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Other Fanfic Writing Basics
by Aadler
Nathan covered a lot of ground in his opening essay, so I’ll limit my
comments in this one, with the intention of going into more detail and
addressing other areas in a subsequent offering. For now, I’d just
like to emphasize a few things that I think especially pertinent.
- Apostrophes. These are probably misused more than any other single
point of grammar/usage, and most of the offenses can be avoided by
remembering one single thing: the ’s tag at the end of
a word is NEVER used to denote a plural. It can indicate
a contraction — it’s,
he’s, and so on — or more frequently
a possessive — Buffy’s house,
the demon’s
claws — but never,
absolutely never, for a plural. More than one vampire is vampires;
more than one spell is spells; and if
you write crossbow’s, it had damn
well better be short for crossbow is
(i.e., “The crossbow’s broken, we’ll have to fight
without it.”).
On the other hand, while the possessive is the most common usage, this doesn’t
hold true for pronouns. It’s is
short for it is
(or possibly it has); for
a possessive, no apostrophe. (Ex: “It’s
about to take off!” Xander warned as the gryphon spread its
wings.) The use of it’s as
a possessive is frequently seen but perhaps understandable, but for
something like her’s there is just
no excuse.
- Tenses. Keep them straight. I once set a story in present
tense, feeling that it lent an immediacy that suited the central theme,
so which tense you use overall is a matter of preference and judgment;
consistency within that choice, however, is mandatory. This is so for the
spoken words of the characters, of course, with a certain leeway for
individual idiosyncrasies, but it’s vital for the narrative itself.
Switching from past tense to present in the middle of a paragraph (or
even a sentence) may have some thematic or artistic purpose and
justification, but more often it’s a sign of sloppiness,
ignorance, indifference, and/or lack of respect for the story and its
readers.
- Conversation. When two or more persons are speaking in alternation,
certain practices need to be followed.
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Keep them separate. Avoid having two parties
speak within the same paragraph. Furthermore, try to link a speaker’s
words with his/her actions. Example: |
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Willow
looked at her friend and shook
her head sadly. “Sorry, it’s just, after all this time I kinda
thought you’d know better than that.” Buffy frowned.
“Better than what?” |
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The preceding is awkward at best, and could
easily be confusing. A tiny change, and: |
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Willow
looked at her friend and shook
her head sadly. “Sorry, it’s just, after all this time I kinda
thought
you’d know better than that.”
Buffy frowned. “Better than what?” |
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That reads much more clearly, and leads into
the next point, which is — |
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Identify your speaker. This doesn’t have
to be done every single time (a line-by-line repetition of Xander
said, Willow said, Xander said, Buffy said, can easily become
mechanical), but something is needed to allow the reader to follow who’s
doing the talking. With the right technique, an occasional anchor will
provide all the necessary guidance. |
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Something to note: when two persons of opposite gender are
talking, he said / she said
works fine, but if two persons of the same gender are in a conversation
— and especially if it’s a multi-gender group such as Buffy /
Giles / Xander / Willow — a reader can’t always know which he
and which she
are on deck at any given moment. Use names. |
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And finally: any time the same person speaks in two consecutive
paragraphs, he/she must be clearly identified in both. Failing to
do so will throw a reader off-track almost instantly. |
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Mix it up a little. Talk, talk, talk gets
tedious quickly, but conversation is made of more than words. Nods,
sighs, gestures, turns of the head, fidgeting, looking away and back — in sum, all the things actual people do when
speaking to one another — can bring a conversation to life. And
authors have an advantage ordinary mortals don’t: they can see, and
show, what the characters are thinking and feeling as they speak. |
These are just preliminary issues, only a little past the level of
“use spellcheck, make sure you put in quotation marks where they’re
needed”.
Other, more substantial material will follow, but this can serve as a taste
of what’s to come.
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