Of course, the critics have a point. Fan fiction could use quality improvements. Just because writing may be new to you, doesn’t mean you can ignore the foundations of good writing. You won’t be able to put the tools into practice immediately. After all, no one masters writing. To be cliched, writing remains an endless road without mile markers and ryokan instead of destinations.
So, as someone who has a long, long way to go in writing, I offer my 3 tips for writing better fan fiction.
1. Let Dialogue Stand
New writers feel the need to clarify the emotions and information of dialogue. For example:
“Let me go!” Rubrik shouted angrily and pushed Joe away.
“I love it,” she said. She loved teddy bears all her life.
Letting dialogue stand means trusting the reader to understand your intent. Dialogue is the most powerful means of expressing a character’s emotion. Let it do its work without tacking on explanations. If you don’t think the reader will get the emotion you want, change the dialogue so it is clear. Don’t explain. For example:
“Let me go!” Rubrik shoved Joe.
“I love it!” She hugged the teddy bear tight.
Action and dialogue work together to set the tone. Just as action can clarify dialogue, dialogue can clarify action.
“Did you see his reaction? You’re an ace. ” Rubrik shoved Joe.
“Oh, another bear. I love it.” She grasped the teddy bear by its neck.
Do you see how these sets of examples read stronger than the explained dialogue? Dialogue and its action need to stand without the props of explanations and adverbs. You’ve heard the adage, show don’t tell. Well, letting dialogue and action stand lets you do this. Let’s look at a telly example and a showy example.
He gazed at the willow tree. He felt happy whenever he stood under its branches. Every day when he left the field, he felt joy whenever he finally saw the tree. “Good evening,” he told the tree.
He gazed at the willow tree. He breathed the fresh scent and listened to branches rub against each other in the breeze. No matter how many times he saw the tree after working in the field all day, it calmed him and made him smile. “Good evening,” he told the tree.
Telling has a place in storytelling, but it’s boring when that’s all you rely upon. It’s better to let a character’s emotions come through their actions and reactions than tell the reader “she felt happy” or “she felt sad.” Have them cry. Have their shoulders slump. Have them frown, grin, and break things.
2. Avoid Adverbs and Weak Words
Speaking of adverbs, avoid ’em. Adverbs aren’t evil by any means. They can be useful, but they also require tact to use well. If used poorly (hey, look an adverb!), adverbs weaken otherwise strong words and phrases. For example:
That was really awesome! -> That was awesome!
Dinner was very good. -> Dinner was excellent.
He shouted angrily. -> He shouted.
Very remains the most overused adverb. People intend the word to increase the degree of another word, but most of the time the word already has a degree term. Good -> Excellent. Good->Great. Use the higher degree term instead of taping very to the base word. However, very, really, and other words can be used in dialogue as part of a character’s unique speech pattern:
“It’s really cold outside”
“That was cool, girl. Very cool.”
Action words move the story forward. Passive tense — is, are, was, and the like– halt a story. Whenever you read a passive statement, the story stops moving. If something is, it’s static.
Glenda is a brunette.
Glenda flipped her dark hair at him.
Passive voice and statements have a vital role to play. They convey information and direct a reader’s attention toward the subject instead of the action. But if you write only with passives, your story won’t move.
3. Know the Characters
Characters drive stories. It doesn’t matter if you write fan fiction or your own fiction. You need to know your characters. Few things pop a reader out of a story than inconsistent characters. Now, I don’t mean characters can act only in a certain way. Characters can suddenly (look another adverb!) act odd, but that odd act needs to be within the range of their behavior. You can’t have a nice, quiet, gentle character bludgeon someone to death without some hints of this possibility. Of course, with fan fiction you work with already established personalities; that means you have to work within those parameters. You can stretch those parameters through situations, but you can’t have a character abruptly change personality without alienating the reader.
Personality doesn’t change in a moment. It takes time and trials to shift. Some aspects of personality are biological and cannot be completely changed. You can’t make an introvert into an extrovert, for example. They can become more social, yes, but they cannot become an extrovert because biology determines an introvert’s neural structures. People bristle at the idea of limits, but limits are good for writing. Limits create conflict, and conflict makes stories interesting!
Remaining within a character’s personality may seem stifling, but limits stimulate creativity. You can do a lot inside a certain box. Think about how a character like Holo from Spice and Wolf would react in an extreme situation, say, being transported to the Enterprise from Star Trek. Holo meets Captain Kirk! But you will still have to make sure you know how the characters behave. Holo, for example, wouldn’t have patience for Kirk’s womanizing, but she would love tweaking Spock for a reaction.
Then you will have to consider how each character would change through their interactions. Most people don’t change drastically. But gradual changes add up.
Finally: practice!
Don’t be discouraged! To be cliched, writing is an endless journey. Enjoying the walk is what matters. You can only improve through practice. Reading tips like these and reading writing books plants the ideas behind the skills, but it’s up to you to practice them. You have to make them your own. Don’t fear failure. Writing trash is still writing. I’ve written a lot of trash. Just look around JP! But the only way to improve is to do.
And revise. Always revise your work. Don’t just dash it off and click publish. But don’t expect perfection either. I revise every article on JP before I publish. Yet, I always find typos, garbled sentences, and poor thinking whenever I revisit an article. Writing is a human endeavor. It will have human flaws, and that’s great! Perfection is boring. After all, the imperfect is perfectly imperfect. Besides, if you wrote perfectly, there would be no challenge, no room to improve. I’m drawn to writing because I can never be good at it. There will always be something I can improve. I don’t want to be perfect or to reach a destination. I want to travel and trip and stumble forever. And if you want to get into writing, fan fiction provides a great way to start your journey.
This is one of the first articles I’ve seen anywhere about fanfiction writing. As a sometime fanfiction writer it was interesting.
I’m surprised more fan fiction writers haven’t discussed it.