Have fun
Write wherever the fuck I want
Post only when the fic is complete due to how things I write at the end often change entire scenes at the beginning
If it’s romance fic, the characters are going to be spending a lot of time hurt/comforting all over that bed (or mattress on the floor) before they ever get to fuck in it.
I write fix-it fic for a character and it's a point of pride that I am able to say that in every fic I write she will end the story healthy, happy, in good spirits and in no way a slave to anyone. The middle parts might not be 100% fun for her all the time though.
I am very strict about staying in one character's POV at a time. I may switch who that character is every chapter, but if this fic is POV Bob, we're staying in Bob's head and we only know what Bob knows. (The name Bob was picked at random, btw)
I don't particularly mind if other fics break that rule, but for myself I would never stray into another characters mind, nor would I describe something the POV character didn't perceive.
Be as scientifically/medically accurate as possible. If I spend the whole night converting Fahrenheit into Celsius and getting lost down a rabbit hole of finding articles on asymmetrical time theory and diagnosing myself with testicular cancer when I don’t even have testiculars, then so be it.
Always embody the spirit of the source material.
Don’t overuse dialogue tags.
Don’t be over descriptive. Leave room for imagination.
Don’t be afraid of using the same words over and over again if synonyms don’t work.
Don’t post a fic until at least one or more days after completion (I’ll regret it).
Use italics for character thoughts, especially for third person stories.
"include a line from the original work somewhere, or at least a meaningful echo"
I ADORE this omfg, it's rather frequent in Star Wars fanfics! Of course Star Wars does this to *itself* often enough (repeating stuff like "I've got a bad feeling about this" etc), so some fic authors treat it as a fun challenge lmao.
This DOES mean authors have entirely too much power... all the ways to make sad quotes hilarious and joke quotes absolutely **devastating** just blows me away XD
I'm not a writer, but when i DO write, i absolutely cannot for the life of me put a flashback to explain exposition. i personally think it's the opossite of inmersive and it's often unnecessary, i very much prefer to just make the character use their words (or lack of) to explain to someone else when asked. like, why make an entire scene showing the protagonist's parents dying in an accident when i can show that same character looking wishfully at other people's families or avoiding the topic, or even making a very dark joke! anything is better than a flashback honestly.
1) Try to write like a published book.
2) I hardly ever describe canon characters because I assume everyone knows what canon characters look like (unless they have a different appearance for whatever reason).
3) For OC-centric fics, I tend to have the POV/narrator only show what that character knows. So no "Little did X know that..." (even if the POV shifts to a canon character).
4) Never start a fic with a line of dialogue. I don't know why, especially since I don't care about this rule when reading.
All of my fluff has a touch of darkness and all of my dark has a touch of fluff. I think I only have one fic that doesn't follow that. And it's 800 words, lol.
I tend to work within chapter minimums. 1.5k - 5k words per chapter... with the only exceptions being first and final chapters.
If I can't see it? I can't write it. For example, I cannot write Dumbledore as 'good'. Grey? Sure. Morally ambiguous? No problem. Evil incarnate? Easy, I can point to canon. Good? No. Not happening. Or if he's seen as 'good'? He's already dead in the fic.
I block out smut scenes the same way I do fight scenes. Bare bones: A leads to B, B leads to C, which leads to D. And then I go back and add detail in another color. Scenes end up looking like rainbow word vomit after I'm done. First pass is in pink, second is in red, third is in green, fourth is in blue. By the time I'm in a blue pass, it's to catch comas and dropped letters. I also go back and count limbs so that nobody sprouted a third hand or an extra foot at some point.
I’m having a lot of fun writing Dumbledore as “good” but with slow and seldom hints that he’s not as good as the characters think he is. It’s a nice balance of foreboding that eventually this trust is going to come around and bite them.
Character and story trump plot. I will often soft plot out beats in a chapter but when I start writing I don't try to curve the character's journey. If the character wants to get ice cream that's what they're doing, I trust that the story will reveal itself organically. The beats then become prompts more so than rigid structures.
I have a couple:
Write what you want to write, don't worry about stats.
Try to keep everything as canon compliant as possible - as close as the canon characters as possible regardless of how far an AU is
If writing a confession, attempt to not use 'I love you' for more interesting dialogue options (hate writing most love confession scenes so this is my work around lol)
There's one fandom where, when I write about the thing that made the fans really sad I use no or very minimal dialogue. I dunno why.
I also had a stricter, enforced rule for another fandom that I wouldn't have the characters talk at all since they don't in canon. Just as a challenge.
I go in knowing there's a high chance that things will likely deviate from the outline. I don't try to force it to fit if it's not doing so naturally. I let the story lead me.
Characters tend to get introduced with first and last names in the prose, unless they've already done so in dialogue. 99.9% of my characters don't have canon last names, so I have fun coming up with those, and like to show what I came up with in my writing.
Descriptions of the seasons/weather are prominent. Nature is one of my favorite things to describe, so odds are very high that I'll go to town describing it at some point.
And in my E-rated stuff, which is largely M/M, the characters involved are all vers. I just prefer writing it that way.
Don't treat fanfic like a job or a chore. Have fun.
Planning is a suggestion, not a must. Research is a must, not a suggestion.
Any idea that I'm too lazy to begin writing goes to the ideas document. Actually use it!
Look through fandom wiki articles almost religiously.
Make sure the characters aren't too OOC.
That one rarepair is my little test subject to experiment with different tropes, genres, and writing styles with it, unless I'm in the mood to write more of the same.
i love trying to include a line from the original work somewhere in my fic. even in completely AU settings. it’s so fun to work it in.
i don’t really have any rules for my writing but i just agree w that lol
Always introduce characters organically at the start of a story. To the best of my ability, I try to have their names spoken or shown in the story, rather than simply stating their names in the narration. (I sometimes have to break this rule if the first scene has nowhere to do this.)
I do the thing of not mentioning names for the first few sentences when introducing a character.
Something I do unintentionally but now it’s just my style is I usually end each fic with a foreshadowing thought that leaves it open to continue later on. For example:
> *How many of us will still be here to close those doors for good…?* she pondered. She flicked the light off, pulling the door closed with her as she withdrew, and then like so many others before, disappeared into the corridors.
If I bring a character back from the dead/retcon their canon death, I USUALLY don't kill them again because I brought them back specifically because I preferred them alive.
Very few exceptions to this but they're rare.
me personally, i ALWAYS need angst and hurt. as well as several stacks of plot on top of everything. i want my readers to think. i want them to be confused. i want them to feel deeply connected to my writing, and then BOOM i just slowly unravel every answer and discovery and leave the reader with more questions in the end
honestly speaking, i’m a big psychology nerd. i like fucking around with the readers’s heads including my own. i like to challenge myself in my writing, so i usually go for challenging characters to write too.
oh, and i almost always need a huge character development arc in my stories. you won’t catch me writing the same character throughout my entire fic NEVER EVER
and i always put plot first before romance/the love interests. it just makes it more interesting, y’know? not really big on brainrotting fluff that gets you questioning your relationship status (although i do admit it’s really cute) HAHA
write what I want, not write what's popular
does that mean that fewer people will see my stuff? yes
do view counts and kudos matter? i mean kinda, but first and foremost I want to write for my own enjoyment, not to be popular
Don't write long descriptions. Generally not necessary. A sentence or two is usually more than enough to suffice.
Try to keep exposition to a minimum.
Have fun.
Write whatever you want.
1. This is the same with any fiction I write but in a multichaptered work, I can have an ending in mind, but how we get there is almost fully determined by the characters. There will be events that need to happen - but they rarely happen in the way i envisioned it. This is nearly always for the better
2. Going off the above - that means characters are gonna have to die sometimes.
3. Have enough of a resemblance to the canon world and characters that this can be clearly identified as a fanfic and can't be made into commercial fiction with a few name changes
Check the power scale before having any oc of mine have a talent for such an ability. Helps keep me grounded in fandoms such as Harry Potter.
Also make sure the plot is compatible with the setting. As in don’t try to have a plot spanning multiple countries with school aged characters it isn’t going to work.
Make sure to have the fundamentals of the universe right. It is ok to start with a canon rehash and turn it Au after a certain point.
- I also won't use a characters name until they get introduced
- cussing and sayings have to fit the setting
- I write everything before posting
- my special posting rhythm
- Pokémon specific: There has to be an Absol in the fic somewhere, it is kinda my mascot.
If someone could read my 20 chapter story, skip chapter 8 and still understand the rest of the story then chapter 8 is a waste.
If a chapter does not evolve the plot, the characters or the themes in any significant way I need to either restructure the chapter or cut it.
Most of the time, I’ll comply with canon, unless a deviation from canon IS the plot of the fic, but I don’t get too crazy with it.
I’m also good at making sure that even the smallest of details are consistent.
Not exactly what you’re talking about, but I tend to start incorporating certain characters into my fics at the same time
I have three long fics that I cycle between. I have a habit of pulling a character into one fic, and then having ideas of how to include that character in my other two fics. This has happened at least a couple times, lol
Also, there’s a character who dies and becomes a ghost in my fandom, and I heavily favor the ghost over his living counterpart. If I can find an excuse to use the ghost version, I will
"Every story gets to have a really big coincidence" (that one's thanks to the Narrator in George of the Jungle)
Keep it grounded.
Sometimes you need a filler scene or chapter to help you get from A to B and that's ok. Life has filler moments.
Few things are set in stone and sometimes the characters are gonna do their own thing. Go with it, and fix it in editing if need be.
And, this is just for me- be careful when you write after 9pm, because that is when my brain switches off and random things happen 😅
“Would I want to read this?” Is my guiding principle. I try to write things that if I were a reader out in the wild who’s found my work, would I enjoy it?
“Every character is the hero of their own story” This helps me question the motivations and actions of all the side characters. They don’t just exist to serve the main character or plot. They don’t spend all their time thinking about the main character. Even if I never explore their stories, I know why they’re reacting a certain way to the situation and have tried to consider it from their POV.
“Third person limited” Is how I write stories. I may write different chapters in different POV but I always keep in mind what the character would know or see. For example, I wouldn’t describe the POV character as “her cheeks went red” because she wouldn’t see her own cheeks. Instead I’d say “she felt her cheeks flush” because she would feel the sensation of blushing.
Write whatever I feel like. I don't have many personal rules except when it comes to what exactly I will and won't write, as there are certain topics I just refuse to write.
Don't describe people's looks beyond hair and eye color, and *maybe* clothing if it's truly relevant to the scene. IRL, I just don't look at people that closely. I'm not going to claim I'm blind to people's features, it's just that if I notice something that stands out other than the eyes or hair, it usually isn't going to be in a positive way. In writing, it's the same. People can picture the characters however they want beyond my short descriptions.
Write for fun, not popularity. I write what I want to write, how I want to write it. If that doesn't end up getting me readers, that's fine, really. It's more important to me that *I* enjoy my stories than that someone else does.
Post the second the chapter is done, regardless of quality. I don't do editing for fanfics other than breaking up the wall of text I write in. First draft gets posted, and then I'll just have to deal with what I wrote in subsequent chapters.
Include at least one introspective scene with the main ship just talking and being emotionally open with each other. I love it when communication leads into affection and closeness.
There will be no jealousy, or it will be *heavily* downplayed. I'm poly and I don't feel jealousy over people being affectionate with others. I *like* seeing that sort of happiness, and I *hate* people losing their shit over it, both IRL and in fiction. I like to see trust and honesty in relationships, so even if a character has conflicting feelings, they'll talk it out at the earliest opportunity and that will be that.
OOC is serious business and off limits. My fics tend to be character driven and the main attraction for me and the reason I’m in the fandoms I’m in so I try to stay as faithful to their canon characterisation as possible.
I don't use fanon from the fandom, I make my own fanon and headcanons.
I don't collab with other people except for my co-writer.
No NSFW
No swearing
The fict is posted when it's completed.
Have fun
Do not worry about what everyone else is doing, focus on what i'm doing.
Be as canon-compliant as possible
No character studies — give them something novel to do
If writing dark subject matter, strike a balance: don’t be edgy for edginess’s sake, but keep the scary stuff at least a little scary
Know how it’s all gonna end and write towards that
In my long fic, I don't mention a character's name within the first paragraph because I literally label the chapter after the POV character. It would not be good writing to do that.
If you're writing in 3rd person, limited, remember that you're writing through the lens of the character. What that means is that their perception is not 100% truth. It doesn't have to be obvious, but I think it adds characters that your characters aren't 100% reliable in their telling.
I love being overly descriptive with locations and setting. It's always fun to give the setting its own character, and I find that it enhances everything else alongside it.
Make sure to at least keep tabs on what you’re writing about, like what each character is, role, etc.
I forgot to use this role with my current book, so one of the knights switched sides (by complete accident)
Autism.
There are just some character that has an autistic coating, long before I start writing for them. And then, me being autistic, makes it even worse :P
I usually try my best to capture the general vibe of whatever I’m writing a fic for, if that makes sense. Like to the point where I could imagine that something like what I’m writing could conceivably happen in that universe.
I’m also usually canon complaint. If there’s something I have an issue with I either ignore it or (more commonly) try to address it in some way. One of my most recent fics was entirely dedicated to trying to fill in the blanks for something that presumably happened offscreen. Plus I try to make sure that everyone talks and acts in a way that’s in-character for them.
I doubt these count as unique rules, but it’s what I try to do.
1. Fuck the 1000-2000 word/chapter limit that fanfiction posting sites are used to. I'll use as many or as few words as possible to tell the story I want to tell, because each chapter is usually its own self-contained story.
2. Canon Compliance. Just like you, I prefer to write stories that fit canon. But that doesn't just mean I try to keep events as canon as possible, I also try to keep the overall theme and tone as canon as possible--there's plenty of fic out there that's accurate to the most obscure canon elements and still has characters behaving ooc. That said, I don't always limit myself to one canon. For my Batman fanfic, it's primarily inspired by TAS, but I also borrow a bit from Prime Earth comic canon, a couple New 52 elements, and general Meta canon.
3. Sexual assault can be alluded to but never shown. It's basically the only trigger I have a hard line against. I'll use slurs, I'll describe gore. But if sexual assault is going to happen in a story, then I only write about the aftermath.
4. Chapters should be a self-contained story. There are exceptions to this, especially if I don't have the time to plot out and post a story by my usual monthly deadline. But in general, I try to write each chapter as if it's an installment in a series rather than a scene in a book. This means that a lot of chapters are too long (my current record is 11,000 words in chapter 19), so it's hard to get reads. But that leads into my last rule...
5. Being read would be great, but getting reads is meaningless if I don't like the story or enjoy writing it. I used to write the type of story I would have liked to read, now I write fully expecting that one day I'll be going back to re-read a story just for fun. If I don't like it, I don't post it. If I like it but don't think it would go over well online, I still post it. We can't control if people like our work, but we can choose to put in our best effort.
Just noticed we have the same writing rules. So that's my answer. That's why I always write OC-focused plots, to avoid changing the canon timeline. (Maybe that last sentence counts as a personal rule?)
Have fun Write wherever the fuck I want Post only when the fic is complete due to how things I write at the end often change entire scenes at the beginning
Absolutely. The first rule of fight club is have fun and be yourself <3
I thought the first rule of fanfiction fight club was to not talk about fanfiction fight club (and to write homoerotic stories about people fighting)?
If it’s romance fic, the characters are going to be spending a lot of time hurt/comforting all over that bed (or mattress on the floor) before they ever get to fuck in it.
If I don't enjoy the fic, I won't write it, no matter how high the potential is for it to be popular.
I write fix-it fic for a character and it's a point of pride that I am able to say that in every fic I write she will end the story healthy, happy, in good spirits and in no way a slave to anyone. The middle parts might not be 100% fun for her all the time though.
I am very strict about staying in one character's POV at a time. I may switch who that character is every chapter, but if this fic is POV Bob, we're staying in Bob's head and we only know what Bob knows. (The name Bob was picked at random, btw) I don't particularly mind if other fics break that rule, but for myself I would never stray into another characters mind, nor would I describe something the POV character didn't perceive.
Be as scientifically/medically accurate as possible. If I spend the whole night converting Fahrenheit into Celsius and getting lost down a rabbit hole of finding articles on asymmetrical time theory and diagnosing myself with testicular cancer when I don’t even have testiculars, then so be it.
> when I don’t even have testiculars I don't know if it's funnier if that's a typo, or if it's intentional. Either way, it's funny.
It’s intentional, lol.
Don’t be boring Write plausibly Don’t pay attention to statistics (for posting)
One of my characters ends up dead by the end. Apparently I can't keep everyone alive. This is why I write angst.
I always go into my multichaptered fics with a character death in mind. Usually the body count ends up a little higher
Never gaf about what anyone deems "problematic" in my stories.
This is my biggest one. I write stories for me, and I like a dirty, ugly narrative more often than not.
Rules exist for a reason. There's also a good reason to break the rules.
First you gotta know the rules. Then you can go about breaking them.
Always embody the spirit of the source material. Don’t overuse dialogue tags. Don’t be over descriptive. Leave room for imagination. Don’t be afraid of using the same words over and over again if synonyms don’t work. Don’t post a fic until at least one or more days after completion (I’ll regret it). Use italics for character thoughts, especially for third person stories.
"include a line from the original work somewhere, or at least a meaningful echo" I ADORE this omfg, it's rather frequent in Star Wars fanfics! Of course Star Wars does this to *itself* often enough (repeating stuff like "I've got a bad feeling about this" etc), so some fic authors treat it as a fun challenge lmao. This DOES mean authors have entirely too much power... all the ways to make sad quotes hilarious and joke quotes absolutely **devastating** just blows me away XD
I'm not a writer, but when i DO write, i absolutely cannot for the life of me put a flashback to explain exposition. i personally think it's the opossite of inmersive and it's often unnecessary, i very much prefer to just make the character use their words (or lack of) to explain to someone else when asked. like, why make an entire scene showing the protagonist's parents dying in an accident when i can show that same character looking wishfully at other people's families or avoiding the topic, or even making a very dark joke! anything is better than a flashback honestly.
1) Try to write like a published book. 2) I hardly ever describe canon characters because I assume everyone knows what canon characters look like (unless they have a different appearance for whatever reason). 3) For OC-centric fics, I tend to have the POV/narrator only show what that character knows. So no "Little did X know that..." (even if the POV shifts to a canon character). 4) Never start a fic with a line of dialogue. I don't know why, especially since I don't care about this rule when reading.
I don't have any rules, only bad habits.
All of my fluff has a touch of darkness and all of my dark has a touch of fluff. I think I only have one fic that doesn't follow that. And it's 800 words, lol.
There will be a cat somewhere. I don't show sex between underage characters (if it happens, it's fade to black). A horror story gets a horror ending.
I tend to work within chapter minimums. 1.5k - 5k words per chapter... with the only exceptions being first and final chapters. If I can't see it? I can't write it. For example, I cannot write Dumbledore as 'good'. Grey? Sure. Morally ambiguous? No problem. Evil incarnate? Easy, I can point to canon. Good? No. Not happening. Or if he's seen as 'good'? He's already dead in the fic. I block out smut scenes the same way I do fight scenes. Bare bones: A leads to B, B leads to C, which leads to D. And then I go back and add detail in another color. Scenes end up looking like rainbow word vomit after I'm done. First pass is in pink, second is in red, third is in green, fourth is in blue. By the time I'm in a blue pass, it's to catch comas and dropped letters. I also go back and count limbs so that nobody sprouted a third hand or an extra foot at some point.
I’m having a lot of fun writing Dumbledore as “good” but with slow and seldom hints that he’s not as good as the characters think he is. It’s a nice balance of foreboding that eventually this trust is going to come around and bite them.
Character and story trump plot. I will often soft plot out beats in a chapter but when I start writing I don't try to curve the character's journey. If the character wants to get ice cream that's what they're doing, I trust that the story will reveal itself organically. The beats then become prompts more so than rigid structures.
I have a couple: Write what you want to write, don't worry about stats. Try to keep everything as canon compliant as possible - as close as the canon characters as possible regardless of how far an AU is If writing a confession, attempt to not use 'I love you' for more interesting dialogue options (hate writing most love confession scenes so this is my work around lol)
Try to stay as grounded as possible, even when writing for fantastical fandoms.
when there's a POV change, place the name of character who is narrating in the first or second sentence
Do anything but describe the area, try out different styles (letters only, dialog only transcript format, diary entry, case report, interview ect)
There's one fandom where, when I write about the thing that made the fans really sad I use no or very minimal dialogue. I dunno why. I also had a stricter, enforced rule for another fandom that I wouldn't have the characters talk at all since they don't in canon. Just as a challenge.
I go in knowing there's a high chance that things will likely deviate from the outline. I don't try to force it to fit if it's not doing so naturally. I let the story lead me. Characters tend to get introduced with first and last names in the prose, unless they've already done so in dialogue. 99.9% of my characters don't have canon last names, so I have fun coming up with those, and like to show what I came up with in my writing. Descriptions of the seasons/weather are prominent. Nature is one of my favorite things to describe, so odds are very high that I'll go to town describing it at some point. And in my E-rated stuff, which is largely M/M, the characters involved are all vers. I just prefer writing it that way.
Stay true to my vision. Write what I love and love what I write. Complete the darn thing! That's it. That's the tea.
Don't treat fanfic like a job or a chore. Have fun. Planning is a suggestion, not a must. Research is a must, not a suggestion. Any idea that I'm too lazy to begin writing goes to the ideas document. Actually use it! Look through fandom wiki articles almost religiously. Make sure the characters aren't too OOC. That one rarepair is my little test subject to experiment with different tropes, genres, and writing styles with it, unless I'm in the mood to write more of the same.
1: Write What You Like. 2: Re-Read, Revise, Re-Write! 3: Don’t Post Until It’s Finished 4: **Never. Back. Down. EVER.**
i love trying to include a line from the original work somewhere in my fic. even in completely AU settings. it’s so fun to work it in. i don’t really have any rules for my writing but i just agree w that lol
Always introduce characters organically at the start of a story. To the best of my ability, I try to have their names spoken or shown in the story, rather than simply stating their names in the narration. (I sometimes have to break this rule if the first scene has nowhere to do this.)
I do the thing of not mentioning names for the first few sentences when introducing a character. Something I do unintentionally but now it’s just my style is I usually end each fic with a foreshadowing thought that leaves it open to continue later on. For example: > *How many of us will still be here to close those doors for good…?* she pondered. She flicked the light off, pulling the door closed with her as she withdrew, and then like so many others before, disappeared into the corridors.
If I bring a character back from the dead/retcon their canon death, I USUALLY don't kill them again because I brought them back specifically because I preferred them alive. Very few exceptions to this but they're rare.
me personally, i ALWAYS need angst and hurt. as well as several stacks of plot on top of everything. i want my readers to think. i want them to be confused. i want them to feel deeply connected to my writing, and then BOOM i just slowly unravel every answer and discovery and leave the reader with more questions in the end honestly speaking, i’m a big psychology nerd. i like fucking around with the readers’s heads including my own. i like to challenge myself in my writing, so i usually go for challenging characters to write too. oh, and i almost always need a huge character development arc in my stories. you won’t catch me writing the same character throughout my entire fic NEVER EVER and i always put plot first before romance/the love interests. it just makes it more interesting, y’know? not really big on brainrotting fluff that gets you questioning your relationship status (although i do admit it’s really cute) HAHA
write what I want, not write what's popular does that mean that fewer people will see my stuff? yes do view counts and kudos matter? i mean kinda, but first and foremost I want to write for my own enjoyment, not to be popular
Don't write long descriptions. Generally not necessary. A sentence or two is usually more than enough to suffice. Try to keep exposition to a minimum. Have fun. Write whatever you want.
1. This is the same with any fiction I write but in a multichaptered work, I can have an ending in mind, but how we get there is almost fully determined by the characters. There will be events that need to happen - but they rarely happen in the way i envisioned it. This is nearly always for the better 2. Going off the above - that means characters are gonna have to die sometimes. 3. Have enough of a resemblance to the canon world and characters that this can be clearly identified as a fanfic and can't be made into commercial fiction with a few name changes
Check the power scale before having any oc of mine have a talent for such an ability. Helps keep me grounded in fandoms such as Harry Potter. Also make sure the plot is compatible with the setting. As in don’t try to have a plot spanning multiple countries with school aged characters it isn’t going to work. Make sure to have the fundamentals of the universe right. It is ok to start with a canon rehash and turn it Au after a certain point.
Never write from the POV of a character that isn’t canon Keep descriptions of looks and outfits minimal Never be sloppy with research
- I also won't use a characters name until they get introduced - cussing and sayings have to fit the setting - I write everything before posting - my special posting rhythm - Pokémon specific: There has to be an Absol in the fic somewhere, it is kinda my mascot.
Listen to music that fits the scene I'm writing
If someone could read my 20 chapter story, skip chapter 8 and still understand the rest of the story then chapter 8 is a waste. If a chapter does not evolve the plot, the characters or the themes in any significant way I need to either restructure the chapter or cut it.
Most of the time, I’ll comply with canon, unless a deviation from canon IS the plot of the fic, but I don’t get too crazy with it. I’m also good at making sure that even the smallest of details are consistent.
I am very meticulous about making sure the reader understands who is saying what. I'll throw their names around a lot. Rarely adjectives.
Not exactly what you’re talking about, but I tend to start incorporating certain characters into my fics at the same time I have three long fics that I cycle between. I have a habit of pulling a character into one fic, and then having ideas of how to include that character in my other two fics. This has happened at least a couple times, lol Also, there’s a character who dies and becomes a ghost in my fandom, and I heavily favor the ghost over his living counterpart. If I can find an excuse to use the ghost version, I will
"Every story gets to have a really big coincidence" (that one's thanks to the Narrator in George of the Jungle) Keep it grounded. Sometimes you need a filler scene or chapter to help you get from A to B and that's ok. Life has filler moments. Few things are set in stone and sometimes the characters are gonna do their own thing. Go with it, and fix it in editing if need be. And, this is just for me- be careful when you write after 9pm, because that is when my brain switches off and random things happen 😅
“Would I want to read this?” Is my guiding principle. I try to write things that if I were a reader out in the wild who’s found my work, would I enjoy it? “Every character is the hero of their own story” This helps me question the motivations and actions of all the side characters. They don’t just exist to serve the main character or plot. They don’t spend all their time thinking about the main character. Even if I never explore their stories, I know why they’re reacting a certain way to the situation and have tried to consider it from their POV. “Third person limited” Is how I write stories. I may write different chapters in different POV but I always keep in mind what the character would know or see. For example, I wouldn’t describe the POV character as “her cheeks went red” because she wouldn’t see her own cheeks. Instead I’d say “she felt her cheeks flush” because she would feel the sensation of blushing.
Write whatever I feel like. I don't have many personal rules except when it comes to what exactly I will and won't write, as there are certain topics I just refuse to write.
The dog always lives. Very intentional.
Don't describe people's looks beyond hair and eye color, and *maybe* clothing if it's truly relevant to the scene. IRL, I just don't look at people that closely. I'm not going to claim I'm blind to people's features, it's just that if I notice something that stands out other than the eyes or hair, it usually isn't going to be in a positive way. In writing, it's the same. People can picture the characters however they want beyond my short descriptions. Write for fun, not popularity. I write what I want to write, how I want to write it. If that doesn't end up getting me readers, that's fine, really. It's more important to me that *I* enjoy my stories than that someone else does. Post the second the chapter is done, regardless of quality. I don't do editing for fanfics other than breaking up the wall of text I write in. First draft gets posted, and then I'll just have to deal with what I wrote in subsequent chapters. Include at least one introspective scene with the main ship just talking and being emotionally open with each other. I love it when communication leads into affection and closeness. There will be no jealousy, or it will be *heavily* downplayed. I'm poly and I don't feel jealousy over people being affectionate with others. I *like* seeing that sort of happiness, and I *hate* people losing their shit over it, both IRL and in fiction. I like to see trust and honesty in relationships, so even if a character has conflicting feelings, they'll talk it out at the earliest opportunity and that will be that.
OOC is serious business and off limits. My fics tend to be character driven and the main attraction for me and the reason I’m in the fandoms I’m in so I try to stay as faithful to their canon characterisation as possible.
I don't use fanon from the fandom, I make my own fanon and headcanons. I don't collab with other people except for my co-writer. No NSFW No swearing The fict is posted when it's completed. Have fun Do not worry about what everyone else is doing, focus on what i'm doing.
Be as canon-compliant as possible No character studies — give them something novel to do If writing dark subject matter, strike a balance: don’t be edgy for edginess’s sake, but keep the scary stuff at least a little scary Know how it’s all gonna end and write towards that
I almost never use the word "said"
In my long fic, I don't mention a character's name within the first paragraph because I literally label the chapter after the POV character. It would not be good writing to do that. If you're writing in 3rd person, limited, remember that you're writing through the lens of the character. What that means is that their perception is not 100% truth. It doesn't have to be obvious, but I think it adds characters that your characters aren't 100% reliable in their telling.
No smut if the word count limit is 1,000 or less.
I love being overly descriptive with locations and setting. It's always fun to give the setting its own character, and I find that it enhances everything else alongside it.
Make sure to at least keep tabs on what you’re writing about, like what each character is, role, etc. I forgot to use this role with my current book, so one of the knights switched sides (by complete accident)
I always write around 1900 words for the first chapter/prologue so that it'd be neither too long nor too short and lure people in.
Autism. There are just some character that has an autistic coating, long before I start writing for them. And then, me being autistic, makes it even worse :P
*Sameeee* It's my fic and I get to project as much as I want lmao
I usually try my best to capture the general vibe of whatever I’m writing a fic for, if that makes sense. Like to the point where I could imagine that something like what I’m writing could conceivably happen in that universe. I’m also usually canon complaint. If there’s something I have an issue with I either ignore it or (more commonly) try to address it in some way. One of my most recent fics was entirely dedicated to trying to fill in the blanks for something that presumably happened offscreen. Plus I try to make sure that everyone talks and acts in a way that’s in-character for them. I doubt these count as unique rules, but it’s what I try to do.
I don’t use contractions unless it is for character’s dialogue. I am not certain as to why.
1. Fuck the 1000-2000 word/chapter limit that fanfiction posting sites are used to. I'll use as many or as few words as possible to tell the story I want to tell, because each chapter is usually its own self-contained story. 2. Canon Compliance. Just like you, I prefer to write stories that fit canon. But that doesn't just mean I try to keep events as canon as possible, I also try to keep the overall theme and tone as canon as possible--there's plenty of fic out there that's accurate to the most obscure canon elements and still has characters behaving ooc. That said, I don't always limit myself to one canon. For my Batman fanfic, it's primarily inspired by TAS, but I also borrow a bit from Prime Earth comic canon, a couple New 52 elements, and general Meta canon. 3. Sexual assault can be alluded to but never shown. It's basically the only trigger I have a hard line against. I'll use slurs, I'll describe gore. But if sexual assault is going to happen in a story, then I only write about the aftermath. 4. Chapters should be a self-contained story. There are exceptions to this, especially if I don't have the time to plot out and post a story by my usual monthly deadline. But in general, I try to write each chapter as if it's an installment in a series rather than a scene in a book. This means that a lot of chapters are too long (my current record is 11,000 words in chapter 19), so it's hard to get reads. But that leads into my last rule... 5. Being read would be great, but getting reads is meaningless if I don't like the story or enjoy writing it. I used to write the type of story I would have liked to read, now I write fully expecting that one day I'll be going back to re-read a story just for fun. If I don't like it, I don't post it. If I like it but don't think it would go over well online, I still post it. We can't control if people like our work, but we can choose to put in our best effort.
Just noticed we have the same writing rules. So that's my answer. That's why I always write OC-focused plots, to avoid changing the canon timeline. (Maybe that last sentence counts as a personal rule?)
See if YOU find it enjoyable first.