User blog:LemonFairy/On Writing Well (not by William Zinsser) - I

All though I can guarantee that if you ever take a writing course you'll need to buy the book mentioned in the title of this blog post. (It's a lovely read, by the way; it's mainly about journalism, academic writing, and opinionated article writing. Still, very interesting and a fabulous read if anyone is looking for something to kill the time. I've just started 1984, by the way, and that's fantastic as well!)

Anyway, this blog post will relate exactly to what the title says: it's a post consisting of tips I've picked up (from friends, from outside sources, from teachers, from writing camps, from experience) on how to write well. These are PJO-wiki-fic specific, at least some of them, and will probably contain external links to great sources. Sources not necessarily deemed appropriate will be marked with an asterisk (*) and a warning in bold.

Now, let's get down to business (to defeat the Huns! Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons? ...):

On Plot:

The basis of a story is, of course, the plot. Without a plot, the story goes no where. Even before you begin writing, you should know where your plot is heading. I'm not saying you have to have fully outlined and worked out all of the major kinks, though that is advised. Preferably, you will know how your story starts, what the main conflict is, and how it ends before you get in to any serious writing. Your plot is allowed to change along the way, of course, to develop as your characters take you places - and they will take you places, even places like their death when you'd rather keep them alive (yes, Alexavier Wood, I'm looking at you! *grumbles at her original fiction characters who went and got themselves blown up - er, well, killed...) - but you need to have some idea where your'e going. Just scratching out a chapter, posting, and leaving it (unless you've done a oneshot, of course) is not a good idea. Trust me.

Your plot should try and be original. The best thing is a brand new idea, but seeing as The Last Original Plot was bought on eBay by Michael and then J.K. Rowling kidnapped his cat for a chance to get it... well, that might not be the easiest thing. Nonetheless, it can be done. Search around, wrack your brain, draw inspiration. You have thoughts, use them! Another option is putting an original spin on an overdone plot; unless you've worked with writing for a while, a long while, this is generally not recommended. It's hard to put original on what's already become unoriginal, if you know what I mean.

Overall, though, the plot needs to do one thing. The plot must answer the 5 Ws: who, what, where, when, and why.

On Characterization for Canon Characters:

Because you're writing fanfiction, you have to learn how to write the canon characters. Random butchering generally isn't accepted, and is highly frowned upon in most societies (just like cannibalism). The best way to learn this is read over passages that involve the characters you're writing. Do extensive research on them. Fill out a character profile for them with gathered information just like you would an OC, and don't be afraid to include your reference links. Obviously, direct Riordan sources are best, then go from there. (Books, Riordan site, PJO Lexicon [I don't think there is one yet, but if you're in HP the HP Lex is marvelous!], PJO wiki, common assumption, etc.)

Writing a character is a lot more than simply putting their name in the text and describing their physical appearance. You need to adopt the tone of the character, pick up on the essence of them. To make this PJO specific: Percy tends to be a bit clueless, and doesn't always pick up on the most obvious things - even if, as a reader, did deduce things before he did, you would not write this. Annabeth, meanwhile, has a bit of a sarcastic streak, but she's also observant and thoughtful. You would make sure to pay more attention to detail - and, most definitely use more detail in your writing - for a chapter concerning her, as opposed to Percy. Let's add Luke into the mix, because you guys do him so much. He changes depending on when you write him. If it's the beginning of the series, or if you're going with the Luke-is-Good thing, he would be a bit full of himself, but also good-natured, someone who observes characteristics of people but not necessarily the objects and every day wonders around him. If you're going later-in-series, Luke would be a lot more fearful for his life and therefore less strong-willed. He would probably have self-doubt, which means a lot of inner turmoil and inner-talk and reassurance. If you're just going plain Luke-is-Bad, his hotheadedness and ability to hold a grudge would come through, as would the ability to use plan and forethought.

On Original Characters:

A lot of people will tell you to avoid OCs, and I fall half-way into this category.

My take on OCs is this: if you have a canon character to fill the slot, why use them? You are writing fanfiction, after all, and readers came to see the canon characters.

That being said, OCs can be a really great thing if they're written well. They're incredibly hard to pull off, though. Some major things to consider:

1. Are they needed? What purpose do they serve?

2. Am I writing them simply for wish fulfillment?

3. Who are they? (See later for character profiles.)

4. Do they follow set canon limitations?

These are just main important questions you need to be able to answer. After all, they need to serve a purpose in the story. They need to not outshine the canon characters if the canon characters are involved. They need to follow set canon limitations - so, you wouldn't have a mortal suddely go on a quest with a bunch of half-bloods, especially not if that mortal was your main character. Screams Sue, and people flee. (Yes, Rachel did, but Mr. Riordan talked about how odd it was and he did create the series.)

After you've got these main points sorted out, the next most important thing is to KNOW your OC(s). Below is a BRIEF character outline [taylored to PJO, somewhat]; if this is your MAIN character, you need more info on them than just provided here.

Name: 

Age: 

Birthplace: 

God(dess) Parent: 

Marital Status:

Children (if any): 

General Appearance: 

Living arrangements (i.e., apartment, roommates, spouse): 

Occupation (name of employment if applicable): 

Degree of skill at Occupation (apt, bumbler, mediocre, etc.): 

Character’s feelings about occupation: 

Family Background: (whatever you feel is important or fleshes out your OC; ethnicity, siblings, parents names)

Consider;

Age: 

Weight: 

Height: 

Clothing: 

Hair: 

Eyes:

Breasts (if female): 

Ethnicity: 

Posture (do they slouch, stand straight, graceful?): 

Ticks (biting lip, fidgeting): 

Extra:

'''A. What three or four things does your OC value most in life? (i.e., success, money, religion, power) Why'''?

'''B. What three things do they most fear? Why? '''

'''C. What is your OC's underlying attitude about life? (i.e., everything will work out right; it's best to expect nothing so you won't be disappointed) Why?'''

D. '''What does your OC need to know to accept/trust another character? Think about why they feel this way....'''

'''E. What would cause your OC the most pain? Why?'''

F. '''What would your OC consider the most wonderful thing that could happen to them? Why?'''

G. What three words would your OC use to describe themselves?

'''H. How accurate is that description? '''

I. '''What organization embodies your character's values? (ACLU, Mesa, 'PTA', their church)'''

J. '''Do they belong to this organization? If not, why?'''

The above is a good place to start, though as time goes by you should develop more information about them. I, personally, love working with dates. For the characters I'm currently developing I've got birth date and year, as well as date of conception, and place of conception.


 * IMPORTANT TIP FROM A PROFESSIONAL AUTHOR** (Yes, I stole this from someone, though I can't remember who at the moment...) Create your character's PERSONALITY BEFORE you name them OR give them a physical appearance. This is because you will be more likely to associate certain names and physical things with traits, which can skew your character.

On Not Creating a Mary Sue:

It's hard, and chances are you know that. The best way is to experience. Best tip is not place your first OC (if they're a fanfic OC) in a major position. Use them for background reasons. Make sure to give them realistic flaws, first, and I don't just mean "they suck at art" or something. A flaw that can hurt them.

Do note that Suedom is relative to the fandom, and you must consider this when taking Litmus tests. (See end of this for a few good ones.) For example, if a test asks "is your character a hybrid of a human and another species/etc.?" you would disregard the question, because it would be more unbelievable for a character not to be a demigod in the series. Likewise, if you're in an anime/manga fandom where all of the characters have really oddly colored hair (not just one or two of them, but the majority of the cast) a character with hair that follows these lines would not be considered weird and therefore you would not answer a question asking that positively.

I could go on and on for hours about not creating Sues, I really could, but I'm going to go on with a few other sections before ending installment one.

Length

Chapters. Unless they're for a challenge or are drabbles (exactly 100 words in length), they need to be approximately 1,000 words in length. A prologue can be shorter, obviously, same with an epilogue, but 1,000+ words is a good thing to aim for. (Even that is considered short by many standards; it's approximately three pages in Microsoft Word.)

Realism

I've seen this come up what has to be at least three times in less than a week, so it needs to be pointed out.

DO YOUR RESEARCH. Yes, writing takes research - it's not all fiction, believe it or not. Sometimes it's just the little things, like a believable weight for your character. (See references section.) I could go on and on with this, and may in a later post, but at the moment I'm just saying: characters, research, make sure they're not dead.

Don't Go Dialogue Happy

Oddly enough, I learned at writing camp this summer that most people tend to have the opposite problem and go description happy. I've always had the problem with more dialogue and not enough description, though, and from what I've observed around here many of you have it to.

Basically: add description! We don't just want to read conversations - characters can observe their surroundings, you know! Tip: instead of ending all of your dialogue tags with "s/he said" just cut off and do description in the narration. Example:

Don't do: "I'm perfectly content, thank you very much," Annabeth told me.

"But why?" I asked. "Can't you just-"

"I said I was fine," she said.

Instead, try:

"I'm perfectly content, thank you very much," Annabeth snapped. I shrugged, scooting just a bit closer.

"But why? Can't you just-"

"I said I was fine." This time her voice was harsher, body more stiff than if she had slept on the cold stone all night.

This wasn't the best example, but you'll catch on.


 * Description is incredibly important in the following two places:

1. Battle scenes - when people are at war, fighting, they're not shouting out all of the time and talking. They're concentrating on living. Describe the battle for us in narration, and make sure you have a good feel for human anatomy down.

2. Sex scenes - when people are having sex, they don't form coherent words. (Or, from what I've been told, as I would not technically know.) Instead, use description of anatomy, and imagery (which, by definition, is description that appeals to the senses) in order to paint a picture of the scenerio. (While I hate pimping my stuff out and saying "look at me! I'm awesome!" I really have to suggest you check out Connections, posted on the forum for Lemons. In my defense, a lot of the better description is based off of lines by FF.net's Thanfiction.)

I could go on much, much further, but this is quite a lengthy post as-is. I'm going to cut it here, and say a second installment will be around whenever I'm procrastinating some more. Seeing as how good I am at procrastinating, it may not take long.

Best Wishes,

LemonFairy 01:07, March 10, 2010 (UTC)

References:

http://forum.fanfiction.net/topic/60211/16531153/1/

(This is a link to a forum in my main fandom, Prince of Tennis. This particular topic contains what has to be at least fifty links with helpful advice!)

The Best Litmus Test I've Found: http://www.katfeete.net/writing/marysue.html

USE THIS TO MAKE SURE YOUR CHARACTER IS NOT DEAD: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/