Welcome back to FF Writing Tips! For my ninth post, we’ll continue with ‘DOs and DON’Ts’.



16) Do it once, and do it RIGHT!

George R.R. Martin is famous for ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’. Stephen King is known for ‘The Dark Tower’. J.R.R. Tolkien is known for ‘The Lord of the Rings’. Shakespeare for ‘Hamlet’/’Romeo and Juliet’. These authors have a dozen or more works, yet it’s their magnum opus that immortalizes them.

If you want to become the next Celery, Requ or Kaiser, write each story as if it were your masterpiece. Don’t churn out 10 fics and hope you get lucky with one of them, instead write one and make it the best you can afford.

17) Have patience. Release your story only when it’s ready.

Readers nowadays are short for time. Not everyone has the patience to weather through 3 chapters of your fic to decide if it’s ‘worth their time’. Often, they judge your entire story by the first paragraph, and more often, they drop your fic forever.

Sometimes it’s because they dislike your ship or story; no biggie because they’re not the readers you want, but it can also be due to poor writing or spelling mistakes ON YOUR PART. When new readers check out your story, you want them to have the best possible experience they can get.

Go through drafts. Spellcheck over and over again. Get betas to critique. It’s better to release a late chapter than a bad one.

18) Let Readers Infer.

Readers are not idiots. They want to do some thinking of their own. They want to put 2 and 2 together, and feel validated. When you state the obvious (Tears streamed down Sven’s face. He was sad.) or plant information (”How is Anna, your sister?”), you get on their nerves.

See the following:

a) Anna opened the door to see Elsa in her birthday suit. Gasping, she covered her face and ran away.

b) Hans drew his sword, smirking. “It is only fitting that Her Highness is…retired by the future king of Arendelle.”

c) Kristoff huddled into himself, rubbing his fingers and scrunching his toes. His clothes were hardly thick enough.

What could you infer from the above?

a) Elsa’s naked. Anna is embarrassed.

b) Hans is an asshole, intending to kill Anna, oh, and he believes he’s gonna rule Arendelle soon.

c) Kristoff is cold.

This is related to the ‘Show, don’t tell’ rule, which I mentioned in #2 and #3.

19) Ask 100 readers. Get 100 different opinions. Open your mind and learn!

We want as many people as possible to read our fic, we want to hear their thoughts. Most of all, we want to improve our story. Even something crude like, “it sucks” can be expanded into useful advice if you nicely ask why he/she thought so.

Ask friends and family to read your story and give sincere opinions (unless you write Elsanna, in which case please don’t show it to your family).

Some of the best critiques I got came from literally begging authors I respect. Was it shameless? Yes. Did it help my fic? Yes, and that’s what’s important.

20) Be your own worst critique. Never stop asking: Is this appropriate?

We love our stories. Else, why would we be writing? Still, do not let this cloud your judgement. Remember what I said before, about that “little voice in your head saying this paragraph is bad”? That’s the voice you need to train.

Learn to detach yourself. Take a break from writing so you can look at your chapter with fresh eyes. If you can’t, then refer to point 19 - Ask someone else to do it for you.

Remember, it’s all about giving the best you can. You are a goddamned author, it’s time to live up to it.

That’s all for now! For #10, I’ll continue with ‘DOs and DON’Ts”. Have fun writing!

