<«Writer's Arena»>

[Naimo]

I haven't read it all, I haven't got the time which is why I'm asking you

Well, if there's no romantic plot, then it's Gen, but if you do bring one in, considering how you don't like slash, I guess it'll become Het. So to summarise, your story's a Gen semi-RPF. I can't really say if it's AU or canon caus you're not basing this off anything ... right?

[Deustodo]

Well, that is complicated because the Fiction is not "black & white" if you know what I mean. But don't worry, read it when you have time.

[Naimo]

OK; the assumption was only made based on what I read (chapter 1) and the info you just gave me :)

[Deustodo]

I just realized you are a girl (according to your profile). It explained how can you like slash. Nothing personal.

[Master Red]

*rolls around on the forum floor mumbling incoherrently*

 

meh, minor writiers block on my fan fic and almost no time to write on it due to evil evil homeworkd D:

[Deustodo]

It was really a fan-fic or a fiction? Just asking.

[Twig]

I see; I ran Hyena by two different tests' date=' and I got the same result from both; not a Mary-Sue. I'm probably going to try a third test as well.

Btw, guide should be up soon =)

 

Guide is done:

[spoiler=Mary-Sue']

Mary-Sue and Gary-Stu

 

What is a Mary-Sue?

Mary-Sue is the term used to describe a female character (Gary-Stu would be used to describe males) who is so perfect she is unrealistic. As a result, Mary-Sues are often frowned upon and criticised by readers. An example of a Mary-Stu would be this:

 

Whitney was the most perfect girl in the world. Her body was ideal, the perfect figure, made even more perfect by wearing just a bikini. Her fair hair was always glossy, and her sparkling blue eyes and perfect white smile were the most captivating facial feature, never failing to attract all men that saw her. She was the most liked student in the entire school. She was the best fighter the world had ever produced, and she could knock out ten men at a time with her bare hands.

 

You get the idea, it’s too unrealistic, and I’ve had to do everything to stop myself from throwing up at the horrid Mary-Sue that I just typed.

 

How to avoid Mary-Sues

 

1. Plan your character carefully

The reality is that nobody is perfect; if no-one in the real world is perfect, then why should your characters be? Personality is very important in avoiding Mary-Sues, as there is no set good or evil. Everybody has a bit of both in them. This is what a Mary-Sue profile might look like:

 

Whitney is a kind, gentle, naïve girl. She would never hurt a fly, and believes in giving people second chances. She is easily submissive, yet she excels in everything she does. She can easily pick up skills, and is the very best at being social.

 

Do you see my point? Everything is too perfect, and therefore gives a very unrealistic character. Now here is one of my characters, Garnet. This is her personality:

 

Only one word exists in Garnet's vocabulary and that's money. She loves money so much she takes every opportunity to rip people off, and even if she has to part with 1p she will be furiously cursing in her mind despite the lovely smile on her face. She's slippery and very careful with wording. Although she doesn't seem to care for anyone, deep down she does care for people she like and tries to help them in a very indirect way so they don't expose her good side.

 

I have highlighted her bad qualities in blue, and her good qualities in red. Do you see how balanced she is? Yes, she likes to rip people off, but at the same time she cares for people. That shows a balance of good and bad qualities. However, not all qualities have to be clearly good or bad. This is a part of B-Lizzard’s personality:

 

The most prominent feature about B-Lizzard is how noble she is; she believes in nobility and fairness.

 

Yes, nobleness and fairness are good qualities to have, but think about it; would B-Lizzard be likely to fight an enemy who is severely injured if she’s not? No, she would not, therefore, this makes her balanced already, and that was just one part of her personality.

 

2. Go for a range of personalities

There’s an endless range of personalities to choose from! You don’t have to necessarily go for the same ones all the time – if everyone had a largely kind personality, then it will become quite dull. As an enthusiastic RPer, all of my characters are different. There’s the cunning Gypsie…

 

She is a sly character who has a strong sense of intelligence and independance, and is all about herself. She has her own goals, most of which aren't clear at first but clear in hindsight, so if she teams up with people, that is a sign she's up to something. She doesn't have much empathy, she rarely shows her emotions, and she never seems to become attached to anyone, hence the reason why many feel she is very cold blooded.

 

Now compare Gypsie to Hyena…

 

Many people regard Hyena as loony, insane, eccentric and mentally ill. Hyena is all of those points, except for the last one; in truth, she is actually very clever and smart, but it is incredibly difficult to realise that. She is difficult to get along with, as she consistently breaks into laughter at just about anything; also, she tends to walk on her hands and knees like an actual hyena during peacetimes, and she can roll her eyes simulatenously in different directions. She also uses her more flexible body to semi-wrap herself around people, and she does do a lot of grinning. When she's not grinning or laughing, she pouts.

 

Do you see the stark contrast between those two characters? There’s the sly, evil girl, and the insane yet highly intelligent girl. In fact, I do recommend writing in an insane character; I had a lot of fun RPing as Hyena, mainly because nobody could predict what she would do next.

 

3. Fears, phobias and allergies

A Mary-Sue would have absolutely no phobias, fears or allergies. Realistically, not everyone has a phobia or an allergy, but everybody has a fear of some kind. For example, Garnet’s afraid of being disabled, and having her freedom taken away. Giving characters at least one fear, and possibly an allergy or a phobia, makes them more believable, and it can also be interesting to work with, especially if it’s an irrational fear/allergy/phobia.

 

4. If all else fails, run your characters by a Mary-Sue Litmus Test

If you Google “Mary Sue Litmus Test” (minus the “”), Google will find masses of these tests. These tests are designed to check whether your character is a Mary-Sue or not. Before you start rambling about how unreliable these tests can be, I’ve just tried three completely separate tests with Hyena, and all three concluded with the same result; Hyena is NOT a Mary-Sue.

 

 

 

[spoiler=Posting Your Fanfic: The Do's and Don'ts]

Posting Your Fanfic: The Do’s and Don’ts

So, you’ve been slaving away for the past few days/weeks/months/year to work on your fanfic, and at last, you’re ready to post. However, you have to be careful when posting; you don’t want to post your fanfic to the wrong place, and suffer the consequences (believe me, they won’t be nice). So I’ve compiled a list of do’s and don’ts.

 

Do

•  Do a thorough research of the place you are posting to – take YCM as our example. YCM doesn’t tolerate slash fiction, so posting a Tristan/Joey story would provoke nothing but hateful comments.
  
• If in doubt, don’t post – you don’t have to post it there, the internet’s endless! You can post it anywhere else! DeviantART’s a good place for posting anything really, as long as you give the appropriate warnings.
  
•  If it is not the right place, post it somewhere else – it’s not the end of the world if you can’t post it on YCM. Go somewhere else to post it; deviantART, a blog, Livejournal, or fanfiction.com would be sensible places to do so.
  
•  Know your genre – every fanfic falls under a specific genre. I have compiled a separate list, which is under the Don’t section.
  
•  Do take in constructive criticism – fairly straightforward, I don’t need to explain this to you.
  

 

Don’t

• Don’t be an arse about it – OK, we all make mistakes from time to time. If people start hating you because you posted the fanfic in the wrong place, then just remove it, or get it locked. It is ill-advised to start arguments, because at the end of the day, you’re the one who made the mistake, and you’re going to suffer for it. A perfect example is Amy Kaiba’s fanfic; the content provoked a lot of anger and what happened? An argument ensured, eventually forcing the owner to request for it to be locked.
  
•  Don’t break general fanfiction etiquette – this applies more to RPF – Real Person Fanfiction. The general rule is; you can write away to your heart’s content, but NEVER send any of your work to the person (or people) in question, especially if it’s a work of slash. Recently, several communities I’m in on Livejournal have had this discussion about people finding out via other people sending work to them, and from what I gather, fans do frown upon this sort of thing happening, and some of them were genuinely angered by it.
  

 

List of general genres

This can be easily split into three types; type of story, romantic element, and length of story.

Type of story

Acid/Crack - This is a story where the content is so surreal it's like the writer has been on crack. Commonly tagged as Acid!fic/Crack!fic

Angst - this is where the character is trapped in their own world of sorrow and darkness.

AU - short for Alternative Universe. This is basically when universe the characters are set in has been altered - e.g. Sirius Black never died in Harry Potter

Canon - this is a story that has not had the storyline modified in any way, so it is keeping true to the original fandom - e.g. a story about Harry Potter that follows the novel's storyline

Crossover - Used to refer to a fic where two fandoms are crossed over - e.g. Harry Potter and QI crossover

Fluffy - a story which has no angst whatsoever, and is generally light-hearted romance

One-shot - sometimes refered to as Standalone or SA. This is a story that has been uploaded in its entirety, therefore not a long running story

POV - short for Point of View. This is when the story is written through a character's view.

Songfic - a story which is based on a song.

 

Romantic Element

Gen - short for General, it is a story where there is no romantic plot

Het - short for Heterosexual, this is a story where there is a heterosexual pairing(s)

Slash - a story involving a gay relationship. Female counterpart is Femslash. Equivalent to yaoi.

Femslash - the counterpart of Slash, used for a story involving a lesbian relationship. Equivalent to yuri.

Length of story

Dribble - a story with roughly 50 words

Drabble - a story with roughly 100 words

Droubble - a story with roughly 200 words

Ficlet - a short fanfic that is longer than a Droubble, but still too short to be considered a proper fic. These are usually roughly around 1000 words long.

 

 

Awesome. =D

 

 

*rolls around on the forum floor mumbling incoherrently*

 

meh' date=' minor writiers block on my fan fic and almost no time to write on it due to evil evil homeworkd D:

[/quote']

 

I thought it was dead. Glad it's still alive. =D

[Master Red]

oh no it's not dead, I wrote in the thread that it would be a while before the next update because I was going away, now the update was pushed back even further because of major homework hell >.<

 

also when I acctually do find the time to write I get blocked a lot and can't really figure my way out of it. Meh, hopefully it'll pass in a couple of weeks when I can more thoroghly concentrate on it :)

[DL]

@Min-chan - Awesome guide O.o

 

 

@Deus - I was surprised that Min-chan was a girl too D:

 

Also, I dun like slash, per se, but I dun hate it.

[Deustodo]

I wasn't surprised, I just noticed that. I got used to member I know be from/swith to different genders all the time. Like you, aligator.

[Sploda]

[*] Don’t break general fanfiction etiquette – this applies more to RPF – Real Person Fanfiction. The general rule is; you can write away to your heart’s content, but NEVER send any of your work to the person (or people) in question, especially if it’s a work of slash. Recently, several communities I’m in on Livejournal have had this discussion about people finding out via other people sending work to them, and from what I gather, fans do frown upon this sort of thing happening, and some of them were genuinely angered by it.

 

You know DL you could learn something from this part... >.>

[Scatty]

I wasn't surprised' date=' I just noticed that. I got used to member I know be from/swith to different genders all the time. Like you, aligator.

[/quote']

 

Gender switching is popular nowadays.

 

So what's up with the club fic?

[DL]

[*] Don’t break general fanfiction etiquette – this applies more to RPF – Real Person Fanfiction. The general rule is; you can write away to your heart’s content' date=' but NEVER send any of your work to the person (or people) in question, especially if it’s a work of slash. Recently, several communities I’m in on Livejournal have had this discussion about people finding out via other people sending work to them, and from what I gather, fans do frown upon this sort of thing happening, and some of them were genuinely angered by it.

[/quote']

 

You know DL you could learn something from this part... >.>

 

Hey, I just wrote.

 

You read.

 

 

But it makes sense.

 

*remembers all the time Cree-chan was put into a perveterd situation*

 

Heheh...

 

(BTW, as long as you have that avatar, you're a girl to me)

[Naimo]

I just realized you are a girl (according to your profile). It explained how can you like slash. Nothing personal.

 

*has died laughing*

yes, slash is a very feminine thing ;)

[DL]

Hiya Min-chan! ^-^

 

You always seem surprised that people don't know you're a girl. XD

[Deustodo]

Again, she didn't surprise me.

[DL]

But she herself becomes surprised by people thinking she's a guy.

 

I mistook her for a guy twice.

[Deustodo]

So you would respect her if she was him? You racist bastard.

[DL]

...When did I say that?

 

I like Min-chan as a girl beter.

[Deustodo]

You wrote better wrong. Just saying.

[DL]

...

 

...

 

Screw you.

 

 

So, new topic?

[Twig]

I wasn't surprised' date=' I just noticed that. I got used to member I know be from/swith to different genders all the time. Like you, aligator.

[/quote']

 

Gender switching is popular nowadays.

 

So what's up with the club fic?

 

Don't worry, it's still going. I've finished one full page of Microsoft word for chapter 1. I also made a basic outline of what's going to happen. I didn't realize how much outlines help.

[Naimo]

Outlines are pretty helpful Twig ... until you reach the point where you go "screw this" and rewrite a whole section. I had to do that for an unpublished fanfic of mine.

[Deustodo]

It is sad when, you are writing a fiction, or fan-fic, and then when you read it you are like: "What the **** is this?! Trash can!" And you have to do it all over again...

[Naimo]

Yeah ... I normally do a plan, and then take scenes out as a result xD