Much like the guidelines for HTML I wrote earlier, I am not going to claim to be an expert on this issue. In fact, these were written with the help and talent of people with monumental skill compared to myself. You would think though, that even the most innocent of fan-fiction would employ some common sense. Writing is supposed to be enjoyable and fun, I'll give you that. However, writing is much more fun, and much more enjoyable if you know other people are enjoying something you had fun making. Nobody wants to read garbage, and nobody wants to be told their stuff is garbage, no matter how close to the truth it is. So, think of this guide as a set of recommendations, especially if you are new to writing fanfiction. Finally, before we dip into this guide, just a few editor notes. There is not going to be anything about pairings being "better" or anything like that. If you can feasibly create a reason why, then you have a reason why. This guide will also not use any direct link examples, nor will it directly quote. The later of the two requires permission, something I felt would be overboard for a simple guide, the former not providing reference for the reader should the link break. Finally, comments are encouraged, as they help this guide grow. Contribute respectfully, and be aware as lord and tyrant of this blog, I don't mind deleting things. Right, ready? Let's begin. Your Fic Idea Sucks Yes, it sucks, and it sucks bad. In fact, if you are just starting on a fic, you may as well throw away your first idea because some 20-odd people have already done it. Good ideas take a lot of planning to make them work right. If you think you have a solid idea, be sure you have a clear idea why your fiction idea is as good as you believe it to be. If you don't know what makes your Gundam Wing High School AU fic a good idea, then perhaps the GW HS AU fic isn't such a hot notion. Additionally, you shouldn't do a fic just because you think "Hey, I can do this better". In fact, this is how an author builds a cesspool of dirty fics that nobody wants to read. If you genuinely think you can do an idea better, you need to know what about your idea actually makes the fic better. As a general rule, attempts to "do better" than someone else using their idea not only fail miserably, but look like an obvious attempt to borrow someone's idea. To save you some obvious steps in thinking, here are fic ideas that have been hashed over so many times, Domo-kun kills a kitten every time you use them:
High School Alternate Universe: The characters from _________ (insert series/manga/etc) are in High School (teehee). Not only is this a bad idea, but I promise you, covering four years of high school in your fiction is going to be a boring read. Think about someone you know in High School and tell me with a straight face that you could chronicle all four of those years and made it a stellar entertaining read. If so, please tell me your school, I'd like to send my kids there so they would have stories for generations to come.
Original Character Love Fiction: Author creates Original Character, Original Character enters story, Character X suddenly and inexplicably falls in love with Original Character, end fic. If you are thinking of writing an Original Character fic, don't bitch me out about how your fic is new and different. It isn't. A good handful of OC fics fall into this far too overdone plot line. We will get to characters in a bit, but since we are talking about hashed-out plots, just look on a place like fanfiction.net and you will see a wealth of OC + series character fics for your amusement. And yes, many of the stories follow the above plot or...
Hurt / Comfort Fics: Character X gets hurt, Character Y comforts Character X, possible sex, end fic. This is another Original Character trap that happens, where the original character is either hurt or is the one comforting. Either way, it has been done, and probably about five times in either direction. While this isn't as bad as the "Original Character Love Fiction" it contains many of the same overused ideas. However, it is a bit easier to be creative with this idea.
Rape Fiction: A relatively new trend in fanfiction is to have Character X rape Character Y, the end result being them together for ever in what would appear to be "True Love". We will come back to this on characterization, but for now just accept the fact you won't be the first person to rape Character X in your fic, and probably won't be the last.
If the above list contains one of your "original" ideas, I think you may have just watched its originality be deflated. However, fear not! While this guide points out problems with fanfiction, it also points out suggestions for good things. Some ideas will always exist, and these are "Plot Fics" for lack of a better term. These are fics that cover events from an anime/manga/game/etc that while the audience knows they happened, were never written or expanded upon. One of the best examples of this kind of fic is from Slayers, called a "Bracelet Fic". At the end of Slayers TRY, Zelgadis is seen with Amelia's bracelet on his canteen. No explanation is made of how it is there, or why it is there, leaving development of this specific plot point to the author and their imagination. Bracelet fics are very common, but many manage to pick a unique angle or idea for their fic. If you are picking a "Plot fic" look around and see if others have attacked this plot point as well. If nothing else, you will see what ideas for your fic have been used. So now that you have gotten this far, and you have an idea, its time to talk characters. If someone sent you here and the above pissed you off, keep reading, it gets better (for one of us).
Who the hell is he/she acting like?! I'm going to be slightly bitchy about this, only because of the sheer number of bad characters I see in fanfiction on a regular basis. When it comes to characters, ask yourself a simple question: Is this how the character would really act? If you aren't sure, watch the anime, read the manga, play the game, do anything in your power to research the pre-created characters in your story. There is nothing more depressing than seeing a character who was otherwise cool be pussified because you can't bang out a sentence on the keyboard that even closely resembles what the character is really like. I know you claim you have freedom to portray the characters how you want, but you would have an easier time convincing me that Papa Smurf is really running an underground cocaine lab than you would convincing me that InuYasha will open his heart to Kagome every chance he gets. In this example, if you genuinely believe that InuYasha will act completely unlike his portrayal in the anime and the manga, then you have someone we refer to as Out of Character, or OOC. Having a character that acts nothing like the original creation wouldn't be bad, except that you no longer have the original creation anymore. In some fandoms, this is referred to as a "bastardization" of the character. In order to avoid "bastardization", ask yourself three questions about your character's actions.
1) has the character done this before?
2) has the character done anything like this before?
3) given what has been seen about the character, would the character ever do something like this?
If you just answered no three times, then you truly have someone that is OOC. The trick to writing a character from a series or manga effectively is to analyze them, much like you would analyze a book's theme or thesis. Look closely at what the character has done, and why they have done it. Would this propel a character to do what you have the character doing in your story? If you are still struggling with analyzing the character, look for fan sites with detailed character bios. By learning as much as you can about the character, it makes it easier to understand their motives, motivations, and behavior patterns. Now is also a very good time to come back to the "Rape Fic" idea from above. When dealing with character X raping character Y, you need to take a long hard look at character X and decide if he is the kind of person who would outright rape someone against their will. Characters who are on this list as misportrayed rapists include (but are by no means limited to): InuYasha from InuYasha, Neji from Naruto, Xelloss from Slayers, and Dilandau from Escaflowne just to name a few. While fierce, and perhaps unstable, they are not likely to go force themselves into anything that has a hole. Conversely, if you are having a main character be raped, you probably want to make sure your idea doesn't fall into one of the "been there done that" ideas from above. Many times, authors use rape as a plot device in their Hurt / Comfort fics. We will come back to rape fics again when we hit style, but that is for later.
In order to help with characterization, here are some web sites that help by providing character information to get you started. Naruto: The Naruto Guide Simply Naruto
One Piece: Unrivaled.info Destination Paradise
Escaflowne: Escaflowne Compendium
Slayers: Slayers Universe
InuYasha: "The Killing Perfection" (Sesshoumaru) "Yume No Kakera" (InuYasha) "Reincarnation" (Higurashi Kagome)
Additional links can be found here
If you don't see your anime on the list, add to the comments! Every fandom has resource sites, but to list them all would take forever. If you've been following along, congratulations, you have an idea, and you have an idea of how the characters are supposed to act. Now it is time to actually write. If you have reached this point, your good idea and your characterization are enough to carry even some of the worst syntactical writing. However, no matter how good the fic is, nobody is going to read it if they have to put any more effort into reading than they have to.
The Quick Guide to Style Sort of a guide within a guide, this section will help with developing your writing style. These are good guidelines that go beyond just fanfiction, but since this guide is mostly about fanfics, we will be using examples in reference to those. As a general rule, most writing is targeted for the 7th or 8th grade levels. You will see this level of diction (word choice) in magazines and in newspapers. This is the audience you must keep in mind while writing. However, writing for an eighth grader does not mean to write like one. If you are committed to writing a solid story, you will need to be clear and exact with your words, your descriptions, and your overall language. It's not always "he said, she said" in your dialogue, nor would it be that way in any other book. If you are unsure how a scene plays out, or how paragraphs are formed based on the situation, pick up a few books from the library and give them a once-over. The best reference for style is published works.
Also in the topic of style, especially in relation to fanfics is the use of Japanese words in the story. To generalize, use the Japanese word only if there is not an accurate equivalent to the word in English. "Baka" has an equivalent, as does "ano", so don't go throwing them around like a football. Certain words, however, do not have an English equal, for example "Nakama", used often in One Piece referring to a close companion / friend that is more than just a friend. If you are unsure if your word has a good English equivalent, the best person to ask is a Japanese major. If you don't know anyone that is majoring in Japanese, you can look for words left untranslated in fan-translations, or look for translation notes. In this same vein, it is safe to assume that any special attacks a character may have can be left in their original Japanese form.
Your diction drives your details, and your details drive the story. If you want a scene to appear a certain way, you need to describe it accurately, and to describe it accurately, you need the right words. Diction refers to a careful choice of words in a sentence. Take for example the words "fat", "obese", and "heavyset". All three words mean the same thing on a literal level, but all three carry very different meanings in context. This change in definition based on context is known as "connotation" and is crucial to forming good details. Picking the right words to describe setting, dialogue, and action will breathe life into your story. You don't have to just "say" things. Characters can remark, quip, gripe, mumble, exclaim, snarl, and many other things. But don't overdo it. It is just as easy to leave your story flat as it is to give it too many details. Often times, overdoing the diction in your story results in many absurd similes and metaphors. For example, "sweat dripping like diamonds" is a poor use of diction and detail. Not only does it imply that diamonds somehow drip, but it also over-glorifies the sweat. (This is, however, perfectly acceptable in a series where this is commonplace such as Slam Dunk.)
There are several other pieces of style to look at, and this guide is only a primer. To better understand writing style, there are five major components: diction, detail, syntax, organization, and point of view. They can be researched online, or you can start your learning at http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/.
The Spit Shine I applaud you if you are actually still reading by this point, as it means you are interesting in improving your work. Once everything is written, you are really just getting started, because now the tedious part begins. This is the part nobody likes to do, but makes all the difference in the world. Having someone look over your work is commonly called "beta reading". The purpose of a beta reader is to correct any grammar, style, or characterization errors before they emerge in the final document. I will hope you spell-checked your entry, so I won't cover that. However, having someone read your fic provides valuable insight from a perspective you will never have; the reader's perspective is the most important view of your work, since that is the view shared by everyone but you. The revision process can be sometimes short, but usually it will take 3-4 good reads at least before the fic starts to take on a solid shape. By this point, you will have had a solid idea, characters acting like they are supposed to, colorful language that isn't overbearing, and a grammatically sound and spell-checked story. And I promise you, if you actually do all this, you will have a decent piece of fanfiction on your hands.
Now that you are at the end, I want to remind everyone about the commenting for this post. If someone has anything really good to say, I will include it in the main document (with citation) and leave the comment intact. The purpose of this document is to help writers get better, especially when it comes to fanfiction. I am tyrant of this blog, and have no qualms about deleting your post(s). Feel free to point others to this link so that they can learn. If you talk about the contents of this post in your blog, use the manual trackback so other readers can follow the trackback to your site and keep reading.
In response to "The Fanfiction Writer’s Guide":
To add: section on original characters. It was late and I didn’t finish that part.