I'm a beginner fan fic writer, any tips?
1.) So, first of all, Summaries. Are. Important. It’s going to be what catches the interest of the Reader, it’s going to tell them whether or not your story is something they’d like to check out.
Whatever you do, and no matter how tempted you might be, NEVER. EVER leave it blank or put something like ‘Not good at summaries, please just read the story, I promise it’s good!’ Or ‘Will write summary later, too lazy right now lol’
I know it might sound mean, but I hardly ever read a story that doesn’t have a summary to it, and I have skipped over many stories in my time in favor of ones with summaries because seeing stories without a summary is just disengaging to me, and I assume, many others.
2.) Please, I beg you, paragraph your writing. It’s an absolute eyesore whenever I click on a story and find everything cram-packed into one large lump of words.
Example of BAD paragraphing:
As I stared up at the moon, a giddy feeling building in my chest that I hadn’t felt in years, I couldn’t help but think; ‘They can’t reach me here… No one can.’ I took in a shaky breath, my feelings seeming to choke me as I try to breathe. I’m free. “Are… are you ok?” A voice broke the silence, causing my blood to run cold. I whip around to find the voice, only to see a young woman standing off to the side, dressed in a thin white gown, her dark skin gleaming in the moonlight. I quickly stood, sniffling and wiping the tears that had trickled down my cheeks. “I can leave if you want,” The woman offered, throwing her thumb back in the direction she must have came. “Just wanted to make sure you weren’t hurt or somethin’… it wouldn’t look good on my record if they found someone injured on my property.” She laughed at her own joke, shifting to lean more on her left foot… odd is the first thing that came to mind the longer I stared.
Example of GOOD paragraphing:
As I stared up at the moon, a giddy feeling building in my chest that I hadn’t felt in years, I couldn’t help but think; ‘They can’t reach me here… No one can.’
I took in a shaky breath, my feelings seeming to choke me as I try to breathe. I’m free.
“Are… are you ok?” A voice broke the silence, causing my blood to run cold.
I whip around to find the voice, only to see a young woman standing off to the side, dressed in a thin white gown, her dark skin gleaming in the moonlight. I quickly stood, sniffling and wiping the tears that had trickled down my cheeks.
“I can leave if you want,” The woman offered, throwing her thumb back in the direction she must have came. “Just wanted to make sure you weren’t hurt or somethin’… it wouldn’t look good on my record if they found someone injured on my property.” She laughed at her own joke, shifting to lean more on her left foot…
Odd is the first thing that came to mind the longer I stared.
I know many would agree that bad paragraphing deters Readers. It’s definitely deterred me anytime I click on a story and see that kind of mess-
3.) Having a few chapters pre-written before publishing your story is also a good habit to get into when writing a story. I myself like to have a few chapters written before I even consider publishing any story, because it helps you not to stress for a bit when you do publish your work, and helps keep you on top of a schedule if you have one.
It can also help with coming to a conclusion on whether or not you are genuinely interested in what you’re writing, or if it is just one of those things that you put a few chapters into before running out of ideas or motivation… because I may or may not have quite a few of those laying around in my Google docs collecting dust-
4.) Make sure you have at least some plot fleshed out before publishing the first chapter of your story. This goes along with my advice to have a few chapter written up. Trust me, it’ll make your life easier in the long run, because you’ll have the direction you want to go already in mind.
5.) When it comes to actually writing a character, whether it be an OC or a Reader-Insert, make sure to give them personality and flaws. Whatever you do, don’t fall into that hole where the OC/Reader is perfect at anything and everything they do, it can ruin the story or make the character seem hallow.
Whenever I write a character, I usually make them a hardass/badass with a couple cups of anger issues and a drizzle of soft spots added into the mix. That’s my writing style for the most part.
Flaws/habits are also important to writing a character, for example; I usually give my characters flaws like drug abuse, substance abuse, and anger issues. BUT! You don’t have to go that heavy on the flaws like I like to do, you can keep it light or simple or anything you want, like a nervous habit of someone clicking their jaw bone, chewing on their nails, cracking fingers bones, drumming fingertips on surfaces.
6.) If you’re writing in Character A’s perspective, but hit a spot where you can’t think of anything to write, just change the perspective to Character B and see how things are looking from there. This little snippet of info has saved me more times then I’m willing to admit.
Don’t be afraid of switching perspectives, it can help cure writer’s block and also give your Readers insight into another character’s mind that they might have missed or didn’t know. You don’t have to stick to one perspective per chapter!
7.) Write down your ideas the moment you have them! It never fails that you’ll be daydreaming or suddenly have a way to further the plot, and you say you’ll write it down later and that you’ll remember- but whatever you do, don’t trust yourself with something as precious as story ideas! Your brain will fail you in your time of need!
8.) Don’t be afraid to have multiple stories going at once, sometimes it helps get the creative juices flowing, but make sure you can keep up with the demand/stress of it before doing so. Sometimes it’s best to only have one main story and maybe a side story to mess with so you don’t end up getting tired of just writing the main story.
You can write as many damn stories as you want! Just make sure you know your limits and don’t stress yourself out!
Hmmmm, uh… I can’t think of anything else at the moment… if you have anymore specific questions about something, don’t be afraid to ask!
