Category: Organization & Process

The Benefits of Fanfiction

The Benefits of Fanfiction

When I just hear the word “fanfiction,” I think of smutty romances and fan theories that make no sense. (And, unfortunately, the search trends for fanfiction reflect the same ideas.) That’s really sad (and I sincerely apologize to any fanfiction writers here). However, when I’m thinking about fanfiction, and thinking about writing fanfiction, I remember I started with fanfiction. I think instead of creativity and development and inexperienced (but still admirable) writing.

Before we get into the actual benefits, I’m going to tell you a story. My “first good novel,” The Half-Elves (if you’ve been here a while there’s no way you haven’t heard of this before), started out as a fanfiction of Continue reading “The Benefits of Fanfiction”

B: 5 Best Writing Exercises

B: 5 Best Writing Exercises

I don’t have any stories whose titles begin with B (which was kind of surprising to me), so today we have a writing tip instead, and since it’s the beginning of Camp NaNoWriMo I thought writing exercises would be a good choice.

1. Find a Writing Prompt

Obviously this one’s pretty simple, but there are a couple of different ways it can be used. Continue reading “B: 5 Best Writing Exercises”

Sharing First Drafts: Yea or Nay?

Sharing First Drafts: Yea or Nay?

First drafts are rough things. Sometimes they’re wonderful and you adore writing them, other times you nitpick over every word, and sometimes you start writing and realize they’re crap and don’t deserve to be written. (We’re not talking about that last kind at the moment.) The question is, should we share these with others or keep these special babies to ourselves until they’re polished?

For newer writers, I’d suggest Continue reading “Sharing First Drafts: Yea or Nay?”

Roleplaying and Character Development

Roleplaying and Character Development

First, an explanation of roleplaying

Roleplaying, in short, is when usually when you and another author (or other authors) put your characters together in a situation and see what happens and how the characters react and interact. There are two main ways that roleplaying is done. One is more like you’re writing a story together; it’s written like a story and you simply take turns writing out scenes from your character’s POV (in third person, so it doesn’t get confusing). The other way, which I personally prefer because it’s looser, is to write it more like Continue reading “Roleplaying and Character Development”

My Top 5 Tips for New Writers

My Top 5 Tips for New Writers

When I think back to my early writing—the really early stuff, back when I thought that five pages was long enough to be a novel—I see a gigantic mess. Flat characters, rushed plots, things that little seven-year-old me didn’t think through that are now really creepy (like the fact that one of my characters accidentally had two wives), and fairytale romances. I have a document of those old stories that’s titled “The Cheese Factory.”

I can’t save you from cheesy stories or flat characters—and honestly you’ll run into those through your entire writing career Continue reading “My Top 5 Tips for New Writers”