The Noobs Guide and Other Tips for Ficcers
I've been doing more reading and less writing of fanfiction lately and been finding a lot of things that drive me crazy. I couldn't figure out what to do about it until I had this LJ and thought it might be worthwhile to make sort of "guide" to fanficcing for newbies or oldbies who want some tips. I always do my best to help out other authors and a lot of other authors have helped me, so I'm combining my experience and their collective knowledge for this guide. I hope it helps anyone who reads it, even a little bit. :)
Noobs Guide and Helpful Tips for Ficcing
Hey! Are you new to this whole thing and don't know what you're doing? Want some help? Not new at this but could use some tips and hints to help you navigate the fanfic world? Then this is for you. I've been at this a long time, y'all, and I've got some knowledge under my belt that I want to share with you. My experience with fanfiction is primarily on fanfiction.net, though I have posted in a handful of other sites here and there. For this discussion, I'm talking about on fanfiction.net but I'm sure many of these tips can be helpful elsewhere.
Making the fanfic world a little easier one step at a time, here we go...
Terminology
You can't be fanficcing if you don't know the terms! If you're not new at this and think you know all the terms, feel free to skip all the way down "Fic Tips".
General:
"Canon" - The official material. For Harry Potter, the books or things JK Rowling says/puts on her website (since she's the creator, her word is generally considered canon as well).
"Fanon" - All the fanfiction, as well as various popular ideas or stereotypes amongst fanfiction writers which may or may not have a basis in canon (ex. Draco Malfoy wears leather pants often, Sirius Black is a ladies man, etc)
"Fandom" - The categories of fanfiction and all the people who are into it. If you write solely for Pirates of the Caribbean, then Pirates of the Caribbean and the other POTC authors are your fandom.
"Fic" - The story you or another author wrote.
"A/n" - Author's Note. At the beginning or end, or both or neither, of a chapter. Never, EVER within a chapter (that annoys readers, breaks the flow and is a big no-no, even if it's small). A spot where the author can say anything they need the readers to know before reading the chapter or clarifying something after a chapter. Not necessary, but generally helpful and widely used (see Author's Note section near bottom).
"OC" - Original character. A character of your own making, inside the canon universe. People have mixed opinions about OCs. If they truly are very well written, readers obviously enjoy them. If they're not, they're called "Mary-Sue"s and "Gary-Stu"s (see below) and readers get annoyed. Many readers will skip a story starring an OC b/c the wish to avoid reading any Mary-Sue stuff, so you have to be careful how you work with OCs.
"Mary-Sue"/"Gary-Stu" - This is an OC gone bad. They were too perfect, too pretty, sweet, kind, awesome, with a mysterious/terrible backstory who the main canon characters like/love immediately, etc etc. If you're OC isn't flawed or written into the canon world in a believable manner, they can get called a Mary-Sue (female) or Gary-Stu (male). Certain fandoms, like Harry Potter, have an excessive amount of bad stories with bad OCs and the stereotypes from the grow: she's the best in her class at magic, the girls are jealous of her talent and beauty, everyone loves her, her eyes are ridiculously unique or change color, she always manages to save the day, be smarter than the professors, and the list goes on. When trying to ensure your OC is not a MS, however, be careful not to make her an anti-Sue - she's mean, ugly, no one likes her, etc. OCs are very tricky and you have to strike the right balance b/t her being good and flawed, or as a villian, being bad with some redeeming qualities. For a really solid example of non-MS OCs, I recommend reading "The High King, the Dutchess and the Secret" by TastyAsItGets, here (it's for Chronicles of Narnia). It's got like a million reviews, but it's very well done - the main girl is an OC who very well rounded with flaws and good qualities in the right balance.
"OOC" - Out of character. If characters do/say things or act in a manner that thier "canon" self would never do. Ex. Voldemort wears pink, Luke Skywalker breaks into song, Eeyore laughs hysterically. Those are extreme examples, but you get my drift. If you're doing it on purpose for laughs, warn in your summary or Author's Note so people who don't care for OOC parodies and the like can steer away without getting annoyed.
"IC" - The opposite of above: In Character.
"POV" - Point of view. The way/from whom the story is told. Different from saying first, second or third person, this refers to the specific character through who's eyes the story is.
"Flame"/"Flamed" - A nasty review. Not constructive criticism and often someone just being mean simply to be mean. They can really hurt, it's true, especially if you're new at this, b/c some of them can be very, very nasty. What you have to do is ignore it and don't let it bother you. If they actually are saying something worthwhile in there, then examine your story. Ex. "You effing retard - Legolas would never comb his hair with a fork! What is wrong with you, idiot?" Well, the name calling was highly uneccessary, but maybe he's right and Legolas really wouldn't brush his hair with a fork. Seriously, tho, don't let it derail you. And don't beg for no flames, b/c there's always that jerk who sees that as an invitation to flame you. If you want, be creative about it like, "Flames will be used to roast marshmellows." I can't stress enough tho - don't take the angry flamer to heart. I did once and wrecked what would've been a decent story b/c I took two flamers way too seriously. It wasn't worth it and not fair to the 10 other reviewers who were enjoying the story.
"Beta" - someone who edits your stories for you. They are the best thing in the world b/c they help you fix things that don't make sense, they control OOCness, they keep your story flowing, they can be a sounding board... anything you need. It may take a while to find the right beta who can really take the time to help you, but once you do, trust me, you'll be a lot more proud of the stories you're putting out.
(name)!(term) - These are used to describe usually a characteristic of a character. This is a bit hard to describe as it's so widely used for basically everything, but here are some examples: Dead!Denny, CAPSLOCK!Harry, Bad!Dumbledore, Robot!Ginny, Abusive!Lucius, Gay!Locke, etc.
Types of Fics:
I wouldn't want you reading something you're against b/c you're not down with the terms! Or writing a certain kind and losing out on reviews b/c you didn't happen to label your story right.
"Slash" - Means same sex romantic pairing. Guy/Guy (also called a yaoi, usually only in Anime fandom) or Girl/Girl (also called yuri, usually only in Anime fandom or most commomly "femslash" elsewhere). Practically essential to label in your summary, as there are many readers who have a strong preference for or against slash.
"AU" - Alternate Universe. More or less a "What If?" way of looking at things, or a way to write a very different story than that of the canon. For example, an AU Star Wars fic could be Obi-Wan and Padme having a romance instead of Anakin and Padme. Or perhaps it's really AU, where Obi-Wan works in a pub and never was a Jedi and Padme is a stripper. AU gives you license to really go for it, be creative, think outside the box and create a new world within a world or go as simple as "what if the gun hadn't have misfired in Dr. Horrible?" Always label, as some readers don't appreciate too big of a twist on canon.
"Twincest" - Means a pair who twins who are romantically involved. Always label (see slash).
"MPreg" - The idea, often science fictiony or supernatural, of male pregnancy. Always label (same as slash).
"Gen" - General fic. Means not really any specific plot or pairing. Usually a one-shot, focusing on one character's thoughts, but really can be anything.
"Movieverse" - Usually for a fandom that has a book and movie, and the author is writing from views, ideas or situations from the movie, and usually different from the book. Not necessary to label in your summary if you don't want to, but wise to mention it in your opening author's note.
"Fluff" - Lots of romance. Often very sappy, sweet and referred to as "Pointless Fluff", meaning it's basically just an excuse to write cuteness. Warn your readers in your summary or A/n, tho, as some readers abhor fluff.
"Drabble" - Very, very short fic, often just a few strings of thoughts. Often just around 100 words or so. "Double Drabble" would be the same idea except twice as long.
(name )/ (name) / (name) - three character names with slashes either means a love triangle or a threesome. Always specify. Generally to represent a triangle you do it separately like so: Jack/Kate and Sawyer/Kate. For a threesome story, it's more likely this: Jack/Kate/Sawyer. People use them differently, but that's the most common/best way to do it. It doesn't matter much which way you do it, as long as you make it clear if it IS a threesome fic as opposed to a love triangle fic.
"Crack!fic" - Usually refers to either a random idea that became a fic or a really outlandish pairing. Usually is a wild parody/nonsense story, something silly and funny, something that probably would never happen in canon. A Harry Potter Crack!fic for example, could be a Voldemort/McGonagal pairing.
Genres:
Most of them are self-explanatory (romance, western, adventure, humor, drama, action etc) but a couple of them can be confusing if you're not familiar with them.
Angst - basically intense sadness or emotion. Different from Tragedy in that Tragedy generally represents a character death or suicide (always label suicide fics, btw).
Parody - making fun of. Usually coupled with "humor" in the genres. Generally full of OOCness or randomness. (Ex. a Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie parody talks about Harry flying on Buckbeak for hours around the castle screaming "I'm King of the World" until he's hoarse and Lupin popping in randomly to shove chocolate down people's throats.)
Hurt/Comfort - fairly self-explanatory, but basically means someone being there/supporting/encouraging someone else during a sad/hard moment. Often the character being comforted is either physically or mentally hurt (usually physically). Can be romantic, just friends, family, and more.
Whump - basically beating up the character (physically). Physical and emotional pain for the characters, and usually accompanied by Angst.
Abbreviations and Ship Names:
These are fandom specific and can get confusing at times, but here's a sampling of a few. Most of them you just have to keep in mind the characters initials and you should be good (like in the Harry Potter fandom) while others (Lost and Grey's) are generally all about deciphering the combination names.
Harry Potter -
H/G, Orange Crush = Harry/Ginny
R/Hr, Good Ship = Ron Hermione
H/Hr, Pumpkin Pie = Harry/Hermione
Grey's Anatomy -
Burktina, Bang = Cristina/Burke
MerDer = Meredith/Derek
Dirty Mistresses, M/M, MerMark = Meredith/Mark
Gizzie, O'Stevens, GI = George Izzie
Lexzie, AI = Alex/Izzie (not to be confused with Alex/Lexie or Lexie/Izzie, neither of which seem to have a specific pairing name)
Slexie, Big Sloan/Little Grey, BS/LG, Mexie = Mark/Lexie
Calzona = Callie/Arizona
Callica = Callie/Erica
McStizzie = Izzie/Mark
Lost -
Jate = Jack/Kate
Skate = Sawyer/Kate
Hibby, Hubby, Hurby = Hurley/Libby
Chaire, PB&J = Charlie/Claire
Conmama, Saire = Sawyer/Claire
Suliet = Sawyer/Juliet
Jacket = Jack/Juliet
Star Trek -
Scones - Scotty/Bones
K/S - Kirk/Spock
(*note for those who don't like slash: many, many of the fics in the Star Trek and Dead Poet's Society fandoms are slash, so watch the summaries carefully)
The Office -
Jam, PB&J - Jim/Pam
And more. There are so many more in so many more fandoms, but that at least gives you an idea. I would probably be here 'till I die trying to list them all and let's face it, I'm guessing you could care less. I'm also guessing most of you skipped that section, but that's totally fine - it's mostly for really new newbies anyway. Moving on!
Fic Tips
Alright, so know you know some of the terms. What now? Well if you're here, I'm assuming you have a fic or planning to write one. Here are some tips for your actual fic.
-Nobody's perfect.
It's true. We all make mistakes, not every one of our stories is going to be epic or awesome or deeply touching or hilarious. Some will suck - I'll just say it now - and some you'll want to burn and some you won't even post. Some may be great, some may be good, and some will be just okay. Accept that now - like really, truly internalize and accept that - and that not every single person who will read it will think it's awesome, and you're already a lot farther than I was when I started.
-Not every story will get lots of reviews.
I have been doing fanfiction for going on six or seven years now, I think, and I have yet to figure out the magic formula to getting a story with a million reviews. Some stories I write that I think are really good, with a catchy summary will garner three reviews and that's it. I'll whip up some 500-word piece of junk and get 15 reviews in one day. I've seen stories that are 15 chapters long that have literally 1000 reviews, and a story that's better written right beside it with 15 chapters and 30 reviews. So another thing you have to accept is that some of your stories just simply won't get many bites. It happens. Be happy with the reviews you do get, and if it's going on a month and you've not got a single review, it's a good idea to look back at it and figure out what the problem could be.
-Ask for feedback - and more importantly, ACCEPT it!
Not just from your reviewers. That's their job already - to tell you what they thought and maybe what you could change. But show your story to a friend and ask them to critique it. Ask an online friend who also writes in that fandom to tell you what you could change, if they have any suggestions or feedback. I can't count the number of times I've gone to other authors and asked for advice on a story and they pointed out something glaring I'd managed to miss. Especially in your early days of fanfiction when you're still figuring out what works and what doesn't, feedback in invaluable.
The second part of that is that when they - whoever it may be - give you the feedback, don't take it personally if it's negative ("waah, they hate it! *sob*") but use it, accept it, learn from it.
-For the love of all that is good, use the spellchecker.
Seriously. I admit I am so totally guilty of not using it. Many of my stories have typos in them and my older stories especially make me wince at their poor quality. Avoid the wincing later in life by making it good now. I know you're dying to get it up and get it read and get your reviews flowing in, but take five/ten more minutes to read it over, spellcheck it and really edit it, and it could mean the difference between five more reviews and none. And you can always go back later. The way fanfiction.net and AO3 are set up, it's not set in stone. If a reviewer points out a typo, you can fix it and it's better to right away (altho, I am also guilty for going, "Oh! Good call! I'll fix that right away!" and then forget and don't.) And along that note...
-Even better than a spellchecker? A beta!
If you read the General Terms section, then you'll know what a beta is. If not: a beta is someone who edits your stories for you, much like an editor at a magazine or publishing company. They can be there as a sounding board, someone to catch the typos you didn't, someone to point out your gaping plot holes or all of the above. It can sometimes take a while to find the right beta who you work well with, but once you do, it's awesome. They are the best help ever and I very, VERY strongly recommend having one, especially for larger/longer stories and especially if you're just starting out. They'll help you get your foot in the door, so to speak, as they've usually been doing this for a long time.
Seriously, I can't stress it enough: find a beta to work with you because your stories will be better for it.
-Be original.
Ya, I know, obvious. And ya, I know, you're writing fanfiction so how original can you be? What I mean by this is that there are some ideas and plots that are so overused in fanfiction it's painful. Yes, some of the are excellently written, some of them are exceptions, but honestly, if you do something different, I'd wager readers are much more likely to respond. If you're going to use the general concept of one of those overused concepts, make it clear why yours is different. Everybody's read a "when they were in high school" fic for Lost in that fandom. Why should I read yours? This really goes more into what you say in your summary more than anything, but trust me when I say if you've got something interesting that no one else has done, people will be eager to read it b/c it's fresh and new.
-Watch the length of your chapters.
If you're doing a one-shot, make sure it's not ridiculously long. Anything from drabble to about 3500 words, I think, is pretty acceptable. You start going more than 3500-ish words and some readers start to get tired. They may still be interested, but if the page drags on and on, it gets harder to read. Keeping your chapters at a manageable size like that is the same thing. With chapters, there's a balance you'll have to find. Make a chapter too short and readers get annoyed that they waited for an update and all it was, was this piddly little chapter (exceptions of course are one-shot collections with drabbles and double drabbles, 100-word challenge multi-chapter fics, prompt challenge fics, etc). Make a chapter too long and the A.D.D. reader won't have the patience to stick it out to review you. XD Again, this is not something where there's an easy formula - it's mostly trial and error and dependent on the fic. I would say 1500-3500 words is a good ball park for a one-shot or solidly sized chapter.
This one is again very much a personal preference thing, so everyone is all over the map on this. That being said, anything less than 1500-2000 words is usually considered a short chapter. Anything from 6000-10000 words is considered very long for a single chapter. Some readers prefer short fics and short chapters, some prefer long chapters and long fics, so find what you like, what works best for you, and what works best for the story you're writing.
Find a happy medium that works for you - find natural ending points in your work, and remember all chapters do not have to be the same length. If one chapter ends up being a lot longer than the last one, that's okay. Keep the chapters at manageable sizes, but also break them up where it makes sense too. Cliffhanger? Dramatic moment? Calm moment? Up to you!
-Reread your own work with a critical eye when it's done
This one ties in a bit with the beta and feedback topics, but this is one I do too. There's been times I catch myself doing something or writing something awkwardly that I wouldn't have otherwise caught if I hadn't have looked seriously over my story. While you're looking, think about it as if you're reading it for the first time, critically and honestly. Ask yourself questions you, as a reviewer on someone else's story, might ask. Like:
-Would she really just know he was at his house at that moment? What made her go knock on his door?
-Do you use the same line of description over and over? ("His eyes were startling blue") Get a thesaurus, use a different way of talking about his eyes, don't point them out so constantly, find other things to describe about him.
-We all know the main characters in a romance story are drawn to each other, but why? It's not always love at first sight, it's not always unexplainable attraction, so go deep. Be smart and original! Develop them! Don't tell me they're in love, show me.
And on this note, when you're going over your work, don't be afraid to delete big sections if they're not working. Does it feel boring to you? It probably is to your readers - rework it! How is the pacing, the flow? Does it unfold logically? (If it doesn't, on purpose, why?) You don't need to explain every single that is happening - most readers are pretty smart, you can still get the feelings and point across by implying in many instances.
-With an OC, remember YOU know the characters, but THEY don't
Avoid a Mary-Sue situation by keeping that in mind. YOU know that Ron is jealous and has a temper, that his family isn't well off, etc. But your OC shouldn't be able to guess or sense all that after meeting him for five minutes, unless there is a very good reason (she's psychic, Malfoy walks by and shouts out some insult related to Ron's lack of wealth, he sees Hermione kiss Viktor on the cheek and turns red and angry, etc). If your story is from your OC's POV, it's brand new. You can't jump in with him/her having easy knowledge over everyone or being able to guess/sense/assume things all the time. Unless he/she is psychic, like I said, in which case he/she has a reason to know all these things! ;)
-It's your story and you'll cry if you want to!
I know reader feedback is important and you want to know what's working and what isn't (and I'm not talking about feedback about typos or errors or stuff like that). I completely, completely get that, so don't get me wrong when I explain this. It's YOUR story. Yes, you welcome suggestions and every once in a while, a plot suggestion ends up being worked into the story. But when authors end a chapter saying, "Well, what do I do next? Tell me!" I personally find it pretty annoying. Who's writing the story here?! The most common one I see is when authors are writing a love triangle story and they want the readers to choose who he/she ends up. YOU are the author, YOU decide. And in all honesty, you should know the endgame before you start! Relying on your readers for the story direction is like flying blind. You're just writing for the sake of writing, rather than creating a story.
Now, that all being said, there are tons of successful stories that are built entirely on reader input and that's the entire point of them - I'm mostly referring to those stories that say, "submissions open!" in the summaries, where you leave a review with ideas and the author then uses the ones they like. I'm not going to say there's something wrong with that, as it's fun for all involved. It's just that I personally feel that the writer of the story should be the one steering the boat, not the readers. Perhaps they can influence your general direction, or inspire you to add something new, but they shouldn't be telling you what to write. To me, that makes me think you don't have original ideas of your own, you have to use someone else's.
So even though everyone is absolutely begging that you don't kill McCoy in your epic Star Trek story, you started off planning to kill him, so kill him! Or even though you've got seven reviewers who are all convinced your girl MUST end up with Edmund in the land of Narnia, but you've always decided it'd be Peter, then show them why it's Peter instead. Know what I mean? The key is about striking a balance between taking and using the feedback and suggestions you're getting to better your story and not letting everyone push the direction of the story, and knowing the difference between internalizing suggestions and letting the readers write the story for you.
-Show, don't tell
This is the number advice for writers everywhere and we've all heard it. It applies to fic too, because fic writing is still writing! Basically what this means is don't pour out paragraoh after paragraph of backstory, of the character's personality quirks, of why Character A is madly in love with Character B. Those things are tell. It means instead of those things, only insert slips of backstory when it's absolutely necessary and only the bare minimum. Show the character doing quirky things so we can see they have a quirky personality. Show, through actions and dialogue, that Character A loves Character B.
Tell: He was angry.
Show: He slammed his fist on the table.
This doesn't mean you should never tell, it means you should show as much as you can. "Tell" is sometimes still necessary, just limit it - readers are smart and can piece things together, can get a lot out of seeing an action rather than being told something, if that makes sense.
Summaries
Now you've got your fic written and you need a summary. Most of us struggle with summaries. They're tough to get right, b/c you only have so many words to grab a potential reader's interest. Sometimes posting what ship your story contains can help, though the downside of this is that readers who might've been intrigued by your summary won't venture in if they see a pairing they don't like. It's hard to come up with something good enough to stand out and be interesting, and sometimes when you think you have a good summary, nothing happens. And when you think you have a bad summary, you get more hits. It's inconsistent and extremely difficult to predict.
That being said, there's a handful of things that if you include in your summary, you're sure to turn many readers away.
Turn offs in summaries:
-"it's better than it sounds!" / "i suck at summaries!"
Yes, your story probably is. The problem is that there's a lot of bad writers out there who write worse summaries or don't even try, so they use the above excuse. Readers scrolling through the pages and pages of fics and are more likely to click into a story with a half-decent summary than one that simply says, "better than it sounds, trust me". If the author can't be bothered to put more effort into a summary, why should I take the time to go in and read what may or not be "better than it sounds"? If they couldn't come up with any summary, how did they manage a whole fic?
The other side of it is: if it sounds bad, maybe it is bad. Is your story an ill-concieved idea? Is it a wildly over-used plot? If it is, firstly shame on you for writing something crappy or unoriginal! ;) Fanfiction is the place to be creative so you shouldn't be doing what everyone else is doing. There are times, however, when you know you can do it better or more originally, so you do. Secondly, however, if it is that bad, don't make it sound like it. I'd wager a solid 9 times out of 10, readers are more likely to start reading if your summary does not have one of the above sentences in your summary (I'd also wager some readers can't help but be curious and will click in and do a quick skim to see what you're story's about instead - but a lot of those skimmers don't stay).
The point is to put the effort into your summary and don't just fall on back on an excuse or a promise that your story is better written than your lame summary. Maybe you feel the summary you came up with does suck. Ask for advice from someone about it. Change it later if necessary - it's not set in stone, you know.
-"my first fic" / "plz go easy one me"
We've all been there, we've all had a first fic. Seriously though, it's not best to advertise it in your summary. I know you want the reviewers to be gentle and not throw you under the bus immediately, b/c this is your first crack into this world. But don't say this in your summary, it's a big turn off and I'll tell you why.
There a few types of reviewers. One is someone who is kind and remembers their first days and is willing to give you a chance, so they click in, read, and likely give you some con-crit and advice. Two is someone who sees "first fic" and either remembers how bad their first fics are and doesn't want to read something bad, or knows that first fics are often bad (especially, for some reason, in the Harry Potter section), so they flit right past you. Third is someone with a less than kind heart who will likely stop in just to flame or scare you pick you apart and not be friendly. The third doesn't come around too terribly often, thankfully, but they are out there and seem to be more in some fandoms than others (the Harry Potter fandom is generally very forgiving of bad and/or first time writers, as it seems to be saturated those who a) don't write well either or b) find bad fics still entertaining somehow. The Lord of the Rings fandom, however, seems to be full of intellectuals and fans who care very, very deeply about their canon, so much so that you could be flamed very quickly for doing something they feel is too un-canon in any way).
While advertising this is your first fic, you may be able to attract some of the kind #1 type reviewers, but you be losing the majority which is reviewer type #2. It's fine to note that this is your first time in an author's note if you really want to, but don't put it in your summary.
-"don't flame me" / "plz be nice"
This is practically an invite for reviewer type #3 to come in and get you. They don't want to be nice and for whatever reason, they enjoy bringing others down. Begging for niceness and non-flames probably makes them more inclined to flame you just because. On top of that, reviewer #2 probably will be inclined to think that something must be wrong with story, that it must not be very good, b/c the author is pleading not to get yelled at.
-summaries full of bad grammar, typos, poor spelling, etc
I can't stress this enough. The story could be the best story in the world, but if the title or the summary is full of typos, bad grammar, poor spelling or has no capitals and punctuation where there should be, I'm not going to read the story. If the author cannot be bothered to make sure their title or summary or good enough, it makes me think that the story is not good enough either. What would you rather click in and read?
This: "cristina and mer eal with they're issues with they men"
or this: "Cristina and Meredith deal with their issues with their men."
Simple as that.
-summaries full of netspeak, excess punctuation, CAPSLOCK
It's annoying. I don't care if you talk like that on MSN/Skype or Facebook or in email, this is none of those things. Fanfiction are stories created by fans and unless there is some very good reason to include netspeak in your story (I would strongly recommend against it), it has no place anywhere, least of all in your summary.
CAPSLOCK represents yelling, and I know some authors (JK Rowling) have been known to use it, but trust when I say most readers find it annoying. There are many other ways to represent yelling and CAPSLOCK should not be one of them. If your character needs to yell, try italicizing things for emphasis, exclamation marks (only one per end-of-sentence. None of this: "Oh!!!!!".) or using dialogue tags, actions and more to get it across rather than CAPSLOCK. Like:
"I don't care what you think!" Ginny hollered.
"Good, because I don't care either!" Harry slammed his fist on the table.
"Just stop!" Hermione screeched.
-summaries talking about what's going on in your life as opposed to what's in your story
Really people? Look, I'm as guilty as the next guy for rambling, and especially for rambling irrelevantly in my author notes about my life. I'm getting better at not doing it, b/c honestly, few people care. Most people skip a/n's anyways b/c of the amount of authors who ramble irrelevantly in their a/n. But in your summary?? I've seen it several times now, where an author's summary looks something like this:
"hey all, sorry, I was gone. i was busy with my cat dying and haven't had time to work on this story. But i'm back now and everything's shiny and here is chapter 7, and it's good."
Your loyal followers/fans/friends may care - but that's what PMs, review replies, and sometimes a/n's are for. Don't put this in summary, b/c it completely discourages new people from clicking in. You're not gaining new readers like this, you're simply keeping your old ones. If you're truly happy with that, then fine. But I doubt it because the point of us posting our work is to get reviews and we LOVE reviews and LOTS of 'em. New readers see your life update, have no clue what the story's about, and have already moved on to reading the next summary. A life update is not a summary. Don't do it.
-"sorry this sucks, i have no beta" / "unbetaed b/c i was abandoned" / "no longer have a beta"
I've been seeing variations of this one popping up everywhere and it's growing to be a real pet peeve of mine. The first one where you apologize for potential suckage hardly entices me to read. If you, the author, says it's bad, why in the world would I bother to read it then? The second one annoys me more, because it makes it sound like you and your beta had an unfriendly disagreement (and maybe you did, but I, the reader passing by, certainly don't need to know about it) and now you're asking for a beta without asking. You're hoping someone who betas will see your story, click in and save you. Same with the third one. Whether this be the case or not, that's what it's projecting.
On top of that, a statement like this has no place in your summary. Summaries are about being interesting and enticing and gaining readers/reviewers. That's it. If what you're putting in your summary does not interest, entice, make people curious, or otherwise get someone to look in and actually read, it has no place being there.
-"more inside" / "better summary inside"
Obviously there's more inside. Yes, it's hard to restrict your summary to the box, but we all have to do it. Maybe you do have a better, longer more interesting summary and there's nothing wrong with posting it inside. But it's a turn-off to see the line "more inside" or "better summary inside". I don't want to have to go into the story to see what it's about, that's what the summary box is for. More often than not, readers will skip one that says "more inside" b/c honestly, we're ridiculously lazy when on the internet. If you can't grab someone's attention in under 5-10 seconds, they're gone, and they don't want to have to click back and forth to decide if a story's worth their time.
Author's Notes
Those little messages at the beginning or end (or both, or neither) of your chapter/story. Some authors feel they're totally unnecessary while other use them everytime without fail even if we really have nothing to say. To me, I find it like an opener to the next chapter and most often a spot to clarify something like specify the timeline or note that Katie Bell was supposed to be in Charms but I had to write her in Potions for the sake of the story.
-Keep it simple
I struggle with this one all the time, as a notorious rambler. It may sound harsh, but people don't care. A few do, especially some of your followers/fans or friends, but for the most part, if they see a hefty, rambly a/n, they'll skip it to get to the story. So don't talk about what exactly has kept you so busy these days, just say you've been busy and here's an update.
Tips About Reviewing
-Always, always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS review/comment!
As an author, you know how precious reviews are. You love them. You get a happy feeling burst in your stomach when you see a review sitting there in your inbox. Trust me when I say this is not exclusive to you. Every author loves reviews, whether they tell you they do or not. It's common courtesy too. If you took the time to read it, just take another thirty seconds out of your life to let them know what you thought. I don't care if you leave me one word or ten paragraphs, but just letting me know you were there is enough. There is nothing more frustrating to me than seeing a story of mine that has 5675578 hits/visitors and 3 reviews. And while I appreciate seeing that someone favorited or subscribed to my story, I would really like to know why exactly - what part did they love enough that made then favorite it? Again, as an author, you know how it feels to get a review. Leave them for others and spread the joy. ;)
-con crit, comments, compliments, questions, and flames
Those are the various types of reviews. Authors in general treasure con crits (constructive criticism) the most, so they're the best to give if you can. Some people don't find anything to crit you on, some people aren't good at critiquing, and that's totally fine. Even one word - "Nice!" "Awesome!" "Update!" - will make an author happy in a review. And of course, nobody likes a flame. Even if you read the worst story ever written, I still think it's wrong to flame them. You might say, "Well, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all..." but I challenge you on that. If this was YOUR story, wouldn't you want to know it's horrible? You wouldn't want someone to say it like that, of course, but you'd want someone to say, "Look man, you really need a beta for your grammar because it's all over the place, and you need to realize that Samwise can't fly randomly like that, because it doesn't make sense.". Be an author and a reviewer at the same time (not just strictly one or the other): leave the kinds of reviews you like to receive. If something makes no sense, point it out. Be diplomatic and honest. If you loved something, tell them!
Misc. Tips:
-Be gracious.
If someone compliments you, reply to their review and thank them. If someone calls you a friggin' idiot for screwing up canon so terribly and they think you should rot for it, reply to their review telling them that you're sorry they didn't enjoy your fic, but that you appreciate their review/feedback/input anyway. If all they say if "update", reply to their review and thank them for taking the time to leave a comment and that the next update is coming soon.
The world of fanfiction is sort of a weird cycle. You put the time and effort into writing and posting a story, the reader puts in time and effort to read your story, they should (but often don't) put the effort into leaving you feedback. You then internalize the feedback and reach out and take the time to thank them for it, good or bad. Sometimes they reply back and then you find a new friend in the fanfiction world. The nicer and gracious you are, the way you take time to give thoughtful replies - words gets around. I've had reviewers PM me a question b/c they said I come off real nice and patient. I've had reviewers tell me they were recommended to the story b/c the author was extremely pleasant. I've even talked to people who've said to me that if the author doesn't reply to their reviews, they feel like the author doesn't appreciate the reviews so they stop bothering to review. I've of course met others who find review replies annoying, so you can't win 'em all. XD
Just be thankful and pleasant = bottom line.
-Read more than you write.
Not only do you get an idea for what's out there and find some real gems, but there are many authors out there who like to return the favor. If you stop in, read and review, they'll head over to your profile to read and review in turn. So reading, in that sense, can sometimes gain you new readers/reviews.
And this advice goes for life too, hoenstly: if you want to write, read. Read books, read fic, read, read, read. Devour words. You opeen your imagination to so many new things and new worlds, and you also can see things in writing that work and don't work. You find things you want to internalize and emulate, you find things you want to avoid in your own work. Read more, read often, READ. You'll be shocked how much you can improve your own writing by reading!
-Do not EVER hold your fic for ransom
I find this to be one of the most annoying things in the entire world of fanfiction, and as I've talked to many other authors over the years, many of them agree. At the end of a story, an author will say something like, "and i'm not updating until i get at least 5 reviews!" What? Are you serious? Maybe there are some people out there who go, "Eeps, I better review!" but I guarantee you, the majority gets completely annoyed by this statement. It makes me less inclined to review and I'm sure there are plenty of people who will purposefully not review b/c you're demanding it of them. I want to review b/c I a) have something to say b) want to help you/con crit you or c) compliment you. Saying you refuse to update until I review is basically forcing me to review and that just absolutely annoys me. Just don't do it. We all want reviews and we all want lots of them. Focus on being a better writer and earning reviews instead of demanding them.
-
I'm not picking on you, I promise. ;) And not every author, reader, writer or reviewer is exactly as I discussed here - I made many generalizations. However, what I've said is based on experience. I've been writing for a long time in the fanfic world and reading just as long if not longer. Over the years I've befriended many authors and readers alike and I've had the pleasure of discussing many of these topics with them and many others, so my generalizations are based on fact.
I hope this stuff helps you in the future of ficcing. :) Happy writing!
~Red
(Edited Aug 8, 09)
Noobs Guide and Helpful Tips for Ficcing
Hey! Are you new to this whole thing and don't know what you're doing? Want some help? Not new at this but could use some tips and hints to help you navigate the fanfic world? Then this is for you. I've been at this a long time, y'all, and I've got some knowledge under my belt that I want to share with you. My experience with fanfiction is primarily on fanfiction.net, though I have posted in a handful of other sites here and there. For this discussion, I'm talking about on fanfiction.net but I'm sure many of these tips can be helpful elsewhere.
Making the fanfic world a little easier one step at a time, here we go...
Terminology
You can't be fanficcing if you don't know the terms! If you're not new at this and think you know all the terms, feel free to skip all the way down "Fic Tips".
General:
"Canon" - The official material. For Harry Potter, the books or things JK Rowling says/puts on her website (since she's the creator, her word is generally considered canon as well).
"Fanon" - All the fanfiction, as well as various popular ideas or stereotypes amongst fanfiction writers which may or may not have a basis in canon (ex. Draco Malfoy wears leather pants often, Sirius Black is a ladies man, etc)
"Fandom" - The categories of fanfiction and all the people who are into it. If you write solely for Pirates of the Caribbean, then Pirates of the Caribbean and the other POTC authors are your fandom.
"Fic" - The story you or another author wrote.
"A/n" - Author's Note. At the beginning or end, or both or neither, of a chapter. Never, EVER within a chapter (that annoys readers, breaks the flow and is a big no-no, even if it's small). A spot where the author can say anything they need the readers to know before reading the chapter or clarifying something after a chapter. Not necessary, but generally helpful and widely used (see Author's Note section near bottom).
"OC" - Original character. A character of your own making, inside the canon universe. People have mixed opinions about OCs. If they truly are very well written, readers obviously enjoy them. If they're not, they're called "Mary-Sue"s and "Gary-Stu"s (see below) and readers get annoyed. Many readers will skip a story starring an OC b/c the wish to avoid reading any Mary-Sue stuff, so you have to be careful how you work with OCs.
"Mary-Sue"/"Gary-Stu" - This is an OC gone bad. They were too perfect, too pretty, sweet, kind, awesome, with a mysterious/terrible backstory who the main canon characters like/love immediately, etc etc. If you're OC isn't flawed or written into the canon world in a believable manner, they can get called a Mary-Sue (female) or Gary-Stu (male). Certain fandoms, like Harry Potter, have an excessive amount of bad stories with bad OCs and the stereotypes from the grow: she's the best in her class at magic, the girls are jealous of her talent and beauty, everyone loves her, her eyes are ridiculously unique or change color, she always manages to save the day, be smarter than the professors, and the list goes on. When trying to ensure your OC is not a MS, however, be careful not to make her an anti-Sue - she's mean, ugly, no one likes her, etc. OCs are very tricky and you have to strike the right balance b/t her being good and flawed, or as a villian, being bad with some redeeming qualities. For a really solid example of non-MS OCs, I recommend reading "The High King, the Dutchess and the Secret" by TastyAsItGets, here (it's for Chronicles of Narnia). It's got like a million reviews, but it's very well done - the main girl is an OC who very well rounded with flaws and good qualities in the right balance.
"OOC" - Out of character. If characters do/say things or act in a manner that thier "canon" self would never do. Ex. Voldemort wears pink, Luke Skywalker breaks into song, Eeyore laughs hysterically. Those are extreme examples, but you get my drift. If you're doing it on purpose for laughs, warn in your summary or Author's Note so people who don't care for OOC parodies and the like can steer away without getting annoyed.
"IC" - The opposite of above: In Character.
"POV" - Point of view. The way/from whom the story is told. Different from saying first, second or third person, this refers to the specific character through who's eyes the story is.
"Flame"/"Flamed" - A nasty review. Not constructive criticism and often someone just being mean simply to be mean. They can really hurt, it's true, especially if you're new at this, b/c some of them can be very, very nasty. What you have to do is ignore it and don't let it bother you. If they actually are saying something worthwhile in there, then examine your story. Ex. "You effing retard - Legolas would never comb his hair with a fork! What is wrong with you, idiot?" Well, the name calling was highly uneccessary, but maybe he's right and Legolas really wouldn't brush his hair with a fork. Seriously, tho, don't let it derail you. And don't beg for no flames, b/c there's always that jerk who sees that as an invitation to flame you. If you want, be creative about it like, "Flames will be used to roast marshmellows." I can't stress enough tho - don't take the angry flamer to heart. I did once and wrecked what would've been a decent story b/c I took two flamers way too seriously. It wasn't worth it and not fair to the 10 other reviewers who were enjoying the story.
"Beta" - someone who edits your stories for you. They are the best thing in the world b/c they help you fix things that don't make sense, they control OOCness, they keep your story flowing, they can be a sounding board... anything you need. It may take a while to find the right beta who can really take the time to help you, but once you do, trust me, you'll be a lot more proud of the stories you're putting out.
(name)!(term) - These are used to describe usually a characteristic of a character. This is a bit hard to describe as it's so widely used for basically everything, but here are some examples: Dead!Denny, CAPSLOCK!Harry, Bad!Dumbledore, Robot!Ginny, Abusive!Lucius, Gay!Locke, etc.
Types of Fics:
I wouldn't want you reading something you're against b/c you're not down with the terms! Or writing a certain kind and losing out on reviews b/c you didn't happen to label your story right.
"Slash" - Means same sex romantic pairing. Guy/Guy (also called a yaoi, usually only in Anime fandom) or Girl/Girl (also called yuri, usually only in Anime fandom or most commomly "femslash" elsewhere). Practically essential to label in your summary, as there are many readers who have a strong preference for or against slash.
"AU" - Alternate Universe. More or less a "What If?" way of looking at things, or a way to write a very different story than that of the canon. For example, an AU Star Wars fic could be Obi-Wan and Padme having a romance instead of Anakin and Padme. Or perhaps it's really AU, where Obi-Wan works in a pub and never was a Jedi and Padme is a stripper. AU gives you license to really go for it, be creative, think outside the box and create a new world within a world or go as simple as "what if the gun hadn't have misfired in Dr. Horrible?" Always label, as some readers don't appreciate too big of a twist on canon.
"Twincest" - Means a pair who twins who are romantically involved. Always label (see slash).
"MPreg" - The idea, often science fictiony or supernatural, of male pregnancy. Always label (same as slash).
"Gen" - General fic. Means not really any specific plot or pairing. Usually a one-shot, focusing on one character's thoughts, but really can be anything.
"Movieverse" - Usually for a fandom that has a book and movie, and the author is writing from views, ideas or situations from the movie, and usually different from the book. Not necessary to label in your summary if you don't want to, but wise to mention it in your opening author's note.
"Fluff" - Lots of romance. Often very sappy, sweet and referred to as "Pointless Fluff", meaning it's basically just an excuse to write cuteness. Warn your readers in your summary or A/n, tho, as some readers abhor fluff.
"Drabble" - Very, very short fic, often just a few strings of thoughts. Often just around 100 words or so. "Double Drabble" would be the same idea except twice as long.
(name )/ (name) / (name) - three character names with slashes either means a love triangle or a threesome. Always specify. Generally to represent a triangle you do it separately like so: Jack/Kate and Sawyer/Kate. For a threesome story, it's more likely this: Jack/Kate/Sawyer. People use them differently, but that's the most common/best way to do it. It doesn't matter much which way you do it, as long as you make it clear if it IS a threesome fic as opposed to a love triangle fic.
"Crack!fic" - Usually refers to either a random idea that became a fic or a really outlandish pairing. Usually is a wild parody/nonsense story, something silly and funny, something that probably would never happen in canon. A Harry Potter Crack!fic for example, could be a Voldemort/McGonagal pairing.
Genres:
Most of them are self-explanatory (romance, western, adventure, humor, drama, action etc) but a couple of them can be confusing if you're not familiar with them.
Angst - basically intense sadness or emotion. Different from Tragedy in that Tragedy generally represents a character death or suicide (always label suicide fics, btw).
Parody - making fun of. Usually coupled with "humor" in the genres. Generally full of OOCness or randomness. (Ex. a Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie parody talks about Harry flying on Buckbeak for hours around the castle screaming "I'm King of the World" until he's hoarse and Lupin popping in randomly to shove chocolate down people's throats.)
Hurt/Comfort - fairly self-explanatory, but basically means someone being there/supporting/encouraging someone else during a sad/hard moment. Often the character being comforted is either physically or mentally hurt (usually physically). Can be romantic, just friends, family, and more.
Whump - basically beating up the character (physically). Physical and emotional pain for the characters, and usually accompanied by Angst.
Abbreviations and Ship Names:
These are fandom specific and can get confusing at times, but here's a sampling of a few. Most of them you just have to keep in mind the characters initials and you should be good (like in the Harry Potter fandom) while others (Lost and Grey's) are generally all about deciphering the combination names.
Harry Potter -
H/G, Orange Crush = Harry/Ginny
R/Hr, Good Ship = Ron Hermione
H/Hr, Pumpkin Pie = Harry/Hermione
Grey's Anatomy -
Burktina, Bang = Cristina/Burke
MerDer = Meredith/Derek
Dirty Mistresses, M/M, MerMark = Meredith/Mark
Gizzie, O'Stevens, GI = George Izzie
Lexzie, AI = Alex/Izzie (not to be confused with Alex/Lexie or Lexie/Izzie, neither of which seem to have a specific pairing name)
Slexie, Big Sloan/Little Grey, BS/LG, Mexie = Mark/Lexie
Calzona = Callie/Arizona
Callica = Callie/Erica
McStizzie = Izzie/Mark
Lost -
Jate = Jack/Kate
Skate = Sawyer/Kate
Hibby, Hubby, Hurby = Hurley/Libby
Chaire, PB&J = Charlie/Claire
Conmama, Saire = Sawyer/Claire
Suliet = Sawyer/Juliet
Jacket = Jack/Juliet
Star Trek -
Scones - Scotty/Bones
K/S - Kirk/Spock
(*note for those who don't like slash: many, many of the fics in the Star Trek and Dead Poet's Society fandoms are slash, so watch the summaries carefully)
The Office -
Jam, PB&J - Jim/Pam
And more. There are so many more in so many more fandoms, but that at least gives you an idea. I would probably be here 'till I die trying to list them all and let's face it, I'm guessing you could care less. I'm also guessing most of you skipped that section, but that's totally fine - it's mostly for really new newbies anyway. Moving on!
Fic Tips
Alright, so know you know some of the terms. What now? Well if you're here, I'm assuming you have a fic or planning to write one. Here are some tips for your actual fic.
-Nobody's perfect.
It's true. We all make mistakes, not every one of our stories is going to be epic or awesome or deeply touching or hilarious. Some will suck - I'll just say it now - and some you'll want to burn and some you won't even post. Some may be great, some may be good, and some will be just okay. Accept that now - like really, truly internalize and accept that - and that not every single person who will read it will think it's awesome, and you're already a lot farther than I was when I started.
-Not every story will get lots of reviews.
I have been doing fanfiction for going on six or seven years now, I think, and I have yet to figure out the magic formula to getting a story with a million reviews. Some stories I write that I think are really good, with a catchy summary will garner three reviews and that's it. I'll whip up some 500-word piece of junk and get 15 reviews in one day. I've seen stories that are 15 chapters long that have literally 1000 reviews, and a story that's better written right beside it with 15 chapters and 30 reviews. So another thing you have to accept is that some of your stories just simply won't get many bites. It happens. Be happy with the reviews you do get, and if it's going on a month and you've not got a single review, it's a good idea to look back at it and figure out what the problem could be.
-Ask for feedback - and more importantly, ACCEPT it!
Not just from your reviewers. That's their job already - to tell you what they thought and maybe what you could change. But show your story to a friend and ask them to critique it. Ask an online friend who also writes in that fandom to tell you what you could change, if they have any suggestions or feedback. I can't count the number of times I've gone to other authors and asked for advice on a story and they pointed out something glaring I'd managed to miss. Especially in your early days of fanfiction when you're still figuring out what works and what doesn't, feedback in invaluable.
The second part of that is that when they - whoever it may be - give you the feedback, don't take it personally if it's negative ("waah, they hate it! *sob*") but use it, accept it, learn from it.
-For the love of all that is good, use the spellchecker.
Seriously. I admit I am so totally guilty of not using it. Many of my stories have typos in them and my older stories especially make me wince at their poor quality. Avoid the wincing later in life by making it good now. I know you're dying to get it up and get it read and get your reviews flowing in, but take five/ten more minutes to read it over, spellcheck it and really edit it, and it could mean the difference between five more reviews and none. And you can always go back later. The way fanfiction.net and AO3 are set up, it's not set in stone. If a reviewer points out a typo, you can fix it and it's better to right away (altho, I am also guilty for going, "Oh! Good call! I'll fix that right away!" and then forget and don't.) And along that note...
-Even better than a spellchecker? A beta!
If you read the General Terms section, then you'll know what a beta is. If not: a beta is someone who edits your stories for you, much like an editor at a magazine or publishing company. They can be there as a sounding board, someone to catch the typos you didn't, someone to point out your gaping plot holes or all of the above. It can sometimes take a while to find the right beta who you work well with, but once you do, it's awesome. They are the best help ever and I very, VERY strongly recommend having one, especially for larger/longer stories and especially if you're just starting out. They'll help you get your foot in the door, so to speak, as they've usually been doing this for a long time.
Seriously, I can't stress it enough: find a beta to work with you because your stories will be better for it.
-Be original.
Ya, I know, obvious. And ya, I know, you're writing fanfiction so how original can you be? What I mean by this is that there are some ideas and plots that are so overused in fanfiction it's painful. Yes, some of the are excellently written, some of them are exceptions, but honestly, if you do something different, I'd wager readers are much more likely to respond. If you're going to use the general concept of one of those overused concepts, make it clear why yours is different. Everybody's read a "when they were in high school" fic for Lost in that fandom. Why should I read yours? This really goes more into what you say in your summary more than anything, but trust me when I say if you've got something interesting that no one else has done, people will be eager to read it b/c it's fresh and new.
-Watch the length of your chapters.
If you're doing a one-shot, make sure it's not ridiculously long. Anything from drabble to about 3500 words, I think, is pretty acceptable. You start going more than 3500-ish words and some readers start to get tired. They may still be interested, but if the page drags on and on, it gets harder to read. Keeping your chapters at a manageable size like that is the same thing. With chapters, there's a balance you'll have to find. Make a chapter too short and readers get annoyed that they waited for an update and all it was, was this piddly little chapter (exceptions of course are one-shot collections with drabbles and double drabbles, 100-word challenge multi-chapter fics, prompt challenge fics, etc). Make a chapter too long and the A.D.D. reader won't have the patience to stick it out to review you. XD Again, this is not something where there's an easy formula - it's mostly trial and error and dependent on the fic. I would say 1500-3500 words is a good ball park for a one-shot or solidly sized chapter.
This one is again very much a personal preference thing, so everyone is all over the map on this. That being said, anything less than 1500-2000 words is usually considered a short chapter. Anything from 6000-10000 words is considered very long for a single chapter. Some readers prefer short fics and short chapters, some prefer long chapters and long fics, so find what you like, what works best for you, and what works best for the story you're writing.
Find a happy medium that works for you - find natural ending points in your work, and remember all chapters do not have to be the same length. If one chapter ends up being a lot longer than the last one, that's okay. Keep the chapters at manageable sizes, but also break them up where it makes sense too. Cliffhanger? Dramatic moment? Calm moment? Up to you!
-Reread your own work with a critical eye when it's done
This one ties in a bit with the beta and feedback topics, but this is one I do too. There's been times I catch myself doing something or writing something awkwardly that I wouldn't have otherwise caught if I hadn't have looked seriously over my story. While you're looking, think about it as if you're reading it for the first time, critically and honestly. Ask yourself questions you, as a reviewer on someone else's story, might ask. Like:
-Would she really just know he was at his house at that moment? What made her go knock on his door?
-Do you use the same line of description over and over? ("His eyes were startling blue") Get a thesaurus, use a different way of talking about his eyes, don't point them out so constantly, find other things to describe about him.
-We all know the main characters in a romance story are drawn to each other, but why? It's not always love at first sight, it's not always unexplainable attraction, so go deep. Be smart and original! Develop them! Don't tell me they're in love, show me.
And on this note, when you're going over your work, don't be afraid to delete big sections if they're not working. Does it feel boring to you? It probably is to your readers - rework it! How is the pacing, the flow? Does it unfold logically? (If it doesn't, on purpose, why?) You don't need to explain every single that is happening - most readers are pretty smart, you can still get the feelings and point across by implying in many instances.
-With an OC, remember YOU know the characters, but THEY don't
Avoid a Mary-Sue situation by keeping that in mind. YOU know that Ron is jealous and has a temper, that his family isn't well off, etc. But your OC shouldn't be able to guess or sense all that after meeting him for five minutes, unless there is a very good reason (she's psychic, Malfoy walks by and shouts out some insult related to Ron's lack of wealth, he sees Hermione kiss Viktor on the cheek and turns red and angry, etc). If your story is from your OC's POV, it's brand new. You can't jump in with him/her having easy knowledge over everyone or being able to guess/sense/assume things all the time. Unless he/she is psychic, like I said, in which case he/she has a reason to know all these things! ;)
-It's your story and you'll cry if you want to!
I know reader feedback is important and you want to know what's working and what isn't (and I'm not talking about feedback about typos or errors or stuff like that). I completely, completely get that, so don't get me wrong when I explain this. It's YOUR story. Yes, you welcome suggestions and every once in a while, a plot suggestion ends up being worked into the story. But when authors end a chapter saying, "Well, what do I do next? Tell me!" I personally find it pretty annoying. Who's writing the story here?! The most common one I see is when authors are writing a love triangle story and they want the readers to choose who he/she ends up. YOU are the author, YOU decide. And in all honesty, you should know the endgame before you start! Relying on your readers for the story direction is like flying blind. You're just writing for the sake of writing, rather than creating a story.
Now, that all being said, there are tons of successful stories that are built entirely on reader input and that's the entire point of them - I'm mostly referring to those stories that say, "submissions open!" in the summaries, where you leave a review with ideas and the author then uses the ones they like. I'm not going to say there's something wrong with that, as it's fun for all involved. It's just that I personally feel that the writer of the story should be the one steering the boat, not the readers. Perhaps they can influence your general direction, or inspire you to add something new, but they shouldn't be telling you what to write. To me, that makes me think you don't have original ideas of your own, you have to use someone else's.
So even though everyone is absolutely begging that you don't kill McCoy in your epic Star Trek story, you started off planning to kill him, so kill him! Or even though you've got seven reviewers who are all convinced your girl MUST end up with Edmund in the land of Narnia, but you've always decided it'd be Peter, then show them why it's Peter instead. Know what I mean? The key is about striking a balance between taking and using the feedback and suggestions you're getting to better your story and not letting everyone push the direction of the story, and knowing the difference between internalizing suggestions and letting the readers write the story for you.
-Show, don't tell
This is the number advice for writers everywhere and we've all heard it. It applies to fic too, because fic writing is still writing! Basically what this means is don't pour out paragraoh after paragraph of backstory, of the character's personality quirks, of why Character A is madly in love with Character B. Those things are tell. It means instead of those things, only insert slips of backstory when it's absolutely necessary and only the bare minimum. Show the character doing quirky things so we can see they have a quirky personality. Show, through actions and dialogue, that Character A loves Character B.
Tell: He was angry.
Show: He slammed his fist on the table.
This doesn't mean you should never tell, it means you should show as much as you can. "Tell" is sometimes still necessary, just limit it - readers are smart and can piece things together, can get a lot out of seeing an action rather than being told something, if that makes sense.
Summaries
Now you've got your fic written and you need a summary. Most of us struggle with summaries. They're tough to get right, b/c you only have so many words to grab a potential reader's interest. Sometimes posting what ship your story contains can help, though the downside of this is that readers who might've been intrigued by your summary won't venture in if they see a pairing they don't like. It's hard to come up with something good enough to stand out and be interesting, and sometimes when you think you have a good summary, nothing happens. And when you think you have a bad summary, you get more hits. It's inconsistent and extremely difficult to predict.
That being said, there's a handful of things that if you include in your summary, you're sure to turn many readers away.
Turn offs in summaries:
-"it's better than it sounds!" / "i suck at summaries!"
Yes, your story probably is. The problem is that there's a lot of bad writers out there who write worse summaries or don't even try, so they use the above excuse. Readers scrolling through the pages and pages of fics and are more likely to click into a story with a half-decent summary than one that simply says, "better than it sounds, trust me". If the author can't be bothered to put more effort into a summary, why should I take the time to go in and read what may or not be "better than it sounds"? If they couldn't come up with any summary, how did they manage a whole fic?
The other side of it is: if it sounds bad, maybe it is bad. Is your story an ill-concieved idea? Is it a wildly over-used plot? If it is, firstly shame on you for writing something crappy or unoriginal! ;) Fanfiction is the place to be creative so you shouldn't be doing what everyone else is doing. There are times, however, when you know you can do it better or more originally, so you do. Secondly, however, if it is that bad, don't make it sound like it. I'd wager a solid 9 times out of 10, readers are more likely to start reading if your summary does not have one of the above sentences in your summary (I'd also wager some readers can't help but be curious and will click in and do a quick skim to see what you're story's about instead - but a lot of those skimmers don't stay).
The point is to put the effort into your summary and don't just fall on back on an excuse or a promise that your story is better written than your lame summary. Maybe you feel the summary you came up with does suck. Ask for advice from someone about it. Change it later if necessary - it's not set in stone, you know.
-"my first fic" / "plz go easy one me"
We've all been there, we've all had a first fic. Seriously though, it's not best to advertise it in your summary. I know you want the reviewers to be gentle and not throw you under the bus immediately, b/c this is your first crack into this world. But don't say this in your summary, it's a big turn off and I'll tell you why.
There a few types of reviewers. One is someone who is kind and remembers their first days and is willing to give you a chance, so they click in, read, and likely give you some con-crit and advice. Two is someone who sees "first fic" and either remembers how bad their first fics are and doesn't want to read something bad, or knows that first fics are often bad (especially, for some reason, in the Harry Potter section), so they flit right past you. Third is someone with a less than kind heart who will likely stop in just to flame or scare you pick you apart and not be friendly. The third doesn't come around too terribly often, thankfully, but they are out there and seem to be more in some fandoms than others (the Harry Potter fandom is generally very forgiving of bad and/or first time writers, as it seems to be saturated those who a) don't write well either or b) find bad fics still entertaining somehow. The Lord of the Rings fandom, however, seems to be full of intellectuals and fans who care very, very deeply about their canon, so much so that you could be flamed very quickly for doing something they feel is too un-canon in any way).
While advertising this is your first fic, you may be able to attract some of the kind #1 type reviewers, but you be losing the majority which is reviewer type #2. It's fine to note that this is your first time in an author's note if you really want to, but don't put it in your summary.
-"don't flame me" / "plz be nice"
This is practically an invite for reviewer type #3 to come in and get you. They don't want to be nice and for whatever reason, they enjoy bringing others down. Begging for niceness and non-flames probably makes them more inclined to flame you just because. On top of that, reviewer #2 probably will be inclined to think that something must be wrong with story, that it must not be very good, b/c the author is pleading not to get yelled at.
-summaries full of bad grammar, typos, poor spelling, etc
I can't stress this enough. The story could be the best story in the world, but if the title or the summary is full of typos, bad grammar, poor spelling or has no capitals and punctuation where there should be, I'm not going to read the story. If the author cannot be bothered to make sure their title or summary or good enough, it makes me think that the story is not good enough either. What would you rather click in and read?
This: "cristina and mer eal with they're issues with they men"
or this: "Cristina and Meredith deal with their issues with their men."
Simple as that.
-summaries full of netspeak, excess punctuation, CAPSLOCK
It's annoying. I don't care if you talk like that on MSN/Skype or Facebook or in email, this is none of those things. Fanfiction are stories created by fans and unless there is some very good reason to include netspeak in your story (I would strongly recommend against it), it has no place anywhere, least of all in your summary.
CAPSLOCK represents yelling, and I know some authors (JK Rowling) have been known to use it, but trust when I say most readers find it annoying. There are many other ways to represent yelling and CAPSLOCK should not be one of them. If your character needs to yell, try italicizing things for emphasis, exclamation marks (only one per end-of-sentence. None of this: "Oh!!!!!".) or using dialogue tags, actions and more to get it across rather than CAPSLOCK. Like:
"I don't care what you think!" Ginny hollered.
"Good, because I don't care either!" Harry slammed his fist on the table.
"Just stop!" Hermione screeched.
-summaries talking about what's going on in your life as opposed to what's in your story
Really people? Look, I'm as guilty as the next guy for rambling, and especially for rambling irrelevantly in my author notes about my life. I'm getting better at not doing it, b/c honestly, few people care. Most people skip a/n's anyways b/c of the amount of authors who ramble irrelevantly in their a/n. But in your summary?? I've seen it several times now, where an author's summary looks something like this:
"hey all, sorry, I was gone. i was busy with my cat dying and haven't had time to work on this story. But i'm back now and everything's shiny and here is chapter 7, and it's good."
Your loyal followers/fans/friends may care - but that's what PMs, review replies, and sometimes a/n's are for. Don't put this in summary, b/c it completely discourages new people from clicking in. You're not gaining new readers like this, you're simply keeping your old ones. If you're truly happy with that, then fine. But I doubt it because the point of us posting our work is to get reviews and we LOVE reviews and LOTS of 'em. New readers see your life update, have no clue what the story's about, and have already moved on to reading the next summary. A life update is not a summary. Don't do it.
-"sorry this sucks, i have no beta" / "unbetaed b/c i was abandoned" / "no longer have a beta"
I've been seeing variations of this one popping up everywhere and it's growing to be a real pet peeve of mine. The first one where you apologize for potential suckage hardly entices me to read. If you, the author, says it's bad, why in the world would I bother to read it then? The second one annoys me more, because it makes it sound like you and your beta had an unfriendly disagreement (and maybe you did, but I, the reader passing by, certainly don't need to know about it) and now you're asking for a beta without asking. You're hoping someone who betas will see your story, click in and save you. Same with the third one. Whether this be the case or not, that's what it's projecting.
On top of that, a statement like this has no place in your summary. Summaries are about being interesting and enticing and gaining readers/reviewers. That's it. If what you're putting in your summary does not interest, entice, make people curious, or otherwise get someone to look in and actually read, it has no place being there.
-"more inside" / "better summary inside"
Obviously there's more inside. Yes, it's hard to restrict your summary to the box, but we all have to do it. Maybe you do have a better, longer more interesting summary and there's nothing wrong with posting it inside. But it's a turn-off to see the line "more inside" or "better summary inside". I don't want to have to go into the story to see what it's about, that's what the summary box is for. More often than not, readers will skip one that says "more inside" b/c honestly, we're ridiculously lazy when on the internet. If you can't grab someone's attention in under 5-10 seconds, they're gone, and they don't want to have to click back and forth to decide if a story's worth their time.
Author's Notes
Those little messages at the beginning or end (or both, or neither) of your chapter/story. Some authors feel they're totally unnecessary while other use them everytime without fail even if we really have nothing to say. To me, I find it like an opener to the next chapter and most often a spot to clarify something like specify the timeline or note that Katie Bell was supposed to be in Charms but I had to write her in Potions for the sake of the story.
-Keep it simple
I struggle with this one all the time, as a notorious rambler. It may sound harsh, but people don't care. A few do, especially some of your followers/fans or friends, but for the most part, if they see a hefty, rambly a/n, they'll skip it to get to the story. So don't talk about what exactly has kept you so busy these days, just say you've been busy and here's an update.
Tips About Reviewing
-Always, always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS review/comment!
As an author, you know how precious reviews are. You love them. You get a happy feeling burst in your stomach when you see a review sitting there in your inbox. Trust me when I say this is not exclusive to you. Every author loves reviews, whether they tell you they do or not. It's common courtesy too. If you took the time to read it, just take another thirty seconds out of your life to let them know what you thought. I don't care if you leave me one word or ten paragraphs, but just letting me know you were there is enough. There is nothing more frustrating to me than seeing a story of mine that has 5675578 hits/visitors and 3 reviews. And while I appreciate seeing that someone favorited or subscribed to my story, I would really like to know why exactly - what part did they love enough that made then favorite it? Again, as an author, you know how it feels to get a review. Leave them for others and spread the joy. ;)
-con crit, comments, compliments, questions, and flames
Those are the various types of reviews. Authors in general treasure con crits (constructive criticism) the most, so they're the best to give if you can. Some people don't find anything to crit you on, some people aren't good at critiquing, and that's totally fine. Even one word - "Nice!" "Awesome!" "Update!" - will make an author happy in a review. And of course, nobody likes a flame. Even if you read the worst story ever written, I still think it's wrong to flame them. You might say, "Well, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all..." but I challenge you on that. If this was YOUR story, wouldn't you want to know it's horrible? You wouldn't want someone to say it like that, of course, but you'd want someone to say, "Look man, you really need a beta for your grammar because it's all over the place, and you need to realize that Samwise can't fly randomly like that, because it doesn't make sense.". Be an author and a reviewer at the same time (not just strictly one or the other): leave the kinds of reviews you like to receive. If something makes no sense, point it out. Be diplomatic and honest. If you loved something, tell them!
Misc. Tips:
-Be gracious.
If someone compliments you, reply to their review and thank them. If someone calls you a friggin' idiot for screwing up canon so terribly and they think you should rot for it, reply to their review telling them that you're sorry they didn't enjoy your fic, but that you appreciate their review/feedback/input anyway. If all they say if "update", reply to their review and thank them for taking the time to leave a comment and that the next update is coming soon.
The world of fanfiction is sort of a weird cycle. You put the time and effort into writing and posting a story, the reader puts in time and effort to read your story, they should (but often don't) put the effort into leaving you feedback. You then internalize the feedback and reach out and take the time to thank them for it, good or bad. Sometimes they reply back and then you find a new friend in the fanfiction world. The nicer and gracious you are, the way you take time to give thoughtful replies - words gets around. I've had reviewers PM me a question b/c they said I come off real nice and patient. I've had reviewers tell me they were recommended to the story b/c the author was extremely pleasant. I've even talked to people who've said to me that if the author doesn't reply to their reviews, they feel like the author doesn't appreciate the reviews so they stop bothering to review. I've of course met others who find review replies annoying, so you can't win 'em all. XD
Just be thankful and pleasant = bottom line.
-Read more than you write.
Not only do you get an idea for what's out there and find some real gems, but there are many authors out there who like to return the favor. If you stop in, read and review, they'll head over to your profile to read and review in turn. So reading, in that sense, can sometimes gain you new readers/reviews.
And this advice goes for life too, hoenstly: if you want to write, read. Read books, read fic, read, read, read. Devour words. You opeen your imagination to so many new things and new worlds, and you also can see things in writing that work and don't work. You find things you want to internalize and emulate, you find things you want to avoid in your own work. Read more, read often, READ. You'll be shocked how much you can improve your own writing by reading!
-Do not EVER hold your fic for ransom
I find this to be one of the most annoying things in the entire world of fanfiction, and as I've talked to many other authors over the years, many of them agree. At the end of a story, an author will say something like, "and i'm not updating until i get at least 5 reviews!" What? Are you serious? Maybe there are some people out there who go, "Eeps, I better review!" but I guarantee you, the majority gets completely annoyed by this statement. It makes me less inclined to review and I'm sure there are plenty of people who will purposefully not review b/c you're demanding it of them. I want to review b/c I a) have something to say b) want to help you/con crit you or c) compliment you. Saying you refuse to update until I review is basically forcing me to review and that just absolutely annoys me. Just don't do it. We all want reviews and we all want lots of them. Focus on being a better writer and earning reviews instead of demanding them.
-
I'm not picking on you, I promise. ;) And not every author, reader, writer or reviewer is exactly as I discussed here - I made many generalizations. However, what I've said is based on experience. I've been writing for a long time in the fanfic world and reading just as long if not longer. Over the years I've befriended many authors and readers alike and I've had the pleasure of discussing many of these topics with them and many others, so my generalizations are based on fact.
I hope this stuff helps you in the future of ficcing. :) Happy writing!
~Red
(Edited Aug 8, 09)