Honest!  I am still alive and kicking, I've just been crazy busy between work, hols, and working on some projects besides fanfiction that include teaching myself Japanese (so far I've memorized the hiragana table, currently working on memorizing katakana and then finally moving onto the, oh, 2700 or so kanji I need to learn), making tons of icons and banners with Photoshop and making my own full-sized First Tsurugi out of wood, which is quite a fun project (pictures will be posted at some point).  So it's been pretty crazy.

Good news on the fanfiction front however!  I had a huge breakthrough on Dreams while I was camping and wrote detailed outlines for about...half the fic.  So I may actually update that before I update Dates.  God knows it's taken me long enough.

School will be starting up again in 2 weeks.  First year of College, so I may disappear for a week or two as I get used to that.  I also intend to enroll at a kung fu school that's two blocks from my campus.  And I want to get my firearms license, which requires me to take a course...SO MANY THINGS TO DO!

So yeah, I'm not dead.  That's all for now.

Introduction

So, you've just finished a great book, or video game, or maybe you can't get enough of your new fave TV show.  You find yourself craving more of the characters you love, or maybe there's an ending you aren't satisfied with, or loose ends you think need tying.  So you head online, and more often than not you find yourself at a fanfiction site.

You read some stories, find some you like, some you hate, and some you adore as much as the original story itself.  And sometimes you find yourself wishing to add your own thoughts and creativity to the 'world' you've become so engaged in.  You want to write your own fanfiction.

Below are some tips I've put together for fledgeling writers who want to get started but are feeling a bit unsure.  By no means are these rules - writing is something purely your own, and you'll find you have your own styles and systems as you start writing.  This is simply a compilation of general tips and advice that I hope will help you on your way to becoming a fanfiction authour.

Getting Started - Know Your Canon

Before anything else, it is generally a good idea to have a broad knowledge of the canon world in which you are writing.  Canon are the facts, as written by the game developers/authour/etc.  Do not confuse it with fanon, which are fan-created facts, and are sometimes mistaken to be canon by people newer to the genre.  Should you go and memorise the book/screenplay/dialogue word-for-word?  Of course not (well, you could, if you really wanted to...).  Just keep in mind it will benefit your fic in the long run if you take the time to double-check some facts or do some research.  Incorrect major-canon is one of the biggest turn-offs to readers, so be careful.

Getting Started - Develop Your Ideas

It is very difficult to start writing without no real direction for your plot and characters.  So before you start typing away, stop and think for a little bit - what do I want to happen?  Do I want romance, angst, fluff (a term usually applied to romance, that indicates your fic is extremely light-hearted and happy and sweet - think cotton candy), humor?  Do I want to write something with heavy action, or snappy dialogue?  The direction you want your story to take will affect the genre and the type of story, so think it out before hand.

Getting Started - Types of Fics

As a reader, you've probably already become familiar with three major types of stories: oneshots, drabbles, and chaptered.  Oneshots are one-chapter, often standalone (though they can be linked to other fics that have already been published) stories, and contain some sort of plot.  Drabbles are often very short works - anywhere from 50 to several hundred words.  They do not require any plot - they can simply be a character reflecting on a situation.  Drabbles can be written as a single-chapter story, but are more often made into a series, with the drabbles usually revolving around similar topics but not necessarily connected from one chapter to the next.

Chaptered fics are self-explanatory; however, personally, I divide them into two types: short-chapter and long-chapter/wannabe-epic.  All chaptered fics usually have more advanced and detailed plot than oneshots or drabbles.  However, the length of the chapters (word count) vary dramatically.  For me, I've defined short-chapter as any chaptered fic with less than 50000 words.  Long-chapter is anything over 50000.  Another term you may have come across in regards to chaptered fics is WIP, which stands for Work In Progress, and signifies that the fic is an ongoing project and has not been completed before being published.  The importance of this lies with the frequency of updates.

So why is this important?  Different types of fics better suit some ideas over others.  If you have this one, clear scene you want to write about, you're generally going to choose a oneshot.  If you just want to write something short about a character's favourite icecream flavour, you'd choose a drabble.  And if you got a detailed plot in mind, you're going to want to write in chapters to divide it up.  Are there advantages from one type of fic to the other?  Not really, with the one exception that if it's chaptered, you need to update it, which can add some pressure on you as an authour to please your readers.  If you decide to write a chaptered fic, you might want to finish a couple of chapters before you publish it so you can update more regularly.  However, don't let update pressure affect your writing - your readers would rather have you take a couple extra days to update then get a poorly written chapter.

Getting Started - Genres:

The genre of your fic is simply you stating if it's humour, dark, action, adventure, romance, etc, so that your reader knows what to expect.  The genre of your fic will largely affect not only the plot but the characters as well, which brings us to the next important point:

Genres - Characterization and OOC:

OOC stands for Out Of Character - the way you have portrayed your character is not in line with how the character is originally portrayed in regards to canon.  However, it is not considered OOC if, for the purpose of your genre and plot, you emphasize a specific aspect of the character.  This most commonly happens in either fluff/humor fics or angst fics.  Just because a character is normally happy doesn't mean they can't be angsty at all - just make sure to give them a good reason to be.  Or serious, broody characters can in fact be happy and have a good time (for example, angsty Yuffie or happy Vincent from FF7).  The problem of OOC arises when your broody character starts acting happy all the time for no real reason - be cautious of this, and always keep in mind the way the character acted in the original story and its motivations for acting that way.

Getting Started - Time To Write:

Alright, so you've got a general idea of your plot, know the kind of fic your aiming for and what genre you're writing.  You sit down, open a fresh word document, put you fingers to the keyboard and -

You got nothing.  This is okay, and should almost be expected!  One of the hardest parts of writing is just starting.  So what should you do?

One method is to pull a Star Wars - start in the middle.  If you have this one line of dialogue etched in your mind, just write that down and go from there.  You can always come back and fill in the beginning later.

Another method is to think of the setting in which you've imagined your fic taking place - picture it, and just start describing it.  Once your start writing, you'll find it gets easier and easier to continue as you start going with the flow.  So the important thing is - just start writing.  Doesn't matter where, as long as you start.

Writing - The Dreaded Writer's Block:

You've been bashing your head against the same paragraph for hours now, but the words just won't come.

Stop, sit back, and just relax.  Writer's block happens to absolutely everyone, so don't feel bad about it.  Go take a break and do something else for a little while - eat, play an instrument, watch TV - something that's natural and doesn't require too much thinking is usually best.  Once you've relaxed, come back to your computer.  Don't stare at where you stopped writing - go back to the beginning and reread the whole thing.  This has two advantages - it allows you to spellcheck what you've already written, and gets you back into the flow of your words.

If you're still stuck, one of the problems could be is that another plot bunny (another idea) has interrupted your thoughts on your current story and is demanding that you feed your imagination by writing a different story.  Don't be sad about this, rejoice!  Just go with it, and write what's on your mind.  

If you're absolutely determined to blast through the block, write something - it doesn't have to be good (for now).  Just write something crude that allows you to move on and continue writing your fic.  Later, you can come back and fix it up (because forced writing is never as good as natural, smooth writing, so I don't recommend leaving your writing 'patch' there),

Also, there are tonnes of "getting rid of writer's block" activities that can be found online (here on livejournal being one of them).  Take advantage of the resources offered to you as a writer by the internet.

Writing - Vocabulary:

You're looking over your writing and you notice you've used the same adjective three times in the same sentence, and it honestly doesn't read very well and makes you look, well, dumb.  So you right-click, and look at all the wonderful synonyms that are possible.

The Synonyms tool (offered by Microsoft Word, and you can find similar tools on the internet) is a very wonderful tool to use and you should absolutely use it to your advantage.

However.

Please, please, please, do not choose words when you don't know what they actually mean.  The synonyms are words with similar connotations - not the exact same meaning as the word you already have.  Before you use that big, long, fancy looking word, go look it up in a dictionary (or at dictionary.com).  Never use a word when you don't know what it means, because it can make you look like a total idiot.

Writing - You've Finally Finished:

Nope, you're not finished yet.

Patience is a virtue.  Of course you're excited - you've just spent hours working on your story and now your creation is finally complete and you want feedback on it.  But take a deep breath, and slow down, don't go publishing it yet.

Finished - Spellchecking:

Spellchecking is your friend.  Those squiggly red and green (and sometimes blue) lines are just there to help you.  For pity's sake, folks, bad spelling and grammar is one of the easiest things to avoid and makes your fic look instantly more professional and just all around better.  If you don't have Microsoft Word or another word processing program with spellcheck, use the internet - you'll find plenty of free spellcheckers (including one built-in to fanfiction.net itself).  

There is a disadvantage to spellcheckers - often character names, or stories that are more sci-fi/fantasy based contain many words that aren't found in the dictionary, and your spellcheck will attempt to correct these, so don't go blindly clicking 'correct' multiple times.  Also, beware of Auto-correct tools (found in Microsoft Word) that will automatically fix certain words (such as, in FF7, materia to material).  You can avoid this by removing the auto-correct when it happens and 'adding the word to dictionary', so it will no longer automatically correct it.

Finished - Reread, Many, Many Times:

You've done your spellcheck, and your raring to go.  Again, patience.  Spellcheckers, while wonderful, are no replacement for your own brain.  Reread your fic at least a couple of times from top to bottom.  Better yet, leave, come back several hours later or even the next day and reread it - you will find yourself catching all sorts of errors you were previously missing.  No one's going to die if you don't publish your fic the second it's finished - take the time to polish it up.

Finished - Upload Your Story:

You upload your story/document onto the fanfiction site (the way it's done varies from site to site - I'll be using fanfiction.net's style for this).  Reread it once more.  Uploading often causes spacing errors and removes certain character chains to prevent spamming, so you need to watch for this.

This is also the time to add your disclaimer.  A disclaimer is a brief message you leave at the beginning of your story (some do it every chapter) that states you do not own the characters or original storyline, etc.  Please add this, as it prevents you from being possibly sued for plagiarism.  These can be short, and authours often make them slightly humorous.  Here is an example:

Disclaimer: I do not own FF7, Star Wars, or a dictionary.

That's all that's really required - if you want to be more specific you can, and you can also say that you do own the plot and OCs (Other Characters, or characters that you invented).

Publishing - The Final Step:

You've checked your uploaded document and it's good to go.  So you make a new story.

It will ask you to submit your story into a 'World', 'Language', and 'Genre' (default is General), which are all straight-forward.  Also, to narrow it down, you should put your major characters (up to two) so readers interested in those characters can more easily discover your fic.

Now there are three big things remaining: 

Title - Your title should in some way relate to your story (sounds obvious, I know, but you'd be surprised).  For some people their title is more important to them than others - it's a personal choice, spend as much time thinking of one as you like.

Rating - Your rating tells the reader the 'maturity' level of the fic, and is determined by a set of rules in place on the hosting site - these guidelines must be read (seriously, you don't have a choice and can't upload documents until you confirm that you've read them).  Change your rating appropriately.  Note that fics rated 'M' do not appear on the regular home page  and must be selected manually from the dropdown options, so they are less likely to be read (so don't make it M unless you need to make it M - remember you can always change your rating or any other aspect of your story at any time you wish).

Summary - This is the big one.  Do not do this: "I suck at summaries srry plz read and review".  This does not impress people, and most will not bother to click on it.  If you're bad at summaries, just put down a generic summarization of your plot.  You should also indicate any major ships (short for relationships and applies to romance) and may wish to add warnings here.  Warnings are things like character-death, violence, language, etc, and if not stated in your summary should be placed at the beginning of the story itself (otherwise the likelihood you'll be flamed (get rude, angry reviews) increases dramatically).

All Done - Reviews and Concrit:

Your story is done, and you start getting reviews (hopefully good ones).  You're smiling as you read the various "This is awesome" and "Wow you rock!" ones, and by all means, smile, because those reviews are imporant to your morale as a writer.  You then come to something longer, more detailed, and it usually has a mix of positive and negative things and will point out either mistakes you've made or make suggestions.

This type of review is called concrit (for constructive criticism) and should be valued above all other reviews, even though they may contain some negative points.  The purpose of concrit is to help you as a writer improve - listen to the advice.  Do you have to do what the reviewer says?  Of course not.  But keep it in mind and learn from it.

That's It: Keep Writing And Reading:

Keep on reading and keep on writing.  Reading will improve your vocabulary, your canon knowledge, and give birth to new ideas for your own writing.  And every time you write your writing will improve - guaranteed.  You can challenge yourself by writing a different genre, or with different characters or ships.  Or just hone your skills at one genre.  It doesn't matter - just keep writing!

Remember, writing is an art that is unique to each person.  These are just a series of tips and guidelines, not rules you need to follow - make your own rules, make your own style.  I hope this will help anyone who's interested in writing fanfiction.

Yes, I've gone and gotten a livejournal.  I intend to use this mainly once I publish Dreams of Grey, so...yeesh.