About writing fanfics...

[on:]

How do you get them posted?

[Reply #1 on:]

You could try signing up with fanfiction.net, or submitting them to the webmasters at TLZ and FSAC....

[Reply #2 on:]

Getting fanfics posted should be the least of your concerns, if you ask me. Try to get enough drive to finish them, there's nothing as annoying as a great fic that never gets finished. I'd tell more stuff, but since i'm a noob here and i'm not too confident on my skills either, i dunno if what i say makes a difference.

[Reply #3 on:]

 

Originally posted by Luis:
Getting fanfics posted should be the least of your concerns, if you ask me. Try to get enough drive to finish them, there's nothing as annoying as a great fic that never gets finished. I'd tell more stuff, but since i'm a noob here and i'm not too confident on my skills either, i dunno if what i say makes a difference.

You? A newbie?   

The Fry-Borg is a great fanfic! Stop putting yourself down, that's exactly why the best works are never finished. Self-doubt.

[Reply #4 on:]

Tell me about it.          But give me another month, and something should appear... I hope.
Edit: that sounds wrong. I just meant I hope to get some more of my fic done soon.

[Reply #5 on:]

I find that my new avatar has inspired me to become much more agressive tonight. I don't even understand it myself...

My problem is that I always have a million ideas, but once I want to use one it vanishes. Annoying as hell when I try to draw stuff.

[Reply #6 on:]

Join the club. I often get these ideas that sound awesome on my head but, either i forget them or write them and think they're not good enough. Also, thanks for the support Asylum-Fry, and Farnsworth38, for god's sake continue your fic, i'm getting anxious to see the next part, it's great until now. Oh, and i got another thing to say : Try to get the characters personalities right, it makes the story sorta "Write itself", the story takes a life of it's own.

[Reply #7 on:]

I agree with Luis, when you find that you're cued in how how the character's act and sound, then the story will kind of write itself.  You can take them, put them in outlandish situations, but the moment that they lose their sense of self, then I find that whatever story I'm working on gets off tilt, and I have to stop and back up.  Sometimes, I'll write pages of text, stop, look over it, and curse myself a new a-hole, because I lost whatever it is that makes the caracters act as themselves.  There are lots of good fiction writers on this board, and I'm sure if you were to ask them for help, they'd give out whatever was need.

Just my $2.58 

[Reply #8 on:]

Maybe there should be a thread for the veteran writters to give advice on fics to newbie writters.

[Reply #9 on:]

 

Originally posted by Luis:
Maybe there should be a thread for the veteran writters to give advice on fics to newbie writters.

It would take a veteran to start it *hints at Luis*

[Reply #10 on:]

Thanks AF, but i feel i'm not up to it. There's many things i have to improve on to actually advice anyone. I'm merely a corporal so to speak, i'm talking about real veterans like Kif White, Bumblebee-theta, Kryten and the such. Their fics inspired me to go and write my own, so i believe they should be the ones to give advice. Maybe when i post more than 10 fics (good, not crap), i'll be experienced enough and start a thread of my own, if i'm positive that i have anything useful to say. But that doesn't mean i won't give a piece of my mind whenever i think it's useful or feel like it, and so should any writters out there. C'mon, fanart is great, and at least personally, i think fics are the closest thing we have to new futurama eps. If plenty of people can write great fics, we'll all be entertained for awhile, and fics sometimes give good fanart ideas, so we'll all get something good out of it.

[Reply #11 on:]

I could point you in the direction of my site (the link is around, search for it somewhere).  The forum is basically there for writers to give each other advice and writing tips.  It used to be a simpsons site, but I grew bored with the simpsons and decided that futurama is a much beter subject, so now it covers everything by Matt Groening. 

Ah-hah!  So endeth my posting spree for this month...

Seriously though, if you've written several fics, you're already on your way to being a half-decent writer.  You should think of it in a more positive way, instead of just comparing yourself with other writers (even if they are as good as Kif).  Use them as ideals, but not as absolute measureing posts, since your writing is ultimately your own and, obviously, your style will be different.

[Reply #12 on:]

hmm this thread reminds me something...

[Reply #13 on:]

...a closed thread?

[Reply #14 on:]

I'll be honest - I have never read a fanfic that I would consider 'good'. Some overdo the 'ship factor' and talk about nothing else; some have the characters talking or acting unlike themselves; some resemble a soap opera more than a comedy; and some almost get everything right, but end up being long-winded, or lose the humor, or something else is missing. Perhaps I'm being too harsh, and I understand that one individual, however well-intentioned, cannot replicate the work of an entire team of talented professionals. This is part of the reason why I've never attempted to write a fan episode of anything - at the end of the day I'm an amateur, and my work simply wouldn't be very good.

But for anyone who wants to attempt it, just remember what David Cohen said - the most important part is to have a solid dramatic story as the basis, a story that would 'work' even without jokes. Work in a theme. Have your characters react consistent to their personalities, to whatever situation they are placed in. Focus especially on the beginning and ending, as they are the parts your audience will remember most. Once your main story is in place, you can add the comedy and sci-fi stuff. Good luck   

[Reply #15 on:]

I agree with Slashco, a fanfic always feels like it lacks something, but the key is to make it so good, so inmersive, interesting and maybe funny to make you forget the fact that it's just writing, not that i can do that of course. And Archonix, it'd helped a lot if you said the name of the site, i'm sorry, but i'm a bit too lazy and got a slow phone connection.

I have a question on writing fics. I've lost the... thing that made me write fics. I got part 6 of the Fry-borg pending and so far i got nothing but the intro, so i'm kinda stuck and desperate. Anyone has any ideas to overcome writer's block/temporal lack of inspiration/whatever you call it? I don't want my fic to just end unfinished, and i don't wanna leave it incomplete for months.

[Reply #16 on:]

I can help! Where are you stuck?

[Reply #17 on:]

That's what i was talking about when i said help. Thanks AF, i'm stuck in the intro, which i can't post because

1.- I dunno how to use the spoilers
2.- I don't think i'd help much since i change the fic a lot
3.- it'd be spamming and/or using the mesage board as a chat (if not, i'd aprecciate if a mod clarifies that, but you guys are probably too busy)

AF, you could e-mail me or contact me by MSN messenger, my mail adress is luis30702000_219@hotmail.com or use my ICQ number, which is 214030183. You can also catch me at the futurama seasons channel sometime.

[Reply #18 on:]

Well, I personally think that if you're writing a multipart fic, you always want to have at least a few things planned out to some degree well ahead of time. In fact, I'd recommend always having at least 2 chapters planned out ahead of your most recently released piece. That way, there's always somewhere to go and you should never get to a point where you're out of material.
I personally do it in the form of what I would call 'Chapter Notes' where I have upcoming chapters basically outlined with a few sentences. That way, you can see where things are supposed to be basically going, and although things may change a bit along the way, you'll still have something in the distance to work for.

Now, seeing as you say you're already stuck, I'll just say "Don't panic!" Take some time to think about things, starting with where you are now and then gradually working out where you want things to go. Don't rush, as it's better to wait several extra weeks or even months for a really good piece of writing, rather than rush the product and end up with something below par.

Anyway, that's all I can really say. Some people may have other methods or even disagree with me, but that's how I basically do things. Hope it helps 

[Reply #19 on:]

I agree with what Kif White said, if you are stuck, don't panic.  Basically, do the writing equivalent of a deep breath, and then come back to it.  You may find, that if you start on something else, and then come back, that whatever gave you the block has gone.  I was stuck on the 3rd chapter of my current fic, so I went ahead and started on part 4. While working on it, I came up with the idea that I'd use to connect parts 2 and 4, sort of a McChapter 3, which lets some of the tension that had developed in the earlier parts drain away, while getting ready for the next wind up.  I know that I'm slower writing these fics than other's around here, but, I just take my time, and work at my pace, not at other's expectations.

If you want to ask me anything Luis, just click on my profile, and send me an email, I usually check my messages a copuple of times a day.

[Reply #20 on:]

i tried to do the chapter notes thing kif mentioned on mine, but only i organized it by days, cause my fic takes place over a period of several days, but there are a couple of days i can't think of stuff for. Which is fine later on i can skip a day here or there, but im stuck on day 2, which i kinda can't just skip over. So its the great land of Writer's Block for me too.

[Reply #21 on:]

Talk about writer's block. Or laziness. Or procrastoination. All the same for me. I'm majorly stuck too. I agree with Wonderbee, I started on random parts I had in my mind at the time, and now I'm beginning to get ideas. Still, writer's block has not gone away. I think it'll be quite a while before my fic's out. 

[Reply #22 on:]

If I ever get just one scene in my head, I can build an entire story out of it.

But after a few days' pondering, the story ends up sucking in my opinion. So I never get to writing most of them down.

Also, I do storyboards before I write (am I weird or what) to get the idea of what I'm trying to describe. I'd scan one, but I don't like other people looking at them 

[Reply #23 on:]

Scan one. Lay it on us. That might be a help for some of us who don't even bother to start on one cause we think it will suck.

[Reply #24 on:]

Well, okay, better find one that I'm not scared to show people (my storyboards are very sketchy and comic-like most of the time).

[Reply #25 on:]

 

Originally posted by Asylum-Fry:
Well, okay, better find one that I'm not scared to show people (my storyboards are very sketchy and comic-like most of the time).

Ah... so they're like storyboards then?