Ezn's FanFiction Writing Guide

[King 5,625]

I was shown the below work by a friend of mine.

It's an Excellent guide on writing FanFiction that all Budding authors should read.

Trust me, you WILL NOT Regret it.

 

I will copy down a few important Parts of the Guide below, then provide the link at the bottom and her at the top.

 

http://eznguide.rogerdodger.me/

^^^

The Guide

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Punctuation  

A lot of what makes a work of fiction (or any piece of writing) good is subjective. This section is not. Learn these rules, and live by them. Only break them when you fully understand them, and absolutely have to.

 

As for the evolution of language… well, I can see the merit and importance of that, but there’s a difference between language evolving and you being too lazy to express yourself in a clear and readable manner. Again, learn the rules before breaking them.

 

Paragraphing

New writers often have a bad habit of clumping all of their text into one or two paragraphs, likely because they don’t entirely understand the purpose of paragraphing, and they think it makes their writing look really long and impressive or something.

 

I will be the first to admit that I probably use too many paragraphs, but it’s better to do that than to use too few. Paragraphs enhance readability, and if your work’s not readable, no-one’s going to read it!

Paragraphs don’t have to be a certain minimum or maximum length. A single sentence can be its own paragraph. A paragraph can also, technically, be as many sentences long as you want, but you’ll usually find that it’s time to start a new one when you get past seven or eight.

 

Dialogue

The most important rule of dialogue is this:

New speaker, new paragraph.

For example:

“MAKING CUPCAKES!” Pinkie happily announced.

“Baking?” Dash was disappointed. “Pinkie, you know I’m not good at baking. Remember last time?”

“Oh that’s not a problem at all. I only need your help making them. I’ll be doing most of the work,” Pinkie explained.

Or even:

“MAKING CUPCAKES!” Pinkie happily announced.

“Baking?” Dash was disappointed. “Pinkie, you know I’m not good at baking. Remember last time?”

“Oh that’s not a problem at all. I only need your help making them. I’ll be doing most of the work,” Pinkie explained.

But not:

“MAKING CUPCAKES!” Pinkie happily announced. “Baking?” Dash was disappointed. “Pinkie, you know I’m not good at baking. Remember last time?” “Oh that’s not a problem at all. I only need your help making them. I’ll be doing most of the work,” Pinkie explained.

Full stops, exclamation points, and question marks

A full stop is used to end an ordinary sentence. It can end sentences that aren’t exciting and don’t have questions. Reaching the end of a paragraph is no excuse to leave off a full stop.

 

Are question marks used to end questions? Yes, yes they are. Can they be used for anything else? No, no they can’t. I wonder why. The preceding sentence should not end in a question mark, because it doesn’t ask a question. It merely states that I wonder why something is the way it is.

 

Exclamation marks are exciting and energetic! They’re appropriate for shouty or enthusiastic dialogue! They can also be used in narration, but only very, very sparingly, or else it gets annoying!

One exclamation mark after a sentence is fine, as is one question mark. An exclamation mark followed by a question mark (“!?”) or vice versa (“?!”) is slightly less fine (called an interrobang²) but has some support in certain circles. What is not fine, however, is ending a sentence in any more than one of these marks. Multiple exclamation marks don’t make your sentence more urgent or exciting; they just make you look like a tool.

 

Commas, semicolons, colons, dashes, and ellipses

Okay, this is a complicated topic, but it’s one that I think is vital knowledge for any writer. English is graced with so much wonderful punctuation, and yet most people barely move past using commas.

 

Commas are short pauses, used to break up sentences into logical chunks, but not used to conjoin separate sentences. You would think that this would be obvious, but one of the most common misuses of the comma is the dreaded comma splice.

 

Semicolons are sophisticated punctuation marks that make it okay to have comma splices; stick a dot on top of that comma and splice no more! Keep in mind, though, that writing needs variety; a variety of comma splices should be fixed in a variety of ways. The semicolon is the easiest way to fix them; it is not always the best.

 

Colons are a more directed form of semicolon. While two sentences conjoined by semicolons must be related in some way, the bit that comes after a colon must follow the logical flow started by the bit that precedes it. Chances are you won’t use too many colons: they usually get replaced by conjunctions.

 

Dash is best punctuation mark. It can be used in place of commas, semicolons, and colons! The dash is a great way to inject – or intersperse – exciting, abrupt little phrases into your sentences. But with great power comes great responsibility, and one must be careful not to overuse the versatile dash.

 

Dashes are also useful in dialogue to show that a speaker has been cut o–

Ellipses should not be overused in fiction… their use in narration is often frowned on… because they are distracting… and also a cheap way to build suspense. They work better in dialogue, usually to signify the speaker trailing off… In addition, an ellipsis has exactly three (3) dots.

 

 

Grammar Tenses

There are five tenses you need to worry about:

1. Present
   I run.

2. Present perfect
   I am running.

3. Past
   I ran.

4. Past perfect
   I had run.

5. Future
   I will run.

99% of stories are written in the past tense. You get the occasional present tense story (Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash is the only published one I can think of off-hand⁶), but new writers are encouraged not to fiddle with that sort of thing until they’ve spent some quality time with traditional, past-tense writing. I don’t know of any notable stories (fanfiction or otherwise) written in future tense.

 

A mistake most new writers make quite a bit is tense inconsistency. Their stories will contain a ridiculous assortment of past tense and present tense verbs, and generally not because they’re daring metafictional pieces about time-travel. Tense mess ups like this are usually easy fixes, so just read through your story a few times to make sure no unintended time travelling occurs.

 

A more subtle and also harder-to-explain error is the mixing of the past and past perfect tenses. In my experience, mistakes of this sort are usually made by non-native English speakers.

[Editor’s note: The following is not really correct]

 

For example, “She knew the place well because she grew up there” should be “She knew the place well because she had grown up there”.

 

The word “grew”, while a past tense word, is one that is used in present tense sentences. For example, the sentence “He likes maple syrup because he grew up in Canada” is a present tense sentence in which a past event is referenced. If you said, “I like maple syrup because I grow up in Canada”, you’d get some strange looks.

 

When you convert a present tense sentence to the past tense, you need to convert all of its verbs and verb phrases to past tense versions of themselves, including “grew”, which becomes “had grown”. “He liked maple syrup because he had grown up in Canada.”

 

An often-overlooked part of getting tenses right is the proper use of words that refer to time. Words like “now”, “currently” and “today” should technically be avoided in past tense, because they are present tense words used to describe present tense happenings. So it’s often prudent to substitute “today” for “that day”. Substitute “now” and “currently” for “then”, or “at that moment”.

 

However, it is sometimes appropriate to use some of these words in a past tense narrative, and it has been done in published books. My recommendation is to be careful about using them, but not cut them out entirely. A well-placed “now” brings the reader closer to that point in the story, but mess it up and your story will be flip-flopping all over the timeline. The use of a “yesterday” or a “today” in the context of character thoughts has also been done, even in published fiction.

 

Style  

And now we get into the subjective part of my little guide – the part where I’m going to tell you a bit about how I write, what I like to read in the writing of others, and what little affectations I absolutely hate to see in any writing ever. It’s all opinions from here on in, but I like to think that I’ve substantiated most of them.

 

See how I started that first sentence with an “and”? While your schoolteachers may have drummed the incorrectness of doing so into your little heads, there is actually no language rule that says you aren’t allowed to start a sentence with the word “and” (or the word “but”, for that matter). However, this doesn’t mean that your teachers were completely insane, or that they made up rules to torment you with.

 

But I don’t think that they should have been quite so harsh on you. And anyway, doesn’t English already have enough rules? And starting sentences with “and” works nicely sometimes; there are cases – mostly in dialogue – where it feels natural. But it only works if it isn’t overused.

 

This little debate highlights the difference between grammar and style. Being a good little writer and following the rules of grammar, punctuation, and spelling doesn’t get you a gold star – it should be something writers do automatically, before even considering letting others look at their work. And even if your work is entirely grammatically correct, it may still be confusing or irritating to read.

 

Developing a good style is about learning how to manipulate the way you write to convey the ideas, feelings and worlds that you want to in a way that is clear and makes the reader want to read more. Unlike with grammar, there are no specific rules and systems that will guarantee you do things right every time, but there are a number of hints that can get you started.

 

 

Plot  

Yeah, I know, dat flank. Get that out of your system, and then we can talk about what the word “plot” used to mean, and have a gay old time doing so.

Without a plot, you have no story. You can still write without a plot, and a lot of people do, but you will not be writing a story, in the strictest terms. Still, there’s at least a small audience for in vignettes and anecdotes, at least if your writing and characterisation is vivid enough. But most people want to write stories.

 

In the simplest terms, a plot is a problem. A problem is introduced, conflict occurs, and then the situation is resolved. For example: Twilight Sparkle falls ill and needs a flower from the top of a mountain to get better. Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity travel to that mountain to procure that flower, and then the world ends and none of what came before matters anymore. That is a story (albeit one with an irritating resolution).

 

When you first start planning a story you’re going to write, the most important thing to consider is how it will end. Think of your problem, and then immediately think of its solution. I cannot overemphasis starting with the end firmly in mind, because stories do not resolve themselves, and just trying to “wing it” will lead you into an inescapable corner.²¹

As long as you keep the end in mind, you can do as much or as little planning as you want. It’s a very good idea to keep a set of notes and possibly a timeline when writing longer and more complicated stories, but there’s no real need to plan out every scene in detail before you start writing the first one. In fact, I’d discourage that practice simply because I find I often get my best ideas while writing (if I worked according to a rigid plan, I’d have to discard those, and that wouldn’t be much fun at all).

Know how your story’s going to end, start it as close to that ending as you can²², and fill in the details as you go. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the most common genres of pony fanfiction.

 

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Ok that's enough of a short view of the Guide, I Suggest you guys check it out for yourselves.

It's an excellent read for everypony wanting to write good Fan Fiction.

 

http://eznguide.rogerdodger.me/

^^^

The Guide

Edited March 6, 2013 by Dawn Rider

[duidamasterXD 9,626]

I saw this on FiMFiction a few days ago and I found it very helpful. Thank you for sharing it . I think everyone should read this

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,694]

This is a very good guide full of extremely useful information. I learned it all by 2nd or 3rd grade, as well as cursive, but then I wasn't in the public school system. xD

 

And never, EVER use "Cupcakes" as an example again.

Now I have to do it.

 

cupcaeks v2

by tailsisnotalone

omg hello fluttershy said pinkie pie. she was jumping up and down alot while flutter shy just looked at her to shy to say anything. um h-hi p-pinkie p-pie if thats ok she finally said shuffling a hoof nervosly on the floor. oh thats totally alright flutters you can always say hello to me, i love it when other ponies say hello! said pinkie. And especially when they let me lure them down into the basement and lock the door behind them that is just my favorite thing because then we can play the BEST games. you locked the door? asked fluttershy. now now dont be a shypie said pinkie cuz this is going to be fun! out of nowhere she pulled out a huge butchr knife. sorry said fluttershy i know your secret your not rly pinkie pie your sgt sprinkles who wrote the first cupcakes story. and your projecting your sick fantasys into a cartoon character when you rly shood be getting mental help. dawwwwwr ur no fun! said pinkie/sgt. ok enough now bgone evil fanfic writer spirit shouted fluttershy giving her the stare. pinkie fell over frothing at the mouth then got up and blinked. wow she said, what happened? an example of a rly bad fanfic said flutters shy, plus tailsisnotalone felt like makeing fun of cupcakes.

the end

[An Old Head 4,815]

Brilliant guide. Being an editor, I can show this to writers when explaining fan fiction elements. Very handy - thanks for sharing it!

Edited March 6, 2013 by Flipturn