Beast's Lair Fanfiction Author Guide

[hatori]

Elf:

Self-Styled, and hailed as the Mistress of Porn. She does a mean lemon that'll make even the most hardened of readers pucker and HNNGNGH.. That said, her biggest strength is writing Rin/Archer pairings, although she has also branched out with various other pairings with the white haired emo who only wants to kill himself. Not to mention, her Law Unto Herself series is a must read as well, with Forest kicking ass and taking names.


Kieran:

Self-mutilating, brutally honest and also a veritable cynic with a library of information within him, this author is one particular person who I draw a lot of inspiration from. In fact, if it wasn't because of Legacies of Fate, and his much missed Scions of Destiny, my own attempt at fanfiction writing, Destined Legacies, would never have been born.
SI is a reflection of himself, quite literally, but also is one of the most relatable characters in any story read so far. And his OCs are also a very interesting bunch.

Don't take it from me, read his work, and you'll see for yourself.


RadiantBeam:

Fluffy, sexy, hilarious and cute, all mixed into one package. what can i say.


Fraggle:

The Tome of Endless Snippets is a drug. 'Nuff said.

[lhklan]

Hope I don't get on anyone's nerves with this...

Santo: Master of the MoodWhiplash, can switch between moods so fast sometimes it can break a reader's metaphorical neck. Great fight scene, good fluff scene - don't start, Santo - and fantastic humor scenes. Have a tendency to repeat things for the sake of humor.

Daneel Rush: Absolutely hilarious. If you're reading Daneel's work, chances are you will laugh at least once or twice. His fight scenes are also quite good, though he really should just focus on one thing at a time.

Elf: If I want to see an Archer pairing, I'll look for Elf. Actually, if I want any story about Archer or Lancer, I'll just look for her.

Aiden: Intriguing descriptions of the DAA, particularly Altrouge. Also quite good at writing unexpected pairings. My favorite is still that Sella/Shirou one. Also, I'msorryfornotfinishingthatdarepleasedon'thurtme!

Old Iron: ​Great at introspective and inner turmoil scenes. Also have a tendency to use purple prose, though not in a bad way.

RadiantBeam: Might as well name her FlufflyLady. Nuff said.

fraggle: While the Tome of Endless Snippets contains numerous quality stories, the Valve Time of his production makes things rather difficult to truly enjoy.

[I3uster]

This thread deserves to liiiiive

[Polly]

[lhklan]

Ack! Didn't know I was necroing! Sorry!

[I3uster]

You can't necro a sticky.

[Arashi_Leonhart]

Does Daneel even have threads for his stories? Cause I'm not finding any.

[I3uster]

He mostly writes snippets in the Nanoha threads.

[Arashi_Leonhart]

Then he ought to get on that so Nuit can tag him and people can have easy access to his stuff.

[RadiantBeam]

Someone will probably have to ask him about it, then.

[Zalgo Jenkins]

I was looking at the "Recommended Fanfics List," and took another look at a couple of the fics near the top. So a few thoughts.

My apologies in advance to the many, many talented writers on Beast's Lair I don't mention. This is more just a look at a couple of the more frequently discussed authors on the thread (positively or otherwise):

Moczo -- Obligatory. He seems to have mastered writing comedy, although he's also done some very good serious work. The occasional Pratchett-esque narration, and the bits of absurdity ("Me llamo Luchador Rin...") work very well, and he's good at throwing the unexpected at the reader. Oddly enough, though, I think that his real strength lies in rhythm. He knows exactly how to pace and arrange dialogue to make it funny. There are several occasions where he takes reasonably good bits and make them hilarious with just punctuation and phrasing. His best dialogue has this weird stutter-step feel to it that keeps the reader guessing.

Gabriel Blessing -- A bit unusual, given that (1) he's not a BL author, (2) he doesn't like BL, and (3) a lot of posters don't like him either. His In Flight completely fell apart. The Hill of Swords worked significantly better because he didn't need to worry about pacing or manage a large cast. Give him either a small cast and focused plot (Debt of a Sword, some of his horror) or a prearranged plot (Hill of Swords) and he can pump out gigantic and fun-to-read chapters. He writes basically one character in multiple guises, but he does that character really well. And he writes incredible action scenes. I hear he's writing original fiction these days. Give him something like Lester Dent's prearranged pulp formula and a Dresdenesque assassin, and I think he could create churn out some very fun urban fantasy in vast quantities.

Arashi Leonhart -- I would agree with what a lot of other people have said here. He integrates atmosphere, mood, and character extremely well. Yeah, admittedly the action scenes are more limited than some, but those aren't always the primary focus. The minimalist writing style makes you fix on little points that expand after you roll them around in your mind. They stick with you a lot better than walls of description because they cohere with the characters' mindsets and the story's mood. The snark and bits of humor are also excellent whenever he chooses to insert them. (Which he does at the right points and in proper quantities). What I See remains my favorite short (serious) story on BL.

Stormedge -- His Tainted Ideals is, IMO, the best long story in the fandom. He mixes humor into a fairly serious plot, but doesn't overuse it. This is key. We all have a tendency to insert silliness for silliness's sake, especially since many BL authors are pretty good at it. Stormedge is pretty restrained. He certainly can write funny moments (see his Pokemon/Fate riff, which is hilarious), but knows when he doesn't need to. He strikesvery close to the perfect balance between action -- where his scenes are all excellent -- mystery, character interaction, humor, darkness (oh, boy...), and even a little bit of romance. He also chose to use a twisted person as the main viewpoint character, and made him both consistent and sympathetic. Not easy. Unlike GB above, he never lets the story get away from him. The pace remains frantic despite a pretty long word count.



...There are lots and lots of others, but I need to keep myself from sitting at the computer all night writing a wall of text. This should do for now. I'll have to add others later.

[Daneel Rush]

Someone will probably have to ask him about it, then.

I would suggest to make your evaluations of my writing prowess when I post a proper fanfic (it's in the works, I swear!) instead of snippets or fanfiction of fanfiction.

On a side note, I really should make time one of these days to sit down and share my own thoughts on the people whose fanfics I've read.

[KageX]

I would suggest to make your evaluations of my writing prowess when I post a proper fanfic (it's in the works, I swear!) instead of snippets or fanfiction of fanfiction.

On a side note, I really should make time one of these days to sit down and share my own thoughts on the people whose fanfics I've read.

Well given your non-Nasu fanfictions I would have to say that one of your greatest strengths is "humanizing" characters making it so that people can understand their actions. No matter how vile or cruel one can see where the character is coming from, and to accept that this is logical given the character.

Not many people can pull that off well for characters who by all rights should be reviled because of what they do.

Another strength of yours is depicting just how utterly inhuman and unnatural some of the bullshit hax that characters can pull is and get across just how wrong and terrifying it should seem to an observer. It is really quite a good way to carry across the gravity of the situation. So many authors just go "it's cool, and you should think so to" instead of addressing how utterly terrifying such things should be to people in universe.

Those two are things that have stood out to me when reading your works.