This group is primarily for idea sharing, and I don't want to crap all over that, but I would like to take a moment, take a step back, and bring up some concepts, before you even start looking for ideas.

1) Who are you writing the fan-fic for? Who is your audience?

This is a really important consideration, and you need to be fully aware of it before you put pen to paper. Obviously, seeing as we're on a FIM based website, your primary audience will be FIM fans (bronies and otherwise). However, that group can be large and diverse indeed. In this fandom, you cannot and will not have everyone loving your work. It is not possible. You will alienate someone. You need to focus on attracting those that will enjoy it.

a) Age. Ranging in age from young (an older child, 10-12 range) to old (late teens and adults), this fandom doesn't hold to any one age demographic. So you need to settle on an age range that your story is appropriate for. That's not to say that your story can't appeal to other ages, but you still want to keep it in mind. As we go through this, I'll keep referring back to my own story, as examples. For instance- my current work is rated on the higher edge of teen. I'm still grappling with whether or not it deserves a mature tag, but so far I'm content with teen. However, adults should enjoy it as well.

b) Main tags. What kind of story are you writing? If you have a dozen different tags because it's all over the place, no one is going to know what it's supposed to be, and it's going to confuse them. (Actually, this is where you might want a random tag...) When I look for fiction to read on this site, I like a max of three tags. That's not saying your story can't have more, but three seems to be the magic number for me. Tells me at a glance what I'm about to get into. That's not saying a dark story can't have funny moments, and a slice of life can't have a kiss or two, but if it's possible to write out the scene and not affect the main story arc, then it's not worth a tag.

c) Be comfortable with hate: So my current story is a HIE. It's not the usual self-fulfilment of a brony cliche, but it's still HIE. People are GOING to hate it. I don't care though. Because I like it, I know lots of others that do, and I've found an editor that also usually hates on HIE's and is doing a fantastic job. Don't put "this is my first, go easy". That's like saying to a wolf "hey, I'm defenseless, don't eat me." This is the internet. Put your big boy pants on, and as long as you're not writing crap, they will come.

2) Am I writing something different enough than someone else?

There are thousands of fan-fics. Thousands. Chances are nearly everything has been done before, in various lengths and quality. From the very best to the crappiest. One shots to multi-arc epics. What does your fic bring to the table that hasn't been done before? Maybe it's not all that different but your characters and interactions might be unique enough to warrant a write. Almost every shipping has been done. Sure, some aren't as fully explored, but there can only be so many Sparity fics, so many Fluttermacs. If you want to write a ship fic with such a paring, you need to realize that there's a hundred others doing the same thing. Make sure yours stands out. Of course there's always clop... but I don't write/read clop, and you'll get clop fans regardless of story as long as the writing quality is good.

3) Does my story make SENSE?

Here's a new story I'm writing (not really, but as an example). Going to Call it My Little Care Bears: an MLP/ Care Bear crossover. Sounds great right? I mean the 80s care bears were the tits, and now that 4G MLP did it right, we have two great shows to somehow combine. What could go wrong? PLENTY.
Before we even talk about the quality of the writing, let's look at the set up. A group of happy, relatively innocent kind ponies and a group of happy, relatively innocent kind bears interacting. So... where's the conflict? What's the story? They all gang up on the villains from one universe or the other? What have you accomplished with that? Take random carebears and substitute for the poines and you have a story. Is it good? Will you get readers? Maybe. But is it really interesting? Does one group teach the other group anything. Personally, I wouldn't know where to start.

Ok, got your age group? Great! You have a unique, fantastic idea (or grabbed one from this group?) Fantastic! It makes sense and you can actually create a good story? Now... to put it down on paper.

4) Take your god damn time.

No, really. Take your time. This site wants 1k words minimum for a chapter. Do you know how long 1k words takes to write? At 50 wpm about 20 minutes. You can do so much more with it. If it's worth writing, it's worth doing right.

a) don't use the on-site editor for writing- use a word processor. It has a word count, much better spell check, thesaurus, dictionaries etc. You can save it, and come back to it on several devices and write as you go. For my writing, usually I start on my ipod, write a bunch on the bus, email to self, open in word, edit what I wrote before to make sure it made sense, write some more etc etc. Then read it through and edit again. THEN throw it on the site. You'll have to take 1 more editing pass, to make sure it all lines up and your paragraphs, underlines, italics etc all match. This takes time. And it makes for a MUCH better fic.

b)Find a pre-reader/editor

No, they don't have to be a pro. They can be a friend, someone you met online. SOMEONE other than you. My story, I wrote a basic summary of the whole thing, expecting to take 10-15 chapters. Then I found an editor, and we've taken the whole thing apart, redone some of it, figured out much better plots, etc etc etc. If I'm done before 40 chapters now, I'll be lucky. Good writing takes time. Having someone else look over it takes longer, but they can pick out the flaws and mistakes (and inconsistencies) before the general public thumbs you down 20 times. At the very least, you'll be able to see if what you wrote makes sense to someone else.

5)POST

You posted. Great! Now- watch the comments. All of them. Even the critical ones. It's like a second free edit. "This sucked because x" "I don't get y" "You're on drugs". Maybe not the friendliest help, but it will tell you at a glance if your story needs any editing, or any changes before the next chapter goes up. If it's a one-shot, maybe a few lines need to make more sense. Learn for next time.

Phew. That was a wall of text. Hopefully this helps you to write better, and good luck on your adventures in fic writing!

311508 That wall of text will probably be one of the defining foundations of the site though. Thank you very much Squid, I'm glad you joined.

damn, this is stuf you can't read to many times

prety sure that it wil set standard for how the people in "the idea factory work"

311508

damn dude that good work right there keep it up

Semper fidelis

That was mighty helpful! I may finally get around to writing something!