AUTHORS GOTTA WRITE - FANFICTION

AUTHORS GOTTA WRITE: FANFICTION

***Hello everyone! Sorry for disappearing for a whole year. That was totally my fault and I could pull up a whole lot of excuses, but I'm not going to do that. So, enjoy this blog post!***

All over the world, people gather 'round to watch their favorite TV shows; they borrow armfuls of books from the library and finish everything in record time; they pop their favorite movie into the DVD player and watch the story unfold, though they know it by heart.

When they walk away from it, the characters stay in their minds and sometimes leave noteworthy impressions on their hearts, and then, the watchers and readers want more.

So what do they do?

Fanart. Analysis. Blog posts. Discussions. Theories. And, the thing I personally do the most of, fanfiction.

Fanfiction is a great way to get your writing "out there", so to speak. When you have an idea you want to share with the rest of the fans out there – or maybe just get your thoughts down on paper – fanfiction is a great way of doing it. It's become so big in today's world that it's almost unbelievable.

As a fanfiction author myself, I've been asked questions like this numerous times. "How do you write fanfiction?"; "How do you make your fanfiction popular?"; "How do you keep the characters in-character?"

So, I'm here to give you all a couple of tips and tricks from what I've learned over the years of writing fanfiction. The first couple of tricks/tips are going to be blatantly obvious, whereas the ones further down the line are going to be a bit more complex. Take what you want from this blog post, and have fun writing! :)

Tip #1: The Summary: Short, Simple, and Engaging

Your summary is the very first thing your viewers will see, so you have to make sure it's both an accurate summary of your story (which means no click-bait) and something that interests the readers enough to get them hooked.

This may be a common concept as well, but you have to edit your summary. Sometimes multiple times. Your summary is just as crucial as the rest of your story, because if you have a poor summary, or a summary full of typos and grammatical errors, chances are the readers aren't going to bother with actually reading your story.

POINT: YOUR SUMMARY IS A PREVIEW OF YOUR WRITING.

You know those trailers you watch at the movie theatres? While some of them are incredible and hype you up for the film, the rest of them are poor, lame, boring, and make you want to bury your face in your popcorn until it's over. You want your summary to be like the first kind of trailer. You want the trailer that makes the watchers turn to each other and say, "That looks good. I can't wait to see that."

This is your summary: a powerful aspect of who you are as a writer, and what your readers can expect from reading your story.

Tip #2: Avoid Careless Errors ("I see your doing well."; "Who's dog is that?" "This is there dog."; "i dont no what too do."

If any of the above examples made you cringe, then congratulations: you are probably one of the authors that AVOIDS "careless errors" at all cost. (And I apologize for the cringey-ness; I don't like it, either.)

It doesn't matter what your summary says; if your story is full of typos, grammatical errors, or just one heap of text without any paragraphing or spacing whatsoever, your readers will click off. 

I'm telling you right now: Your readers HATE seeing typos/grammatical errors.

I'm not talking about maybe one or two mess-ups here and there; if the rest of your story is clean of mess-ups, your readers will understand a couple. No, I'm talking about an abundance of grammatical errors. The errors that make you sit back and think, "Is this author even trying? Did they even try a little bit while writing this?"

I'll admit, I know I have some typos in my stories. This is something I can't deny. But I can also tell you that I spend hours going through my stories and making sure everything is as pefect as it can be. I edit, rewrite, and repeat, until I'm sure my writing is as clean and error-free as it can be.

If you're worried about your writing, or if you don't think you can edit on your own, don't worry; there are TONS of beta-readers out there who can go over your story before you post it and edit whatever mistakes they find. There's nothing wrong with getting a beta-reader; in fact, I encourage it.

POINT: IF YOUR STORY IS FULL OF ERRORS/TYPOS/CARELESSNESS, YOUR READERS WILL NOT CONTINUE.

Probably the biggest turn-off for readers is opening a story and finding it just a messy heap of errors, typos, and just blatant carelessness. ALWAYS edit before you post, or, NEVER post without editing.

Your readers can forgive a couple of typos, but they will not forgive carelessness.

Tip #3: "What Do They Want?" (Optional)

Find out what the readers want to see. Spend time around the discussion boards; ask questions to other fans; look around social medias. If you can find out what the fans want to read, writing will be easier, and chances are, your writing will receive better responses from the fans overall.

I check discussion boards all the time for my fanfictions. Most of what I write is from the How to Train Your Dragon fanfiction archive, so for an example, a lot of the fans on these discussion boards wanted "more Astrid saving Hiccup" or "more Hiccstrid" or "more character bonding between so-and-so" and so on, so I include some of these factors in my fanfictions.

POINT: If you know what the readers are looking for, you can write something you know they will read.

I labeled this as an "optional" tip because there are some writers who write for themselves, rather than to try and write for fans. Which is completely fine. If that's the case, you can ignore this tip and move on.

For everyone else, find out what your readers want to see! You have no idea how exciting it is for a reader when they're browsing the archives, see a story and think, "OH MY GOSH, I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT THIS!! I'M CHECKING THIS OUT!!" Click.

Tip #4: Treat Your Readers Respectfully

This is a really small tip in this section, but oh so important. Readers love it when the author notices them; they just do. It's special. It makes them feel important, like the author actually cares enough about them to say something.

The best way to do this is through shout-outs (or, if you're using AO3, responding to their comments). At the beginning/ending of your chapter in the author's note, reply to their review! Thank them for it! And if you can't do that, at least let them know how much their support means to you!

I'm telling you right now: READERS LIKE TO BE NOTICED INDIVIDUALLY.

Because they are individuals. "Followers" isn't just a number. If you have, let's say, five followers, those are five unique, individual people who are reading your story. If you have ten followers, or fifteen, or even, heck, one hundred, remember that your "follower" count IS NOT just a number.

You have individual people who individually love your story. When they take the time to review your story, why not take the time to individually thank them?

Tip #5: Update ("Wow, this is such a cool story! I can't wait for the next chap...WAIT, IT HASN'T BEEN UPDATED SINCE 2012!? DANGIT, and I was so excited, too!"

You never want your readers to say that. If you plan to start a story, plan to finish it relatively soon. If you don't update for years/however long you don't update, you'll lose a lot of your readers.

And if something happens, like a situation comes up and you can no longer write for whatever reason, at least let them know, because they're waiting for you. Remember: you have individual people waiting for your story. They want to read what you have planned. They want to reach the end of the road. They want to see the conclusion.

POINT: When you start a story, PLAN TO FINISH IT.

Tip #6: Keep the Characters In-Character ("What? I don't think they'd ever say something like that...WHAT!? No! They'd never do that! What are you thinking!? I'm outta here! *clicks off*)

This actually happens. A reader will find a promising story, get into it, and realize the characters are acting NOTHING like their canon-selves. This is a real let-down for readers, especially if they liked everything else about your writing.

The "keeping the characters in-character" is probably one of the most important things you can do as a fanfiction author. I'll dive deeper into this aspect a little later on in this post and give some tips on how to keep the characters true to their actual selves; for now, just remember that readers HATE IT when the characters are out-of-character. They HATE it.

POINT: Out-of-character (OOC) behavior is NOT as forgiveable as a couple of typos. In fact, OOC behavior is hardly EVER forgiveable. AT ALL.

Tip #7: Don't Swear

No one likes swearing. No one. Especially when it's out-of-character. I'll tell you here and how that no one likes reading a whole bunch of swear words.

I understand that sometimes a character will use language in the show/movie/book, and fanfiction authors try and include that because it's "in-character," but overall, it's better to avoid swearing altogether. There have been numerous people who have thanked me for my "lack of swearing, because it's so hard to find clean fanfics nowadays."

And if you must have swearing in your fanfic, make sure you warn your audience ahead of time – or bump up the story's rating.

Tip #8: Rate Your Story Approproately

On FF.net, the rating system goes something like this: K (G), K+ (PG), T (PG-13), and M (R). (There is the additional rating of M+, but as such rated stories are not permitted on the site, we will not get into that.)

You have to make sure you rate your stories accurately, or some readers may find themselves in a place they don't want to be. If you have trouble rating your story, here is the basic rating guide I follow:

K (G) – No language. No crude humor. No violence. No gore.

K+ (PG) – No language. Mild crude humor. Mild violence. Mild gore.

T (PG-13) – Language (everything but the F bomb). Violence. Gore.

M (R) – Heavy language. Heavy violence. Heavy gore. Adult content.

Rating is very important. Don't forget this.

Those are all of my tips, so now I'm going to dive in to a couple of frequently asked questions I get on fanfiction, and then give my answers for each question.

Question #1: How do I get popular?

A lot of it has to do with your writing. If you follow the tips I gave you above, chances are your work will get noticed. However, as far as actually "popularity" goes, there isn't really a whole lot you can do.

The longer you write fanfiction, the more followers you'll accumulate, so eventually your stories will be popular. But you can't make your stories "popular", because that's up to your audience to decide. Just do whatever you can do (make sure there aren't any "careless errors"; keep the characters in-character; have a good summary) and see what happens next.

Things to remember:

1. You do not get popular by asking other writers to read your stories.

2. You won't "get popular" overnight. It takes time. A long time, sometimes.

3. If you currently write fanfiction and are discouraged by lack of response, don't give up. Your time will come.

Question #2: How do I keep characters in-character?

Ah, now THAT'S a bit of a trickier question to answer. One of the biggest problems in fanfiction today is the fact that characters just...don't act like themselves sometimes. It's obnoxious. It's down-right obnoxious, I'm telling you. Readers despise it when characters are OOC.

Part of the reason they're coming to fanfiction in the first place is because they love the characters, so if the characters don't act like their true, canon-selves, it's a HUGE disappointment, and they'll likely abandon your story before even getting into it.

So, because this is such a big deal, I'm going to give a few tips on keeping the characters in-character.

a) Imagine the character's voice in your head.

Dialogue is one of the biggest do-or-die moments of your story. In-character, or out of character? Dialogue is the judge of that.

So, whenever you have a character speaking in your story, imagine the sentance in their voice in your head, and think, "Does this sound like something the character would say?" It may sound stupid, but it works. I promise it works. 

b) How does the character speak?

Some characters have specific ways they speak. Some characters have light accents; some characters use words like "lad" and "lass" while speaking of others. Some characters say stuff like "idiot" and "moron". Some characters have a more laid-back manner of speaking ("So, how's it going?") while others are more formal ("How are you today?").

The character's personality helps with dialogue. If they're a typically angry character, make them angry sometimes! If they're an intellectual character, give them some "big words" to say! If they're generally stupid, have "big words" said by other characters confuse them!

c) Ask your readers if you're keeping the characters in-character.

Your readers are the best judges. They're coming straight from the viewpoint of the show and into fanfiction. Sometimes, we authors can get caught-up with the rest of the story and don't actually know how we're doing with the characters, so when in doubt, ask your readers what they think! If they tell you someone's acting OOC, chances are they're right. Take your readers' advice. They're coming from a different perspective than you, the writer. Listen to them, and go from there.

d) Practice

A lot of it comes with practice. I mean, seriously, I have people ask me "How do you keep everyone so in-character all the time!?" and I look back and realize I've written over 100 fanfics with these characters alone over the period of a couple years.

Once you're familiar with the characters, it's easier to keep them in-character.

A really good "practice" prompt for learning how to write each character is the "Horror Movie Marathon." This is a prompt I've used time, time, and time again while moving to a new fandom. I usually don't post my "practice" work; I just write, and then move to my actual story.

The "Horror Movie Marathon" prompt is basically this: Have the characters get together late at night and watch a horror movie. Write their reactions. That's really what you're going for.

This prompt may not work for everybody, but it's helped me tons while moving into a new fandom, so I thought I'd share that with you.

Question #3: How long should my chapters be?

The length of chapters varies with the author. Sometimes, an author will post a 2,000 word chapter, whereas other authors post up to 20,000 word chapters. Since there are so many variations, I've been asked by a couple other writers just how long their chapters should be.

Generally speaking, your chapter should never be under 1,000 words.

Usually, when I post a FF chapter, it's between 1,000 and 2,000 words. It's also important to be consistant with your chapters; don't have a 10,000 word chapter and then suddenly drop down to 1,000 words. It confuses (and annoys) the reader. Lots.

I posted a story that was originally supposed to be a long, 8,000 word one-shot (a single chapter story), but then, I decided to continue, so now, I always make sure my chapters are somewhere in between 4,000 and 10,000 words, just to keep the consistancy.

Consistancy is important. 

In Conclusion . . .

Fanfiction is a great way to practice your writing as well as get your ideas down on paper. It's fantastic practice, actually; it helps you grow as a writer, and you can connect with other people who read/write and learn from them as well.

And as for me, well, I'm just a weirdo who's a little too in-love with all these shows I watch. I'm no saint. Some of these tips might be totally useless, but I wanted to throw them out there anyway, because I've gotten asked about my writing on dozens of occasions.

Remember to have fun while you're writing. If you're not enjoying it, chances are your readers won't enjoy it either.

Until next time, this is Beyond, signing out! Have fun, and keep on writing!

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Ask away! The comment box is all yours!

***If anyone's interested in reading my fanfictions, you can visit me on archiveofourown.org or fanfiction.net under the username BeyondTheClouds777.***