Any advice for writing a story? I read your work on Ao3 and your writing style is really good! I would like to make a story too, but I would like some tips, if you have any! :)
I can only tell you how to write stories like how I write them, so if you have different goals, then this advice wont apply, and that is fine. This is advice that I use for my own writing.
1 Even though it’s fanfic, don’t make everything easy, convenient, and perfect. Don’t make all the characters get along. Don’t make everyone a good person. Don’t make you’re MC’s main trait that they are kind and nice, and everyone likes them because of it. I get it, there are a lot of these in fanfic, as people explore wish fulfillment, but if you want to write a story that will stick and have interesting enough content to last a while… you need conflict and character traits that aren’t always good. Characters can’t grow if they are already “perfect” And they honestly feel unreal and boring. We want to relate to both good and bad traits in characters.
2 Don’t info dump. If you have a world with a set of rules, avoid listing off the rules. Use the interactions of the characters and what they are doing to display how the world works. (Show don’t tell) Otherwise it’s boring. I have done this a few times when I first started writing, but I’m getting much better at not doing it. It mostly only happens when Sans feels like Sansplaning how things work.
3 When characters are talking, have them do something while talking. You often talk to people while doing things (Ex, cleaning, doing dishes, playing video games, driving, working, eating a meal) And they will start to fidget if there’s nothing to do while talking. Use the descriptions of what they are doing to punctuate the conversation and create timing flow. (ex chewing food loudly during boring casual parts, but stopping as the conversations get more intense) Every person does these things differently, so you can show off their own personal body language while they are doing things. (This also works for telling story through comics)
4 It’s okay if characters lie. Everyone tells lies, white lies especially. And it’s okay if you don’t tackle a character problem right away. Some characters take a while to open up, and conflict can happen because of it. Conflict is interesting.
5 Have areas of rest (with jokes) between serious sections. This will create contrast making the story more interesting.
6 If you’re bored reading it, then it’s boring. Make it not boring or people will skim the section, or outright stop reading. Are you describing too much scenery? Are you info dumping? Can the dialog be edited so it’s simpler and gets to the point? Perhaps you’ve been on a serious streak and you need some jokes or a change of emotion. Shorten the boring parts so they get to the point and you can get back into what’s fun. One of my primary reasons for telling a story is to entertain the reader. If they are bored, then I have failed. I often rewrite areas or completely cut them out after asking myself, is this fun to read.
7 Characters should have core values that differ from your own, and those core values are always at war with other characters core values. Character backstory is how those core values come to be, and there is no ultimate way of thinking that is perfect and correct. Characters are simultaneously wrong and right at the same time depending on situations, and it is this fight between characters and how think that makes them interesting.
I don’t have much more to say at this time, but I am trying to be better at one final skill. A, and B, and sometimes C plot writing. If you see this start to show up in my works, now you know why. Gotta have those multiple plots. Thank you Boss for being my test subject…
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