Death Ninja's Guide To Writing Fanfiction V1.0 Getting Started Write about something you like. I've been writing fanfictions for two years now and they're all about videogames and Anime. I've successfully written 24 complete Dragon Ball Z fanfics mostly about Vegeta and one Dragon Ball Z/Final Fantasy VII/Yu Yu Hakusho/Street Fighter II Crossover. As of now and as you know, I'm working on Just Love, my first Grandia II fanfic. When I'm finished with Just Love, I plan on writing a BIG Final Fantasy Crossover and a bunch of short stories about my favourite fighting games or Anime like Escaflowne, Gundam Wing, Marvel VS Capcom 2, and Guilty Gear X. When my site was still alive, I received several requests like a Gokou/Chichi fanfic. I tried writing it but I just couldn't because I hate Gokou. Forcing yourself to write something is no good. I need inspiration in order to write a fanfic, I need something to drive me to write it. Most of my fanfics center around romance, pain, loneliness, lemons, and there's also some action. Watching Vegeta die at the hands of Freeza drove me to write something sad about him. You may write about a fanfic with a different atmosphere so find something what would drive you to write it. Grammar It's always good to have good grammar. Spelling and grammar errors can be easily eliminated with a spelling or grammar buttons on your Word Processor's tool bar. A lot of spelling and grammar errors really hurt a fanfic. I read a fanfic once and I had no idea what was going on due to poor grammar and spelling. Spelling and grammar errors here and there are okay, no one is perfect. I proof read my fanfics 2 to 3 times before I publish them. But, even then I still find some errors. To prevent this, make use of the spelling and grammar buttons, proof read your work, or get a friend to read your fanfic(s). Description Put as much detail as possible in your fanfic so your readers will have a much better idea of what is going on. When I wrote my first fanfic, I crammed as much details as possible. To make sure you have enough details in your fanfic, read your fanfic and picture what is happening in your head. Then, ask yourself this question, "would my readers picture the same thing?" Before I write anything, I picture what's going to happen in the fanfic in my head. When the sequences of scenes are good enough, I picture that stuff all over again and start writing. It's kind of like taking notes when watching a movie. I try to write almost every single thing that happens. I put details in a way where my readers would picture the same thing in their heads or something close to it. Here's an example: ------------------------------------------GGREAT DETAIL---------------------------------------- Elena threw herself at Ryudo and without stopping to think for a second, she kissed him fully on the lips. Ryudo returned her kiss tenfold and his hands travelled down to her waist to pull her closer. Elena moaned lightly as Ryudo deepened the kiss and slid his tongue into her mouth. Elena rubbed his muscular chest in a circular pattern with her hands. Ryudo broke their kiss to catch his breath and then began to plant kisses on Elena's neck. Elena could feel Ryudo's arousal through his towel with her thigh. She ran her fingers from down his chest to his abdominals. Her fingers kept going down and down and then jerked her hands away as she reached the towel. Ryudo stopped kissing her neck. "Elena?" Elena blushed a bit and took a step backwards. "I am sorry..." "Did I do something wrong?" "No, it was me. Ryudo, we cannot do this." Ryudo was about to protest and but then remembered that he has to take care of Gatta before he could be with Elena. "You're right..." he said reluctantly and looked down. "I'm sorry too... I let myself get carried away." With that, Ryudo took his sweat pants from the door and left the bathroom. ------------------------------------------GGREAT DETAIL--------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------PPOOR DETAIL---------------------------------------- Elena threw herself at Ryudo and kissed him on the lips. Ryudo returned her kiss and their kisses became harder as seconds passed by. After awhile, Elena pulled back. ------------------------------------------PPOOR DETAIL---------------------------------------- Characters When I have an idea for a fanfic and what's it going to be based on, I ask myself the next question, "Who's going to be in it?" If it's a short story, it usually stars 2 to 3 characters like Vegeta and Bulma were the main characters in most of my Dragon Ball Z fanfics. If it's an epic, there's 7 to 12 main characters. If you're writing about videogames or Anime, try to keep the characters like their normal selves. You can't have someone like Elena performing in a strip bar or Ryudo saying something like this, "Gee Father Carius, Granas Religion is SOOO much fun, I'll escort Elena to St. Heim for free!" Writing a fanfic with a few characters is easy but one with many is a lot of challenge. When it comes to a fanfic that has many characters, put down all of the main characters on a piece of paper or use your computer. Outline who's the good, who's the bad, their personalities, their motives in the fanfic, how they're going to complete their goals, how they're going to evolve, their relationships, and if magic or special powers are involved, their abilities. This way, you're more organized and you won't get lost if you leave a fanfic for a long period of time. Fictional Characters If you're going to add characters made up by you, make sure they're fully developed. Try not to center most of your fanfic to your fictional character(s) because your audience will lose interest. Out of the fanfics I've written, I've made up two characters that were main characters, Lance and if you're interested on who the other one is, his name is Burasu, he's from one of my Dragon Ball Z fanfics. I like fictional characters in a fanfic because most of them are based on the author. It's like the author has placed a piece of him/her on the fanfic. It's also interesting to see or read a fictional character interact with an original one and vice versa like Lance interacting with Elena in Just Love. Want to make a fictional character? The first thing I try to come up with is a name, then their appearance, and finally their personality. I'll use Lance as an example. The name Lance was randomly chosen. I was going to use the name "Nekura," which means "dark natured" in Japanese but I changed it for reasons I won't tell since it would spoil Just Love. I turned Lance into a Ninja because I love Ninja, I admire their strength, speed, stealth, and all the things about them. Lance's appearance was based on Galford from Samurai Spirits; the looks, the hairstyle, and the clothes. The only difference between them is that Lance has a whole new personality, red eyes (Galford has blue), turquoise hair (Galford is blonde), and Lance wears a trench coat. I put on a trench coat on Lance for two reasons; one, I've always wanted to draw a fictional character in a trench coat, and two, I won't tell since it's spoiling. Lance's personality is somewhat based on mine, he's quiet, cold, vengeful, and there's going to be more as the story progresses. Basically, he's the Vincent Valentine or Shadow of the group. If you want a character not based on you but still want a strong, developed personality, you can always turn to the Zodiacs. The Zodiacs offer twelve characters with good personalities. For an example, if you want a character with a good logic but feel that logic isn't enough to make a strong personality, look up Capricorn. This is what Capricorn has to offer: According to astrologers, Capricorns have responsible, disciplined, practical, methodical, cautious, serious, and sometimes pessimistic natures. Capricorns believe that anything worth having is worth working hard for, and they assign the highest value to things won through the hardest work. Typical Capricorns are aloof and shy, sometimes even awkward, because they stay so focused on responsibility. To them life is serious business, and they sometimes have difficulty relaxing and having fun. Because of this, Capricorns may be lonely. Astrologers believe that Capricorns respect power, authority, structure, tradition, and old things whose value and durability are tested by time. Capricorns are ambitious, and they typically are not satisfied unless they have reached a level of power and authority. They have a deep need for security, especially financial, and often will work very hard to get rich. Styles Like I said, most of my fanfics involve romance, pain, loneliness, and action. I've also written two lemon fanfics. I think I'm good at what I write but I can never write a humourous fanfic or a horror fanfic. This sounds silly but write with your heart, write about what's happening on the inside to get the best results. Well, this is the end of my guide, I hope it helped to some degree. If you need to know anything else or feel the I left out something, please tell me. Happy writing!