[VampireNaomi]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed elsewhere, but I just noticed it, so I'm posting about it here. Why the heck are Genie and Carpet included as a single character in FF.Net's character filter? If Malcho gets to be there on his own, why not Genie and Carpet? There are several fics focusing on Genie, so there's no reason to shove him together with Carpet. It does a disservice to everyone who is looking for stories about either one because there's no telling if they both appear in the story or just one of them.

Also, I haven't been reading any Aladdin fanfiction in ages. If you know of any new stories in which Mechanikles has even a cameo, let me know. I'd like to add all such stories to my Mechanikles C2 category.

[lisa jane]

I'm trying to get back into writing my sequel... it's pretty pathetic, it took three months to write twenty nine chapters for the first part, and it's taken ten months to write ten chapters to the second part.

I don't like how it's going though, so far it's taken two weeks to write five hundred words Not even being in an Aladdin RPG is helping me write it faster...

[AmethystFae]

[Vampligea]

I want to post a shameless plug!!!!

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5882397/1/Book_of_Wonders

I only have two reviews and some confusion on how to portray a character of my own...but ::toots own horn:: I think it's pretty good so far!

[Jafaria]

I use FFN, so I might as well self-promote here.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4465857/1/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Jafar

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5419691/1/The_Genie_Returns

The first one's a semi-epic Jafar prequel with an Arabian-Nights-style frame story. The second one is an Aladdin/The Mummy crossover with a title I actually don't like even though Return of the Sequel is a feature common to both franchises. I don't like the title because without the summary it's unclear what genie is returning.

[AladdinFan92]

When I first started writing fanfiction, I swore I wouldn't advertise my work on here, but since you're asking for people to post new material, and my story isn't getting too many reviews, I suppose a little self-promotion wouldn't hurt:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5529166/1/The_Tie_That_Binds

I love writing Aladdin fanfiction, and this is the first story I've posted in ages. It's not perfect, but it's much better than the other Aladdin fanfics I've written in the past. If any of you could take the time to read it and post some reviews on the site, I would really, really appreciate it.

[Meesh]

Yeah! Some member in the Library of Agrabah post "Challenges," where they post a story idea and challenge other writers to create stories out of them!

http://www.aladdincentral.org/library/challenges.php?PHPSESSID=61f01663e4134c36f2bc82854bc5a10e

[persian85033]

A challenge?

[Meesh]

You could look to see if somebody posted a challenge!

[persian85033]

I've been wanting to write an Aladdin fic for quite a while, but can't seem to get a good enough idea. I don't like to write about their kids. I did once, I think, but I don't like the way it came out. Not sure about writing about Al or Jas's childhood, either. They meet different monarchs? Preparations for Al and Jas's wedding? Aladdin becoming sultan? Or 'training' for when he becomes sultan?

[Meesh]

About 5 years ago, I wrote that fanfic with their kids (moans again over having deleted it).
I made their son's name "Yusef" because that is my dad's Arabic name, and I forget what I named their daughter. "Najla" maybe, another family name. And I named Najla's love interest "Fuad," which is my great uncle's name.

And I like to think I'm pretty good with Genie. I just write as it comes. Like you said, an opportunity will arise by itself for a Genie joke or transformation. No need to try too hard.

As far as costume descriptions go, I'm okay with a paragraph so I can play it out like a movie in my head. But any more than a paragraph is unnecessary. These aren't novels. Besides, any character who needs that much is likely to be a Mary Sue/Stu.

[lisa jane]

I tend to skip right over entire chunks of stories where it explains in detail exactly what the character is wearing, I find it in other fandoms as well (especially where this goes on for entire paragraphs). I hardly explain what an OC character of mine wears or looks like, let alone the canon characters. I've realised I'm coming quite lazy though with actual descriptions, there's only so many descriptions of 'dark eyes' I can think of, not that it's particulary important to the storyline anyway.

I haven't created any kids of Jasmine and Aladdin to name, but in my fanfic (and sequel, sigh), I named Jasmine and Jafar's daughter Aziza - Arabic, means powerful/beloved, and I ran with that name because it was relatively easy for me to spell a million times. Admittedly, I named their son Jafar as well; at the time, there was a reason for it and that's in the story, but now that I've got the sequel going, if I could go back and just change the damn name, I would...

I did start uploading my story to this website, but after the first chapter, I couldn't be bothered uploading all the other thirty-five chapters (and counting).

[AladdinsGenie]

It is pointless and I don't understand it. I mean, he's gonna change out of whatever you're taking all this time to describe in the next two paragraphs anyways, so let's just keep going. It could just be how I read, but I find myself sometimes having to go back and re-read what happened before I got to the tl;dr paragraph that took me out of the fic for a while, and I don't like having to do that.

"What they're wearing" is also one that kills me, especially if it's for a character that's not wearing anything new from what they usually do. Also, I don't know if this is really common in other fandoms, but I know in the Kingdom Hearts fandom, it's pretty freaking standard to come up with 10,000 names for eye colors and what to describe the eyes in general. If I see the word 'orb' one more time...

I wish more people would remember that with Genie. Everyone worries about making him funny, but if you just write the fic, the funny will come later. Someone somewhere will set themselves up for a joke, or he'll see the opportunity to do something that someone might want to kill him for later, but he'll find hilarious. Not even in canon is everyone word he's saying funny, so I don't get why that's a problem in fanfic.

It's usually something modern or kind of anachronistic like Mariah (yes, the fandom is full of anachronisms, but I can suspend my belief for some of those. However, I can't really believe they'd name their child Britney ), or they're named after some type of jewel like Emerald, Ruby, Diamond, Jade, etc. (this one is really common for some reason), or if they have a son his name will be Ali. I get Ali is a pretty common name in that area and is definitely not a stranger to our fandom, but it's just sooooo over-done in Aladdin fanfic. It makes me think Aladdin and Jasmine named him that as an in-joke to the first few days they met. "Remember Prince Ali? We should name our son that!"
....actually, that might make me like it more if they explained it that way
(Lots of thought is much appreciated )

[Eveishxx]

You explained your thoughts well. I understood what you meant, and I agree. I guess when it comes to describing Genie's transformations I've never felt the need to write a paragraph long description of his appearance. That idea has never even occurred to me (and this is only the second time I've written him). I think I figure in the back of my mind that it isn't necessary to "over describe" or "over explain" because it would detract from the focus of the piece. That type of lengthy description is pointless and I hate reading it in Aladdin fanfics.

I tend to reserve paragraph long descriptions for the explanation of a character's emotions or a setting, not what a character is wearing or their overall physical appearance. I don't want to be labeled as a"Novice Fanfiction Writer", y'know? Besides, I'm not one, so...

[AladdinsGenie]

Oh, you're welcome!

It's so hard to explain. There's just something weird about how people write the transformations that kind of pulls you out of the story too long for something that isn't really that important to the fic as a whole. It's just a joke that's suppose to be based off some visual pun or a moment for him to exaggerate the situation, but I feel like too much time is spent on them explaining the joke before I even get a chance to get it and it's just awkward. But then with something like this in your fic:

"A child who misbehaves," Genie supplied, "but you won't be one for long!" A fancy black suit appeared on his chest. "Mademoiselle Adeela, can I entice you with ze night's special? Eet's baklava. Per'aps you 'ave 'ad it, no?"

I got what was going on without you having to go into this long paragraph about the details of what he was wearing, what changed on his face maybe, that his voice was in an accent, etc. I got what was going on without it having to be spelled out for me. Even if we have two different images of what he was wearing exactly, it doesn't matter because I know he turned into something reminiscent of a French waiter and that's the joke. I got it and moved on. If it's not absolutely crucial to understand for the joke (like a pop culture reference), I don't need to spend forever on it.

And sometimes the transformations are completely ignored for lack of knowing how to add them in, which I understand, but this is Genie we're talking about . I get a lot of his funny is based on visual aid so it doesn't always translate too well in fanfic, but it's just as weird for him to not change into something as it is for him to be constantly changing into stuff to the point where he becomes annoying and kind of OOC. The same goes for his lines. Not everything he says is funny. He actually, you know, talks.

/soap box, sorry