Writing Advice

Easy Ways to Improve Your Fanfic Now

Another piece of technology that many writers find helpful is editing apps. Some examples of editing apps/sites are: Microsoft Word, Grammarly, and wordcounter.net. Many of these are free and can help you catch an error or two, or more. It is always best to write your story in a word processing program. Wattpad has a simple program built in, but there are much better options out there—namely Google Docs and Microsoft Word. You can copy-paste, and it is worth the extra step! If you wrote your story in Wattpad's editor, you can always move it to a more powerful editing program for a quick edit and replace the old version with the spruced-up version via copy-paste. Just remember to make backups of both versions and label/organize them in a way that is easy for you to differentiate between them at a glance.

While editing your completed or in the works story, make sure you are correctly spelling Pokémon names and terms. Errors in this department can be confusing to readers and are also a big turn off. Make sure you are using an accented "e" when appropriate. This instantly makes your writing look more professional. If your fanfic was written without the accent mark on Pokémon, copy it into Microsoft Word or Google Docs and use the "Find and Replace" option (Control = H) to change all instances of this mistake into Pokémon, with accented "e". This way you only need to use the Control +'+e shortcut (or Insert/Special Character in Google Docs) once. There are plenty of online tutorials to help you find quick solutions for repeat errors you have serially committed in the spelling and special punctuation department, saving you precious time and effort.

A simple and effective way to make your fanfiction look more professional is to remove/correct some common stylistic errors. Remove any occurrences of excess punctuation. Examples would be double exclamation marks or an exclamation mark followed by a question mark. Choosing to use extra punctuation marks is not a good way to convey feeling. Also, choosing bold print, underlining, and even italics to convey emotion is not helping your story. If you find yourself tempted to do these types of things, examine the phrase and try rewording or choosing new words altogether to convey a character's emotions. However, there is a chance that your wording is just fine, and you just got carried away. In that case, just backspace and feel good, knowing it already looks better.

These aren't the only stylistic errors that can be easily removed. Replacing number characters with the written version can have a positive impact on your story, and it is easy to replace. "I am 16 years old." "I am sixteen years old." See the difference? Removing any anime reactions can also help readers take your story seriously. If you have characters sweat dropping or tick marks appearing on their heads, consider removing it. Many people find these types of references annoying, especially if it is meant to be a serious story. One more thing: remove characters intended to censor a swear word. Either write out the curse word or choose a different word that you are more comfortable using.

If you are looking for something else to fix, you can go on an adverb hunting safari. A quick and dirty way catching some of these is to scan the text, highlighting every word ending in "ly". Then, go though and examine the highlighted words. Ask yourself: How many of these "ly" words are adjectives that could be replaced with a stronger verb? Chances are, nearly all of them. Now, this won't help you catch every single weak verb in your story, but it can be a very solid start on the path to improvement if this is something you struggle with. Always go back over the chapter after you have completed this task. Unfortunately, mistakes can be made while doing this if you are changing the structure of sentences.

If you have a completed fanfiction, it might be wise to examine it. Ask yourself if there are any unnecessary scenes or even entire chapters that can be cut from the story. This process can be a bit painful, considering how much work you may have put into these scenes and chapters, but it is a sure-fire way to improve your story. This is especially helpful if you are not a strict outliner or planner, but also can be applicable to one who does do an extensive amount of planning. If it is not adding to the plot or does not include essential character development, cut it. Be honest with yourself. If you are even questioning if it's necessary, there is a good chance that at least some of it can tossed out. Readers will appreciate it. You may find that more readers will complete your story if the unnecessary filler content is cut. Always make back up files before you take out the scissors, just in case you change your mind. Also, make sure to tie up any loose ends you may create in this process and think it over before you start backspacing. A well-executed cut could require little to no alterations to the text that is kept.

If you're really looking for help on the technical side of writing, you can also check out our editing service. Read our editing book to see details on how to submit your chapter or one shot and find helpful articles about how to write correctly in terms of grammar, punctuation, and the technical side of things. 

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Credits: Article by glitterandasphalt

Edited by d_s_t_e

Tips from d_s_t_e , DI_Gremlin , NaivEevee , Sheare , SGmijumaru , Cora-chan , glitterandasphalt