I see you have stumbled upon my page . . . I'm Ninalyn, a 22-year-old theatre major studying with the ultimate goal of becoming a voiceover talent. When I'm not doing schoolwork, eating, sleeping, or reading, I'm almost always writing or roleplaying. If you read my work you may already have come to this conclusion, but allow me to state it here: I believe the most important things to remember when writing are that no romance, no sex scene, no comedy, no tragedy, no story is complete or satisfying if the situation seems contrived and the characters do not ring true, and so my main objective when I write is to tell a good story while remaining in-character. I do not believe in romance for romance's sake; if the chemistry is there, the characters will tell you. I do believe in research; I think the road to hell is paved with unresearched stories, and I will shout it from the rooftops. Doing your research is the difference between "eeeeh" and "oh my god, this is amazing." Anybody who thinks I'm talking through my hat is welcome to check the archives of my local newspaper, where I've been published several times (granted, there is a difference between writing editorials and writing fiction, but the point still stands).

Outside of my writing beliefs and preferences, I'm on staff for the anime con Erie Anime Experience, which I encourage you to look up because while it's small, it's also a lot of fun. Our dates this year are 10-12 September 2010, with a guest lineup of voice actors Kyle Hebert, Ellyn Stern, and Richard Epcar, professional animator Brad Pattullo, and musical guest Gavin Goszka, so check it out!

My view on concrit: I love to get it and I will give it without pulling punches. If there is an error in my work, please feel free to point it out to me; I take pride in making sure I am posting something of quality, but every once in awhile those errata just slip right by you, and if it's big enough to be caught, then I need to fix it.

My view on characterization: No good story has bad characterization, and no bad story has good characterization. These two things go hand-in-hand. Remaining in-character doesn't mean you have to be a slave to canon or that A/U is forbidden--I think I'd lose my Author's License just for suggesting it. What it does mean is that you need to think about what decisions a character really would make. Sherlock Holmes once said: "It is a mistake to theorize without data. One inevitably begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." The same is true of good fanfiction writing: twist the story to suit the character, not the character to suit the story.

In the meantime I leave you with some things to ponder:

"How vain it is to sit down to write when one has not stood up to live." ~ Henry David Thoreau

"You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair - the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page." ~ Stephen King, On Writing

"Life isn't a support-system for art. It's the other way around." ~ Stephen King, On Writing

"The only thing a first draft needs to be is done." ~

"The book is the boss." ~ Alfred Bester

"I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you’re alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it." ~ Samantha Black Crow, "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman