I am nowhere near where I should be for my current writing goal but as I write I started to contemplate style.

I was wondering whether I should use macrons and other diacritics. In general I do not use macrons or diacritics on this blog because I am lazy and they take a bit longer to input. I probably should use them on some of the romanizations of Japanese words that I have used on this blog since the same word depending on whether it is a long or short vowel could mean something else entirely. As for the macron use I'm currently thinking about using in a fan fic are for character names e.g. using ō to indicate that the o in Ryoga's name is a long vowel; Ryōga.

If I do use them should I limit them to names and possible foreign words or use them on other things like acute accents such as in fiancée (which is a word adopted from french)?

Thinking about that should I call Ranma's situation engagements or betrothals i.e. should I say Ranma is engaged to Ukyo and Akane and Shampoo or betrothed to them? It is more common to see people call them engaged, which is why I'm contemplating using that term, but betrothed is probably the better term to use since betrothal often refers to agreements involving not only the couple but their families and often have binding legal or honor implications that engagements do not.

Something that just occurred to me some fics talk about some of the honor implications of breaking the engagements, often erroneous legal implications, and possible fallout (like Shampoo deciding that Akane really has to die) but I do not ever recall seeing a fic in which Ukyo or the Tendo's sue Ranma/Saotomes for breaking the engagement, which they could theoretically do under breach of promise laws. I do not know what those type of laws are currently in Japan but I do know that there are books in Japan that do have this as part of their plots for example: Kazumi Takahashi's novel, Hi no utsuwa, has the main character a university dean sued for breaking a marriage engagement.

The next stylistic thing is a common conundrum for Ranma fan fic writers, or anyone writing about a multi or no gendered being; that I have not given much thought about until just recently. Namely how should I indicate Ranma's gender? I've seen books, such as Peter David's Star Trek: New Frontier Series use hir and s/he for dual gendered beings but I personally find that annoying though I did enjoy those books. The use of singular they would probably confuse people thinking that they means multiple people instead of just Ranma. I could use it but it is usually not referred to people and may cause readers to view Ranma as not a person.

The way I am currently thinking about doing so is to, when narrating, use Ranma for male form and Ranma-onna for female form. I definitely won't use Ranma for male form and Ranko for female form because I do not believe Ranma would choose to use that alias again because of the memories associated with it and people not in the know would view Ranma and Ranko as two separate individuals. Though this maybe awkward on occasion.

When looking from a character point of view though I am unsure what to do. I originally was going to say that Ranma would always think of himself as being male, but upon further reflection that seems unlikely. Most of the time a person does not think of themselves as being male or female (I, am, me, etc. are gender neutral). Though the main reason is that Ranma has strong associations with some actions as being gender specific, so if Ranma were to be doing or contemplate doing something he associates as female he is likely to view himself as a female during those times (like putting on make-up, wearing a dress, or wearing a swimsuit). As for the other characters it would vary and be dependent on circumstance. Akane, for example, would think of Ranma as male regardless of form most of the time but there would be circumstances that would make her view him as female. Some examples: if it looks like Ranma is about to kiss her in female form or other displays of affection while in female form, a situation in which another girl is needed such as substituting for her in a contest, if he acts like a male while in female form in public (therefor embarrassing her), if she happens to notice that Ranma looks better in some outfit than she does, etc. Characters that do not know his true gender will of course use whatever gender he currently is as his gender. Then there is Tatewaki, he associates Ranma as female when in female form to the degree that all evidence otherwise is ignored, truthfully I think that would be fairly common to some extent. A person who sees Ranma most often in female form is likely to view Ranma as a female even if they know about the curse and that Ranma is actually male; particularly if they see Ranma doing things in female form they usually associate as feminine.

Next stylistic thing. Should I use Shampoo, Mousse, and Cologne or should I use Shanpū, Koron, and Mūsu? In many ways it doesn't matter and Shampoo, Mousse, and Cologne are more common (they were the ones VIZ chose to use) but I kind of like Shanpū, Koron, and Mūsu more (though you wouldn't really know it from reading this blog since I tend to use the more common one). I like them more in part because it shows that their names aren't actually hygiene products they just happen to sound like them to someone who speaks English (which was deliberately done by Takahasi).

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I'd like to say that I am off to a good start and have written at least 1667 words (50,000 divided by 30 rounded to nearest whole number) but sadly that is not the case. I had a few false starts where I wrote something and then deleted it because I did not like it. Now I do not really know what to write, the reason I am writing this post is in hopes that in doing so it will kick start me into actually writing more (I have about 150 words) and it is far too soon for writer's block.

My first start, that I ended up scrapping, had Ranma interrupted while making homemade chloroform from common household ingredients in the shed that is in the corner of the Tendo compound. The manga has Ranma use chloroform but never explained where he got it so I figured why not have Ranma making it himself (many people are surprised how many things can be made with stuff lying around the house). The household ingredients used are pool cleaner(Sodium Hypochlorite), ice, and paint thinner(Acetone) though I do not advocate people doing this unless they know what they are doing because it is not entirely safe (another thing that could be created by accident is phosgene a world war one chemical weapon). Upon reading the scene I did not like it so deleted it.

In writing that scene I started to wonder how many potential readers, provided I do ever let anyone see it, would have found that to be out of character for Ranma. In addition to that would they find it strange for several of the characters to have an extremely good understanding of things like applied sciences, though the character may not know the technical terms. How much knowledge could I give a character in a particular field before it becomes unbelievable? There are many things people would probably not find OOC, such as making a mention to a lesser known martial arts style such as Aki Kiti a martial arts style of Nagaland (a hill state located in the far north-eastern part of India). I do not think many people would find it out of character for Ranma to make a potion after watching Happosai do so (Ranma has watched Happosai do similar things in the manga and Happosai has made potions; he made a rejuvenation potion) or acquiring a book of potions and following the steps (he can read, cook and follow basic instructions so if he has a book on it should be no problem). While I am pretty sure that most people would find the above as being in character, I am unsure if they would find him doing other things like basic practical chemistry as still being in character.

That is not worded as well as I'd like, basically I'm wondering as to what knowledge I can have the characters, such as Ranma, portray without people viewing them as being out of character (though the knowledge would vary by character and what is shown in the manga). My personal view, which is probably obvious to people who have read my other posts, is that Ranma is very intelligent and would have (and is shown to have) picked up a lot of practical knowledge as well as quite a bit of eclectic knowledge during his travels. Displaying some knowledge would not be balked at such as knowledge on anatomy (since some is required just to prevent hurting people in Martial arts and he has displayed knowledge in first aid, pressure points, and the human body) or geography (he has traveled quite a bit even during the manga) other knowledge I am not sure of. Since some people would find anything I wrote to be out of character I probably should not care but it is something to think about, though as long as it makes sense for the fic and could be explained in a somewhat believable way it should not matter. A few thing he definitely will not have a lot of knowledge on, in any possible fic I'd write, is popular culture, Shakespeare, and politics; he seems to have very little interest in things like movies, music, idols, and (non-martial art) sports. He probably knows some but not a lot, could tell you how to play soccer/baseball but would be unable to name any but the biggest stars or give their stats.

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November is fast approaching and I've yet to decide anything. By this point I ought to have some clue as to what I'm going to write next month, I don't. I should have the beginnings of an outline and researching specifics. Coming up with ideas is very easy, choosing which to use and implementing it not so. I continually think of new ones and not every idea I have is Ranma related (I am not that obsessed with Ranma 1/2), though many could be were I to try and make them.

Another series I have had many ideas for is Slayers (which is one of, if not, my favorite anime). Though I am unsure as to where the best splitting point or continuity to use (novels, manga, games). Though it would be very unlikely that I'd use the games, many reasons but largest being Xelloss is killed in the SNES Slayers RPG.

Some miscellaneous, and probably not all that good since very little thought was put into them, ideas:
1.Ranma/Slayers crossover. One possibility Ranma watches the Slayers anime then deciding to have some fun he splashes himself with water and pretends to be Lina Inverse using ki techniques and tricks to mimic her spells as best he can. Another would be to have him be summoned by a sorcerer in the Slayers universe. Most of my ideas for Slayers are not crossovers (and are not posted anywhere).

2. Lupin the Third/ Ranma crossover:
Kodachi is kidnapped by a criminal organization. I chose Kodachi because she was not kidnapped in the manga, is the most reliant on objects rather than pure physical abilities, and in my opinion rates lower in skill than Ranma's other fiancees (Akane or Shampoo locked in a brick walled and steel bared room would, judging by the manga particularly the scene where Akane does just that, break out). While Ranma does not love Kodachi he would go to rescue her. The thing is he does not know where she is and her release is dependent on Ranma acquiring (i.e. stealing) several things for them.

Here is where Lupin enters the story, he is trying to get the very same items. Conflict between Lupin and Ranma, which of course would be resolved eventually, they then find out why the villain wanted the items, which leads to a grander adventure. The person who kidnapped Kodachi was just a cog in another villains very large plan for world domination (not that Ranma actually cares about who rules the world but he does care about kidnapping people he knows and murder).

3. I'd like to see a Ranma/ Dirty Pair crossover but I don't even have a vague idea how to cross those two series.

4. Idea that came from a combination of the Romeo and Juliet play and the play Ranma wrote to convince Happosai to change Pantyhose Taro's name. A year has nearly passed since the Romeo and Juliet play and the drama club approaches Ranma with a request that he star in the play for this years competition (last years play may not have followed the script but it did win the competition and was enjoyed by the audience). They word their request in such away as to trigger Ranma's competitive nature so he agrees making the stipulation that he gets to chose the play; the play Ranma chooses is one of his own making. Ranma does not write himself as the hero of the play instead he makes himself the villain who kidnaps the heroine. That's all I have for this idea, at this time.

All the above ideas and the recently posted ones, baring the Inuyasha one and the rehash of ideas in the second post that mentions national writing month, are newly conceived ideas. I have recently found a text file I created a few years ago labeled Ranma Story ideas. I am not going to post any of them. Every single one of the ideas in that text document is terrible, which tells me something about how my thoughts have changed in the intervening years. Not a one of them looks to have have anything worth even trying to salvage for possible later use.

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Even though, in an earlier post, I had ruled out comedy as being the main genre for a story this idea still came to me. This idea is mostly about Ranma and Shego hanging out and playing pranks on the various Kim Possible villains (and some of the other people as well).

Ranma would be neither a hero or a villain. Doesn't give a crap who rules the world and has no idea as to why anyone would want to, seeing it as being more trouble than it is worth. Shego won't turn good. Basically Ranma and Shego are going to do whatever the hell they feel like. Sometimes it will be stealing, sometimes scamming a casino for cash, sometimes playing pranks, and sometimes saving the world. Not a Shego/Ranma pairing, they will only be friends. Though Shego is willing to cross lines that Ranma would not which would cause contention between them.

Ranma-onna wakes up in a prison cell with Shego not knowing how he got there but more importantly very hungry. Upon learning that food will not be given for several hours Ranma breaks out taking Shego with him. Ranma than not having anything better to do at the moment goes with Shego to Dr Drakkens latest lair.

Some things could happen in the fic:
- Ranma will not interrupt fights between Shego and Kim.
- Yamachi ninja school will attack Ranma over a misunderstanding.
- Many pranks done at others expense (Ranma does do this in the manga like using ventriloquism to say "kiss me" in Akane's voice to Ryoga, sneaking up on Akane to see her reaction, dressing Akari's pig as Akane and telling Ryoga that she wants to kiss him, etc.).
- Shego will fight some of Ranma's fiancee's, if official duel Ranma will not interfere, otherwise he would attempt to stop them from fighting.
- Skillwise, in my opinion, for the girls: Shampoo>Ukyo and Akane>Kodachi, Kim Possible, and Shego. That does not necessarily mean that Shampoo would beat Kim or Shego since there are many other factors (An example as to why skill alone does not necessarily matter: Kodachi, since she is willing to fight the dirtiest using things like paralysis powder and traps, could conceivably defeat all of them at once depending on other factors).

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This idea is for a supernatural fantasy/ghost story. Ranma has for several months (offscreen parts during the manga) been sneaking into the school after hours and playing with a ghost named Hanako. Hanako is a very common ghost story told in Japanese schools (several movies and the story is told in just about all the schools with kids really being to afraid to go to the bathroom to the point that schools have started upgrading the bathrooms to make them less scary). To call the ghost you go to the third bathroom stall and say "Hanako-san, Hanako-san let's play a game". The ghost then comes out and says "Yes. Do you want to play." Depending on the story sometimes she is nice and wants to play, some times she scares people, and sometimes she kills people. She usually, and for the fic idea would, have short hair and wears the color red.

Ranma has been keeping her company some nights and they play games like Chess, Monopoly, Trivia Pursuit, Life (very popular in Japan), cards, Go, Shogi, Renju, etc. The thing is Ranma left for awhile and neglected to tell her where he was going. She starts to worry about him and goes in search for him, by randomly popping out of toilets (for the purpose of this fic she is metaphysically bound to them - place bound spirits are common in ghost stories, particularly vengeful ones, generally bound to the place they died usually by strong emotional ties). When he finally does show up and summons her she is initially glad to see him but upon learning that he was not in danger, just forgot to tell her he'd be busy for a few weeks and was not able to visit her, she gets extremely angry and drags him (still alive) either to the Sanzu river (Buddhist river of the dead), Purgatory (Catholic waiting room to the afterlife), or to Yomi (Shinto afterlife) - the Japanese would not see a problem with all three existing congruently and I don't know what afterlife I'd choose were I to write this.

That is really all I have for this idea, besides after that event instead of occasionally meeting supernatural creatures/spirits he does so with a greater frequency than he did in the manga (though he did encounter quite a few in the manga). Some would be dangerous such as the Teke-Teke (ghosts that are missing the lower half of their bodies and chase people while carrying scissors or a sickle with the intent of chopping off humans lower half and making them into Teke-Teke). Some would be harmless though freaky looking such as man-faced dog (Dog with the face of a man often seen digging in garbage, sometimes chases cars, generally tells people who happen to see them to leave them alone). Some would be helpful like the Baku (a monster that eats nightmares).

The ghosts would also have common ghostly powers, though some would be dependent on type, such as the ability to enter dreams (like the astral form of an old man Ranma went on a date with in the manga), hitodama (balls of spiritual fire that most of the ghosts had like the lady ghost who wanted her panties stolen or the Bakeneko, ghost cat, in the manga had), possession, intangibility, ability to place curses, shapeshifting, etc.

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Summary: Have you ever wondered what made the characters the way they are? Well wonder no longer for here is the tell all back stories for those memorable characters.

We know how the characters in the Ranma manga are now but besides a few glimpses into their past we don't know what made them the way they are. So I thought maybe write a story that tells how the characters came to be the way they are.

While I have a few ideas, this is mostly brainstorming/free writing. I'll use the Kuno family as the first idea. There are some things told in the manga. Such as something happened to their mother, Kodachi cooks for herself and her brother, the father had not been fixated on America prior to his leaving, Kuno senior left them by themselves for more than three years, etc.

This idea could start with whatever happened to Tatewaki and Kodachi's mother, be it her dying or just leaving them. Than the fic shows Tatewaki and Kodachi both wondering if it is because of something they did, so they try to become the best. Tatewaki tries to take upon the virtues of a samurai and Kodachi throws herself into gymnastics with the need to win, to the point she will do anything to do so. Time passes and their father becomes more and more unhinged until one day he just leaves them. Suddenly a 14 year old Tatewaki and a 13 year old Kodachi are left alone to take care of themselves. This does not go well for Tatewaki and Kodachi. He tries to control her after their father leaves them because he thinks he is protecting her and not understanding that is not how she views it. Kodachi feeling that Tatewaki is trying to lord it over her and control everything she does so she lashes out against him. This leads to them arguing and fighting until it reaches the point in which Kodachi start to regularly add sleeping powders to his food. Then we follow Tatewaki and Kodachi's lives until shortly after they meet and fall for Ranma (showing what Ranma means to them and how he fills a hole in their lives).

Instead of the Kuno's maybe do Ukyo. Start with her friendship with Ranma and daydreams about marrying him. Then show her being abandoned by her friend and the pain it causes her, not knowing why they left her. Than show her being ridiculed by the mean children in the neighborhood, particularly those she talked about Ranma to. Her being pitied by her elders. Her deciding that she will never love another man and throwing herself into her training. Show bits and pieces until after Ranma is back into her life, not knowing the pain he caused her and fighting with his fiancee. Deciding that she was wrong and that she wants to marry Ranma and those dreams she had could still come true.

This could be done for any and all of the characters.

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This fan fic idea is set the day after the failed wedding in the manga. Ranma and Happosai have fought a lot in the manga and Ranma is pretty upset with Happosai for drinking the Nannichuan; though not a lot because he assumes it was an accident. Even though Ranma is not that upset he is not above getting some petty revenge against Happosai for drinking it. To do so Ranma searches Happosai's room (wouldn't be the first time, Ranma searches peoples rooms pretty frequently in the manga), looking for something to use against Happosai (incidentally stealing any magic item/ martial arts books/scrolls/pressure point charts that Happosai happened to leave there). In his searching of Happosai's room for something to use against Happosai, Ranma finds a barely legible notebook that Happosai has written. It turns out to be a diary (Happosai got distracted and forgot to hide it away properly). Ranma reads through it hoping to find something to use against Happosai but it mostly lists girls and their three sizes and critiques on various under garments brands/styles, but interspersed amongst that is some useful information. One of the things, and the most important for this story idea, that Ranma finds out is that Happosai knew that it was not sake and that Happosai has acquired Nyannichuan to recurse Ranma if Ranma did find a cure.

Needless to say that really pisses off Ranma. Prior to finding Happosai's diary Ranma was considering just destroying Happosai's collection of undergarments and helping the girls at school booby trap the girls locker room if he didn't find anything to use against Happosai in Happosai's room, after finding it he feels like that would not be sufficient revenge. A problem Ranma has is that he doesn't know what to do for revenge, he does not want to kill or seriously hurt Happosai but does want to do something worse than just antagonize and inconvenience him.

Ranma being the impatient live in the moment type person he is generally would come up with a plan and implement it often times without thinking it through all the way. This time because Ranma is pissed and wants to come up with a really good revenge spends days trying to come up with a good plan. He comes up with hundreds but discounts them; some he feels are too excessive (those that would end up with Happosai dead), others are discounted because they are insufficient, still others are discounted because he actually spent enough time to notice the flaws in his plan, etc.

That is where the first major problem I encounter with this fic idea comes about. I can think of many possible ideas for revenge but have yet to think about a really good one.

Lets skip ahead a bit to after Ranma has successfully come up with a good revenge plan. He implements it and while it does not go exactly as planned it still is successful. This of course brings the fic to the point where Happosai retaliates. Happosai's retaliation is simple, he does what he did before ordering things in Ranma's name, trying to get Ranma blamed for things, pokes holes in the walls, etc. That does not work so well, it is sufficient to get Ranma kicked out of the Tendo house for a bit but that does not bother Ranma very much (he fully expected and planned for worse than that). Happosai, not having any magical item available to use on Ranma (Ranma stole them earlier) decides to go to various shrines and free trapped spirits - things like Kappa, Oni, and Tengu just causing as much trouble as he can knowing Ranma would go and trap them.

Ranma is then forced to hunt and capture these things, learning more about spirits and things like spirit wards. This is where there is a twist in the story. I'm not sure if I want to give it away at this time because I may, if not soon, eventually decide to write this story.

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I have read a number of Ranma/X-men Evolution crossovers that I really enjoyed, my favorite being the one on the anime adventure Ranma Evolution. The strange thing about me liking them is that I have read several of the X-men comics, seen several of the cartoon series, and seen I believe all of the movies and while I found some things interesting, overall I find the X-men to be a median rated series at best. That said, since I did like several of those fan fics I have contemplated writing one myself. The problem I have with this fic idea is that I have not really thought of a plot, instead I spent my time thinking on the logistics of merging the two (much of which is not in this post).

I decided that this fan fic would be set several months post manga and be an X-men evolution alterverse. For reasons that even I do not know why I thought up; I came up with a lot of back story for events that would happen between the end of the manga and the beginning of the story. If I were to write the story though I would be unlikely to even tell any of the back story only alluding to it or telling that which is relevant to the story.

I'm not going to list all the things I came up with for the back-story, because it is not relevant and most readers would likely see it pointless to add non relevant information. Though some of the ideas for the back-story could be made into stories themselves. Here is one though that maybe included:

-On the way back from China they made a stop over in Hong Kong, while in Hong Kong Ranma remembered his last trip there, and on impulse decided to rob that casino making a clean get away with a little more than 50 million dollars (Ranma has little qualms with stealing in general and none at all when stealing from slavers).

Should Ranma be a mutant? A lot of fics have Ranma be a mutant, this is a convenient way to explain why he's around them, but really considering Ranma's abilities and the way he acts he doesn't need to be a mutant. He is stranger than most of the mutants and has demonstrated a lot of abilities. I think I'd go with him not being a mutant. There was a group in the comic books I remember seeing that did not have the X-gene but did have many of the abilities of mutants via training and hated mutants (this was read several years ago and I no longer can remember the specifics but do remember it existing so someone like Ranma does exist in at least one of the X-men continuities).

Some ideas for a possible Ranma/X-men evolution fan fic:

- Akane is found out to be a mutant. When her powers activate for the first time this makes her very happy for two reasons. Reason 1: she has a new ability. Reason 2: a side effect is bigger breast, something Akane feels insecure about and canonically wants as much as Genma wants hair (she has an entire box of things that are supposed to increase breast size but doesn't work like creams and exercise books).

- The fact that Ranma is not a mutant is not believed by anyone who learns of mutants existence (they are still extremely rare). That he doesn't have an x-gene and every mutant detecting means in existence says he is not a mutant convinces absolutely no one that he isn't. It is not solely because of the martial arts, his curse, or even his abilities that lead people to this conclusion (though those things certainly do add to the belief), Ranma occasionally behavior (things like talking to ghosts, howling at the moon, crouching on the table while eating when really hungry, writing with his foot, etc.) are also a large part of that belief.

- For this fic at least, Ranma is not just a martial artist, though that is what he considers himself. He is also a Miko (deals with spirits/kami, visits shrines fairly frequently, and prays) and he has acquired some more training in this (both from priests and his father - who did seal Happosai in a cave using shimenawa). He is also a budding ki sorcerer, for the purpose of this fic, the active use of ki is a very rare learned ability made easier by martial arts but knowing martial arts is not a requirement to using ki - only the highest end martial artists who devoted most of their life/time to martial arts use ki, and most never progress beyond the subconscious use of it.

-Ranma has been and will revise existing techniques and create techniques based on ones he knows/has seen (this would be true of any fic I were to write). This is something which I would expect of him since we do see him revise techniques fairly frequently - i.e. multiple revisions of the hiryu shoten ha or changing the shi shi hadoken to the moko takabisha to the double moko takabisha. Many of the techniques he thinks up will have limited or even no combat use, being only viable under certain circumstances, taking to long to set up, Ranma having insufficient power to use for a prolonged time, or just being too ineffective to be used in combat (though they may have some none combat purposes). Though Ranma will continue to rarely uses special techniques in combat.

- The existence of mutants is not commonly known but when it is Japan will be very anti-mutant, though the majority of the Ranma cast do not care in the least bit if people are or are not mutants (they are not prejudiced in that way). A funny thing is that Ranma in the VIZ translation of the manga once called the Principal a mutant and this will be commented upon if I were to write this fic.

- Ranma and Telepathy: I thought about this awhile and decided that the standard means of telepathy would not work right when Ranma is involved. Images or thoughts can be projected into to Ranma's mind but telepaths can not hear Ranma's thoughts or enter his memories. The explanation for this in the fic is that Ranma's thought process have deviated too much from the human standard to make sense of. Communicating from the astral/spiritual plane or in dreams though works even better than normal. The real reason being I think that it is better for everyone to not be able to enter Ranma's mind and I do not want telepaths roaming around in there (there is some really, really scary stuff in there and not just the neko-ken).

- Ranma and Rouge's touch: This too works differently. I have no plans of hooking up the two but Rouge will not drain Ranma's abilities or thoughts when she touches him, instead Ranma will receive random thoughts and powers from people she has touched in the past (temporarily). There will be no explanation for this, it will stump everyone; no one will be able to conceive a logical reason for this happening.

-The comedic relief for this fic would be Wolverine. There would be back story about Ranma having met Wolverine repeatedly over the years and Wolverine always ending up hurt badly through no fault of Ranma's. This would lead Wolverine to having an irrational fear of Ranma which would be played for laughs (Wolverine will act like Ranma is the bringer of the end of days).

- I realize that some people would view it as me making Ranma too powerful but he still has weakness's and will fight the way he did in the manga. While I have not made it clear in this post, if I were to write this Akane would play a major part of the fic as well and Ranma would not be an opponent of the X-men or most mutants (they have to do something to piss him off first). This like most of the other fic ideas recently expressed this is still in the brain storming stage.

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I'm thinking about mystery writing. An appealing aspects about writing a mystery novel is thinking like a criminal and then finding flaws in the various methods (clues). One of the first things you probably should do is decide as to what the mystery is about, theft, murder, kidnapping, etc. A downside to writing mystery is that structure is very important, while it maybe possible to write a mystery freestyle, I would never try. The ending, who committed the crime, how, and why are some of the very first things you should probably figure out and then write around that.

Say you decide murder, then you have to decide is it premeditated or spontaneous? Does the criminal have time to create a cover story? Do they try to dispose of the body, create an alibi, make it look like a suicide, etc. What kind of skills does the murderer have? Do they know forensics techniques and plan accordingly? Do they know how and have the time to create false leads such as faking DNA?

I was thinking about how a criminal would dispose of a body and the problems (read possible giveaways) for each method I could think about. There are a number of ways to dispose of a body. Here are some and some problems with each method (there are of course problems with the methods I did not bring up, ways around the problems, and other methods of disposing bodies).

1. Bury it. The body must be buried deeply because shallow graves are far more likely to be found. Some of the problems with burying a body: takes far to long to dig a deep enough hole and topographical conditions may prevent you ex. mountains where soil is thin and full of rocks or a swamp/wetland where because of water level you can't dig deep because the hole will constantly fill with water. Burying the body in cement under a sidewalk would also not work very well because the stench would steep through the sidewalk as the body decays.

2. Throw the body in the river. While this maybe an appealing method to dispose of a body it has a lot of downsides. The most obvious being bodies float and would be likely to come ashore fairly quickly and be found. Taking that into account the criminal may try something like putting concrete shoes on the person which also would not work since the body will fill with gases and become bloated from the natural process of decay which will make it more buoyant and float. To keep the body under water it would require an amount of weight that is greater than the weight of the person. Lets say that the criminal took that into account as well and decided to chain the body to a large rock at the bottom of the body of water, this would not work as well because as fish eat at the body and the body decays naturally it would eventually break up and pieces would make there way to shore.

3. Burn it. It requires a large amount of flammable material to burn a body, taking several days to burn most of it and bones would still be left. Compounding that problem is that the body would smell as it cooks. Doing something like pouring gasoline on the body would not be a good method since it would burn the outside of the body but the inside would not be burnt.

4. Use chemicals or acids to break the body down. The bodies would stink a lot as it breaks down and it would leave a tub full of human slime.

5. Have animals or trick people into eating the body. The largest downside with this, purely from a disposing of a body point of view, is it is very time consuming. It would take a lot of time to prepare the body and there would still be traces in the excrement.

Imported from external blog