How to write great Fan Fiction!

[Lugbzurg]

Well, about the first half of the first point was sensible enough. Adjectives are important. But everything after that just turned to amusing satire. Guess that worked. That one half truth up there had me fooled briefly that this was serious.

I don't recall where exactly I read this, but I remember reading this one guideline about fanfiction somewhere...

"If the thought of something makes me giggle and guffaw for more than fifteen (15) seconds, it's probably a bad idea."

 

[Erttheking]

Since this is a bit of a joke thread, I think I'll write some actual fanfiction tips, coming from a 4 year veteran.

1. Keep your OCs in check. You can have as many of them as you want as long as you evenly balance out time between them and the original cast, and as long as they don't end up outshining them in combat, debates, sex etc.

2. Keep your OCs rounded. Have them have moments when they're beaten, when they're wrong or when they're jerks for no good reason, and have them be called out on that. Don't make them perfect, give them flaws.

3. Character development is your best friend. Either have people change over the course of the story, or give the reader a good look at them so that they can have a good idea of who they are.

4. While sending people out to the movies in the middle of an alien invasion is bad, a story doesn't have to all be action. Simply showing characters sitting down at lunch and talking to each other can be used to develop character

5. Bashing (even if it's directed towards people who deserve it) is a huge no no.

6. Foreshadowing is your friend.

I may add more if I can think of more. The following ones are my personal opinions

7. Give love interests something to do besides stand there and look pretty.

8. Love triangles are the stupidest thing that the Human race has created. Don't write one unless you're intentionally trying to make one of the people in it to look like a prat.

9. IMHO prose is completely pointless. I prefer a minimalistic route to describing how people look and how the scenery looks, I prefer to focus on what they say and what they do.

10. Flying cars are the second stupidest thing that the Human race has created, don't write about them

11. Give all major characters at least one scene where they have the spot light.

EDIT: Is it just me or is the escapist incapable of seeing the positive aspects of anything? Aw well, maybe I'm biased as someone who's tried really hard over the last half decade to write GOOD fan fiction.

 

[Terminate421]

Thinking of shipping two established characters? Make sure it's between two characters who would never actually be in a relationship!

Is it counter to their established sexual orientation? even better! Are they related? EVEN BETTER! Nothing says 'artistic genius' like Dante and Vergil or Thor and Loki shipping!

Or better yet, use your OC to destroy a well established relationship, because you secretly want to bang one of those characters.

Make sure it involves incest though, or it won't be artistic enough!

And spend a lot of time on adjectives and teasing!

 

[likalaruku]

Mary Sues have to be my 1st biggest no-no. Especially if it's "Plot Hole Sue...won't you come & was away the plot" with an entire page describing what the character looks like & all the epic hobbies & different languages & the character has an almost 4th wall breaking ability to know everything about everything.

My 2ed biggest no-no is if the plot of the story revolves around shipping, especially if there's nothing in the story to substantially back the pairing, if it does against a canon pairing, if it involves rising the dead, if it could cause events that would derail the story it was based on, & if the author has to chance the personalities of the characters to get the romance to work out. Some writers are like "these two characters have never met, but because they are my favorites, they must be together."

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I totally expected this to be a 1 line thread just saying "Don't!"

 

[sextus the crazy]

It's just not good fan fiction if established characters don't act completely contrary to how they do in the source material.

Luckily, this seems to be pretty common. I'm so glad that FF.net attracts top-tier writers.

OT: don't bother to use indents and form paragraphs. After all, it's still text, you can read it just fine without all those pretentious formatting styles.

 

[bananafishtoday]

Binnsyboy you silly little man! Don't you realise that your guide is redundant? My Immortal has already been made! There is no need for further instruction on how to make the perfect fan-fic.

My Immortal is a paragon of fantastic writing, but clearly you haven't seen some of the amazing stuff out there.

You cannot possibly believe that there's better out there?! My Immortal had an Emo Beatles Calendar in it. Simply inspired!

I have only one thing to say: legolas by laura.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

EDIT: Is it just me or is the escapist incapable of seeing the positive aspects of anything? Aw well, maybe I'm biased as someone who's tried really hard over the last half decade to write GOOD fan fiction.

Hey now, I can be positive, and I put effort into my Fanfic as well. The key is editing. If you can't do editing yourself, find someone who can. It really, really helps.

 

[Erttheking]

EDIT: Is it just me or is the escapist incapable of seeing the positive aspects of anything? Aw well, maybe I'm biased as someone who's tried really hard over the last half decade to write GOOD fan fiction.

Hey now, I can be positive, and I put effort into my Fanfic as well. The key is editing. If you can't do editing yourself, find someone who can. It really, really helps.

Yeah, recently I've been going back and revising my current fan fic. Managed to get the first fifteen chapters done already.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Remember, there is absolutely no need to wast your time reading/watching/playing the original source material.
In fact, I would recommend against it, as it might tie down your free-flowing pure artistry.

 

[Reaper195]

Never seen the appeal to fanfiction. I wrote a couple of Halo ones during my early teens when I was a mad Halo fon boy (Still enjoy the series and its universe, but nowhere near as fanatic as I was), but years later, I find it much more satisfying to create my own world with my own characters than use someone else's.

I suddenly feel inspired to write an erotic fanfiction where Magneto teaches the Insane Clown Possy how his magnet works :O

I'm throwing money at the screen but nothing is happening....fuckin' do this, mate.

 

[RandV80]

If your series' protagonist has a parent or older mentor figure, don't forget to channel all your teenage angst against your own parents/teachers/authority figures and lash out at that jerk(s) for all their human shortcomings!

 

[Prosis]

Remember, only one character is competent. Everyone else is filler. Either stay directly on the plot, or leave it behind entirely. Make sure you ask for reviews. Constructive criticism is bad; more reviews means that you're better at writing.

Make sure to have copyright claimers. You don't own any of the source material, and you don't want to get sued. However, you do own everything else.

Also,

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/476065

is a good example of fine fanfiction

 

[cojo965]

Snip

Well as you're a 4 year vet, I'd love to hear your opinion on a Dragon's Dogma fanfic called Dragon's Charge. Be warned though, if you go to read it and haven't played the game, you may want to do some research to know what to recognize. To sum it up simply, Dragon's Charge takes the established setting and characters and throws them off a bridge (though it is worth noting that the established characters may show up later under a different name). Instead the location appears to be the same but is set in the modern day. In a truly clever bit of writing that keeps with the game's character creation, the writer neither names his Arisen in the story or describes his/her appearance, not even a gender is given, allowing the reader to fill in those blanks for yourself. But now I'm ranting, so I'll close this out by saying that you can find it on Deviantart.

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

Well as you're a 4 year vet, I'd love to hear your opinion on a Dragon's Dogma fanfic called Dragon's Charge. Be warned though, if you go to read it and haven't played the game, you may want to do some research to know what to recognize. To sum it up simply, Dragon's Charge takes the established setting and characters and throws them off a bridge (though it is worth noting that the established characters may show up later under a different name). Instead the location appears to be the same but is set in the modern day. In a truly clever bit of writing that keeps with the game's character creation, the writer neither names his Arisen in the story or describes his/her appearance, not even a gender is given, allowing the reader to fill in those blanks for yourself. But now I'm ranting, so I'll close this out by saying that you can find it on Deviantart.

Not sure I'm qualified, I haven't played Dragon's Dogma.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I was just going to say:

"Don't."

And leave it at that (well, add some stuff in so I wouldn't get warned for low content)... But then I saw the original post was sarcastic, so I really have no idea where to go from there.

Yeah that's where I was going to go too, but then I saw that the OP wasn't serious so yeah never mind.

 

[cojo965]

Snip

Well as you're a 4 year vet, I'd love to hear your opinion on a Dragon's Dogma fanfic called Dragon's Charge. Be warned though, if you go to read it and haven't played the game, you may want to do some research to know what to recognize. To sum it up simply, Dragon's Charge takes the established setting and characters and throws them off a bridge (though it is worth noting that the established characters may show up later under a different name). Instead the location appears to be the same but is set in the modern day. In a truly clever bit of writing that keeps with the game's character creation, the writer neither names his Arisen in the story or describes his/her appearance, not even a gender is given, allowing the reader to fill in those blanks for yourself. But now I'm ranting, so I'll close this out by saying that you can find it on Deviantart.

Not sure I'm qualified, I haven't played Dragon's Dogma.

Well you could watch a playthrough if you are interested, but I recommend playing it because I name it my game of 2012. In the forefront you are a hero who is on a quest to slay a truly giant dragon but it is still my favorite story in gaming thanks to the background details. Yes this is not a game I recommend running through the main story without doing side quests for characters, but what really gets my praise is the ending. Mass Effect 3 this is not, this is an ending that made me literally say, "what the fuck?" This is something you would think beyond Capcom and if they see this, could I send whoever wrote the ending a hug for making a game ending stick with me like it does in Dragon's Dogma. For everything else, think of it as Dark Souls crossed with Skyrim crossed with Devil May Cry.

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

As a somewhat well known fanfictionist myself...

The OP made me laugh my ass off at first...until I remembered all the actual fanfiction writers who actually DO choose to do everything on that list and it depressed me.

 

[smithy_2045]

My advice for avoiding writing bad fan fiction is very simple. Don't write fan fiction. No good can come of it.

 

[redknightalex]

My advice for avoiding writing bad fan fiction is very simple. Don't write fan fiction. No good can come of it.

If no one ever wrote fan fiction then we would never have half of the literature we do today, even the classics. If you look at it critically, the same stories have been told over and over and over again, just with different characters/setting: an AU. How many times have we seen a man go on a lonely quest for family and salvation? Yeah, that was "Homer's" idea, or who we think of as Homer, originally but still there are tons of novels based on that idea. Food for thought. (Also, I disagree if you were serious. Can never tell in the forums.)

9. IMHO prose is completely pointless. I prefer a minimalistic route to describing how people look and how the scenery looks, I prefer to focus on what they say and what they do.

Speaking seriously (because I'm so bad at figuring out the joke from the real too), I think this is a matter of style. I know you put in the "IMHO" but sometimes a bit of prose, even repeating a similar action throughout a sentence, gives some fic more flavor than they normally would have had. I know that I'm fond of more prose than straight minimalist action/talk, and I write that way, because I think it just adds more.

"Purple prose," I believe it's called, is still bad. Avoid that at all costs.