[FFML] Fic Writer's Guide

[Karsten Sethre]

(Disclaimer: I don't write fanfiction, or any fiction for that matter - 
I'm not creative enough. I do read voraciously though, and have been 
lurking on the list for something like a decade now, so I've seen my 
share of badly written fics. Also, if anything I say here seems odd, 
blame it on being awake for too many hours in a row with no sleep.)

Bob Schroeck wrote:
>      http://www.eclipse.net/~rms/guide/fwg.txt
>   
(snippety)
> That said, any suggestions, ideas, comments, pet peeves,
> corrections and so on would be particularly welcome.  Pointers
> to bad ficcage with your comments on what makes it bad are also
> welcome -- if I can find a place to use it, I will.
>   
Looks good so far. Also more comprehensive than I expected - while 
writing this reply, several times I'd start reading a section and think 
"I'd should tell him to mention such-and-such aspect of that" only to 
find you actually did so in the next paragraph.

Sadly, those that need to read it most, if they see it at all, will 
likely take one glance, think "TL;DR" and continue writing wince-worthy 
stories. Then again, I work tech support, so I'm a bit cynical regarding 
people's average intelligence.

It may also be worth HTML-izing this. It doesn't need to be broken up 
into multiple pages, but it would be nice if things like "This means 
spelling and grammar (more about both later)..." were more like "This 
means <a href="#spelling">spelling</a> and <a 
href="#grammar">grammar</a>..." to link to the appropriate sections.

Speaking of which - bad spelling and grammar will make me stop reading a 
fic faster than almost anything else. Incorrect use of homophones 
(to/too/two, your/you're, etc.) grate on my nerves severely. Wikipedia 
has a couple good pages that may be worth linking to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commonly_confused_homonyms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_frequently_misused_English_words

Now, on to some specifics:

> Assuming Familiarity With Your Sources
One thing that could be said is the more obscure a series or character 
is, the less you should assume. And just because the writer doesn't 
think something is obscure doesn't mean it's not.

For example, practically anyone even marginally interested in anime 
fanfiction likely knows what Ranma looks like - and if they don't, a 
quick Google search will net them a few godzillion relevant pages and 
images. On the other hand, if a Google search for a character's name 
doesn't find at least a few web sites and images of them *on the first 
page*, a full description should be worked into the text when they first 
appear, even if the *author* doesn't consider them an obscure character 
at all.

> Plagiarism
Definitely shouldn't be removed, but should be reordered. Seems odd to 
have it stuck in the middle of the "how to use proper English" sections.

> x.  Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe
>   
The bottom of http://www.idir.net/~ipsifend/grammar.html has a table 
(though, not exactly being a scholar on archaic English, I can't 
guarantee its accuracy):

I            walk        am         run         think          do
Thou         walkest     art        runnest     thinkest       dost
He/she/it    walketh     is         runneth     thiketh        doth
We           walk        are        run         think          do
Ye           walk        are        run         think          do
They         walk        are        run         think          do

> xx.  Misused Words
> xx.  GRAMMATICAL ODDITIES
Aside from the CAPS LOCK on the second, these should probably be up with 
the other similar sections - maybe swap the locations of these two with 
the "Plagiarism" bit?

> Using "dojo" to mean anything inside the boundary wall that isn't a 
> koi pond or dirt is just *wrong*.
This should probably be reworded - as is, it could easily be read as 
"dojo = koi pond and dirt". I had to read over it twice for my mind to 
parse it right, even though I already knew the proper use of "dojo".

> xx.  FORMATTING
Another couple notes for this section:

If you feel you must use a format fancier than plain text, try to limit 
font styles to plain, bold and italic, and those only for emphasis, not 
for dialog (unless also in some type of quotes). This way, loss will be 
minimal if/when it is converted to plain text - which, even if you 
don't, some of your readers will. Consider using CAPS or *asterisks* 
instead of bold for the occasional emphasized word.

If you need multiple types of quotes to distinguish between languages or 
to indicate telepathy or other means of communication, try to limit 
quoting-characters to "double quotes", *asterisks* and perhaps 'single 
quotes', /slashes/, -dashes- and :colons: (if you really need that 
many), as (parenthesis) can easily be seen as in-line author notes, 
[square brackets], <angle brackets> and \backslashes\ are easily eaten 
by the site or forum being posted to, and {braces} can look too similar 
to parenthesis, depending on the font and size.

> Chekhov's Gun: Despite the old SCTV sketch to the contrary, this is 
> *not* a Star Trek reference.
Indeed. The Star Trek character is named "Chekov", not "Chekhov". See: 
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main.ChekovsGun ^_-

> One way you can do this is the classic device of "In Media Res" --
> loosely translated, "starting right in the middle of things".
> Make your first scene something that happens, chronologically, 
> half-way through the plot
(There should be a period at the end of that paragraph.)

This device can be good - many fics I enjoy use it - but it should be 
noted that if the characters are acting significantly different than 
canon, don't take too long to jump back to the beginning to start 
explaining why they've changed. Depending on how different they've 
become, "too long" could easily be "more than two or three paragraphs".


... I could probably come up with more feedback on this, but I'm falling 
asleep and have to get up for work in four hours, so I'll stop now. (On 
a similar note, anything in this message that seems rude or bizarre can 
be blamed on the fact that I've been awake too long.)

--
Karsten "Balorn" Sethre