My friends…I am sorry. I haven't updated in far too long!
I blame the Avengers. And a little bit of blame must be shoved onto the X-Men. And the Fantastic Four.
You see, I have recently become a huge Marvel Comics/Movies/Shows fan. Like, stay-up-until-midnight-watching-X-Men-Evolution-an d-reading-Avengers/F4/XM-fanfics huge. As huge as I used to be about the Harry Potter fandom, in other words.
YEAH! CHRIS EVANS! CAP AND TORCH! WOOT WOOT! XD XD XD XD XD XD XD
Shut up, Ziva! We BOTH got hooked on Marvel when 'The Avengers' came out, but she really got hooked on Chris Evans, aka Steve Rogers, aka Captain America. He also played Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, in 'Fantastic 4' a few years ago.
Anyways. Thanks for the reviews!
Too many fandoms and real people to name them all. I own none of it. Except me.
On with the story!
000
"Abby! Abby! Abby!"
As what usually happens when someone runs at her screaming, Abby grabbed the nearest weapon and dropped into a defensive crouch she was pretty sure she learned by watching too many Avatar reruns. Seeing that the person running towards her was only Ziva, she tightened her grip on the weapon. Ziva had tackled her too many times for Abby's guard to be let down now.
"Abby! Look!" Ziva shoved a pile of papers under her friend's nose. "I've got fans!" She then noticed what was in Abby's hand. "Were you going to stab me with a blue pen?"
"Possibly. Wait, what? Fans? Let me see that!" the blonde grabbed the papers and began shuffling through them. Of the four papers, two were addressed 'Dear Ziva'. "Ha! I've got one too!" She triumphantly held one that said 'Dear Abby' above her head. "And so does Gollum…weird."
"Think fast!" Ziva yelled, chucking the paper at the creature's head. He hissed at her and ran away with the paper clutched in his grubby hands.
"Hey! This one is addressed to both of us!" Abby pointed out. "From Melody Sparrow! It says 'Dear Ziva', and then down here it says 'Dear Abby'! Ha! In your FACE!"
"Ooh, she's 'trolling' us!" Ziva said, scanning the rest of the letter. "What's that mean?"
"Stalking, I think?" Abby shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? I don't Tumblr!"
"What do gymnastics have to do with anything?"
"What?"
"You people are all crazy," Korra said with a shake of her head and a sigh as she walked past. "And aren't you supposed to be telling people how to write good crossovers?"
"Aren't you supposed to be curing people who's bending was taken away?" Ziva shot back.
"I was, until you dragged me here!" she shot them a glare that would have made Katara proud (oh, come on, you know that in a glare contest, Katara would totally beat Zuko!) and stormed away.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Abby asked her redheaded friend excitedly.
"We lock Zuko and Katara in a room together and wait for the glaring contest and Zutara to begin?"
"What? No. Besides, I like Hatara!" Abby rolled her eyes. "No, I think we should actually do something educational that will help writers in this chapter!"
"Like what? And what's 'Hatara'?"
"Haru and Katara. I think it's also called Kataru. Well, Fyre and her gang of crazy authors always do bolded lists in 'Fyre's Guide to Creativity'," Abby mused, "I don't want to rip her off completely, so we'll just change it up a bit!"
(In the midst of a laser tag game somewhere, Fyre Elaine suddenly felt really grateful without knowing why. Shrugging it off as just another reason why she was weird, she continued blasting little lasers at Azula.)
"How so?" Ziva asked. "And don't say by singing! I know you just saw 'Pitch Perfect' a few days ago!"
Abby pouted slightly. "But…I want to be Fat Amy…and get shot with Mexican fast food at a gas station…"
"No singing," Snape sneered as he walked past. "It annoys me as much as –"
"BOTHER! BOTHER! BOTHER!" Harry and Percy yelled, running up to Snape.
"Get away from me, you miscreants!" Snape said loudly (he never really yells…) as he Apparated away, Percy and Harry running off to find him again.
"Did you show Harry and Percy the 'Potter Puppet Pals'?" Ziva asked Abby, who was looking far too pleased with everything.
"Yes. Yes I did. And they took the message to heart!" she cackled and rubbed her hands together. "Now to show them 'A Very Potter Musical'…"
"Right, I'm taking over before anything else happens," Ziva sighed, pulling out a notebook and pen.
How To Start a Good Crossover
Figure out exactly which fandoms you're going to use, and when they are going to come into contact with each other. Is it going to be the first chapter, or the fifth? Are some characters being transported into a new world or have they been there all along? When in the canon stories will the two fandoms meet? If you aren't clear on the details, your readers will only get more and more confused!
What characters are you going to focus on? Remember, just because there are two or three main characters doesn't mean you have to focus all your attention on them! Plenty of good stories are based on minor characters, people and animals that don't appear as often in canon, or maybe even they're only in a single scene. This is actually a very good tactic, as the less-known a character is, the more flexibility you have with their personality and history. If you need ideas, Google the characters you're thinking about focusing on or look up other fanfics based around them.
Are there any pairings in your story? If so, what are they and who are they? How did they get together? What is their history? Their attraction to one another? Their relationship status is important too – are they just holding hands right now, or has he gotten to second base? Even 'anti-pairings' can be vitally important – who does she hate? Does he have a rival? Who or what are your characters fighting against? (Bet you never thought of the plot as being one big pairing/anti-pairing between the protagonist and antagonist!)
WHY ARE YOU WRITING THIS STORY? Of course, the obvious reasons include satisfying your own curiosity, making fans happy, expressing yourself, yadda, yadda, yadda. But really, what are the main points you're trying to make? Are you trying to convince people that your One True Pairing is the best there is? Or are you crusading against some comment another fan made? Or maybe you're toying with an Original Story Idea and want to try out some plot ideas in a more comfortable zone: FFN. In any case, if you know WHY your writing, you'll find it much easier to actually DO IT.
"Four points is good enough for now, right?" Ziva asked as she finished writing and capped her pen. "Right? Abby?" Looking around, she noticed that she was alone, Abby having joined Percy and Harry's quest to bother Snape all day.
"Ditched again!" Ziva cried dramatically. "This is starting to feel too much like our last Barnes & Noble trip, when she left me stranded among the biographies to go find the new Kristen Cashore book." Realizing all over again that no one was there to hear her, she facepalmed and muttered something about needing to stop talking to herself as she walked away to find other people.
(Meanwhile, in GOLLUM'S LAIR (also known as the janitor's closet by the men's room)…!)
"What isss its?" Gollum hissed as he examined the paper the red-haired girl had thrown at him. "Its not mine Precious, but maybe it will lead Gollum to mine Precious, will tell me how to get Precious back from the bad Hobbitses, yesss, the bad Hobbitses that took Precious away and hurt Gollum with the bad pain rope, yesss…"
His mind slowly worked out the meaning of the words on the page, and he couldn't hold back the raspy cackle the burst from his thin chest. "Thisss…Sssandy wants to give us ringsss, Gollum! She must have mine Precious! And Gollum will get Precious back, yesss, we will gets it back!"
000
And, DONE! Whew! It took me far too long to write that. FAR. TOO. LONG. And I'm sorry. But maybe some new reviews will spur me on to more writing-moods!
Oh, and Sandy/Waves Crash/Werefaerie (Sorry, forgot how to spell your last penname! FGTC buddies For The Win!)? You may want to watch your back. Gollum seems kind of intent on stealing your jewelry, and we all know how persistent the little bugger can be.