Need advice from FanFic writers

[Starhawk]

Hey all you fanfic writers I wanted some advice about my story.

I was planning on making notes for a period of up to two years (game time) and then posting the best story elements from those two years.

Do you think this is a good idea or should I just type it as I play?

I am really hoping to learn how to become a full fledged writer some day and I see this forum and you guys as my first "public audience" so any advice you guys have just lay it on me please. hey if you think I have no hope at all of becoming a good writer then let me know that too.

[Starhawk]

Sorry for the double post.

Oh and I'd like to know what people just reading the story think about it even if they've never written their own fiction.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

http://www.sfwa.org/

[Starhawk]

I don't think I'm nearly good enough to go there Though I'll take a look and see if they have any writing tips.

[Instar]

Sounds good, and the game events will make it somewhat linked together. Maybe play the empire in a way conducive to the story...? For example, a real peaceful race wouldn't glass planets at all.

[Starhawk]

Hmmmmm good advice, thank you .

Anymore from you guys your a smart lot so I'm willing to listen

[Atrocities]

Most of us use the notes system for our stories.

[Instar]

Starhawk said:
Hmmmmm good advice, thank you .

Anymore from you guys your a smart lot so I'm willing to listen

who me? smart?

naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...

[rdouglass]

Well I for one am enjoying your game story very much. Plot, story line, and characters seem to be developing nicely. Looking forward to future installments.

[dogscoff]

Regarding the write-as-you play vs save-up-and-write: It's entirely up to you, and you don't need to stick to one or the other. The important thing to remember is that the game is only there to assist and guide the story, not to dictate absolutely to it. Pick out the events that would be interesting to your characters, or that highlight the aspects of the characters/ culture/ universe you want particularly want to get across. Ignore the rest. Don't feel duty-bound to report every single event in the game log, and feel free to make up events if that suits you (as well as making up all the different things that happen that are too small for the event log to notice)

My main advice to you though would be about rhythm and punctuation. You're not the only fanfic writer I've seen who skimps on punctuation, and I know a lot of people don't think this is important, but it makes a huge difference to readability. If you ever want to get published you'll need to get it right, so you might as well start getting it right now. I don't want to sound like I'm lecturing or patronising you, but I want to offer some friendly, constructive advice.

Before you post, re-read what you have written. Read it aloud, or at least read it aloud in your head (You know what I mean). Imagine you are a reader who hasn't yet seen this and has no idea what you are about to say. Take note of where you put the pauses when you're speaking- that's where your punctuation needs to be. For example, please read the following sentence aloud:
"The lift door slid open and Captain Ross stepped onto the bridge still buttoning his tunic and wiping the sleep out of his eyes desperately trying to look like three hours of sleep was enough as he took over the Last few minutes of the watch so he could oversee the warp jump personally."
It probably sounds fine to you, because you wrote it and you know what you're saying. You probably paused several times in there. Now read it aloud again without any pauses, and you'll get an idea of what I'm reading. It's a great sentence- I like the idea of him 'desperately trying to look like three hours of sleep was enough.' However, I had to read that sentence 3 or 4 times to get all the information out of it, simply because it has no punctuation. It has no rhythm and is very difficult to read. Please think about throwing a few commas in there, (probably after either 'bridge' or 'eyes') and then condier breaking the whole lot into two sentences. That might mean restructuring it completely, but believe me, it will be so much easier to read. You might even find you that by spiltting it into two sentences, you have room to throw a little more information in there.

The danger is that I will eventually not bother re-reading sentences like that and just skim over them, getting only half the information and eventually missing out on some of the best bits of your story.

Finally, and this is my advice to anyone- not you in particular- once you have written something that you think is finished leave it two or three days, maybe start writing the next installment in the meantime, then re-read it again. You'll almost certainly find a half-dozen things that you want to change, even if they're just typoes. I don't always have the patience for this myself, but when I do do it, that's when I get the best results.