Site Post » Writing Fanfiction (Recommended Reading) · 9:00pm Mar 2nd, 2013
It says 'recommended' in the title, but I think this should be required reading for anyone working on Ponyfiction:
Ezn's Fanfiction Writing Guide has now been added to the tips when creating a new story, as well as to the 'story' section of the FAQ. In addition, it will likely henceforth be referenced as the starting point for all authors who submit stories clearly in need of assistance on the finer points of fanfic writing. The guide covers a great deal of material, including a section on paragraph separation which conveniently makes the last site post on the matter of grammar completely redundant.
I (we?) highly recommend that any author, new or old, who is struggling with writing fanfiction, whether for mechanical or narrative reasons, peruse the guide and glean from it what they can. Big thanks to Ezn for penning such a guide in the first place, and allowing us to stick it all over the site.
While I'm aware there have been several guides put together for the purpose of helping budding authors, this one stood out to me as particularly exceptional, hence warranting its inclusion on other parts of the site proper.
Give it a read if you haven't, especially if you've been getting bounced on submissions for things like basic grammar, punctuation, and paragraph separation.
>basic grammar, punctuation, and paragraph separation
That is the easy part
881648 I agree.
881656 Marry me
Rule number one: You never can have enough helpful sites bookmarked.
Also it says don't panic, what is probably the best way of introducing something helpful.
Bookmarked.
881648
You'd think so, but according to a surprising amount of ponyfiction submitted, you'd be wrong.
881662 Wow, this is the first time someone said that to me.
Luckily enough, gay marriage will probably be legalized soon where I live.
881679
Pretty much this. Once you're past the point of making your story readable and coherent, then you can focus on narrative, characterization, etc, and chances are you'll find an avenue for doing so in the comments and with other authors. This guide is a great starting point for people who submit walls of text with no discernible punctuation and don't understand why their story isn't approved as a result.
881686 It isn't already? Damn, in what medieval country do you live? Oh wait, let me guess. 'Merica.
881706 Nah, I live on the other side of the pond.
881710 Then my guess is Great Britian, across the canal.
Bad luck Charles: can't become king since his mother doesn't want to die.
This is an excellent guide. Very nice to see it posted in a FAQ.
881727 That's really too bad for Prince Charles. For you too, as you're still wrong. Click
Wow, the FAQ actually got updated after ten thousand years of being locked away in its lonesome.
881802 Germany? My neighbors? Damn, never expected that of Germany. But yeah, I hear they're also very extreme with copyright. All those videos on YouTube blocked for Germans.
Mods can grammar good.
881834 Well, there's something called "registered partnership", but currently it's not the same as marriage (for example, as far as I know, these same-sex unions don't have full adoption rights yet), and the conservatives are planning to change that. (Yes, around here "conservative" actually seems to mean now "modern and progressive"...)
Oh, there are a lot of music videos blocked, but with a simple proxy that's not a problem at all.
881835 Seems to be fixed now.
Nice to see some more writer improvement tools on here, though I guess the problem now is trying to get people (especially those who would benefit most) to read it.
Though I am a bit curious about the bit in action tags:
I thought that the dashes go within the quotations to denote a break in dialogue.
882012
I've always thought that adding a message of sorts saying "Hey, you should probably check this out first." when you sign up for the site would persuade at least a few more people to read up on tips of the trade.
881662 i thought it was me pertalz
882044 Yeah, it would be helpful. Ever since the site change, the official blogposts are pretty much relegated to a tiny bar on the side, as opposed to the actual post excerpt for all to read (provided you had a large enough screen) in the original style. Anyone who wants to read these posts probably already do so without having to be alerted to the fact that it exists; it's getting the attention of everyone else that seems to be a problem.
Ah, I remember this guide. It's good.
Ooh, an encompassing literary guide. Sorry Plato, I just found something better to waste my day on.
So I figured I'd read this on a lark while I wait for my new story to get approved and hit the front page. Always fun to read more writing guides.
That said, am I the only person in the Pony fandom who sees snippets of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash talking about cupcakes in example sentences and immediately feels overwhelming waves of nausea?
Yay for making this happen, NTSTS.
Now here's to hoping lots of novice writers take advantage of the easy link.
881679
881686
882012
Placing dashes within the quotation marks is a different type of interuption from placing them outside them. Here, placing them outside, indicates that the dialogue doesn't end whilst the action is taking place. Dashes within the quotation marks show that the dialogue itself has been interupted by the attached action.
If it helps, I think about it like this: one interupts the dialogue, hence within, and the other just interupts you writing the dialogue, hence without.
881828
Actually, it was updated several months ago after the site redesign. This is just the newest addition.
882247 Ah, I see. Thanks for pointing it out.
882242 Gave your comment an upvote for using my favourite smiley.
Ezn's telling people to worry about me. D: Is something wrong with me that I don't know about?
This is a fantastic guide and VERY detailed! Ezn has done an excellent job here. I do not, however, like what precedent this may set for any authors who come to the Proofreader Group for help then refuse any opinions other than what is stated in the guide's first section on grammar.
Overall this is a very impressive guide, and I'm hoping to see its extensive use.
The guide is certainly a good idea, it seems to be structured well and could definitely be helpful. I'm hesitant to fully embrace it however. It has its times where it will state that it is possible to choose between options, and still not be incorrect. For instance, there are the different ellipsis options. However, there were a few times where items were stated as being fact without taking into account the differing rules between British and American English, or the stylistic choice that people can make.
Furthermore, I can understand the need to be understood by people of all literary aptitude, but there are times where people may wish to further explore a concept, and the guide has fallen. An instance of this is his notes on tenses, 'There are five tenses you need to worry about:' . Whilst this may be true for some, it takes but five of the twelve main combinations of verb tenses (according to most grammatical ideals) and presents them as being the only ones that people need to know.
However, I'm likely being nitpicky. The guide could be useful, and I'm glad of its existence. Though perhaps there could be a note in the guide that states that, whilst the guide contains grammatical rules, they are up for debate, and so should not be taken as law.
Oh god, I so love this.
I feel like this deserves a link in the official FAQ
Get the boys! We've struck gold!
882701
There is a link in the FAQ
It's the first one under the 'stories' section.
Okay,I keep getting told about the ol' "Lavender Unicorn Syndrome" because that's how I prefer to write. But the thing is, repeating the names over and over again makes me feel like I'm treating the reader like an idiot. I try not to indulge in it TOO much lest I lose the writer completely, but writing (or reading) "Twilight" "Pinkie" "Pinkie" "Twilight" "Twlight" actually makes the names start to lose meaning to me. You know, how like saying a somewhat unusual word repeatedly starts to make it sound like gibberish? And avoiding the problem by using pronouns gets really difficult when you've got six females talking.
Rules are good, but sometimes you have to break them. However, to break them effectively, you have to know them, which is why it's good to have guides such as these. But let's not start discarding stories as "bad" just because they don't march in lockstep with guidelines.
882869
Pronouns are your friend.
882884 You've got six female ponies talking. Which one is "she"? I have seen this pop up in stories, and particular speaking styles don't always help a reader keep track.
882902
You can still sprinkle names into the attribution tags to keep the dialogue straight. I can't give you any hard and fast rules about it, but just read novels regularly and you'll get the hang of it.
882807
Honestly, there can be millions of guides to writing. You can make talkshows, how-to videos, show someone how to write the characters, plot, structuring, flow, et cetera. But, to be honest, it actually requires you to just start writing. I didn't learn anything from a guide, and just wrote. I took the feedback and learned from it. I immediately found editors who had knowledge about this, and I made sure whatever I wrote was quite sound. If others disagree afterwards, or do find mistakes, do I have a hissy fit? Of course not. Not everything is golden. I accept their critiques/corrections and apply them to later chapters/stories.
Whats my point (TL;DR version)? You're welcome to use a guide, but you'll never learn that way.
882869>>882869
Synonyms are also great.
882012
I usually use dashes (as stated in a few grammatical things I've seen) like that to add information that is relevant to my sentence, but can be completely removed. As in the sentence can be read without that piece. But, then again, I usually apply things my way and it usually works well.
882350 I approve
882978 I learned programming from doing it, not from using tutorials/guides/blah
I think I shall find this useful, but I would urge people to treat it as a reference, not Gospel.
I explored it a bit, and do you know what I found? A missing word, a grammatical error, and a misspelling.
Not to say you shouldn't trust it, but this is a great example of my favorite thing to say on writing: No matter how many errors you correct, there are always more. Always.
882012 Wait, it says that? . . . Oh my Chrysalis it does.
Am I the only one who thinks that inserting an action into the middle of a sentence breaks the flow? It just doesn't read right to me. 
883043 Yeah, that's why it stood out to me. I can understand it being in the dialogue, but having them put into the narrative like that just feels really awkward to look at. If it's just used to express that the dialogue hasn't been halted, wouldn't using commas serve the same function?
I'm reading through the guide right. That part, where everything went into short, halting paragraphs? I'm laughing so hard right now!
(It's the phone part, it just tickled me funny for some reason. 
)
883277 It's around midnight where I am, so I may be misunderstanding you, but I think you might have slightly misunderstood me.
I think that commas look better here, but my point was that I don't like the interruption at all. If a character is talking, the narrator should shut up until the end of a sentence, or until a pause that would require a comma anyway.
Did that make sense? It's so hard to tell after midnight.
883277
Nope, commas don't, because commas come with a pause. It is the same reason you don't do stuff like "Derpy, muffins don't," Carrot Top said, "grow into muffin trees." because that's the same as "Derpy, muffins don't, grow into muffin trees," Carrot Top said. The dashes are the correct way to go.
However, it is the type of thing that should be done very rarely, only if the need is really there, to tie the action to a certain word. Most of the time, the action should go with a conversation attribution at an appropriate point or as a regular old action tag. The example given, if actually used in a story, should probably read as follows instead:
Carrot Top put a hoof to her forehead. "Derpy, muffins don't grow into muffin trees when you bury them in the ground."
Basically, while most of the guide covers basics, that bit is something more advanced that slipped in. But still nice to know, because a lot of grammar related sites focus on formal writing, rather than for fiction. Sort of limits what they do with conversation grammar.