How to Write a Worthwhile Fic
A tutorial for inexperienced, unsatisfied, and generally bad writers
A/N: All comments are strictly speculative and, I know, do not apply to every person/ idea/ story out there. Stop e-mailing me.
There comes a time in few writers' lives when their books, stories, and poems become published works well-known and respected throughout the general public. These people, in my own objective point of view, are some of the most talented creatures on this earth. The ideas and thoughts in their minds have been developed into something worth writing down, and what they have written down is worth reading.
The same cannot be said for an immense portion of their fans.
However, it is one of my other opinions that every single person on this earth has the potential to be a great author. The trouble here is a lack of inspiration. C.S. Lewis, the magnificent author of the Chronicles of Narnia series, had a happy childhood, ended by the abrupt loss of his cherished mother. Lemony Snicket has been running from enemies of the V.F.D. for most of his life, and yet he still managed to type up a Series of Unfortunate Events (it's a joke, guys…). J.K. Rowling was a single, less-than-wealthy mother when she penned the beginnings of the magical, complex world of Harry Potter on a coffee house napkin, basing the subplot on her own school days and experiences (PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong). That was sixteen years ago, back when us kids did more than sit on the computer, watch TV, and talk on our cell phones all day. Back when we actually had something to fantasize about, back when our lives could have been easier.
No, I'm not one of those forty-year-olds who are just beginning those tragic 'back-in-my-day' speeches… I'm just your regular teenager. But you've got to admit: It's true. We've got such uneventful, lazy lives that we have no idea how to create a purely original, exciting story significant enough to tell.
That's exactly why we have Fan Fiction. It's a new, unoriginal genre for the modern-day hopeful (yes, no matter how AU it may be, Fan Fiction is derivative).
I'm not saying this is a bad thing at all. Fan Fictions are stories of their own, and I've been writing them for three years. It's given me something productive to do on those drizzly evenings at home or those sticky summer days spent indoors. But here's the clincher: It's the bad ones that give Fan Fiction a poor reputation. When well-written and intricately woven, a Fan Fiction can outshine even the primary story off which characters and plot points have been plagiarized. I've seen it done.
Now to the point…
This tutorial is for those of you out there who can't seem to find even the smallest bit of a true blue story, for those of you who scour the depths of until you begin to feel teary-eyed because you've just wasted three hours and the best thing you've read had to do with a Mary Sue and an enchanted bag of chips.
Good luck, and I hope this can be helpful to you.
Kyle Melavowig- Cliché Busters, Inc.