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BUST A MOVE FANFICTION
Hazirah M

This is a short unprofessional essay (if you could call it an essay at all ^^;;)
about writing Bust A Move fanfiction. This isn't a guide on writing it, but an
essay on difficulties faced. Bust A Move is also known as Bust A Groove, and it
is a rhythm and dance action game (I'm not sure what the actual genre is called
^^;;). I originally wrote this in 2001 and it was more about my fanfiction than
fanfiction in general, but in September 2002 I redid the whole thing, and it is
as you see it now.

BEFORE READING, NOTE:
- This is not fanfiction. This is an essay ABOUT fanfiction. Geddit? ^^;;
- This is © Hazirah 2001-2002 although I seriously doubt that anyone would copy
  this damned thing... it has nothing to do with you, nothing worth stealing...
  but if there is, please don't steal it anyway! Stealing is... NOT good!


>> CHARACTERS' PERSONALITIES >>

One problem with writing about the characters' doings is that you don't really
know the characters' personalities, the main focus of the game being dance and
rhythm does not go in-depth into an individual character's story or qualities.
You can tell a bit about them from their appearance, their dancing, their Indi-
viduals, their Winning stances, and the little backgrounds we are given about
them.

Some people have done very well analyzing (that I've seen) characters' persona-
lities, likes and dislikes from what little information we have, yet often peo-
ple are not as transparent as they seem, and likewise even game characters may
not be exactly as they seem. Heat may seem arrogant, but does that mean he won't
help a fellow dancer who is in trouble? Tsutomu looks like a brat, but who's to
say that he won't be more interesting when he becomes a teenager?

It's just a game, you say, so you should be allowed to base your characters on
the personalities that seem obvious to them. Yet when you're writing a story
based on characters whose 'official' personality traits are little known to you,
when you run out of these obvious qualities, you are forced to invent some of
your own.

Still, this may turn out to your advantage.

When you are allowed to invent your own personality traits for a character, the
character becomes more interesting to you, and your reader. You may turn out
with a customized version of that particular character that is just as intrigu-
ing, if not more, than the original character. And if every fic-writer wrote
about the same character in this way, the result may be a group of different
versions of that character. There is a bigger variety of fanfics, and this makes
reading BAM fanfics unpredictable and much more interesting.

Which is the optimistic theory.

Not everyone likes to go in-depth into a character's story or personality
(including me ^^;;), so in the end, most Heats are arrogant, most Shortys cute
and energetic, and Strikes tough-talking with take-no-shit attitudes.

And there is nothing wrong really with that, but sometimes you like a little
depth, a little extra something.


>> CHARACTERS' STORIES >>

Similar to the characters' personalities, there is lack of information on the
characters' individual stories, unless you've seen the BAM2 endings. ^^  Again,
you can get creative and extend on the stories in detail, or stretch the stori-
es backwards or forwards into the past or future.

Absolutely anything can happen in the future since you are not tied to incidents
that don't allow you to do take certain paths in life. For example there is no
definite fact that anyone in the game gets married or starts dating someone else
in the game (otherwise you will have to either ignore the fact or to break off
the couple if you don't plan on writing about the relationship), or that anyone
dies (you can't bring them into the future except as ghosts or if they happened
to leave behind any children o_O;;).

There are only a few definite things in the game that might affect the future,
such as Robo-Z being defeated, or Gas-O going to jail for causing his father
serious damage ^^;; or one or more of the characters eventually ending up on the
Dancing Heroes TV show. But if you want to write about Heat and Comet starting a
relationship there's nothing to stop you, if Shorty decides to build a theme
park based on her stage in BAM2 then there's nothing that says it can't happen,
and if someone builds a more successful Robo-Z that's okay. You only have to so-
mehow pull Gas-O out of jail or some rehab centre or explain why James Suneoka
is suddenly a tourist guide in your fic when he already has a job on the Dancing
Heroes TV show.

As for the past, you can probably write about anything that doesn't clash with
the character's story. If you're imaginative, there's probably lots of possibi-
lities when it comes to writing BAM fanfiction.


>> THE FANFICTION PLOT >>

Some writers tend to explain how all the dancers got together, and you can work
on that, building up a story whether it was originally a dancing competition or
if it was all by chance and they all turned out to be good at dancing. In this,
the game setting becomes flexible and the stages where the characters dance may
turn out to be actual places, or maybe just a setting someone has built, or
maybe a studio set on a film or TV show. It's up to you.

Writers may write about one character only, perhaps not based on the game at
all but based on an in-depth story of the character, or maybe his or her feeli-
ngs. The plot for such a story should be easier to write since there's only one
main character to worry about, unless you are adding in a whole load of origin-
l characters, which would just require a more complicated plot for a number of
characters.

Then you get to a common type of BAM fanfic... where all the dancers hang out.
You may have a specific plot, such as a chance meeting, or the characters gett-
ing together for a specific reason. But it's a bit strange to have all or some
of the characters hanging out in some random place (as is often in my own fics
^^;;) - I mean, they may have formed new friendships and relationships, but
these would have to be stronger than the ones they already have if they started
hanging out together.

Also, there's the difference in ages. Why would Heat have Shorty hanging out at
his place, unless he's decided he likes young girls, or Shorty is there on an
errand? Their occupations and interests, other than dancing, also seem to diff-
er. Frida is a painter, Kitty-N a celebrity, Kelly an office girl, two of them
being teenagers and one being in her twenties - unless they have suddenly beco-
me great friends, why would they be going out shopping together, or enjoying on
a boat trip together?

I admit to be guilty of writing pointless stories with no background of the BAM
characters hanging out together - though my writing is more of the humourous
kind which doesn't necessarily need a lot of background. Maybe your plot of what
HAPPENS is more interesting to read rather than why the characters were together
in the first place. But sometimes it's nice to have some background.


>>

So ends my really lame essay. It's all very disorganized, but I deem it more
interesting than the original content. ^^


TITLE    : BAM Fanfics
FOUND AT : http://www.angelfire.com/ego/saya238/write/bamfanfics.txt
AUTHOR   : Hazirah M.
E-MAIL   : hazirah@hotmail.com