Jaxomina: Daughter of Ruatha

[rider_of_the_last_queen]

Okay I'm just going to accept the fact that i'm just not good at writing Anne McCaffrey fanfics so I'll just give it up!

[ladyholdermara]

Rider, don't give up. It's just that using established characters we all know and love is the most difficult thing of all. You will never be able to please everyone there because they all imagine these characters in different ways.

[Lily]

Why, Rider?
I've just been back and read the crits about your work. They're not exactly encourging to your story are they?
But does your story have to be about exisiting characters? (well, half your characters are, arent they?)
There's no reason why you shouldnt write a story about a girl who had to run away from home when she'd been Searched, I always did want to know what happened to Debera and her future relationship with her family
You've probably got your story in a Word programme somewhere, but I could revive it for you if necessary

[Brenda]

If the inflexible, offensive father had been someone new rather than Jaxom of all people, I would not have had a problem with the story itself. Try rewriting it with different names; you'll need to describe people more, explain who they are, since they wouldn't be familiar characters, but that will help the story along.

[Kath]

Ah, I should have read Brenda's post before posting in the feedback thread. Mostly, I agree - except that I think she can still get away with using Jaxom providing she gives him the right motivation (or at least something well-justified, like killing off Sharra in a manner related to her career, having Jaxom nearly die of threadscoring and be paranoid of risking his family to it, making him mentally unstable, or have him focus on the dragon/weyr/sex issue (all very well for a virile man, but a LH's daughter?)).

[Something Evil]

This page contains some good information about writing fanfiction: http://www.englishchick.com/badfic/commonerr.htm

Personally though, I usually avoid writing about canon characters due to the fact that I would probably not be particulary good at keeping them in character, as it can be quite restrictive. With original characters, you have much more freedom with how to make them and the story be like.