How to Write a Good Fanfic

5. Elements of a Story

Candace sat at the computer in her school library. Her stick drive was in the computer so she could upload the chapters she meticulously worked on for two whole months. She posted the two pieces, and logged out of her account before heading to class. Her history teacher stood up at the front of the room, and wrote out an assignment. "This is your research assignment for class. It will be due in two weeks, and I will be assigning you partners."

She listed off the partners and finally assigned Candace with her classmate Amelia. "Let's meet after school in the library. Want to get this done as soon as possible as my advanced placement classes always have a tone of homework."

Thus Candace found herself in the school library after school rather then at home. She went to check her story to see if she received any reviews. The review she received made her flinch, and want to cry. Amelia came into the library then and looked over her shoulder. "What ever is the matter?" The other girl paused. "Oh... that's one mean review."

"I don't understand. I worked two months on my story getting the grammar just right. They didn't mention anything about my grammar being good."

"Let me see." Amelia sat down at the computer. "Amazing. How come you're not in the advanced placement class?"

"Well..." Candace swallowed nervously. "In reality I'm not that fast at doing that."

"You should tell your reviewer off. Tell them they should have praised you on at least that. Filling a review full of negative comments is not a good critique."

Candace nodded her head, and hoped this would settle things.

…

Candace's story is based on a true story. I came across a writer in the Bleach fandom around a year or two I started reading and writing for said fandom. I pointed out the fact the writer's character wasn't as strong as the writer made her out to be, and that she really didn't belong in the eleventh division personality wise. I also told her the canon characters were out of character. I didn't have any praise for the story.

Not much later she responded to my review by telling me she'd spent two whole months on her story, and that I should have found something to praise even if it was the grammar she worked so hard on. I pointed out to her that having perfect grammar isn't something a writer should be seeking praise for as that is something we expect writers to strive for as it is the basis for writing anything. I also told her she placed to much focus on the grammar aspect of her writing, and not other elements that are important.

I also explained finding something nice to say about a story isn't always possible. My Immortal is a prime example many people know about, but for those who don't know My Immortal is a fanfic for Harry Potter that people suspect to be a trollfic. Even if said work wasn't a trollfic, the piece has come to shape how most people write trollfic. In these cases we typically say "keep trying", or "you can do better".

What though are the elements I'm talking about that are important to the story? I am talking about the five elements of story telling – though in reality a person could go into more depth then this. The five elements are character, setting, plot, theme and conflict.

Character –

Fanfic writers are lucky because the character element is already done for them. Someone else has provided the characters as well as given the characters life. This doesn't mean the task is any easier. In some cases writers take for granted the characters already being developed resulting in flat characterization in their story. Other times the writer doesn't pay attention to the characterization at all and the end result is characters that are highly out of character.