pacifierrocks

I'm from Virginia. but i went to a concert one night and a bunch of people were handing out demos. the listened to their demo and fell in love. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] i think was listening to their CD when i registered.
[img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Silversun

I'm not quite sure, but I think flaming is actally quite random. In my opinion not many flames actually hit the nail on the head with what was wrong with your story, they seem to mostly ramble with no clear point and just a general attitude of hatefulness. That's how I saw it anyway. I have no idea why people do it. If I absolutely hate a story, the most I would do is advise my friends not to waste their time reading it, I would never say anything too nasty to the writer's face.

Silversun

Just dropping in to say, I'm de-topping this thread for a while to make way for announcements, since the admin don't want boards to have more than 3 topped topics at any given time. Do you guys want this to be re-topped once the announcements have been taken off? Please let me or Caty know. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Enigma, I.C.

Fanfic things that bug me..hmmm

Something that really urks me is over at FF.net where someone will have a 5000 word story with 10 chapters. Gah! I love long, neverending fics. Don't give me granules!

Silversun

That's so true. What's even the point of chapters if there's no room for development within the chapter?

M & M

I'm so upset I didn't see this thread before! It would have saved the random objects around my desk a lot of pain. I tend to throw things when I am overly annoyed and some fic and fic writers know exactly how to annoy me. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Number one pet peeve: Use spell-check. Nowadays you don't even have to click the button. There's a nifty red line that points out your spelling mistakes. And while you're at it, look at the green line. Those two lines work wonders.

Amazingly there is a huge difference between "then" and "than."

I always intend to start a fic with an outline, but then I get so excited to write down all my ideas that I'm not patient enough to write an outline, so I have to make up the plot as I go along. I know how I want it to end, but sometimes that ends up changing.

I disagree that virgins shouldn't write sex scenes. I'm a virgin and I'm young and I don't think my smut is great, but it's not that bad, I hope. But I have to say that if you are inexperienced don't write something kinky or weird positions, because then you ARE just proving to your readers that you really have no idea how anything works.

And something that bugs the hell out of me almost more than spelling...When there's a whole page full of just words with no breaks when people are speaking or a change of subject. It's just line after line of words. Even if I wanted to, I simply cannot read like that. It hurts my eyes too much. I don't even have enough patience to suggest to the authors to try something called the "Enter" or "Return" button on their keyboards.

I know I've just re-hashed what you guys have been talking about but you came up with excellent points. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I'm sure I'll be back with more rants and raves after I've read some other hideous fic. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Crossbow

This is a really good essay on Mary Sue.

Catalinay

Sometimes I've done shorter chapters in POV pieces - in my epic I use chapters to switch POV between the two main characters. I try not to make them too short, though!

Crossbow - thanks for the link. I'm always very nervous when first thinking of an OC that it will be a Mary Sue! Never realized that Wesley Crusher was considered one.

[ 12-08-2003: Message edited Catalinay ]

Silversun

Thanks for posting the link Crossbow. I'm interested to know though, are most Mary Sues self-insertions? I've written quite a few OCs, and I have to say I see bits of me in each one, but none of them are actually like me in any significant manner. I mean, how can I write myself into a story when I don't even know who I am, or what my best and worst personality traits are?

</STRONG>I think the point of [img]smilies/nono.gif[/img] short chapters are, if you've got good reason to divide the story up into these chapters, it's fine, whether they be long or short. If you're shifting between POVs, that's a good reason. The thing that peeves is a story split up for no apparent reason. It sometimes makes me wonder if the author just does that to say, "you know, I've written two-hundred chapters of my story" or something. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Amen to that! Green lines, red lines and right-clicking are a fanfic writer's best friends. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

Re: virgins and sex scenes. I think that, if you are planning to write sex scenes, you don't need to have actual experience to write it somewhat convincingly, but you should definitely check out a bunch of other sex scenes beforehand to see how other people describe it and just to get your anatomy lessons right. Preferably read something by a pro writer and not just fanfic. I recommend Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

As for slash, the best best place to go for tips on the net is Minotaur's Sex Tips for Slash Writers. That site is a godsend. Note: contains explicit material.

LJC

Theresa Nielsen-Hayden (editor at Tor) has some fun stuff to say about Mary Sues in her blog, Making Light.

M & M

Definitely! I would NEVER have attempted to write smut without reading other published and non-published works. Generally books are not NEARLY as explicit as fic. At least, from what I've read. [img]smilies/look.gif[/img]

Thanks for the articles about Mary Sues. Very interesting. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Enigma, I.C.

[img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] Someone going around, "what's sex like? I'm writing a story that has some in it"

HappySquared

hi! first time in here. Didn't really notice this forum before but good thing I lurked around.
I love writing fan fictions and short stories, written a couple of slash fictions too.

I think the most important stuff in a fiction is the dialog, through the dialog you can come up with a good characterisation. But the setting also is equally important. Becuz if you go on with just dialogs without being keen on those descriptions, it would be too boring.
Too much dialog, however, makes a story dull. Back in college my prof used to say that in a story you should establish the following:
character and their personality
plot
the setting

and grammar shouldn't be left out! It's a must to every writer to scan their work for errors in grammar and spelling.

that's all. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
expect me to be always here, reading fan fictions! [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

Silversun

[img]smilies/wave.gif[/img] Welcome to this forum shnicky.

I remember vaguely that Aristotle said that elements in a drama should be, in the order of importance:
Plot
Characterisation
other stuff... can't remember. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
So he thought plot should come even before characterisation. If you don't have a plot, don't write a story. I guess I'm inclined to agree - if a story has a really engaging plot, I'll be willing to overlook not-so-perfect characterisation. What do you guys think?

*Di*

Really good tips here. I just wish that I have time to think about this when I write stories.

I usually think about what I want to write about for a few days, how the story is going to start and how the ending is going to be. When I have time I just sit and write until I can't come up with anymore and then I feel I've written too much that I don't want to change it. But if something has been bugging me I'll rewrite that part.
It is hard to come up with the things that should happen in the middle.

It is the plot that makes you read the story but it has to have characterisation to keep your interest in the persons and to understand their actions.

(I write shorter stories up to 20 Wordpages, mostly for myself and about things that isn't allowed to be talked about here on this board)

Di

[ 12-09-2003: Message edited *Di* ]