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This little train of thought comes from browsing one too many articles and watching one too many videos on writing, but anyway. It occurs to me that over the years I've repeated several opinions several times, so it seems a good enough to reason to start a thread with tips specifically for fanfiction writing, that can be discussed and added to. So here are mine:
1. Write as much as possible
The ideal would be to write every day. That practice is useful for developing a skill is fairly self evident - however in the context of fanfiction it does wonders for the motivation. Unlike writing for work or study, there are no real consequences for not writing as a hobby. Getting into a routine helps stave off the temptation to procrastinate, keeps the work moving and stops it from feeling more and more like wasted effort. One day's bad writing isn't such a big deal in the context of a week of effort.
Of course, because it's a hobby, writing every day may not be practical. Actually getting words down on paper, finished and polished, may be less so. But the point is to do something fanfiction-related, whether it's planning, editing, turning out a hundred words or so, etc. This brings me on to -
2. Be prepared to push through the difficult bits
Writer's block happens, though it has been glibly dismissed by some professional authors (See above regarding fanfiction as a hobby), and in equal measure, mythologised by others. I think it absolutely can help to do things like take a break from the current story, lower your expectations a little, or get a second opinion on the work, but sometimes there's no substitute for just working at it.
Writing is hard work sometimes. The obvious objection is that fanfiction is a hobby, and should be fun - not work. And to an extent, yes, this is true. It's not fun when you're stuck in the middle of it. The fun - or perhaps more accurately, the satisfaction - comes from getting the chapter done after the effort you know went into it.
3. Pay attention to technical accuracy
Technical accuracy, or spelling and grammar, SPaG, isn't just window-dressing to make the text look pretty. Even if the reader can tell what you meant to write, that split-second of interpreting a spelling mistake or a formatting error is enough to pull them out of the story. When that happens repeatedly over the course of every chapter, it steadily becomes downright aggravating.
It's unreasonable for a reader to expect perfection every time, in a type of writing that's full of authors who are learning. This is especially true of grammar, which is often more about style than understanding. However, you still shouldn't ignore it, even if you are learning. Every error you correct is one you're less likely to make next time, to the point where almost all your errors are a matter of mere typos.
4. Style is not a rule
This one really gets on my nerves, because it usually comes from an elitist standpoint. Every time you've been taught something like "Never use adverbs in dialogue", or "Never start a story with the weather", that's been a matter of style. A matter of artistic choice. An opinion. A good way to spot these types of non-rule is to look for the exception clause of "You have to know the rules before you can break them". This does have some merit (See #5 below), but it's also a favourite excuse for literati to excuse their favourite authors from obeying the rule.
Every genre of writing has its own styles and conventions, some of which are harder to "break" than others. Fanfiction is a different animal to professional fiction, and different standards apply. If you want to write literary fiction to win prestigious prizes, then by all means adhere to literary standards. If you simply like literary style, use that too. But don't confuse prestige with the "correct" way to write.
5. Know why you're breaking the rules
The point of knowing the rules of writing, such as they are, is so that you know what purpose they serve. And if you know what purpose they serve, you can decide when to break them and why. It's telling that in linguistics (And the related study of stylistics), words like "ungrammatical" or "incorrect" tend to get replaced with "non-standard". Related to #4, prestigious authors tend to be given licence to break the rules on the basis that they're prestigious. Well, fanfiction authors can break the rules because we have no gatekeepers. There's no publisher or prize committee insisting on a particular style.
Whether your readers agree that it was a good idea to break the rule is a different kettle of fish. Like style, it's a matter of opinion, and how much those opinions matter to you is a different concern.
6. Reading is great practice for writing
This is especially true for absolute beginners who perhaps have never written a story before, who perhaps are used to consuming stories in the medium of games or visual media (TV shows, for instance), rather than prose. Reading fanfiction is fine, though I would recommend reading professionally published books as well. If you're especially bookish, read non-fiction, too.
All that reading is good raw material for your own writing. Plots, structures, clever tricks and turns of phrase, odd factoids and interesting details - even when you're not specifically thinking about writing it all goes into the melting pot.
And finally ... I think the above are good tips, that I myself use, and have been used by authors I think are good - better than me, in fact. That's not to say that I think they're beyond criticism, or that others shouldn't think about them for themselves and come to their own conclusions
1. Write as much as possible
The ideal would be to write every day. That practice is useful for developing a skill is fairly self evident - however in the context of fanfiction it does wonders for the motivation. Unlike writing for work or study, there are no real consequences for not writing as a hobby. Getting into a routine helps stave off the temptation to procrastinate, keeps the work moving and stops it from feeling more and more like wasted effort. One day's bad writing isn't such a big deal in the context of a week of effort.
Of course, because it's a hobby, writing every day may not be practical. Actually getting words down on paper, finished and polished, may be less so. But the point is to do something fanfiction-related, whether it's planning, editing, turning out a hundred words or so, etc. This brings me on to -
2. Be prepared to push through the difficult bits
Writer's block happens, though it has been glibly dismissed by some professional authors (See above regarding fanfiction as a hobby), and in equal measure, mythologised by others. I think it absolutely can help to do things like take a break from the current story, lower your expectations a little, or get a second opinion on the work, but sometimes there's no substitute for just working at it.
Writing is hard work sometimes. The obvious objection is that fanfiction is a hobby, and should be fun - not work. And to an extent, yes, this is true. It's not fun when you're stuck in the middle of it. The fun - or perhaps more accurately, the satisfaction - comes from getting the chapter done after the effort you know went into it.
3. Pay attention to technical accuracy
Technical accuracy, or spelling and grammar, SPaG, isn't just window-dressing to make the text look pretty. Even if the reader can tell what you meant to write, that split-second of interpreting a spelling mistake or a formatting error is enough to pull them out of the story. When that happens repeatedly over the course of every chapter, it steadily becomes downright aggravating.
It's unreasonable for a reader to expect perfection every time, in a type of writing that's full of authors who are learning. This is especially true of grammar, which is often more about style than understanding. However, you still shouldn't ignore it, even if you are learning. Every error you correct is one you're less likely to make next time, to the point where almost all your errors are a matter of mere typos.
4. Style is not a rule
This one really gets on my nerves, because it usually comes from an elitist standpoint. Every time you've been taught something like "Never use adverbs in dialogue", or "Never start a story with the weather", that's been a matter of style. A matter of artistic choice. An opinion. A good way to spot these types of non-rule is to look for the exception clause of "You have to know the rules before you can break them". This does have some merit (See #5 below), but it's also a favourite excuse for literati to excuse their favourite authors from obeying the rule.
Every genre of writing has its own styles and conventions, some of which are harder to "break" than others. Fanfiction is a different animal to professional fiction, and different standards apply. If you want to write literary fiction to win prestigious prizes, then by all means adhere to literary standards. If you simply like literary style, use that too. But don't confuse prestige with the "correct" way to write.
5. Know why you're breaking the rules
The point of knowing the rules of writing, such as they are, is so that you know what purpose they serve. And if you know what purpose they serve, you can decide when to break them and why. It's telling that in linguistics (And the related study of stylistics), words like "ungrammatical" or "incorrect" tend to get replaced with "non-standard". Related to #4, prestigious authors tend to be given licence to break the rules on the basis that they're prestigious. Well, fanfiction authors can break the rules because we have no gatekeepers. There's no publisher or prize committee insisting on a particular style.
Whether your readers agree that it was a good idea to break the rule is a different kettle of fish. Like style, it's a matter of opinion, and how much those opinions matter to you is a different concern.
6. Reading is great practice for writing
This is especially true for absolute beginners who perhaps have never written a story before, who perhaps are used to consuming stories in the medium of games or visual media (TV shows, for instance), rather than prose. Reading fanfiction is fine, though I would recommend reading professionally published books as well. If you're especially bookish, read non-fiction, too.
All that reading is good raw material for your own writing. Plots, structures, clever tricks and turns of phrase, odd factoids and interesting details - even when you're not specifically thinking about writing it all goes into the melting pot.
And finally ... I think the above are good tips, that I myself use, and have been used by authors I think are good - better than me, in fact. That's not to say that I think they're beyond criticism, or that others shouldn't think about them for themselves and come to their own conclusions
