AFAA: draft 1
WOOT I AM DONE.
First things first: explaining my reasoning. Because no one wants to read a massive essay on the inner workings of writing, I've tried to be as simple and as short as possible--I made 50,000 characters my landmark 'cos that's one post on-forum. So, coverage as opposed to depth, with the result that there are things in there (such as ( Read more... )
First things first: explaining my reasoning. Because no one wants to read a massive essay on the inner workings of writing, I've tried to be as simple and as short as possible--I made 50,000 characters my landmark 'cos that's one post on-forum. So, coverage as opposed to depth, with the result that there are things in there (such as ( Read more... )
Going to respond to various points briefly by each 'section' because I'm sleepy and can do so anyway HAHAHA. Good luck trying to cut this down though - doesn't seem that easy a job. Go for two posts! :P
Types of stories - idk about how much this is needed for people new to fanfiction:
There are three ‘meta-genres’ in literature: poetry (which tends to have a more deliberately ‘lyrical’ shape or rhyming scheme), prose (such as a straight narrative story), and drama (which is composed of things like scripts, plays and oral literature).
Seems less necessary than the rest, leastways, even if it is nice info, I suppose. Maybe one of those things you'd want to cut down to fit that character count?
Genre - good, straightforward, clear. Maybe cut off one or two if again you need to cut out something to conquer character limits.
Plot and story - I like. (Random - 'There are many ways a plot can be strung together, but to create a solid foundation, you should consider the following things.' - maybe a ':' instead of a full stop at the end there considering what follows? Eh, unimportant methinks). Maybe also considering adding a note about the importance of consistency of using tenses (as there's a subsection on it, but if not there, elsewhere maybe, as it's something I found people will be making mistaken in. =P) Maybe in 'Keeping it together' which follows it?
Setting is important because it decides like physical rules (‘physical’ relating to physics: can superpowers exist or not?... - Unsure on the usage of 'like' there. (Am sleepy, bear in mind, but doubt it's needed).
Character - also good, IMO. This: The characters in the story are the ones who have things happen to them. They can be human, animals, even trees, settings, or inanimate objects. - idk about the bolded part (trees = inanimate objects for some reason in my mind - seems too similar and all =/ Eh, I'm crazy).
Name there seems one of the less-important sections as well, so maybe consider that as a killable-subject if need be. (Even though bad names can be annoying, I suppose).
Pacing - yay, pacing, nice section there as well. Maybe example would be nice if you could fit them in (maybe not the easiest thing to get, pacing? =/). Yay for the stuff on the story length subsection too. =)
Language - yay, good old show not tell. (Which I learnt from internet forums like serebii rather than school, bah >_<). I do recall now a post from Negrek somewhere in the lounge section which summed up good description nicely... but it's not that much suited for this AFAA, methinks - too deep, possibly, from vague memory). Points there all good. *wishes once again that he had learn't that said wasn't all that evil as school told him it was when starting is fic ;;* The foriegn languages part though seems to be similar in parts to 'Name' in Character - maybe consider merging the two?
Grammar - maybe mention (if there is space for it) that a lack of paragraphs on the internet also kills the eyes? =P ok you mentioned it at the end, I see. -_- Maybe then explain a touch more also on why it's good to mix up the sentence length as well, if the opportunity arises. *shrugs*.
Maybe more examples could be used also for the punctuation stuff, although linking to DarkPersian's Grammar guide or something will do the job as well? (It's a big subject, so maybe going over the basics here, and having the somewhat less common ones elsewhere would be helpful). Dependant/independent sentences may warrant a mention as well?
TBH, I don't see 'Straight/strait' or 'Waist/waste' being words mixed up all that often - they could possibly go if space is needed? Otherwise - certainly seems you've covered all the main stuff there.
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Fandom-specific tips
Understanding terminology - seems good.
The world(s) of Pokémon - ah, canon debates. XD Hmm, seems decent, although Jax's/Valentine's stuff on canon (recently posted about, methinks you would have seen it) might warrant some mention/s in there (maybe for instance in the 'AU' part, where she mentioned examples about Oak which'd fit in there nicely)? But it seems good.
From Game Boy to fiction - agree with part in particular on differences between the games, and writing itself... well, pretty much steady here.
Pokémon - overused and underused - maybe the infamous 'eevee' problem might be mentioned? May be touchy though. But examples of overused shouldn't hurt.
After the writing - Posting on the Internet - on forum tags, maybe mention good old WYSIWIG options that can over come it (well, it does for me at times anyways). Mention the 'preview thread/post' button as well, maybe.
And I see only one paragraph on responding to reviewers - so if there is any more, I don't see it.
ANYWAYS from first reading, it seems good - seems helpful when I put myself into the mindset of someone new, anyways. It does seem pretty simple, but not too simple for new writers, tbh - leastways from what I know - and even the simplest stuff (like defining what a protagonist is, or a genre) will help at least a few people, IMO, so that's not a worry. Isn't too complex either... a good overview, really. I may need to read later though again when it isn't 2am and I haven't had 5 hours of sleep the previous day and I can think more with more sleep (hey, it's Friday =P), and see other people's thoughts as well.
Again, not sure how easily you can restrict to 50,000 characters - all is pretty important to some degree, and parts I mentioned above as seemingly less important aren't plentiful, sorry. >_< And idk if two posts is all that bad (besides the fact that it's two, not one, and hence involves more work, and you've done awesomely already - overworking is not a fate you deserve... but idk where 10,000 characters are going to come from for the chopping board, so maybe having 2 posts as is - one long, one shorter, will be fine. That and occassionally sppf fails at character counting and counts even more than what the is, from experiance >_<).
And when you post - remember the evil words that apparently may still give you those 500 internal server erros (select, create, delete, update, and others >_<).
*gives thumbs up and a cold beer, while hoping he made sense before shrugging and pressing submit anyways*
*reads other links* COMMAS!
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