About me (updated Jan 31st 2009):

Well, times have changed and while my name is still Sarah, and I am still a fan of Sailor Moon, I have also moved to add to my repetoire Pride & Prejudice, Harry Potter, and more recently Vampire Knight.

My favourite couples are: Serena/Darien, Mr Darcy/Elizabeth, Logan/Veronica, Draco/Hermione and Sayori/Aidou. I also like fanfiction because it keeps the story alive so that it doesnt just end. Don't you hate endings?

I also love reviews - who doesnt? So thank you for everyone who leaves a review. I appreciate it heaps. I also have to add that even if you leave a flame I appreciate it as you can't improve with only praise. I welcome the good and the bad reviews because they help me become a better writer.

Stealing His Heart - (Jan 31st 2009):

I'm putting this story down. I want to re-write it.

Blackmailing Darien - (June 27th 2009):

I will continue this! I have just been gathering together ideas for how to develop the story.

Full Circle - (August 21st 2009):

I have developed the story line and chapters for the final instalment of the Sailor Moon Exposed series. The dark Prince Endymion will make an appearance, and the story will come full circle as the title suggests. It's taken a while to really think about how I wanted to end this story, and I am pretty happy with my draft time line. I expect to start writing the first chapter tonight and will hopefully finish the story by the end of September. I have put up the prologue summarising the first five stories, and also the first chapter. I plan to write the rest of the story and then put it up, so for those of you who have been waiting for this story - consider it a taste of what's to come.

The Whinge List! (Updated Sep 14th 2009).

This is my personal list of petty grievances against the masses of authors who insist on writing poorly. While some of these scenes can (and have) been written well, most of the timefanfiction authors have severely failed in their duty to do justice to these storylines. I strongly suggest that if you are an amateur writer with no beta, do not attempt to write these story lines. It's like my eyes are being assaulted by poor writing!

Please note: There are plenty of authors who have written these very scenes/plots and done it well. I don't have a problem with you. In fact, I'm always impressed to see an overused story line done in a new-ish, well written way. I have also updated this so that it applies to all stories I have read.

Okay, here we go:

1. The Heroine is sexually assaulted, allowing for the Hero to come to her rescue: Is this really neccessary to get them together? Honestly, I fail to see the romance in the Hero saving the Heroine from being raped. Not to mention the fact she is often written as falling in love with him immediately after - a decision I find hard to believe is reasonable, healthy or the proper foundation for an equal relationship. I think I have read only one story where it actually made sense and was properly dealt with. Sexual assault is a serious crime that should not be written about lightly.

In addition to this, I hate characters that 'accept' that they were assaulted. What complete BS. You'd have to be a sociopath to just accept something like that happening to you. Usually these characters 'get back' at their attacker... but honestly... I'm just speechless.

It's not like I don't understand why young, inexperienced authors write about rape in an immature way. It's a way to explore the 'forbidden', to challenge yourself, to write about something serious. But I have to suggest (beg, plead, whatever) that you ask someone to beta it. Or at the very least, put a warning in that there is a rape scene in the chapter. At least that way I can just choose not to read it.

2. The Hero cheats on the Heroine. Begs for her to come back. She realises that she like, totally can't live without him when he apologises so sweetly for the millionth time and takes him back: This has to be the most over done storyline I have ever had the misfortune to read. I have only read one that was really good and it is deservedly on my favourites list. I'm really sick of reading about a Hero cheating on the Heroine because he's sad, thought she cheated on him or just because its a great way to create conflict.

3. The Heroine, hurting and alone, runs away. She returns many years later either (a) smoking hot and out to prove herself or (b) as a mysterious individual who ultimately demonstrates her true superiority: Overdone, unoriginal and usually poorly written (i.e. teeny-bopper attitude vomiting itself into the written word onto our screens).

4. The Hero discovers that the woman he once loved/had an affair with had a child: Again, the issue is originality and good story writing. Now, I have read at least a dozen stories with this plot line that have been applaudable. But then again, I've read so many more of these that are full of cliches that I am no longer surprised by the so-called twists and turns many authors on here put in the story to make it edgy.

5.The Heroine is an innocent virgin while the Hero is a 'sex god': This one is just plain annoying, unrealistic and rather disgusting when you actually think about it. I mean, if a guy can't count the number of women he's slept with, would you really want his 'member' anywhere near you? It's like - come on! You don't even know where its been!?

6. Supernatural stories: Sadly, these stories are often well written. The problem is that they always seem to follow the exact same pattern. The Hero finds the Heroine. He is utterly attracted to her. He learns that she is his mate. There may/may not be a curse saying that he could die without her. He often kidnaps her and forces her to stay with him. She starts off hating him, but something or other changes and she falls for him. Sometimes at this point, just before she can say she loves him, she is kidnapped by the Hero's arch-enemy who tries to seduce her. She resists until the Hero can save her. She gets to say the magic words. Fin.

7. The Heroine or Hero is just too kool 4 skool: There are a couple of these stories out there that just make me groan with frustration. You know those stories where the Hero(ine) gets back at everyone in front of everyone? The stories where the Hero(ine) is the coolest, hottest, most awesome person ever and everyone just knows it? I have a strong aversion to those stories. This doesn't happen in real life, and I wish it didn't happen in fiction. The reason being (1.) its complete and utter tripe and (2.) it makes me hate the Hero(ine). You can't do that as an author - you can't write a story where the reader wishes the Hero(ine) would just die suddenly (like being randomly impaled on a spike) to spare us the awesomeness of his/her coolness. It's really just too much. Plus it means you have contributed to forcing me to add this paragraph to my profile; and that, my friend, is So. Not. Kool. :op

As a sub-category to this one: characters that calmly accept everything that happens to them. I hate that. They're practically robotic. The thing is, they are usually imbued with some crazy power that makes them 2 kool 4 skool... so someone will attack them, they will 'deal with it' and then just thump them right back, either physically, or by some crazy plot that makes everyone hate the other person.

8. The Hero and Heroine meet years later after the events of the past. Their relationship is fraught with frustration and mutual misunderstanding until, by some mistake (cos it's certainly never something like a civil conversation), they realise they love eachother: There are a million of these stories cropping up. They aren't badly written so much as inane and unoriginal.

9. Sex scenes: No, I don't have a problem with sex scenes, so much as how some are done. For instance, I happen to be a married woman with an understanding of what is physically possible in a sexual relationship. To be blunt, it is nigh impossible for a grown man to stick three fingers in a woman comfortably. I can only wonder at the contortion of the bodies that enable this to be at all pleasurable - is a leg over their head or something? Is she doing some sort of weird, advanced yoga position?

One more thought - why doesn't anyone ever write an awkward sex scene? Why do the characters always have mind-blowing sex? (This goes for every story category I've read).

Other annoying things I have read in the last week or so:

"I never knew!" : Is the story a comedy? Cos I swear I just burst out laughing when I read this crap.

"Sex God" : It's just a bit too overdone in some stories. I'm getting sick of hearing how a 15/16 year old BOY has girls swooning for his sexual prowess in the school hallways. I'm almost 24 years old and to be blunt, that kinda thing is a bit yucky from my perspective (and a complete load of BS). At least make them 18 or something.

"You're a virgin?" : You don't just NOT talk about these things. The Hero had to have some idea.

Unbelievably gargantuan penises: It's sooo thick... sooo long... soo unbelievable.

10. The Hero is sooooo handsome. The hottest, strongest, sexiest, the most tanned manly man with the bluest of blue eyes (they are like the colour of the ocean) and the blackest hair: Or vice versa for the Heroine. Can you see where this is going? Do I really have to explain?

11. Seiya/Serena, and any other pairing that I don't like: Okay, this isnt so much bad writing and just my humble opinion - BUT I would rather see any of my Heroines listed above as a mutant turtle dating the Splinter than with another man. But that's just me :o)

There has only been ONE exception to this rule for Sailor Moon. See "Celestial Prophecy" on my favourites list... and even so, Sapphire looks exactly like Darien! They may as well be the same person.

12. Adding in new characters. I don't like new characters that are introduced as main characters. It throws the whole story off as I spend every other second wondering "Who is this person? What are they doing here? They dont belong in this story! It doesnt feel right!". Sure, add them as supporting characters, filler characters, etc. But don't make Emily Bogs the Hero's evil seductress unless she is an actual character in the category you are writing for (and as far as I know, there is no such character as Emily Bogs. She's all mine! Copyright THAT! HA!).

13. Introducing the Hero's oh-so-inconvenient girlfriend to shake things up: Oh no! The Hero has a girlfriend! But he and the Heroine are soooo like meant to be together, right? What will happen dear readers? Will they ever be together? Will the girlfriend be a mean bitch out to hurt the Heroine or will she gracefully bow out? Oh the suspense!

(Yes. I am being sarcastic.)

14. Inexplicably evil characters: This one generally applies to Diamond (Sailor Moon), Lucius (Harry Potter), Wickham (P&P) and any other character unfairly picked on. The problem is not the fact that the character is the adversary of the story, but that they are just so damned evil for no damned reason. They rape, destroy, kill, torture and do amazingly horrible things, just because they hate, envy or desire the lead character(s). Where you guys come up with the nightmares I have read about I have no idea (some of you have incredibly dark, twisted little minds). I have to say that I prefer a more intelligent evil adversary than an animalistic, sadistic monster who maintains a civil appearance. A good example of an evil character is Voldemort from Harry Potter. Sure, he was a twisted bastard, but he had a purpose and he worked to achieve that end; but he didn't go around smashing up the place for the heck of it. That's what makes an evil character - purpose.

It should be noted that there are rare moments when the evil adversary doesnt need a purpose, and is simply a character who 'wants to see the world burn'. The best example of this is the recent Batman: Dark Knight movie with The Joker. He was an evil character who had no purpose except to cause trouble. Even so - there was some amazing writing in that Batman script and Ledger did an amazing job playing the part; that's why the movie got away with it. If your story can't do that, then no, your evil character just wont fly with your readers. Kapiche?

15. A single tear drop fell down his/her cheek: I hate reading this, it makes me cringe in all sorts of pain. It's too cliched to write to express the sadness of the situation. I hate seeing it in movies too. Its just too Mills & Boon - too cheesy - too much - too ugh :oP

16. Kisses that crash: "His lips crashed into hers" - with writing like this I expect the kiss to be a trainwreck :oP ... I've read far too many of these lines to stand it anymore and can only assume that clearly the kiss was a total disaster, just like the writing behind it. The next time I read about this, I want to hear about mangled faces and several hours worth of surgery to fix the resulting bloodshed. Its just a ridiculous way to describe a kiss. People's lips do not 'crash'

June 29th 2009 - Funny thing, I used a 'crashing kiss' in the first chapter of my story Rendezvous! Bad Sarah!

17. OOC: I don't really mind OOC so much... its just that this is fanfiction and the joy of fanfiction is the fact that we can take our favourite characters and write about them. So to me, fanfiction kinda misses the point when the character just acts completely opposite of themselves. Who would Hermione from HP be if she's not the bookworm and smartest girl in the school? Who would Aidou from VK be if he wasn't completely shallow? Who would Darien from SM be if he'd never lost his memories and parents in a car crash as a child? Who would Elizabeth from P&P if not a little prejudiced? Who would Veronica be from VM if she wasn't sweetly sarcastic and just a little more observant than her peers?

Not as enjoyable to read about, that's what. So as an author, if you want to completely whitewash the characters so that they are unrecognisable save for a name, then that's your choice. It's also my choice to not read your story because I'm trying to read about "x" and I've got some stranger instead.

18. Character abuse: You know those stories where the hero(ine) is just abused beyond belief with no way out of the horror? I know awful stuff like this happens... and even though sometimes I might wonder what it's like to write a dark story, I simply can't find it in myself to write horror stories. They're just awful, hopeless things that leave me needing to eat some chocolate or something. Can we do eachother a favour and write a warning at the start of the story that cruel and unusual things will happen to the characters with no hope of retribution? It'd be nice if I could skip a story like that without stumbling upon the dark things people can write :-S

19. Perfect characters: (S)he's fluent in three languages, is on the board of several charities, owns their own business, helps the poor, gave a kidney away to a sick child, is incredibly attractive and has only one flaw: (s)he only exists in fiction. Stop writing about perfect characters cos they shit me. I also think it shows a weakness in the writer's ability to work with imperfect characters.

20: Moaning Myrtle: Honest to goodness I have never read so much about moaning in my life. Every kiss, touch, leaf on the wind, is a chance for the characters to moan in delight. I'd be jealous of fanfiction land, since everything there is so obviously moan-worthy... except its making me groan in frustration to read! Grrrroooooaaaaannnn!

21: Emo characters: The thing is, it's not the emotional aspect that's so annoying, it's the fact that emo characters are so selfishly wrapped up in their own pain that I literally wish to reach through the screen and strangle the daylights out of their self-piteous little bodies. I get that people are like this, and maybe I should be more understanding...but personally I think people who are so caught up in their own B.S. need a swift kick up the ass.

22: Re-telling the original story: I can't say I appreciate these fanfictions. If I'd wanted to read the original story I'd have picked it up again and read it... that, and it's practically plagiarism. We might borrow from some great authors, but there is no need to repeat them. I think they told the story it quite nicely the first time!