Advice to New Writers · 11:58am Apr 13th, 2016
If past seasons are anything to go by, there have been waves of new users joining the site after each new episode (with more to come), and many of them have never written anything outside of school assignments before. In addition, there are long-time users who are equally unfamiliar with writing who suddenly decide to give it a shot. (There's nothing at all wrong with a user being just a reader on the site, but some of them do, from time to time, make the jump to writer status.)
I've written in the past about things writers should avoid, but for the most part, my directions have amounted to either "don't do this" or "do the opposite of this". So for anyone wondering what I think new writers should do, this is that blog entry. Here's some advice* for anyone who wants it.
- Brush up on the basics. Hey, even I have trouble with commas now and then, so I'm not expecting mastery of them, and I know that most people have no idea what to do with a semi-colon, but try to punctuate to the best of your ability. Use commas where they seem to be needed. Make sure each sentence ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point. Use quotation marks around your dialogue. Remember that when a sentence that contains dialogue continues beyond the quote marks, you use a comma inside to indicate the end of the spoken sentence rather than a period.
"This really isn't that hard," said Elric.
And since the dialogue tag is a continuation of the same sentence, not a new sentence, it doesn't get capitalized. Speaking of, be sure to capitalize the first word of each sentence, all proper nouns, and the personal pronoun "I". When it comes to story titles and chapter titles, I won't trouble you with the complete set of rules, because they're kind of nit-picky and often ignored anyway; you can get away with just capitalizing every word.
Make sure your story is told in just one verb tense, instead of flipping back and forth between present and past. (For the record, past tense is used in the majority of fiction.) As for perspective, you can choose first person (told from the point of view of a character experiencing the events) or third person (told by a narrator outside of the events), but stick with whatever you choose. And if you choose first person, don't jump between characters -- pick one and stick with him/her. If an event happens that your POV character is going to be unaware of, then we as the readers should also be unaware of it. (The ability to go anywhere and observe anything is one of the big advantages of telling a story in third person.)
Some of you reading this may be thinking I shouldn't have to tell people about these things, but believe me, I do.
- Do your research. Professionals do research, unless they're just horrible writers getting paid because they made a pact with dark forces. And even amateurs (as in unpaid for our efforts) like us should do research if they want to be respected and have their stories taken seriously. The Friendship is Magic Wiki is your friend; bookmark it if you haven't already. (Want to know where the White Tail Woods are relative to Ponyville? Wiki. Need to check if a particular foal has a cutie mark or not? Wiki. Can't remember the official name of Rarity and Sweetie Belle's mom? Wiki.)
Never underestimate the power of Wikipedia, either -- the mother that spawned all other wikis. I know, I know... lots of people denigrate it as being close to worthless, but they're wrong. There was a study done several years ago comparing Wikipedia to the more conventional Encyclopedia Brittanica in terms of accuracy, and they scored about the same. Also, any points of contention will have citations, so you can go straight to the source if you feel the need. Odds are you won't need it very often anyway, but I find that at least their list of horse and pony breeds can be pretty useful when ponifying place names and other terms.
My dictionary of choice is Wikipedia's counterpart Wiktionary. It's extensive, entries tend to be detailed, and unlike a lot of online dictionaries, there are no ads. I'm still using Thesaurus.com when I'm looking for alternate words, but I do see that Wiktionary has a section that looks like it covers a few hundred entries.
- If you're not certain about how to do something, don't do it until you've had some practice. Save it for later. Sure, there are rhyming dictionaries available online, but are you any good with rhythm and meter? If the answer is "no", or you're not even sure what I'm asking, don't start with a story focused on Zecora.
Are you unclear on certain aspects of the anatomy of the opposite sex? There's nothing wrong with that in and of itself, and real information is far more easily available than it was during my teenage years, which is when I wanted it the most. All it means is that you shouldn't be writing clop/porn for your first effort.
The same idea goes for action sequences, sad scenes, and love stories. If it's an area you're not already experienced in, maybe you shouldn't lead off with it. Get some practice and some feedback before you publish something like that to the site. You know what you get when someone who's no good at writing romantic dialogue writes romantic dialogue? You get the emotionless blather of Attack of the Clones, that's what.
- Don't focus on OCs at first. Look, if you're new to this, why shouldn't you just make things as easy on yourself as possible? By writing about established characters, you're saving yourself a lot of work. When you create an OC, you have to come up with a name, an appearance, a personality, a backstory, a motivation, relationships to other characters, and then manage to work all of that into the narrative without it sounding awkward. If you write about Fluttershy, you don't have to do any of that because all of us already know who Fluttershy is.
An OC also suffers from the fact that, honestly, almost no one cares about your OC but you. And when I say "almost no one", I mean that the list of people besides you includes your closest friends in the fandom and the handful of people who love all OCs in general and will read anything. Everybody else needs a sales pitch; we have to find reasons in the story to care about your character. Established characters have the advantage of a built-in audience.
Maybe you're worried, though, about proper characterization of the Mane Six. If so, I get that; Pinkie Pie in particular is notoriously hard for folks to write properly. At this point, however, I'd like to remind you that there are a number of supporting ponies that would allow you more freedom, as well as tons of background ponies where the possibilities are wide open. And almost all of them have fans and followers of their own, so the built-in audience is still there.
- If you absolutely must include an OC in your first story, keep some things in mind. By "include an OC", I mean as a supporting character, not as the protagonist or primary love interest. First off, DON'T GIVE YOUR PONY A HUMAN NAME. Seriously, I can't emphasize that enough: DO NOT give your pony a human name! Yes,it can be difficult to come up with a plausible pony name, but that's no excuse for calling a pony "Gavin" or "Murray" or "Alex" or whatever.
Trixie isn't sufficient justification for calling your OC "Raoul" or something equally stupid because her name is a pun for "tricksy", and don't even try to tell me that Donut Joe is a good enough reason to give a human name to a pony. He's the exception, not the rule; plus, he can get away with it because he's a canon character and your pony isn't.
It's perfectly acceptable to steal a name from a previous generation; Hasbro does it all the time. This website is primarily focused on G3 toys, but it does include some info on other generations. Then again, with the dozens upon dozens of entries on this index of G3 ponies sorted by name, you may not need anything else.
Don't make your OC an alicorn. Seriously, just don't. I'm not going to go into detail here about why not, as I'm one of many users on the site who has written on this topic before. Also, don't make a character who defies canon by their mere existence. (If you don't know what I mean by that, ask.) Don't create a character who is too closely tied to a major character, or has relationships with multiple characters just because. It's more believeable if an OC only knows a few members of the Mane Six casually. (Everypony in Ponyville is friends to some degree with Pinkie, a fan of cider would have at least met Applejack, and a pet owner has probably gone to Fluttershy for advice or treatment of an illness. Being besties with the entire primary cast? No.)
Most of all, an OC should be special for who they are, not what they are. Almost exactly four years ago, the end of the second season was upon us, and like a lot of people, I was very hesitant about the fact that they were adding a new princess to the cast. By the time the finale was over, my doubts were gone; I had fallen in love with Cadance, and I wasn't the only fan of the show to do so. It wasn't because she was a princess; it was because of "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake!" It wasn't because she was said to be the niece of Celestia and Luna; it was because of how she danced right along with Pinkie Pie during the final party planning. What made her special was snagging a second one of Applejack's baked treats, her delighted reaction to Rarity's hard work, her desire to use her nickname instead of her full name, and more. I became a fan of Cadance despite the fact that she was an alicorn, not because of it.
- Don't start with a crossover. If you're writing your very first story, why make it more complicated than it needs to be? A decent crossover is hard for even an experienced writer to put together, and it's always a good idea to learn to walk before you try to run.
When you write a crossover, you can't just drop the non-MLP element into the story like a cinderblock into a swimming pool. On this site, it's a safe bet that just about everyone is going to be familiar with MLP:FIM, but what about that other thing? It doesn't matter how popular you think the movie, TV show, book, comic, game, or whatever else is; not everyone watches, reads, plays, or otherwise enjoys all the same things you do.
Characters need to be introduced -- and written properly, just like the MLP characters. (Some of your readers will know that other property, and they'll call you out if you're wrong.) You'll have to introduce the setting they come from -- and give a plausible explanation for how the two settings are interacting. Relevant portions of backstory will have to be summarized without just flinging exposition all over the place. Unfamiliar magic, science fiction technology, or other items that aren't present in either MLP or the real world will need to be introduced and explained.
On top of all that, the two properties need to be balanced; you can't have characters from one side getting more "screen time" than characters from the other. (Also, if the power levels on one side are dramatically higher than the power levels on the other side, what point is there to the story?) Not to mention that crossovers can very easily lead to the problem of having to juggle too many characters.
Why would you want to make things that difficult for yourself right out of the gate?
- For your first story, write an episode of the show. I don't mean one of the more adventure-oriented episodes, either; I'm talking slice-of-life stories. Write a story that takes place in Ponyville, starring ponies that have been on the screen at least a couple of times, that deals with simple, day-to-day stuff. Note that this does not mean that the story shouldn't have a conflict; even different perceptions of a situation can be the source of a conflict. (Consider "Green Isn't Your Color".)
Ponies interacting, friends having conversations with each other, characters misunderstanding other characters -- those should be your starting points. Get a handle on characterization, dialogue, describing scenes with multiple senses, and not going wild with the thesaurus. (That also goes for dialogue tags; let "said" do the majority of the work.) Learn the rules so you can figure out how and when you can get away with breaking them. Learn your limitations before you try to push yourself beyond them. And like I keep saying, don't make it tougher than it needs to be. Be nice to yourself.
Because if your fic sucks, I won't be.
.
*I fully expect it to be ignored, of course. No one ever listens to Zathras.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/11/4/757645.png
EDIT: BTW, thanks for telling us why Princess Cadance was so well-received by the MLP fanbase. Never having joined it till after 2013, I was slightly confused as to why people seem to like this minor character so much over others.
Excellent advice all around (says the person whose first pony story was a crossover.) May I link to this blog from my Helpful Tips box?
Oh wow!
This is awesome, thank you for this.
Well, obviously. That's her special talent.
Also, "joe" is old timey slang for coffee.
(In fact, worth noting that Dunkin Donut's bulk coffee it sells is called a "Box o' Joe," and is the kind of thing you might have in a writer's room.)
All good advice. And yeah, if you want to write an OC, consider writing a background pony instead. There's much less characterization to keep track of, so you're 90% creating a new character, and as long as you stick to what characterization they actually have, people will love you for it.
And really, is there any reason why your OC filly couldn't be Lily Longsocks, the cute, super-strong background filly?
derpicdn.net/img/2015/10/10/998803/full.gif
--arcum42
Most of my OCs have been villians, and villians who have qualities I despise. That's one way to avoid the self-insert!
3867241
Glad I could clear that up. When it comes to understanding that, it would probably help for a new fan to not only watch the episodes in order, but to also have no idea beforehand that she even exists. In other words, be the same blank slate the rest of us were when the episode was new. But that generally isn't how fandom works. You dip a toe in the wading pool, and then suddenly you're thrown from the high-dive board into the deep end of ponies...
3867253
I would be honored to have you do so.
3867264
You're welcome.
3867292
Good point -- not every brand new alicorn could pull that off.
3867359
Another good point. While I was aware of the term, it didn't immediately leap to mind as I was writing this -- or reacting to the story where a writer used him as a justification for his OC's human name. (Maybe I would have remembered it if I were a coffee drinker myself.)
3867423
Bingo. And you're pretty much guaranteed an audience from that background pony's fan group(s).
Also, Lily is best super-strong adorable mutant pony.
3867937
OCs don't have to be self-inserts to be overpowered, or edgy edgelords, or in the category of special for what they are rather than who they are.
"I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your OC is a bit of a Gary Stu."
"Nah, he's a complete bastard and I hate him. He's nothing like me."
"Well, yeah, but he's half bat pony and half manticore, he owns a katana, and your cover art shows him wearing sunglasses and a fedora."
"Okay, that last part is like me, but the rest isn't."
3868182
Put it right on the top, where it should be.
3868182
Nah, just the standard villian. Not misunderstood or having special features. Nor the main character. Just an antagonist. All my villians have been regular earth ponies or unicorns and have no powers at all. They're just dicks, and not in a jerk with a heart of gold way.
Edgelords tend to be what you just described, or black and red alicorns.
Edit: Just remembered one of my stories did have a dog god in it, but he was based on someone I want to punch in the face.
3868192
3868197
Oh, okay. Then it sounds like you're one of those writers who already knows the stuff that I keep trying to tell people.
3868182
I think villains in general can get away with that a lot more than characters who we're supposed to like. I get where you're coming from, but for my mind, villains are supposed to do all that. They're supposed be more powerful than the heroes, and slightly scary, and attention-grabbing. Or at least, that's how I think most villains should be. And sure enough, this is the case for the show's major villains. We say it's okay for the show because that's canon, not fanfiction, but there's really no reason why it isn't valid for fanfic as well as long as the writer knows what they're doing.
Chrysalis is basically an edgy-looking alicorn with shapeshifting powers. Discord goes way beyond a batpony/manticore hybrid in terms of being totally unique and hogging the spotlight. And people made fun of King Sombra's design for looking like a bad OC before he even appeared, and he was the show's darkest villain to date. But those characters were meant to be threatening rather than sympathetic, and they all ended up losing in the end. In Discord's case, he made the transition to supporting character, but then we were introduced to all these character flaws of his, and he had an arc with depth and pathos.
Katana-fedora guy sounds like an intrinsically bad idea, but that's because in your hypothetical example, there's no context for it. Put it in a good writer's hands, and I'm sure a villain like that could be just fine (although, yeah, I'd always advise against putting a character who looks like that in the cover art).
Great advice! May I sock this away for future reference if I get the chance to do another presentation on MLP fanfic at a con? (I recently did one. It was fun. This would have been an AMAZING accompaniment.)
3869697
Sounds good to me! All I ask for is credit.
3869862 But of course. Thank you!
Donut Joe only gets away with it because it's a pun. Ever had a cup of Joe with your donut?
I read this and find many things different from my point of view.
4170654
Okay. Why not write your own blog post?
4173973
Because I have no reason to write one.
This blog is so wise and true!
The advice on Wikipedia alone! For all my stories, not just the FiMfics, Wikipedia has been a treasure trove of helpful things! I sometimes get such happy giggles when I browse thru the website.
Seriously, I'm going to come back to this blog repeatedly to refresh on good advice.
Why did I not find this sooner. ;-;
This is a very insightful and accurate piece, and I agree with most of what you said, which was spot on.
Where I disagree is on the subject of OCs. For me, writing someone else's character has always been rather difficult, because you have to worry about not only analyzing a character (unless you want to stick with the broadest, most stereotypical details), bu remaining accurate to the creator's portrayal. For someone like me, who tends to default to four basic personality types, this is a pain in the ass to deal with.
Of course, this also makes it good practice.
I hope you don't mind that I link this blog regularly for the newbies. Thanks for...pretty much making the perfect beginning guide to writing on here. You're the man.
Much love.
Pretty nice post! I wish I'd found it sooner.
For my first fic, I ended up creating a plethora of OCs, and yes, I keep expanding their motives and backgrounds. However, I am slightly regretting it now that there are so many potential mini-story arcs to include -not to mention trying to avoid the temptation to change them into one dimensional characters for the sake of simplicity.
That said, even though I don't write much, it's definitely been an enjoyable experience -setbacks and all. Thanks for posting!
Another good place for name ideas could be my little wiki. It's mainly for the toy line, but it has names from G1 to G4. It also mentions media appearances and has a page for recycled names, though I would still double check that it hasn't been used in the show.
This. . . might have beenuseful to read beforehand.
Oh well, I'll just have to keep it in mind for next time.
Thank you very much!
Thank you! This is great!
Actually, this ended up being mostly another "don't do this" post. And a lot of that is basically "Don't do things you have no experience doing."
I think fimfiction is the perfect place to try things you have no experience doing. I understand your desire to see less badfic on fimfic, but we must balance that against the sport-like aspect of fan-fiction. We aren't the New Yorker (and thank Faust for that). Some of us hope to go professional, but some are just here to have fun.
I'd rather people err on the side of writing too much than too little. I'd rather encourage someone who had finally worked up the courage to post her first story, than discourage her because it's a crossover or an OC. Writers who are writing self-indulgent alicorn OCs aren't going to write masterpieces just by not doing that. Unless you're GhostOfHeraclitus or Skywriter, your first stories are going to suck no matter what you do. There's little harm done beyond taking up a few more kilobytes on the fimfiction servers--they'll sink into obscurity almost immediately--and I think not much to be gained by singling out particular surface manifestations of immaturity or inexperience, as if learning to write were like learning where the rocks in the river are, and all you have to do is avoid them.
And maybe I'm just being contrarian, but when I hear "never write a story like this", I like to write one just to see if I can do it well.
I think your last paragraph is very good advice. The one that says,
I think it's good advice. It was the advice I needed when I started writing--or maybe not. I don't know if I could've followed it. Maybe I had to waste all those years writing crappy science fiction stories with flat characters, just to learn enough about mechanics and stylistic techniques to write stories about friends.
More likely, I had to grow up, or suffer more. It's hard for some people (including young me) to write that way. Some famous writers (Italo Calvino, Jorges Luis Borges, Umberto Eco) never learned to do it. If somebody needs (or wants) to start with an action-adventure plot or a mystery, let them do that rather than put it off, and maybe never write at all.
really wish i read this when i first joined, my first story oh god