Five Ways To Make A Fanfiction Excellent by Solarpaw

Solarpaw lists five tips for writing a good fanfiction story.

Hey, it’s Sols here! Since I love writing and fanfictions are super fun to make, I figured I’d give aspiring writers a little guide to writing a successful fanfiction that they’ll always come back to. Let’s get right into it 🙂

Step #1

Create an original idea. You can take from other stories and media in some ways – I certainly have – but if you do that, make sure it to twist and change it into your own creative story! You want to make the plot enticing, something that’s never been seen before in that exact way, so that people will be drawn to it, and so that you’ll stick with it. You have to LOVE your story, or you’ll drift away from it – but that’s just my experience.

Step #2

Dream up memorable characters. In a lot of media, the main character doesn’t have a definable personality. Change that! Main characters like Percy Jackson from PJO, or Sunny from Wings of Fire, have a recognizable and likable personality. They make people laugh or cry or smile. That’s your goal: to make people feel for the characters, either in a hateful way or in a loving way or anywhere in between. Do not create a Mary/Gary Sue-ish character, because something bland like that is uninteresting and annoying. Also, don’t forget about side characters while doing this! Always make sure to craft the side characters – and even the background characters – with precision, either before or during the story. I like giving a background character a bit of time in the story, not too much, but a bit of a chapter, so it feels more like a homey setting; everyone gets their chance to talk.

Step #3

Craft up relationships that make sense, and don’t make a main character extremely hated unless that’s the main part of the plot. Stories that have the main character constantly being bullied or put down are hard to read, and you want everyone to enjoy the journey, not cringe or feel bad when they read it. You can add bullies, but make sure they’re not getting away with anything unreasonable, unless that’s the main thing you’re trying to hint at. If a character being badly bullied leads up to a spin where they turn evil, that’s great, but try and have the bully be brought to justice at least once; it brings a feeling of vindication for the reader to see. And back to other relationships, give background and side characters relationships too – include romances between background characters that aren’t just a reason to have kits, but actually have some sort of meaning; don’t take up too much time with it, but briefly show or hint at it something like that, so it’s like a little clue you’re leaving for your readers. Not everything centers around the main character(s), so it’s always important to have little relationships, friendships, siblings, or romances, in the background, as a reminder of sorts. Having a nice, familiar friendship or mentorship for the main character is nice too; or if they’re a warrior, a nice apprenticeship – it’s a side character the readers can love and feel comfortable relating to.

Step #4

Prepare plot points to hit for each chapter, so you don’t feel like you’re wandering aimlessly during a chapter. It helps to prevent what some people refer to as “writer’s block”, because it keeps you moving. Setting goals in your stories is always smart, because it gives you something to aim for, but try not to put a lot of pressure on length of chapters, word counts, or amount of chapters – just write to your comfort and end a chapter when it feels necessary. Keeping chapters at a consistent length is preferable, but not always a requirement – it’s your story, you can do whatever you like.

Step #5

Develop the most important characters to an extent where they feel real. A mistake I’ve made before in writing is not showing the antagonist enough, and not developing a realistic-enough personality for them, so don’t follow in my footsteps and accidentally do the same thing; always take time to create your antagonist’s (if you have one) personality and motives, and make sure to include them a reasonable amount of times. An antagonist who barely shows, and who is a ghost of a name, isn’t as fun. When creating side characters that will most likely be more central in the story, weave their backstory with those of background characters’ so they’re connected to cats outside the “inner circle”. An inner circle is something that happens a lot in stories and TV shows, and while sometimes it’s good, other times it’s limiting. You’ll always have an inner circle, of course, but like I said in step three, sometimes branching out a bit makes the story feel more comfortable and the setting feel more familiar.

This may seem like a lot, but then again, writing a story is a lot. It’s a big task. But then again, it can also be really fun, so leave room in your expectations for anything when it comes to writing. There’s a lot more to writing a story than this, but these are some main things that are important. I hope this helped. 🙂