darkSpyro

Let me just say here, I love this fandom. Nowadays in darkSpyro, it's far from the level of activity it used to reach when DotD was still fresh.
I want to give it a little push, as I personally enjoy seeing creative work being shared and viewed.

In my time I have seen several users asking help with writing fanfictions.
Apparently, (if you believe the word of other users) I'm a good storywriter. So, I decided to make a little topic offering tips on how to write a story that is appealing to readers. A kind of a "step one, step two"-guide, if you catch my meaning.
If you have some tips in your mind too, don't be afraid to share. It's a free topic.

I'll start off with some simple ones for users that are just beginning to write, to see if this idea gets some fire in it's belly.

- First of all. Do you have what it takes? I dunno, only you can be the judge of that. I've learned from experience (as in, "the hard way") that starting to write a fanfiction/story is easy, but continuing to write may not always be so. If you want to make a good story you need to be ready to commit a lot of time and energy in it.
What should also be taken into consideration is if you have the linguistic skills to start writing. Grammar alone can't make your story good, but bad grammar can certainly reduce your creation into a steaming pile of abosolute failure.
If you have problems with your grammar though, the best way to learn is to read and type more.
Remember, Google can be used as a simple spellcheck in case you're not completely sure how to type an individual word.

- When you're starting to write a story the first thing you have to do is to think carefully about what kinda story you want to write.
You can't possibly include everything in a single story, so you have to have some leads to start with. Do you want a serious story, a character-driven story, a story with a majority of comical aspects or a "detailed blast of action" kinda story? It's up to you.
Just remember, while a writer has a freedom of choice in what to write. The readers also have a freedom of choice in what to read.
Ideas you think are great might not appeal to others. This should be taken into account when you're thinking about what to write.
It's easy to start with something generic, and later move on to more challenging approaches.

- "Now I know what I want to write, what do?" Before starting to hammer it in you need to think a bunch of things over in your head. Here is a small list of things a story needs to work. And yes, it's that simple. A story needs these things to work.
1. Characters - I could babble about this for an eternity. Think of a few main characters, and some side characters to start with.
This is also important for the future of the story, as basically interesting characters make interesting stories. Or do you think they filmed four "Pirates of the Caribean"-movies for any other reason than the fact that people really like Jack Sparrow?
2. A setting - This, along with the "characters"-part should be quite obvious. A story needs a setting. A simple "Where and When" will do in some cases, but don't start with something like that. It's best to also explain the "Why's and How's" to keep readers interested, and also not to make them overly confused about what's going on with the story.
3. A character motivation - A subsection of the "setting"-part really. Character motivation is a basically the reason why the characters are doing what they do. This needs to have something to do with the characters themselves, and it has to resonate with what the characters are like.
For example, imagine a generic setting where a brave knight is trying to save the princess. His motivation could be something as simple as love. He loves the princess, that's why he is trying to save her. Motivations can, and should be more detailed to make the story more interesting, and not so unoriginal.

There you go, three simple first steps on the road of storytelling. As written by me. I'll post more too, but I don't want to do it for nothing, so I'll first see if this topic attracts any attention.

Thank you. I will post more later this evening.

Quote: shorty

Since you said we could post tips ourselves, I have two things that really bother me about most fanfictions here and one of them can really make writings bland if it's not included.

1. Detail
   
2. Paragraph vs. Chapter
   

1. Many people here don't detail there stories and to me that makes it bland. You don't have to explain every little detail but it would be nice if you described what the room you were in or your surroundings looked like. This also kind of prevents your character from interacting with an object that the readers didn't know was around them and the readers going "WTF? Where did that come from?"
You should also describe your characters well. Remember, the more accurate of a description you give, the closer the image that the reader gets of the character will be to your image.
Detail also comes in during characters' actions.
This is more of an advanced step but it's a good tip.

2. Paragraphs aren't really chapters. While you can set whatever length you want your chapters to be, a paragraph for a chapter is a bit lazy. This mostly irks me but it's true. If your looking to actually write a full length story, paragraph length chapters don't really cut it.
Think about a book. How long are those chapters? Heck, the chapters can even be shorter than that. But I'd say that you should consider about four good paragraphs, about a page, an okay chapter.
Again, this is more of advanced step but it's something that annoys me.

Thank for your contribution, and I agree with you in both of those things. I'm also going to explain the "story detailing"-part a bit too.

I usually end up writing chapters of about 500 words, but it's simply out of convenience, since I usually post one chapter at a time.
I'm confident I'm going to make a "remastered" version of my own fanfiction someday, because when I look at it now, the stuff that I wrote three years ago is full of bad grammar and plotholes.
I'm also going to fix the chapter count, and maybe add some art to wrap it into a complete, simple and pretty package for anyone who wants to read it.

Ah yes, I almost forgot. I was to continue writing the guide today.

Here are two more easy-to-follow steps for beginning writers.

- When you're finally starting to write, remember to go easy at first. Some may disagree, but in my opinion it's always better not to include a whole lot of action on the start of the story, especially not if the said action is important for the storyline.
As with social relationships, the first impressions are the most important ones. If your story looks confusing to start with, nobody will keep reading it hoping that it will change eventually.
The start of the story is usually (if not always) the place to introduce the readers to the characters and the setting. This process should be made as easy as possible for the readers, so they can wrap their mind around what is going on and not feel like they're bitten on something too big for them to swallow.
Even too many detailed descriptions can seem confusing in the start of a story, so keep things simple.
And while this move can potentially grab the readers' interest if executed well, it's generally ill-adviced to pull the "X years later"-trick right after you've told them what's happening.
Remember, readers are there to read, not to do the math. If the readers feel like they need to make an effort to understand what is going on, something is wrong.

- "So how do I introduce my setting to the readers?" This can be done in several ways. Basically it's all about letting the readers know what they need to know to make sense out of your story (the magic word being "need"). If your story is lenghty, the details can wait, and if it's not, why do you need so many details anyway?
The first "Lord of the Rings"-movie did this beautifully by briefly summing up the history of the story, leaving out the details and only explaining the important stuff.
Giving people just the right amount of info requires the writer to look at the story from the reader's perspective. A writer should learn to make a habit out of this, and keep doing it all the time when writing.
It's always a good idea to introduce the setting first, and the character after. This is the right way to do it because the characters are a part of the setting, not the other way around.
If you introduce your character first, the reader could end up thinking that the setting revolves around the characters. This kind of situation is confusing, but can be corrected if the reader is very familiar with the character.
However, as this is rarely the case with new characters, restrain yourself from starting your story by letting the reader know the name of the protagonist. They will most likely not give a damn, and feel an urge to stop reading.

There, I'll post more when I get a chance, and sorry about the double post.

Edit: Fixed some typos there.

I don't mind at all, every contribution that can help matters.

Yeah, I get what you meant with that last one, but it is a big vague.

Every little bit helps, thanks. I'll post more later today, though I have a feeling not many will read these tips in the end.

I'll take a look at it for certain, but I don't have much time now so I'll probably read it this evening.

And I'll also post more writing tips then, as I forgot to add them the last time I promised to.

All right, I promised to post more tips so I will. I only have one in my mind right now though.

- Detailing your story can be a tricky thing to do, especially if you don't have a clear mental image of what is happening with your characters. This is one of the biggest reasons as to why good stories require a lot of effort to write.
This is because by "details" I don't just mean details of the story's surroundings and characters. Detailed descriptions of the very events that shape the storyline are even more crucial, so the readers can get a sense of realism out of, for example, a fanfiction.
It's important to remember that when important things for the story are present in the text, strictly stick on detailing what matters.
When dealing with less important things you can give the readers info that they don't necessarily need. Use extra details to spice up the story where it would otherwise sound bland and repetitive.
Let's use a fictional situation as an example.
Assume that a huge troll propels the main character of your story to a wall. In a situation like this the readers will probably be interested in what happends to your main character.
You can describe how your characters ribs "crack loudly when his body violently slams against the cold, hard brick wall".
That's all the information your readers need (and a bit extra to spice it up), they know what happened, and how. You don't need to tell them what color the wall was, or how the wind howled in the nearby trees when it happened.
The wrong kind/amount of details would've made the scene mentioned above considerably worse, the same goes with all important situations of the story. This is why writers should learn to avoid overdetailing their stories.
Also remember, descriptions after descriptions are a no-no. Describe a single situation/emotion/thing/scene/creature only once, using one or two sentences and three adjectives at most.

The next tip will be about dialogue, which plays a huge part in both of my own stories. Until then.

I almost forgot about this topic already. Well, I'm still not done.

- Dialogue makes characters, which is something young writers tend to forget. That's how your readers get their most direct touch to the people in your story, so think about it before you write it down.
Sometimes the most interesting and fluent dialogue is nothing more but idle chatter between characters. It brings your readers closer to them, and makes them understand them as persons.
Other than that, dialogue is often used in tandem with story details and descriptions, as the readers are often introduced to anything that goes on in the story through the characters eyes. Doing this well requires some effort, as the characters can't talk about what they don't know. You have to stay strictly within the limits of those characters.
Also, from what I've seen here, dialogue is often not separated from the main bulk of the text by any means. This is not a wrong way to do it, but it will make keeping up with conversations much more difficult. I advice starting a new line for every line of dialogue you write. This will also make it easier for the readers to make out which of you characters is talking at the time.

Well, I've done that twice now with Youla and Denragon. I don't mind taking a look at your story for a bit.

I don't see myself as a teacher actually, I'm just trying to help.