How To Get Your Fan Fiction Noticed

I'm back!

Clearly, I can't help myself. I just need to keep ranting. Here are a few more hints and tips about how to improve your writing. I think i'll just keep adding chapters on as I get more ideas :)

POINTS OF VIEW

 - Don't keep switching to different points of view in each chapter. It's confusing.

 - Also - don't write the same scene in different points of view unless there is something especially significant about them. It so rarely works that it's almost not worth doing.

MUSIC

 - If you are one of those people who bases scenes around a particular song, or you just enjoy listening to music as you write, let your readers know what the songs are. It adds to the mood of the chapter, and it is a good way to discover new music as well. I discovered a lot of my favourite music by chance like this. Having said that, don't have 3 pages of song lyrics. Your readers will skip over them. Post the name of the song, and the musician; or just a link to a youtube video. Don't force it down the throat of the reader.

 - I also like to use it as a way of giving local musicians a bit of a boost. There are a lot of buskers near where I live, who are fabulous musicians. I love buying thier CDs to listen to because you get that whole feeling of a band being your little secret for awhile, and when I use their music in my fanfiction, it gives them a little free promo as well. Win-win situation!

THE FIRST DRAFT OF EVERYTHING IS SHIT - Ernest Hemmingway

Revise, re-read, scratch out entire pages. Re-start chapters. Do whatever it takes.

Have you ever written an assignment at 2am, printed it off without proof-reading because you are just too tired; and submitted it to your teacher. The teacher marks it and hands it back covered in red pen.

You read over your assignment now that you've got it back from the teacher, and realise exactly where you messed up, wondering why you didn't pick it up as you were writing it. Yep, same deal when it comes to writing anything. 

A better course of action would be to write a first draft. Go to bed, and get a good night's sleep. When you wake up, read it again and correct any mistakes. Add in more description, take away some description. Prune away the unnecessary things, and add in what you missed. Don't be afraid to do this as many times as you need to. That is, go to bed, THEN revise your work with fresh and clear thought processes.

After that, you need to read your work aloud. Give it to someone else to proof-read.

Go back to bed.

Then read over what the other person has said about it. Revise your work again.

Then you have permission to publish; but only if you are truly happy with the finished product. If you get into the habit of doing this, chances are you will end up sleeping through quite a lot of the writing process.

Yes, it is time consuming. But let's do an experiment. Go back to the very first thing you ever remember writing. Does it make you cringe? Are there things you want to change? I can bet you any amount of money that you do. As a person you have learned and experienced a lot since then, even if you feel like you haven't achieved much. Use this new knowledge to enhance your writing.

SPELLING

Although I already had a thing dedicated to this, I realise that I forgot to mention the fact that different countries spell certain words differently. There are the obvious differences e.g. Mom vs. Mum.

Neither spelling if more correct than the other, but it would do readers and writers well to remember that these differences exist in the most unexpected ways: oestrogen vs. estrogen, oesophagus vs. esophagus etc. (Sorry that most of my examples have to do with the human body, it's just where I noticed most of the differences)