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Post by Ruby on May 4, 2017 10:32:38 GMT -8
The most important point is: For Heavens sake, please complete your story.
I think a little OOC doesn't really matter as long as you are describing the situation perfectly.
Keeping the length of the chapter is important. If it isn't a drabble, the chapter length should be between 1k and 3K.
It takes a lot of hard work to write a single chapter and even more hard work to write a whole story. Don't delete the story, no matter how reckless you think it is. There must be at least one person out there who loves your story and wants to read it again.
Do your best, appreciate others and support Advanceshipping as long as you live.
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Post by Ruby on May 4, 2017 10:36:44 GMT -8
Whatever your vision is for advanceshipping, write off that. I feel that anybody who is willing to write a story of a ship has the best intentions for that ship and they will do right by it. One thing I would say is that it's always a good idea to go back to something that makes advanceshipping, advanceshipping. Be it the student teacher thing, the shared ribbon, the similarities they share, etc. BIGGEST PIECE OF ADVICE! Finish. Whatever you do, whatever you write, the most important advice I've ever came across was to finish it! No matter what, it's all a way to improve your writing/ have fun. No matter what you're writing, just try your best to finish and have fun with it! How about somebody like me who stopped writing a story like a year ago? Maybe in an extreme case like mine where i want to write, but the time that has elapse is a lot, continuing may not be the best option. Maybe I should start anew? There are authors out there who upload once in a year or once in six months. Completing your story will add another masterpiece in adv fictions. BTW whats your username on ff.net?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2017 10:48:49 GMT -8
Oh you guys are going hard at this. welp. I'll guess i be more... Descriptive
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Post by Boost on May 4, 2017 11:35:26 GMT -8
Guidelines for a Fanfiction? My thoughts are pretty much the same as what everyone else has said. - Try to keep the characters as close to canon as possible, a little deviation is good as a way to put your own spin on the characters and while I do find Dark Ash fics fun, personally I prefer it when he's the same idiot he always is. - Be descriptive but don't go overboard with it. - Try not to overuse phrases/descriptive words etc. I'm guilty of this myself, I didn't even notice till I got a review telling me I was using 'slightly' too much. - Try to keep a fairly consistent update schedule. Again I'm guilty of not being completely consistent when updating. - Plot out your story before hand so you don't end up winging it too much. Once again I'm guilty. - And finally don't abandon a story, if you lose interest in the story or lose the need to write altogether then at least put a note to say why you aren't finishing the story and tell the readers what the ending would have been. - But above all else write your story the way you want to, have fun with it and enjoy writing it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2017 15:55:11 GMT -8
Okay, some actual writing advice... not really. just some thoughts.
this is the writer's version of Thiel's contrarian question -
What story is no one telling? What story has never been told?
Ash is an astronaut, May is an undercover alien and her mission is to kill Ash... but along the way... she falls in love with Ash. they have alien babies... now thats a story that has never been told. but is it a story worth telling? I'm not so sure.
The thing is, with fiction, you must have some representation of human nature. and some of the stories that get remembered for ages... they were the best representation. Romeo and Juliet shows us we want what we can't have and what happens when we do (Biblical archetype), shows that sometimes our issues with another person arent because we're too different but that we're too similar, shows us that love can be dangerous. Romeo and Juliet wasn't meant to be a prime example of how love should be, but a cautionary tale of how love is.
Some people say that to write all you need is a typewriter and to bleed, to spill your guts on the page. I say, take it one step further, and imprint your soul.
Should have two views... you write for yourself, you write the stories that you want to see. But, also, you write because you want to take your reader on a rollercoaster, you crush them and start to build them up but only to tear them down once more. this goes for all creative pursuits. make the reader, the viewer feel.
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read the masters. read shakespeare. read Goethe. read TS eliot. read the Iliad and the Odyssey. read the bible. Read Hemongway, Dostoevsky. Read Whitman. Read philosophers. read Blood Meridien. read about copywriting, read about sales, advertising - Ziglar, Gary Halbert, Oglivy, cashvertising. read physics. read everything.
so with people like Hemingway, Dostoevsky, Faulkner, get a pen and paper, look up the pdf of them, and start writing down their works... word for word.
i do this pen + paper activity with poems, novels, Eminem songs (to get a more lyrical style of writing, that flow that makes you keep reading).
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go out in the world.
observe people. observe what motions they make, what gestures. what do they talk about? make mental notes. become an eavesdropper. this can act as story fuel.
observe nature. see the streams, see the trees, see the oceans, see the motions of the animals and birds, compare these things to our buildings, our parks.
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when you write (produce), you exhale. when you consume (your experiences, those books, your observations), you inhale. if you didnt take in enough air, its a very short exhalation and nothing big will happen. when you dont exhale for long enough, youll die (kill a part of yourself, kill your ability to feel like you can create). when you exhale all, well, youre out of breath, and you need to consume, else youll kill yourself that way (kill your willingness to create, if creating was a such bad experience... whats the likelihood youll want to do it again?) and you'll burn out.
writing block doesnt exist. if youre experiencing writing block... you have nothing to write about, you have nothing more to say. so that means... you need to consume.
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jk rowling is a crap writer, but she got the biblical archetypes down. Stephen king aint the best either. techniques wont matter if you cant affect the reader. so yeah, you can have the ugliest writing, but if your words can make your audience feel, youll do just fine.
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on editing...
so there was this man... when he wrote a long letter, he said he was sorry he didnt have enough time to write a short letter.
your first, raw draft will likely be absolute crap. its your editing that turns your work into something great.
like with sculptures, you whittle down your words, until you get the exact thing youre looking for. but luckily with our words, we can undo our edits and whatever we do isnt final. however, this is its own issue, because we can always change our words, our work is never done. with a stone sculpture, with a painting, once you chip something off, make that stroke of the brush... you cant take it back. it has this permanence, and if you make a mistake, its a happy, little accident or the whole thing is ruined.
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Post by foxygirl on May 4, 2017 20:20:56 GMT -8
For me, when it comes to writing stories like Friends to Lovers, Love, Wallace Cup Style and my various one-shots focused on the two, I like to think about how bumping their ages up will change some traits, like in Friends to Lovers with Ash's growing maturity and awareness of what he's doing and May's moments of self-doubt. (It helps that there, Ash is 14 and May is 13)
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Post by Wubbzy on May 4, 2017 23:55:03 GMT -8
Wow, great advice everyone!
Okay, here's some advice that I REALLY need to take... like truly! xD Don't have so many ongoing fics in circulation.
Like, it's just not a good idea. You get overwhelmed and you go crazy trying to update every fic xD
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Post by chloe on May 5, 2017 2:31:30 GMT -8
Take advantage of all of the resources and tools you have.
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Post by chloe on May 5, 2017 5:17:59 GMT -8
"If you don't have the time to read, then you don't have the time or tools to write." - Stephen King
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Post by Dr. Xannytoes on May 10, 2017 2:13:21 GMT -8
Thank you all for your awesome posts! Please, keep 'em coming! A few pointers of my own: - Writer's block does not exist! I shit you not, this is the best piece of advice I've ever received. When you're struggling to write the next part of your story, it isn't because you don't have any idea. Of course you do! i bet you just said they weren't good enough. Instead of trying to write something completely perfect, just add whatever comes to mind. Remember, you can always edit it later! No writer in the world has written a perfect manuscript on their first try. So jot something down, carry on and amend LATER!
- Adding to what Wubbzy said before, I'm a huge fan of AU Advanceshipping. I'm also keen on the idea that Ash and May can evolve and change (hell, that's the point of any writing). But there must be a REASON for it. They're not going to act differently for no reason at all. If you're writing vanilla Ash and May, no changes to their backstory, and one of them decides to become emperor of the world, there has to be a reason. A driving force behind it. Keep that in mind if you do write AU or different Ash and May, and your writing will be so much more powerful.
- Don't be afraid to experiment a little bit. Seriously, if you want to write a story about Mermaid!May and Ash the fisherman, go for it. Don't be held back by the idea that the person reading won't like it. If you like it, there will always be someone else who likes your work. Variety is the spice of life and all that.
- Find your own voice. Find a way to write that fits you. Read other books, fanfics and develop your own written style (for Advanceshipping stories, I've been mainly inspired by the light-hearted moments in Ryan's stories and the descriptive battles in Gavin's work). Draw from your emotions and memories and create something incredibly unique.
- Don't forget to give your characters their own unique voice. No two people sound the same. Some will speak casually, others respectfully. Some will use a wide array of vocabulary, others will stick to the basics. A good way to test this is to remove the names of the characters that are speaking, and seeing if you (or better yet, someone else) can tell who is who. If they can't, you has a problem.
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Beast
New Advancer
Posts: 32
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Post by Beast on May 10, 2017 2:20:06 GMT -8
Drink a beer. Or 6. I dont think ive ever finished a chapter sober. jk dont do that. Stick to coffee.
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Post by Wubbzy on May 10, 2017 2:26:20 GMT -8
Thank you all for your awesome posts! Please, keep 'em coming! A few pointers of my own: - Writer's block does not exist! I shit you not, this is the best piece of advice I've ever received. When you're struggling to write the next part of your story, it isn't because you don't have any idea. Of course you do! i bet you just said they weren't good enough. Instead of trying to write something completely perfect, just add whatever comes to mind. Remember, you can always edit it later! No writer in the world has written a perfect manuscript on their first try. So jot something down, carry on and amend LATER!
- Adding to what Wubbzy said before, I'm a huge fan of AU Advanceshipping. I'm also keen on the idea that Ash and May can evolve and change (hell, that's the point of any writing). But there must be a REASON for it. They're not going to act differently for no reason at all. If you're writing vanilla Ash and May, no changes to their backstory, and one of them decides to become emperor of the world, there has to be a reason. A driving force behind it. Keep that in mind if you do write AU or different Ash and May, and your writing will be so much more powerful.
- Don't be afraid to experiment a little bit. Seriously, if you want to write a story about Mermaid!May and Ash the fisherman, go for it. Don't be held back by the idea that the person reading won't like it. If you like it, there will always be someone else who likes your work. Variety is the spice of life and all that.
- Find your own voice. Find a way to write that fits you. Read other books, fanfics and develop your own written style (for Advanceshipping stories, I've been mainly inspired by the light-hearted moments in Ryan's stories and the descriptive battles in Gavin's work). Draw from your emotions and memories and create something incredibly unique.
- Don't forget to give your characters their own unique voice. No two people sound the same. Some will speak casually, others respectfully. Some will use a wide array of vocabulary, others will stick to the basics. A good way to test this is to remove the names of the characters that are speaking, and seeing if you (or better yet, someone else) can tell who is who. If they can't, you has a problem.
Okay, I absolutely LOVE that piece of advice, and I find it so true! I've found that a lot of times that, yeah, writer's block can happen, but it's usually because I can't think of the best ending, or it seems too cliche or I just don't like it. You're right, I think the best thing to do is just keep writing! Absolutely love this piece of advice! Just a note: Someone PLEASE WRITE Mermaid!May! Like please, that is an amazing idea! xD I will read anybody's AU's lol. Heck, I have a whole drabble series dedicated to AU's xD Beast: yeah, I never write sober ; D
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Beast
New Advancer
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Post by Beast on May 10, 2017 2:39:42 GMT -8
@subzero fuck youuuu
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2017 2:43:13 GMT -8
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Mallow
Full Advancer
Posts: 205
Favorite Pokemon: Incineroar
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Post by Mallow on May 10, 2017 15:12:40 GMT -8
Well in my canon, May quit contests because she had no fun doing them anymore. Same with Dawn. They both tell Serena she's making a huge mistake doing contests, especially with Serena's background in showcases. May is now works with the Feds and has a new boyfriend, Nate/Kyouhei. Dawn is a star volleyball player and even teaches Serena how to play it.
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