Re: CL Fanfiction

by SeeMeInTheShadows Thu Jul 08, 2010 12:58 pm

I have made these madly detailed chapter plans in which is basically type out every little detail I want to happen and then things I want to throw in the story, and little things, extra characters, etc, etc. I love preplanning. Though, if I think it's gonna be a short one, I don't do much. Sometimes I just keep ideas in my head.

by Coto524 Fri Jul 09, 2010 6:34 am

The Sixth Station is a reall good fic. But there hasn't been a new chap for several years. Still, the author hasn't said it was cancelled...

by **aelitaxwilliam** Fri Jul 09, 2010 6:48 pm

I would say that fic's on a [veryveryvery long] hiatus then. Story planning is actually really entertaining. The first time I've ever planned a story is on YF - not really surprising. I love to start stories, but when I come back to stories [after a week or more], I usually end up wanting to write in a style than how I originally started the story with. Like I'll want to use First Person View instead of Third Person View.

I have a word document that has some phrases and story titles and summaries to help give me inspiration. Or if I'm too lazy to write a story, but I still want to remember the idea, I'll put it there.

by Guest Fri Jul 30, 2010 6:01 pm

Too much detail can be really boring. No detail puts the reader off too. There are scenes and chaps where you need to make the reader feel like he/she is watching all what's going from his/her own eyes. When writing a fact paced action scene, too much detail would take alot of points from the action but when presenting a new place you should give the reader an idea of the place and how it looks.

I also like realism. Sure I can make whoever I want invincible because it's my story, but adding realism makes the story... real! and real is good because a good story is like everyday's normal life except for the boring parts which we cut CL Fanfiction - Page 2 Icon_surprised

Being a review ***** is a very bad example to give to your readers. It's okay to ask for reviews but demanding them continously is like saying "Review or you won't ever get to hear the rest of my f awesome story". Working hard to improve is what makes a good author good. I have seen stories with over 100/200/300 reviews that only had like 2 or 3 reviews for the first couple chaps (in the first weeks). When readers start getting interested they decide to appreciate your work by reviewing, when they do that you'll find old and new chaps getting reviews.

Reviewing other stories actually helps because many of the reviewers check each other's acc's. I'm not saying review to get reviews, just review a story that you've read and liked so others do the same if they liked your story.

BTW... being a grammar freak isn't healthy. We are humans and we make mistakes (yes it can be avoided but when it happens we shouldn't judge the author because of it).

Actually it's a fact that school English isn't fiction English. The meticulous English style you labored over in school, including the use of complete sentences and the structure of classic theme-sentence paragraphs, was directed toward the production of non-fiction reports, resumes, and other non-fiction applications.The first thing you have to do to write fiction? Suspect all the English style you learned in school and violate rules at need. Many of those rules will turn out to apply; many won’t.

Occasionally the editor will be technically right but fictionally wrong and you will have to tell your editor why you want that particular expression left alone.

Like I've said many times before, OC's aren't bad as long as you make it real. Anything real works well in fiction. That doesn't mean you have to make a boring OC with ordinary skills and nothing interesting. Just don't push it or try to fix the light on your character all the time.

Creative writing is my fav. You invent your own style, your own plot and your own rules. Produce a living world and show the reader realism, excitement, action, adventure, romance or whatever your story is about. Master your own plot and drive the characters not the other way around but in a way that has no interruption from you as an author in the flow of the story. Nothing is as good as a new idea that is polished smartly and presented in style.

by Coto524 Sat Jul 31, 2010 1:01 am

Original Writing is great. You can control the characters, the story, the whole flippin' universe...

Oh, and the Yay company are working on a collab. It's taking a long time, but it's worth it. It is called Be----- - --rke--d S--

;D

by **Railen** Sat Jul 31, 2010 1:54 am

Grammar nazis aren't fun. The other way around aren't either. 0.o A spell check or beta-read would help a lot against possible mistakes. If one sees that your story is full of mistakes but doesn't do anything at all about it, that's no good either..

by Coto524 Sat Jul 31, 2010 4:58 am

I know about grammar. But I'm not a grammar freak.

I found a seriously bad author on FF.net. His username is jim sale. He has written two stories.

Kelly said this about his writing:

"IT BURNS! D:"

by Guest Sat Jul 31, 2010 7:03 am

I try to review all the stories I read... cuz obviously I read and follow what I like. I'm sure one way or another it will affect the amount of reviews you get.

by SeeMeInTheShadows Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:29 pm

I definetly think if you find an error (especially if shows up more than once) you should politely tell them, along with any characterizations problems. Though, everyone makes some mistakes, especially the newer people (I sometimes look at my old writing and am like O.O). I figure, with reviewing, encouraging and pointing out the good while telling how to improve is usually very nice.

by Guest Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:37 pm

Ever read a story that had no grammar mistakes, very good plot and presentation but still you felt that something is missing? It's style.

Having a style is very important for an author. It's what makes the reader cling to his work and bother to read all his stories.

by Coto524 Sat Jul 31, 2010 1:26 pm

Well, we don't have problem with style. See Laws of Fanfiction, Kitty's wacky oneshot that destroyed the fourth wall.

by Stella Luce 333 Mon Aug 02, 2010 6:59 am

I have to agre that style is very imprtnt...It's what gives the athr a "voce" so to spek...

by i.most.certainly.love.you Tue Aug 24, 2010 4:37 pm

in my opinion, (yes, i'm evil), I will not read a fanfic with bad grammar no matter how good the plot or story may be.

I don't look for people's grammar mistakes and point them out when I review, except when I see a lot, but most of the fics I read are pretty good, only a few misspelled per chapter or punctuation.

No capitalization is another thing I can't stand when people do. My brother sometimes writes on the computer, and it takes me longer to edit it then it takes for him to write. Not that he does that often, anyway.

Since I'm a writer, (just not on FF.net that much), perfect grammar is big for me. :)

by Guest Tue Aug 24, 2010 4:57 pm

For me as long as I can read it easily, it's well organized, I like the style and the plot then no harm done. I won't get upset because the author missed some small stuff.

Ofc when you're writing you should strive for the best thing... I won't go write a story saying "it's ok, as long as they can read it it's fine" or "grammar is't important" but too much focus on grammar and ignoring other aspects isn't good either.

by memoire-blanche Wed Aug 25, 2010 4:44 am

I hate it when people don't break their text into paragraphs or even don't organise the dialogue right, I mean each sentence in its own verse. They don't realize it's really makes eyes sore and discourages the reader.
Grammar... I know it's really bad when even I (being non-native speaker) can see the mistakes.(Doesn't apply to any author here on XL Wink

) But as long as they don't spoil the comfort of reading too much, I can accept that.

by Stella Luce 333 Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:39 am

It might not alwys be ther falt...It took me a whle to find out that FF.net won't brng ovr evry style you put on the text, so mabye it depnds on what devce/prgrm you're writng with?

by memoire-blanche Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:59 am

You're right, that may be the cause. Spaeking for myself, I use MSWord and most of the times the text looks exactly how I planned. If it doesn't, there's a text editor on FF.net and things I mentioned can be fixed. I can understand that submitting a text to FF.net is not easy sometimes(I used to fight with that site, too) or the authors may submit their work in hurry or for any other reason. But if they spend some more time on these little technical issues which make such a big difference when it comes to reception of their text, they will gain readers, which is the point of writing after all; if they put their work on a publicly accessible site, then they do not mean to keep it readable only to themselves.

by Stella Luce 333 Wed Aug 25, 2010 7:04 am

I just love how it says my word cont jumps when all I do to edit on the site is put a divdng line betwen scnes (I also have Word, whch is whre I spell chck & stuff)...

by Dobermutt Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:47 am

Perhaps you should try Open Office. That's what I use. Sometimes I use MS Word, but it depends on which computer I'm on. I can tolerate mistakes, mostly because I make them too. It really depends on the level of error for me. For example, a story that is just thrown together at random, even just to be funny, with no style, proper grammar of any kind, or just overwhelming is most likely not going to be read by me. Lol! There are a lot if good writers here and I have enjoyed getting to read their stories. I love to read. I think it's important for a writer to develop their own style. When a reader decides to read another story one has written, they somewhat know what to expect (in terms of style). Style is important in keeping the reader hooked or at least interested enough to keep reading and, in some ways, engage with the story and the writer.

by Stella Luce 333 Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:41 am

The word cont thng dosn't relly bothr me, I just thnk it's kind of funny...

I defntly thnk you have to do a lot of redng to be able to wrte. It lets you see what ideas peple have alrdy done, & mabye even gives you an idea for yor own work...

by Kittyclaw Mon Oct 04, 2010 4:02 am

In comming huge post because, omg, I love writing.

I completely agree with Stella--a good writer is a good reader. Reading is the only way to learn different style choices, unique sentence structures, and all sorts of other fun things.

And a response to something Legend said a little bit ago about how fiction writing is different than formal writing--yes, in fiction (and creative non-fiction) it is sometimes adventageous for an author to ignore a usual writing convention or grammar rule. But it should never be for lack of an understanding of grammar. The only time an author can get away with breaking the rules is when they know the rules so well that they are capable of knowing when it is most adventageous to break them. And then, this is something that should be done sparingly. A single sentence fragment to create drama or suspense is good. Fifty of them within three pages is bad.

I think that's what Legend was saying, so I think I'm agreeing with him?

On another note, I know a lot of you said that being too grammar wise can be a bad thing. I disagree. No, I don't believe that an author shouldn't be allowed a mistake or two (you'll never catch them all if you're writing something long) but I do believe that, as a writer, it is expected that you write to the best of your ability. After all, a single typo can pull a reader out of the world you've created, and ruin the reading moment (I think you guys know what I mean?). It's happened in my stories, and it always makes me cringe when I see it. (If you've read my To Fall From Grace, I have this big scene with Yumi and Ulrich, and in the middle of it is the word "window". For something as intense and tragic as TFfG, such a typo is...ugh. Mood killing.)

Next up: Style. I agree that style is as important as anything to a story--as with art, if it's only technical, it isn't really art. But of course, style isn't going to be expected in the first thing someone writes. Your personal style will evolve over time, as you find out what writing works or you and what doesn't, and you absorb ideas and techniques from the authors you read. For example, my style is more dialogue heavy, tends to focus more towards the relationships between characters (friendship, romantic, ect), and has a a generally lighter, more humorous tone. I never sat down and said I wanted to write like that, it just kind of worked out that way. (On another note, would you guys agree with my interpretation of my style? And how about you, what do you think of your style as?)

And last, but not least, MSWord ftw. The formatting I type in on word is different than when shows up on FF. FF, for whatever reason, likes to format it for me in the way that you see it in my posted stories. Which works for me.

Also, Shadows, I do the same thing for characterizing, where I hear the dialogue in my head in the character's voices. That's why I struggle with original writing--I have to hear the character to write them.

Ps. My Reading Peeve: Unrealistic OCs/OC focused stories (because, more often than not, the OCs are just the author inserting their idealized self) and authors who think non-cannon pairings shouldn't exist, and yet they've never read a non-cannon pairing fic.

Non-cannon ftw.

by The Never Minder Mon Oct 04, 2010 3:23 pm

-still wearing new kid hat-

I hear you about the OC stories, Kitty. I've literally never read an OC story that didn't rub me the wrong way; there's just so many things that can go wrong with them.

For starters, why do none of these characters have European names??

by Stella Luce 333 Mon Oct 04, 2010 4:30 pm

I thnk OC fics can be good if the athr knows what they're tryng to do...

The only time an author can get away with breaking the rules is when they know the rules so well that they are capable of knowing when it is most adventageous to break them.

This is almst exctly somthng my film techr told me durng my finl film class in high schol...I'd like to thnk that it relly helps with my writng, since I don't relly use The Writng Prcess. I sort of use my own...

by SeeMeInTheShadows Mon Oct 04, 2010 4:54 pm

I, for one, love making my own OCs. But I almost never post them until I've had them beta checked and written a detailed document about every aspect of their life, their character flaws, ticks, etc, etc. Okay, maybe not a detailed document, but at least a list. And I hate reading OCs, unless they actually make sense.

For CL, I go to some Name website and look under french names. Though, if I do someone like Odd's family, I try Italien or something. I go more with German for Ulrich, Japanese for Yumi (duh) and Aelita is French, I guess.

When I do make OCs in my head, a lot of them are different combinations of my likes or habits and my friends likes or habits with a few opposites and a few really original things. But if you have a major OC from the start, you're almost begging for disaster. Slowly and Surely is the best policy.

by The Never Minder Mon Oct 04, 2010 4:59 pm

When it comes to OCs, what you just described is probably the best policy. When they're given some thought and developed into believable characters, I'm sure they could improve the quality of a story...I just don't usually see it happen. If the character doesn't have recognizable flaws, especially in a series like Code Lyoko where ALL the main characters do, it's really difficult to accept them in the story.

(And I'm glad to hear that someone else uses European names...just running through the Just In page on FFN today I found Melinda, Shade, Kimiko, Crystal, Alexa, Janika...it goes on...)

by Sponsored content