I've been trying to write a story for quite a while, but simply can't seem to move past the initial idea stage. So, I thought I would ask the community.

How do you go about writing fanfiction? How do you start? Do you plot out the story in detail before you begin writing? How do you construct your characters' personalities? What method works for you?

 

Watch these lectures. And yes, they are actually informative.

 

I did a thread exactly like this about a year back. I didn't really get much good advice because hey guess what? Everyone's different! You have to figure out yourself. And instead of worrying about how to do it, just fucking do it.

Just start writing, even if its crap get something down, then it starts to snowball. Because right now you're not doing yourself any favours, you're just procrastinating.

So go put some word vomit into your keyboard, even if its not what you're working on or if its halfway through the plot just do it. Remember theres nothing that says you have to work chronologically, so starting the scene that you really want to write might motivate you to go back and fill in the rest.

Now, I know that I'm not the best person to be handing out advice on perseverance when it comes to writing. My writing itself is fine, sometimes good, but if it takes more than a few hours to write I never get it done. And while I've basically completely stopped writing lately I'll probably get back into it when I graduate.

But the point is that writing is just like any other creative process; when you hit a wall just fucking do it, stop worrying about it, do what feels right for you and stop asking for advice left right and centre and eventually you'll come up with your own rhythm and style and you'll be the one handing out advice in a couple of years.

Thats about it. Hope that helps and good luck on whatever it is you're working on.

 

Basically what Sacro said. And after you've written a few hundred thousand words, you might achieve some level of proficiency. Some learn faster, some slower, and some never learn at all (I'm looking at those shitty million-word fics on FFN).

But the important part is to start writing. The best way to learn is to just do it. There is no secret trick to it except putting your nose to the grindstone and picking it up as you go along.

 

If you don't practice, you won't learn. Word vomit, read it over, post it somewhere. FFN will give you a good bit of exposure depending on the fandom, and if you're lucky you might even get a review from someone that's actually worth something.

On your stated questions, a good way to start is with the idea. Write out the scene that popped into your head, and then work from there. An end goal is good, but not crucial if you're just practising. So long as there is an actual plot, that is.

Given that it's fanfiction, there shouldn't really be a need to construct your character's personalities, unless you're writing an OC, which you probably shouldn't be if you're at this stage. If you're going with an AU, the characters will still have to grow out of their canon selves, so the best way to go about it is get into the head of your subjects--if you can do that, their reactions to a given situation should come to you as you write.

Personally, I was god awful when I first began to write. Time and constructive feedback have helped that, so when you come up with something solid, post it in the WbA forums we've got going here.

 

Lots of good advice. I'd add is that if you wish to write, you should also read. Read a lot, good stuff, writing of the quality, style, and texture you hope to one day achieve yourself. In other words, read Steinbeck; he's awesome.

And learn to edit fetishistically.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone! I suppose I should use Steven King's method of writing improvement... no less than 5000 words a day!

Also, thanks for the link KHAAAAAAAAN! I'm surprised I've never found most of these interviews.

 

He probably means that he has a general concept of a plot component, say, Harry being the last or the first of the male veela (yes, I know - eyeroll here, people!), and Harry being 'chummy' with Fleur, but that's all - no antagonists, no general direction of a storyline, etc.

Start with the bare-bones - antagonists, protagonists, supporting characters, love interests, sub-plots, story conflict, story climax, etc.

Then, once you've nailed something that vaguely resembles a plan down, create character and location sketches: these are pretty frickin' vital, as they help you immensely.

Do not, however, over-plan; you can plan out a twenty thousand word novel thoroughly, and not write a single sentence. This also applies to the opposite, however; jumping in without a solid plan and just writing whatever comes to mind? People usually crap out about five chapters in - you see this sort of thing on FFn a lot, though that's obviously not the best example out there.

The characters guide the story - the story doesn't guide the characters.

An example of this would be; why would the brave, sexy heroine, who has a shit-ton of common sense and is relatively down-to-earth, go in to that spooky, haunted house (where, obviously, the axe-murderer lurks), when her character would be more inclined to say, "Fuck that!" and then walk away?

A lot of movies and bad fictions (both published and fan, professional and amateur) make this severe fuck-up, pretty much all the time.

 

Going by your indecisiveness, I think you should take the broad view here: knowing all the tricks in the book will get you nowhere if you don’t know what and why you’re writing.

Check out Chandler’s timeless essay, The Simple Art of Murder. Even if acrimonious and heavy-handed at times - Chandler wrote it by being fucked over by Hollywood – it deconstructs the detective genre and explains what good fiction is like. Every word is a nugget of hard-earned wisdom and applies to fanfiction just as well.

Read the essay until you know it by heart, plaster it on your wall if you must, but please don’t write uninspired crap.

 

Addendum: Learn to edit fetishistically... once you have finished writing the chapter/scene/story. Mid-writing editing can quickly kill a session of what was once epic wordgasms.

I have a rule of thumb; Never, ever, ever edit while writing, and never close a document until you have finished proofreading.

Also, use something that allows you to customize auto-save duration.

We've all been there. Epic scene, best shit you've ever written and you know you wont be able to recreate it and BAM! The gods of technology slap you straight in the mouth with a dick and your power dies. And you forgot to save that shit. D: