by Megan Reilly
Homepage: http://members.dencity.com/eponine

Every reader is different, and I can only speak for myself. That said, I’m offering this insight into my reading habits as help to you, so you can have an idea what goes through your reader’s mind when they’re looking at your story. You might already have this insight, because you have different “hot buttons” when you’re reading that make you close out or hit delete. Some of the things you hate might be the things I love, and vice versa.

So why am I doing this again? Because I like to write feedback. And you like to get feedback (or you did last time I checked). And stories I don’t read, I can’t usually comment on. Consider this my feedback on all those stories I didn’t read.

Technical

Short Line, Long Line syndrome. This happens to everyone. It’s happened to me, I admit it. But usually if I see a short line long line story, I don’t read it, because it’s distracting. This is one of the most easily overcome problems though. If a story holds my interest, I don’t care what the formatting looks like.

Other format quirks

The Summary. Some people want them to be required on every story and won’t read a story without one. As an author, I will openly admit to how very much I hate writing a summary, so if you don’t have one, it’s not going to bother me. But if you choose to include a summary, here’s a few tips. First of all, it’s a “Summary.” You are summing up what happens in the story. It doesn’t matter to me whether it’s “summery” or freezing cold. (They’re homonyms, get it?) I see “Summeries” on a lot of stories. Spell check won’t help you.

The next issue in summary writing, beyond the label itself, is: How much do you say? This is a fine line. Most instructors recommend you study the capsule descriptions in the TV Guide to figure out what a summary should be like. Or describe your story in one sentence. But please, please, don’t give the entire story away. If you do, I can just read the summary and skip the story. For example, “Summary: Mulder and Scully have dinner, do the dishes, and end up confessing their undying love in front of the fireplace” gives the whole game away, doesn’t it? There aren’t going to be any surprises. For the same story, a summary such as “Mulder and Scully have an evening at home with unexpected results” tells the reader the same thing, but in a different way. It leaves the mystery in.

By the same token, too much mystery, or a summary that is too generic, is going to have the same effect as a summary that is too specific. “Strange things are afoot” doesn’t tell me anything about your story - it’s the X-Files, of course strange things are afoot. Don’t waste the space if you have nothing to say. As for attempts at mystery, I can’t think of a proper example right now, but if you suspect it might leave people saying, “What the hell?” rewrite it. If I can’t understand the summary, I just assume I’m not going to understand the story.

The Disclaimer. It’s a necessary evil, and it’s been turned into an art form. Some go for the simple approach, others for the flowery or poetic or clever. Every writer has their own approach. That’s terrific. The only thing that turns me off in a disclaimer is hostility. If you call Chris Carter, 1013 and Fox morons (or worse), no matter how true that may be or how much evidence you hold in your heart or even how much I agree with you, I’m probably going to turn away. Hostility is scary. Don’t make me be scared of you before I get the chance to read your story.

Naming Characters In The Disclaimer. Some writers like to do this. Sometimes, like an overly specific summary, it can give the entire game away. If you have a surprise twist or character in your story, we’re going to be waiting to see that person once we see their name in the disclaimer, and we won’t be surprised when we’re supposed to be. (For example if we’re supposed to think it’s a conversation between Mulder and Scully in bed but it hilariously turns out to be a conversation between Mulder and Skinner fixing a paper jam in the copier... character names too soon will spoil the ending.)

I can also understand the desire to lay claim to your original characters in your disclaimer. But to me personally, when I see, “Mary Sue Who is my property. Don’t use her in your story without asking me for permission,” several things happen in my head, all of which put me on the defensive and make me feel icky and suddenly I’m not sure if I want to keep reading. First, I wonder what’s so great about this character that everyone’s going to be stealing her to put in their own stories. Such things have happened with much beloved original characters, but it seems a rare occurrence. Secondly, I start to think that your original character is going to be a genuine Mary Sue. I don’t know why I think this, or even why it would be a bad thing. I just do.

Archive Permissions. This might be better left to the archivists (and I have been one), and it doesn’t usually make me stop reading, but I thought I’d throw this in here while I’m going over the front matter. “Yes” and “No” and “Ask me” are answers that make sense. “Sure, but drop me a line so I can visit” doesn’t make sense to me. You’re giving permission, so the archivist can go ahead and not have to put you on the list of all the other people they have to email and ask permission, which is good. But you’re still asking for an email. Why not just say, “Ask for permission.” What happens if you say sure in the story, and then the archivist drops you a line, and you decide you don’t want your story in that particular archive? We all like to know where our stories end up. I know I do. But the “Sure, just email me” doesn’t save anyone any time.

Author’s Notes. Keep ‘em short and sweet. At this point, we don’t know you yet. We just want to read the story. If you put them at the end, that’s perfect.

We’ve already read the story, so we know what you’re talking about. If you do put your author’s notes at the beginning, write them as a reflection of your story. If your author’s note is rambling, silly, giggly, or poorly articulated, I’m going to assume the story is, too, and not read it. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and you lose readers this way. I will always remember a very good story I read that had a really juvenile author’s note at the beginning. For whatever reason, I read the story anyway. I’m sure a lot of people didn’t.

Ending The Story. No, not the plot. I’m still on technicalities. Please write something at the end of the story (and each part of the story) that lets the reader know it’s the end of the story. Otherwise we sit here, wondering if something went wrong. (I’ll admit it, I’ve been guilty. The first story I posted didn’t have a 1/1 in the header, and didn’t say “end” at the end. A few kind people asked me, “Was that all there was?” and I realized the problem.)

Writing Stuff

If I’ve gotten this far, you’ve pretty much got me. Sad but true, I usually make my decision by reading the intro and the first couple of paragraphs. When there were less stories out there and I had more time, I read everything, start to finish. Now I don’t even read books start to finish all the time. But I do have a few points for you to keep in mind.

Revolving First Person POV. It is very, very hard to write revolving 1st person POV. Especially in fanfic, because you have to capture the voice of not just one character we know, but several. That said, I adore revolving 1st person stories. When they work, they work really well. A sign things might not go so well is when at the beginning of the section it says, “Mulder’s POV.” Here’s why: if you have done your work well, and captured the characters’ voices, you won’t have to tell me whose POV it is. I’ll know from reading it. I suspect these POV clues get stuck in there when a beta reader says, “This was great, but I got a little confused about who was speaking” and the author goes, “I know how to fix that!” and slaps a “Mulder’s POV” on there, thinking the problem is solved. It isn’t. If it’s first person and the narrator isn’t clear from the voice, the language, the tone...you need to sit down and rewrite it until it really is Mulder’s POV.

Post Episode Stories. I remember when there weren’t very many post-episode stories, and so the post-eps were new, exciting, and different. They added something to the episodes they followed. Now, check the newsgroup, and every story seems to be post-this or post-that. In a way, it makes sense: The episodes inspired us to write, and to want to read. But at the same time, few post episodes stories (and I’m sorry to generalize here) actually have something to say about the characters or the episode. We already watched the episode. We know what happened on the screen, we know the dialogue, and we can pretty much guess what the characters were thinking, because those actors do a pretty good job.

Please don’t write an episode novelization. Don’t be obvious. Everyone else had the same idea. Do something different. Take a startling point of view. Drop in some details we couldn’t have guessed from the episode and see how it twists the story...or drop in a twist and see what happens after the episode. Don’t write a post ep if you don’t have anything to say. (Disclosure: I’ve done this too. And I’m ashamed. I wrote a trilogy that pretty much falls into the novelization category. Even though I did have a twist to it - what if M&S slept together before the beginning of Anasazi - it was still very novelizationish. Learn from my mistakes.)

Know What You’re Talking About. At least well enough to fake it. As far as characters go, I realize not many of us writing these stories is a 35-year old five foot two inch redheaded FBI agent with a forensic background. And we are writing for fun, so it’s okay to depart from reality. At the same time, an educated person doesn’t use the same words as one who isn’t. Mulder and Scully are adults, and because of this, they aren’t going to have the same conversations that teenagers have, or express their feelings in the same way. Think about what’s inherent to the characters, not just what you personally would do. Writing gives you the opportunity to step into someone else’s shoes for a while. Take the opportunity.

As far as research goes, especially when you’re dealing with a serious or painful subject, you can’t avoid doing research if you don’t know about something and you want to write about it. Because someone out there reading your story will have experience with it, and they’ll know you got it wrong. They might be angry, but more likely they’re going to think you’re stupid. (Or both.) If you’re unlucky, they’ll point out to other people just how stupid you are. Just don’t do it. If you’re interested enough in subject such as drug addiction or anorexia or depression or whatever to put your characters through it, you should be interested enough to read a book from the library or do a search on the web to find out what it’s really like. The stories that stand out are the ones that got it right. (People still talk about “Oklahoma” and “Therapy” and “Father of the Bride” because the stories were great, but also because they got it right.)

The most important thing to keep anyone reading your story is to get their attention and hold it. Any of the above things don’t matter if your story is compelling and your characters are sharp and your writing is beautiful and your dialogue sparkles and every time my finger hovers over “page down” I’m asking myself, “What’s going to happen next?” That’s really all you need.