Writing first fic: author resources (gen and spec request)?

[sephiroth2004]

Just finished writing and editing chapter 1, ~10,000 words.

Are there resources for authors generally or any y'all recommend?

A specific one I'm looking for is a list of she said, she spoke, she chirped, she retorted, she yelled, she screamed, etc. Basically, the words attached to dialogue.

Some sort of detailed synopsis of each episode of NGE would also be helpful. I keep finding more general summaries.

I did manage to find a resource with all the dates of the events in the series to help with flow and continuity. I also found a layout of Misato's apartment like you'd find on a real estate/rental site.

Any tips from experienced authors are welcome, be they NGE-related or more general writing!

[Mr. Tines]

Unfortunately, one of the best authors' guides I've read, a piece I saw on Usenet 30-odd years ago, has vanished into history; but the main advice I remember from it is to involve as many of the five senses as possible in your descriptions.

> Basically, the words attached to dialogue.
You could try a thesaurus; but better is to structure conversations so you don't have the problem in the first place. Sometimes what is said and how can make it plain in context who is speaking; at other times, character actions and reactions can do that.

> Some sort of detailed synopsis of each episode of NGE would also be helpful.
Scanning the commentary pages on the wiki would give a quick visual overview

[AsukaisLiterallyMe]

A good thesaurus will help (I like power thesaurus), but you need to make sure you don't overdo it. Even the most absent-minded reader will notice when writers are trying really hard to come up with a synonym. Sometimes keeping it simple is best. I like giving characters something to do as they speak so readers will know who's talking.

"Bla bla bla" SoandSo said as they scratched their bicep.

As a reader I'm less likely to care that the writer used "said" twice or more in a row if the characters are doing something.

I know fanfiction is a different medium than books, but 10K words sounds like a ton for a single chapter. A wordy, traditionally published book will have around 80-100k words. Something to keep in mind.

Read in your medium, so other people's fanfiction in this case. This is the biggest thing: so many writers don't actually read the medium they're in and it shows.

Dialog is the best part about writing but remember to actually move the plot and story forward as you do so. Give the characters something to do as they talk, instead of "shot-reverse shot-shot-reverse shot", and make the conversations have a point.

[Blockio]

Agreed to the above, with the caveat that I do not necessarily agree that one should orient themselves primarily towards other fanfiction in terms of style; the bulk of it is kind of atrocious in style and formatting

[MsenjaKagami]

Yeah most other people's fanfiction aren't really the best examples of 'how' to necessarily write, since the vast majority are amateur writers who are essentially getting their feet wet for the first time by writing fanficiton. That said, I know OP replied to me in another thread mentioning that Kadmon as an example of someone who is a technically skilled writer, which I'd agree with, so it's not impossible to find good ffs out there to use as reference for how to write/structure your story.

Otherwise though yeah, it's important to remember that prose is a medium of storytelling in and of itself, not just a stepping stone for getting your ideas across to a reader. I think a lot of new writers often don't realize this, especially fanfiction writers writing for a series that was originally told in a more visual storytelling medium, and thus they take for granted how much extra work they have to actually do to convey the story they want to tell in prose, along with missing the ways they can better get their story across in prose. Being descriptive about the visuals, setting, actions and making them come across as interesting, or at least triggering a sense of imagination in a reader, aren't quite as easy as just putting words down on a page and hoping the reader will imagine what you imagined when you wrote them down. In addition, getting across your characters' wants, needs, motivations, intentions, thoughts, characterization, etc isn't as simple as telling the reader what those are (if you want them to actually be interested in those things anyways), you have to get your reader to that point organically. That's why so many writers stress the 'show, don't tell' rule; readers don't like to be told how to think or feel about the thing they're reading, and when an author isn't subtle about the direction they're having the story and characters go in, it makes it easy for the readers to feel like they're being manipulated and be taken out of the experience.

I know that sounds like a lot, but the only reason I stress it is because of how important it is to keep this stuff in mind when you're writing. It's not that hard to pull off in all honesty, but it is easy to forget to incorporate.

[AsukaisLiterallyMe]

Agreed to the above, with the caveat that I do not necessarily agree that one should orient themselves primarily towards other fanfiction in terms of style; the bulk of it is kind of atrocious in style and formatting

I understand that, but reading in your medium allows you to see what works and doesn't in your medium.

I'm from a completely different world, sure, but the maxim still stands.

Read in your medium and genre so you know what works and vice versa.

In novels there has been an explosion of writers that have only watched tv and films, and their books are perfect to be adapted but terrible on their own cause they've never really bothered to actually explore their medium. The Disney-Marvelfication of fiction is depressing as hell.

ANYWAY, Karen Traviss heavily disagrees with the maxim (a genre writer whose past works I've liked) so take that as you will.

OH and the most important part of this tirade:

If you're a writer of non audio-visual mediums, remember that you're writing text and not for the screen.

What works in audio-visual and/or interactive works does not translate at all to purely textual works.

[Blockio]

I disagree that fanfiction is a medium different from any other method of publishing text. When wanting to learn how to write, one's first priority should be on drawing from things that are good, and while there certainly are good fanfiction writers out there, there is also a much larger degree of really dubious stuff.
There is also the problem that by its very nature, fanfiction works off of an established world and characters, so reading fanfic critically does not teach how to naturally establish entirely new worlds to nearly the same degree as original stories would.

None of this means that you cannot write something good teaching yourself primarily from fanfiction, but it is going to be a lot harder than if you also read a traditionally published book or two of the genre you intend to write in

[sephiroth2004]

Thank you all for the replies. Writing along over here, closing in on 20k words. I've definitely read a lot of fanfiction and I'd like to think my background including a lot of technical (not creative) writing as well as reading a lot in general helps me determine good examples of writing in a fanfic, because as was said above we're not doing completely original works. Creative writing is a lot harder than technical writing, which is super guiderail-heavy.

If there's any examples of great eva fanfics you want to put out, I'll check them out. I'm writing an NGE asushin story and putting in the effort to try to have it develop somewhat organically and avoiding the pitfall of it seeming like they fixed each other simply by being together and not because having the right supportive partner allowed them to work through their own problems. I've been planning it for a while and have it semi-drafted out with various chronological scenes and an ending with the expectation of about 150k words, so it's had thought put into it. I know that seems long for a new author but my dissertation was pretty long and took a year to write. This is purely for personal enjoyment.