Miscellaneous Concerns

I had a professor (in the playwriting class I believe) who recommended creating a credo especially about your writing life and updating it every year. If you keep it up as a regular habit, you can use it to see your growth. I'm a few years behind and don't remember what I did with the last one I wrote. It's around somewhere; I never throw those things away.

Two fanfics writers I know admitted to me that they don't read fanfics. This is such an alien concept to me, I don't know what to make of it and started this post to work it out. Why am I so befuddled?

I don't expect anyone to read the crazy amount of stuff I do. I was reading by age four and reached college-level texts by fourth grade (my teacher for that grade complained about it to my mother at open house). I started writing the year after that. But reading has never stopped in the mean time.

If you study the how-to side of writing long enough, you will gather conflicting messages or what appear to be conflicting messages. Everyone has a different writing approach so it’s only to be expected. But it can be confusing. For example, Jack M. Bickham titled Chapter 32 of his book The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them) “Don’t Chase the Market.”

I have recently fallen in love with fanmixes and started making my own. What is a fanmix? It is a soundtrack; based around the universe, a character, a relationship, or a fanfic. You group the songs you have chosen for it, make cover art for it, and present it for other people to enjoy. There are two methods to the presenting. Method A is to list the titles and performers of the songs with lyrics and/or commentary about why you chose it. This method won’t get you in trouble with the record companies and some fandom sites insist on it so they won’t get in trouble.

First some definitions to make sure we’re all on the same page.

Canon

means “the authentic works of a writer” or “a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works.” For fanfiction writers, this means the movie, television show, or book providing the source material for the universe the fanfiction is set in.

AU

I comment a lot about putting the readers’ wants ahead of the author’s. One reason is because beginning writers don’t usually consider their audience when they start a story. As you have seen in the writing tutorials, there are many options that can be influenced by thinking of them instead of treating them as the enemy to be conquered. Most readers get a kick out of getting replied and having an exchange of ideas with someone whose works they enjoy.

WHY RATE YOUR FANFIC?

Not all material is suitable for all readers. Some want sex in graphic detail; others are grossed out. Some feel violence adds a sense of realism; other would rather explore the softer side of the characters. In an effort to be fair, you should set the reader's expectations with a rating and support it with a disclaimer. But we'll cover the "please don't sue me" plea in another tutorial. This one is all about ratings, and what place sex and violence have in your story.

WHAT ARE THE RATINGS?

I'VE CAUGHT WRITER'S BLOCK

Invariably throughout your writing life, someone sneers and says you shouldn't waste your time with something made up. (I think my life is scheduled to run into someone new with this opinion roughly every two years.) If you're not very good at shrugging these comments off, and when you're depressed over the state of your writing it can be nigh impossible, I find it helpful to examine why you do what you do when you can think clearly about the situation. One of my creative writing teachers said these thoughts should be put down in a credo and updated frequently.

The inspiration for this tutorial:

Name: Andreas W.
Homepage URL: http://andreas.n3.net
Comments: You are a little bit of a language-fascists.

Naturally has a good language part of a good story, but if one for example is from some non-English country, it gets a little tougher to be a very correct writer.

Your criticism is a little brutal, considering that you've had plenty of high-level education in English.

You shouldn't really expect others to keep the same quality, and this is something you appear to have troubles with.