On Writing (Good) Fanfiction
~by Shadowfax_Pip
One does not necessarily need to be an exceptional writer to write fanfiction. If anything, it will improve one’s writing skills- usually for the better. However, there is such thing as weak or inconsistent fanfiction, mostly due to a main character that is not well-rounded (such as the infamous Mary Sue), a wandering plotline, or even an inability to end a story, resulting in a story that drags on…and on…and on…and on… In this article I hope to give some pointers and a loose guideline for writing good fanfiction.
(1) Characters Is the character(s) you are working with consistent? If he (or she) is made up for this particular story, a good idea is to develop the personality and decide whether or not he is well-rounded (meaning believable). Adding a few flaws makes a character seem more real, more human than just mere words on a page. The flaws can be major or minor, depending on the character’s role.
If you have a difficult time finding a good imaginary character, a way that I find useful to get past the slump is to find a name. I often have names leap to mind that I write down and later invent a personality that seems to refelct the name. With a little practice it is quite easy and even a little fun–I have tons of characters who don’t seem to belong to any story (yet) but are enjoyable to develop.
(2) Plotline Do you have a definate plot in mind? All too often I have begun a story without a real plot in mind and have either lost my steam after a few pages and gotten stuck or waded on through, resulting with a story that wanders here and there like a dog on a country run.
After I attempting several potential stories that ended up either unfinished or weak I took to writing outlines. Just a few sentences with an idea of where you want to go will suffice, and seeing the plot on paper will help work out any problems with consistency. In your mind it may make perfect sense, but writing it out will help solidify a plot’s believability.
(3) Endings I find ending a story to be the hardest part of writing, mostly because I feel I’ve left too much unsaid!! But all things must come to an end, especially stories. There are thousands of ways to end a story, but I’ll only cover a few.
Epilogues are effective for tying up any loose ends, and in case you don’t know what an epilogue is I’ll explain. An epilogue is basically a short final chapter that tells in a condensed form what the main and/or secondary characters do later in life. They can be rather vague, and that’s where us fanfiction writers come in
Some endings are rather open, hinting of more to come or that much was left to speculation. These I sometimes dislike, as I want to read more! But, as with the epilogue, that’s where we fanfiction writers come in.
Other endings are very sudden, wrapping up the story in the last chapter while keeping the reader absorbed and unaware that the end is approaching. These are rather effective, as the reader usually has to take a few minutes to absorb all that has been told and distracts them from ranting and raving that the story is over already.
This is just a basic outline as to how one can write fanfiction (or fiction of any sort). Good luck and good writing from SP and the Realm of Nessa!
