So You Want To Write Fanfiction

Story Structure

This is another tip that I don't want to be a review from school, but understanding how the structure of a story works is something that needs to be touched on. Most authors are pretty good about knowing what needs to happen in a story to make it interesting, but there are plenty of fanfictions out there that lack the structure of a story.

The main thing that an author's story needs is a conflict. Refer back to some books you've read and take a look at some TV shows and movies you've watched. All of them have something in common: conflict. The main character goes through some kind of struggle and most of the time, that struggle resolves at the end (there are stories where the author leaves you hanging and that is done on purpose).

Why is this the case? I don't know the exact reason, but my guess is that this is what makes stories interesting and worth writing down. Something bizarre or devastating happens to someone and naturally, you are curious to find out what's going to happen to them. Think about your everyday life. Your friends and family always have something to tell about themselves, and it's usually something crazy, exciting, or sad that's worth telling. And your response is to listen to them because their story is fascinating, or at least worth knowing about. Why? You want to know what's going to happen to them and what they are going to do next, right?

This brings me to my next point. An author's story should be centered around the question, "What will happen?" Once a situation arises for the main character, the readers are naturally going to want to know how this character is going to get out of it. They want to know what will happen to them, just like how you would want to know what will happen to your friends when they tell you their stories. And that is what conflict does.

Conflict is the key point I'm trying to make. Every published book, movie, TV show, and any other media of this sort has the main character going through a struggle to create an interesting story for audiences to dive into.

There is more to the structure of a story, but those aren't as important as the conflict. As long as authors have some sort of main conflict happening, they're set! The reason why I wanted to bring this suggestion up is because fanfictions used to just be about meeting your favorite member and falling in love and having a happy life together, but honestly, there's really nothing too interesting about that. All of us have thought about being with our favorite member by now, so there's no reason to have an entire fanfiction of just that. Fanfictions now are so much more because authors have used their imaginations to bring a really cool idea and conflict to their story. Many still have the romance aspect where the character falls in love with their favorite, but rather than imagining a happy life together, there are many struggles the characters go through, which makes it all the more interesting for us to read!