This isn't against the rules, it's not that much different from a collection of poems or short stories. There is no way that you can take this story off and be in this website's rules.
I don't own Harry Potter. Otherwise, I would be drinking a margarita instead for typing in the cold. That's pathetic you know.
RPL Stands For Repeated Plot Line
First, a sample, containing a Harry Potter Mary Sue. This type is called: Exchange Student Infatuate
Summary: I SUK AT SUMERIES SO SHUTUP & RED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dracos luv.
Draco had never seen a person so prety be4. She was standing at the side of the Hogwarts Express talking with Hermione. She flipped her silver hare, it shone so powerfully it blinded him 4 a second. He walked up quietly behind Hermione and said loudly, "What are u doing Mudblood? Trying 2 get in a good face change?" Hermione's face went red and she snapped at him, "Shut up or I'll hex u." "I'd like 2 see u try." He sneered. Why can't I be nice around this hottie? He thought, I've got 2 make a good 1st impression. He watched as Hermione stalked up the steps calling, "Come on, Emmerila Evans. Let's leave that jerk 2 his misery." Emmerila took a look at Draco(a/n droolz!!!!! I can't help it he's so HHHHHOOOOTTTT!), and was unable 2 move. He had a glistening white hair and complexion, and beautiful pail blue eyes, like moons. She wanted 2 faint. "Come on Emmerila! We'll be late!" Hermione's annoying voice cut threw her dream. Draco saw her take another quick glance back at her, and he fell in2 her beautiful sapphire eyes, he wanted 2 make out with her right there. He loved the sound of that name, Emmerila Evans. "Honestly, did u see that that creep had some dirt on his face? What were u staring at?" said Hermione once they were in the compartment. "O, nothing." And she held her mother's locket closely 2 her. It gave of a strange warmth, as if answering her hart's calls. But now, her heart had more than 1 answering. "I miss my mom so much. I wish she hadn't just disappeared." She sighed. "I'll go ask how long the train ride will take." She muttered, as she spotted the people that Hermione had talked about, her friends. "Okay, if u want 2 be alone, I'll let u." she watched as Emmerila left. Emmerila walked quickly down the hall with her head down not looking were she was going. Bump she walked right in2 Crabbe and Goyle. "Watch where u're going, dim-whit!" said Crabb, about 2 punch her. She was scared. "Stop!" shouted Malfoy.(a/n that hot hunk!) "What where u dufasses doing? Don't bother answering, just get out of my sight." He glared at them tell they left. "Are u OK?" He asked his face nearing hers. (a/n I'm gonna faint...) "Fine, I think." He slowly pulled her in2 a small compartment, and pulled the shades down."Good." And he took her in2 a passionate embrace. She melted in2 his arms, unable 2 resist him. Several hours later she left the compartment, and walked back 2 the compartment with Hermione and her friends in it. "What took u so long?" asked Hermione, noticing a few red blotches on her face. "Umm, nothing really. What are u doing?" she said, taking notice that Hermione and Ron were sharing the same chair. She levitated a glass of water over their heads, ready 2 turn it over, but Harry saw, and she turned beat red, and let the glass go back down. He stood up, and pulled her out of the compartment. "Do u know what u are?" he whispered 2 her face. She nodded, and he whispered quietly in2 her ear, "Make 1 wrong move, and I'll tell." And started 2 kiss her. (a/n I think he's HOT 2!)
he he he he! Now both of them luv her! im so good at evil cliffies! review review review!
This is a Harry Potter Mary Sue. A Mary Sue is a cliché expression of a female character.
In this type of HP Mary Sues, they almost always end up going to the deepest with Draco on the first day. I know that we all love Tom Felton, but there are a few too many fan fictions about just that. This type of Mary Sue most often shows her face in crossovers or interactive stories (stories where other people submit characters).
Does the above sample sound a lot like your fan fiction? If it does, then here are a few pointers to make it better, hopefully without losing a Draco Malfoy romance.
APPEARANCE
In most stories, the original character has a beautiful face, and you describe it a lot. Of course you thought, she has to be more beautiful than a Veela, her eyes must be something extra-ordinary, her skin perfectly flawless or else no one will fall in love with her. But realize, people just don't happen to be like that, 99.9% of the time, and most people fall in love anyways. Give her some faults. Pimples, warts, zits are perfectly acceptable on a main character. Instead of taking from the character, they add character. You can describe how she looks, not using mountains of adjectives, or broken up into the chapter. A solid sentence devoted to the character's appearance isn't a good thing unless it will be a plot point later. Then never describe it again. Limit yourself to that if you need to. Scenes and setting often give more to the story than the description of a pretty face.
HERITAGE
Often these original characters have a heritage that contains a Veela, Vampire, or something you thought up. Too many stories contain that, so why not make the witch a normal pure blood? Being a muggle-born is okay, just remember that Draco hates all muggle-borns, and if he knew, wouldn't go near her romantically.
NAME
In almost all RPL's her name is something exotic, and her last name is the same of one of the regular characters, mostly a "long forgotten relative" who's been finally found. Give her a regular name, something that wouldn't be an embarrassment to live with. Look at lists of most commonly used names, and chose a last name that's all over the place like, Adams or Johnson. Go through a phone book for unique ideas if you need to. To be a good character, she doesn't have to be related to one or any of the canon characters. Most readers will roll their eyes and pass over your story if they notice that your character is "Sabrina Potter" or something like that. (I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Harry Potter fan fiction character that actually had that name either. Don't use Sabrina or a name that sounds like it; you'll get more rolled eyes and people skipping your story.)
THE ROMANCE
In these stories, Draco Malfoy falls in love with her on first sight. Does that happen in real life? Really? Love takes a while to happen, remember that. Infatuation happens at first sight, not true love.
OUT OF CHARACTER-NESS
It is common practice to make Draco Malfoy suddenly become a Gryffindor. In fact, this is in every single Draco Malfoy romance I've read, and it drives me crazy. Draco Malfoy is very, VERY proud of his Slytherin-ness; he's not about to forsake that, no matter what. That also means that he would NEVER date a Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, and most likely never date a Ravenclaw either. Also, take note that he has a steady girlfriend, a girl that he has been going out with/been best friends with ever since 2nd year, Pansy Parkenson. If you are going to replace Pansy Parkenson, you have to discredit her in his and his father's eyes. Just, please don't turn her into a slut. If she were a slut, Draco would never have hooked up with her in the first place. It would look bad on Draco's family name.
PAST
Why does this original character so often have a sad past? Why can't there be a happy past? Like, the character knows her family, no one close to her has died yet, and her father doesn't rape her every night? A sad past is perfectly fine; it doesn't have to be overly dramatic, and it is best to not introduce it in the beginning of the plot or in the first chapter. You'll feel more pity for a character that you already know.
UNNATURAL POWERS
I see this so often: she has a magical piece of jewelry, or weird magical blood, giving her unnatural powers. I know we all want our character to have something special about them, but what's wrong about a normal witch? (For example: the main character doesn't have to be the girl who can do focused magic without her wand, but could be her best friend who sees the monster that this power makes her friend when she uses it.) There are so many plots to be discovered in this area; do some brainstorming and run the ideas past others. The problem is that these stories have been picked over so many times in the one million Harry Potter fan fiction stories; it is almost impossible to find anything new or worthwhile to read, and even harder to write something new and worthwhile to read.
SPELLING SHORTCUTS
Words are replaced with "2", "4", and "u". Please, that type of writing is hard to read, and it isn't that much effort to type out words, try it!
COMMON GRAMMAR ERRORS
The most common one I see is this:
"Hi." Said Ron.
It should be:
"Hi," said Ron.
FORMAT
FanFiction.Net's uploading these days is a little weird, I know. Now you must take the effort to double space between paragraphs. It isn't that hard, so you can take the time to do it. A story is really hard to read without spaces between the paragraphs; so most people will just skip over your story with out a second thought.
THE TITLE
When you make a title, make sure that you spell everything correctly and capitalize all the words except "the", "and", "of", "a", "an", and "or"(except if they are the first word of the title). Make the title relevant to your story. "Untitled" makes you look sloppy and uncreative.
SUMMARY
If you can't write a summary, then you probably can't write a story either. Use good grammar and spelling, and don't use Internet slang. It makes you look like you don't care what comes out of your keyboard. Give a brief description of the story's plot, leaving off at the climax of the story, making the scrolling past person want to read it.
AUTHOR NOTES
All right, we all know that you love Tom Felton, the fact that you are writing the fan fiction states that well enough. You don't have to tell us how much you're drooling right now over him, because we know. Just leave out the author notes in the middle of the sentences, and if you have to, tell us after the chapter is over.
DISCLAIMER
Like it or not, disclaimers are required. In the very least they are polite. So please write at the beginning of your story, before anything else, that you do not own the copyrights to Harry Potter. You can add a bit of humor to it as well, but don't get carried away. I've seen disclaimers longer that the chapter they were before. People would rather read your story than read you babbling about how you don't own the copyrights to Harry Potter.
REVIEWING EXCHANGE STUDENT INFATUATE
Maybe you don't write this type of story, or maybe you do and have just revised your story. Either way, you are out to look for this kind of story and flame it to the inch of its life. STOP. You're not accomplishing anything. This way the person will never ever think of changing their story or try to get better at writing. I've made a simple 3-step method to reviewing:
#1. Start with a complement. If you can't find anything to complement you can say that you're trying to help, and tell the writer to continue to write.
#2. As you read the story, jot down everything that was wrong, everything that bugged you. Make sure that you don't mock the writer as you do this. Spell-check what you've written after you're done with the chapter.
#3. Re-write the beginning in the end. In simpler words: write the same things that you did in the beginning, just in different words.
I know that I haven't been faithful to this, especially in my early days. Remember, flames (telling the author nothing except that you don't like the story) will get no one anywhere. It's very easy to snap in anger as you read someone spell "Hermione" as "Ermyownee" the third time. Use punching pillows, laugh at the writer's stupidity, or shout at your computer. Then point out the writer's mistakes and move on. Besides, the person probably won't take kindly to the fact that they made mistakes and someone else noticed, and they will probably send you flames and rants to bore you to death anyways. No need to be weighed down by the fact that you did something wrong first.
I don't own Harry Potter. Otherwise, I would be drinking a margarita instead for typing in the cold. That's pathetic you know.
RPL Stands For Repeated Plot Line
First, a sample, containing a Harry Potter Mary Sue. This type is called: Exchange Student Infatuate
Summary: I SUK AT SUMERIES SO SHUTUP & RED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dracos luv.
Draco had never seen a person so prety be4. She was standing at the side of the Hogwarts Express talking with Hermione. She flipped her silver hare, it shone so powerfully it blinded him 4 a second. He walked up quietly behind Hermione and said loudly, "What are u doing Mudblood? Trying 2 get in a good face change?" Hermione's face went red and she snapped at him, "Shut up or I'll hex u." "I'd like 2 see u try." He sneered. Why can't I be nice around this hottie? He thought, I've got 2 make a good 1st impression. He watched as Hermione stalked up the steps calling, "Come on, Emmerila Evans. Let's leave that jerk 2 his misery." Emmerila took a look at Draco(a/n droolz!!!!! I can't help it he's so HHHHHOOOOTTTT!), and was unable 2 move. He had a glistening white hair and complexion, and beautiful pail blue eyes, like moons. She wanted 2 faint. "Come on Emmerila! We'll be late!" Hermione's annoying voice cut threw her dream. Draco saw her take another quick glance back at her, and he fell in2 her beautiful sapphire eyes, he wanted 2 make out with her right there. He loved the sound of that name, Emmerila Evans. "Honestly, did u see that that creep had some dirt on his face? What were u staring at?" said Hermione once they were in the compartment. "O, nothing." And she held her mother's locket closely 2 her. It gave of a strange warmth, as if answering her hart's calls. But now, her heart had more than 1 answering. "I miss my mom so much. I wish she hadn't just disappeared." She sighed. "I'll go ask how long the train ride will take." She muttered, as she spotted the people that Hermione had talked about, her friends. "Okay, if u want 2 be alone, I'll let u." she watched as Emmerila left. Emmerila walked quickly down the hall with her head down not looking were she was going. Bump she walked right in2 Crabbe and Goyle. "Watch where u're going, dim-whit!" said Crabb, about 2 punch her. She was scared. "Stop!" shouted Malfoy.(a/n that hot hunk!) "What where u dufasses doing? Don't bother answering, just get out of my sight." He glared at them tell they left. "Are u OK?" He asked his face nearing hers. (a/n I'm gonna faint...) "Fine, I think." He slowly pulled her in2 a small compartment, and pulled the shades down."Good." And he took her in2 a passionate embrace. She melted in2 his arms, unable 2 resist him. Several hours later she left the compartment, and walked back 2 the compartment with Hermione and her friends in it. "What took u so long?" asked Hermione, noticing a few red blotches on her face. "Umm, nothing really. What are u doing?" she said, taking notice that Hermione and Ron were sharing the same chair. She levitated a glass of water over their heads, ready 2 turn it over, but Harry saw, and she turned beat red, and let the glass go back down. He stood up, and pulled her out of the compartment. "Do u know what u are?" he whispered 2 her face. She nodded, and he whispered quietly in2 her ear, "Make 1 wrong move, and I'll tell." And started 2 kiss her. (a/n I think he's HOT 2!)
he he he he! Now both of them luv her! im so good at evil cliffies! review review review!
This is a Harry Potter Mary Sue. A Mary Sue is a cliché expression of a female character.
In this type of HP Mary Sues, they almost always end up going to the deepest with Draco on the first day. I know that we all love Tom Felton, but there are a few too many fan fictions about just that. This type of Mary Sue most often shows her face in crossovers or interactive stories (stories where other people submit characters).
Does the above sample sound a lot like your fan fiction? If it does, then here are a few pointers to make it better, hopefully without losing a Draco Malfoy romance.
APPEARANCE
In most stories, the original character has a beautiful face, and you describe it a lot. Of course you thought, she has to be more beautiful than a Veela, her eyes must be something extra-ordinary, her skin perfectly flawless or else no one will fall in love with her. But realize, people just don't happen to be like that, 99.9% of the time, and most people fall in love anyways. Give her some faults. Pimples, warts, zits are perfectly acceptable on a main character. Instead of taking from the character, they add character. You can describe how she looks, not using mountains of adjectives, or broken up into the chapter. A solid sentence devoted to the character's appearance isn't a good thing unless it will be a plot point later. Then never describe it again. Limit yourself to that if you need to. Scenes and setting often give more to the story than the description of a pretty face.
HERITAGE
Often these original characters have a heritage that contains a Veela, Vampire, or something you thought up. Too many stories contain that, so why not make the witch a normal pure blood? Being a muggle-born is okay, just remember that Draco hates all muggle-borns, and if he knew, wouldn't go near her romantically.
NAME
In almost all RPL's her name is something exotic, and her last name is the same of one of the regular characters, mostly a "long forgotten relative" who's been finally found. Give her a regular name, something that wouldn't be an embarrassment to live with. Look at lists of most commonly used names, and chose a last name that's all over the place like, Adams or Johnson. Go through a phone book for unique ideas if you need to. To be a good character, she doesn't have to be related to one or any of the canon characters. Most readers will roll their eyes and pass over your story if they notice that your character is "Sabrina Potter" or something like that. (I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Harry Potter fan fiction character that actually had that name either. Don't use Sabrina or a name that sounds like it; you'll get more rolled eyes and people skipping your story.)
THE ROMANCE
In these stories, Draco Malfoy falls in love with her on first sight. Does that happen in real life? Really? Love takes a while to happen, remember that. Infatuation happens at first sight, not true love.
OUT OF CHARACTER-NESS
It is common practice to make Draco Malfoy suddenly become a Gryffindor. In fact, this is in every single Draco Malfoy romance I've read, and it drives me crazy. Draco Malfoy is very, VERY proud of his Slytherin-ness; he's not about to forsake that, no matter what. That also means that he would NEVER date a Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, and most likely never date a Ravenclaw either. Also, take note that he has a steady girlfriend, a girl that he has been going out with/been best friends with ever since 2nd year, Pansy Parkenson. If you are going to replace Pansy Parkenson, you have to discredit her in his and his father's eyes. Just, please don't turn her into a slut. If she were a slut, Draco would never have hooked up with her in the first place. It would look bad on Draco's family name.
PAST
Why does this original character so often have a sad past? Why can't there be a happy past? Like, the character knows her family, no one close to her has died yet, and her father doesn't rape her every night? A sad past is perfectly fine; it doesn't have to be overly dramatic, and it is best to not introduce it in the beginning of the plot or in the first chapter. You'll feel more pity for a character that you already know.
UNNATURAL POWERS
I see this so often: she has a magical piece of jewelry, or weird magical blood, giving her unnatural powers. I know we all want our character to have something special about them, but what's wrong about a normal witch? (For example: the main character doesn't have to be the girl who can do focused magic without her wand, but could be her best friend who sees the monster that this power makes her friend when she uses it.) There are so many plots to be discovered in this area; do some brainstorming and run the ideas past others. The problem is that these stories have been picked over so many times in the one million Harry Potter fan fiction stories; it is almost impossible to find anything new or worthwhile to read, and even harder to write something new and worthwhile to read.
SPELLING SHORTCUTS
Words are replaced with "2", "4", and "u". Please, that type of writing is hard to read, and it isn't that much effort to type out words, try it!
COMMON GRAMMAR ERRORS
The most common one I see is this:
"Hi." Said Ron.
It should be:
"Hi," said Ron.
FORMAT
FanFiction.Net's uploading these days is a little weird, I know. Now you must take the effort to double space between paragraphs. It isn't that hard, so you can take the time to do it. A story is really hard to read without spaces between the paragraphs; so most people will just skip over your story with out a second thought.
THE TITLE
When you make a title, make sure that you spell everything correctly and capitalize all the words except "the", "and", "of", "a", "an", and "or"(except if they are the first word of the title). Make the title relevant to your story. "Untitled" makes you look sloppy and uncreative.
SUMMARY
If you can't write a summary, then you probably can't write a story either. Use good grammar and spelling, and don't use Internet slang. It makes you look like you don't care what comes out of your keyboard. Give a brief description of the story's plot, leaving off at the climax of the story, making the scrolling past person want to read it.
AUTHOR NOTES
All right, we all know that you love Tom Felton, the fact that you are writing the fan fiction states that well enough. You don't have to tell us how much you're drooling right now over him, because we know. Just leave out the author notes in the middle of the sentences, and if you have to, tell us after the chapter is over.
DISCLAIMER
Like it or not, disclaimers are required. In the very least they are polite. So please write at the beginning of your story, before anything else, that you do not own the copyrights to Harry Potter. You can add a bit of humor to it as well, but don't get carried away. I've seen disclaimers longer that the chapter they were before. People would rather read your story than read you babbling about how you don't own the copyrights to Harry Potter.
REVIEWING EXCHANGE STUDENT INFATUATE
Maybe you don't write this type of story, or maybe you do and have just revised your story. Either way, you are out to look for this kind of story and flame it to the inch of its life. STOP. You're not accomplishing anything. This way the person will never ever think of changing their story or try to get better at writing. I've made a simple 3-step method to reviewing:
#1. Start with a complement. If you can't find anything to complement you can say that you're trying to help, and tell the writer to continue to write.
#2. As you read the story, jot down everything that was wrong, everything that bugged you. Make sure that you don't mock the writer as you do this. Spell-check what you've written after you're done with the chapter.
#3. Re-write the beginning in the end. In simpler words: write the same things that you did in the beginning, just in different words.
I know that I haven't been faithful to this, especially in my early days. Remember, flames (telling the author nothing except that you don't like the story) will get no one anywhere. It's very easy to snap in anger as you read someone spell "Hermione" as "Ermyownee" the third time. Use punching pillows, laugh at the writer's stupidity, or shout at your computer. Then point out the writer's mistakes and move on. Besides, the person probably won't take kindly to the fact that they made mistakes and someone else noticed, and they will probably send you flames and rants to bore you to death anyways. No need to be weighed down by the fact that you did something wrong first.