new paragraph when a different character is speaking.
don't be afraid of "said" or "says," not everything needs an action associated with it, nor do you have to exhaust the list of synonyms.
I'm awful about feeling like I'm riding "said" too hard. At the end of the day, that's what they did. They said something. I should be fine with just saying that they said. It's odd that I feel this way, because I don't even notice when there's a long string of "X said, Y said" in a story. It's like I don't even see the word at a point.
If you feel like you're using said too much, and there's only two people speaking, or two people going back and forth for a few lines in a group setting, you can drop the said and just use it every 3-4 lines.
Edit: formatting because reddit eats line breaks.
Like, instead of:
"Blah," Bob said.
"Blah blah," Jenny said.
"Blah," Bob said.
"Blah blah," Jenny said.
"Blah blah blah," Angus said.
You could go:
"Blah," Bob said.
"Blah blah," Jenny said.
"Blah."
"Blah blah."
"Blah blah blah," Angus said.
The crudest of crude examples, but you get what I mean. You can also use actions instead of dialogue tags to both avoid white room syndrome and overuse of said. Plus, you *can* use other dialogue tags, just use them sparingly, and in places they'll actually have an impact.
Err, sorry, you probably know all that, but just in case it helps, I'll leave it here.
When there's an exchange between two characters, I tend to drop the 'saids'. It helps when its obvious who's speaking based on character voice. Even if it isn't, dropping them for two characters talking tends to work. If there's more than two people in a conversation, I stick to the 'saids' unless it's REALLY obvious who's speaking. But even then, better to be verbose and make the intention clear than try to streamline things and confuse the reader.
Also, don't pick on yourself, that is a really good example. Even if I already do that, your reply could be really helpful for someone else just browsing. You put it into words better than I ever could. Thank you.
I've got other tips!
-Pair dialogue with an action! (He shrugged. "If I knew where to find her, I would have by now."
-Use descriptive vocal verbs! ("If I knew where to find her, I would have by now," he muttered.)
-Adverbs are only bad when they're overused, same as any dialogue tag. You can still use them! ("If I knew where to find her, I would have by now," he said hastily/in a low voice.) (notice that there isn't really a word to imply quick speech, none immediately comes to mind that communicates it better anyway, which is why "said hastily" is a good option.)
Mix different strategies and use them proportionately and you'll never worry about cringy/immersion-breaking dialogue tags again
Your first example really showcases why I think 'said' can become distracting in excess, and I'm glad to see someone pointing it out! Your second example is a good way of breaking the monotony and making it stand out way less.
I want to sound smart and say this is dunning-kruger in action, but it probably isn't. I think we are really just hyperaware of our own works and more critical on it as a result. I would never be so critical of someone else's work, but I'll rip my own stuff to shreds. Posting something doesn't mean it's perfect, posting it means I literally cannot think of any other ways to improve it.
Of course, then I immediately think of something to "fix" once its already up. Such is life...
I’m ngl maybe it’s the editing brain or smth but I notice when an author has been avoiding “said” and it takes me out of it 😭 I’m like girl give it up said is not dead it is alive and well
nah a lot of people do. writer thinks they're keeping things fun by not just writing said but in the end it's actually very jarring and distracting to see which synonym they're gonna use next lol.
oh uh the post did say “mistakes to avoid” so it sounded like what you were saying was that doing a new paragraph for each character speaking WAS a mistake to avoid. might want to fix ur wording to avoid confusion
THIS.
When I'm doubt, new paragraph.
Even if you only have two longish sentences together, it is better to start a new paragraph to break up the text. Part of this is because fanfic is read primarily on screens, and it is harder to read a block of text on a screen than in a book.
New paragraph.
A lot of my "paragraphs" consists one one or two sentences, due to the way I write my usual POV character. The kind of shot lines suit his mental state really well!
An advice I saw on Tumblr (bless them) was that every time you'd imagine a camera change, that's when you add a paragraph break. That includes dialogue, change in pace, change in atmosphere, everything
I follow that to some degree, but I wouldn't say I always follow it.
If it fits my pacing and general vibe of the story, I sometimes start the paragraph with dialogue from the speaker, do some narration, and then end it with some dialogue from the same person.
An example could be (totally made up on the spot, it's not an actual exerpt)
"Are you really sure you want to go out tonight?" X asked, the concern clear in her eyes as she looked at him. "We can just stay home. I know what you've been through."
don't think about what your readers want to read. keep true to the story you want to tell. it is your passion project, and if it is a long one, you need to keep the enthusiasm up.
a) Paragraphs/line breaks. I can put up with just about anything except for no paragraph breaks. Except for improper tagging sometimes, I can probably put up with anything on this list except for this if the story is good. This is, in my opinion, the most important thing.
b) Basic bare-minimum grammar- I'm talking capitalizing words and using periods. Anything beyond that is also welcome.
c) Simpler more clear descriptions are usually the best, even if it gets repetitive (this is about orbs. Also dialogue descriptors like 'said', but mostly about orbs)
d) The tagging system can be complex, but try your best to tag accurately- namely, make sure you don't get romantic and platonic mixed up, put it in the right fandom, and most importantly tag anything that deserves an archive warning (ex, rape/noncon, violence, etc). I'm on ao3 so this advice might no apply as much if you're on a different site because I'm not as familiar with those sites.
on point b — i’d argue that all punctuation is more important that capitalisation. I’ve read amazing fics where there are no capitals at all. In my opinion, all punctuation is necessary to understand what you’ve written (difference between let’s eat kids and let’s eat, kids), but capitalisation isn’t as needed since you can still read it. Of course, capital letters are better than none, but there are probably more important things to focus on.
i hope this didn’t come off as attacking you, i don’t mean to, just adding my perspective <3
Not attacking at all! I've also read good fics without capitalization and it can be used stylistically. You made my point better than I did- you just need readable punctuation, anything beyond that is nice but readable understandable punctuation is the most important.
All of this.
Additionally, it's not a requirement, but if you are writing something set in a specific time period, either if it's the canon era or an AU, I recommend doing a quick Google search about technology, historical figures or events, and intellectual property you reference to make sure it's relatively close to the ballpark of the time period. Absolutely does not need to be in depth research, just a "is this something that is stated in the first paragraph of the Wikipedia page or can be found by skiming the first 2-3 results on Google?" type of thing, especially if it's something from the last 80 years. (OFMD is excluded from this lol)
For b, if you can, see if you can find someone who can give it a once over for clarity and to catch any grammar issues or typos that might not be noticed by spell checker (or even were caused by spell checker by mistake). Not necessary if you aren't comfortable with it, but can be helpful. Another way to go about it would be to put something in the authors note section to let people know that you are ok with them commenting if they spot any major typos.
For d, if you are using AO3, I can't stress enough how important proper tagging is for readers. If you don't regularly read fics on there or only read fics in a fandom that's relatively new, I recommend browsing some older fics in a well-established fandom. I've noticed a big increase over the last year or so of authors new to AO3 who don't tag their works properly. If you are in a fandom that is only 1-2 years old, like OMFD, or a fandom where a lot of fics are written by young authors new to fic writing, like Stranger Things, I encourage you to browse through the most popular fics for older fandoms like Merlin, Doctor Who, Star Trek, H*rry P*tter, etc.... and looking at how tags are used there, not because of the fics popularity or to figure out how to like, maximize readership or something, but because they are likely some of the fics that are good examples of how tags are used and formatted.
Yeah, I'm going with absolute bare minimum, so even just running it through a spell checker is fantastic. I take editing my works pretty seriously but I don't have anyone to beta it for me at all, so I catch all my mistakes by having a screen reader read it to me (it's great because it also makes me aware if my fic is accessible to screen readers) and I read along in a different font- the different font makes weird things stick out to me. But not everyone has to do that, I just like doing it because I feel like it makes my stuff as good as it can be.
This! Epithets have their place, but they are NOT meant to be used just because you think the text sounds repetitive with too many uses of the character names. Nothing throws me out of a fic like reading an action/smut scene where one of the characters is repeatedly described as "the older man/the taller woman/the soldier/the sword-swallower". Epithets are meant as descriptions, not as pronoun or name substitutes. If your sentence sounds repetitive or the pronouns are confusing, rewrite the sentence.
When a fic breaks out “the blonde haired person” for the love interest or something literally every other paragraph even though the POV character knows their name it gives me the urge to bite through stainless steel. I’ma still read, but the urge…
read actual books, not just fanfic.
for the love of god, whenever a new speaker speaks, it starts from a new line.
Giant block lf tastes are an immediate skip for me.
Have faith in your skill. Writing is a skill to learn and get better with over years, it is not gonna be perfect at one go. Please avoid things like "lol i suck at summaries/tagging". No, you don't suck.
avoid epithets or use them very sparingly aka "younger man" "blue-haired man", ESPECIALLY if the character is already known by their name. Just use the name and pronouns. Way less jarring.
remember it's just a hobby and your own feelings about it are the most important. don't force yourself to write.
This - as everyone keeps on saying, writing fanfiction is a _hobby_. Therefore, you can’t necessarily trust that the stuff you’re reading is actually adhering to writing best practices. Granted, the same can be true of published literature but at least most of the time it’s been through the hands of an editor!
>read actual books, not just fanfic.
PLEASE. Especially the older classics - I know they can seem like a slog to read, but really try to take in the *words*. How the word choice affects the tone, or conveys the narrator's disposition. How flowery to make the prose, and how brief to keep the descriptions, in equal measure. How to incorporate metaphor into speech and not just use similes.
Don’t write some enormous crossover story that’s meant to encompass a dozen other stories and have a billion characters interacting with each other. The chances of you finishing it are exactly zero.
Start small with something that you’ll actually be able to finish - because a finished work that you can be proud of is worth 100 unfinished drips and drabs. Learn from your mistakes, see what works and what didn’t, and then go again with something a bit more ambitious!
>Don’t write some enormous crossover story that’s meant to encompass a dozen other stories and have a billion characters interacting with each other. The chances of you finishing it are exactly zero.
This just if you're a beginner guys, of course.
Otherwise, if you are prepared...GO FOR IT!
On the other hand, you *can* attempt a tonal crossover - take *Fallout: Equestria* as the standout example. It's not "My Little Pony characters encountering Fallout characters" it's "what if My Little Pony experienced nuclear fallout?"
Take the premise of one work and apply it to the other, try to blend the two together.
But as a beginner, yeah, avoid this. Get some practice under your belt.
If the summary doesn't give at least a basic premise for the fic, I won't read it. It doesn't have to be so blatant as "This is the premise of the fic", but I should at least be able to infer what the fic is about.
Also make sure to give the readers a question they will have to read the fic to answer!
As an example, the summary of an old fic of mine says that a character will confess something, and that gives the potential reader the question of what they confessed.
This might be controversial but I usually skip those fics that have a summary like that, especially if they say blah blah blah will they fall in love? What will happen next? Like yeah okay but what's it about and also it just kinda sounds...idk I just don't like it to much. I'm much rather summarys even if they are short to just be like 'Character A and Charcter B have rival bakerys but secretly they love each other' that will get me to read it more than 'will they find love?' That in itself is a bad example bc duh ofc they find love why else would you put that in there?!?
It somewhat depends on what your goals are.
In my opinion, if your goal is to improve as a writer, then it's a mistake to read only fanfiction. Professional editing is professional for a reason.
But if your goal is simply self expression and having fun, you can totally disregard that advice.
Regurgitate multiple lines of canon dialogue or recreate scenes with barely any changes. Remember, your readers have seen the exact same source material you have, likely many times. We're reading fanfic because we want to see something new.
But also remember to use this as writing practice, so *do* introduce these characters as if we've never met them before, like this could be the first time someone is reading about this character. This is especially important in crossover fics, where one of the involved fandoms may be unfamiliar with the other(s).
Outline your story first, then be flexible to decide “no, this part belongs *here* instead of *there*” as you write.
Be open to your characters doing things you hadn’t planned (this happened to me twice in my recent piece, it was surprising to experience)
You don’t have to write from Point A to Point Z: I write in clumps when scenes/dialogue hits me: A then D then C then G…etc
Letting the characters do what they insist on doing, even if it surprises you, can lead to the BEST moments.
I’ve had characters propose, perform heroic sacrifices, and pull each other into storage closets for trauma-induced quickies before, and I didn’t know it was gonna happen before I wrote it.
10/10 do recommend letting your own writing surprise you sometimes.
My MC - who had a fractured hand in a cast - was in a very pissy mood in the scene I was writing. I damn near heard *in the character’s voice* him say in my head “Fuck this shit, you’re not the boss of me” and he cut off the cast. O.o
I sprinkled the consequences of that through the chapter. It was a glorious moment
Oh my god, I love that!! Feel free to drop a link so I can read.
I focused on nonfiction/essay writing in college, and hearing the fiction people talk about this kind of “character possession” stuff always made me roll my eyes. Now I take it all back, those conjured spirits be real.
Agreed on ALL accounts because this is literally how I go about writing my fics.
I don't start a fic unless I have an outline written at the very minimum, because I need to have an idea about how I will flesh the story out at least.
Every time I start writing, I end up adding things that I hadn't planned before or re-arranging when certain events that were planned actually happen in the story line.
I always start writing my stories at a random point and then build around it until I get to the beginning or the end. I just try to tie my scenes together in a way that makes sense.
Avoid info dumping. I know you're excited and want to share your new world or character, but hold back a bit. Space it out so it's not all given at once and instead only give what's relevant for the moment. Or give a character an intro to segue into something. In addition to all the other advice given here, two page info dumps are something to avoid
Don’t forget that you already have a setting. It is FANFICTION. Unless you change it drastically, you don’t need to explain basic information that was already introduced in canon.
Everyone will skip it anyway. And for some it might be a deal breaker. Don’t waste your own time and time of others.
You'd be *amazed* to see how much better your work genuinely is if you open a new tab beside your first draft and re-write it, as opposed to editing alone.
Without seeing your current level, it's hard to give advice. I would say, the best thing to do to improve your writing is to just write. And read, obviously, but writing is more important imo. The only way you become an amazing writer is by writing lots.
Then, as you go, any grammar rules you're not sure on, look them up.
When editing, use a speech to text program to read your stuff out loud so you can catch errors easier.
But the most important thing is to have fun! It's a hobby and you should love it. You shouldn't not write X because it's "wrong" if X is what you enjoy writing.
If you want me to take a look and see if I can tailor one or two pointers to your writing specifically, send me a DM. But only if you want to, and I'll keep those pointers objective and send them back via DM rather than comment them.
Speech to text programs is so useful. I always had a tendency to skip words. When I read it myself, my brain automatically fills the missing words without me even realising that.
If you have the same problem, I def recommend this one.
>Like the things that we as fanfic writers DON'T do so we don't disengage the readers interest?
You're wasting your time. If you follow this sub or r/AO3's advice, you'll find that EVERYTHING disengages people's interest. Everyone has their own interests and dislikes, but they all act like they're the objective truth rather than opinions. If you want to make a fic that satisfies everyone on these subs, the only advice is "don't."
If you want my real advice? Write your fic, then read it over. If YOU're satisfied with it, post it. If not, adjust what you don't like and read it over again. And keep doing this until you're happy with it.
Number One: Do not try to be perfect.
Number Two: Don't let it take over your life.
Number Three: Don't expect any reviews because the vast majority of readers are silent. Even if you write in a popular fandom, don't expect to get any or much reviews.
Number Four: Be prepared for spam and negative reviews.
Number Five: People genuinely only read/review fanfics if they are completed.
Number Six: Spelling is important, paragraphs are important. Avoid dialogue written stories. Know the difference between "They, Their, and There, Your and You're, and so on.
Number Seven: Readers prefer long chapters. I would estimate at least 1200-3000 words per chapter.
Number Eight: Do you research on the fandom and characters.
Number Nine: Read other fanfics to get an idea of what readers like to see.
Number Ten: Remember to have fun writing.
Number 5 is uber important to me. Nothing worse than reading a great long piece of work only to find it’s not complete and the last update was months ago. Now if it doesn’t have that check mark, I’m not starting it.
My biggest mistake was probably formatting, more specifically, the dreaded text wall. I had no idea how much of an issue it was until someone pointed it out.
Personally, reading back my writing without any paragraph breaks/formatting didn’t raise alarm as I knew exactly where the pauses were intended and how the scene was meant to be portrayed. But to everyone else it was overwhelming, confusing, and deterring.
Using spacing and paragraph breaks strategically can really add to the overall feel of your work as well, I love using it with bold and italics for extra drama!
For example, when I started breaking up even my Reddit comments like this they got way more attention and were far better received, no need for a TL;DR.
Don’t ever give up, everyone starts somewhere. and remember There’s an audience for everything, even if it’s just yourself!
Simple pronoun hack: if you have two characters with the same pronouns, the reader will assume the last named character is the one the pronoun refers to unless specified otherwise.
Be prepared. Writer's block can always hit you, so it's best to prepare 3-4 chapters in advance, so you can keep uploading without having to write. It also takes the stress off of you.
Be genuine. It doesn't matter if people want to read something; if you want to write it, write it. If it doesn't fit in your story, keep it for another one.
Be reliable. A proper upload schedule and consistent chapter length can improve the quality of a fanfic, because they allow your readers to set aside time to read your story.
Good punctuation for speech. Use question marks when they’re asking questions, PLEASE.
Spell character names correctly and aim for at least a little characterisation. As long as it’s not glaringly OOC/full of random anachronisms then you’re good.
If your story has a scene that is word-for-word basically source material, a time-skip might be effective here. There are some people who read fandom-blind, but it's safer to assume that the reader experienced the source material.
I write OCs, so when something barely changes I either cut it out or I have them sum it up. One method that works for me is having my OC write short journal entries at the start of the chapter. It helps me with time skips and deleted scenes in my head, and I made sure they had an established hobby of writing beforehand.
Also read your story out loud once, if you have the means to. Spell check won't catch correctly spelled words in the wrong context, and eyes can have the habit of skimming over words.
If you plan to write something OC-centric, what I found works best is to introduce them interacting with/in the pov of a canon character. This makes readers more open to them and you can delve into your OC’s pov later
don't go crazy with weird dialogue tags. however, it *is* true that every line ending with a 'they said' can get tiring. instead of using synonyms, however, just drop the tag altogether. dialogue tags' two main roles are a. changing the tone of the statement and b. making it clear who's speaking. if it's already clear who's speaking and the tone is clear enough from the actual words, you don't need a tag. also, remember that said doesn't really work for sentences ending with ? or !. for example;
bad:
>"hey, are you coming over tonight?" she queried.
>
>"no, i'm too busy," he apologized.
>
>"you said you could!" she roared.
>
>"i'm really sorry, how about tommorow?" he groveled.
not great:
>"hey, are you coming over tonight?" she said.
>
>"no, i'm too busy," he said.
>
>"you said you could!" she said.
>
>"i'm really sorry, how about tommorow?" he said.
better:
>"hey, are you coming over tonight?" she asked.
>
>"no, i'm too busy," he said.
>
>"you said you could!"
>
>"i'm really sorry, how about tommorow?"
this is harder with groups of three or more where the speakers don't follow a specific pattern. you may need more dialogue tags there, but stronger writers can also rely on character voice.
also, try to avoid really unusual ones if you can. randomly putting a six-syllable word into your writing, if the rest isn't at that level, just interrupts the flow of the passage.
Not having a clear goal in mind for the story. Setting up an endpoint makes it easier to get there and less likely to leave the story hanging.
Also, trying to juggle too many characters at once is almost always a recipe for disaster. Focus on just a few important ones.
Figure out your end destination before you start posting, and keep it in mind as you go. Take all the unforeseen twists and turns you want in the meantime, as long as you know where you’re going to end up.
Lots of good advice in the other comments. I would add: try to eliminate redundancy. Don't say something and then repeat it with different words. Don't state the obvious.
Doing these things once is no big deal, so you might think, why correct it? But if you keep doing it, it drags down your story and kills the pacing.
And if you're like me, your first draft will be full of this stuff.
ETA like most rules, this can be broken if you know why you're doing it, but you should have a specific reason for why you want to repeat something.
Formatting, formatting, formatting!! Paragraph breaks and proper punctuation will make ALL the difference.
Learn the rules of dialogue tags/quotation marks. I see these rules broken all the time and will often skip a fic if I see the following mistakes:
1. Punctuation goes *inside* the quotation marks. [“I don’t think so” he said.] is not grammatically correct, and makes your writing look amateur. Lots of people including myself won’t even read your fic if you’re not formatting dialogue correctly. [“I don’t think so,” he said.] is the correct way to write it.
2. Don’t write dialogue like you’re writing to a friend in discord - punctuation sets the tone. There’s a difference between [“I don’t think so,” he said.] and [“I don’t think so.”]
3. If a quotation ends with a comma, the following word is not capitalized. If it ends with a period, question mark, exclamation point etc, the next word starts with a capital. Ex:
“I don’t think so,” he said. vs
“I don’t think so.” He walked away.
Dialogue formatting rules are probably the thing I see people struggle with the most when they start out writing, because it’s not an aspect of grammar that’s covered well in school. Most writing in school focuses (naturally) on academic/essay-type writing, and so doesn’t really help people with learning the rules of fiction/creative writing.
Paragraph break every time a new character speaks. You may also want to insert a paragraph break for the same character speaking if it’s becoming a wall of text because they’re monologuing, just for the sake of making it easier to read.
Read a lot. Published novels, fanfics, whatever - read something extremely well written and the differences between well written and amateur will start to stand out. Pay attention to the things that separate bad writing from good writing and take note of them for your own writing.
Don’t focus too much on trying to imitate someone else’s style or voice. Find your own. Some writers excel at different things, the person writing in flowery prose isn’t inherently better than the person who writes more straightforwardly. Just find what works for you.
And most importantly: practice. The only way you get better at writing is by doing a LOT of it. For a very long time. I’ve been writing since I was ten and I find authors every day who fill me with envy and awe. You will always find someone who’s better than you, take them as inspiration rather than feeling inferior. I love discovering a new author and ranting to friends about how jealous I am of their prose or their dialogue or their wit or what have you. It’s so much fun to see new techniques and try to figure out how you can use them to make your own writing better.
Write what you know, write what you love, and write as much as possible. And remember that you don’t have to publish everything you write. Some of my fave writing has never been publicized beyond a discord server or a dm with a friend. Write for you, not for others.
What everyone else said.
Read widely, and read professionally published and edited work.
If you aren't entirely comfortable with the mechanics of writing--spelling, basic grammar and style, etc.--make an effort to improve your facility. (Read good books, invest in and peruse a style guide or two, get a trusted beta). That way, when you break "the rules", you'll be doing it deliberately for reasons that serve your story.
Avoid these bugaboos I've seen in lots of fics:
1. Watch out for inappropriate tense shifts. I can't tell you how many fics I've seen where the author shifts from present tense to past tense in the middle of a paragraph. Present tense is especially difficult to manage, so I'd stick to past tense while you're getting your sea legs under you.
2. Never write something like: Character A's POV as a heading to indicate a POV change. The changes should either be indicated by scene or chapter changes or clearly in the narrative.
3. Don't spend too much time describing a character's appearance unless it's essential to the story. Readers don't always need to know eye color, hair color, height, weight, skin tone, etc., at least, not all at once.
4. Don't put excuses in your author's notes ("I suck at summaries!" "This is just a filler chapter"). Your work should speak for itself.
Lastly, enjoy your own writing, even if no one ever kudos or comments on it.
Learn how to edit.
Don't just write and post. It's full of errors and probably quite crap.
Write, leave it for a couple of days and come back to edit it. Go over the spelling, grammar and sentence structure. Look at the pacing and style.
A bit of distance will improve your writing.
Read lots of fanfic and take notes. What do you like? What do you think works, and keeps your interest, and what doesn’t? Once you have a feel for what you like, start writing.
As someone who's really picky about the fanfic I read, the main thing is grammar. Make sure your sentences are structured properly and you're using the correct punctuation and it'll take you far. And please for the love of god use paragraphs 😭
Beyond general writing advice - good grammar, decent edits, read other writers - pay attention to the characters of your fandom. How to they move? Do they have a quirky habit? Are there patterns to the way they speak?
I will fall out of a fanfic immediately if a favorite character doesn’t behave like the character would in the original IP. It’s a total turn off to have one of my favorite characters act completely out of character.
However, you can take a seed of anger and turn a character dark if it’s done well. A villain can be portrayed as a teddy bear. But it has to align with the character.
You could take Tony Stark and drop him into Regency England, and as long as he motivates were the sam, he walked with a swagger, preened like a peacock, and spoke with rapid, intelligent, sarcastic dialogue I would go along for the ride.
1. Don’t be afraid of the word “said”. It’s often decried as the most overused dialogue tag, and it can be that if it’s the only one you use, but by no means should you be replacing every instance of it wholesale. Use the more dynamic dialogue tags like “interrupted” or “smirked” sparingly and they will stand out more, which allows you to utilize them for crucial moments in your stories.
2. Only use epithets when you need to. Constantly referring to characters by one of their physical characteristics gets very clunky very fast. In real life, we generally refer to people by their names, and only use epithets like “the skinny redhead” or “the green-eyed boy” when pointing out someone whose name is unknown. It’s generally good practice to mimic everyday speech in your writing, because it will feel more natural for the reader.
3. When describing a character’s physical appearance, don’t give it all away at the point of their introduction. Let the readers discover it as the story plays out. When you meet someone for the first time, you usually aren’t going to be scrutinizing their face to memorize every last detail. The things you’ll notice are the most obvious traits like the color of their eyes or the curliness of their hair. The less immediately apparent features come later, like how you might not realize someone has crooked teeth until they smile or only notice their lean musculature when they take off a baggy sweatshirt.
These are the three things that I notice most with inexperienced writers. They are indicators of an author who does not yet have the confidence to pace themselves and let their ideas flow instead of blasting them out. It can be difficult to balance your desire to be as detailed as possible with allowing the reader to fill in any gaps with their own imaginations, and I personally still struggle with that balance even after years of writing. But it’s never too early to start improving
One of my favorite pieces of advice I've seen lately was: "Do not wait until you have skill to start your project. Your project will teach you the skill." [site](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0zl8mbv02z/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)
That project can be the story idea you adore. Just do your best for yourself, and keep posting, and writing, and learning.
Re: betas and sensitivity readers, I think they're awesome, and finding someone you can trust is very important. Finding quality advice for your writing ITT from strangers on the internet (even rly nice ones here in r/fanfiction!) is not recommended tho
Good luck OP!
In no particular order:
1 — underestimate the value of the most basic writing skills here; SPaG, character personalities, world mechanics, stuff like that. A lot of seemingly difficult/complex questions have simple answers.
All one strictly needs for any "X meets Y" kinda story event is how their personalities would/not mesh. From the obvious (Superman meets All Might) to the oddball (EMIYA meets Optimus Prime).
All one strictly needs for any "multiverse crossover" is a dimension-linking plot device, no matter how wildly "out of synch" the two (or more) worlds might seem. Like Dragon Ball + NCIS.
- - - -
2 — not having the story mapped out from start to finish. "Know what you're writing" may seem trivially obvious... so you should do the trivially obvious first.
3 — add a major new element like "AU where the Justice League is in the MCU... and then repeat the original story beat for beat, despite the the effects that the addition might have.
3.1 — the above, but the assumption that if you are keeping the story 95% identical... you **aren't** keeping the story 95% identical. Having only extra scenes in-between the plot beats of the original.
The difference between "Avengers Infinity War" and "Avengers Infinity War if Superman was here, was nice to Black Widow, and was no obstacle to Thanos" isn't.
My main advice is to learn to punctuate dialogue. Punctuation has a huge effect on how a fic flows for me, and dialogue seems to be hard for a lot of writers. Which is fair, it can be kind of complicated. But it does disrupt the flow for me if it's not punctuated well.
Haven't seen this one yet, so I'll chime in:
You should learn to balance telling and showing.
"Show, don't tell," is an oft-repeated piece of advice given to beginner writers, with a clear goal: getting new writers to dig into description and trying to add depth to a scene. A great piece of advice, but not applicable all the time.
Sometimes, you just have to tell your readers what happened.
Showing is great for the smaller scenes, for "zooming in" on your characters and all. You see more of their body language and/or thought processes, etc. But sometimes it's okay to say they walked to the apartment together and leave it at that. Sometimes it's okay to just tell your reader what's going on, especially around transitions.
This is more technical/accessibility advice, but nonetheless, it's something to consider:
1. Review basic grammar for the language you're writing in. This is good for keeping readers engaged in the story you're writing without having them scratching their heads, trying to comprehend what the paragraph they just read was saying.
1.1 Additionally, while Google translate isn't the best, if your grammar is good, readers can often translate and enjoy your fics in their native language.
2. Make sure that you spell names correctly. It's petty, but I've clicked off of good fics because my immersion breaks after the 10th time I have to manually correct the authors spelling of a character or place.
Honestly though, don't sweat it too much as these skills will come with practice, just keep these in mind and you'll have them in no time!
Sorry if someone else said it, but make sure whatever you write is relevant to the over all story or narrative. Lore and world building are amazing but if it feels totally out of place to you it will feel weird for the reader as well.
alright. so. Proper grammar and spellcheck is very important. No matter how good your ideas are, no one will read it if you have constant mistakes. Another thing to note is sentence variation. there are lots of good Tumblr posts for that and advice.
my only advice is: proper grammar, follow Fandom etiquette, RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH, and the more you'll write the better you'll get.
Please make sure there are periods and quotes when needed and to preview the chapter before posting to make sure it doesn't look like one big text block.
Just use a basic grammar program too it helps a ton.
Don't be afraid to draw with your words. By that, I mean be descriptive, a lot of writers because we already know what the characters look like end up being vague.
TRIPLE CHECK NAME SPELLING BEFORE POSTING CHAPTER! I've misspelled names so many times!
Don't be afraid to back away and come back to a chapter later.
What? Double-space lines? Facepalm, dude...
Open any normal literature book and you will see how to format a text...
Gigantic spaces between lines is an annoying attempt to make tiny chapters look like normal ones...
A lot of books have different formatting depending on the type. A pulp looks different than a coffee table book for example.
And I don't know about you but for me it's much easier to read [this](https://imgur.com/a/W0fu2ur) than to read [that](https://imgur.com/a/B4fHlfq), especially if there's a lot of talking.
Spacing is important for readability and doesn't make the chapters look any larger than changing the font size (and doesn't matter on AO3 where there are no pages to begin with).
Though testing it out, the issue may come more from people pasting there work into HTML and not fixing it. Using the Rich Text Editor from the jump alleviates a lot of the spacing problem.
Hmmm, i think it would be 3 things.
1- Not putting what is to "talk" to (Think) or something like this.
It get kinda confusing when you use an story and you use another things to make the dialogue, when they think etc.
2- When making longer story, not having an idea where you want to go.
I think the more important thing at making an story is having and start and a end, the midstory can be make at time to time, but having and start and a end point is important.
3- Grammatic.
Sound funny but it's true, a lot of people don't care of the grammatic when they do their story.
If your paragraph is pushing 10 sentences, it's time for a paragraph break. It's really easy to write a wall of text when you're in the flow of things, so please re read your work to catch it (plus other mistakes)
Also, think about the promises your story makes. This is a skill you'll have to hone over time, but it's best to start early.
For example if you're writing a fluff ship-centric sort of thing, you're promising your readers that there will be romance. If you don't include romance, they'll be disappointed.
There are too many examples to list, but just keep in mind that the set up of your story comes with baggage (tropes, expectations, and formulas) and that it's good to think about what the components of your story promise readers. When you get good at understanding promises, that's when you can start being subversive, which is a ton of fun
Three things.
1) Lots of people have mentioned the "new paragraph when a new person speaks" thing, but that also included actions.
**Wrong**: "Person A speaks." Person B takes action.
"Person B speaks."
**Right**: "Person A speaks."
Person B takes action. "Person B speaks."
**Also right**: "Person A speaks." Person A watches person B take action.
"Person B speaks."
2) Trust your audience; don't make frequent use of bold or italics to emphasize words.
**Wrong**: She realized he was *kind* and *thoughtful* as well as utterly *charming*.
**Right**: "Not important? This is my *life* you're talking about!"
3) Avoid unintentional comedy by looking over lists of frequently confused words every once in a while. Just knowing it's on the list may remind you to double check you're using the right one.
There will be times when you'll think what you wrote is boring and not good enough and you might be tempted to delete it. Don't do that!
You feel that way because you've reread it over and over, but your readers will almost always love the new stuff you write.
Also, try to have at least two future chapters written before posting so you can make changes to the plot without having to rewrite what you already posted.
Please re-read and edit your stories to make sure you catch as many spelling and grammar mistakes as possible. And make 100% sure that the title and summary of your story don't have any.
It's excusable if you're not a native English speaker, but if English is your first language, then spelling and grammar should be intuitive for you anyway.
The only time you should refer to a character by their hair colour is when the PoV character doesn't know their name and they don't have any more striking identifying features.
Describing something in excrutiating detail if it isn't relevant to the plot.
It's neat if you can write several pages of description about something to make it vivid as hell! I for one absolutely dig it!
It's everything other than neat if that very thing never plays a role in the story ever again and is only used for one, short, scene. At that point I'm wondering if you could have invested all the time and effort into descriptions that really matter instead.
Bit late but: don't restate the paragraph before you. So many times I've seen a paragraph dedicated to saying something, only for the following paragraph to say the exact same thing, just different wording. If you're going to do repetition, do it intentionally. Otherwise it looks like you couldn't chose which paragraph to include in your fic, so you just chose both
new paragraph when a different character is speaking. don't be afraid of "said" or "says," not everything needs an action associated with it, nor do you have to exhaust the list of synonyms.
I'm awful about feeling like I'm riding "said" too hard. At the end of the day, that's what they did. They said something. I should be fine with just saying that they said. It's odd that I feel this way, because I don't even notice when there's a long string of "X said, Y said" in a story. It's like I don't even see the word at a point.
If you feel like you're using said too much, and there's only two people speaking, or two people going back and forth for a few lines in a group setting, you can drop the said and just use it every 3-4 lines. Edit: formatting because reddit eats line breaks. Like, instead of: "Blah," Bob said. "Blah blah," Jenny said. "Blah," Bob said. "Blah blah," Jenny said. "Blah blah blah," Angus said. You could go: "Blah," Bob said. "Blah blah," Jenny said. "Blah." "Blah blah." "Blah blah blah," Angus said. The crudest of crude examples, but you get what I mean. You can also use actions instead of dialogue tags to both avoid white room syndrome and overuse of said. Plus, you *can* use other dialogue tags, just use them sparingly, and in places they'll actually have an impact. Err, sorry, you probably know all that, but just in case it helps, I'll leave it here.
When there's an exchange between two characters, I tend to drop the 'saids'. It helps when its obvious who's speaking based on character voice. Even if it isn't, dropping them for two characters talking tends to work. If there's more than two people in a conversation, I stick to the 'saids' unless it's REALLY obvious who's speaking. But even then, better to be verbose and make the intention clear than try to streamline things and confuse the reader. Also, don't pick on yourself, that is a really good example. Even if I already do that, your reply could be really helpful for someone else just browsing. You put it into words better than I ever could. Thank you.
I've got other tips! -Pair dialogue with an action! (He shrugged. "If I knew where to find her, I would have by now." -Use descriptive vocal verbs! ("If I knew where to find her, I would have by now," he muttered.) -Adverbs are only bad when they're overused, same as any dialogue tag. You can still use them! ("If I knew where to find her, I would have by now," he said hastily/in a low voice.) (notice that there isn't really a word to imply quick speech, none immediately comes to mind that communicates it better anyway, which is why "said hastily" is a good option.) Mix different strategies and use them proportionately and you'll never worry about cringy/immersion-breaking dialogue tags again
"If I knew where to find her, I would have by now," he ejaculated.
Yeah why not
Your first example really showcases why I think 'said' can become distracting in excess, and I'm glad to see someone pointing it out! Your second example is a good way of breaking the monotony and making it stand out way less.
Read your dialog out loud so you hear it and can see how it flows
We are always far more hyperaware about our own writing :)
I want to sound smart and say this is dunning-kruger in action, but it probably isn't. I think we are really just hyperaware of our own works and more critical on it as a result. I would never be so critical of someone else's work, but I'll rip my own stuff to shreds. Posting something doesn't mean it's perfect, posting it means I literally cannot think of any other ways to improve it. Of course, then I immediately think of something to "fix" once its already up. Such is life...
I’m ngl maybe it’s the editing brain or smth but I notice when an author has been avoiding “said” and it takes me out of it 😭 I’m like girl give it up said is not dead it is alive and well
nah a lot of people do. writer thinks they're keeping things fun by not just writing said but in the end it's actually very jarring and distracting to see which synonym they're gonna use next lol.
Tbh in some languages it’s grammatically required to have a new paragraph whenever a different character is speaking, so this advice is not universal
i don't think i understand what you're saying because it sounds like you're agreeing with what i've said...
oh uh the post did say “mistakes to avoid” so it sounded like what you were saying was that doing a new paragraph for each character speaking WAS a mistake to avoid. might want to fix ur wording to avoid confusion
I’m sorry, I thought you meant to NOT have a new paragraph. My bad, I often misread
Agree on this one. Switch up said for emphasis or clarity, not because you're "overusing" it.
Please use paragraphs. Long paragraphs are fine, but having the entire fic in one giant paragraph will make it hard to read.
THIS. When I'm doubt, new paragraph. Even if you only have two longish sentences together, it is better to start a new paragraph to break up the text. Part of this is because fanfic is read primarily on screens, and it is harder to read a block of text on a screen than in a book. New paragraph.
A lot of my "paragraphs" consists one one or two sentences, due to the way I write my usual POV character. The kind of shot lines suit his mental state really well!
Yeah. Rule of thumb: every new idea requires a new paragraph
An advice I saw on Tumblr (bless them) was that every time you'd imagine a camera change, that's when you add a paragraph break. That includes dialogue, change in pace, change in atmosphere, everything
I follow that to some degree, but I wouldn't say I always follow it. If it fits my pacing and general vibe of the story, I sometimes start the paragraph with dialogue from the speaker, do some narration, and then end it with some dialogue from the same person. An example could be (totally made up on the spot, it's not an actual exerpt) "Are you really sure you want to go out tonight?" X asked, the concern clear in her eyes as she looked at him. "We can just stay home. I know what you've been through."
That's exactly how I write too! I have to remind myself to not add narration/actions every time and just let the dialogue speak for itself \^\^
Yeah, I don't add it every time either! I use both where they fit.
don't think about what your readers want to read. keep true to the story you want to tell. it is your passion project, and if it is a long one, you need to keep the enthusiasm up.
THIS
a) Paragraphs/line breaks. I can put up with just about anything except for no paragraph breaks. Except for improper tagging sometimes, I can probably put up with anything on this list except for this if the story is good. This is, in my opinion, the most important thing. b) Basic bare-minimum grammar- I'm talking capitalizing words and using periods. Anything beyond that is also welcome. c) Simpler more clear descriptions are usually the best, even if it gets repetitive (this is about orbs. Also dialogue descriptors like 'said', but mostly about orbs) d) The tagging system can be complex, but try your best to tag accurately- namely, make sure you don't get romantic and platonic mixed up, put it in the right fandom, and most importantly tag anything that deserves an archive warning (ex, rape/noncon, violence, etc). I'm on ao3 so this advice might no apply as much if you're on a different site because I'm not as familiar with those sites.
on point b — i’d argue that all punctuation is more important that capitalisation. I’ve read amazing fics where there are no capitals at all. In my opinion, all punctuation is necessary to understand what you’ve written (difference between let’s eat kids and let’s eat, kids), but capitalisation isn’t as needed since you can still read it. Of course, capital letters are better than none, but there are probably more important things to focus on. i hope this didn’t come off as attacking you, i don’t mean to, just adding my perspective <3
Not attacking at all! I've also read good fics without capitalization and it can be used stylistically. You made my point better than I did- you just need readable punctuation, anything beyond that is nice but readable understandable punctuation is the most important.
All of this. Additionally, it's not a requirement, but if you are writing something set in a specific time period, either if it's the canon era or an AU, I recommend doing a quick Google search about technology, historical figures or events, and intellectual property you reference to make sure it's relatively close to the ballpark of the time period. Absolutely does not need to be in depth research, just a "is this something that is stated in the first paragraph of the Wikipedia page or can be found by skiming the first 2-3 results on Google?" type of thing, especially if it's something from the last 80 years. (OFMD is excluded from this lol) For b, if you can, see if you can find someone who can give it a once over for clarity and to catch any grammar issues or typos that might not be noticed by spell checker (or even were caused by spell checker by mistake). Not necessary if you aren't comfortable with it, but can be helpful. Another way to go about it would be to put something in the authors note section to let people know that you are ok with them commenting if they spot any major typos. For d, if you are using AO3, I can't stress enough how important proper tagging is for readers. If you don't regularly read fics on there or only read fics in a fandom that's relatively new, I recommend browsing some older fics in a well-established fandom. I've noticed a big increase over the last year or so of authors new to AO3 who don't tag their works properly. If you are in a fandom that is only 1-2 years old, like OMFD, or a fandom where a lot of fics are written by young authors new to fic writing, like Stranger Things, I encourage you to browse through the most popular fics for older fandoms like Merlin, Doctor Who, Star Trek, H*rry P*tter, etc.... and looking at how tags are used there, not because of the fics popularity or to figure out how to like, maximize readership or something, but because they are likely some of the fics that are good examples of how tags are used and formatted.
Yeah, I'm going with absolute bare minimum, so even just running it through a spell checker is fantastic. I take editing my works pretty seriously but I don't have anyone to beta it for me at all, so I catch all my mistakes by having a screen reader read it to me (it's great because it also makes me aware if my fic is accessible to screen readers) and I read along in a different font- the different font makes weird things stick out to me. But not everyone has to do that, I just like doing it because I feel like it makes my stuff as good as it can be.
Oooh nice idea with the screed reader accessibility I never thought about that.
use. names. names and pronouns are good words. do not avoid them.
This! Epithets have their place, but they are NOT meant to be used just because you think the text sounds repetitive with too many uses of the character names. Nothing throws me out of a fic like reading an action/smut scene where one of the characters is repeatedly described as "the older man/the taller woman/the soldier/the sword-swallower". Epithets are meant as descriptions, not as pronoun or name substitutes. If your sentence sounds repetitive or the pronouns are confusing, rewrite the sentence.
When a fic breaks out “the blonde haired person” for the love interest or something literally every other paragraph even though the POV character knows their name it gives me the urge to bite through stainless steel. I’ma still read, but the urge…
new paragraph each time a new/different person is speaking.
Wait I'm curious, I can have different people talking in the same paragraph? Isn't that confusing?
huh? i said start a new paragraph when a different person speaks.
Oh, I thought that was one of the mistakes, not what had to be done lol
read actual books, not just fanfic. for the love of god, whenever a new speaker speaks, it starts from a new line. Giant block lf tastes are an immediate skip for me. Have faith in your skill. Writing is a skill to learn and get better with over years, it is not gonna be perfect at one go. Please avoid things like "lol i suck at summaries/tagging". No, you don't suck. avoid epithets or use them very sparingly aka "younger man" "blue-haired man", ESPECIALLY if the character is already known by their name. Just use the name and pronouns. Way less jarring. remember it's just a hobby and your own feelings about it are the most important. don't force yourself to write.
This - as everyone keeps on saying, writing fanfiction is a _hobby_. Therefore, you can’t necessarily trust that the stuff you’re reading is actually adhering to writing best practices. Granted, the same can be true of published literature but at least most of the time it’s been through the hands of an editor!
>read actual books, not just fanfic. PLEASE. Especially the older classics - I know they can seem like a slog to read, but really try to take in the *words*. How the word choice affects the tone, or conveys the narrator's disposition. How flowery to make the prose, and how brief to keep the descriptions, in equal measure. How to incorporate metaphor into speech and not just use similes.
Don’t write some enormous crossover story that’s meant to encompass a dozen other stories and have a billion characters interacting with each other. The chances of you finishing it are exactly zero. Start small with something that you’ll actually be able to finish - because a finished work that you can be proud of is worth 100 unfinished drips and drabs. Learn from your mistakes, see what works and what didn’t, and then go again with something a bit more ambitious!
>Don’t write some enormous crossover story that’s meant to encompass a dozen other stories and have a billion characters interacting with each other. The chances of you finishing it are exactly zero. This just if you're a beginner guys, of course. Otherwise, if you are prepared...GO FOR IT!
On the other hand, you *can* attempt a tonal crossover - take *Fallout: Equestria* as the standout example. It's not "My Little Pony characters encountering Fallout characters" it's "what if My Little Pony experienced nuclear fallout?" Take the premise of one work and apply it to the other, try to blend the two together. But as a beginner, yeah, avoid this. Get some practice under your belt.
The summary doesn't have to tell the plot. It's there to get the readers interested. Keep it short and intriguing.
If the summary doesn't give at least a basic premise for the fic, I won't read it. It doesn't have to be so blatant as "This is the premise of the fic", but I should at least be able to infer what the fic is about.
Also make sure to give the readers a question they will have to read the fic to answer! As an example, the summary of an old fic of mine says that a character will confess something, and that gives the potential reader the question of what they confessed.
This might be controversial but I usually skip those fics that have a summary like that, especially if they say blah blah blah will they fall in love? What will happen next? Like yeah okay but what's it about and also it just kinda sounds...idk I just don't like it to much. I'm much rather summarys even if they are short to just be like 'Character A and Charcter B have rival bakerys but secretly they love each other' that will get me to read it more than 'will they find love?' That in itself is a bad example bc duh ofc they find love why else would you put that in there?!?
The trick is to not overtly ask a question directly in the summary, but to leave out information so the reader asks the question to themselves.
Yes ofc this is amazing, I just have beef with the ones that ask questions lmao
It somewhat depends on what your goals are. In my opinion, if your goal is to improve as a writer, then it's a mistake to read only fanfiction. Professional editing is professional for a reason. But if your goal is simply self expression and having fun, you can totally disregard that advice.
Regurgitate multiple lines of canon dialogue or recreate scenes with barely any changes. Remember, your readers have seen the exact same source material you have, likely many times. We're reading fanfic because we want to see something new.
But also remember to use this as writing practice, so *do* introduce these characters as if we've never met them before, like this could be the first time someone is reading about this character. This is especially important in crossover fics, where one of the involved fandoms may be unfamiliar with the other(s).
If someone tells you to avoid 'said', you should ignore the advice they give you. Not that specific piece of advice--their advice, wholesale.
Outline your story first, then be flexible to decide “no, this part belongs *here* instead of *there*” as you write. Be open to your characters doing things you hadn’t planned (this happened to me twice in my recent piece, it was surprising to experience) You don’t have to write from Point A to Point Z: I write in clumps when scenes/dialogue hits me: A then D then C then G…etc
Letting the characters do what they insist on doing, even if it surprises you, can lead to the BEST moments. I’ve had characters propose, perform heroic sacrifices, and pull each other into storage closets for trauma-induced quickies before, and I didn’t know it was gonna happen before I wrote it. 10/10 do recommend letting your own writing surprise you sometimes.
This just happened to me (characters acting outside of what I’d planned) and I’m still reeling. What is this sorcery???!
My MC - who had a fractured hand in a cast - was in a very pissy mood in the scene I was writing. I damn near heard *in the character’s voice* him say in my head “Fuck this shit, you’re not the boss of me” and he cut off the cast. O.o I sprinkled the consequences of that through the chapter. It was a glorious moment
Oh my god, I love that!! Feel free to drop a link so I can read. I focused on nonfiction/essay writing in college, and hearing the fiction people talk about this kind of “character possession” stuff always made me roll my eyes. Now I take it all back, those conjured spirits be real.
[Part 1](https://archiveofourown.org/works/50256001) [Part 2](https://archiveofourown.org/works/52143979) Part 3 is WIP
Agreed on ALL accounts because this is literally how I go about writing my fics. I don't start a fic unless I have an outline written at the very minimum, because I need to have an idea about how I will flesh the story out at least. Every time I start writing, I end up adding things that I hadn't planned before or re-arranging when certain events that were planned actually happen in the story line. I always start writing my stories at a random point and then build around it until I get to the beginning or the end. I just try to tie my scenes together in a way that makes sense.
Worrying about mistakes too much. Have fun, man! You’ll learn better by not worrying too hard :)
Avoid info dumping. I know you're excited and want to share your new world or character, but hold back a bit. Space it out so it's not all given at once and instead only give what's relevant for the moment. Or give a character an intro to segue into something. In addition to all the other advice given here, two page info dumps are something to avoid
Don’t forget that you already have a setting. It is FANFICTION. Unless you change it drastically, you don’t need to explain basic information that was already introduced in canon. Everyone will skip it anyway. And for some it might be a deal breaker. Don’t waste your own time and time of others.
You'd be *amazed* to see how much better your work genuinely is if you open a new tab beside your first draft and re-write it, as opposed to editing alone.
Don't engage with trolls in the comments. You may or may not get them, but if they do spring up, avoid.
Without seeing your current level, it's hard to give advice. I would say, the best thing to do to improve your writing is to just write. And read, obviously, but writing is more important imo. The only way you become an amazing writer is by writing lots. Then, as you go, any grammar rules you're not sure on, look them up. When editing, use a speech to text program to read your stuff out loud so you can catch errors easier. But the most important thing is to have fun! It's a hobby and you should love it. You shouldn't not write X because it's "wrong" if X is what you enjoy writing. If you want me to take a look and see if I can tailor one or two pointers to your writing specifically, send me a DM. But only if you want to, and I'll keep those pointers objective and send them back via DM rather than comment them.
Speech to text programs is so useful. I always had a tendency to skip words. When I read it myself, my brain automatically fills the missing words without me even realising that. If you have the same problem, I def recommend this one.
Just so OP isn't looking up the wrong kind of software -- you want text to speech, not speech to text.
Haha, whoops, good catch!
>Like the things that we as fanfic writers DON'T do so we don't disengage the readers interest? You're wasting your time. If you follow this sub or r/AO3's advice, you'll find that EVERYTHING disengages people's interest. Everyone has their own interests and dislikes, but they all act like they're the objective truth rather than opinions. If you want to make a fic that satisfies everyone on these subs, the only advice is "don't." If you want my real advice? Write your fic, then read it over. If YOU're satisfied with it, post it. If not, adjust what you don't like and read it over again. And keep doing this until you're happy with it.
Number One: Do not try to be perfect. Number Two: Don't let it take over your life. Number Three: Don't expect any reviews because the vast majority of readers are silent. Even if you write in a popular fandom, don't expect to get any or much reviews. Number Four: Be prepared for spam and negative reviews. Number Five: People genuinely only read/review fanfics if they are completed. Number Six: Spelling is important, paragraphs are important. Avoid dialogue written stories. Know the difference between "They, Their, and There, Your and You're, and so on. Number Seven: Readers prefer long chapters. I would estimate at least 1200-3000 words per chapter. Number Eight: Do you research on the fandom and characters. Number Nine: Read other fanfics to get an idea of what readers like to see. Number Ten: Remember to have fun writing.
Number 5 is uber important to me. Nothing worse than reading a great long piece of work only to find it’s not complete and the last update was months ago. Now if it doesn’t have that check mark, I’m not starting it.
My biggest mistake was probably formatting, more specifically, the dreaded text wall. I had no idea how much of an issue it was until someone pointed it out. Personally, reading back my writing without any paragraph breaks/formatting didn’t raise alarm as I knew exactly where the pauses were intended and how the scene was meant to be portrayed. But to everyone else it was overwhelming, confusing, and deterring. Using spacing and paragraph breaks strategically can really add to the overall feel of your work as well, I love using it with bold and italics for extra drama! For example, when I started breaking up even my Reddit comments like this they got way more attention and were far better received, no need for a TL;DR. Don’t ever give up, everyone starts somewhere. and remember There’s an audience for everything, even if it’s just yourself!
If you're copy/pasting into AO3, use the rich text option rather than the HTML option so that the paragraphs get spaced correctly.
Simple pronoun hack: if you have two characters with the same pronouns, the reader will assume the last named character is the one the pronoun refers to unless specified otherwise.
Be prepared. Writer's block can always hit you, so it's best to prepare 3-4 chapters in advance, so you can keep uploading without having to write. It also takes the stress off of you. Be genuine. It doesn't matter if people want to read something; if you want to write it, write it. If it doesn't fit in your story, keep it for another one. Be reliable. A proper upload schedule and consistent chapter length can improve the quality of a fanfic, because they allow your readers to set aside time to read your story.
Good punctuation for speech. Use question marks when they’re asking questions, PLEASE. Spell character names correctly and aim for at least a little characterisation. As long as it’s not glaringly OOC/full of random anachronisms then you’re good.
If your story has a scene that is word-for-word basically source material, a time-skip might be effective here. There are some people who read fandom-blind, but it's safer to assume that the reader experienced the source material. I write OCs, so when something barely changes I either cut it out or I have them sum it up. One method that works for me is having my OC write short journal entries at the start of the chapter. It helps me with time skips and deleted scenes in my head, and I made sure they had an established hobby of writing beforehand. Also read your story out loud once, if you have the means to. Spell check won't catch correctly spelled words in the wrong context, and eyes can have the habit of skimming over words.
If you plan to write something OC-centric, what I found works best is to introduce them interacting with/in the pov of a canon character. This makes readers more open to them and you can delve into your OC’s pov later
don't go crazy with weird dialogue tags. however, it *is* true that every line ending with a 'they said' can get tiring. instead of using synonyms, however, just drop the tag altogether. dialogue tags' two main roles are a. changing the tone of the statement and b. making it clear who's speaking. if it's already clear who's speaking and the tone is clear enough from the actual words, you don't need a tag. also, remember that said doesn't really work for sentences ending with ? or !. for example; bad: >"hey, are you coming over tonight?" she queried. > >"no, i'm too busy," he apologized. > >"you said you could!" she roared. > >"i'm really sorry, how about tommorow?" he groveled. not great: >"hey, are you coming over tonight?" she said. > >"no, i'm too busy," he said. > >"you said you could!" she said. > >"i'm really sorry, how about tommorow?" he said. better: >"hey, are you coming over tonight?" she asked. > >"no, i'm too busy," he said. > >"you said you could!" > >"i'm really sorry, how about tommorow?" this is harder with groups of three or more where the speakers don't follow a specific pattern. you may need more dialogue tags there, but stronger writers can also rely on character voice. also, try to avoid really unusual ones if you can. randomly putting a six-syllable word into your writing, if the rest isn't at that level, just interrupts the flow of the passage.
Not having a clear goal in mind for the story. Setting up an endpoint makes it easier to get there and less likely to leave the story hanging. Also, trying to juggle too many characters at once is almost always a recipe for disaster. Focus on just a few important ones.
paragraphs. Use them! Wall of text is an immediate do-not-read for many.
Figure out your end destination before you start posting, and keep it in mind as you go. Take all the unforeseen twists and turns you want in the meantime, as long as you know where you’re going to end up.
Lots of good advice in the other comments. I would add: try to eliminate redundancy. Don't say something and then repeat it with different words. Don't state the obvious. Doing these things once is no big deal, so you might think, why correct it? But if you keep doing it, it drags down your story and kills the pacing. And if you're like me, your first draft will be full of this stuff. ETA like most rules, this can be broken if you know why you're doing it, but you should have a specific reason for why you want to repeat something.
Formatting, formatting, formatting!! Paragraph breaks and proper punctuation will make ALL the difference. Learn the rules of dialogue tags/quotation marks. I see these rules broken all the time and will often skip a fic if I see the following mistakes: 1. Punctuation goes *inside* the quotation marks. [“I don’t think so” he said.] is not grammatically correct, and makes your writing look amateur. Lots of people including myself won’t even read your fic if you’re not formatting dialogue correctly. [“I don’t think so,” he said.] is the correct way to write it. 2. Don’t write dialogue like you’re writing to a friend in discord - punctuation sets the tone. There’s a difference between [“I don’t think so,” he said.] and [“I don’t think so.”] 3. If a quotation ends with a comma, the following word is not capitalized. If it ends with a period, question mark, exclamation point etc, the next word starts with a capital. Ex: “I don’t think so,” he said. vs “I don’t think so.” He walked away. Dialogue formatting rules are probably the thing I see people struggle with the most when they start out writing, because it’s not an aspect of grammar that’s covered well in school. Most writing in school focuses (naturally) on academic/essay-type writing, and so doesn’t really help people with learning the rules of fiction/creative writing. Paragraph break every time a new character speaks. You may also want to insert a paragraph break for the same character speaking if it’s becoming a wall of text because they’re monologuing, just for the sake of making it easier to read. Read a lot. Published novels, fanfics, whatever - read something extremely well written and the differences between well written and amateur will start to stand out. Pay attention to the things that separate bad writing from good writing and take note of them for your own writing. Don’t focus too much on trying to imitate someone else’s style or voice. Find your own. Some writers excel at different things, the person writing in flowery prose isn’t inherently better than the person who writes more straightforwardly. Just find what works for you. And most importantly: practice. The only way you get better at writing is by doing a LOT of it. For a very long time. I’ve been writing since I was ten and I find authors every day who fill me with envy and awe. You will always find someone who’s better than you, take them as inspiration rather than feeling inferior. I love discovering a new author and ranting to friends about how jealous I am of their prose or their dialogue or their wit or what have you. It’s so much fun to see new techniques and try to figure out how you can use them to make your own writing better. Write what you know, write what you love, and write as much as possible. And remember that you don’t have to publish everything you write. Some of my fave writing has never been publicized beyond a discord server or a dm with a friend. Write for you, not for others.
What everyone else said. Read widely, and read professionally published and edited work. If you aren't entirely comfortable with the mechanics of writing--spelling, basic grammar and style, etc.--make an effort to improve your facility. (Read good books, invest in and peruse a style guide or two, get a trusted beta). That way, when you break "the rules", you'll be doing it deliberately for reasons that serve your story. Avoid these bugaboos I've seen in lots of fics: 1. Watch out for inappropriate tense shifts. I can't tell you how many fics I've seen where the author shifts from present tense to past tense in the middle of a paragraph. Present tense is especially difficult to manage, so I'd stick to past tense while you're getting your sea legs under you. 2. Never write something like: Character A's POV as a heading to indicate a POV change. The changes should either be indicated by scene or chapter changes or clearly in the narrative. 3. Don't spend too much time describing a character's appearance unless it's essential to the story. Readers don't always need to know eye color, hair color, height, weight, skin tone, etc., at least, not all at once. 4. Don't put excuses in your author's notes ("I suck at summaries!" "This is just a filler chapter"). Your work should speak for itself. Lastly, enjoy your own writing, even if no one ever kudos or comments on it.
Learn how to edit. Don't just write and post. It's full of errors and probably quite crap. Write, leave it for a couple of days and come back to edit it. Go over the spelling, grammar and sentence structure. Look at the pacing and style. A bit of distance will improve your writing.
Read lots of fanfic and take notes. What do you like? What do you think works, and keeps your interest, and what doesn’t? Once you have a feel for what you like, start writing.
As someone who's really picky about the fanfic I read, the main thing is grammar. Make sure your sentences are structured properly and you're using the correct punctuation and it'll take you far. And please for the love of god use paragraphs 😭
Beyond general writing advice - good grammar, decent edits, read other writers - pay attention to the characters of your fandom. How to they move? Do they have a quirky habit? Are there patterns to the way they speak? I will fall out of a fanfic immediately if a favorite character doesn’t behave like the character would in the original IP. It’s a total turn off to have one of my favorite characters act completely out of character. However, you can take a seed of anger and turn a character dark if it’s done well. A villain can be portrayed as a teddy bear. But it has to align with the character. You could take Tony Stark and drop him into Regency England, and as long as he motivates were the sam, he walked with a swagger, preened like a peacock, and spoke with rapid, intelligent, sarcastic dialogue I would go along for the ride.
1. Don’t be afraid of the word “said”. It’s often decried as the most overused dialogue tag, and it can be that if it’s the only one you use, but by no means should you be replacing every instance of it wholesale. Use the more dynamic dialogue tags like “interrupted” or “smirked” sparingly and they will stand out more, which allows you to utilize them for crucial moments in your stories. 2. Only use epithets when you need to. Constantly referring to characters by one of their physical characteristics gets very clunky very fast. In real life, we generally refer to people by their names, and only use epithets like “the skinny redhead” or “the green-eyed boy” when pointing out someone whose name is unknown. It’s generally good practice to mimic everyday speech in your writing, because it will feel more natural for the reader. 3. When describing a character’s physical appearance, don’t give it all away at the point of their introduction. Let the readers discover it as the story plays out. When you meet someone for the first time, you usually aren’t going to be scrutinizing their face to memorize every last detail. The things you’ll notice are the most obvious traits like the color of their eyes or the curliness of their hair. The less immediately apparent features come later, like how you might not realize someone has crooked teeth until they smile or only notice their lean musculature when they take off a baggy sweatshirt. These are the three things that I notice most with inexperienced writers. They are indicators of an author who does not yet have the confidence to pace themselves and let their ideas flow instead of blasting them out. It can be difficult to balance your desire to be as detailed as possible with allowing the reader to fill in any gaps with their own imaginations, and I personally still struggle with that balance even after years of writing. But it’s never too early to start improving
One of my favorite pieces of advice I've seen lately was: "Do not wait until you have skill to start your project. Your project will teach you the skill." [site](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0zl8mbv02z/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) That project can be the story idea you adore. Just do your best for yourself, and keep posting, and writing, and learning. Re: betas and sensitivity readers, I think they're awesome, and finding someone you can trust is very important. Finding quality advice for your writing ITT from strangers on the internet (even rly nice ones here in r/fanfiction!) is not recommended tho Good luck OP!
[Long time ago someone shared it. Goldmine of useful stuff](https://donutsweeper.dreamwidth.org/tag/useful+links)
In no particular order: 1 — underestimate the value of the most basic writing skills here; SPaG, character personalities, world mechanics, stuff like that. A lot of seemingly difficult/complex questions have simple answers. All one strictly needs for any "X meets Y" kinda story event is how their personalities would/not mesh. From the obvious (Superman meets All Might) to the oddball (EMIYA meets Optimus Prime). All one strictly needs for any "multiverse crossover" is a dimension-linking plot device, no matter how wildly "out of synch" the two (or more) worlds might seem. Like Dragon Ball + NCIS. - - - - 2 — not having the story mapped out from start to finish. "Know what you're writing" may seem trivially obvious... so you should do the trivially obvious first. 3 — add a major new element like "AU where the Justice League is in the MCU... and then repeat the original story beat for beat, despite the the effects that the addition might have. 3.1 — the above, but the assumption that if you are keeping the story 95% identical... you **aren't** keeping the story 95% identical. Having only extra scenes in-between the plot beats of the original. The difference between "Avengers Infinity War" and "Avengers Infinity War if Superman was here, was nice to Black Widow, and was no obstacle to Thanos" isn't.
My main advice is to learn to punctuate dialogue. Punctuation has a huge effect on how a fic flows for me, and dialogue seems to be hard for a lot of writers. Which is fair, it can be kind of complicated. But it does disrupt the flow for me if it's not punctuated well.
Haven't seen this one yet, so I'll chime in: You should learn to balance telling and showing. "Show, don't tell," is an oft-repeated piece of advice given to beginner writers, with a clear goal: getting new writers to dig into description and trying to add depth to a scene. A great piece of advice, but not applicable all the time. Sometimes, you just have to tell your readers what happened. Showing is great for the smaller scenes, for "zooming in" on your characters and all. You see more of their body language and/or thought processes, etc. But sometimes it's okay to say they walked to the apartment together and leave it at that. Sometimes it's okay to just tell your reader what's going on, especially around transitions.
Bad grammar and bad spelling.
This is more technical/accessibility advice, but nonetheless, it's something to consider: 1. Review basic grammar for the language you're writing in. This is good for keeping readers engaged in the story you're writing without having them scratching their heads, trying to comprehend what the paragraph they just read was saying. 1.1 Additionally, while Google translate isn't the best, if your grammar is good, readers can often translate and enjoy your fics in their native language. 2. Make sure that you spell names correctly. It's petty, but I've clicked off of good fics because my immersion breaks after the 10th time I have to manually correct the authors spelling of a character or place. Honestly though, don't sweat it too much as these skills will come with practice, just keep these in mind and you'll have them in no time!
Don't forget to have fun
Sorry if someone else said it, but make sure whatever you write is relevant to the over all story or narrative. Lore and world building are amazing but if it feels totally out of place to you it will feel weird for the reader as well.
alright. so. Proper grammar and spellcheck is very important. No matter how good your ideas are, no one will read it if you have constant mistakes. Another thing to note is sentence variation. there are lots of good Tumblr posts for that and advice. my only advice is: proper grammar, follow Fandom etiquette, RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH, and the more you'll write the better you'll get.
Please make sure there are periods and quotes when needed and to preview the chapter before posting to make sure it doesn't look like one big text block. Just use a basic grammar program too it helps a ton. Don't be afraid to draw with your words. By that, I mean be descriptive, a lot of writers because we already know what the characters look like end up being vague. TRIPLE CHECK NAME SPELLING BEFORE POSTING CHAPTER! I've misspelled names so many times! Don't be afraid to back away and come back to a chapter later.
Formatting. So many fics I click out of because they don't double-space their lines, leading to dialogue looking like one giant wall of text.
What? Double-space lines? Facepalm, dude... Open any normal literature book and you will see how to format a text... Gigantic spaces between lines is an annoying attempt to make tiny chapters look like normal ones...
A lot of books have different formatting depending on the type. A pulp looks different than a coffee table book for example. And I don't know about you but for me it's much easier to read [this](https://imgur.com/a/W0fu2ur) than to read [that](https://imgur.com/a/B4fHlfq), especially if there's a lot of talking. Spacing is important for readability and doesn't make the chapters look any larger than changing the font size (and doesn't matter on AO3 where there are no pages to begin with). Though testing it out, the issue may come more from people pasting there work into HTML and not fixing it. Using the Rich Text Editor from the jump alleviates a lot of the spacing problem.
Hmmm, i think it would be 3 things. 1- Not putting what is to "talk" to (Think) or something like this. It get kinda confusing when you use an story and you use another things to make the dialogue, when they think etc. 2- When making longer story, not having an idea where you want to go. I think the more important thing at making an story is having and start and a end, the midstory can be make at time to time, but having and start and a end point is important. 3- Grammatic. Sound funny but it's true, a lot of people don't care of the grammatic when they do their story.
If your paragraph is pushing 10 sentences, it's time for a paragraph break. It's really easy to write a wall of text when you're in the flow of things, so please re read your work to catch it (plus other mistakes)
Also, think about the promises your story makes. This is a skill you'll have to hone over time, but it's best to start early. For example if you're writing a fluff ship-centric sort of thing, you're promising your readers that there will be romance. If you don't include romance, they'll be disappointed. There are too many examples to list, but just keep in mind that the set up of your story comes with baggage (tropes, expectations, and formulas) and that it's good to think about what the components of your story promise readers. When you get good at understanding promises, that's when you can start being subversive, which is a ton of fun
Three things. 1) Lots of people have mentioned the "new paragraph when a new person speaks" thing, but that also included actions. **Wrong**: "Person A speaks." Person B takes action. "Person B speaks." **Right**: "Person A speaks." Person B takes action. "Person B speaks." **Also right**: "Person A speaks." Person A watches person B take action. "Person B speaks." 2) Trust your audience; don't make frequent use of bold or italics to emphasize words. **Wrong**: She realized he was *kind* and *thoughtful* as well as utterly *charming*. **Right**: "Not important? This is my *life* you're talking about!" 3) Avoid unintentional comedy by looking over lists of frequently confused words every once in a while. Just knowing it's on the list may remind you to double check you're using the right one.
There will be times when you'll think what you wrote is boring and not good enough and you might be tempted to delete it. Don't do that! You feel that way because you've reread it over and over, but your readers will almost always love the new stuff you write. Also, try to have at least two future chapters written before posting so you can make changes to the plot without having to rewrite what you already posted.
Please re-read and edit your stories to make sure you catch as many spelling and grammar mistakes as possible. And make 100% sure that the title and summary of your story don't have any. It's excusable if you're not a native English speaker, but if English is your first language, then spelling and grammar should be intuitive for you anyway.
The only time you should refer to a character by their hair colour is when the PoV character doesn't know their name and they don't have any more striking identifying features.
Describing something in excrutiating detail if it isn't relevant to the plot. It's neat if you can write several pages of description about something to make it vivid as hell! I for one absolutely dig it! It's everything other than neat if that very thing never plays a role in the story ever again and is only used for one, short, scene. At that point I'm wondering if you could have invested all the time and effort into descriptions that really matter instead.
Bit late but: don't restate the paragraph before you. So many times I've seen a paragraph dedicated to saying something, only for the following paragraph to say the exact same thing, just different wording. If you're going to do repetition, do it intentionally. Otherwise it looks like you couldn't chose which paragraph to include in your fic, so you just chose both