It's hard to define "n00b". It can mean some guy with bad grammar, or just a story written by a beginner writer, or something else...but...
But Negrek did define "n00b/newbie" correctly. I thought that the terminology wasn't that difficult to grasp, since I quickly picked up on the difference when I first entered the Internet.
To make it easier, I'll expand a bit on Negrek's definitions.
n00b: A n00b is someone who does not see the need for improvement. They act like they snorted some household products, get told off for acting like a rule-breaker, and don't improve their behavior. They become a member that you don't want to see on the forums. There's no hope for their improvement, and you just want to see them banned forever because they made the forum experiences that unpleasant.
newbie: A newbie is someone who does not have experience in the situation that they are in. They join the forum, post their fanfic, and try to see how the place works to get an idea of how to fit in. When someone posts a review on their fanfic that is not 100% praise, they take a look at the critical parts of the review and improve. With time, they become a member that people might look forward to the posts of, and accept the member as a beneficial member of the forum.
With that said, I shall answer all the topics that I missed.
What is your favorite genre to write about? Read about? Why?
I pretty much read anything and everything. For fics, I tend to shy away from fics written about Pokemon canon characters, because those irk on me. Also, aside from the early days of the anime and three specific characters from Johto/Hoenn, I'm horrible at remember who's who. As for game and manga canon, I keep away from those completely since I don't know that canon.
But for the basic genres, I'm open to anything. Romance, OT, action/adventure, sci-fi, fantasy. As long as the story is well-written or the author is well-known, I'll read it.
For writing, I stick with OTs. I understand the hatred that that genre gets from the fandom, but I'm of the opinion that I should write the story that I want to tell. And I'll let everyone else have their opinion. I write OT fics because I want to explore the Pokemon world in a way that I can't completely stick a canon character into the fic and make it work. (Though, it also helps that I write an animeverse AU fic.)
Do you tend to write ideas and/or first drafts of your stories in notebooks or do you use Microsoft Word or a similar program all the time?
It depends on how much time I want to devote to the fic. My OT fic is written in a notebook, where I can easily flip back and forth between old chapters and new chapters to keep my facts straight. As for the short story I'm writing now, I started that in Microsoft Word because it's just a simple short story that I want to finish as soon as I can.
As for the basic ideas themselves, the majority of those just stay in my mind when I think of them, though I do keep a notebook with me at all times. It's just that my mind is now used to working creatively at a set time, so I don't get that many random bursts of inspiration anymore.
How often do you procrastinate when writing/reviewing a fic? And if so, how long does it take you to actually accomplish the task?
Writing? Not often. I poke at the fic I'm writing for a few minutes everyday to get something written. The writing process I enjoy doing because it tends to quiet my mind enough so I can sleep (that and reading).
Reviewing takes me a long while. Most of the time, I can't focus my mind on the story at hand enough to write some sort of review that doesn't just say "I read this! Trust me!" My mind tends to wander when forced to read something critically, so I don't review all that much anymore.
Though I do think I win the prize for how long I had something written and never posted it, though I could have: four years, and
still waiting. The fic now sits in an old notebook on my second OSC shelf.
If the anime writers wanted to base an episode/movie on your fan fic, would you give them the rights to?
I'm going to pull a Card and say in twenty years.
Besides, my fic could easily be placed into the animeverse, if it wasn't for the absence of a particular anime character the writers love. Aside from the fact that my fic mentions that "death" topic the anime tries to ignore as hard as it possibly can.
How long does it take you to go over someone's work?
Beta? I tend to procrastinate until the last minute, which is when I rush through and find the most basic mistakes and send the chapter off, hoping I did well enough.
To review? Well, I think poor Sike has been waiting for a review for quite a while now. Plus there's a fic that I want to review for someone, and I'm running out of time for doing so, since... Well, for now I'll keep hush-hush about the whole deal.
Under what conditions do you find it easiest to write?
I can write at any time. But for the thoughts to flow quick enough, I like to listen to some sort of music, sit in my room with the door closed, and periodically throw a certain six-year-old against the wall to get him to shut up enough so I can do something.
Am I one of the few people in this forum who doesn't post fics on SPPf? O_o
I plan to keep PC as the home forum of my Pokemon fics, since circumstances have changed to allow me to follow that plan. SPPf and that other dinky forum only four of us are on is where I lurk to be amused by the posters.
Have you ever had a dream about one of your Fan Fiction characters?
Yes. A few scenes of my fanfic came to me in dreams so vivid that I had to write them down right away because it was that intense. Plus, there have been a few crack-like dreams that only one person knows about because the dream was just bizarre. But I do dream of my fic characters in situations that I either use in the story, or just try to forget but I can't.
If you could meet one character from a Fan Fiction of yours, who would it be?
Pokemon canon: Harrison
Original: Aden
Digimon canon: Takeru (Adventure 02)
Original: I dunno, do the Chosen Children's children count? If not, then Shinrai.
OSC canon: Andrew
Original: Angel
How long had your longest written rant been?
Before I just kind of forgot about it, the rant reached four pages.
How long has your longest chapter been?
I have a short story that reached sixty pages when it finally ended. If I were to go back to edit it, I'm sure it would be a rather long short story.
For a Digimon fic I was writing, there was a chapter that reached thirty-four pages before I just threw my pen against the wall and threw the fic out. But after that, I never had a really long chapter. I try to set some sort of limit.
I know that a lot of people hate on noob's fics, and let's be honest, most of that anger is justified, but have you ever seen a noob who has had a good story?
According to my definitions: No.
