I wish to start writing stories about a Ghostbusters team in Houston, Tx. The team's first assist Ray Stantz in fighting off a Minotaur that appears at a convention center. I also want to add in a pair of characters from the manga Ranma 1/2 as unarmed combat intructors for the team and later for other franchises. I want to post the first story on April 2008, however, I can't get past the first part where the Minotaur shows up (before anyone notices him). I also want the story to be integrated into the timeline. Any help would be appreciated.

Okay, to make things easier (somewhat), I'm including short profiles of the team members.

Brady Cryer- Team leader and Franchise CEO. Personality is something of a mix between a few of Drs. Venkman, Stantz and Spengler's qualities. Perfectly willing to admit that he's slightly insane, and doesn't use any curse words, except for the occasional "Crap." Also laspes into the Star Wars artificial language Mando'a, the Star Wars answer to Klingon, once in a while.

Lucas Salinas- Engineer and Head of Research. Has known Brady since they met in first grade, and they have been best friends ever since. Lucas is also completely capable of field-stripping and rebuilding a proton pack within two minutes, and made a small change to the packs of the team for comfort's sake.

Wade Meik- Brady's brother-in-law. Originally from Oregon, and used to work odd jobs before becoming a Ghostbuster. Big and strong, he's the one the team turns to when they have need of a slime blower in the arsenal. He's also the friendliest of the team.

Seth Morril- Occult researcher. Has two older brothers, and is very knowledgeable about occult matters. Something of a gearhead, he assisted in the complete restoration of the 1959 Caddillac Miller-Meteor ambulance that the Houston Ghostbusters use as their primary vehicle.

Clarissa Meik- Client Administrator. The sister of Brady and wife of Wade, she used to be a schoolteacher before putting her talents with paperwork to use for the team. She's also not shy about strapping on a proton pack when neccessary for the good of the team.

That's all for now.

I think your idea sounds like it has potential. The characters sound appropriately wacky and diverse, and hopefully none of them will be too "overpowered"--that's something less experienced writers sometimes fail at, and it usually involves "their" character.

Starting with a connection to one of the originals is also okay--just be sure to come up with a good reason for Ray to be in Houston, even if it's only some sort of "paranormologist convention" or something like that ("Egon couldn't make it because the Twins have the flu this week")

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dang how could i have mist this I was going to put a Minotaur in a story .

Oh well nothing was down to paper and the spot can easily 'y by filed with some one els .

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pleas parden my speling but I'm a littel dislexik and can't tipe whel

he said "A" minotaur, not "THE" Minotaur.

You can easily still have one in a story. Eventually, the fanfic teams will exhaust every single thingout there if some stuff doesn't get recycled.

After all, just because one franchise fights vampires, doesn't mean that you can't.



First bit of advice...you may want to drop the Ranma 1/2 characters. While I love Ranma, and I own the entire anime and manga collection, I wouldn't mix anything of Rumiko Takahashi's with Ghostbusters. On the other hand, many other animes/mangas have been used in the past that mesh very well with ghostbusters. While Ghostbusters remains a comedy, you still want to stray from the over the top slapstick you're going to find in Ranma 1/2.

Also, you want to be careful of making characters "the instructors for other franchises." That never meshes well when you systematically force feed character interaction with other franchises. Those franchises that already have gifted martial artists (mine being a prime example...and Nightsquad has a very talented ninja) might take offense when you pretty much say "You learned your stuff from these guys I brought in."

Now, for your team evaluation...



You did one bad thing, and one good thing.

BAD= you already compared yourself to the original guys. NEVER do that. What you want to shoot for is to develop a personality all your own. Even if this character IS similar to them, NEVER admit to it. if you have to start off by making a parallel like this, chances are you are already treading into Mary-Sue waters.

GOOD= You already gave your character a personality quirk unique to you. while this will annoy the hell out of some people, it still makes you memorable. Having a memorable schtick is a great building block for character development.



GOOD= You immediately establish some history with another member of the franchise, creating some team synergy. Even a single relationship can make things interesting. people will wonder what you're like around each other.

BAD= Field stripping a proton pack in under 2 minutes? Come now...that's a bit over the top. While Lucas may indeed know how to clean, inspect, and strip a pack in an insanely short time...you're talking about taking apart a nuclear accelerator to its moving component parts in 2 minutes. it would take Egon and Ray a couple of hours to do that, and they invented it.

On the plus side, however...minor modifications (especially comfort/cosmetic ones) are a GOOD thing. It makes the gear unique to you, as well.



GOOD= Ah, the gentle giant. We don't have too many of those. You also established history and relationship info even in that first sentence.

BAD= Nothing. I'll be interested to see how he turns out.



GOOD= You describe him pretty well, and I particularly like how you approach his occult knowledge. You merely say "very knowledgeable." Very good. You didn't compare his knowledge to any existing characters.

BAD= Nothing at all.



GOOD= Everything. History, established relationships (ALWAYS a good thing for both drama and comedy), and position.

BAD= Nothing.

Hmm, maybe you're right. I was trying to say that Brady loves his job, is socially inept, and is something of a newbie with high technology, but it seems I explained it badly, sorry. And you're right, no one can field strip a proton pack in two minutes. How about instead he can disassemble and reassemble a perfectly functioning proton pack blindfolded?

That's good! Keep that. It's funnier, anyways!

Okay, I put up a piece of artwork showing the various members of the field team in uniform. I suck horribly at coloring, but I figured I'd give it a shot. They are, in order from left to right, Brady, Wade, Lucas, and Seth.

http://terracemanosk.deviantart.com/art/Ghostbusters-art-71678567

Whaddaya think? If no other team claims this color combo, can I own it?

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any teams that use green as their basic uniform color. Plenty of blues, the occassional grey or black. Tennessee and Arcane Division use green striping, but not as their primary colors.

I think you're in the clear here.

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Green Hummm ..... no one will know if you are slimed or not . Boss I think they may be on to something here .

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pleas parden my speling but I'm a littel dislexik and can't tipe whel