At 19:16 11/04/96 -0700, you wrote:
This is the basic skeleton of what's being worked on.. I want to make sure I
get THIS correct before I continue..Suggestions are WELCOME, and >NEEDED!
Hi John!
I wish I'd had more time to talk to you last night as I enjoyed talking about
the things that you should consider when writing a fanfic. I hope some of
what I said last night will be of use to you. If you're serious about being a
better writer then I would like to help since I remember when I first started
writing how difficult it was to get constructive advice.
First step: I'm sending along the prologue and Parts 1 & 2 of BG Cross. The
reason is not necessarily for you to simply read my story. We talked last night
about how to make your characters come alive; read these two short chapters
straight through, and then analyze and pick them apart, looking for the
elements that make the characters "come alive". Pay special attention to
the parts where Priss is in Hot Legs and when she is fighting the bike thieves.
You get to "see" a lot of her thoughts there, and to me this is where she comes
to life.
Second step: I will read your Chapter Zero and the Chapter you re-submitted
yesterday. Hopefully I can get back to you within the next two days with some
*serious* C&C :)
For now, here are some things to watch out for that will REALLY help your
writing. If you want, read through BGZ, True Love or even BG Cross while
going through this list and use them to see examples of the guidelines below.
All three of us are hard-core punctuation and structure freaks, so you
you should be able to see quite clearly what these guidelines are about;
Punctuation: Watch where you put commas and apostrophes. Commas often
go before the words 'and' and 'but' to clarify two different parts of a
sentence. Also note EXACTLY where commas are placed in dialogues.
Apostrophes can be a bitch. Compound words like "weren't", "we're" and "its"
and "it's" can
cause confusion if you forget or misplace the apostrophe. Readers ALWAYS
seem to pick up on those easily. Once you get those down it becomes
second-nature to write them correctly.
Dialogue: Ever wondered how to write proper dialogues? Simple. Look in any
of your favourite novels (or fanfics<g>) and go through the dialogues
looking at the way they appear, who speaks when, how and when the
quotation marks appear and how dialogue fits inside a paragraph. That's how
I figured it out :)
Structure: Think about the way the story is "structured", in other words, how
the story unfolds. Don't be afraid to move parts around once you've written
them. It may not be for everybody, but I suggest you try creating an outline
for your story if it's going to be complex. Creating one doesn't mean there
isn't any room for spontaneity. I wrote an outline when I began BG Cross and
it has changed at least a dozen times. But without it I would have forgotten
all the neat ideas I collect and the story probably wouldn't have gone in
such fun
directions. It's hard to be so organized about writing a fanfic, but I can tell
you it makes a world of difference if your story "seems to be going
somewhere" to the reader. From your comments in your postings regarding
your story, readers are little confused about what's going on in your fic.
While
it's cool to start a story somewhat cryptically, laying down a foundation for
your story is crucial for readers to understand where and who the main
settings and characters are. Things like setting description, weather, time of
day and character descriptions are things that some fanfic authors leave out,
but I won't read a fanfic without these things. To me they just fall flat
because
I'm not teleported to the story's world. And when I read a story I want to "go
somewhere". There's a lot here to think about. Welcome to writing ;)
Discipline: Organization. Research. Proper punctuation, spelling and
grammar. Dialogue structure. Story structure. Story direction. Character
motives. Character personalities. Setting and character appearance.
Continuity. Logistics and plausibility. All of these things and more are
important to a good story. A disciplined writer pays attention and is aware
of all of these elements as they are writing. A disciplined writer takes the
time and energy to make sure his story adheres to the guidelines described
above.
A disciplined writer digs for answers and does research about story elements
when an undisciplined writer just makes things up or lets things slide. A
disciplined writer considers their attention to detail a "craft" instead of
a way
to kill time. It takes a long time and a shift in approach to become a
disciplined writer, but the improvement in the quality of your work and the
positive
comments are well worth the extra effort :)
Hope this helps John. I'll have C&C for you soon. In the meantime enjoy
BG Cross 1 & 2 :)
Cya!
Panda
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"Bubblegum Cross"
"The Dark Traveler"
"The Dragon's Tower"
askuse@execulink.com
BG Crush & Raven's Garage web sites:
http://www.netzone.com/~ozymand/
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