How to Make Your Fanfic Look Good (to me at least)! Or: The Thumbs Up Strategy · 4:33am Oct 1st, 2014

"Why is my fanfic not getting many likes!?"

"Why do people not like this!?"

"HWYWM"

These complaints. I'm sure they exist, I just haven't seen them.

Anyway.

An abundance of ~~Katherines~~ poorly done stories have prompted this blog post.

I've decided we should start with what your potential readers will potentially see first and use to judge whether or not your story has potential.

The Title-

The title should sound good. It should make the reader's mind go, "Huh, I really like how this title. Because of that, I am going to read this story."

Cha-ching. Profit. You're on your way, 'grats.

It should be clever and most likely a play on words. You've got to put yourself in an outside point of view and think, "If I saw this story, would I read it?"

~~No.~~

For example, say your story is a one-shot about a guard returning home after serving in some place. On this site, a good title for that would be Johnny Comes Trotting Home

In the title, there should be NO periods, and the beginning of almost every word should be capitalized. Only words like the, or, for, etc., should start lowercase, unless at the beginning of the title. For example, (totally not a random stupid title) The Day the Ponies Died

NO QUOTES ON THE ENDS
It pisses me off when people do that. Because really? Does your title look all that good as "The ponies of equestria."?

I thought so.

And I cannot stress this enough, your title must be accurate to your story. You can't just call something Pound's Playdate but actually make it about Celestia and Big Mac *BUY SOME APPLES*-ing. Just... no.

The Beginning

Start... The start is the most important part. You can remember that because it rhymes. Very simple. Without a good start, readers won't want to continue. And if they don't want to continue, no likes. My best advice is to repeat the title in this way.

Billy the Pony
By Bobby the Pon3

Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria there was Billy...

This is a good example. Kinda. Not the idea.

The title can be either italics or bold, but never anything else. Colored sometimes, depending. Also, you should try to make the title a few sizers bigger than your own name, bold it, and make that entire pre-thing italics. Looks pretty good.

You should start with a hook. If it's boring, no one's gonna want to read it, and that's bad for you.

If it's a crazy story, make it start out calm. Then introduce the crazy... however and whenever you feel it's necessary.

The Art of the Dress-

The Characters-

For the love of *BUY SOME APPLES* do not make the main character an OC (original character for those of you outside of the-know) unless you're some kind of literary genius! Very few people can pull it off, and do not test the odds to see if you're one of them! If you aren't, then that's a down-vote. Down-votes = bad.

This brings us to out next topic, OOC (again, for the out-of-the-know people, out of character). Let's take Rarity for example. Rarity is by no means an uncivilized mare. She converses with Canterlot nobles, and designs the most glorious gowns one had ever seen. She also has an extreme hatred for the very thing that makes up this planet; dirt. And she never, ever breaks the fourth wall in the show.

Now, imagine my surprise when this happens.

"Oh Twilight, darling, don't be daft," Rarity counseled her friend. "The writers only want you to think that for now."

Breaking the fourth wall is for Pinkie, and Pinkie only! If you can't handle not destroying it, then you should have put our lovely Pinkamena in, who is the only pony capable of traversing the barrier between watcher and pony. Bless her.

NEXT TOPIC!

The Grammar-

Oh grammar. Grammar, grammar, grammar. I love grammar. Shall we start with dialogue?

Wrong Version: "I don't see how it's wrong." Pinkie continued nonchalantly, "It's just a party!"
Right Version: "I don't see how it's wrong," Pinkie continued nonchalantly, "It's just a party!"

You catch the difference? Well, in case you didn't, end of the first quote. Changed the period to a coma. Why? Because, technically, what Pinkie is saying and how she is saying it are part of the same sentence from the narrator side, where you are. If you had actually been with Pinkie, it would have been two sentences.

Alt. Right Version: "I don't see how it's wrong," Pinkie continued nonchalantly. "It's just a party!"

You see, after I state how Pinkie's stating it, there's a period. That's because making the next thing she says part of the same sentence as the others is optional. Honestly, you can just do whatever you think makes the text looks fancier.
Fancier = better
Better = thumbs up

Our next grammar incident can occur within the dialogue and the rest of the text. We'll start with things like do and do not. Usually, in the dialogue, you should use words akin to "don't", unless the one you're voicing is a very fancy dude(tte). Again, the same applies to the narrator, but more for the sake of length. Want a longer paragraph? Use do not. Want a shorter one? Don't is your way to go.

Grammar predicament numero tres. Homonyms and (as I call them) Sorta-nyms. You're, your. Its, it's. Read, red. Wired, weird (Sorta-nym). Those things can really making the narrator and characters sound off in the reader's mind. You're means you are (ex. you're pretty), and your is possessive (ex. your dog). Its is actually possessive in this case (ex. its eyes), and it's is it is (ex. it's dark).

I just don't get the wired and weird one, though.

Agreeing. The words need to agree with each other. Some words can only be used with plural, some with non-plural, yourself, others. Really depends who is being described.

If Fluttershy is describing Rainbow Dash, she'd say, "She is very fast." (She's)
If Twilight was discussing the Princesses, she would say, "They are alicorns." (They're)
If the CMC were telling Granny Smith about their latest plot, they'd say, "We are Cutie Mark Crusader Doctors!" (We're)

I italicized all the agreement for you guys.

There's also past, present and future tense. I won't go into it that much, you guys just need to know that you should consistently be in one tense throughout the story, unless a special circumstance comes around (flashback...). This does not apply to dialogue. It can be in several different tenses, whichever makes the flow easier.

The Paragraphs-

I love how the paragraph rules are more lenient on choice than the others.

There are three things you can do with paragraphs that won't lead to rejection from the moderators:

1. Indents (SEVERAL SPACES)
2. Double tap enter after each paragraph
3. Both

I, for one, am a fan of double enters, but that won't stop me from reading stories with just indents. Whatever's more pleasing to the eye will do.

For time-skips, I suggest you either double enter (if you're just indenting), or do one of the things below.

*****

You should also be constantly leaving edit mode to make sure your story looks pretty. Pretty = Up votes. It's also a quick way to make sure everything still looks nice.

The Prereaders-

Get. A. Prereader. End of discussion. Several prereaders, actually. A prereader will look through your story, make sure everything's in order, and tell you if your idea, pacing, and spelling are good. They will point out any errors for you to fix, and eventually you'll just have one flawless piece of writing (or one really well hidden error that the readers will find for you)!

That's really it. Stay in character, OC risks, prereaders, grammar, paragraphs, structure, titles... Yeah, that's it.

Soon to be in story form!

Report Queen Cookie · 212 views ·

Comments ( 6 )