If You Could Tell a New Writer One Thing

If you're not sure on how to format something, look at a book or ask for help.

Challenge yourself every now and then.

write for fun, do new or strange things, dfont fall into the same ruts as a lot of people. Write for yourself not for publicty. If they don't read your works that's their fault. ,

Chaos rvaen:

If you want popularity and stories with 10 stars do this.
Write MCR fan fics containing either OC, slash or mpreg
Have no creativty and write like every other generic fan fic on this site

If you want to write originals expect the following.
A whopping one star at the end
A lot of single digits in readers per chapter
To be completly ignored

I completely disagree.
My own MCR fanfic JUST hit about two stars, and I've been publishing it consistantly and I think it's a good bit of writing, whereas my OF that doesn't get updated regularly hit five stars after the first chapter was published.
It's not always about what you write.

Chaos rvaen:

If you want popularity and stories with 10 stars do this.
Write MCR fan fics containing either OC, slash or mpreg
Have no creativty and write like every other generic fan fic on this site

Um, that's borderline bashing, not everyone that writes fanfiction lacks creativity or has generic stories. I write only fanfic (not MCR), and I only have one story that has ten stars, and I worked damn hard to get it to that point. It takes effort to get stories noticed, you can't just sit there and expect people to stumble upon your story and give feedback on their own. Every person who has popular stories on this site has no doubt worked their ass off to get the popularity that they have, regardless as to rather they write original fiction or fanfiction.

As Icamane pointed out, it's not always what you write, but how you write it.

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Don't feel like you have to write something because it's popular or because someone puts down the particular type of stories that you write. Write for yourself above all else, not for other people, because if you write solely to please others, it shows.

Classic literature is a resource; use it.
If you can, write a preface or author's note to your story. A quote or a metaphor can be a beautiful way to open a story.
Write for yourself- don't be the person who writes because it's expected of them. Similarly, trust yourself. If you've written it, let someone read it. You'll never know if it's something someone else relates to if you never let them read it.
Pour yourself into your writing. It shows.

Chaos rvaen:

If you want popularity and stories with 10 stars do this.
Write MCR fan fics containing either OC, slash or mpreg
Have no creativty and write like every other generic fan fic on this site

If you want to write originals expect the following.
A whopping one star at the end
A lot of single digits in readers per chapter
To be completly ignored

But seriously though write for fun, do new or strange things, dfont fall into the same ruts as a lot of people. Write for yourself not for publicty. If they don't read your works that's their fault. ,

Well aren't you just a Negative Nancy.

Don't write a sex scene if you feel uncomfortable with it. It isn't worth it.

There's nothing wrong with writing drabbles. Sometimes, they're the best way to express a story.

Don't be too hard on yourself. You're learning so your writing might not be amazing at first. Keep writing and listen if people give you advice. It will also just help to have a little confidence in your abilities as a writer.

Icamane-Book:

I completely disagree.
My own MCR fanfic JUST hit about two stars, and I've been publishing it consistantly and I think it's a good bit of writing, whereas my OF that doesn't get updated regularly hit five stars after the first chapter was published.
It's not always about what you write.

Hope you two realize it was mear sarcasm. Yes work hard but in the end there are a lot of writers out there who believe thatfan fics get a lot of attention and the OF gets pushed on the back burner. Disagree if you want but I stand by what I say. I would like to see some more original fiction and some different types of fan fic besides harry potter, mcr, a7x, and the likes

For an author that is new publish some original fiction. Let your imgaination run wild. It really irrtates me to read in AN that they are scared to publish an original fiction, because that shows they are to afraid to come out of their comfort zone and use their imgaination. Let it run wild kid!

If I get heckled for this I will freak and that is not pleasent.

Also neither of you quoted everything I said. You took one little poece and ripped me to shreds

Chaos rvaen:

Hope you two realize it was mear sarcasm. Yes work hard but in the end there are a lot of writers out there who believe thatfan fics get a lot of attention and the OF gets pushed on the back burner. Disagree if you want but I stand by what I say. I would like to see some more original fiction and some different types of fan fic besides harry potter, mcr, a7x, and the likes

For an author that is new publish some original fiction. Let your imgaination run wild. It really irrtates me to read in AN that they are scared to publish an original fiction, because that shows they are to afraid to come out of their comfort zone and use their imgaination. Let it run wild kid!

If I get heckled for this I will freak and that is not pleasent.

That's really rude. You're implying that fanfiction doesn't require the use of imagination. I don't think that people should write fanfic because they're afraid their original fic won't get as much attention, but I very much disagree that fanfic can't have imagination. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's impossible to write a story without using some amount of imagination.

Also, there's the Things You'd Like to See in Stories on Mibba thread if that's what you want to talk about.

Oh, and you can edit a post if you want to add something to it. The button is at the top, on the line with the date and the Quote, Link, and Report buttons.
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Leave a chapter/story for at least a day after you finish it, then read it over again before posting. It's amazing how many typos you miss when you proofread something right after writing it.

For the love of God, please do not have a title that gives away the entire plot, and the same goes for the summary as well. It makes me *facepalm*

Also, do not write a story with an extremely cliche plot (not a little cliche, but extremely cliche, like its been done a million times over and over) just because you think it'll get you ten stars because someone else had ten stars on their extremely cliche story. Just because they had ten stars doesn't mean you would.

summer sun:

Leave a chapter/story for at least a day after you finish it, then read it over again before posting. It's amazing how many typos you miss when you proofread something right after writing it.

Seconded.

Anything can be done in a story as long as there is a reasonable explaination for it.

Some more tips.
As kurt vonnegan (author of slaughterhouse 5) said "to hell with suspense tell the reader what they want to know" which means don't be trying to leave us in suspense at the end of every chapter.

Also give back to the community, if someone drops you a comment, no matter how brief shoot them a PM or a profile comment, usually it will make their day and then you could end up making a new Mibba friend.

The Birdman:

Also give back to the community, if someone drops you a comment, no matter how brief shoot them a PM or a profile comment, usually it will make their day and then you could end up making a new Mibba friend.

I agree. When someone goes out their way to comment on a piece of my writing I, nine times out of ten, will go to their profile and thank them for taking the time to do so.

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Sometimes basic detail can be so much more better then over the top detail. You don't have to describe that the main character brushed their 'chestnut, long locks' and rolled their 'deep blue-green eyes' all the time. I really can't stand them type of details because as the reader I like to envision how I think the character looks and them details just ruin it for me.

It's natural to worry about if people will like what you write or not, but you shouldn't spend all your time focusing on it or not share because of it. Yes, someone out there isn't going to like it, but someone else will like it, and at the end of the day, the only one you should be aiming to please is yourself.

It's okay to give your characters a loving family. Not everyone needs to have an abusive father, alcoholic mother and siblings who bully because they're 'different'.

DO NOT make every single chapter full of drama. Don't make it look like some hrrible rip-off of the Secret Life. Don't keep it so full of drama that no one wants to read it. Throw in some happy chapters every now and then. Not every one has a horrible life. If the character has horrible friends, give them a loving family, or a teacher that understands, or a fun job. If they have a mean or non-present/non-caring family, give them a caring group of amazing friends. Its understandable that some people in real life DO have pretty shit lives, it happens, but it is so overdone in fan fiction. people do want some happiness or fluff in a story. Don't make everything so full of depressing stuff that the reader feels drained after reading it.

But remember, unless it is a fluff one-shot or something, a story DOES need drama to have character.

We all know you're writing fiction, but even fiction has to have some realism to it. PLEASE don't describe that every time your character looks in his eyes, it seems like they're randomly changing color and sparkle. Or how he always walks around with his shirt off with the rest of his shirtless, fine friends. Don't tell me your character got in a car accident but didn't get hurt at all, while the other driver is almost dismembered. And don't tell me your character fell in love with him after meeting him two days ago and they're now having an affair.

summer sun:

Chaos rvaen:

Hope you two realize it was mear sarcasm. Yes work hard but in the end there are a lot of writers out there who believe thatfan fics get a lot of attention and the OF gets pushed on the back burner. Disagree if you want but I stand by what I say. I would like to see some more original fiction and some different types of fan fic besides harry potter, mcr, a7x, and the likes

For an author that is new publish some original fiction. Let your imgaination run wild. It really irrtates me to read in AN that they are scared to publish an original fiction, because that shows they are to afraid to come out of their comfort zone and use their imgaination. Let it run wild kid!

If I get heckled for this I will freak and that is not pleasent.

That's really rude. You're implying that fanfiction doesn't require the use of imagination. I don't think that people should write fanfic because they're afraid their original fic won't get as much attention, but I very much disagree that fanfic can't have imagination. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's impossible to write a story without using some amount of imagination.

I don't find this rude at all, and I don't think it's safe to imply that they're saying that fan-fic doesn't have any imagination. I believe the assumption should be more that fan-fiction doesn't require as much imagination as original fiction does because one, the character in fan-fictions tend to already have a personality set up with their existence and role in the story, unlike original fiction stories and two, the plots for fan-fictions tend to be more predictable and understood before it's read because of the life role the characters already play in real life.

And he's slightly right, a lot of people do tend to write a lot of fan-fictions on here because it's the thing that get's popular read. I don't like seeing all these fan-fictions with the same characters everywhere. I'm sure not everyone likes the same famous people and I'm also sure that popularity does have a lot to do with what new writer choose to publish.

There's a fanfiction vs. original thread here. Can we not have this argument here. Cos it's never-ending.

Read as much as you can, take in as many styles that you can. Also, get to know your characters inside and out before you start writing, how they would react can affect your plot a lot.