Silversun

We all want our fanfic to be better, right? This is a thread devoted to a discussion of what makes good fan fiction, no matter what the fandom. I uplifted the idea for this thread from the fanart board, cos I thought it would be a good place for readers to rant about their pet peeves, and for experienced writers to give some advice to beginners.

For me, the essential thing for a good fanfic is characterization. I just can't stress enough about it. The good thing about writing fanfic is that your characters are already carved out for you, right? If fics do not discriminate between the already-established traits of different characters, or give them a completely new vocabulary out of the blue, it loses the flavour of the show/movie/book. Fanfics, to a large extent, is wish-fulfilment: you write what you want to see, or think would be a cool scene involving the characters; but if that means your characters start spouting entirely uncharacteristic sayings, it doesn't sit right. Draco Malfoy wouldn't suddenly say something like "Harry, my love, my darling pink snuggly-pie" without some very nifty plot work, just as Michael Guerin wouldn't start crying at the sight of a fluffy bunny with a broken leg. Okay, these are OTT examples, but it works on a smaller scale too.

I also find decent spelling and grammar to be really important. You don't need to use extremely complicated vocabulary for a good fic; but you do need to run a spell-check now and then. Bad spelling/syntax is annoying for the readers and these mistakes distract people from the things that really matter, such as the plot or emotional weight of the story. I'll save my rant about the use of apostrophes for another time. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Just opening an avenue of discussion. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]