Welcome to the third portion of the essay, perhaps the most interesting one of all! This is also possibly the most difficult one, because honestly, it will involve more work than enabling spelling and grammar checkers and a few glances at the Lexicon. Now we get into the deeper mystery and intrigue of those elements that truly MAKE or break a story.
Before you read on, let's take a moment to remember the fics that you DID enjoy, the ones you remember and read over and over again. These are the cream of the crop, the classics, and what exactly is it about them that makes them so wonderful and memorable?
It's not grammar and a passing knowledge of canon, that's for sure. Those things make a fic acceptable, but don't do anything in terms of making it stand out and truly shine. So what's the secret behind those fics we all love so much?
There are three main areas in which a fanfic author can really "show off" his or her skills. Often, an author will find him or herself stronger in one of the areas than the other two, or so on. It's not often that anyone is equal in all three. At least, not equally GOOD. These three are, of course...
Plot, Characterization and Style.
Plot can simplistically be defined as the sequence of events that happens in the story. No, there aren't that many original ones left... especially if we're considering original ones that still work within the constraints of canon. Depending on the setting of the piece (time frame and location), there might be some plots that are just not feasible. D/G set in Hogwarts is just NOT going to include, say, the two sitting on a porch reminiscing about their days and memories together while watching their children play.
Sure, the plots might be somewhat recycled, but that doesn't mean that the fic will automatically be bad. The main thing about a fanfic plot is to find something that's kind of a happy medium. By this, I mean, a plot that's not SO cliched that it should have been shot five badfics ago, and not SO outlandish that it would be morbidly improbable if not impossible for it to happen within canonical constraints. The latter is fairly simple to understand. For Ginny and Draco to embark upon a rainforest safari while they're still in Hogwarts, quickly followed by a trek through outer space, for instance, would be just a LITTLE bit of a stretch.
I'm sure we all know what most of the plot cliches are, but just in case, I'll mention a few for D/G. Meeting at a masked ball, for instance. Snogging on a dare or a game of Spin the Bottle. It was good when Davesmom did it years and years ago, but it's getting a bit tired now after it's been wrung through five billion and three fics. Similarly, please let's not rehash the plots of popular teen movies/novels/whatever. It's almost as bad as plagiarism. If we were in the mood for Clueless, we'd be popping Alicia Silverstone into the VCR or DVD player. Besides, characters are distinctive. Alicia Silverstone's character is NOT supposed to be like Ginny or whatever. Follow?
This does bring us to the next subcategory, possibly my personal favourite. Characterization is just as it sounds: how the characters are written and depicted. Personalities, backstories, interactions, motivations, likes and dislikes... all those things fall into this category, and I for one have a lot of fun with it.
It's also a category where some of the most heinous sins of fanfiction are committed on a daily basis.
The most obvious and notorious of these would undoubtedly be the Mary Sue. The author's self-insert character who has all the qualities that the author has or wants to have, embodies the entirety of the author's dreams, and pretty much warps canon all-around, snagging the canon male/female (depending on the author's preferences) of choice, saving the day, dying heroically, outshining all other characters, and generally annoying the piss out of anyone who comes across her. Sure, she might be labeled "Ginny Weasley", but that doesn't mean that she's not inaccurately portrayed, unrealistic and more or less a walking masturbation.
Of course, not all bad characterizations are necessarily Mary Sues. There are ones that are merely flat, two-dimensional and boring. Flatly good characters, flatly evil characters, characters without reasonable motivations or backstories, you name it. There are the types that seem as though they've stepped out of cliched cookie cutter romance novels or teen movies. Come on now... we all know that characterizations can be made more believable, intelligent and lifelike than that. Honestly, if you HAVE to turn to other sources to come up with characterizations (and you shouldn't, not really), use something less insipid than the above.
Then, we have the other side of characterization, the side of adherence to canon as opposed to creativity. For heaven's sake, let's read the books carefully and understand that Draco Malfoy is NOT, and I repeat NOT... a blond version of Harry. He's not a Gryffindor in disguise. He's not particularly brave. He's not excessively reckless. He's not noble or heroic. He might make a great antihero (depending on how you interpret him), but for heaven's sake, let's not make him this angsty whiny gothboy, okay?
Not that Harry should be written as Goth, either.
Ginny... all right. I've seen FAR too many cliches with her. First of all, people, she's not perfect. She can be a right nasty little bitch, not above humiliating her brothers and lying to her mother to get her way. So let's leave the sparkly happy Mary Sue Ginny away. On the other hand, though she can be mean and spiteful, she's not EVIL. If I had a dollar for every black leather goddess of darkness and evil Ginny I've seen and every Ginnyslut I've seen, I'd be the proud new owner of a plasma screen TV the size of a ping-pong table. And possibly a pair of diamond earrings on the side.
I won't go into every last character, but... for godsakes, please keep true to what we know about them from canon. Let the fic make SENSE. Visit Deleterius on livejournal to see what you should NOT do with characters. Visit oc_analysis, also on livejournal, for help. Just make it work somehow.
And please don't describe them to death either, by the way.
Which of course brings us to part three of this section. The style of your writing is your own, your trademark. This is the hardest of the three for ANYONE to imitate. There are plenty of good writing styles out there, and they can be varied as world climate.
Therefore, I can't say what's necessarily "good" in this essay, because there are too many "good" styles out there. The main thing with style is to have a happy balance of exposition, dialogue and description.
Exposition is the "meat" of the content-- the part that actually tells what's going on. This is where the plot is mostly narrated, backstories are set up, etc. Too little exposition makes a piece confusing and hard to follow, and too much makes it sound more like a college lecture or a report than a piece of fiction.
Dialogue is the communication between the characters. As a side-note of this, PLEASE learn how to format it correctly. New paragraph for each new person speaking. Punctuation inside the quotation marks. Get a basic grammar primer and study it well. But dialogue should flow like a normal conversation would, and if in doubt, read it aloud and see if it sounds about correct. It's very important that dialogue is formulated so that the diction of the words chosen reflects the speaker. For instance, if you're writing a piece in which Percy Weasley has a conversation with his sister, Percy's parts are not likely to be peppered with slang and vulgarity. It's probably almost painfully proper, grammatically correct, a bit pedantic, and a bit old-fashioned. On the other hand, if you were writing Hagrid, it's not likely that he'd say something like "Albus Dumbledore was truly the epitome of a wise, visionary, benevolent leader, a paragon of our times. The others in the Order of Merlin would do well to emulate his shining example of conduct and courtesy."
Description is like seasoning, the herbs and spices of the fic. Without it, the piece would be bland and dull. With too much of it, it's scorching and acrid and we lose sight of the actual subject. If there's some ecstatic three-page panegyric on Draco's aristocratic, fallen-angel beauty, by the middle of page two, no one will remember who the hell the thing was describing. Quality is more important than quantity. "Ginny's eyes were over-bright with unshed tears, and really, she hated that he could make her feel that way. Why should he have that right and that ability, when she never even cried over Harry?" is more effective than "Ginny's young, fairylike face was pale and milk-white, her cinnamon-brown orbs fluid with crystalline drops of sadness which threatened to flood forth like a river bursting out past a broken dam, sliding down cheeks like ivory silk peppered with speckles of dusky red paint, and the anguish in her heart was tempered with a feeling of resentment which she could barely understand. Draco Malfoy, the prat, the enemy of her family and the son of the enemy of her father, who she'd even hexed two years ago-- he was somehow the only one to make her cry like this, and that didn't make any sense to her. Draco Malfoy was handsome, to be sure, with his stardust eyes and hair like platinum woven with moonlight, but shouldn't she be crying for Harry instead? Draco Malfoy was supposed to mean absolutely no more or less than nothing, zero, because after all, he was the enemy, right?"
See what I mean?
In general, though it varies for each individual piece, there shouldn't be too much or too little of any of these three. Just enough exposition to make the reader easily follow what's going on and understand the motivations of the characters, just enough dialogue to bring the characters and their interactions to life, and just enough description to paint a vivid picture of the scene in the reader's head. And then... success! You've just created a masterpiece, truly the filet mignon of fanfics!
This section is a bit disjointed, and took quite a few evenings to write... but hopefully after wading through it, people do have a better understanding of the finer things in writing. Actually, what's in this section can apply not only to writing fanfic, because plot, characterization and style separates good original work from mediocre, and outstanding from good.
Now, go reread the books and have at it!
The next part will be the last... and it will be a conclusion. Now that you all know how to write a quality fanfic, we'll finish off by discussing how to be a good author, not just a good writer. You'll see what I mean.
Before you read on, let's take a moment to remember the fics that you DID enjoy, the ones you remember and read over and over again. These are the cream of the crop, the classics, and what exactly is it about them that makes them so wonderful and memorable?
It's not grammar and a passing knowledge of canon, that's for sure. Those things make a fic acceptable, but don't do anything in terms of making it stand out and truly shine. So what's the secret behind those fics we all love so much?
There are three main areas in which a fanfic author can really "show off" his or her skills. Often, an author will find him or herself stronger in one of the areas than the other two, or so on. It's not often that anyone is equal in all three. At least, not equally GOOD. These three are, of course...
Plot, Characterization and Style.
Plot can simplistically be defined as the sequence of events that happens in the story. No, there aren't that many original ones left... especially if we're considering original ones that still work within the constraints of canon. Depending on the setting of the piece (time frame and location), there might be some plots that are just not feasible. D/G set in Hogwarts is just NOT going to include, say, the two sitting on a porch reminiscing about their days and memories together while watching their children play.
Sure, the plots might be somewhat recycled, but that doesn't mean that the fic will automatically be bad. The main thing about a fanfic plot is to find something that's kind of a happy medium. By this, I mean, a plot that's not SO cliched that it should have been shot five badfics ago, and not SO outlandish that it would be morbidly improbable if not impossible for it to happen within canonical constraints. The latter is fairly simple to understand. For Ginny and Draco to embark upon a rainforest safari while they're still in Hogwarts, quickly followed by a trek through outer space, for instance, would be just a LITTLE bit of a stretch.
I'm sure we all know what most of the plot cliches are, but just in case, I'll mention a few for D/G. Meeting at a masked ball, for instance. Snogging on a dare or a game of Spin the Bottle. It was good when Davesmom did it years and years ago, but it's getting a bit tired now after it's been wrung through five billion and three fics. Similarly, please let's not rehash the plots of popular teen movies/novels/whatever. It's almost as bad as plagiarism. If we were in the mood for Clueless, we'd be popping Alicia Silverstone into the VCR or DVD player. Besides, characters are distinctive. Alicia Silverstone's character is NOT supposed to be like Ginny or whatever. Follow?
This does bring us to the next subcategory, possibly my personal favourite. Characterization is just as it sounds: how the characters are written and depicted. Personalities, backstories, interactions, motivations, likes and dislikes... all those things fall into this category, and I for one have a lot of fun with it.
It's also a category where some of the most heinous sins of fanfiction are committed on a daily basis.
The most obvious and notorious of these would undoubtedly be the Mary Sue. The author's self-insert character who has all the qualities that the author has or wants to have, embodies the entirety of the author's dreams, and pretty much warps canon all-around, snagging the canon male/female (depending on the author's preferences) of choice, saving the day, dying heroically, outshining all other characters, and generally annoying the piss out of anyone who comes across her. Sure, she might be labeled "Ginny Weasley", but that doesn't mean that she's not inaccurately portrayed, unrealistic and more or less a walking masturbation.
Of course, not all bad characterizations are necessarily Mary Sues. There are ones that are merely flat, two-dimensional and boring. Flatly good characters, flatly evil characters, characters without reasonable motivations or backstories, you name it. There are the types that seem as though they've stepped out of cliched cookie cutter romance novels or teen movies. Come on now... we all know that characterizations can be made more believable, intelligent and lifelike than that. Honestly, if you HAVE to turn to other sources to come up with characterizations (and you shouldn't, not really), use something less insipid than the above.
Then, we have the other side of characterization, the side of adherence to canon as opposed to creativity. For heaven's sake, let's read the books carefully and understand that Draco Malfoy is NOT, and I repeat NOT... a blond version of Harry. He's not a Gryffindor in disguise. He's not particularly brave. He's not excessively reckless. He's not noble or heroic. He might make a great antihero (depending on how you interpret him), but for heaven's sake, let's not make him this angsty whiny gothboy, okay?
Not that Harry should be written as Goth, either.
Ginny... all right. I've seen FAR too many cliches with her. First of all, people, she's not perfect. She can be a right nasty little bitch, not above humiliating her brothers and lying to her mother to get her way. So let's leave the sparkly happy Mary Sue Ginny away. On the other hand, though she can be mean and spiteful, she's not EVIL. If I had a dollar for every black leather goddess of darkness and evil Ginny I've seen and every Ginnyslut I've seen, I'd be the proud new owner of a plasma screen TV the size of a ping-pong table. And possibly a pair of diamond earrings on the side.
I won't go into every last character, but... for godsakes, please keep true to what we know about them from canon. Let the fic make SENSE. Visit Deleterius on livejournal to see what you should NOT do with characters. Visit oc_analysis, also on livejournal, for help. Just make it work somehow.
And please don't describe them to death either, by the way.
Which of course brings us to part three of this section. The style of your writing is your own, your trademark. This is the hardest of the three for ANYONE to imitate. There are plenty of good writing styles out there, and they can be varied as world climate.
Therefore, I can't say what's necessarily "good" in this essay, because there are too many "good" styles out there. The main thing with style is to have a happy balance of exposition, dialogue and description.
Exposition is the "meat" of the content-- the part that actually tells what's going on. This is where the plot is mostly narrated, backstories are set up, etc. Too little exposition makes a piece confusing and hard to follow, and too much makes it sound more like a college lecture or a report than a piece of fiction.
Dialogue is the communication between the characters. As a side-note of this, PLEASE learn how to format it correctly. New paragraph for each new person speaking. Punctuation inside the quotation marks. Get a basic grammar primer and study it well. But dialogue should flow like a normal conversation would, and if in doubt, read it aloud and see if it sounds about correct. It's very important that dialogue is formulated so that the diction of the words chosen reflects the speaker. For instance, if you're writing a piece in which Percy Weasley has a conversation with his sister, Percy's parts are not likely to be peppered with slang and vulgarity. It's probably almost painfully proper, grammatically correct, a bit pedantic, and a bit old-fashioned. On the other hand, if you were writing Hagrid, it's not likely that he'd say something like "Albus Dumbledore was truly the epitome of a wise, visionary, benevolent leader, a paragon of our times. The others in the Order of Merlin would do well to emulate his shining example of conduct and courtesy."
Description is like seasoning, the herbs and spices of the fic. Without it, the piece would be bland and dull. With too much of it, it's scorching and acrid and we lose sight of the actual subject. If there's some ecstatic three-page panegyric on Draco's aristocratic, fallen-angel beauty, by the middle of page two, no one will remember who the hell the thing was describing. Quality is more important than quantity. "Ginny's eyes were over-bright with unshed tears, and really, she hated that he could make her feel that way. Why should he have that right and that ability, when she never even cried over Harry?" is more effective than "Ginny's young, fairylike face was pale and milk-white, her cinnamon-brown orbs fluid with crystalline drops of sadness which threatened to flood forth like a river bursting out past a broken dam, sliding down cheeks like ivory silk peppered with speckles of dusky red paint, and the anguish in her heart was tempered with a feeling of resentment which she could barely understand. Draco Malfoy, the prat, the enemy of her family and the son of the enemy of her father, who she'd even hexed two years ago-- he was somehow the only one to make her cry like this, and that didn't make any sense to her. Draco Malfoy was handsome, to be sure, with his stardust eyes and hair like platinum woven with moonlight, but shouldn't she be crying for Harry instead? Draco Malfoy was supposed to mean absolutely no more or less than nothing, zero, because after all, he was the enemy, right?"
See what I mean?
In general, though it varies for each individual piece, there shouldn't be too much or too little of any of these three. Just enough exposition to make the reader easily follow what's going on and understand the motivations of the characters, just enough dialogue to bring the characters and their interactions to life, and just enough description to paint a vivid picture of the scene in the reader's head. And then... success! You've just created a masterpiece, truly the filet mignon of fanfics!
This section is a bit disjointed, and took quite a few evenings to write... but hopefully after wading through it, people do have a better understanding of the finer things in writing. Actually, what's in this section can apply not only to writing fanfic, because plot, characterization and style separates good original work from mediocre, and outstanding from good.
Now, go reread the books and have at it!
The next part will be the last... and it will be a conclusion. Now that you all know how to write a quality fanfic, we'll finish off by discussing how to be a good author, not just a good writer. You'll see what I mean.
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