I Are Wants To Wright Good
Basics for Beginners
By Average Joe
There's a whole lot of fan fiction authors out there. Countless scores
of people have put to words what they think about nearly every video game,
TV show, movie, comic book and what have you that is in existence today.
Yet only a few of them really get any serious recognition. How
do they do it? What's their magical secret of uber-happiness that the
rest of the mediocre authors (myself included) seem to lack?
In other words, how does one write a phenomenal-or at least fairly good-story?
Well, really, there is no secret. Ask any author what basic tips they
have and they'll all tell you pretty much the same thing. Ask any good
author what esoteric knowledge they have, and they'll tell you a bit more,
but it's nothing that you probably couldn't figure out on your own.
So what secrets are these? What arcane wisdom do they have?
Really, it just boils down to common sense. Know your language. Know
your characters. Know your audience. Know your direction. Be
patient.
Section 1: Know your language
Know your language. Sure, seems easy enough. You speak it every
day, after all. You write in it all the time. You can even recite
every letter of the alphabet right off the top of your head. But really,
there's more to it than that. Much more.
The first part is to know the actual words. Spelling is important.
Vitally so. If you spell a word incorrectly, the effect that
you were going for will be lost. Many people can read over an incorrect
spelling without giving it a second thought because they don't know how to
spell the word, either. Yet many words are spelled similarly to other
words, and if it happens to look like one of those other words, the reader
may read it as the wrong word, then get confused when it doesn't make any
sense. Then they will have to go back and read the passage over again,
wasting their time when they could be reading further along. An incorrectly
spelled word can completely detract from the whole; avoid misspellings and
typographical errors (typos) at all costs.
The second part is to know how the words are used. Your thesaurus may
carry forty synonyms for the word you're looking for, yet perhaps only two
can be used in the manner that you are intending it. You, as the author,
will have to know which words you will be able to use, and if you don't know
how to use the word correctly in a sentence, I would suggest you not use
it. Sentence structure is also vitally important. If you did
not pay much attention in your English class, you probably should have.
The best help in this particular area is to read. A lot. Read
things that will challenge your intellect. If you're not learning new
words, new ways to write a sentence, or how subtleties and plots and various
other nuances of writing work, then you're probably wasting your time. A
good author is always a good reader. If you don't like reading, then
you shouldn't be forcing others to read your writing.
The third part is flavor. "Variety is the spice of life," as the old
adage goes. Flex your creative muscle and use a different word for
what you're trying to say, or figure out a new way to write that tired old
rehash of a standard sentence. Just don't go breaking the rules of
the language; this is fiction, not poetry. Even in this article, there
are numerous types of sentences, varying from the standard "subject, predicate"
to more intricate sentence structures. Yet all of them follow the basic
rules of the language, in this case, American English. Some things
that will help with this are reading, as mentioned in the previous paragraph,
and two absolutely invaluable books: a dictionary and a thesaurus. I
recommend a dictionary of 200,000 or more entries, and a thesaurus of 30,000
or greater unique entries. No one has absolute mastery of every single
word in the English language. Know how to use these books, and use
them often.
Section 2: Know your characters
So you know the names of the people you're going to be writing about. You
may even know what they are supposed to look like. But take into
consideration that perhaps the reader does not know who the characters are
or what they look like. Think of every reader as a blank slate in this
particular area.
When you introduce your characters, be sure to paint a picture in the reader's
mind of what they look like. Humans are mostly visual creatures, and
having an image of the character is vital. The physical description
is often the bias for how the reader views the character, and can make for
some interesting plot developments. Characters can look like people
following the ways of Good, but in fact actually be the leaders of Evil.
Contrasts like this can be a good thing.
Important note: Contrasts of any kind are often a good thing. Contrasts
are often given by posing one extreme against another. Giving sharp
contrasts between characters makes them stand out more. Giving sharp
contrasts in the backgrounds makes them stand out more. Giving sharp
contrasts to established characters from what they are supposed to be is
bad. This goes back to knowing your characters.
Know your characters personalities, and play them up in your writings.
Sure, you can say that a character is constantly cheerful, but if they
are always taking cheap shots at the main character, people will just think
of them as sarcastic or bitter, not constantly cheerful. If a character
is very moody, have them act moody. Don't have them say something like,
"Hi, pal, it's a really nice day out, isn't it?" unless you're trying to
make it sound like they're acting strangely. Stick with a personality
trait unless the situation calls for them to act differently.
Early on in a story you'll have to force a character to act a certain way.
Because there's no history to base their current actions on, you'll
have to decide for the character how they are going to act. As the
story progresses, you'll find them making decisions on their own, usually
concurring with actions they've taken previously. This is not necessarily
a problem with characters established from previous written works or games.
By the time they enter your story, they already have a personality,
and if you want them to act differently, you'll need to give their actions
a rationale. Rationales can include alternate realities, events before
or during the story, or basing it off a previous work that had the characters
acting in the manner intended.
Also, have your characters interact believably with each other and their
environment. Having an obese character run hurdles in the hot sun for
four hours is unbelievable enough, but having them be cheerful to a bitter
enemy immediately afterward is completely unfeasible. Granted, this
is a bit of an extreme form of interaction implausibility, but, as intoned
in the note on contrasts, giving the extremes is what makes things stand
out.
Now, during the course of the adventure, the reader should get to know your
characters. After reading your work, do you feel you got to know your
characters better? If you said yes, then you should probably work a
lot harder on exposing what your characters think and how they react to the
world around them. If you said no, then at least you're not lying to
yourself, and you should put forth even more effort into showing through
thoughts, speech and action what your character is really like.
Section 3: Know your audience
Do you know who you're writing for? The audience for a fan fiction
usually consists of other fans. As such, a majority of your readers
will want you to stick with the previously established "facts". Granted,
a skilled author can deviate from this, bending or even breaking the rules
and still look good doing it, but any novice writer should stick with what
they know. Rewriting the already widely-known history of a world is
very difficult, and should not be attempted by the unskilled.
This is not to say that you can't write anything about previous timelines.
There are many holes in history, and you can use this to your advantage.
Numerous fan fictions have been written about the many gaps, and yet
they still manage to fit within the established boundaries of the fictional
world. All you need to do is find one of these gaps, and choose to
fill it.
Once you feel more comfortable with your capabilities, then it is probably
safer to be rewriting history. I only say this because many new authors
have started out with a history rewrite and had their "careers" end before
they started. A very limited few have been successful, but I, again,
strongly discourage the more difficult tasks until you feel more comfortable
with your skills.
The audience's intellectual level is also important. You must know
your audience so that you can target just above their current intellectual
level. If you're below the audience's level, they'll disregard you
as being unintelligent. If you're at the audience's level, then they
will have no problems reading your work, but will not learn anything particularly
special from it. If you're far above the audience's level, they will
be unable to read it at a comfortable speed and stop not too far into the
story. Yet if you're just barely above the audience's level, they will
be able to read comfortably and learn, as well.
These rules do not particularly apply to a humorous piece. Humor must
be specially targeted, and the author must be prepared for a bit of flack,
due to different opinions on what "humor" is. A humorous story can
be uproarious to one, yet rather dull to another. Intellectual levels
do not particularly apply because some people enjoy lowbrow humor while others
prefer dry intellectual wit. When writing a piece of fiction that is
intended to be funny, please keep this in mind, as you may receive mixed
signals on whether the work is good or not.
And don't destroy your fan base. The details on how this is done are
rather sketchy, though tactlessly doing the exact opposite of what everyone
was expecting and not giving any explanation or resolution to unusual situations
are a couple of ways that this might be done. If you're going to go
against the grain, give a good reason for doing so. Killing off a very
likable main character can be a high point of a story, if done tastefully.
Having a character suddenly hit by a bus, and then the other characters
simply moving on without giving it a second thought would be tactless.
Having that same character interpose themselves between the world and
a death ray in order to keep everything from being destroyed could be a good
way to end the character's life, if that's the type of life they led.
Section 4: Know your direction
Many stories get rather dull after a while. You're reading them, the
text itself is good, but it just seems to be going nowhere. This comes
from the author not knowing their direction.
What do you mean, "Know your direction"? Well, every complete story
has a beginning, a middle, and an end. You, as the author, have to
draw the map for the reader to get from the beginning to the end. As
such, you need to have at least a general idea of where you want to go.
Some people can write where they just pick a direction and go, but
they often appear to be doing just that; there is no sense of purpose to
the writing. Try to get a general idea what you want to accomplish.
You don't need to outline the whole plot right at the outset (although,
for some people, it helps), but at least know what you want to say with it.
As for the middle, sure, you could just go straight through the plot without
deviating even slightly. "There's a bad guy. There's a good guy.
Bad guy and good guy fight. Good guy wins. The end."
Sure, you could do a story like that. But frankly, not only would
it be uninteresting in the long run, but there could be no long run.
Stories that don't meander around the main plot are typically very
short. And those of that type that aren't short, aren't read.
Yet if you add complications to the main plot, it not only becomes more
interesting, but it gets a bit longer, as well. Let's work with the
previous example. "There's a bad guy. There's a good guy. The
good guy needs a special weapon to beat the bad guy. Good guy gets
the special weapon. Bad guy and good guy fight. Good guy wins."
There we've added a complication. The good guy now has to do
something else in order to further the plot. Let's add another
complication. "There's a bad guy. There's a good guy. The
good guy needs a special weapon to beat the bad guy. Good guy gets
the special weapon. Bad guy hides. Good guy finds him. Bad
guy and good guy fight. Good guy wins." Though it's still rather
dull, this plot is far more interesting than the first one, no? You
can even compound complications. "There's a bad guy. There's
a good guy. The good guy needs a special weapon to beat the bad guy.
The weapon is hidden, and only one guy knows where it is. One
guy wants a stick from a special forest. Good guy gets the stick.
Good guy gets the information. Good guy gets the special weapon.
Bad guy hides. Good guy finds bad guy. Bad guy and good
guy fight. Good guy wins." Not too hard, now is it? Now
all you need is some actual text describing the surroundings and the characters'
actions, perhaps some dialogue, and you've got yourself a story.
Yet, as I had said before, you do not need to map out the entire plot just
like that. First of all, there are other ways to map out the plot.
Ask other authors what techniques they like to use, if any. Second
of all, not all authors map out the plot. Some just have a general
idea of where they'd like to go, what they'd like to do, and what they want
you as the reader to see in their story.
Section 5: Be patient
Patience is invaluable. It takes time to write a good story. It
takes time to get fan approval. It takes time to develop writing skills.
And while all this time is passing, you'll need to wait.
Don't expect to get your story done to the best of your ability on your first
draft. There are probably many changes you can make that will further
the plot, add character depth, make the scenery more realistic, and plenty
of other little things, as well. Read over everything you've written.
Read it silently, read it aloud, read it to yourself, read it to someone
else. Just read it. Often. You'll need to be able to
distinguish what is good and what works from what reeks of fetid donkey urine
and works as well as a triangular wheel. Don't look at your story as
if you wrote it. If you do, then you're bound to think it's just fine
as is, and not make any changes to it. Look at the piece as if someone
you don't even know wrote it, and make corrections accordingly. Never expect
to be without need of corrections. Even the best authors need adjustments
to their works. They often get these done before submission of the
final draft, yet many still insist that they could have done more. When
doing these corrections, though, try to avoid over-correcting. Many
works have been ruined by authors that were overzealous in correcting mistakes.
Don't worry if you don't get any feedback right off. It takes time
for your piece to be recognized for what it is, especially if you start off
in a thoroughly explored area. There are many excellent authors that
have never received any fan appreciation at all, and some that have received
only one or two short notes to the effect of, "Hey, I liked your story.
You should write more." In fact, a majority of readers send no
response at all to a majority of pieces they read.
Be humble. If you start off thinking you're a great author, you'll
never be as good as you could be. You won't seek corrections as often,
you won't ask for help, and so, you won't develop. As I said, it takes
time to develop writing skills. Be patient, keep writing, and the skills
will develop. Just be sure to listen to your readers.
Your readers often have a good deal of information, as well. You know
what you want them to read, and they know what they want to read. If
these two happen to coincide, great. If not, then you have to find
out how to incorporate what you want them to see with what they want to see.
This is why you must listen, as well. The better readers will
have suggestions to help you improve. Most often they are not voiced,
but when they are, listen. Don't completely change just to service
that one person, but keep their suggestion in mind while you write.
While disparaging remarks are meant to discourage you from writing again,
ignore them. Take them, instead, as encouragement to improve. If
they say you're not very good, then practice writing enough to be so good
that you can wipe that comment in their face like the soiled baby-wipe it
is. Every author can improve. You can, too. If you're
determined enough to do so, you can develop your skills to world-class levels.
But this takes practice.
Practice takes time.
And time takes patience.
Be patient, young author, your time will come.
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