Just look at that title. It sounds like a very bad idea (I don't know why).
Do you guys know if it's worth it? It might take some time to write it down, and it's probably just going to be for me only.
Weird topic is weird.
Well then, have you guys ever written any fanfic? How was it?

Don't write anything unless you're prepared to get hated on.

I don't see any problem with writing fanfiction. It can be fun. I've written stories before. If you enjoy writing, go for it.

Ryuzaki_Izawa said:
Don't write anything unless you're prepared to get hated on.

That's the fun part of fanfictions.

Fmafanclub said:
That's the fun part of fanfictions.

No it isn't though

Being hated for something you've produced is a horrible experience, so I don't know why you'd want to seek out being hated and ridiculed.

Ryuzaki_Izawa said:
No it isn't though

Being hated for something you've produced is a horrible experience, so I don't know why you'd want to seek out being hated and ridiculed.

It indeed might depend upon your point of view.
If might feel bad if people make you feel bad for making it.

But watching people get mad over your work can be very funny if it does not affect you.
A good and recent example would be Boca: https://e621.net/forum/show/156644
He gets bad comments, downvotes, but he's still laughing reading them and watching them add nightmare_fuel to all of his posts.

Ryuzaki, you have a very negative view of this whole thing, don't you?

Anyway, maybe my experience is skewed, but I really haven't received much - if any - hate for anything I've written. Sometimes I've received criticism, but it has helped me to become a better writer, I think.

And generally, I've seen that this holds true for other writers too. Even those who write badly - people have a tendency to try to offer constructive criticism, and it only becomes "hate" or "ridicule" when the author has a bad attitude about it.

I'm sure there are some exceptions, but overall, to me, it doesn't matter. The point of writing is to have fun creating something. And hopefully bring other people enjoyment as well. And maybe even get paid, if that interests you. If you think you will enjoy writing, fanfiction or otherwise, go for it.

To me, expecting haters of your work to exist is not a legitimate reason to not try writing. Or drawing. Or anything else. Seriously, Ryuzaki, honestly, I feel like you are trying to be very discouraging, and I don't think that's a good thing.

I would say, unless you really want to develop some basic writing skills first, is to not limit yourself to characters and a universe that someone else created...

That's just what I'd do, though.

My brother actually recommended I write fanfics because I'm such a shitty writer. Hmmm...

Ryuzaki_Izawa said:
No it isn't though

Being hated for something you've produced is a horrible experience, so I don't know why you'd want to seek out being hated and ridiculed.

Still there will always be haters out there in any type of content creating be stories,arts,videos, basically anything but you shouldn't let that discourage you since you never know if it's going to be any good until you release it.

I used to make flash games when i was around 15 my programming skills weren't good and i'm not an artist so the art of the game was basically geometric forms but i guess people really don't care if you are just starting or a professional if there are flaws people will start just hating for no reason. (I guess it's easier to bash on something than give constructive critics.)

Ryuzaki_Izawa said:
No it isn't though

Being hated for something you've produced is a horrible experience, so I don't know why you'd want to seek out being hated and ridiculed.

not all fanfiction is bad or deserves/attracts hatred, Super Mario Apocalypse

iirc zhaich (the author of that fanfic) has been writing this story for at least 8 years now. bit lengthy but it's quite good for a fanfic.

and you raise a good point, Just Another Dragon. good or bad, theres always people out there who simply hate things for any number of reasons. (trolls for example)

Just start writing and see what comes up. I've written large amounts of text as comments from random bouts of inspiration (essentially fanfiction-lite) and sometimes it turns out fine, sometimes it doesn't.

Some misc. suggestions:

• Proofread, proofread, proofread - Grammar and spelling mistakes can be extremely distracting and tend to seriously hurt what is otherwise good writing.
• Don't be afraid to delete things - Just because you put x amount of hours into writing something, does not mean that you should hesitate to delete something if it doesn't work. An alternative is to put it into a separate document for later use (essentially a throwaway pile). I happen to remember Douglass Adams writing about how a short story he wrote read "more like a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book" instead of "like a Dirk Gently book", and how he was conflicted because he didn't want to write another HG2TG book, he wanted to write a Dirk Gently book. Point is, even authors at this level will tend to recycle things. If you happen to be a Douglas Adams fan, it's actually a pretty good read. The book is called The Salmon of Doubt, and is a sort of biography with some unfinished works published posthumously. I'd highly recommend it.
• Keep a dictionary, thesaurus, and rhyming dictionary handy (etymology and pronunciation guides can help as well)
• Dictionary/thesaurus: I use OS X's built in dictionary/thesaurus which has OAD and ODE built-in (Oxford dictionaries), but just googling "define ____" brings up some pretty reliable results as well. As a backup dictionary.com and "thesaurus": works fine, but I personally find their website to be a bit clunky for me. Wikisaurus (an example) is hit or miss, but it is less hesitant to provide entries for certain words than other thesauruses, and is handy to keep around. I mention these because they are incredibly useful for altering the feel of a sentence without changing the meaning too much.
• Rhyming dictionary: I only use http://www.rhymezone.com, but these are great to keep around if you want to tweak something, or have that one feeling where you know what a word you need should sound like but can't think of it (it may sound weird but it does happen).
• Pronunciation and etymology (if you're into that sort of thing): Etymonline (for etymology), wiktionary (etymology and pronunciation) and forvo (for pronunciation).
• Print it out - I don't personally find this method very helpful, but some people find it really helps them think of it as a finished product if they print it out on paper and try reading it.
• Avoid formatting when you are writing - I do this, but your workflow may be a bit different. I'd still recommend you keep it simple and do formatting changes all at once. Random bold, italics, font changes, etc. tend to get in the way when you want to move sentences around or rewrite things. Writing in plain text helps if you find you can't resist doing it.

Ryuzaki_Izawa said:
Don't write anything unless you're prepared to get hated on.

I won't comment on this exactly, but if you're worried about this, you can always write under a pseudonym (make an account not associated with you at all) and publish under that name.

Also, if you are planning on writing MLP fanfiction, most people seem to really dislike when it feels like the author placed themself into the story ("human in Equestria"). There's nothing inherently wrong with writing this, but you should prepare to get a lot of strongly negative feedback unless it's exceptional.

One thing I'd like to note about having a thesaurus with you...

A thesaurus is fine if you are trying to find a word that you know that you can't remember at the moment. Do not use a thesaurus to find new words though. That is a recipe for disaster.

Clawdragons said:
One thing I'd like to note about having a thesaurus with you...

A thesaurus is fine if you are trying to find a word that you know that you can't remember at the moment. Do not use a thesaurus to find new words though. That is a recipe for disaster.

This proviso is fact-based. You should definitely use it penny-pinching otherwise your sentences become all lexical coleslaw.

Fmafanclub said:
Just look at that title. It sounds like a very bad idea (I don't know why).
Do you guys know if it's worth it? It might take some time to write it down, and it's probably just going to be for me only.
Weird topic is weird.
Well then, have you guys ever written any fanfic? How was it?

YES! MY TIME TO SHINE!

I've been writing FanFiction since July 5th, 2009 (so don't be fooled by the seemingly contradictory dates of when I joined fanfiction.net and when I first began uploading chapters to my fanfic series). The two stories I've written are as titled:

The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads and The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms.

If I were to describe myself as a writer, I would use the term Chekhov's gun, where I try to bring out every little detail I can and for a purpose that ultimately comes full circle. I guess that's why, at the moment, I've uploaded about 800,000 words, and am actually nearing 1,000,000 words written with what I have yet to upload.

So, if anyone on this website plans on reading them (don't have to if you don't want to, I'm just stating my reasons why), here's what you should know.

My The Path of the Aura fanfic series is Pokémon fanfiction, centering around a Lucario and an OC human protagonist, destined to prevent a great evil from coming to light. The stories are generally action/adventure and friendship, as I have them labeled by the guidelines on fanfiction.net. They also incorporate humor (...which I can't help but feel I can do better on, even though others tell me otherwise), a healthy amount of suspense, a dash of tragedy, and A LOT of violence. They stories may be rated T, but the blood and gore I enjoy describing may go as far as rated M, but I have my reasons for leaving it as rated T.

In The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads, the main protagonist Lucario (later named Xeno Lucario) lives out the youth of his life in a forest in the Pokémon world, while the OC protagonist (named Eduardo) lives out the youth of his life in the "real world" Earth, set during Roman times. They meet at the end of my first story, and my sequel continues their adventures.

And don't think that those two are the only two main characters. My story also focuses on other humans and Pokémon they've befriended, as well as some Legendary Pokémon, such as Arceus.

I'd continue, but my two stories (and the third I'll start writing later this year, titled The Path of the Aura III: Bonds of Blood) are way too long and way too detailed to properly describe in a forum post on e621. But I can leave this summarizing snippet, which summarizes my first story, as it was written with the intention of keeping my first story active amongst potential readers that have discovered my sequel story before my first one. Also, if you (or anyone else on e621) feel like it, take a look at the reviews to both of my stories to see what others think of them. They're generally quite positive, some even praising my ability to write something akin to a professional, published book.

As for any actual advice that I can give you, seeing as I've been writing for almost six years now...

Parasprite actually gives out valid points, though I would strongly disagree against deleting anything you've written, simply because I believe it's a stalwart sign of weakness for any author. The same can be said for how far you intend to go with whatever you plan on writing. If you start something, try to finish it, especially if (in your head) it's a good idea.

Here's a quote from my all-time favorite author, Orson Scott Card, to cement what I mean: "That's the dilemma every storyteller faces. It is painful to fail. But it is far sadder when a storyteller stops wanting to try."

I've uploaded 800,000 words so far (which to put into perspective, is longer than ALL of the Harry Potter books combined, and about the same length as The Bible). My advice to you is that if you want to write fanfiction, quality is more important than length. I only make my stories that long because I enjoy fleshing out the little details (especially in my EPIC battle scenes) and because it's become strikingly easy for me to over time. I can easily write 1,000-1,500 words in about two hours.

What idea did you have in mind? If it's on fanfiction.net, I can give you a few more pointers there, where the website supports the topic at hand. You're not the first person that has written fanfiction where I've offered a helping hand to.

Another thing, there will always be people that will point out flaws in your story, while others will downright criticize you, sometimes accurately or without even bothering to aim. What's important there is how well you learn to make use of their criticisms. For example, if someone criticizes you on bad grammar, then please take that into account (and I say that because I'm a bit of a Grammar Nazi when it comes to writing, but even I leave typos here and there).

After all, you learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes.

Yes, it can be worth it. Go to your nearest bookstore and look at tie-in fiction, like Star Trek, movie adaptations, and Charmed. These basically are officially sanctioned fan fiction. If you're happy to forgo money and sanctioned publication, it'll be easier for it to be worth it.

Furthermore, there's no reason your fan fiction need stay fan fiction. During the course of writing, rewriting, and editing again, your story may evolve from a Star Trek fan fiction to original fiction like the Vorkosigan Saga. Perhaps different fan fictions will get mashed together, perhaps split apart and shuffled like a deck of playing cards.

Writing good fan fiction is a lot the same as writing good original fiction, but it does require a change in strategy on some points. You're working within a previously established framework with already established characters, so the more true to the original canon you are, the better. You play with tropes and bend the rules until they scream and still be true to the original. Pinky Pie as a psychotic killer works frighteningly well if she's still Pinky Pie throughout it all.

However, if you want to go from earning some fans to earning some money, write original fiction alongside your fan fiction. Those franchises open to tie-ins will be more likely to accept your submissions if they see you've already proven yourself a capable writer.

parasprite said:

• Don't be afraid to delete things - Just because you put x amount of hours into writing something, does not mean that you should hesitate to delete something if it doesn't work. An alternative is to put it into a separate document for later use (essentially a throwaway pile).

It's better if you stick it into a scrap heap document than delete it altogether. That way, you'll have it later in the unlikely chance you need to put it back. More likely, you'll just want to admire it privately later on without it wrecking your manuscript. Who knows? it might even spark another idea.

Clawdragons said:
Do not use a thesaurus to find new words though. That is a recipe for disaster.

I disagree. There's nothing wrong with using a thesaurus to find new words, but there is a catch. Those new words should always be looked up in a dictionary before you use them to make sure they're the synonym or antonym you really want. It never hurts to double check words you thought you already knew. If you're even remotely wibbly-wobbly about a word's meaning, look it up.

GameManiac said:
I've uploaded 800,000 words so far (which to put into perspective, is longer than ALL of the Harry Potter books combined, and about the same length as The Bible). My advice to you is that if you want to write fanfiction, quality is more important than length. I only make my stories that long because I enjoy fleshing out the little details (especially in my EPIC battle scenes) and because it's become strikingly easy for me to over time. I can easily write 1,000-1,500 words in about two hours.

geez man lol that rivals one of my favorite authors over at fimfiction, TDR. note the word count on each of the stories in stone fics in order (the main series): Luna's Royal Guard > Memories of Twilight > Lost Empire (the current book). a story spanning over 1k years, from the dragon wars (or was it dicord's reign? i don't remember) to beyond current time period (where the show takes place). i won't spoil much aside from saying a certain black and red humanoid/equine monster recently appeared in the latest chapters and has stolen Jer'rahd's godlike powers (as far as magic goes, twilight is more powerful but physically? lol this guy could probably survive a fight with an adult black dragon or 2 solo and still have power to throw around).

I disagree. There's nothing wrong with using a thesaurus to find new words, but there is a catch. Those new words should always be looked up in a dictionary before you use them to make sure they're the synonym or antonym you really want. It never hurts to double check words you thought you already knew. If you're even remotely wibbly-wobbly about a word's meaning, look it up.

I disagree, for a few reasons. First of all, even if you look into a dictionary to make sure about the meaning of a word, the dictionary will not provide you with enough information on the word to use it properly.

The real question to me is, why are you trying to find out new words to begin with? If you want to expand your vocabulary, there are far better ways to do it. A thesaurus, even paired with a dictionary, will tend to make your writing sound bloated and clunky.

And why do you expect the reader to know the word that you just learned of ten seconds ago? It really doesn't improve the reading experience to have to look up the meaning of an obscure word the author just felt like including for no good reason.

There are some rare exceptions to the rule, of course, but generally speaking it is not good advice to look up new words in a thesaurus while writing, I think.

Clawdragons said:
And why do you expect the reader to know the word that you just learned of ten seconds ago? It really doesn't improve the reading experience to have to look up the meaning of an obscure word the author just felt like including for no good reason.

What makes you think they can't? Readers pick up a lot more things than you think with just a few subtle context clues. It's actually not all that uncommon for a writer to teach new words as a literary device, particularly for world building.

For example, I remember some characters in The Dragonriders of Pern discussing how they used a "healing salve" for scorched flesh. I'd never heard the word salve before then, but it turned out to be an opportunity for me to learn something new. The author could have just as easily used "ointment" and it would have gotten the meaning across fine, but by using "salve" it pushed the feeling of the story into more of a pre-modern time when something as commonplace as medicine needed to be harvested and prepared by hand.

I mean, using evanesce instead of disappear is obviously not going to suddenly make you a better writer, but thesauruses can be an extremely useful tool to keep around if you know how to use them.

Yes, but that is including the word for a good reason, as salve has slightly different connotations than ointment. I'm guessing that the author of those books knew the word salve and made an informed decision to use it over its alternatives.

Again, I'm not saying that a thesaurus doesn't have its use. Just that I think there is a right way to use it and a wrong way, and using it while writing to give you words you don't actually know isn't the right way.

Wow. Didn't expect THAT much feedback.
Well then, thanks everyone! I'll probably start it when I got time.
Since it's my first time writing one, I'll probably just keep it to myself, like a training.

parasprite said:
"human in Equestria"

*cough*

Make me a naruto fanfiction consisting of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha have anal funtime with my foot.

Patchi said:
Make me a naruto fanfiction consisting of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha have anal funtime with my foot.

patchi what are you talking about you hate anime

Ryuzaki_Izawa said:
patchi what are you talking about you hate anime

Fuckin loving me some Naruto thanks to my students.

Madara Uchiha is my spirit animal