Fanfiction 101
So, I haven't gotten it all down yet. I'm not the greatest writer in the world. I've certainly made many a mistake. But maybe there should be some sort of standard for writing that we all have to pass. Probably not, but just listen to this semi-bitter fanfiction writing rant.
Let's start off with the basics. Spelling, grammar and punctuation. I am not perfect in this arena. I battle with proper tenses constantly. But it is important to properly use English when writing things you want other people to read. I know everyone's not the greatest at this and I know some people are using ESL, but there are ways around that.
1. WIP are evil. I know, I know, it's hard to finish things and when we post chapters and get feedback it inspires us to keep going. However, when you just post things as they come without waiting to create a coherent unit, then things are going to end up not making sense. I personally never start posting a story until I've finished writing it.
2. Beta readers are essential. I personally don't have one. Sometimes that can be a problem. For really important things I do try to get someone to look them over. But...point number one helps me with this, because I finish things and then edit them myself. Over and over again, sometimes for weeks before I post them. I leave them alone for a few weeks and then go back and look at it with fresh eyes so I can see what I couldn't see before. Other people are instrumental in helping us see what we can't see ourselves. Our brains automatically supply what we want to see. Writing is best as a collaborative process.
Now let's move on to the real motive for this little rant. Proper use of nicknames. It is incredibly important to have your characterization be accurate and to know the fandom you're writing in.
There are two extremes of this particular problem that drive me crazy. I will be using examples here, so feel free to not be offended because I'm not trying to go after you personally and this is my journal and I can say whatever I want...
1. Accentuating a one time event. So many times in a fandom there is a time when someone is called something once and then, for some reason, the entire fandom latches onto that name and uses it constantly. My primary example is in Buffy. In S3, Spike calls Angel Peaches AND NEVER DOES IT AGAIN. Never again in the whole of Buffy and Angel. Yet, almost every fanfic I read, I will see that used as Spike's preferred epithet for Angel. This is not good characterization. Another example and, feel free to correct me here because I'm new and old at this one, Smallville. The episode Justice, Oliver offhandedly calls Chloe Sidekick. Just once and though S7 and 8 were a long time ago for me, I just watched 9 & 10 where they were actually a couple and he did not call her that again. I've been voraciously reading Chlollie fanfic recently and every time, he's Sidekicking her all over the place, even in the fics that don't have anything to do with their secret identity, Justice League, superhero world.
One of my biggest hated nicknames is when Logan calls Veronica Ronnie. He called her that once in the pilot and in a very derogatory way. There's no way it can be logically used affectionately ever after. Now, I can make an exception if you're writing pre-show fic with the supposition that that's what the Fab Four used to call her and then it would make sense in the pilot that he was trying to hurt her.
Now...there are ways to get around this problem. The best way is to create a situation within your fic where your characters start calling each other something. Give them a reason to. I happen to really like it when Spikes calls Giles Dad, but aside from Something Blue and Tabula Rasa: extreme circumstances, he's never gonna do that. So in my fics I give him a reason to call Giles Dad and then have Giles object to it and then have Spike keep on doing it because he knows it upsets Giles. AU fics are very good for this because it's easy. You're creating new situations for your characters all the time. If you're really strictly writing from canon, then you have got to avoid this nickname pitfall. Know your character! Know your fandom!
It's easier with certain people. Spike, for example. He's a nicknamer. The most prevalent nicknamer ever perhaps, except for Sawyer. Watch out for point number two.
2. Overusing an established name. This is when we're trying to write a character and we overemphasize their personality traits, quirks or speech habits to try and make it seem like we know how to write them. It's hard work, I understand that. But we often end up completely missing the character in the midst of all the dressing and prove we don't actually know them. I'm speaking primarily about how they talk and address people. One example, in Deep Space Nine, Sisko calls Dax Old Man. It is an established nickname for her. He calls her that often, maybe at least once an episode. But a lot of fic I've read has him call her Old Man every time he addresses her and that's just not accurate. A second example is in Dark Angel with Original Cindy who calls Max her boo. Quite often, a lot of the time. OC has a very unique way of speaking, but she does not say boo at the beginning and end of her sentences. We're trying so hard to speak like her that even she wouldn't understand what we are trying to say.
Even more dangerous is someone like Spike who almost never uses proper names but doesn't always have an established name he uses for people. He frequently calls people by their titles so it's pretty safe to use Slayer for Buffy and Watcher for Giles, but be careful to avoid overdoing it when you have him call Xander whelp or Dawn Nibblet.
Know your character! Know your fandom! I don't know if this works for anyone else, but when I'm going to be writing someone, I like to watch a lot of that show or that movie and just immerse myself in them. Then I just start involuntarily talking like them, my thoughts sound like them. But even if it didn't inspire me, I would still know what I was talking about because I'd done my research. Be careful, observe how often a nickname is used. Think about the way you talk, it's not natural to call somebody by even their proper name every time you talk to them.
3.Wrong character using a nickname. Sometimes characters have established nicknames and that's okay, but think about who's going to use them in your fic. Some people just aren't nickname people and it sounds weird for them to use them. My example is Clark from Smallville. Even though Lois and Chloe are frequently called Lo and Chlo by each other, when he does it, it just sounds weird. And if you're in that fandom, it's perfectly all right for Lois and Chloe to call each other Lois and Chloe most of the time see re: above #2.
To fix this problem. Know your character! Know your fandom!
That's the other thing to think about when you're writing. Sometimes we're so concerned with making it obvious who's talking and to whom that we forget that our readers are intelligent people and that they know the show too and that they presumably are going to know how English is supposed to look like written. When there's only two people talking, you don't need to say names unless it's natural.
1. Please start a new paragraph every time someone new starts talking.
2. Please enclose all of your spoken dialogue in quotation marks and then put a comma inside the end one before you announce who's speaking. ie "I think I'll go for a walk," Buffy said.
3. Please put commas before and after addressing someone. ie "Chloe, that's a nice dress." or "That's a nice dress, Chloe."
4. If someone's name ends in S ie Giles, when you are talking about a possession of Giles', it's written Giles' not Giles's.
5. You're means you are. Your means Your. Ross says it better than anyone.
6. Be consistent with your tenses. If you're talking about something that occurred in the past, all of your words need to be in the past tense form.
7. You can only write from one person's point of view at a time. If you want to describe what two different people are feeling during a particular scene then either go back and rewrite it again from the other person's perspective or clearly cut the scene in two and then go back to the scene speaking only from their POV. It took me a long time to figure that one out.
ETA: I just had to edit my own entry. I found all sorts of problems with it. And I had gone back and edited it twice before. See! Also, I added one more point that I'd neglected to mention.
It's just so frustrating to find a fic and want to read it and have it be excellently plotty and fun or suitably angsty but to not be able to enjoy it because you spend the whole time thinking about how you could've written it better.
And I'm pretty sure there's no one on my f-list that this could be directed towards, so no worries. I just needed to get that off my chest.
Let's start off with the basics. Spelling, grammar and punctuation. I am not perfect in this arena. I battle with proper tenses constantly. But it is important to properly use English when writing things you want other people to read. I know everyone's not the greatest at this and I know some people are using ESL, but there are ways around that.
1. WIP are evil. I know, I know, it's hard to finish things and when we post chapters and get feedback it inspires us to keep going. However, when you just post things as they come without waiting to create a coherent unit, then things are going to end up not making sense. I personally never start posting a story until I've finished writing it.
2. Beta readers are essential. I personally don't have one. Sometimes that can be a problem. For really important things I do try to get someone to look them over. But...point number one helps me with this, because I finish things and then edit them myself. Over and over again, sometimes for weeks before I post them. I leave them alone for a few weeks and then go back and look at it with fresh eyes so I can see what I couldn't see before. Other people are instrumental in helping us see what we can't see ourselves. Our brains automatically supply what we want to see. Writing is best as a collaborative process.
Now let's move on to the real motive for this little rant. Proper use of nicknames. It is incredibly important to have your characterization be accurate and to know the fandom you're writing in.
There are two extremes of this particular problem that drive me crazy. I will be using examples here, so feel free to not be offended because I'm not trying to go after you personally and this is my journal and I can say whatever I want...
1. Accentuating a one time event. So many times in a fandom there is a time when someone is called something once and then, for some reason, the entire fandom latches onto that name and uses it constantly. My primary example is in Buffy. In S3, Spike calls Angel Peaches AND NEVER DOES IT AGAIN. Never again in the whole of Buffy and Angel. Yet, almost every fanfic I read, I will see that used as Spike's preferred epithet for Angel. This is not good characterization. Another example and, feel free to correct me here because I'm new and old at this one, Smallville. The episode Justice, Oliver offhandedly calls Chloe Sidekick. Just once and though S7 and 8 were a long time ago for me, I just watched 9 & 10 where they were actually a couple and he did not call her that again. I've been voraciously reading Chlollie fanfic recently and every time, he's Sidekicking her all over the place, even in the fics that don't have anything to do with their secret identity, Justice League, superhero world.
One of my biggest hated nicknames is when Logan calls Veronica Ronnie. He called her that once in the pilot and in a very derogatory way. There's no way it can be logically used affectionately ever after. Now, I can make an exception if you're writing pre-show fic with the supposition that that's what the Fab Four used to call her and then it would make sense in the pilot that he was trying to hurt her.
Now...there are ways to get around this problem. The best way is to create a situation within your fic where your characters start calling each other something. Give them a reason to. I happen to really like it when Spikes calls Giles Dad, but aside from Something Blue and Tabula Rasa: extreme circumstances, he's never gonna do that. So in my fics I give him a reason to call Giles Dad and then have Giles object to it and then have Spike keep on doing it because he knows it upsets Giles. AU fics are very good for this because it's easy. You're creating new situations for your characters all the time. If you're really strictly writing from canon, then you have got to avoid this nickname pitfall. Know your character! Know your fandom!
It's easier with certain people. Spike, for example. He's a nicknamer. The most prevalent nicknamer ever perhaps, except for Sawyer. Watch out for point number two.
2. Overusing an established name. This is when we're trying to write a character and we overemphasize their personality traits, quirks or speech habits to try and make it seem like we know how to write them. It's hard work, I understand that. But we often end up completely missing the character in the midst of all the dressing and prove we don't actually know them. I'm speaking primarily about how they talk and address people. One example, in Deep Space Nine, Sisko calls Dax Old Man. It is an established nickname for her. He calls her that often, maybe at least once an episode. But a lot of fic I've read has him call her Old Man every time he addresses her and that's just not accurate. A second example is in Dark Angel with Original Cindy who calls Max her boo. Quite often, a lot of the time. OC has a very unique way of speaking, but she does not say boo at the beginning and end of her sentences. We're trying so hard to speak like her that even she wouldn't understand what we are trying to say.
Even more dangerous is someone like Spike who almost never uses proper names but doesn't always have an established name he uses for people. He frequently calls people by their titles so it's pretty safe to use Slayer for Buffy and Watcher for Giles, but be careful to avoid overdoing it when you have him call Xander whelp or Dawn Nibblet.
Know your character! Know your fandom! I don't know if this works for anyone else, but when I'm going to be writing someone, I like to watch a lot of that show or that movie and just immerse myself in them. Then I just start involuntarily talking like them, my thoughts sound like them. But even if it didn't inspire me, I would still know what I was talking about because I'd done my research. Be careful, observe how often a nickname is used. Think about the way you talk, it's not natural to call somebody by even their proper name every time you talk to them.
3.Wrong character using a nickname. Sometimes characters have established nicknames and that's okay, but think about who's going to use them in your fic. Some people just aren't nickname people and it sounds weird for them to use them. My example is Clark from Smallville. Even though Lois and Chloe are frequently called Lo and Chlo by each other, when he does it, it just sounds weird. And if you're in that fandom, it's perfectly all right for Lois and Chloe to call each other Lois and Chloe most of the time see re: above #2.
To fix this problem. Know your character! Know your fandom!
That's the other thing to think about when you're writing. Sometimes we're so concerned with making it obvious who's talking and to whom that we forget that our readers are intelligent people and that they know the show too and that they presumably are going to know how English is supposed to look like written. When there's only two people talking, you don't need to say names unless it's natural.
1. Please start a new paragraph every time someone new starts talking.
2. Please enclose all of your spoken dialogue in quotation marks and then put a comma inside the end one before you announce who's speaking. ie "I think I'll go for a walk," Buffy said.
3. Please put commas before and after addressing someone. ie "Chloe, that's a nice dress." or "That's a nice dress, Chloe."
4. If someone's name ends in S ie Giles, when you are talking about a possession of Giles', it's written Giles' not Giles's.
5. You're means you are. Your means Your. Ross says it better than anyone.
6. Be consistent with your tenses. If you're talking about something that occurred in the past, all of your words need to be in the past tense form.
7. You can only write from one person's point of view at a time. If you want to describe what two different people are feeling during a particular scene then either go back and rewrite it again from the other person's perspective or clearly cut the scene in two and then go back to the scene speaking only from their POV. It took me a long time to figure that one out.
ETA: I just had to edit my own entry. I found all sorts of problems with it. And I had gone back and edited it twice before. See! Also, I added one more point that I'd neglected to mention.
It's just so frustrating to find a fic and want to read it and have it be excellently plotty and fun or suitably angsty but to not be able to enjoy it because you spend the whole time thinking about how you could've written it better.
And I'm pretty sure there's no one on my f-list that this could be directed towards, so no worries. I just needed to get that off my chest.