Just wanted to add a few of my own more-or-less random thoughts to this
essay, which I think offers some very good advice.

Allyn Yonge <allynyonge0000@netscape.net> wrote:

However an author MUST learn to self edit, to read her own stories 
critically. Like any skill this takes practice. But once you get into the 
habit, you will read everything as if you were an editor, looking for flaws 
in plot, dialogue, narrative, etc.
 http://www.eclectics.com/articles/selfediting.html

I've found that one way to do this is to write the first draft without
getting too critical about it. Then put it away for a few days or so so
that I can come back and look at it with a somewhat fresh eye. Trying to
get every aspect of it right on the first draft can be paralyzing, and
coming back to it later lets me spot things I didn't before because I
was seeing what I *meant* to say, rather than the words I actually
wrote.

EXERCISE2:
Give the plot of your story in ONE sentence. (25 words or less) This does 
two things. It helps fix the story in your mind. If you can NOT give the 
plot in 25 words or less, then you�re a little fuzzy on where you�re going 
with the story. Secondly, somewhere in these 25 words is your title. ^_*

OTOH, if your twenty-five words tell basically everything there is to
know about your story, then you might be over-relying on your concept
where it needs to be developed further -- especially if it's a long
work. While you could probably write a twenty-five word summary of
Hearts on Ice or Waters Under Earth, for example, the summary probably
wouldn't do justice to the work. At the other extreme, I vaguely recall
something like "A Hundred Ways To Kill Akane" which was pretty much
summed up in its entirety by that title. :)

Titles often come out of theme rather than plot, BTW, but I think
someone else has already discussed this.

Rule 1: Start late and finish early. That is, start your story at the most 
exciting part, and don�t drag things out by letting the action slow to a 
crawl.
Now, there are many variations on this theme, depending on what kind of 
story you�re writing. However , whatever the details of your story, you 
must capture the readers attention at the very start. You won�t get a 
second chance.

As a general rule of thumb, begin telling the story at the beginning of
the main conflict. Don't start off with a scene showing what your
characters' everyday lives are like before your story's plot upsets
them; if there's nothing going on that they're not used to dealing with,
why should we be interested in seeing it? This is especially true in
fanfic, where your readers have probably read the original series that
your story is based on and already know the characters. Also, don't
start off with lengthy explanations of past events. It's more important
to show something happening that the characters need to be concerned
about *now.* You can always fill in the backstory as you go; readers
will be more inclined to follow it once you've given them the conflict
as a reason to *care* about it.

Rule 3: Avoid first person like the plague. It�s the hardest to do 
correctly and the easiest way to write a real stinker. IF and ONLY if the 
story keeps going into first person should you attempt it.

I'd have to disagree with this. There are advantages to doing first
person -- it unambiguously defines your story's POV, and nothing better
brings out the unique "voice" that you mentioned elsewhere. Yes, it's
hard to do well, but all of this stuff is hard to do well. Doesn't mean
we shouldn't try. ^_^;; 

The real problem with first person is that most stories are difficult to
tell from only one character's POV. You either have to change the
narrator for some of it, which can get very confusing, or you're limited
in what you can show. I remember getting to the end of my first first
person fanfic and then realizing that for dramatic reasons I *had* to
show a scene at which the narrator character *couldn't* possibly have
been present; I had to cheat and have him say "I wasn't there for this,
but they told me about it later."

Rule 4: Don�t fall in love with your own words.
�Read through your writing, and when you find a particularly fine 
sentence----- strike it out.�
Ben Johnson

I think the key here is appropriateness. It's good to be able to write
vivid, poetic descriptions, for example, but don't throw them in just to
impress your readers. If something (whether a line, a paragraph, a whole
scene, or whatever) goes against the mood of the story you're trying to
tell, or just plain has no reason for being there, then cut it out -- no
matter how good it is.

On the subject of characterization, here's another exercise for the
reader:

Take a story whose plot has already been worked out. Put a different
character in place of the story's protagonist, and think about how the
resulting events would've changed. Is the conflict stronger or weaker,
the story more interesting or less, after the change? Or does nothing
change at all?

Example: Various characters in place of Ranma when his father engages
him to Akane.

RYOGA: Develops a crush on Akane when she is nice to him, but keeps his
feelings secret for fear of rejection.

TATEWAKI: Accepts the engagement, not particularly even noticing Akane's
objections to it, but can't keep his eyes off Shampoo when she shows up.

...and so on. You may disagree with my own answers here, but let's not
have a spam thread debating it; the important thing is to ask yourself
the question for *your* fic. It's important to note that in the above
exercise, Tatewaki is assumed to be Genma's son, and doesn't know Akane
before the start of the story even though he did in the manga. The point
here is to study the effects of differing personalities, not differing
circumstances.

4) KNOW your FACTS. Don�t have your hero load his revolver with a magazine 
(unless it�s a Dardik and you let the reader know this.)  Never have your 
barbarian hero �cleave  limbs cleanly like stalks of wheat�. Broad swords 
don�t cut cleanly, even when fresh. It�s more ripping/tearing/smashing. And 
only the finest Katana in the hands of an expert under ideal conditions can 
do it. It�s NOT going to happen in the heat of battle. Bone is hard and 
steel gets dull. And for goodness sake, don�t have Ranma leave Nerima and 
travel SOUTH to Hokkaido. Mark Twain wrote himself into a corner when he 
realized he had the Mississippi river flowing NORTH (it flows South). He 
could get away with it. YOU can�t. Look at a map, read about the culture. 

I'd certainly cut a fanfic author a good deal more slack on this one
than I would a professional. None of us are getting paid for this, after
all, and fact-checking can be a time-consuming business, especially when
you're not sure *which* cultural details you may have gotten wrong. If I
know I don't know something (like when I did a story detailing Ranma's
experiences all the way through pregnancy) I'll research it, but I tend
to rely on C&Cers to spot things I have misconceptions about.

Another point I think should be made is that not everything you research
will end up having a place in your story. Ofttimes you'll come up with
some really, really interesting fact that you're dying to expound on. If
it doesn't fit naturally without feeling like a digression, resist the
temptation and save it until it does.


I'll close by giving two references on narrative POV. One is Orson Scott
Card's book "Character and Viewpoint", published by Writers' Digest
Books, covering a lot of good detailed practical information and
technique. The other is my own POV guide, which is a good deal more
cursory and generally a lot less good than Card's book but is
fanfic-specific and available on the web:
http://www.akane.org/gary/fanfic/povessay.txt


Gary Kleppe
http://www.akane.org/gary/comics.html

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