m.i.t.m. gets a forum
Sep. 7th, 2004 01:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scottishlassAlright, the poll definitely said ppl wanted a forum, so I resurrected an old one on ezboard.
man.in.the.mirror forum
Atm I'm putting together writers resources and have written up a bunch of Do/Don'ts on writing fan fiction.
Any hints, advice, suggestions welcome - these are based on Companion to English Literary Text - The Narrative Prose and several on-line sources:
1. Spelling is the alpha and omega to every well written story.
2. Grammar counts even more. Read a story aloud for flow and spotting typos and grammatical errors. If it doesn't flow, then you need to polish the dialogue and perhaps the narrative.
3. Research is vital. If you research your topic, your story will be the better for it. E.G. Orlando Bloom is a Brit, he went to school in England, he speaks British English. Keeping that in mind, he would have never gone to a US style High School or would have gone to a prom. Don't make him into an American, and research here helps.
4. Plot makes a story. A plot to a story is very important. A plot is like the red thread through a labyrinth of words. Without a plot there is no story (doesn't apply to Plot What Plot smut fests but even those have some structure).
A plot should have rising action, a climax, and then falling action. This is the overall structure every story pro or fan-fic abides to.
5. Dialogue is crucial to a story, and being able to capture the "voice" of a character can be very difficult, especially in fan-fiction. Read through your dialogue, and ask yourself, "Is this really something [so and so] would say?" Pay particular attention to word choice and colloquialisms and slang. An elderly person will use different speech patterns compared to a twenty-something.
6. Quantity does not equal quality. Stories have a beginning and an ending, and prolonging a story simply for the sake of satisfying your audience's need for "more" can result in a rambling, poorly plotted story that loses its impact the longer it drags on. Quality all comes down to talent and skill. And while the skills can be taught, and honed, talent is a different matter and won't increase due to quantity.
7. Don't be afraid to step away from a story for a while. This is especially important if you have been working on a fic for a long time. If you work on a story for months or even years, you will loose your objective and you cannot see the plot and characters anymore. When you have a new perspective, by all means go back and edit and rewrite, just because a story is archived somewhere, that does not mean that you can't improve it over time or pick it up. Never let yourself be pressured by your fans, you are the writer, you take all the time you need to finish your master piece.
8. Same goes with finishing a story. Don't rush it. The worst case scenario is that you have a beautifully crafted story for more than ten chapters and then you cram the rest of your story into the last finishing chapter eleven. Give your story the time and attention it needs, despite nagging fans, deadlines etc.
9. Only write what you know or what you have learned from books, movies or your friends. That goes especially for writing smut and NC17 rated stories. Only a handful of physical virgins can actually write good smut.
If you only have a half-baked concept on sex and its machinations, leave it be. Most (adult) readers can spot whether or not an author knows what s/he writes about.
10. Try to avoid including popular music in a story unless you know when the music was released by this or that particular artist. E.G. it isn't very clever to use a song that wasn't even released when Jackson filmed LOTR in New Zealand when you write about the filming of the movies. Keep in mind they started in 1999 and most popular songs you like now, weren't around then.
Additionally, if you want your characters to actually sing along to the song, don't quote the whole lyrics. Turn it into a dialogue with only the most important referencial lines of the song.
If you insist, quote the song lyrics at the end of the story, rather than referencing it at any time in the story itself.
But remember: if the story can stand on its own without prior knowledge of the song upon which it is based, then you may not need the song itself.
man.in.the.mirror forum
Atm I'm putting together writers resources and have written up a bunch of Do/Don'ts on writing fan fiction.
Any hints, advice, suggestions welcome - these are based on Companion to English Literary Text - The Narrative Prose and several on-line sources:
1. Spelling is the alpha and omega to every well written story.
2. Grammar counts even more. Read a story aloud for flow and spotting typos and grammatical errors. If it doesn't flow, then you need to polish the dialogue and perhaps the narrative.
3. Research is vital. If you research your topic, your story will be the better for it. E.G. Orlando Bloom is a Brit, he went to school in England, he speaks British English. Keeping that in mind, he would have never gone to a US style High School or would have gone to a prom. Don't make him into an American, and research here helps.
4. Plot makes a story. A plot to a story is very important. A plot is like the red thread through a labyrinth of words. Without a plot there is no story (doesn't apply to Plot What Plot smut fests but even those have some structure).
A plot should have rising action, a climax, and then falling action. This is the overall structure every story pro or fan-fic abides to.
5. Dialogue is crucial to a story, and being able to capture the "voice" of a character can be very difficult, especially in fan-fiction. Read through your dialogue, and ask yourself, "Is this really something [so and so] would say?" Pay particular attention to word choice and colloquialisms and slang. An elderly person will use different speech patterns compared to a twenty-something.
6. Quantity does not equal quality. Stories have a beginning and an ending, and prolonging a story simply for the sake of satisfying your audience's need for "more" can result in a rambling, poorly plotted story that loses its impact the longer it drags on. Quality all comes down to talent and skill. And while the skills can be taught, and honed, talent is a different matter and won't increase due to quantity.
7. Don't be afraid to step away from a story for a while. This is especially important if you have been working on a fic for a long time. If you work on a story for months or even years, you will loose your objective and you cannot see the plot and characters anymore. When you have a new perspective, by all means go back and edit and rewrite, just because a story is archived somewhere, that does not mean that you can't improve it over time or pick it up. Never let yourself be pressured by your fans, you are the writer, you take all the time you need to finish your master piece.
8. Same goes with finishing a story. Don't rush it. The worst case scenario is that you have a beautifully crafted story for more than ten chapters and then you cram the rest of your story into the last finishing chapter eleven. Give your story the time and attention it needs, despite nagging fans, deadlines etc.
9. Only write what you know or what you have learned from books, movies or your friends. That goes especially for writing smut and NC17 rated stories. Only a handful of physical virgins can actually write good smut.
If you only have a half-baked concept on sex and its machinations, leave it be. Most (adult) readers can spot whether or not an author knows what s/he writes about.
10. Try to avoid including popular music in a story unless you know when the music was released by this or that particular artist. E.G. it isn't very clever to use a song that wasn't even released when Jackson filmed LOTR in New Zealand when you write about the filming of the movies. Keep in mind they started in 1999 and most popular songs you like now, weren't around then.
Additionally, if you want your characters to actually sing along to the song, don't quote the whole lyrics. Turn it into a dialogue with only the most important referencial lines of the song.
If you insist, quote the song lyrics at the end of the story, rather than referencing it at any time in the story itself.
But remember: if the story can stand on its own without prior knowledge of the song upon which it is based, then you may not need the song itself.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-09-07 02:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-08 10:55 am (UTC)