Things I learned from writing fanfiction

Although this blog is primarily about my fanfiction, I'm going to use this entry as the first of several that will talk about the writing process. I don't mean things like characterization or plot-building here, but rather the mechanics and flow of prose. Over the years I've learned and improved quite a bit in that area, so I thought I'd share some of what I feel I've gotten better at. I'd be curious as to what experiences my readers have in this vein as well, so feel free to comment with your thoughts!

First off, before I continue: I am not pointing fingers at any author in particular. What I talk about in these kinds of entries are things I've been guilty of myself, mistakes I've learned from, and that I'm in the habit of trying to break. If something I say here hits home or makes you feel like, "Is she talking about me?" please don't take it that way. Nobody's perfect, after all!

Today's topic: Epithets. They can be a useful tool in writing, but as many of us who read a lot of fanfiction know, they also make for clunky, awkward, and purple prose when overused. While sometimes they do help with description, when I'm in the middle of reading a scene between Darkwing and Launchpad, more likely than not I'm going to cringe when I read, "The purple-clad mallard said to the taller duck, 'Let's get dangerous, LP!'"

Unless there are specific plot points in the sentences around something like that focusing on why we need to be reminded that Darkwing is wearing purple and is a mallard, or that Launchpad is taller than him, this is unnecessary description that bogs down your prose. The reader already knows these things about the characters. Most of the time in a case like this, using pronouns or the characters' names would be better.

I think a lot of writers overuse epithets because someone emphasized to them that they shouldn't be repetitive or that just using pronouns and/or names is boring. Well, I'll throw out this opinion. I'd rather see a ton of pronouns than a bunch of epithets used in the name of creativity. If you want to call Bushroot "the plant-duck" while he's in the middle of growing a vine to smack Darkwing upside the head, okay, fine. That's one of those times where the epithet matches the action and the scene. But if you want to call Liquidator "the water dog" while he's just chit-chatting to his dancing girls and not even using his powers or dripping on their feet, odds are, it's not necessary to remind the reader or them that he's a dog turned into an animated pool of water. They know it and he knows it. Just use his name or "he," please.

Another peeve. This one is personal taste, and I'll admit, it's not one I've been guilty of with Quackerjack myself. I'm going to mention it anyway, though. "The jester." I have an irrationally intense dislike of this epithet for him. Unless it's in a fic about when Quackerjack went back in time to serve in King Herbeth's (Was that his name? I forget. :P) court, please don't call Quackerjack a jester. Not only is it a distracting epithet, but it's inaccurate. Say his clothes are jester-styled or jester-like. Say he did something in jest. If you must use an epithet, call him "the toymaker," "the former toymaker," "the Whiffle Boy-hating villain," or even "the duck in the jester outfit" but please, please, don't call him the jester. I know, I know. It's in Darkwing Duck fanfiction everywhere, including fic by some very popular and otherwise awesome authors. Everyone does it. It's not enough to make me stop reading or dislike an otherwise good fic, but it will make me gnash my teeth.

While we're at it, Darkwing Duck fic could also do with fewer "electric rat" Megavolts (which inevitably bring to mind the association of the "Electric Slide") and "botanist" Bushroots as well. Granted, both are technically correct, but as I said above, there's a time and a place for those epithets. Unless Megavolt's shocking someone who doesn't know his name or Bushroot is in the midst of giving a lecture on plant biology, it's probably not necessary to refer to them that way most of the time.

So with all of that said, I'm not saying to never use epithets. My own writing has them in it. You should see (or rather, you probably shouldn't, hah!) the amount of epithets that make it into my first drafts. They seem like they flow well or are necessary for the description at the time I type them out. In the editing process, though, I stop and think at every one I've written, "Is it really necessary, or would a pronoun or the character's name flow just as well?" More often than not, it does, and the epithet gets the delete and replace.

Progress!

I finally dusted off the file and edited that drafted third chapter of Forget Me Not today. It needs to go through another proofread tomorrow and then, ideally, it'll be good to go for posting!

I also cracked open the files for a couple of other works in progress I have going.  I didn't add to them, but I did re-read some of them to get back into the groove.  Listening to my playlists also helps.

Speaking of which... this particular song makes me think so much of my Forget Me Not storyline.  "Stay" by Oingo Boingo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlOPHPj4vc0 (Yes, I know that this is not the first Oingo Boingo song I have associated with Bushroot. I'm sure some of you have seen my Weird Science video featuring Bushroot.)

Reading, Reviewing, and Lurking

I was thinking about this the other day and thought that this blog might be a good place to talk about it, since it's directly fanfic-related.  More than once, especially in the Darkwing Duck fandom, I've been surprised to find that my fics are being read and enjoyed by as many people as they are.  I had a bit of that in the Voltron fandom, too, actually.

In the latter, I would hardly get any reviews. I know that was in part because of the subject matter (I wrote for a less popular pairing and even more unpopular fringe bad guy characters, and didn't write the pairing that appealed to 90% of the fandom) and in part because I would wait until a fic was complete and then post all of it at once.  Apparently people don't want to gamble on a 30,000 word fic that's brand new and read it all at once.  And here I'd adopted that policy for that fandom because I remember getting heat for not completing WIPs back in the Thundercats fandom!  You can't please everyone is the lesson there, I guess.

Anyway, when I got into the Darkwing Duck fandom, I went back with posting WIPs.  Not only did I get way more reviews and readers, I also had the benefit of not having to wait so long for feedback.  Feedback along the way really does help motivate me.

So since Darkwing Duck is the fandom where I've gotten the most reviews and active amount of feedback (aside from way back in the early days of the Thundercats fandom, but I don't count that because all of fandom culture was so different back then, with no fanfiction.net and all fics on fan sites and mailing lists) I'm not complaining about a lack of reviews.  The feedback I'm getting here is the most I've gotten in any fandom, and for that I'm quite grateful!

That said, I still never thought all that many people read my fanfic and every time someone who's never left me a single review makes a reference to me as a good writer or something from my stories that they liked, either on a message board post, comment on DA, or PM or something, and it floors me, because they never left me a single review.

I'm one of those people that never assumes that a given fandom population has read my stuff.  Perhaps it comes from writing fringe or less popular characters in other fandoms for so long. (In Thundercats as well as Voltron, my favorite subjects to write about were not the most popular characters.)  Do most authors tend to assume that people have read their stuff and just not commented?  Me, I tend to think if they didn't comment they either A) Didn't read it or B) Had nothing particularly nice to say about it so they didn't bother to review.  And let's face it, my ego would rather believe it's A anyway. ;)

I suppose that's because when I read stories, I try to leave a review if I liked it in any way.  Reviews are like little gold nuggets to authors.  I've yet to meet any that don't like getting them, aside from those whackadoo entitled folks you see posting on places like fanficrants where they bitch about how the reviews of "I liked it" or with netspeak are insulting to them and they'd rather not have them. Or reviews that are just spam or something, of course.

However, I generally don't leave bad reviews.  I've left a couple of critical ones in my time, but they were when something was just so terrible that I had to speak up.  On the rare occasion that I do leave something negative, I try to be polite and constructive about it.  More often than not, though, I'd rather not bother, because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or get a knee-jerk "you suck" flame response back.

So with this in mind, it always comes as a surprise to me when someone mentions how much they liked my story/stories if they've never left me a review.  Do any of you get feelings like this?  Or if you are one of those people who tends not to review stories, even ones you enjoy, what are your reasons for it?  I'm curious.

Yikes! So much for frequent updates!

My writing projects kind of fell into limbo as of late.  I blame Sims 3. See, I get into these phases where I play that game nonstop until I accomplish whatever goal I have in mind for it and pretty much let most of my other projects fall by the wayside until I get it out of my system.  Twice it's thwarted me during NaNoWriMo, and last year it even prevented me from winning it.  My goal for NaNo last November was to write Going Loopy, my sequel to Tension Convention.

Instead I got about 5k words done and gave up in favor of partying with my Sims on the Late Night expansion.

I miss that storyline, though.  Coldwin and I were talking about fic and our stories while we were out yesterday for Valentine's Day, and I felt a bit sad for how long it's been since I've worked on that storyline.  Not to mention in a totally different fic storyline, I have a third chapter of Forget Me Not sitting on my hard drive waiting to be edited, polished, and posted.

I think I need to listen to a few of my playlists and get the creative juices flowing again.  I really want to work on my stuff.