How to write great Fan Fiction!

[Xpwn3ntial]

I actually have a question

at what point will fan fiction get you in trouble for copyright?

When you

a) claim credit for the original work you're deriving from,

b) when you start making money off of it, or

c) when someone who specifically asks not to have fanfiction based off their works (Anne Rice does) comes across just that.

 

[Vault101]

snip.

didn't fallout equestria get phblished or somthing?

but anyway that sounds about right

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

snip.

didn't fallout equestria get published or something?

I have no idea.
If it did, it might have been free, or Hasbro might have been cool with it.
I've heard weirder things that turned out to be true.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

9. IMHO prose is completely pointless. I prefer a minimalistic route to describing how people look and how the scenery looks, I prefer to focus on what they say and what they do.

While I'm often quick to call people out for having just way too fucking much descriptive prose, even the 'classic' authors *cough*Dickens*cough*, I can't conceivably imagine a piece for literature that isn't script having absolutely no descriptive prose whatsoever. Without it, every novel would pretty much just be Zork. The whole point of non-fiction is to capture your audiences imagination at the end of the day, and the human mind isn't very good at just conjuring complete and detailed environments out of thin air, it need something to go on, otherwise your reader is just going to imagine all the events taking place taking place in some kind of limbo-world, with just and endless landscape of black or white for as far as the mind's eye can see, which is going to create a somewhat off-putting sense of dissonance.

Stay on point yes. Don't spend half a page whoring your vocabulary to the audience by elaborately describing a random chair when the chair in question has no relevance to the plot, but don't gouge it all out. In my opinion a piece of fiction with no world-building whatsoever would be just as bad as one with no character development, or no plot events.

 

[Jamieson 90]

If you're actually in the process of writing fan fiction or are planning to, then please for the love of god ensure you have the following down.

Basic punctuation: Start of sentence needs to be capitalized as do names and places. Use commas to break up sentences and to give the reader a break or when witting long descriptions. Additionally you should use ! ? appropriately along with ; to elaborate on a sentence that would otherwise not make sense on its own, and lastly every sentence needs a full stop or else it won't make sense. Yes that seems easy, but if that's true then why is the majority of fan fiction riddled with such basic errors?

Basic grammar. Know the difference between to and too, your and you're, affect vs effect, their and there, it's and its, plural and possessive, were and we're etc.

Can spell: If you can't use spell check or get a beta reader, or better yet don't write at all.
Sentence structure - linked into punctuation and is related to making proper and decent paragraphs.

Can write dialogue and yes it needs to be punctuated too, it also needs to be separated into new paragraphs when a new speaker begins speaking.

And lastly, no more isn't better, which means you shouldn't cram every single cliche in your given genre into your story, because you know a well written and developed plot about a simple idea can be great, so no you don't need to insert every single Fanon idea into your story to make it better, because it most likely won't.

 

[Halima Saranov]

I found this piece of fan fiction a while back and I think it is some of the best I've ever come across. He clearly knows what he is doing.

http://thebestgamesiteever.com/2012/06/i-must-kill-roy-phillips/

 

[bluepilot]

No no no, you are all horribly wrong.

The key to good writing is all in the name of the character. Their names should express who THEY are, who YOU are, and most importantly, who you WANT to be.

Therefore, she is a beautiful girl who is half-angel (which is totally a secret) and half-Japanese and can heal people with her tears and everyone loves her but she cannot love anyone because she is cursed and her love will cause the person she loves to die horribly and therefore she has to be alone which makes her super sad because her parents died at a young age too when they were killed by this Dark Lord but all off this sadness in her life does not stop her from being happy and smily and wanting to heal the World of its problems because she is so delicate and tiny and pretty and perfect and because she is half-angel the thought of committing a sin would not enter her tiny tiny little heart.

Name: Lumestria Equesria Glisten Necrolia Ange


But all of her friends just call her "Lums" because she is so cool and so totally awesome that everyone loves her and the people that do not like her are just jealous of her purity and beauty or they got upset because she broke their hearts but she was only doing it to save them because if she loved them back then they would have died so even though she gets bullied and hated it is all due to this act of self-sacrifice and not because she actually did anything wrong but she can never tell anyone about this because then they might figure out that she is half-angel and then the Dark Lord would come after them and she is too tiny and weak to stop him or so she thinks but she is actually super powerful from the gift of Atlantis that sleeps inside of her and then Vegita falls in love with her and they defeat the dark lord together and then they kiss but this act of kissing has her cast into hell and Vegeta is so sad that he kills himself just to be with her except that she was not in hell after all and so she has to come back from heaven and saves Vegeta and then they go back to Earth and have Angel-Japanese-Saiyan babies so they look like Saiyan except with angel wings and every time they fight and get hurt she heals her children with her tears.

You have to admit, this is compelling stuff

 

[Hagi]

I would add in a great tip for writing believable characters,

You know how you always hear that good characters have flaws and such? Yet at the same time you're reading the original material you keep thinking on how the characters clearly aren't awesome enough and you'd totally do things better if you were in that situation (as mentioned before, your character should obviously be based on you)?

There's a solution to both of these! Awkwardness! Even though your character is a near invulnerable, galaxy-destroying genius he/she is very, very awkward and bad in social situations and thus totally realistic and can easily be related to.

But wait you say! Won't this mean that all my favorite canon characters won't like myself my character? Of course not! Every awkward situation is a fountain of opportunity. Your character's clumsy mistakes will endear him/her to everyone! They will be driven to protect your character and you can skip all the iffy relation building and such, who wouldn't instantly trust or even fall in love with such a cute and clumsy person as you your character!?

And, of course, at the moments where it really counts you can have your character unexpectedly come in to deliver grand speeches or resolve the most complex social situations easily to surprise the entire cast at your his/her brilliance! And characters need growth right? So it's totally realistic that your socially awkward character suddenly figured it all out, you know that if a real disaster ever happened you would easily do the same!

 

[lithiumvocals]

Also, dark and mysterious badass loner characters (preferably with trenchcoats and narrative scars) are automatically the most interesting characters in the story. But only if they're introduced standing in the corner of a crowded room.

People standing in crowds wearing trench coats are always the best characters. Always.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

snip.

didn't fallout equestria get phblished or somthing?

but anyway that sounds about right

The writer of Fallout Equestria is selling their books through that financial grey area between handshake deals and proper retail. You know the people who set up stalls at conventions to sell their homemade memorabilia? That's how they are doing it, except in the online format. They went through a vanity publisher to get their prints, and then they sell them by hand.

I still think that the actual work is abysmal and does a disservice to Fallout, and the sooner Hasbro does a C&D the sooner I'll be happy.

 

[Beautiful End]

Also, there's never enough boobs. Boobs sell. Think your story needs attention? Boobs.

And cross all of the genres. Why must you settle with one genre where there are so many out there? If you like space and pirates and robots and zombies, then have a Pirate Cyborg in space fight zombies.

And make your characters incredibly fit and good looking. No one likes boring, normal-looking characters. Fuck that, that's why we have fiction. Guys must be muscular and girls should be all models. And if you wanna add character depth, have them all go to the beach one day so that they can wear as little clothing as possible. It shows who they really are.

 

[The Sanctifier]

My advice is not to write fanfic at all. Just make porno films instead, there's actual money to be had in that.

 

[smithy_2045]

My advice for avoiding writing bad fan fiction is very simple. Don't write fan fiction. No good can come of it.

If no one ever wrote fan fiction then we would never have half of the literature we do today, even the classics. If you look at it critically, the same stories have been told over and over and over again, just with different characters/setting: an AU. How many times have we seen a man go on a lonely quest for family and salvation? Yeah, that was "Homer's" idea, or who we think of as Homer, originally but still there are tons of novels based on that idea. Food for thought. (Also, I disagree if you were serious. Can never tell in the forums.)

Fanfiction requires established characters to be used, IMO. A story about a man going on a lonely quest for family and salvation can vary drastically depending on the character of the man, and the characters he encounters. And that's where the story becomes interesting.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Great fan fiction? Well there's an oxymoron if ever I heard one.

 

[Beautiful End]

Also, there's never enough boobs. Boobs sell. Think your story needs attention? Boobs.

And cross all of the genres. Why must you settle with one genre where there are so many out there? If you like space and pirates and robots and zombies, then have a Pirate Cyborg in space fight zombies.

And make your characters incredibly fit and good looking. No one likes boring, normal-looking characters. Fuck that, that's why we have fiction. Guys must be muscular and girls should be all models. And if you wanna add character depth, have them all go to the beach one day so that they can wear as little clothing as possible. It shows who they really are.

Boobs? BOOBS? What is this, Amateur hour? What real fanfictions need are sticky, sweaty, completely inappropriately place gay lovescenes between the hero, villain, sidekick and nearby Cupboard! That's how you attract attention! Preferably with all the characters involved being men who have had no indications to homosexuality prior!

Boobs. Pah. Unless they're giant tit-tentacles or breast-mounted boob-cannons, boobs are meaningless in fanfiction.

Dear god, you're right! I mean, my next suggestion was going to be tentacle rape monsters but...you're right! Who wouldn't want to read about some yaoi action between all of the characters in your story?

*GASP* Or even some innocent school girl yuri action!

You, sir, are going places. Genius, I say.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

I suddenly feel inspired to write an erotic fanfiction where Magneto teaches the Insane Clown Possy how his magnet works :O

I hate you, I had to clamp my nose shut to stop the coffee from shooting on my laptop.

YOu really need to put some disclaimers before these jokes.

"Warning, spit-take incoming, cease fluid acquisition"

 

[Playful Pony]

If your SW fan-fic doesn't have Lando and Han in a steaming Cloud City sex scene, your doing it wrong. Or, if your not that crazy about homosexual relationships, there is only one alternative. Leia crashlands her ship on an abandoned planet, and after some exploring discovers Padme frozen in carbonite. She wasn't dead after all, and perfectly preserved as a young (sexy) female! Candle-lit dinners and moist bedsheets follow.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turns out the two examples I just gave ARE indeed out there...

 

[Legion]

I wish I had artistic talent. I'd love to do a graphic novel fan fiction of some series that I like. I think I'd have the writing side covered, but I am terrible at drawing.

*sighs*

EDIT: Is it just me or is the escapist incapable of seeing the positive aspects of anything? Aw well, maybe I'm biased as someone who's tried really hard over the last half decade to write GOOD fan fiction.

The internet in general is like that unfortunately. I once saw a video on youtube of a song I liked and the comments section was full of people arguing over religion. The sad thing is, although the song had the word 'sin' in it, the song itself wasn't really about religion in any way.

My advice for avoiding writing bad fan fiction is very simple. Don't write fan fiction. No good can come of it.

Why not? It's not like anybody is forced to read it, or pays for it.

Don't get me wrong, I have seen some horrific fan fiction, and wondered what on earth they were thinking, but if they enjoyed doing it, then I don't see the harm. It's only when they are terrible at it, ask for feedback, get negative feedback and get pissed off about it (even if the feedback was polite) that it's an issue.

 

[deathbydeath]

Remember, if you ever fail at writing with depth, you can always make a Warhammer 40000 fanfic! Who cares about pacing or character development, it's just Bolter porn, and every single chapter needs to have explosions and people getting their faces torn off! Because blood is so important and "edgy"!

[small]Don't shoot me, I actually am writing 40K fics. Trying to avoid constant warfare and break up the monotony with introspection on the characters and how the conflict changes them.[/small]

Wait, so if you can't write with depth, write 40K shit?

While you do have a point, as 40k was designed to be fan fiction, your point is still negated in one word: Eisenhorn. Eisenhorn.

 

[Blunderboy]

How to write good fan fiction.

Don't.