Today, class, we're going to be learning about writing fanfiction. Fanfiction is a work produced by the fans (or haters) of a particular piece of fiction. My first piece of advice is this: don't write fanfiction about a work you hate. Invariably this will result in either a sizable chunk of hate, which will only cause pain, or a sizable chunk of funny.
Before I proceed any further, let me make one point clear. You will address me as Master. Got that? All right, moving on then…
When you want to write a story about a particular work, which is what you're probably wanting to do, start with an original idea. Don't write a bloody commentary on someone else's fanfiction. There are lots of "great ideas." Here, I'll list a few:
1. The main characters are for some reason putting around at home, doing dumb stuff. Be careful here.
2. The characters go through their original story, swearing twice every sentence and mucking everything up.
3. Write a series of short stories about the cast of the series.
4. Combine the segments of various episodes, movies, or games into one single work.
When writing a story, keep in mind who the characters are. They have their own separate personalities, habits, vocabularies, and roles. Not following this rule produces a fanfiction that reads like the author is talking to themself.
Next rule: Start A New Paragraph When A Different Character Begins Speaking
I'm sure you've heard this one before. Reading a story becomes extremely tedious when you have to try to distinguish which character is saying what because everyone's sharing the same block of text. For those of you who have never read a bad fanfiction before, I've included a sample.
"My nails are very pretty." "They're such a nice color." "I like blue for myself, but you're more suited to mahogany." "I wish my purse were that color." "Do you want to go to the mall? I'm sure they'll have one in that color."
Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best example, since all of that could have been said by one character and had about the same effect on the plot. This actually ties into another rule: Have a plot.
It is very important that you have a plot, otherwise all the characters would just be doing unimportant stuff, which is not very entertaining and can lead to the author taking the story all over the place without a clear goal or any underlying theme. It's also a good idea to have any theme be underlying. If you just tell the audience that swearing is a bad thing that'll make your tongue shrivel up they'll call you an unworldly idiot and stop reading, or worse, complain.
Well, that's it for today's fanfiction class. Be sure to finish all your homework or I'll whoop your arses.