it I am to the world. Again, IT'S NOT ABOUT THE AUTHORS.

Rant 5: To start, OCs are wonderful creatures, indeed they are. But the bottom line is: Don't make perfect, don't make you, don't make Mary Sue. Wanna know more about Mary Sue? Go to http://www.fictionpress.info/s/1440163/1/ and read it. It's extremely helpful, trust me. Come on, why don't you trust me? I wouldn't take you some place strange, would I? By the way I fixed the link. So you can read it now. Yay!

In fact, thanks to the wonderful members of the Robin and Starfire Shrine in the Fanfiction Pet Peeves thread, I am able to provide you with some lessons about how to create a good OC.

The Rules of OC's:

Lesson 1: OC's should not have super powerful abilities that surpass that of normality or the Titans' abilities.

Lesson 2: OC's should not have physical beauty that surpasses the normality of the Titans' physical beauty.

Lesson 3: It is not always necessary for the OC to have a 'tragic past' that somehow no one will question and the Titans welcome them into their home without FREAKING WONDERING.
Lesson 4: The OC does not always have to develop a secret relationship, or any relationship, for that matter, with one of the Titans. Can't the poor OC just be alone?

Lesson 5: If a canon character can fill the role of the proposed OC, use the canon character.

Lesson 6: It is not always necessary that when the OC is good, they should join the Titans.

Lesson 7: As with most things, if said OC were to join the Titans, they would most likely take some getting used to, and it is entirely possible for there to be a fight or two.

Lesson 8: It is not always necessary for the OC to have an arsenal of weapons and/or abilities that would make the U.S. Military look like pacifists.

Lesson 9: An OC does not always need superpowers/abilities. OC's can be normal people.

Lesson 10: An OC does not need to steal Robin away from Starfire. And even if she does, she/he does not need to be an uber-beyotch.

Lesson 11: An OC shouldn't be related to another canon character under most circumstances. And if they must be related, don't make them prettier, smarter, or just downright better than the canon character they are related to.

Lesson 12: An OC does not need to be in league with Slade to be interesting. Also, an OC does not need their 'tragic past' to have anything to do with Slade.

Lesson 13: If your OC is a character mentioned in association to the show/manga/book/comic/etc. for which you are writing, but has little to no screen time, try to make them as in character as you can, not using their name as an easy out for character development.

(Yours truly made up 2, 9, and 11, at least)

We also came up with:

FanFiction Etiquette

And helpful tips ;)

--A Guide For Writers and Reviewers Alike--

FF Lesson 1: You don't have to post everything that you write. In fact, if you need to warn people about a lot of things, just don't post it.

FF Lesson 2: Not having a word processor with spell check IS NOT an excuse for misspellings in your narrative. Get a beta or download the word processors fanfiction.net has to offer.

FF Lesson 3: Yes, this is fanfiction, which means that you can use your imagination to put your favorite characters in your plot and situation, but that doesn't entitle you to destroy the personalities that the creators of those characters have given them. Keep the characters in character.

FF Lesson 4: If you need to resort to petty insults and swearing to defend your work, you shouldn't be posting anything.
That applies to fanart, too. I can't count the times I try to give an honest critique and get jumped all over for various things. The most common defenses are "If they WANTED a critique, they'd have asked for one", and "Just because you don't like the style...", and so on.
If you post something, expect critiques. And don't bitch when you get them.

FF Lesson 5: You should not beg people for reviews, or threaten not to update your story if you don't get enough. It is unappealing and makes people with meaningful reviews think twice about submitting them.

FF Lesson 6: Do not let reviewers harrass you for updates, nor should you do it to others. Writers, while they love what they do, have lives.

FF Lesson 7: Do NOT plagiarize anybodies work, whether it's a whole story or one sentence. Try to be original in all your work, it pays off.

FF Lesson 8: Be high in your ratings: If you're not sure, higher is always better.

FF Lesson 9: Reviewers, in turn, pay attention to the ratings... something might be rated 'Mature' for a reason. Don't turn around and vent your spleen on an author because of sex or violence if that's what the rating entails.

FF Lesson 10: Changing your pen-name is not a good idea. Only change it if you really need too; not because your changing from one category (show/manga/comic/etc.) on to the other.

FF Lesson 11: Don't rush the story! It takes much longer to write something than it does to read something. Take your time describing things and add much dialogue where it is appropriate, and your story will flow very smoothly.

(Yours truly made up 1, 3, and 11, at least)

This list was made by: SailorStarfire07 (me, aka Vandagirl), SweetNymph, Tarston, WelcomeToParadise (WeLcOmE2pArAdIsE), CherryCoke (Neilie), and tigerchic121.

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News: I don't write fanfiction all that much anymore. I have plenty ideas, I just never really feel like writing it sometimes. I constantly look back at what I currently write and I'm hardly ever satisfied. Right now I'm working on a 5-book series, mostly writing down plot points in my handy dandy notebook, but also working on chapters that I'm also constantly dissatisfied with. But I truly want to finish this project. If it ever gets published, I hope you buy it!

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Websites I'm Registered On:

http://www.fictionpress.info I'm there as Vandagirl

http://www.youtube.com I'm there as SailorStarfire07. I was getting tired of Vandagirl...

http:// I'm also there as SailorStarfire07. If you are a RobStar fan, register there! Seriously, it's amazing. You will not regret it.

I'm also on other random websites. If you really want to know you can ask me, but... yeah.

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TERRA IS NOT EVIL! She was just midlead, and Slade completely screwed her over. If you want to argue, you have my permission to email me. I'm curious on what people have to bring up. Unless people come up with more than I could think of, then I'm confident that I'll win. So, message me if you think otherwise and want to debate. Go ahead. I would love it.

In fact, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8QCNLrtBZk
It'll smack you in the face about what happened during Aftershock II. Terra-bashers love the line, "My name is Terra, I have done horrible things, and I have absolutely no regrets." But little do they know that once you actually take the episode and break it into pieces, you'll see that she DID have regrets.

I'll mostly write about Teen Titans, because that's my favorite cartoon. I might write about other things as well, most of them you probably wouldn't expect me to write about, but hey, everyone's full of surprises, right? Now, for my personal info.

Name: Just call me Vandagirl, or some sort of variation of that. Even if you are trying to insult me with it. Go ahead. It makes me chuckle.

Age: 18

Birthday: May 19th. Yeah... not very many people have this particular birthday, but I think that's a good thing.

Fave Music type: Rock, hands down. But I also like some Celtic and bluegrass (it is NOT the same a country!) and some pop here and there (Kelly Clarkson pop, not Britney Spears pop!)

Fave Bands: My three favorite bands of all time are The Goo Goo Dolls, Collective Soul, and 3 Doors Down. My 3 favorite girl artists are Loreena McKennett, Imogen Heap, and Regina Spektor. But I also like Evanescence, Breaking Benjamin, Kelly Clarkson, Matchbox Twenty, Sarah McLachlan, some Nickelback, some Avril Lavigne, Counting Crows, Barenaked Ladies, Weird Al (lol), and others I'm probably forgetting. I heart music. Tis my life!

Religion: Roman Catholic Christian. Got a problem with that? Learn to accept people for who they are. That was harsh, yes, but so is bashing people for what they believe in.

Favorite Cartoons Teen Titans! Wow, major surprise there. I also like Family Guy, The Simpsons, Futurama, King of the Hill, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Invader Zim (Gir is the best!), The Fairly Oddparents, Spongebob, Danny Phantom, and I can enjoy just about any anime. But my all-time favorite would have to be Sailor Moon. It was practically my childhood, and the manga just makes it all better since I'm older now.

Favorite TV Shows: My two favorites are Monk and That 70's Show. But I also like X-Play (older ones are better, but hey), Psych, I Love The 70's, 80's, 90's, etc series, some of the other countdowns on VH1, Match Game (greatest game show ever!), Full House, The Cosby Show, Scrubs, uh... I'm probably forgetting something but oh well. Now that I'm a bit older I've started liking real life shows (about time I started growing out of my cartoon phase...)

Favorite Video Games: Anything Mario (it includes both SSB), Star Fox (lots of my inside jokes come from this game on the N64), and... anything else that I'm good at, or Halo. Halo's good too. I'm not that great at video games , but I play them anyways. Well, actually, I'm good at any Mario games. That's probably why it's listed first.

Recent Discovery: College is way better than high school. And I mean way better. In all 3 of my English classes (yes, you can take 3 English classes in college if you want!) I've learned more about writing than during all 4 years of high school combined. I developed my writing skills by being on this website and the Robin and Starfire Shrine. I didn't learn too much about writing in high school. Major downfall.

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SailorStarfire07's AMVs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfUfu-Vtig8 Black Balloon by The Goo Goo Dolls. BeastBoy/Terra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPqZHRTy9PQ Blow Me Away by Breaking Benjamin. Robin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYiYrkUVluU The Only One by Evanescence. 5 Main Titans

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFjAi6l5x9g I'm A Believer by Smash Mouth. Robin/Starfire (my personal favorite)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrsWIPCtMxU Stupid by Sarah McLaughlin. Raven or Raven/Machior, depending on how you look at it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfWUp8f8WDA The World I Know by Collective Soul. 5 Main Titans (my second favorite)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hINCtvHFvR4 The Road I'm On by 3 Doors Down. Cyborg/Raven (yes, you can actually make a CyRae video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAZhZs6Uo5A Lithium by Evanescence. Terra

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Couples I like and why:

Cyborg/Raven: I could come up with so many reasons why I love this couple. I bet everyone (immature) reading this is going, "EWWWWWWW DAT IZ ZO GRSSSSS!" But let me explain. I believe that they are a very mutual pairing. To start, they are both only half-human. And... people like to pair Beast Boy with Raven because he can make her feel better, but others pair her up with Robin because he's much more serious and can listen to her problems. Well, Raven needs both those aspects in a guy, not just one. And who makes her smile more than Beast Boy? Cyborg. And not only that, he can listen to her problems the way Robin can. Robin has a sense of humor, but he needs to tone his seriousness down a little bit, and I just believe Starfire is the one who can help him, so because of Starfire, Robin just seems to be out of the equation. So, who do you think is better for Raven? The guy who cracks stupid jokes that she doesn't think are funny and is never serious, or the guy she can make fun of Beast Boy withand is serious when he needs to be? So there you go. Cyborg and Raven. The non-canon couple that probably would be canon if there weren't millions of BBRae fans flaming it.

Robin/Starfire: There are so many reasons to state. So, so many. I'll start with this: they are best friends. Robin said so himself in the movie. I bet if you talked to every happily married couple you know (and happily married for at least 10 or 15 years) and you ask them if they married their best friend, they would most likely say "yes." Now, I don't think of Robin and Starfire as "opposite," but rather as a guy and a girl with differences that long for completion. They compliment each other like none other. And it goes well beyond something like, "Robin is serious, Starfire is bubbly." No. Believe it or not, their relationship is more complicated than most people think. Their relationship took forever to develop because they need to fit in a ton of other stuff too. If you're complaining about how Robin and Starfire haven't developed much throughout the series, well, you can blame the Terra Arc, the Cyborg season, the Raven season, and the BoE season. The movie finally gave them closure.

Beast Boy/Terra: And here come the Terra bashers with their BBRae 4eva picket signs. You know what? I really could give a rat's behind if she betrayed the Titans. I know she did, but I also know that she redeemed herself. She apologized to Beast Boy, and then SACRIFICED HER LIFE to stop the volcano. She didn't accidentally fall in it, she didn't want to avoid jail, or anything like that. She willingly sacrificed her life to save the city. But back to the couple, I find this bittersweet relationship to be adorable. Robin and Starfire have it good, and Cyborg and Raven isn't even canon, but if they were they'd have it good, so I think it's cool to add in a couple that won't exactly live happily ever after and be perfect all the time. It's kind of how some long-time couples in real life work. They have issues, issues, and more issues. But you know what? If they really love each other, they will get back together, get married, and whatnot. And I believe that they do. We all know Beast Boy still has feelings for Terra. He couldn't leave Terra for Raven, unlike popular belief. -_-u You saw him in The End pt II. I almost cried when he cried at the line, "No wonder Terra dumped you!" And I saw Things Change. I'm just hoping that they only change because it means that she can't be a Teen Titan anymore. I have faith... and fanfiction. And besides, they're the perfect couple to angst about when writing! Way better than RobRae angst, IMO.

Kid Flash/Jinx: I don't know. She really found a liking to him. I knew she was better than the HIVE too, and it was as if Kid Flash came in the TV for me and said, "You deserve better!" See-More was the only guy who ever did anything right, but it just wasn't enough I guess. But back to Jinx, because of Kid Flash I've really started to like her character. She had so much potential and BOOM! Kid Flash helped her use it. I love that episode.

Speedy/Cheshire: Thanks to a certain few members of The Robin and Starfire Shrine, I've gotten obsessed with this pairing. It's not true love but it's sure as heck fun to write/think about!

See-More/Jinx/Kid Flash: TEH DRAMA! lol. I started to fall in love with See-More a while ago for some reason. I found his character to have potential and yet the writers never make him do anything... except show compassion to Jinx in one single episode. Makes me wonder how he feels about Kid Flash, more-so than the others in the HIVE Five. I must admit, anytime they decide to bring the HIVE back into the comics or whatever, it's always focused on Gizmo and Mammoth, who people don't really even like, rather than Kyd Wykkyd, Billy Numerous (who I think is just funny even if he is annoying), and See-More. Such a shame, such a shame...

Couples I don't like and why:

Robin/Raven: Ok, this transferred back to this side. As my love for RobStar increased, by love for RobRae decreased. I still think they're better than BBRae, but for some reason, I just don't think that they could click romantically. Their relationship is a little bit more complex. I see their bond as a kind of twin bond, you know? Not just a sibling bond, but a twin bond. They are the same age, plus they can depend on each other in that sort of unique way. I like how they're similar yet they still have their differences, but does that really make for a romantic relationship? I mean just because you can relate to someone and talk to that someone about different things, just because you can get really close to this person, it doesn't mean that you have to be romantically involved, or you should be. Otherwise I'd probably be dating 5 different people as opposed to one! Besides, I know Robin and Starfire are best friends so it's not like they're just dating each other because they find each other to be attractive. That's a load of bull. You should date your best opposite sex friend after you've gotten to know him/her for a few years and if you like each other in that way. It's why I support RobStar and it's probably why Raven supports RobStar too, I'm sure. I don't think she would want to break off their relationship, you know? But even though I don't like this pairing, I still adore about half the fanfiction that gets put up about them.

Beast Boy/Raven: Just because they hugged, just because they've gotten closer to one another since the TV show started, it doesn't mean they're going to be a couple, nor does it mean that they'll be a good couple. I just can't see it. They make MUCH cuter friends. Besides, if he were to be with Raven, he would have to mature, a LOT. That would mean that he would tone down his jokes, and no respectable BB fan wants that to happen! And if she were to be Beast Boy, that would mean she'd have to nicen up. And no respectable Raven fan would want that either! "Where's the sarcasm?" "Oh, she's stopped using it ever since she got together with Beast Boy." "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ok, that's just what's happened in a lot of the BBRae fics that I've read. Does this mean I'm going to bash every single BBRae story out there? Does it mean I'm going to hate you for this? Of course not! I'll still like you as long as you are respective to my couple tastes! BBRae fans also tend to get a bad rap, mainly because of this, "Terra being evil" thing. Oh brother... you guys are SO not thinking about the episodes enough to know what you're talking about. You're not stupid, but even the smartest of people sometimes don't know what they're talking about. Anyhoo...

Beast Boy/Starfire: I like it as crack, but don't expect me to write fanfiction about them. Maybe one day if I'm really bored and have nothing else to write... which will never happen, so nevermind. It just gets messy when Robin's involved, is all. I mostly dislike the triangle more than the actual pairing. I will read it, but I don't like it enough to want to write about it.

Starfire/Cyborg: I've grown to appreciate this one, but I still don't think that this appreciation is quite enough for it to bump up to my favorite ships. I'll read it and watch videos of it, but I don't think I'll ever write about it. I dunno, it's sweet, but it's not huge on me. But I must admit, a Robin/Starfire/Cyborg triangle is more appealing.

Cyborg/Jinx: Just because he had a crush on Jinx, doesn't mean that they'd make a good couple. No one gets together with every crush that they have. Believe me, I know... T_T And I only like one story with this couple. I really don't like it. Besides, Cyborg's probably over her already, and Jinx definitely is. It was just a silly crush. That's it.

Slash: Not because I'm homophobic, because I'm not, but because I don't believe in turning heterosexuals into homosexuals. To me, that just isn't right to their character. Well ok, I find humor in Speedy/Aqualad (I make fun of it all the time, lol), but as a serious ship? Not really.

Aqualad/Anyone: It's not that I hate Aqualad, because I don't hate Aqualad. I think he's awesome. But I just don't see him with anyone well enough to say that I "ship" him with anyone. I can be flexable when reading fanfiction, but I don't think I could write a romance story with him.

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My friend Animegirl3535 hasn't been on here in forever, but if you like Yu-Gi-Oh or Rurouni Kenshin, she has some pretty good stuff up about them. So please go and read them. Even though she's never on here anymore. I just think it would be good to remind her of this stuff.

And now, I must go do... stuff. Well, I hope that you enjoy my stories!

Bye bye for now! Toodles!

Love,

~Vandagirl :D