How to write great fanfic

[originalfan]

I've been writing for a long time...I used to write professionally, now I write fanfiction for my own pleasure.

If I had any advice to give to fledgling fan fiction writers, it would be this:

Before you write...read. Read a LOT. Read everything you can get your hands on. By reading you'll begin to instinctively understand sentence structure and grammar. Read the classics, read best sellers, read good, quality writing.

Know your characters inside and out. Don't let your own personality start controlling theirs. Get their nuances down, when you write dialogue for them, hear their voices, not your own.

Angst: If you're dying to pour our angst, write it, get it out of your system...then go back and rewrite and edit before you put it out there for public consumption, axing about 90% of the melodrama. Odds are you've overdone it!

Let the characters take you where THEY want to go. I can't tell you how many times I've had a story mapped out in my mind, but the characters have different ideas about where they're going. I gave that bit of advice to a professional novelist when he was just starting out, and he didn't believe me. He quickly realized I was right.

Understand that every story has a beginning, middle and end. The beginning sets up your characters and your situations. Towards the end of the first act, something dramatic happens to spin the story forward into the action segements. At the end of the action segments, another dramatic hook swirls you into the finale.

[Tofu]

Probably the best advice I could give for writing fanfiction is to forget you're writing fan fiction. IMMERSE yourself in the fandom to the point that you're no longer a fan per se, but that it's a part of you. If you're writing as a fan, then your work is going to be full of fanservice -- Rocky will hit the meat for the millionth time. Adrian will give another overblown speech. Rocky will drink more eggs, and Paulie will just plain drink more ( ). It'll just be a mishmash of recycled concepts, instead of a real story.

(Now, a few throwbacks scattered here and there is no great sin; in fact, it can help anchor your story in the universe you're writing about. For example, I'm working on a screenplay for a "Dragnet" fan film that I'm going to shoot later this month. It's 100% original, but I did throw in a speech pretty much verbatim that Joe Friday used in the original movie. If you ask me, I think it ties it enough to the original Dragnet to be believable -- but if I had him saying "just the facts" every other line or somesuch, then it would just be a case of rolling your eyes and going, "Here we go again.")

I think the mindset you should want to get into is that of treating the characters and setting not as the all-mythical "Rocky", but rather that they're your own. Once you know them that well -- once they're a part of you -- you can simply write, and it'll be the most natural thing in the world. Write it just like you would anything else. Treat it like a fandom and you just become a fan indulging in a fantasy. Treat it like your own, and you'll write a story.

My $0.02

-Tofu

[Mrs B]

WOW!! What wonderful advice from both of you! Really! I hope this means we may be graced with some fiction off the two of you on here then? hmmmmmm? I hope so!

To everyone else, there is some real good advice here, lets follow it and get writing shall we?!

[originalfan]

If I get any time this summer, I have a story perking. It's just a matter of time.

[originalfan]

tofu said:

Probably the best advice I could give for writing fanfiction is to forget you're writing fan fiction. IMMERSE yourself in the fandom to the point that you're no longer a fan per se, but that it's a part of you. If you're writing as a fan, then your work is going to be full of fanservice -- Rocky will hit the meat for the millionth time. Adrian will give another overblown speech. Rocky will drink more eggs, and Paulie will just plain drink more ( ). It'll just be a mishmash of recycled concepts, instead of a real story.

(Now, a few throwbacks scattered here and there is no great sin; in fact, it can help anchor your story in the universe you're writing about. For example, I'm working on a screenplay for a "Dragnet" fan film that I'm going to shoot later this month. It's 100% original, but I did throw in a speech pretty much verbatim that Joe Friday used in the original movie. If you ask me, I think it ties it enough to the original Dragnet to be believable -- but if I had him saying "just the facts" every other line or somesuch, then it would just be a case of rolling your eyes and going, "Here we go again.")

I think the mindset you should want to get into is that of treating the characters and setting not as the all-mythical "Rocky", but rather that they're your own. Once you know them that well -- once they're a part of you -- you can simply write, and it'll be the most natural thing in the world. Write it just like you would anything else. Treat it like a fandom and you just become a fan indulging in a fantasy. Treat it like your own, and you'll write a story.

My $0.02

-Tofu

Excellent, Tofu! I agree completely. Something else that I think helps is to see the scenes unfold as a film. I got my start doing teleplays, scripts and screenplays, so I naturally see everything unfolding in my mind as Act I, Act II, Second part of Act II, and Act III. Most people are familiar with film, so this helps them as they write, I think.

Act One: Set your people up, introduce your audience to them. At the end of Act One, establish the dramatic hook that is going to propel your story into Act II.

Act Two: Escalate your story along -- put your character in a tree, so to speak, and throw rocks at him. Give him something to believe in or fight towards, but dont' make it easy for him.

Act Two, Part II: Continue having your character work towards his goal, and don't let up on making it difficult for him! At the end of this part, you need another hook that's going to propel you into Act III

Act III: Looks like all is going right for our guy, then WHAM, something happens that makes him look like he's going to lose it all anyway!

Finale: Close out your story. Did your character make it, or did he not?

[kent]

^ I completely agree with everything here!
I love to write and much of this advice here was presented to me at an early age and I am fortunate! However, that doesn't mean I am a fantastic writer yet lol.

Currently I am taking a Short Story class at my community college and what we did in the first part of the semester was to read some short stories of highly commended writers, figure out why their stories work well, and use some of their examples to help better our own stories. We write two stories and everytime we take a day and someone reads his/her story. Afterwords, everyone critiques that person's story. What works, what doesn't, what needs to be fleshed out more.

My biggest problems have always been character development and getting them to sound like they're their own person instead of like me. I notice when they sound like me, the story seems to stop and it's hard to progress further. Not to mention, for me anyways, it's a bit difficult writing from the viewpoint of the opposite sex. Of course we're all human and many of us think similarly, however, men's and women's brains are wired differently and they think and do things for different reasons. That can be a challenge!

And like ToFu said, be original. That has been another one of my problems. I take something and take elements from other stories and put them into mine. I know it can be tough to be original anymore because so many stories have been told over the course of mankind that just about every subject with every possible outcome and storyline has been written. But take the time to think about the main point of your story; the main overview I should say.

I even recommend writing an outline so you have a guideline so you don't forget we're you're at in the story and you don't lose any of those good ideas. Also, you will never follow that outline 100%. Like original said, your characters will take you into a different direction you wanted them to, AND you may also, down the road, find something that works better as your story progresses.

DON'T MAKE EDITS TO YOUR STORY UNTIL YOU ARE DONE! If you come to a point in the story, however, where you wanted it to go one way, but another way seems to be the better choice, that's okay. But don't change anything at all until you are done with the entire story. Look it over and be critical of it. Ask questions as to whether or not your characters and plot are developed well and if other events in the story are overtaking your characters. Have other people read it as well. Get as many people as possible. As I've found out in my writing class, people will catch things you can't find and some of them are so obvious but you just don't catch them because you have this tunnel vision. You have your story mapped out in your head and you know what it looks like, but others don't.

Also, find time to write EVERYDAY! Even if it's only for a half-hour. You don't have to write on your story, just write. Whether it's poetry, a journal you have, or your thoughts on the day's events. By writing more, your creative juices begin to flow and you start noticing, over time, that your brain is able to tie certain elements together; something that will benefit you greatly when you do write your stories and edit them.

But the biggest thing is to have fun. If you aren't having fun writing a story, then you aren't putting in the love and respect it deserves.

[originalfan]

Usually I can write fanfic well and at the drop of a hat I'm off and running (think I have enough cliches in there?). I'd love to write the Rock, but I'm afraid I wouldn't do him (or Sly) justice. It's not that I can't write from a man's perspective. If anyone's interested, I did a five part series based on the film Anchors Aweigh...and it's all from a man's perspective (takes place on a flat top aircraft carrier during WWII (http://www.joebrady.com). When guys read it they tell me they're astonished that I'm a woman because I got inside the male psyche so well. But writing Rocky has always been extremely difficult for me. Honestly? Subconsciously, I think I respect him and Sly's work too much to tamper with it!

[62sg]

I would write some fanfiction, but I need an idea I can work with first.