I've been wondering about this for a long time. "How to write a good piece of fanfiction".

I've never understood the whole progess. Lets say you've been inspired by a certain song you love and now you're planning to write a fanfiction. There are a few ideas in your head, but now you have to start from the beginning. You want the characters to go from A to B. But how are you going to get them there?

You sit behind your computer with an empty screen before you. Do you you immediately start typing something like: "Person Blah-blah was walking down the street when suddenly blah blah" and see where the road leads you or do you think about what you want for hours and then start typing. Do you think about what you want everyone to say, or...?

Sometimes a certain comment by a certain character can change the whole storyline.

I'd like to hear from you guys what your experiences are with this. Don't hold back on anything, I'm very interested!

alright you incredebly awseome writers out there...
give this girl some advice!!

sorry Margriet, I'd help you out if I only knew how :D

Never finished a fiction so...

*cough*
I once tried drafting plots out but it didn't work out in the end. Right now, I'm going by the characters and how I develop them along the way.

Anyway, I've got ideas in my head for various stories and I think that's a huge reason why I'm having trouble continuing what I have up... *sighs*

Ok...
there we go!

I may not be s good as some other here , but I have been thinking about this veeeery often (btw always when I say veeeeery it is always Jack sparrows voice when he sais "That's interestion, that's veeeery interesting", but that just by the way ;)).

1.
Don't just start writing when something popps up into your head!

That may work with drabbles, poems or shortstories - but for me at least - never ever for longer ff's!

2.
Take your time, think about that story for a week or two.

Let images run through your mind, think into different direction, create round characters...

3.
Before you start writing type down the plot in a few sentences WITH at least a posible end.

I know that a single comment can turn the story around, and that is ok, but at least for my part, I can't write without an end in my mind. A point where I can get rid of the story ;) and start something new...

4.
Know your characters.

You should be very very familiar with your characters, love them or hate them, but make them round... also that needs time and many descriptions, but it's worth it...

5.
Only startwriting if you are after the week as enthusiastic as you were in the first moment - then it can become really great!

I think that is my little piece of advice...

does that help in any way???

hug
Laila
:baby:

Most of the time I just start typing and see where it'll lead to, but that can indeed be dangerous when you plan on writing a longer fic, cause then you might risk getting stuck somewhere along the road. Which is the exact same reason that I haven't finished any of my longer fics. Most of the time I have a vague idea in mind, but I haven't got exactly figured out what will happen. Most of the time that just pops into my head while I'm writing. If I get an idea, I want to work on it as quickly as I can, whether I know how to finish it or not. I just don't wanna lose that idea, if you know what I mean.

Oh well, I don't know really... I guess I'm not in the right position to give advice on writing, considering the fact that I just do something.. (can't find the translation for the word 'aanmodderen', which is the exact thing I meant to say.. hmmz )

Well, when some idea comes to my head, instead of writing something I expect to become a fic, I just write some lines or a draft and save it as an idea. Later on, I may get to expand that idea or not. Sometimes it's useful when you're stuck on a fic or something long to take a look at those drafts you wrote to get ideas.

You never know..

Also, when I think of a fic, I think of the main problem, and almost every time I think of an ending. It may change as the story continues, but to start, it's a good thing to keep in mind.

At least it works for me.

When the idea first comes to me I usuallly sit down and write whatever it is I feel like writing, then I ponder over it. Could I turn this into something good? I often think about it for a long time, scribbling new ideas down as soon as they pop up into my head.

Then, when I feel ready I collect all the notes, information and thoughts in my head. First I try to come up with the characters of the story. The names, what makes them what they are. You should know your characters just as well as you know yourself, the characters often reflect a part of you that you want to emphasize.

Then I move on to the FF itself. I usually have a pretty good idea of how the whole storyline works. Write it down in a few sentences, only pointing out the most important things. For instance:
"Sarah's brother dies in a carcrash."

Just something really short so you don't trail off in the middle of the story not know what you're writing about or just writing 'cause you have to.

Then I guess it's just to get it on. Start writing!

Every author has his/hers own ways of writing their stories, you simply have to find the one you think suits you the best.

~Hanna

Well.. Here I go!!

1. As everything in life... Writing a fan fic is a process. you can just start writing a fic because it was a brainstorm in a moment.

2. Define a plot, okay you had this great idea and you want tstart writing right now. Do it but think about the main events of the plot, also the main characters, the places where the fic will be developed, each detail counts.

3. Inspire... Do the things you like most, if you want to write as you listen to your Nelly Furtado's Cd.. do it, it makes the work better and sensitive.


I think those are the advices to have a good piece of work. LOL!! We need the writers block cures!! i think i'll post them now ;)

My advice have a story plan know where u going cos there is absolutly nothing worse than writters block.

Well first of all, I recomend reading Stephen King's book On Writing. Even if you don't read any of his other stuff, it's a great book... er, well, the first part (and he has the book divided into sections) is his autobiography, the rest is great stuff concerning grammar, the basics, and creation.

Now for my opinion.

1.) Think. You may have to resemble Winnie the Pooh at this stage, but mere inspiration just ain't enough to carry a writer through.
You must ask questions concerning:
-Your audience. If your audience is let's say... College age and older, understand that "Pat the Bunny" sentences may be very annoying, and if your audience is 5 years old, quantum physics is not an option. Ask questions like "What would interest them here?" "Do they understand what I'm trying to say?" I have more but I don't wanna waste too much space.
-Your plot. Who, what, when, where, and why? While you don't have to have the entire story mapped out, you can't just go into a story blindly, have a beginning and end.
and
-Your characters. Does he/she sound 2-dimensionial? What are his/her hopes/dreams/goals/fears etc? Sometimes, as an actor, I'm called up to do a character analysis of the character I'm portraying. Sometimes it helps to write this down when your just getting started. It will also help with consistency, for example, if in your C.A. [character analysis] you say "MJ" hates cats and you put that in chapter 2 and then in chapter 56 you have MJ getting a pet cat... things get screwy.
-Your length/ commitment. Do you have the time necessary to write a longer version of war and peace? Do you want to write a longer version of war and peace? Sometimes if you spend to long on a project that your not commited to, or even in love with, the material may get stale for you if it's dragged out too long. But remember, this is all relative to YOU. You choose all of this.

2.) KEEP WRITING! I cannot stress this enough. Even if you have to take a break from your main project, scribble something. Whether it be poem, prose, or the summary of a movie. This will increase your skill as a writer and maybe even help with pesky writer/plot blocks. If you train yourself to keep writing, it won't be hard to jump over a hurdle.

3.) Do research. You must write what you know. Sadly, many readers are turned off by inaccurate information on an otherwise brilliant story. You can obviously do what you want to your characters and give them whatever personality. But, if your character is a doctor, make sure they didn't go to college for 6 weeks. And if your main plot setting is a CSI lab (cough, Making A Killing, cough) do research on forensic science.

4.) Let your characters do the talking and make the story. Just kidding, have *some* idea of where your characters are going. But be advised that more often than not your characters have their own agenda. So, if you want your characters to get to your end one way, and they go another, don't dismay! Let them do it. Don't sacrifice a character's integrity just because it's not exactly what you want. If you created that character to be one way, you have to follow through with it; even if it means sacrificing a little bit of your plot. This goes back to the C.A. thing, it works!

5.) Have a plot. You'd be surprised how often this point gets over looked. This kinda contradicts #4, but you have to have both to have a good story. Yes, you have to have good characters, but you also have to have some control over your characters. Plot is essential to your story. And while we all love to here what a character is thinking about his lunch bag contents, we all also want to know why it is relivent to the plot that he muse over it for 5 pages.

6.) Love your creation. If you don't love what you are doing, than it is a sad, sad day.

And that's pretty much it. Phew. Now that I look at it, it seems like a lot, doesn't it. **shrugs** Oh well! Hope it helps!!!

-Love Kat
P.S.: If any of that doesn't make sense, or you have any questions, feel free to PM me!

Thanks, every single one of you! I don't think there's much more to say than that!

well i hopes it helped

Hey Margriet,

I think a lot off people have made a lot off very great comments....I think they are very helpfull....even though my fic is all ready hitting chap 42....so I suppose you can call that long...especially knowing that there will follow a lot more. ;-) but I think everyone can learn something from these great advises.

You know the funny thing is...there is no standard rule book for writing a ff. Everyone uses it's own way... :yes:
So I am going to trow in my piece off crappy advice about how to write
I just hope it will work out for you and if I can give you some tip to....try to get a beta-reader. They can look at things from a bigger distance, see errors in your plotline, dialogues, grammer and other things.

I have always found them very usefull.

Absolutly....couldn't agree more. I think writing is like a fingerprint: unique to each person. The only thing that I think I feel can't be said enough is "Write what you know" meaning, if you may not necessarily know the person you are writing about, but you can create situations, or feeling that you yourself understand...or can see yourself in; you'll find that your fingers will simply fly and things will take a life of their own. I live in Los Angeles, so everyone knows about the HORRIBLE traffic issues here...I do most of my creative thinking while stuck in traffic. I find good music that makes my mind wander (Ironically....ch 1 of my fic...I put that in for my main charecter) I literally put myself into the situation I want to write about, and let my imagination create the scene. Then I go back and write it down.

Also....Charecters can make or break a fic....if you create truly 3 dimmensional people...you can't go wrong. They'll take their own life eventually and you'll begin to feel like you know them.

Eekk..Hopefully someone will find that usefull!!! :blush:

:love: :love: :love:
Kimi

I would have to agree with a lot of the authors here, especially Laila and Kat. Here's a few hints from me... in fact, I would say it's my top ten - just in no particular order:-

1. time and commitments. I only write one story at a time - well one and a half when I'm doing a join fic with Holly, so that helps me, because I'm not very good at multi-tasking and lose my concentration with a story very easily if I have more than one project going at once, but that's just me. There are a lot of authors out there that have 4 or 5 stories going at once, and I can only surmise that it must help with the writer's block to have more than one story to write about.

2. planning. Fanfic is just like writing any story. It has a beginning to suck people in, a middle to keep them interested and an ending to bring it all together and leave the reader satisfied. To do that, you need to know what you want to happen, how it starts, what happens in the middle and how it ends. Personally, when I’m at the beginning of a story, or half way through, at the end of my word file I have a list of events sometimes with a quick outline of what I want to happen. This is so that I don't get lost in the chapters and forget where I’m driving the story to. Think of it as a road map. Sure this can change, so be flexible - as Kat said, your characters take on a life of their own, so if they change direction on you, don't be afraid to look at your road map again and see if there's another way to get to your destination. But most importantly is know where you're going. A story with no ending in sight is just painful. Remember the old adage, All good things must come to an end.

3. characters. As Kat said, you can love them, hate them or be indifferent to them, but remember they are an integral part of your story so treat them right. Keep the characterisation constant - if someone's a bitch at the beginning and has a change of heart, explain it so the reader understands, otherwise you'll lose your audience. Fill them out, don't make them 2 dimensional. If you've put in a physical description, remember it - don't change your character's hair colour or eye colour halfway through unless you can explain it.

4. spell check and grammar. Use a dictionary. Use a thesaurus. Expand your knowledge base. There's a great site http://www.dictionary.com it gives you access to both dictionary and thesaurus. If you're using another language, find a translator, or ask someone on the board if they know how to speak the language. Use the right syntax and check your work. Nothing worse than spelling errors and grammatical errors throughout a story.

5. Research! Please, oh PLEASE, don't make your readers suffer through information that they will know is incorrect. If you're taking your characters to a location that's real, research it! Look it up. If you have access to the board, then you'll have access to the biggest encyclopaedia known to man - THE INTERNET! You can find almost anything on here, so use it to your best advantage. I've got the US White Pages, Mapquest and a host of other sites bookmarked for frequent reference - and don't forget to research your characters that are real - i.e. Elijah, Orli, Dom, Billy etc... if they're real, at least try to get the basics right before using poetic license to change parts of them - if you are going to blatantly change them, it might be an idea to advise your readers in your disclaimer to avoid disappointment.

6. Accept Criticism. Ask for it, even. You won't get better unless you know what's wrong with it. Don't take the criticism to heart, because it's not personal. If someone tells you that the paragraph doesn't fit in, or you've changed the personality of a character and it doesn’t sound right, it's not because you're a terrible writer and they hate your work. It's because sometimes when you get lost in writing, you "lose the plot" yourself and forget what you've already done. Take it on board, decipher if it's helpful or constructive criticism. Ask for a second opinion from someone else if you have to. Remember, to learn to do something right, you're going to make a few mistakes. We're all fallible, and none of us have not written something that didn't suck, or needed to be re-done. If the story didn’t work out, stick it in a draw and start again. Don't dwell on it, and don't let it break your confidence. Everyone has a story in a drawer.

7. Notes. Yep, you've written your story, or you're in the process of writing it. Don't get me wrong, no one knows your story like you do, but even you can't remember EVERYTHING. All great authors (Stephen King, JK Rowing, Ann M Martin just to name a few) have folders of notes on their characters, their family trees, important idiosyncrasies that only that character does/has, birth dates, physical descriptions, important events, etc. Put them in bullet form for quick referencing, and possibly note which chapter it is written in, in case you need to look it up. On a personal note, my story Pandora's Box, I’m currently writing Chapter 131 (I’ve only posted 13 on this board). I have to refer back to characters I’ve mentioned, what I’ve said about them, double checking surnames, descriptions, actions, statements, ages etc. After 131 chapters you tend to forget what you've written in chapter 10, you know what I mean?

8. Credit. If you didn't write it, don't forget to give credit to the person that did. If you mention a song name, try to worm the artist's name in there too. Add it into your disclaimer at the beginning. After all the hours you've put into your creation, you don’t want to get done for breach of copywrite.

9. Patience. Yep, you gotta have patience. There will be days when you just can't seem to get into the mood to write. There will be days when writer's block pokes it's tongue at you and says "Gotcha!" and there will be days when everything you write is crap, crap, crap. I've deleted entire chapters before because I thought it sucked and didn't fit in with where I was going. I've cut and paste paragraphs, and rearranged the order of events. I've gone back and changed what people look like, or what they said, or added in something I think that should have been there originally. Your stories become like your children, so you must have patience with it.

10. Love. Don't write for the fans. Don't write for the fame. Don't write for the money. Write for yourself, the story inside you that must get out and write for the love of writing. Every now and then you'll end up with a story that just grips you with both hands and won't let go. It must be written. Yes, it'll take time, it'll take commitment, it'll take patience, and energy, and most of all it'll take love.

Good luck, and I hope to see your work on the board!

Magikal Rhiannon (I'm so sorry, I don't remember your name)

That has got to be the best advice I've EVER heard from anyone. I've copied it and pasted it in my folder in Word just to look back on myself. Just incredible. Those tips should be able to help any author.

Thanks!
~Stacy~

Hehe well that's just about the biggest compliment i've ever had. Thanks Stacy.

And my name is Wendy :D

Wendy! That's it. :) Your welcome.

~Stacy~

I cannot name myself an awesome writer, still I always dreamt to be.
But I have a usual process of ideas coming in my head - still most of them die before releasing. OK!

1. Feeling inspired stop ideas flowing out of you. Interrupt visions of following great chapter - be on the whole point not the details. You should firstable think over the idea, the plot and only thenstart with details.

2. You sat and... started thinking. Ok, I need the story - lot of that, that and that stuff. Let it be more love, less violence. Let it be more fun, less love. Let it be horror or mystery. Having idead it's hard to find genre.

3. Write summary. The main thing - as you wrote summary suits you fine - you've got the story on.

4. Think about the end - let Elijah be with Mary, let Orlando be with Voggo. Everyone is happy - not I should kill thta guy, he's too bad to be in the end.

AND: you've got the idea, you've got the line about characters(don't forget to imagine the line of each) you've got your end. But story still being foggy and unrealised.
Thee's one thing left - start writing. Say - one chapter a day. The more - the better. The next day look throuhg you wrote the previous day. Check and remake.
Soon you'll get the fiction seems almost perfect to you.
One advise - don't be sorry, if idea you liked doesn't seem perfect to others. Improve.

[One thing why I'va never had perfect fics - cuz I'm too lazy to follow these rules]

A big thing that several of you have stressed is characters. I'll stress it again.

Making them 3d means giving them more than one side. If you look at a square, there's only one way to look at it. But if you look at a cube, there are so many ways to turn it, and it's multi-faceted. Characters should be the same way, just like real people.

If you really know a person, you know their strengths and weaknesses. You know the flaws in a seemingly perfect person, and you also know the heart within the outwardly cruel being. You should know your characters as well as, perhaps better than, the people you know in everyday life. After all, you created them!

I can't begin to count how many fics I've read that contained beautiful writing and lovely plots, but were completely ruined by the 2 dimensionality of the characters. Give your protangonist a flaw. Give your antagonist some compassion.