Ok. Someone asked me to do this AGES ago, but I’ve just been massively lazy and caught up in other things, but I’m ready to so this!!! Disclaimer: These are just my personal thoughts and opinions of what I think makes a “good” fanfic. I don’t think I’m the fanfic master, all knowing, Jesus, etc. These are just some tips/things that attract/turn me away from reading fanfics.

1. Grammar/Punctuation/Format. These things will either make or break you. For me, if your story isn’t formatted correctly or if you type in all lowercase letters, I won’t even bother reading it. - If all your dialogue is all clumped together; I don’t bother. There should be a paragraph break every time a new person speaks. Having 5 different speaking parts in one paragraph can be massively confusing; it’s hard to tell who’s talking. - Also, you should try avoid having paragraphs with 20 sentences that are the length of your entire page. Break it up a bit so it’s easier to read. It’s more appealing to the eye and makes it easy for the reader to follow along. 

2. Tenses. Make sure that whatever tense you start writing in, you stick with it throughout your story. There’s nothing more confusing than starting in present tense and then switching it to past tense two paragraphs later.. I’d give an example, but tenses aren’t really my forte, I just know that a lot of readers get annoyed when this happens.

3. Plot. This varies author to author. Your plot and storyline is something that you have complete control over. I’m certainly not one to dictate and tell you what to write, however, I can tell you what I find appealing and unappealing about plots.

A. Pace. Make sure you’re pacing your story in a timely manner. For me, it’s a huge turn-off when girl meets boy in Chapter 1, and by Chapter 3 they’re saying “I love you.” I feel that’s wayyy too fast, and a lot of readers will be turned off by it.

B. Realism. This can vary, as well as everything else revolving around your plot and ideas. 9 times out of 10, you’re not going to run into Harry Styles in a Starbuck’s on a Sunday afternoon. That shit just doesn’t happen. Though, if your writing skills are decent enough, you could possibly make that sound more appealing. However, making things flow in a believable sense can attract more readers. 

C. I don’t really have a third thing. I feel like I’m missing something, but I’m not quite sure.. Just make sure your stuff is paced out nicely and things don’t move too quickly. Readers will often rush and urge you to go in certain directions; don’t get too antsy about it. Take your time to produce quality work. It’ll be worth it in the end and you won’t regret it 3 or 4 chapters later.

4. Detail. This can be a good/bad thing. You can either have not enough detail, or wayyy too many details; yes, you can have too many. For example, you don’t necessarily need to know that the curtain in the room where Niall was eating his Nando’s was a grunge, brown color that looked like burnt chocolate…It’s irrelevant. Unless that curtain is serving some sort of purpose later on in the story, all that detail isn’t needed. Also, I’m personally not the one to write about how my main female character adds a smokey eyeshadow around her waterline with pale pink lipstick and a subtle blush in every chapter before she goes out; it’s just taking up space. I’m not sure what else to really say about this.. Haha.

5. Movie-Like. I’m not sure what to really call this one, but I’ve just realized this is appealing.. If people can read your writing and escape reality, you’re a flippin’ God. If someone can read something you wrote and picture it in their head like a movie, you definitely have a gift and need to keep at it. These types of stories are the ones that get all the reads & reviews. The smoother your story flows and the easier people can picture what they’re reading in their head, the more popular your stories will be. Re-read your writing; can you picture the scene in your head just by the words presented on the page? Or are you using your own imagination to fill in the blank spaces? - Try and write your story as you see it, so readers can enter the world and story you created; if that makes ANY sense at all.. Haha. Basically, the readers aren’t inside your head. Your job is to put worlds together to build an image for your readers to get lost in. If you can do that, you’re all set to go. Fanfiction is about creating an escape; a fantasy world. At least, it is for me. The more you can pull your reader from their own reality, the better.

I feel like I’m forgetting a bunch of stuff, but these are just my own personal thoughts and opinions when it comes to writing fanfiction. I normally don’t read fanfics myself because I’m sooo flippin’ picky, but these are just some tips that were requested by numerous people foreverrr ago. (Sorry again for taking so long to get this out! I’m not sure if it even helped much..)

BUT, kudos if you managed to read all this. I’m definitely not a pro or anything, and there are guaranteed to be numerous typos and errors in this, so here’s to the smartasses that’ll reblog and attempt to call me out. You don’t have to take this seriously at all, these are just my thoughts. :) If somehow you were able to pull anything from this long blurb, please write in my ask and let me know. 

Thanks for reading!! xxx