Craft

Why NaNoWriMo Works for Me

November 2, 2016 // 0 Comments

As many of us already know, the first step in becoming, as they say, a “real” writer is to, well… write. Not write when the mood strikes, not “tomorrow,” not when you have some time off. To write (and to write well) involves a consistent effort. A daily regimen. The flexing of a muscle. Writing is a practice. And what better time to begin that practice than National Novel Writing Month? NaNoWriMo is an annual novel-writing project taken on by professional and amateur writers //

1000 Words Per Day: How to Become a “Real” Writer

October 3, 2016 // 2 Comments

This article is based on a post by Reddit-user moebius23 in /r/Writing, who describes what they learned after committing to writing 1000 words per day for a year. Here is the link to the original post by moebius23. Malcolm Gladwell says you can master a craft if you practice it for at least 10,000 hours. For writers, it is often difficult to quantify our output in terms of duration. So what would happen if we chose a more measurable target? If we committed to writing 1000 words per day for //

Héloïse and Abélard: Star-Crossed Lovers in the Real World

September 22, 2016 // 0 Comments

Flamboyant But Forgotten will be a regular column by contributor Rachel Cohen. In this column, Rachel will highlight some of the lesser-known historical figures whose backstories, personalities, and occupations make great fodder for creative fanfiction writing. It was Shakespeare who coined the now hackneyed “star-crossed lovers” in Romeo and Juliet. The stars did not like those two, so both Romeo and Juliet died. Which sounds pretty bad. Until you find out what happened to the lovers //

Jeanne de Clisson: Lioness of Brittany and Female Privateer

September 1, 2016 // 4 Comments

Flamboyant But Forgotten will be a regular column by contributor Rachel Cohen. In this column, Rachel will highlight some of the lesser-known historical figures whose backstories, personalities, and occupations make great fodder for creative fanfiction writing. Since this is my first column about a historical figure who happens to be a woman (and a very interesting woman, at that), I can’t resist an introduction. It is a common (and unfortunate) view that women did not get to play //

Plotter vs Pantser: Which Method is Best for Fanfiction Writing?

August 25, 2016 // 4 Comments

If you’ve ever participated in NaNoWriMo, the annual National Novel Writing Month, you’re no doubt familiar with the self-affixing badges you can award yourself depending on your preferred method of storytelling: Pantsing or Plotting. Pantsers are spontaneous beings who like to fly by the seat of their pants. They don’t waste precious writing time crafting a story structure. They just write. Pantsers like to get everything out on the page and figure out the story as they go. //

Flamboyant But Forgotten: Underrated Historical Figures for Fanfiction Writing

August 12, 2016 // 1 Comment

Flamboyant But Forgotten will be a regular column by contributor Rachel Cohen. In this column, Rachel will highlight some of the lesser-known historical figures whose backstories, personalities, and occupations make great fodder for creative fanfiction writing. As a fic writer, you inhabit the world of the story you have set out to tell. But that novel is set in some world as well, is it not? Very, very little on this Earth comes fully formed and unique out of the heads of its creators. Even //

The Creative Benefits of Fanfiction Writing

August 8, 2016 // 0 Comments

This article is based on a comment by Reddit-user phantomcat, who published a post in the /r/Writing subreddit describing what they’d learned after writing over 400,000 words. In response to a question, phantomcat outlined how writing fanfiction has benefited their original fiction writing. Here are the links to the original post and phantomcat’s fanfiction comment. We’ve heard the scoffs, seen the eyerolls, and felt the skepticism from friends and family. But we shrug it all off. Because //

How to Write a Horatio Hornblower Fanfic

July 27, 2016 // 2 Comments

You start at work. In the morning meeting. Right opposite you sits Derek. Derek is nice. Bakes a cake for every office function, cuts you an extra-large piece, whether you want it or not, and then keeps checking your plate until you quietly feed its contents to the office plant. Still, if you lifted his slightly crumpled shirt, you would see the coagulated extra twenty pounds of “Who needs the gym? I take the stairs. Twice last month,” and not the adorable vertical depressions of //

How Much Research Is Enough for a Fanfiction Story?

June 2, 2016 // 1 Comment

We have all heard of Harry Potter fanfics in which characters stress about medical bills, despite the UK having universal free healthcare or about fics set in the early 90s in which everyone has smart phones and internet access. While some people simply don’t want to do any research, there are also many who simply don’t realize they need to do any despite writing fanfics set in another country, time period, or professional setting that they are not familiar with. Of course //

How to Use Original Characters to the Best Effect

April 30, 2016 // 0 Comments

The presence of original characters in a fanfiction can alarm some readers, often those who have had bad experiences with poorly written ones before. It’s understandable to be wary, but OCs shouldn’t be immediately written off. With a writer who knows what they’re doing, a well-written OC can add new dimensions to an already fantastic story. Start with Something (or Someone) Familiar A lot of people are put off by the unfamiliar, especially in fanfiction. So, the last thing to do is to //