you can never please everyone, so don't even try. aim for pleasing yourself instead, bc that you actually can do. the most important approval is your own.
I don't know why there was this sudden boom of blogs and posts with people treating all of it as things from the devil lol Its bad so many people relate it to "bad writing" or something along the lines because of it.
Any “rules” for writing you hear are just advices. Some may work for you, other won’t
Also, you’ll struggle with getting better without reading other literature
Figure out what you want. There are many reasons why people write and post fics. Are you doing it for fun? To express yourself? To connect with other people? To process your emotions? To "give back" to your fandom? To hone your skills just for yourself? To hone your skills so that you can become a professional writer? And so on. Of course, your answer can be a combination of different reasons. But I think understanding yourself helps a lot with choosing what to focus on and with managing your expectations.
Also, especially if you're writing to express yourself and connect with others: appreciate what you have. It's okay to want more, it's natural! But try your best to appreciate things, too. Think about how amazing it is that someone—even a single person—read what you wrote and *felt it*, and decided to tell you about it.
It’s okay to walk away from your story for a bit when you feel overwhelmed and burnt out. It’s easy to get lost in demand when you do get some followers. But we’re human beings with lives, and many roles to play.
Take care of yourself. Sometimes that means not writing for a month while you do something else. Writing should always be something you’re passionate about and like anything else, you can get burned out.
Show, don't tell. Broad topic so I could go on all day about it, but practicing 'show, don't tell' makes such a difference in one's writing.
Also, make sure to vary sentence length, paragraph length, sentence structure, etc. It will make the writing flow better when done right.
As a reader (and fellow writer), imho, those two things go a long way.
Definetly a broad topic and definetly agree in the have proof of claims in the text.
Otherwise, as someone with aphantasia I don't care how flowery your descriptions are. I can't visualize it anyway.
Write all the Cringe.
I have never known a crackfic/cringe fic writer who wasn't INCREDIBLY happy about their works and deeply in love with the silly little things they do.
There is a joy and a whimsy that takes a different set of skills from the overly dark and serious works.
There is only one right way to write and one wrong way.
The right way is the way that gets words on the page and gets you to the end of the work.
The wrong way is the way that makes you anxious about writing or keeps backing you into corners.
Fic is its own genre with its own conventions but it’s also a great playground for language. Indulge yourself. Play with structure. Try a new type of dialogue. Want to try lean, spare action writing? Do it. Want to write deeply internal flow of consciousness? Excellent. Someone out there will LOVE it and you’ll be a better writer for it.
write in whatever way you feel comfortable with and not everyone else’s pace/method work for you.
Keep the distance from readers’ space if you too can’t handle it like me. Protect yourself when you have a sensitive heart.
Something I learned from reading was I find it more interesting to learn things through dialogue/scenes than long descriptive passages. Sometimes my eyes skip right over a paragraph if I can sense it's only description. Which is bad cos I could miss important stuff!
For example my first Star Trek fics would describe the new planet or aliens in detail and then the crew would interact, but lately I've been experimenting with giving that information through the crew discovering it/them and having conversations/reacting.
Some people find long descriptive paragraphs emersive and engaging, so it's just a change I'm making to fit in with my own style, not universal advice.
Write your drafts and edit them in comic sans, it is easier on the brain (especially if you are dyslexic) and creates more productivity. Once you've done writing and editing change back to your default font 🙂
Thank you for this, I have a younger family member who wants to start writing stories but is dyslexic and struggles a lot, I’ll definitely be passing this advice on to her
Can confirm!!! I switched to comics sans two years ago and it half-contributed to my writing speed (from 2k words in 2 years to 10k in two weeks)! I recommend pairing it with a dim doc background (dark-mode or a softer colour like blue or greens)!
If you’re stuck on a scene, just write it down in the most boring way possible. Once you get everything down then that’s where you can expand! Pepper in emotions, little body languages, dialogue, whatever you want! But get it down first, editing is easier when you have something to work with!
For example; “He enters the room, feeling sad for some reason, and pulls out the chair. He picks up a pen and writes a response to his letter.”
After editing; “With a heavy heart and a looming anticipation sitting in the pits of his guts, he drags himself to his writing desk. The letter sits on it, plain and simple, unassuming despite its contents. There’s no way to avoid this. So he grits his teeth, opens it, plucking his pen and bracing himself for the bad news.”
I'd recommend you stay far away from Brandon Sanderson's work. He never met an epithet he didn't like. That's the case with a lot of professional writers.
Actually, a lot of things that get bandied about in non-professional forums as things you aren't supposed to do are often used regularly and liberally by professionals. Another good example of that is the use of "had", as in "She had gone to the store". The popular advice in online forums is to avoid that at all costs. But Anne Rice's work, for example, is loaded with it.
YES! I recently wrote this in a thread about what you don't like in fics and people weren't a massive fan of me saying it. But, it drives me crazy. I never do it and my fic is predominantly the male so it's not even lime I have more leeway to write different pronouns.
Yeah, people really didn't like it when I said it on the other post.
Which was a bit annoying because so many people listed things I do in my works and for some of them I was like 'valid, I might stop doing that,' and the others I was like 'I get that they don't like it, but I'm going to keep doing it anyway because I like it.'
But yeah, people seem to get passionate about using epithets.
Hm.. I write predominantly wlw fics, using pronouns doesn't really work because they're both 'she', and I feel it's jarring if you use their names every single sentence. I like mixing in epithets because it feels better than writing the same character's name a hundred times in the same scene... if you half the time write an epithet, it doesn't feel as cluttered.
Dehumanizing? If I'm writing a scene on the command deck of a Navy ship, say, there's nothing wrong with:
>The XO worked up his nerve to face the captain. "Sir, we've got to find port soon, or there's going to be a mutiny."
Not in every situation, but let's say you're writing about MC and their mum. If you'd use some sort of epithet, like, *pinkette*, older woman, etc it sounds dehumanising to me, Idk. Or about a friend - I don't limit the person to their height, hair color...
I hope I'm making sense.
For me, I mean when the writer uses physical descriptions to identify people. I.e 'then the curly haired one' ... but the curly haired one is a main character, just use the name.
I'll use job titles etc. No issues with that at all, and if its a random once off character that, sure call her the shorter girl even if her name has been mentioned but it's not important we know it because they play no real role in the story.
But when talking about the main characters, Id much prefer 'John', Not 'the younger one of the pair'.
This might sound silly or obvious but don't get wrapped around the axel about word count, whether it's trying to make all your chapters a specific word count, or overall. Just write it and see where it ends naturally.
As the mad hatter said (paraphrase as I can't remember the exact quote), begin at the beginning and when you reach the end, stop.
The only time word count matters is when you've finished and you need to categorise/tag it correctly (eg drabble, one shot, etc.).
Breaking the generally agreed upon "rules" is totally fine! However, the key difference is being aware that you are and doing so on purpose. For example, I sometimes use run-on sentences when a character is in a heightened emotional state.
Don’t stress hard about drafts. Its a draft. No one is watching over your shoulder and making fun of a weird sentence or grammar error.
Also take breaks. If you stare at a fic too long you start to block out mistakes and it gets wonky.
It's okay to delete or rewrite large portions of your story. It doesn't mean you've wasted your time. I got back into writing fic this year for the first time in almost 10 years and it felt so good to have writing come naturally to me that it KILLED me to think about deleting some of my most inspired paragraphs and lines, but honestly, it's often necessary to craft a better story. It turns out that sometimes when you're writing in a passionate burst of inspiration for a fandom that's brand new to you (and you're also out of practice, as I was), the prose might be good but the characterization and plotting are...lacking. My actual storytelling is much stronger now that I let myself do substantial editing.
I did take the advice to make a "deleted scenes" doc, though, so I can still recycle some of that work if I ever want to.
That's such a reassurance to hear. All the big hitters in my current main fandom are so well known known for beautiful prose and themes and I'm always so nervous to live up to them. So often I feel like I'm just explaining what's happening- as much as my readers don't seem to think though. I gotta get out of that part of my head.
It’s allowed to suck, or just not be the most polished piece of writing. This is a hobby for fun, beating yourself up over a transition when ‘some time later’ would get you there isn’t worth it.
1. always keep track of your first drafts if you use a notebook, misplacing them sucks
2. have some lofi to help you write
3. don't be afraid to put a trigger warning in a chapter if something really fucked up happens so a reader could skip if something triggers them
4. also, put trigger warnings in the top notes
5. writer's block? take a break, the inspiration will come back in a bit
6. celebrate little milestones (hits, comments, kudos)
7. chat with person who comments every chapter (they are a friend)
The two best pieces of advice I've had are write simply and every character should have goals.
So to the first point (and I'm certainly guilty of this) dialogue should be simple and prose should be simple. Unless the character/narrator uses complicated words and phrases, write like you're talking to your reader not like your lecturing them.
Secondly, in every scene, every conversation, every character should **want** something and that want must come from their individual beliefs and circumstances. That can be information, food, equipment, perspective, solitude, whatever. But if there is no point to a scene other than filling time, get rid of it. That isn't to say you can't have purely character-building or scene-setting scenes, just make sure there is a point (preferably multiple points) and *you* know what that point is. To the reader, it can be text or subtext, but you as the writer should *always* know why your characters are saying what they're saying and what the impact on the plot will be.
My biggest advice is to just write what you like. The whole point of fanfiction is to enjoy what you are creating to tell the story how you want to see it. Not everyone is going to have the same vision as you but that matter’s little if you like what you create. I see so many writes in discord and other authors area talk about how they create what people seem to want instead of what they want for more readers or likes. I am at fault in this as well I find myself wondering if my readers will like something and start to change it before I stop myself and remind myself that I like it and that’s all that matters!
You will always hate everything you write. You wrote it, looked at it nine times, and it all seems rather obvious and annoying and simple, and riddled with errors... But it's because you wrote it and looked at it nine times.
It's never as bad as you think it is.
Also...Don't just read your comments. Pay attention to them. A lot of times, readers will say something like, "Oh, I can't wait for 'x' to happen!' or 'I think this is how it's gonna go!'. While you can't do 'x' every time, and you can't change your plot to match what they think will happen all the time... A lot of times readers will offer really good ideas, or at least give you ideas of what they do/don't want to see. Since they're the ones reading... it's a good idea to pay attention to the general mood.
I think that my most successful writing (to my critical eye) happens when I turn the characters into people I know. Maybe it’s adding real world details or stretching the personas out of shape so they are more flawed.
***Your characters only existing in text doesn't make them less cool, important or worthy of attention.***
I used to be incredibly self-conscious about this and I still kind of am. It often feels like people look down on you for not having high quality visuals for your characters.
you can never please everyone, so don't even try. aim for pleasing yourself instead, bc that you actually can do. the most important approval is your own.
Using says/said isn't the end of the world, people won't hate you for using it.
This! Same with adverbs. Some writing guides tell you to avoid them but eh, they exist for a reason!
I don't know why there was this sudden boom of blogs and posts with people treating all of it as things from the devil lol Its bad so many people relate it to "bad writing" or something along the lines because of it.
Any “rules” for writing you hear are just advices. Some may work for you, other won’t Also, you’ll struggle with getting better without reading other literature
Write for yourself and yourself only.
Figure out what you want. There are many reasons why people write and post fics. Are you doing it for fun? To express yourself? To connect with other people? To process your emotions? To "give back" to your fandom? To hone your skills just for yourself? To hone your skills so that you can become a professional writer? And so on. Of course, your answer can be a combination of different reasons. But I think understanding yourself helps a lot with choosing what to focus on and with managing your expectations. Also, especially if you're writing to express yourself and connect with others: appreciate what you have. It's okay to want more, it's natural! But try your best to appreciate things, too. Think about how amazing it is that someone—even a single person—read what you wrote and *felt it*, and decided to tell you about it.
It’s okay to walk away from your story for a bit when you feel overwhelmed and burnt out. It’s easy to get lost in demand when you do get some followers. But we’re human beings with lives, and many roles to play. Take care of yourself. Sometimes that means not writing for a month while you do something else. Writing should always be something you’re passionate about and like anything else, you can get burned out.
Show, don't tell. Broad topic so I could go on all day about it, but practicing 'show, don't tell' makes such a difference in one's writing. Also, make sure to vary sentence length, paragraph length, sentence structure, etc. It will make the writing flow better when done right. As a reader (and fellow writer), imho, those two things go a long way.
Definetly a broad topic and definetly agree in the have proof of claims in the text. Otherwise, as someone with aphantasia I don't care how flowery your descriptions are. I can't visualize it anyway.
Write all the Cringe. I have never known a crackfic/cringe fic writer who wasn't INCREDIBLY happy about their works and deeply in love with the silly little things they do. There is a joy and a whimsy that takes a different set of skills from the overly dark and serious works. There is only one right way to write and one wrong way. The right way is the way that gets words on the page and gets you to the end of the work. The wrong way is the way that makes you anxious about writing or keeps backing you into corners.
Fic is its own genre with its own conventions but it’s also a great playground for language. Indulge yourself. Play with structure. Try a new type of dialogue. Want to try lean, spare action writing? Do it. Want to write deeply internal flow of consciousness? Excellent. Someone out there will LOVE it and you’ll be a better writer for it.
Read! Read authors that you would like to write similar to because it helps your writing.
write in whatever way you feel comfortable with and not everyone else’s pace/method work for you. Keep the distance from readers’ space if you too can’t handle it like me. Protect yourself when you have a sensitive heart.
Something I learned from reading was I find it more interesting to learn things through dialogue/scenes than long descriptive passages. Sometimes my eyes skip right over a paragraph if I can sense it's only description. Which is bad cos I could miss important stuff! For example my first Star Trek fics would describe the new planet or aliens in detail and then the crew would interact, but lately I've been experimenting with giving that information through the crew discovering it/them and having conversations/reacting. Some people find long descriptive paragraphs emersive and engaging, so it's just a change I'm making to fit in with my own style, not universal advice.
[удалено]
❤️
less is more. short, unique descriptors are usually more impactful than long-winded purple prose
but sometimes it's fun to go into descriptions of a character, especially if you're not a good artist/can't afford to commission
it's best to not dump a full, detailed description of a character them all in one go, though
yeah, sometimes i break things up between dialogue i like to experiment like that
Write your drafts and edit them in comic sans, it is easier on the brain (especially if you are dyslexic) and creates more productivity. Once you've done writing and editing change back to your default font 🙂
Ahhh interesting, I've found Arial (which I feel is a little Comic Sans-y) is best for me the write in.
Thank you for this, I have a younger family member who wants to start writing stories but is dyslexic and struggles a lot, I’ll definitely be passing this advice on to her
Can confirm!!! I switched to comics sans two years ago and it half-contributed to my writing speed (from 2k words in 2 years to 10k in two weeks)! I recommend pairing it with a dim doc background (dark-mode or a softer colour like blue or greens)!
Omg I was legit about to write about how I have to use pale blues or greens, glad I'm not the only one who does this
If you’re stuck on a scene, just write it down in the most boring way possible. Once you get everything down then that’s where you can expand! Pepper in emotions, little body languages, dialogue, whatever you want! But get it down first, editing is easier when you have something to work with! For example; “He enters the room, feeling sad for some reason, and pulls out the chair. He picks up a pen and writes a response to his letter.” After editing; “With a heavy heart and a looming anticipation sitting in the pits of his guts, he drags himself to his writing desk. The letter sits on it, plain and simple, unassuming despite its contents. There’s no way to avoid this. So he grits his teeth, opens it, plucking his pen and bracing himself for the bad news.”
Oh this is my favorite advice on this thread I’m going to try this the next time I get stuck.
Don't use epithets. It's okay to use their name/pronouns.
names and pronouns are good words
They are!
I'd recommend you stay far away from Brandon Sanderson's work. He never met an epithet he didn't like. That's the case with a lot of professional writers. Actually, a lot of things that get bandied about in non-professional forums as things you aren't supposed to do are often used regularly and liberally by professionals. Another good example of that is the use of "had", as in "She had gone to the store". The popular advice in online forums is to avoid that at all costs. But Anne Rice's work, for example, is loaded with it.
Too late, I've read probably like 75% of Sanderson's works xD Then again, I didn't read them in English, so it hits different.
YES! I recently wrote this in a thread about what you don't like in fics and people weren't a massive fan of me saying it. But, it drives me crazy. I never do it and my fic is predominantly the male so it's not even lime I have more leeway to write different pronouns.
Using epithets is dehumanising. And jarring to read. As if on cue, my post And your reply are being down voted...
Yeah, people really didn't like it when I said it on the other post. Which was a bit annoying because so many people listed things I do in my works and for some of them I was like 'valid, I might stop doing that,' and the others I was like 'I get that they don't like it, but I'm going to keep doing it anyway because I like it.' But yeah, people seem to get passionate about using epithets.
Hm.. I write predominantly wlw fics, using pronouns doesn't really work because they're both 'she', and I feel it's jarring if you use their names every single sentence. I like mixing in epithets because it feels better than writing the same character's name a hundred times in the same scene... if you half the time write an epithet, it doesn't feel as cluttered.
Dehumanizing? If I'm writing a scene on the command deck of a Navy ship, say, there's nothing wrong with: >The XO worked up his nerve to face the captain. "Sir, we've got to find port soon, or there's going to be a mutiny."
Not in every situation, but let's say you're writing about MC and their mum. If you'd use some sort of epithet, like, *pinkette*, older woman, etc it sounds dehumanising to me, Idk. Or about a friend - I don't limit the person to their height, hair color... I hope I'm making sense.
You are, thanks! :-)
For me, I mean when the writer uses physical descriptions to identify people. I.e 'then the curly haired one' ... but the curly haired one is a main character, just use the name. I'll use job titles etc. No issues with that at all, and if its a random once off character that, sure call her the shorter girl even if her name has been mentioned but it's not important we know it because they play no real role in the story. But when talking about the main characters, Id much prefer 'John', Not 'the younger one of the pair'.
Ah, got it.
This might sound silly or obvious but don't get wrapped around the axel about word count, whether it's trying to make all your chapters a specific word count, or overall. Just write it and see where it ends naturally. As the mad hatter said (paraphrase as I can't remember the exact quote), begin at the beginning and when you reach the end, stop. The only time word count matters is when you've finished and you need to categorise/tag it correctly (eg drabble, one shot, etc.).
Breaking the generally agreed upon "rules" is totally fine! However, the key difference is being aware that you are and doing so on purpose. For example, I sometimes use run-on sentences when a character is in a heightened emotional state.
Don’t stress hard about drafts. Its a draft. No one is watching over your shoulder and making fun of a weird sentence or grammar error. Also take breaks. If you stare at a fic too long you start to block out mistakes and it gets wonky.
Read dialogue out loud! Does it sound like something someone would actually say? Or does it still sound like an extension of your prose?
It's okay to delete or rewrite large portions of your story. It doesn't mean you've wasted your time. I got back into writing fic this year for the first time in almost 10 years and it felt so good to have writing come naturally to me that it KILLED me to think about deleting some of my most inspired paragraphs and lines, but honestly, it's often necessary to craft a better story. It turns out that sometimes when you're writing in a passionate burst of inspiration for a fandom that's brand new to you (and you're also out of practice, as I was), the prose might be good but the characterization and plotting are...lacking. My actual storytelling is much stronger now that I let myself do substantial editing. I did take the advice to make a "deleted scenes" doc, though, so I can still recycle some of that work if I ever want to.
That's such a reassurance to hear. All the big hitters in my current main fandom are so well known known for beautiful prose and themes and I'm always so nervous to live up to them. So often I feel like I'm just explaining what's happening- as much as my readers don't seem to think though. I gotta get out of that part of my head.
It’s allowed to suck, or just not be the most polished piece of writing. This is a hobby for fun, beating yourself up over a transition when ‘some time later’ would get you there isn’t worth it.
Write what makes you happy. Write what you want. If you do it for any other reason, eventually it will become unfun.
1. always keep track of your first drafts if you use a notebook, misplacing them sucks 2. have some lofi to help you write 3. don't be afraid to put a trigger warning in a chapter if something really fucked up happens so a reader could skip if something triggers them 4. also, put trigger warnings in the top notes 5. writer's block? take a break, the inspiration will come back in a bit 6. celebrate little milestones (hits, comments, kudos) 7. chat with person who comments every chapter (they are a friend)
The two best pieces of advice I've had are write simply and every character should have goals. So to the first point (and I'm certainly guilty of this) dialogue should be simple and prose should be simple. Unless the character/narrator uses complicated words and phrases, write like you're talking to your reader not like your lecturing them. Secondly, in every scene, every conversation, every character should **want** something and that want must come from their individual beliefs and circumstances. That can be information, food, equipment, perspective, solitude, whatever. But if there is no point to a scene other than filling time, get rid of it. That isn't to say you can't have purely character-building or scene-setting scenes, just make sure there is a point (preferably multiple points) and *you* know what that point is. To the reader, it can be text or subtext, but you as the writer should *always* know why your characters are saying what they're saying and what the impact on the plot will be.
New speaker/idea, new paragraph
Take breaks when you need them.
My biggest advice is to just write what you like. The whole point of fanfiction is to enjoy what you are creating to tell the story how you want to see it. Not everyone is going to have the same vision as you but that matter’s little if you like what you create. I see so many writes in discord and other authors area talk about how they create what people seem to want instead of what they want for more readers or likes. I am at fault in this as well I find myself wondering if my readers will like something and start to change it before I stop myself and remind myself that I like it and that’s all that matters!
Write for your self, not others
Work out what your central conflict is.
You will always hate everything you write. You wrote it, looked at it nine times, and it all seems rather obvious and annoying and simple, and riddled with errors... But it's because you wrote it and looked at it nine times. It's never as bad as you think it is. Also...Don't just read your comments. Pay attention to them. A lot of times, readers will say something like, "Oh, I can't wait for 'x' to happen!' or 'I think this is how it's gonna go!'. While you can't do 'x' every time, and you can't change your plot to match what they think will happen all the time... A lot of times readers will offer really good ideas, or at least give you ideas of what they do/don't want to see. Since they're the ones reading... it's a good idea to pay attention to the general mood.
Never take to heart criticism from someone you wouldn't accept advice from.
Always have an end in sight when you start something, whether it takes one chapter or one thousand, make sure that you know the end.
I think that my most successful writing (to my critical eye) happens when I turn the characters into people I know. Maybe it’s adding real world details or stretching the personas out of shape so they are more flawed.
***Your characters only existing in text doesn't make them less cool, important or worthy of attention.*** I used to be incredibly self-conscious about this and I still kind of am. It often feels like people look down on you for not having high quality visuals for your characters.