Veronica Mars Fanfic Resource Journal

English Grammar 101

Tue, 08 May 2007 23:28:44 GMT

Originally written by sinaddict, edited by herowlness:

There's really no excuse for bad spelling with the advent of the spell-check, and most grammar problems can be solved with grammar checker in Microsoft word processors.

Not only do grammar and spelling mistakes distract readers from your story, they look incredibly amateurish. We all learn the basic rules of the English language by sixth or seventh grade. Understandably, those who have learned English as a second language may have a bit more difficulty picking up the intricacies of the language, but this is an excellent example of where having a beta that is strong in grammar and spelling can really be an asset to your writing.

By no means is this article supposed to be a course in grammar or anything; it's simply a reminder of the basic rules that you'll probably need to know at some point in your life, particularly if you want your story to be widely read and recommended. After all, nothing gets me hitting the back button on my browser quicker than seeing a plethora of spelling and grammar errors within the first paragraph or two of the fic.

The article is broken up into the following sections to keep this page shorter, and to give you a chance to brush up on whatever you're having problems with, without making you search through one really long page for it.

01. CAPITALIZATION
Unless you're talking about e.e. cummings, always capitalize the first letter of a character's first and/or last name. You always capitalize the first letter of the first word of a new sentence, and you always capitalize the first letter of the proper names of places, too.

Joe walked down the street to Dairy Queen to meet Beth. They looked around for their friends before ordering.

You also capitalize the first letter of the first word after quotation marks.

"We have decided to go on a vacation," Meg gestured to herself and Simon. "Florida is nice this time of year."

Never capitalize every other letter when you're writing your story (TyPiNg LiKe ThIs) or write your story in entirely capital letters (TYPING LIKE THIS). It's very hard for the reader to read, and he or she will more than likely give up.

Conversely, don't skip capitalizing altogether (typing like this), as it's makes the reader work harder to determine where your sentences are ending, whether a certain word is actually intended to be the character's name, etc.

02. ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS
Never use symbols instead of words in your fanfic. It looks messy and distracting. The only time it would be appropriate would if it were a part of a proper noun, such as "Ben & Jerry's."

When it comes to symbols, it is better to spell them out, such as "fifteen percent," "three dollars," or "Mikey and Amanda."

Don't use online abbreviations in your character's dialogue. No one in real life ever says, "I gtg. TTYL.", so why make your character say it?

Don't use actual numbers instead of their worded counterparts, unless the worded version is too difficult to read; for example, three million nine-hundred forty-eight thousand four-hundred sixty-seven. A safe measuring tool for this is that if the number takes four or more words to write out, then you should use the numbers.

[Please note that the number rule above applies only to fiction writing. If you're writing research or term papers, there are different rules about how to write numbers.]

Also, if you need to write a fraction or mixed number in your story, always use the words. In HTML, you'd need to use superscript and subscript to achieve the numbered version of one-half, which can cause problems with coding your story wherever you're planning to post it. More often than not, the browser will make something else up, and your reader won't have any idea you were trying to get, for example, the numeric format of two-thirds on the page.

Typing the numbers as 1/2 or 1/3 doesn't work, either. It looks ghastly to most people, and pulls readers out of your story because it'll take them a few seconds to process that you meant half, or a third.

Bob & Joe walked 2 the gym hoping to see 28 1/2 year old Dana Barry w/o her usual dressy clothes on. When Joe didn't see her right away, he turned to Bob and said, "I gtg. I'll ttys."

The example above disregards all these rules. Notice how much harder it is to read? Were you able to immerse yourself in the story and feel like you were there? If you could, you're a much more imaginative person than I.

Some abbreviations are acceptable in fanfic, like "etc." instead "et cetera", and "a.m." or "p.m.". If you would abbreviate a word on a term paper or report for your boss, then you'd be safe abbreviating it in your fanfic.

03. TENSE SHIFTS
Most everyone knows the three tense forms. (If you don't, you shouldn't be writing fanfic without a beta who can help improve your grammar and spelling.) The three basic tenses are past, present, and future tense. Verb tenses can be either simple or perfect, but since this isn't a huge issue with fanfic, we'll use the simple form, and not worry about perfect form.

Also, for all intents and purposes, ignore progressive form (using the word "we" before any verb) and assume emphatic form ("he narrowed his eyes", rather than "we saw him narrow his eyes").

Past Tense (Was, Were)

Laura twirled the small flower between her fingers and sighed. She knew that Henry hadn't meant it to be a romantic gift, but for some reason she wished he had.

Present Tense (Am, Are, Is)

Laura twirls the small flower between her fingers and sighs. She knows that Henry doesn't mean it to be a romantic gift, but for some reason she wishes he does.

Future Tense (Will)

Laura will twirl the small flower between her fingers and will sigh. She will know that Henry will not mean it to be a romantic gift, but for some reason she will wish he will have meant it that way.

Your story should probably be told with past tense verbs because it is the easiest form to maintain. It's what most writers begin writing with before they know much about tenses. This isn't to say that you must set your story in the past. Your story can be set in the future and use past tense verbs, as the following example does.

Kate sighed and waited for the familiar 2021 Mercedes-Benz to slide smoothly down the street and roll to a stop at the curb in front of her.

If you'd like to tell your story in present tense, just remember that it can come off stilted if it's not done right. Have someone read over your work and ask them if they noticed that you were writing in the present tense. If they answered that they did notice, then it's not working and you either need to edit to make it a bit more seamless or try another tense. If they didn't notice, you're good to go.

Future tense is a generally a no-no. It's very hard to write, and even harder for the reader to process. It's hard for readers to sink themselves into a story when they keep noticing the verb tense, and future tense tends to stand out – generally because of the extra word ("will") before every verb.

Remember that dialogue is written in present tense regardless of whether you're using past tense for the story because it was present tense when the character said it.

Never shift verb tense in your story. Pick a form and stay with it, otherwise you will end up confusing your readers. Exceptions could be made to set off flashbacks or dream sequences or something of that nature; however, this should generally be avoided unless you are experienced with tenses and have a good beta to double check your use of tenses.

04. PUNCTUATION
a. PUNCTUATION: Ending Sentences
Adding seven exclamation points after your sentence does not add any more emphasis. They carry the same amount of weight that one exclamation point would, but they look immature and annoy the living hell out of most people.

The same goes for question marks. Only use one.

In the rare instance you need to use both, like for a rhetorical exclamation (i.e. Weird much?!), you only need to use one of each. Writing "Weird much???!!!" does not look better, and it doesn't add anything to your sentence.

If you're adding punctuation because you want to emphasize something, try breaking up your paragraphs so that the sentence that needs emphasis is its own paragraph, surrounded by chunkier description paragraphs. This will make it stand out more.

The opposite of overuse of punctuation is not using *any* punctuation. I'm not sure which is worse, but I'd probably guess the latter.

Questions always end with question marks. Put periods at the end of all your sentences that aren't questions. If you feel the need to add an exclamation point somewhere, do so.

Now, for a few simple rules on things that are often done wrong.

Indirect Questions: Always end an indirect question with a period.
Incorrect: Ryan suspiciously asked where Tara's purse was.
Correct: Ryan suspiciously asked where Tara's purse was.

Ending on Abbreviations: If the last word of the sentence ends in a period, don't add another period.
Incorrect: Jake did not like traveling to Washington, D.C..
Correct: Jake did not like traveling to Washington, D.C.

Statements and Questions: When your sentence is half-statement and half-question, end with a question mark.
Incorrect: Sam was lying about not wanting Iris anymore, wasn't he.
Correct: Sam was lying about not wanting Iris anymore, wasn't he?

Use Exclamation Points Sparingly: If you must use exclamation points, use them in your dialogue the majority of the time, and try to keep them out of your narrative as often as possible, as they tend to lose effectiveness if they're used every other sentence.

b. PUNCTUATION: Commas and Semicolons
Commas are the most abused punctuation mark I see in fanfic. The old adage to add commas where you would pause when speaking is only true when you're writing dialogue. People pause during strange places when they're speaking. Just because your Great Uncle Bob always pauses after saying the word "strange" doesn't make it a rule.

Here are some tips on where to place commas.

Words in Word Groups: To avoid confusion, separate items of a list or words that are grouped together with commas. For example:
Incorrect: When Jane got home she was going to relax in the sauna take a warm bath and go to bed early.
Correct: When Jane got home, she was going to relax in the sauna, take a warm bath, and go to bed early.

Separating Adjectives: If the word "and" can be inserted between two adjectives and still make sense, add a comma after the first adjective. For example:

The tall, muscled Luke easily hefted Sandra's two suitcases up and carried them in for her.

Or:

The tall and muscled Luke easily hefted Sandra's two suitcases up and carried them in for her.

Separating Adjectives Ending in -ly: If an adjective ending in -ly is placed next to another adjective, separate them with a comma. To test if a word ending in -ly is an adjective, place it next to your noun and see if it still makes sense. If it does, it's an adjective. For example:
Incorrect: Neal had been a lonely sullen boy when his father first left. He was forced into the role of man of the house early when his brother left, leaving him with a prematurely, cynical outlook on life.
Correct: Neal had been a lonely, sullen boy when his father first left. He was forced into the role of man of the house early when his brother left, leaving him with a prematurely cynical outlook on life.

The comma is placed next to the wrong -ly word. "Neal had been a lonely boy" makes sense, while "leaving him with a prematurely perspective" does not.

Setting Off Names and Titles: When a character is addressed by name or title in the middle of a sentence, place commas before and after the character's name or title. For example:

"As you wish, Alison, I'll leave you alone," Paul said sadly.

When a character is addressed by name or title at the beginning of a sentence, place a comma after the character's name or title. For example:

"Alison, I'll leave you alone," Paul said sadly.

When a character is addressed by name or title at the end of a sentence, place a comma before the character's name or title. For example:

"I'll leave you alone, Alison."

Compound Sentences: Any time you join two otherwise-complete sentences together with the conjunction "or", "nor", "for", "but", or "and", you should put a comma before the conjunction. For example:

Michelle glared at Kyle with extreme annoyance, but he merely gave her a charming grin in return.

Setting Off Interruptions: If there's something you want to include in your sentence that interrupts the flow of the sentence, place commas before and after the interruption. For example:

Lana was, as everyone probably noticed, extremely nervous about being confronted by Mouse.

Or:

Edward, unable to even look at Mary after learning of her lies, turned and walked away without another word.

Weak clauses: Use a comma to separate a weak clause from a stronger clause. For example:

When Kelly was ready to give up on Mark, Rick was confident she would look at him.

Or:

If Grace needed his help, Dan intended to be there.

If you have a strong clause first, you don't need to use commas.

For example:

Dan intended to be there if Grace needed help.

Or:

Rick was confident Kelly would look at him when she was ready to give up on Mark.

Dialogue: Use commas to introduce or interrupt dialogue. For example:
Incorrect: Jessica turned to him and said "I missed you" before jogging up the stairs.
Correct: Jessica turned to him and said, "I missed you," before jogging up the stairs.
Also Correct: "You know," Jessica turned to him, "I missed you."

Separating Statements From Questions: Use commas to separate a statement from a question in the same sentence. For example:

I can go, can't I?

He was definitely wrong, wasn't he?

Offsetting Non-essential Description: If a character or other noun has been sufficiently identified, any additional description in the sentence isn't essential and should be offset with commas. For example:

Duncan, Veronica's first love, doesn’t remember the day his sister died.

Since we already know that Duncan was Veronica's first love, adding that into your sentence after identifying him as Duncan isn't essential, so you need to add the commas.

On the other hand, if the character isn't identified, you don't offset the description with commas. For example:

Veronica's first love doesn't remember the day his sister died.

Comma Splices: A comma splice is when you are using commas where you should be using semicolons or periods. Essentially, a comma splice is using a comma to connect two complete sentences, and is often an indication of run-on sentences. The following is a comma splice:

Tom hated Frank, ever since Frank caused the car accident that broke his leg, he felt a smoldering rage towards him.

There are several ways to fix this problem. The first is to simply separate the two independent clause into two separate sentences.

Tom hated Frank. Ever since Frank caused the car accident that broke his leg, he felt a smoldering rage towards him.

Or, you could turn the two clauses into a compound sentence using a conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for). With some compound sentences, this doesn't turn out sounding right, like the below example. Try reading it aloud to make sure it doesn't interrupt the flow of your story.

Tom hated Frank, for ever since Frank caused the car accident that broke his leg, he felt a smoldering rage towards him.

You can also separate independent clauses using a semicolon, like the following example:

Tom hated Frank; ever since Frank caused the car accident that broke his leg, he felt a smoldering rage towards him.

Semicolons are also used to separate items in a list that are already using commas, like the following:

Cindy planned to go to Castleton, Maine; New York City, New York; and Boston, Massachusetts.

c. PUNCTUATION: Parentheses and Asides
A parenthetical aside is where the author inserts information into the story using parenthesis. Usually, in fanfic this is to insert the author's opinions into the story, or to dump information that we already know.

Later, Madison (WHORE) tried to seduce Logan because she didn't want Veronica to be happy.

Logan was happy when he heard that Veronica had been accepted to Stanford. (While he would miss her when she went away to school, he knew that she'd dreamed of going to Stanford for years.)

Lilly (a compulsive flirt even though she's dating Logan) could never refuse the attentions of an attractive male.

Don't do this. All of the information in parentheses in the examples above should be removed. It's generally understood that Logan wants Veronica to be happy – even if it's not with him, and that Lilly enjoys being the center of attention – male or otherwise. Expect that anyone reading Veronica Mars fanfic will have at least a passing knowledge of the show, and will therefore know all of this before they read your story.

Don't insert your opinions into a story using parenthetical asides. It not only looks amateurish, you're running the risk of turning away readers that might not have the same opinion. If you absolutely must tell us that you think Madison is a slut or Lynn is a neglectful mother, do it by showing us through their actions.

As a general rule, you should avoid using parenthesis in your writing - try to find other ways to work the information in.

Avoid:

Logan was happy when he heard that Veronica had been accepted to Stanford. (While he would miss her when she went away to school, he knew that she'd dreamed of going to Stanford for years.)

Try this instead:

Logan was happy when he heard Veronica had been accepted to Stanford. Even though he would miss her, he knew that going to Stanford was something she'd dreamed of for years.

d. PUNCTUATION: Ellipses and Dashes
Ellipses are often overused in fanfic, and more often than not, they're used incorrectly. An ellipse is used to indicate missing words. That's it.

"But I thought that you were..." Kylie trailed off as she glanced from Fred to his twin brother Jed.

Or, although it's much less common and more awkward, you can use a question that's partially omitted:

"Can you tell me where to find...?" Paula stopped as she noticed the stranger across the street, who looked remarkably like her brother; or rather, the photograph she had seen of her brother.

Don't use ellipses to indicate pauses in your dialogue or indicate fragmented thoughts, unless there is absolutely no other way you cam do it. This is quite possibly the most-often made mistake in fanfic, and not just Veronica Mars fanfic, either.
Incorrect: "Dad...listen to me."
Also Incorrect: No... that couldn't be possible... not her...
Correct: "Dad, listen to me."
Also Correct: No, that couldn't be possible. Not her.

If you must use ellipses to indicate pauses in dialogue, do it sparingly. If your story resembles the example below, you might want to think about rewriting.

It wasn't possible... it couldn't be possible... Sarah thought to herself. Liam ... he couldn't just be... using her.

Dashes are used to indicate interrupted ideas, add emphasis to an explanatory idea, or nonessential elements of a sentence.

Kassie would just have to find Rob -- No, that wasn't right. She meant Ben. Really.

To some people, Dan's behavior seemed chauvinistic--misogynistic even.

Theo--unaware that Hannah was just outside the door--insistently informed Diana of all of the problems with Hannah's contributions to their group project.

e. PUNCTUATION: Apostrophes and Hyphens
Generally, apostrophes are used incorrectly in contractions is when there is a typo and the word itself is misspelled (dind't) or when the apostrophe is missing altogether (dont).

Contractions: Place the apostrophe where you'd put the missing letter.

"I do not know what you are talking about," Tammy denied.

Is the same as:

"I don't know what you're talking about," Tammy denied.

The only place I see apostrophes commonly misused is when someone is trying to show possession by a group, and when people are unsure whether to add another 's' to a word that ends with the letter 's'.

Possessive: Use an apostrophe to show possession of something. Place the apostrophe before the 's' if it belongs to one person; if it belongs to two or more people, make the noun plural and then add an apostrophe.

Gina wrecked Ivy's wheelchair to keep her from escaping this conversation.

The boys' baseball team won the State Championship.

Its vs. It's: Remember that the word "it's" is a contraction for "it is". In showing possession of something, use "its".
Incorrect: The high school had it's own gym.
Also Incorrect: Its going to be a sunny day today.
Correct: The high school had its own gym.
Also Correct: It's going to be a sunny day today.

Hyphens are generally the most difficult punctuation, because even the "authorities" disagree on where to use them. The best bet to catch misused hyphens is to use the spelling and grammar check functions on your word processor, or look up any word you're unsure of in the dictionary.

05. SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT

Eva were running down the street to catches Grant before Ian could puts his new plan into motion.

Doesn't that look atrocious and extremely hard to understand? In all writing, your subject needs to agree with your verb. Using the above example, "Eva", the subject, does not agree with the verb, "were". "Eva" is singular, while "were" is plural.

The basic rule for subject and verb agreement is this: if your subject is singular, then your verb will be singular; if your subject is plural, your verb will be plural.

So, how do you determine what's singular and what's plural?

Let's start with a simple example. You have the verbs "talk" and "talks", and you want to determine which is singular and plural. Think of the word "he" in your mind, which is a singular subject. Which makes more sense to follow, "talk" or "talks"?

"He talk" doesn't sound right, does it? So, you'd need to use "he talks", correct? (The answer to that question is yes. ;)

But what if you have more than one subject? Well, if you have two singular subjects connected by the conjunctions "or" or "nor", then you have to use a singular verb.

Neither Justin nor Rebecca was sympathetic to Tamara's tears.

"Justin" and "Rebecca" are both singular subjects, so you'd need to use the verb "was" rather than "were".

On the other hand, if you use the conjunction "and" to connect two singular subjects, you'd need to use the plural verb.

Both Justin and Rebecca were not sympathetic to Tamara's tears.

Because "Justin and Rebecca" are being treated as two subjects together, you need to use the plural "were" rather than "was".

So, what if you have a singular subject and a plural subject that you want to connect with "or" or "nor"? You put the plural subject last, and then use a plural verb.

Neither the book nor the magazines were put back in their proper place at the library;.

If you have a nonessential clause in your sentence separating your subject from your verb, ignore the clause when determining whether the subject is plural or singular.

Patty, with the help of her brothers, was throwing a birthday party for Eve.

If you take out the nonessential clause "with the help of her brothers", you're left with "Patty was throwing a birthday party for Eve", which makes sense in terms of agreement.

Remember that the pronouns each, everyone, everybody, anyone, anybody, someone, and somebody are singular.

Each of the girls was disappointed when her boyfriend wasn't named the Prom King.

When "either" or "neither" are subjects, they always take singular verbs.

Neither of them was answering the phone.

If you aren't sure about something, try reading it out loud to make sure that it sounds right and makes sense. Or if you have roommates that don't appreciate you reading aloud to them, the grammar check function on word processors will catch most (if not all) errors in subject and verb agreement.

06. RUN-ONS AND FRAGMENTS
In most writing, you'll want to try to avoid sentence fragments, which are essentially incomplete sentences. However, in fiction writing, they can be helpful in emphasizing certain ideas, as long as they are used in moderation and done correctly. This is the one area where you can ignore grammar check on your computer if you're sure that the fragment in question adds something to your story.

Kay's eyes widened as she realized that she had just thought about the words "love" and "Ray" in the same sentence, without the words "like a friend". She was definitely in trouble now.

"Kay?" Ray asked, his voice slightly lower than usual, with a husky quality she had never noticed before.

Big trouble.

However, take note that if you do this too often, as with exclamation points, it tends to lose its power of emphasis.

Run-on sentences, on the other hand, are a big no-no unless they're in your dialogue and your character is prone to using them when nervous or something, like the following example.

"It's not what you think!" Victoria insisted in a panic. "I was just trying to get Sarah to talk to Yves so that she'd realize that you'd never cheat on her because I know you'd never cheat on her because you love her, and I just want you to be happy since that's all that matters!"

Now, the same sentence written in narrative form is much harder to follow and doesn't sound quite right:

It wasn't what he thought, Victoria panicked. She was just trying to get Sarah to talk to Yves so that Sarah'd realize that he'd never cheat on her because Victoria knew he'd never cheat on her because he loved her, and Victoria just wanted him to be happy since that's all that matters!

Most word processor grammar checks will catch both run-on sentences and fragments, but you may want to try reading your story out loud or sending it to a beta reader, too. They tend to catch things that even grammar check doesn't.

07. QUOTING AND DIALOGUE
Unless you're planning on writing purely introspective, character thought pieces, then you'll need to know about quoting and dialogue rules at some point.

There are three basic ways to do dialogue, as shown in the following examples. The most obvious rule is that anything that the character directly says must be put in quotation marks.

"Charlie can never find out that I had a relationship with James," Emmy told herself.

Emmy told herself, "Charlie can never find out that I had a relationship with James."

"Charlie can never find out," Emmy told herself, "that I had a relationship with James."

If you have dialogue separated by a dialogue tag (such as "said") in the middle, you can do it one of two ways:

"If anyone finds out," Theresa wailed, "they'll hate me!"

Or:

"If anyone finds out," Theresa wailed. "They'll hate me!"

If you only have the character name and the dialogue tag (i.e. "Theresa wailed") between your quoted dialogue, you'll probably want to use a comma, like in the first example. Use a period, like the second example above if your sentence looks more like this one:

"If anyone finds out," Theresa wailed helplessly, her bottom lip quivering and tears spilling from her eyes. "They'll hate me!"

Because what follows the first dialogue could stand on its own as a sentence, it's more streamlined to leave the second set of dialogue as its own sentence.

Here's where most people tend to get mixed up: if your character's dialogue ends in a question mark or exclamation point, and you want to attach a dialogue tag afterward, don't capitalize the first letter of the dialogue tag unless it's a character's name. For example:

"If anyone finds out, they'll hate me!" wailed Theresa.

Closing punctuation marks always go on the inside of the quotation marks.

Don't write your dialogue in the following form unless you're writing a script. (The reasons why you shouldn't write in script form will be saved for another article.)

Timmy: Today will be a good day.

This doesn't tell us much other than what Timmy is saying. Try this instead:

"Today will be a good day," Timmy said with a smile as he evaluated the crowd before him.

08. "SAID" AND DIALOGUE TAGS
There are two different schools of thought when it comes to using dialogue tags – one which encourages the continued use of he said / she said, and the other which encourages the use of other, similar verbs.

sinaddict, who wrote this article originally (before I did some adapting to make it fit my new fandom), favors the former while I favor the latter. So – in the interest of completeness – I'm going to present both arguments/situations to you. Neither way is wrong, necessarily, and whatever works best for you is generally okay – so long as you watch out for the hazards outlined in the section to come.

In favor of "said"
While you're writing, it may seem repetitive to tag every piece of dialogue you write with "Meghan said" or "said Bert". However, the word "said" is invisible to your readers. Just as readers don't notice punctuation unless it's flawed, they tend to take in the word "said" the same way they only subconsciously notice grammar and punctuation.

Think of it this way: have you ever been reading a story and thought to yourself, "Gee, this author sure uses the word 'the' a lot"? Of course not, because 'the' is so commonly used that it has become invisible to the reader.

The only time that readers will notice the word 'said' in your story is if you add an abundance of adverbs to it ("she said angrily", "she said enviously"), or if you unintentionally use Tom Swifties ("We'll have to amputate," the doctor said disarmingly).

In general, the word "said" won't get repetitious unless you have pages and pages of dialogue where everything is "he said" or "she said". In this case, you might want to consider adding bits of details and action to your scene.

If you're truly concerned about overusing the word "said" in your fanfic, try replacing dialogue tags with action verbs and details. There are several ways to add bits of detail or actions to the following sentence.

"I missed you," Gwen said.

The first would be to add some details about Gwen's surroundings.

"I missed you," Gwen studied the plush beige carpeting so that she wouldn't have to look at him while she admitted it.

The next would be to replace said with verbs that describe what Gwen is doing while she speaks.

"I missed you," Gwen set the phone down and studied the plush beige carpeting so that she wouldn't have to look at him while she admitted it.

Or, you could combine Gwen's thoughts and actions to replace the dialogue tag.

"I missed you," Gwen set the phone down and studied the plush beige carpeting so that she wouldn't have to look at him while she admitted it; looking at him would have confirmed her fears that he hadn't thought of her once while he was away.

In favor of the use of diverse verbs
I'd like to start by fully endorsing the use of action verbs and details into your dialogue tags, as suggested in the latter part of the previous section. It's a great way to add in some extra description and show (rather than tell) your reader what your character is thinking.

It's for that same reason that I prefer using a variety of verbs in my dialogue tags (yes, including "said" on occasion). Not that "said" doesn't work as a verb or that I have a different preferred verb. I just think that dialogue tags are an opportunity to help the reader visualize the scene and perhaps even imagine the sound of the words in their own ears.

More to the point, "said" isn't very descriptive.

There are any number of verbs that can be used, and the list that follows is hardly all-inclusive. Still, as you read over this incomplete list of verbs, think about what a given verb means to you and how you would interpret its use in the context of a story.

Verbs: muttered, shouted, yelled, cried, bit out, whispered, announced, persisted, countered, advised, offered, stated, growled, complained, whined, agreed

For example, if you have one character saying, "I love you" in your fic, each of those verbs gives a different context to that statement.

"I love you," she said.

Versus:

"I love you," she muttered.

"I love you," she cried.

"I love you," she announced.

"I love you," she agreed.

"Muttered," to me, implies that the words were not easy to say and that she was essentially coerced into saying them. "Cried" indicates that the character is very emotional – perhaps she was afraid of losing her love. "Announced" might mean that she is telling not just the person in question but a larger audience, making it clear that the object of her affection is no longer available. "Agreed" could simply be an affirmation of love.

Not that there aren't other possible explanations or interpretations of these selected verbs, but with the use of additional action verbs and details (as well as context for the dialogue), I think that the use of varied verbs can give your storytelling even greater impact.

Of course, there is still a place for "he said / she said" in such pieces. Not all dialogue in a given tale is likely to be emotionally charged or in need of great amounts of description. "Said" can, and probably should, still be used at least occasionally in almost all fics. It's a good standby for dialogue tags, and there's nothing wrong with it.

And if you choose to spice up your dialogue tags by including more than just said, make sure that you don't just use the same verb (i.e. "whispered") over and over again. "Whispered" stands out a lot more in text than said does, and word repetition is a pet peeve of a number of readers. (or, well, at least me)

If you can't think of another verb to use, a thesaurus may come in pretty handy.

If you have any questions or need clarification, feel free to ask.

Still to come? Lesson number nine - Homonyms and misused words. Hoo boy, do I have a whole slew of them to write up.

A lot, Allot
A part, Apart
A side, Aside
Abreast, Breast
Accept, Except
Advice, Advise
Affect, Effect
Alley, Ally
Allowed, Aloud
Altar, Alter
Bail, Bale
Baited, Bated
Bare, Bear
Bases, Basis
Bread, Bred
Breath, Breathe
But, Butt
Choose, Chose
Complement, Compliment
Concede, Conceit
Council, Counsel
Defuse, Diffuse
Desert, Dessert
Discreet, Discrete
Fair, Fare, to Fare
Fiery, Fury
Good, Well
Heals, Heels
Hoard, Horde
Hoping, Hopping
Hour, Our
Intense, Intents
It's, Its (yes, these were already covered in this article, but they are misused so frequently that I think it bears repeating)
Know, No, Now
Loose, Lose
Moral, Morale
Nave, Navel
Off, Off of
Passed, Past
Pray, Prey
Principal, Principle
Quiet, Quite
Rogue, Rouge
Shone, Shown
Shooter, Shot
Shudder, Shutter
Stared, Starred
Tail, Tale
Than, Then
Their, There, They're
Thorough, Though, Through
Threw, Through, Thru
Throes, Throws
To, Too, Two
Waist, Waste
Which, Witch
Who's, Whose
Who, Whom
Your, You're

Tips on Organization

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 22:26:32 GMT

By mastermia with invaluable suggestions by herowlness

Every writer needs some kind of organization to be successful. Just as there are a million ideas in the world, there are also a million different ways to organize yourself. Some writers are lucky enough to have story ideas pop into their minds complete. Others have a scene or the niggling of an idea and have to flesh it out as they go along. In either case there are several decisions that every writer needs to make in regards to their piece and that is to decide on plot, setting, time, characters, point of view and tone.

Plot – What is your story about? Is it a love story, a mystery or just good old fashion smut? Having at least a broad idea of where you are going is important to keeping you on track.

Setting – Where will your story take place? Is it in Neptune or somewhere else? Part of creating a believable story is to make the setting an integral part of it.

Time - What time is your piece set in? Is this a future fic, a flashback fic or set during a specific episode? When the piece takes place can affect relationships and other characterization details. It can also affect the tense of the piece. It is important that you match your tense with the action of your piece or readers will be lost.

Characters – Who will be making an appearance in your opus? Will you be using established characters, or be adding an original character, or ten, to the mix? Are you following cannon or setting the piece in an alternate universe to make specific changes?

Point of View – Who is telling the story? Will there be a narrator, or will the piece be omniscient? Will it be first, second or third person?

Tone – What is the tone of the piece going to be? It is going to be dark, light, serious, funny, arch or sarcastic? It can be a combination of them all, just remember to keep the characterization constant.

All of these decisions don’t have to be set in stone. Just thinking about them before starting can be enough for short pieces, especially if you do not have the whole thing plotted out in your head. If you are writing an epic or an intricate mystery plot, making notes of key plot points is essential.

One idea is to keep an outline of what has happened and what will happen. It can be just a few words, or a more fleshed out version of each section of the piece. This gives you a brief reminder of what you have written so that you don’t repeat yourself, and also allows you to plant hints of where you are going. Note cards also can be used. This allows you the flexibility to “shuffle” plot points and to lay them out in different patterns if you are uncertain of where you want to go.

Which ever method you use for organization, the goal is to improve your writing by making it clearer and easier for your reader to get wrapped up in the story you are telling without being distracted by jarring POV switches and tense changes. Even if you are one of the lucky writers who can keep a clear path in your head, I suggest that ever writer have a beta, or three. Someone else to read your work is invaluable before you post it. They can catch characterization, canon, grammar and continuity errors and those pesky typos that are there no matter how often you read the piece. So the best suggestion I have to stay organized is get a beta, but don’t forget the other stuff I listed as well.

Is there a tip that you think might help other writer’s with their organization and is not covered here? Please feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments, as various techniques work best for different authors.

Point of View

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 06:47:27 GMT

by sinaddict and herowlness

POINT OF VIEW

Point of View, or POV, in fiction writing refers to whose perspective the story is told from.

First Person

I approach the office door and tell myself that my presence is all about business. Visiting Veronica is just a means to an end – an easy way for me to determine the identity of Trina’s lowlife boyfriend.

I open the door, and my gaze falls on her face – reminding me that when it comes to Veronica, the last thing on my mind is business.

First person POV is written in "I" form, using the pronouns I, me, and my. It is a popular style in fanfic writing because it can draw the reader into the story and help him or her identify with the main character quickly.

However, there are drawbacks to writing in this form. First, it makes describing the narrator (main viewpoint character) difficult, because you can't describe anything your narrator doesn't directly see, hear, or know.

It's very simple to say something like "I walk into the journalism room two minutes before class, unaware of the fact that my bookbag is unzipped and my notes are missing." However, in first-person writing you can't say that because the narrator is explicitly unaware of the fact that his or her bookbag is unzipped. If your narrator doesn't know about something, you shouldn't be mentioning it in your piece.

So that just means that need to be a little more creative with describing your scene, like the example below.

I walk into the journalism room two minutes before class, rushing to get there on time. I drop my bag on the table and am surprised to see that it's unzipped. My notes are missing.

The second problem with writing in first person is that if you're a beginning writer, it can be difficult to pull off without sounding like a "What I Did On My Summer Vacation" essay. In other words, your first person story shouldn't sound like the example below.

First, I set my books on the table. Then, Wallace sat down at the counter, and I pulled some PopTarts out of the cupboard. After I put them in the toaster, I grabbed two plates and two glasses for orange juice. I really love orange juice.

See? It sounds very amateurish and isn't terribly interesting to read.

Second Person

You wish you hadn't done this. Now you can't be the same around him.

And he'll notice the difference. You ~~know~~ don't know why.

Second person POV, which is writing with the pronouns you and your is almost never used in fanfic writing, because it not only has the effect of distancing the reader from the story, it is also extremely hard to pull off correctly.

It can be a very powerful tool, if you use it effectively. This point of view works better with Veronica Mars, than it might in other fandoms, simply because there is a lot of denial and self-doubt and such going on in the minds of characters – depending on what sort of story you're trying to tell.

However, if you're going to try to use a second-person POV, I'd recommend switching the pronouns to him/her before you post it, to ensure that you have selected the best point of view for your story. If your POV is only going to serve to take someone out of your story, why use it?

Third Person Limited

She’s not broken yet, but she’s close. She’s toeing the line, flirting with thoughts of how easy it would be.

It’s difficult, sometimes, to be the strong one, the tough one, the unbreakable one.

Third person limited is the most commonly used in all kinds of fiction, including fanfic. Although all characters are described with the pronouns he, she, and they, each scene is seen through the eyes of one character.

When writing in the third person limited, the reader should only be aware of the viewpoint character's thoughts. Any other character's thoughts or feelings should be only be given through the viewpoint character's interpretations of the other character's actions.

In other words, you can't write something like the following:

As Wallace stocks canned goods at the Sac 'N' Pac, he thinks about how much fun he had during the impromptu limo party with Georgia, Veronica, and Troy.

Georgia walks through the door a moment later, looking at the boy she's come to care for so much over the past few weeks. "Wallace, I have something I have to tell you," she begins, nervously. "My family is moving to New York City next week. I'm leaving town."

Instead, it should be written so that only one character's thoughts are written. For this example, we'll write from Wallace's perspective.

As Wallace stocks canned goods at the Sac 'N' Pac, he thinks about how much fun he had during the impromptu limo party with Georgia, Veronica, and Troy. His face lights up a moment later, when he sees his girlfriend approach.

"Wallace, I have something to tell you," she begins, and he can hear the nervous tremble in her voice. He knows, instinctively, that whatever she's going to say next cannot be good. Nothing good ever follows an opener like that. "My family is moving to New York City next week. I'm leaving town."

See how much easier it is to identify with Wallace when the reader is only allowed to see through his eyes?

Third Person Omniscient

Veronica doesn't understand why her father isn't going to track down her mother, after she deserts them. Without her mother, she feels like a part of her is missing. And she's lost so much in the past few weeks – first her boyfriend, then her best friend – and to lose her mother on top of it all seems like too much.

Keith understands that Veronica misses her mother, and he's glad that she isn't haunted by the bad memories of her alcoholic mother. But, at the same time, he thinks that they are better off without Lianne, and he wonders if his daughter will ever be able to understand why he doesn't do everything in his power to try to find his errant wife.

Third person omniscient is a kind of Godlike perspective. An unseen narrator tells the reader all of characters' thoughts and feelings.

Most writers are tempted to use the third person omniscient because they want to draw the reader into the story by letting them identify with all of the characters. Ironically, it tends to distance the reader from the story because they can't focus on one character.

Whose POV To Use
When writing in the first person or third person limited, the viewpoint character should be the one with the most to lose in the scene or chapter, or the character who's in the most action.

Stories told in third person omniscient don't need to have one viewpoint character chosen since they include all characters' thoughts and feelings.

Changing Viewpoint
As a general rule, you shouldn't switch POV styles. For example, you shouldn't switch from first person to third person omniscient. It will confuse readers and pull them out of your story, making it very hard to keep their attention.

You should try to avoid changing viewpoint characters more than once in any scene for the same reason. In first person writing especially, you should stick with one viewpoint character per chapter because it's jarring for the reader to have to adjust to the new character mid-chapter.

In third person limited, it's relatively easy to change viewpoint characters. Make sure that when you switch characters there's a clear transition that ends the current viewpoint character's thoughts.

"What are you up to, Veronica?" Wallace asks his best friend, as he spins the combination before opening his locker. She's looking at him with her usual I need a favor look, and he's half-afraid to find out what she has in mind.

"I'm trying to figure out who is responsible for stealing the test from Mr. Cooney's American Lit test," Veronica begins slowly, hoping that Wallace will be willing to help her out again. "Any chance you could get me the names of all the students who are in each of his classes?"

Usually, you should only do it once or twice per scene so that you don't end up with an omniscient sounding scene. Switching viewpoint characters every paragraph is a definite no-no because "head-hopping", as the technique is commonly referred to, tends to take the reader out of the story.

If you're writing in third person omniscient, you obviously won't need to worry about changing viewpoint characters, since your story is already being told from everyone's perspective.

Have a question? Need further clarification or assistance? Feel free to ask! :)

Credits
**I quoted some fanfics for the good examples of each point of view. Quoted pieces include Breaking Point by herowlness, First Day of My Life by herowlness, You Think You Know Somebody by sinaddict. Fanfic snippets that are not from any of those pieces were written by herowlness for the sole purpose of this piece.

User's guide to HTML

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 19:44:38 GMT

by herowlness

USER'S GUIDE TO HTML

What is HTML?
HTML (or hypertext markup language) is the language of the internet. No, it's not some foreign language that everyone online speaks. Rather, it's the language that codes the webpages you see. All HTML coding occurs within tags, which are enclosed within brackets. (< HTML code >)

Almost all HTML tags (particular those for formatting) have both an opening and a closing tag. The closing tag echoes that of the opening tag, but usually has a backslash at the beginning of the tag, to signal that it is a closing tag. (i.e. <b> and </b>)

When posting fanfics on message boards or LiveJournal, a knowledge of HTML isn't really necessary. However, sometimes having a basic knowledge of HTML can help to spice up the appearance of your fanfics and make them more visually striking.

LiveJournal Specific HTML tags
LiveJournal has a few tags that are specific to it's website that are formatted similar to HTML tags. Therefore, I'm including them in this handy guide as well.

LJ Usernames and Community names
Being able to make a hyperlink of LJ usernames is helpful, as it may be an easier way to list yourself as an author of a particular work, or to thank those who may have served as a beta on your work. This same code can also be used to link to LJ communities, if, for example, a piece was written because of a challenge at a different community.

<lj user="herowlness"> = herowlness
<lj user="vm_betas"> = vm_betas

Of course, you would likely need to change the username or community name for each situation. [although if my username starts popping up all over fandom, I'll certainly feel special!]

LJ Cuts
The basic LJ cut is very simple and straightforward.

<lj-cut>Insert text to be cut from the main page of the journal.</lj-cut>

This then appears on the main page of the journal (and on the Flists of those who have the journal friended) like this --

( Read more... )

The text in blue underline is, when actually used, a hyperlink to the LJ-cut text.

The LJ cut can be altered slightly, to change the "Read more …" section to something more personalized and specific. This is done by using the following tag –

<lj-cut text="LJ cut text">Insert text to be cut from the main page of the journal.</lj-cut>

For example, with the cut text of "Part One," the link on the main page of the journal would appear like this –

( Part One )

LJ cuts are very important when writing and posting fanfiction on LJ, as the vast majority of Veronica Mars fanfiction communities require LJ cuts for all fanfiction postings. In general, most users do not appreciate it when their Flists are filled up with long, long entries – perhaps containing spoilers or content that they aren't interested in. Learn to love the LJ cut, as it could come in quite handy.

For details on how to make a fake LJ-cut head down the the hyperlink section of this resource.

General HTML Formatting Tags
I'd like to preface this section by saying that all of the following codes work on LiveJournal, but they may not work on other message boards. Some forums use a different code, rather than HTML, for posting entries. I'd suggest reading the FAQ or About section of whatever boards you also frequent and see what sort of code that they use. Many codes are similar to HTML, but may use something other than the same brackets.

Bold

<b>boldface text</b> = boldface text

Italics

<i>italic text</i> = italic text

Underline

<u>underlined text</u> = underlined text

Strikethrough

<s>strikethrough text</s> = ~~strikethrough text~~

Paragraph Alignment
The default alignment online (for most websites, including LJ) is a left-side paragraph alignment. That's why the lines that you read typically start from the same distance from the left-side of the window. However, with HTML code, it is possible to change the alignment of the text.

Center Alignment
This one is doable with a simple one-word code. The other alignments are not quite so simple.

<center>centered alignment text</center>

As you can see, this text is now centered. Each line is centered. While each line does follow the same margins, the beginning and end of each line do not fall in the same place for each row.
This sort of text is often helpful for titles or transitional phrases or punctuation between scenes.

Right and Justified Alignment
Both of these require a div tag (<div>) to make the text be aligned in such a way.

<div align="right">right alignment text</div>

See how this text starts on the right side of the page?
Each line with the right alignment text will start on this side of the page, and that will probably look a bit backwards to the reader. After all, English is read from left to right, so the idea of the first letter in each line not starting at the same distance from the edge of the window can be confusing. Right-aligned text isn't often used in fanfiction, but there are always stylistic possibilities.

<div align="justify">justified alignment text</div>

Justified text is text in which each line is stretched from margin to margin. It can make paragraphs appear neater and more organized (which is really a matter of personal opinion, I suppose), but it isn't really necessary at all. Justified alignment is, after all, still left-aligned text, just stretched out from margin to margin. The final line just ends where it ends, typically.

Centered alignment can also be coded in this way –

<div align="center">centered alignment text</div>

Font Alterations
With font tags, it is possible to change the size, color, and even the font itself to something different.

Font Size
Font size can be changed by simply specifying a particular digit as the "size" within the font tag. The bigger the number, the bigger the font. (and vice versa, of course)

<font size="1">teeny font</font> = teeny font
<font size="7">biiiiig font</font> = biiiiig font

LJ allows for different font sizes from 1-7. Anything above 7 is the same size as seven.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Font color
With HTML, each color has what is called a hexadecimal color number – or a six digit combination of letters (A-F) and numbers (0-9) that when put together, cause a particular color to appear on the screen.

<font color="#006600">Green</font> = Green

As you can clearly see, you need a pound sign (#) before you enter the hexadecimal color number.

You can also denote a particular font by just naming the color. However, this method does not work in all browsers and may even denote a different color than the one you input. This uses the same code as above, just without the pound sign (#).

<font color="red">Red</font> = Red

There are a number of different webpages that have helpful color codes for you to pick from, so you can be certain that you're selecting the color you want.

Hexadecimal codes only - Lissa Explains It All, VisiBone, Webmonkey
Hexadecimal codes and Color names - Annabella's HTML Help, HTML Goodies

Font Type
Clearly, there are a vast number of fonts out there – sometimes way too many to choose from, if you're into doing graphics work. Sometimes, to give parts of your story a particular feel (for example, letters or newspaper headlines, etc.) you may want to designate that a particular font type be used for a particular section.

<font face="georgia">Georgia</font> = Georgia

The one thing to be careful with when changing the font of some of your text, is that you want to be certain that it's a common font that most people have. Otherwise, you're likely to end up with either the default font (which isn't so bad, since then no one can tell that you've changed the font to begin with) or something totally random and wonky that the user's browser thinks you said.

General Font Notes
All of these tags can be incorporated together into one big font tag. (Meaning that you don't have to have 3 separate tags if you want to change your font's color, size, and type.)

<font size="4" color="#33CC99" face="courier">different font style</font> = different font style

Of course, not all of the inside tags need to be included (example, you can choose to change the size and the color, but not the face), and the order isn't especially important. However, you should be certain that you mimic the tags listed above (separately), just changing the bit in quotation marks to fit your desired font appearance. Otherwise, the browsers will just skip over your tag as if it wasn't even included in the first place.

Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks can be helpful in fanfic-posting, should you wish to link to a prequel/sequel, other chapters, your other pieces, or even just link to a master post from a community journal.

<a href="http://mywebpage.com">My Fanfics Rock!</a> = My Fanfics Rock!

And, of course, you would/should insert the url you want to link to where I typed in http://mywebpage.com.

That hyperlink causes the new page to open up in the same window in which the user clicked on the link. Sometimes, it can be helpful (or important) to specify that the link should open in a new window. (Specifying a target for the new url is not required, but it can be useful sometimes.)

<a href="http://mywebpage.com" target="_blank">My Fanfics Rock!</a> = My Fanfics Rock!

While the url can (and should) still be altered for your particular link, make sure that you leave the target="_blank" portion intact. While there are other places that links can be targeted, I'd recommend either using the new window target, or not using it at all, until you are more experienced with HTML.

Fake LJ-Cuts
Some people like to link to their own journal while making the formatting of the link appear to be nothing more than a simple LJ-cut. Putting parentheses around a link is simple enough to do, but if you want the formatting to look just like that of an LJ-cut, it takes a little bit more work. For one, the entire text is bolded, and there are spaces between the parentheses and the link.

<b>( <a href="http://mywebpage.com" target="_blank">Read my newest fanfic!</a> )</b> = ( Read my newest fanfic! )

Obviously, change the link and the link text to whatever you want it to be, but otherwise you should be good to go!

Email Hyperlinks
If you'd like to give people the option of sending you email feedback, you might want to include a hyperlink with your email address.

<a href="mailto:myfanficsrock@me.com">Email me feedback!</a> = Email me feedback!

Of course, you would edit the email address portion (that after the mailto:) to your email address, as well as the bit between the two link tags. Be careful of typos here, as mistyping your email address can lead to lost emails.

Additionally, you have the option of specifying a default email address for the link. Users can always edit the subject line themselves, should they wish, but you can designate a subject if you'd like.

<a href="mailto:myfanficsrock@me.com?subject=Title of Fanfic">Email me feedback!</a> = Email me feedback!

The bit in bold is the part that would need to be included – and of course, the portion after ?subject= can be changed to whatever you'd like the subject heading to be.

In general, you want to avoid leaving spaces inside of quotation marks in HTML tags, but inside the subject designation, using a space is certainly okay.

Images
Sometimes we all want to show off a banner that we won, or maybe the cover page that we designed for our fanfic. In that case, knowing how to code for images can come in handy.

<img src="http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/34054725/1505121"> =

Unlike most of the other tags, the image tag does not have a closing tag that you use to "end" the picture. However, like the hyperlink tags, there are a few other specifications you can make, if you'd like.

Dimensions
If you feel a need to shrink or expand your image, or even if you'd just prefer for the page to load with a perfectly sized space saved for your image once it loads, you may want to specify dimensions.

<img src="http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/34054725/1505121" height="50" width="50"> =

The bits in bold are the new parts that you would need to include. The height and the width are both measured in pixels and can usually be found by using your image program, or even Windows explorer.

Clearly that picture has been shrunk (by half), which may not be the smartest plan. Still, I just wanted to demonstrate how the size of an image can be altered by changing the digits in those particular tags.

Borders
As you can intermix hyperlinks with images (use an image as a link), you may want to be able to make sure that you have no border on your image. Otherwise, you will likely find a "pretty" thick hyperlink line around your image – and that might not be so appealing.

<a href="http://mywebsite.com"><img src="http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/34054725/1505121" border="0"></a> =
versus <a href="http://mywebsite.com"><img src="http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/34054725/1505121"></a> =

Isn't the first picture a bit prettier? (Again, the text in bold is the specific coding that you would need to include in this case.)

Alternative Text
The alternative text (or alt text) is what shows before the image loads, or what shows should a user have image-loading turned off for whatever reason. If you have an image that is essential to your story, you may want to use an alt tag, if only so these people can continue on with the story and not miss some important plot point (for example).

<img src="http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/34054725/1505121" alt="Wallace+Veronica BFF"> = =

If for some reason, your image doesn't load, as is the case with the second "image" (the server is down, you mistyped the url, etc.) then users will still get the basic idea behind the image you were trying to show them. (And, again, the text in bold is the specific coding that you would need to include.)

Additionally, in some browsers (IE, for example) the alt text can also be read by hovering over an image. However, I would recommend against using the alt text to leave some sort of "secret message" to your users as some browsers (Mozilla, for example) do not show the alt text unless the image doesn't load.

As a note, the above image was created by louloucn.

Blockquote
You may have been examining this page and wondering how I got some of the text (particularly the examples) to indent in a bit here and there. That was accomplished using the blockquote feature. This is very helpful if you're having Veronica, for example, read a newspaper article, as it sets the text apart from the rest of the story (by the indentations) and makes it clear that this isn't her expositing or talking.

<blockquote>blockquoted text</blockquote>

Blockquoted text tags tend to automatically assume that you have at least one carriage return before and after them, so I would recommend previewing your post before actually making it, to be certain that you have everything as you want it. Further, should you have a need, you always have the option to
have blockquotes within blockquotes, and so on and so forth.
Just make sure that you close each blockquote tag that you make, so that the rest of your post doesn't end up being blockquoted as well. Eeep!

Final Notes
If something doesn't work the first time you try it, make sure that you double-check your typing. Using copy/paste is the easiest way to make sure that you have everything right. And then, from there, go on to edit the relevant portions to personalize the tags for your usage.

Also, if you're typing up your tags directly into your fic in Microsoft Word (for example), be certain that the word processor isn't making your quotation marks into Smart Quotes. Many browsers don't recognize Smart Quotes as quotation marks, so that could also be the cause of your problems.

Other Questions?
Feel free to post them here, and I'll try to do what I can to reply to them. Otherwise, do a Google search for whatever code you're trying to find, or else check out this site and see if that can't help you. (The linked site is Lissa Explains It All, and I still find that it can be a great tool if there's a code I'm looking for that I haven't used in awhile.)

Happy HTML'ing!

On-Line Writing Resources

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 04:36:19 GMT

by mastermia

For today’s fanfiction writers, there are a myriad of on-line writing resources available. Everything from grammar guides to quotations is at your fingertips. This is a quick guide to help you navigate and find just what you are looking for.

Calendar - Need to know on what day of the week Duncan was born? You can look up February 13, 1987 (or any other day) with a good calendar. (http://calendarhome.com)

Canon Help - With so many wonderfully detailed episodes, it’s understandable if you don’t remember all the details related to Veronica’s first date with Troy or what it was that Wallace said to Veronica after she cut him down in the pilot. Luckily, we have lots of great resources in this fandom that should be able to help you with whatever questions you have.
+Mars Investigations has a canonical timeline, descriptions of all the essential characters, music of the show, episode descriptions and quotes, mystery details, and more. (http://marsinvestigations.net/)
+Twiz TV has a compilation of episode transcripts, which are a great help for finding out exact quotes for episode-specific scenes or fics if you don’t have the episodes on tape or DVD. (http://www.twiztv.com/)

Culture - Want to sprinkle your story with cultural references just like Rob Thomas does? Having a good cultural reference at hand would be a great idea.
+This is a good place to start. You can browse through topics as varied as Geography, Fine Arts and Politics. (http://www.bartleby.com)

Dictionary - A handy way to check spelling, definition and pronunciation. (http://dictionary.reference.com/)

Grammar - If your piece has an overabundance of grammatical errors, it can be distracting and take your readers out of your piece. It’s important to have a good grammar guide at hand to help you with any grammatical uncertainties you might encounter.
+ Considered by many to be the best book ever written on grammar, Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style is available online. The table of contents allows you to pick the area you want to review and covers everything from the proper use of a comma to commonly misused words. (http://www.bartleby.com)

Legal Help - Is Veronica helping Cliff with a case and you need a crash course in expert witnesses? Legal references can help you find general information on drunk driving defenses, property and real estate law, and many other legal topics your intrepid private eye might need. (http://www.reference.com

Maps - If you need general geography for southern California (or any other location where you might be sending our favorite characters), an online map is a great reference to have at hand.
+These easy to use pictorial maps of Southern California can get you from the Coronado Bridge to down town LA. (http://www.carolmendelmaps.com)

Names - Need the perfect name for your new character? (After all, every third character in Neptune can’t be named Veronica or Logan!) There are lots of baby naming resources online that will give you lots of options to sift through.
+Here you can search by boy, girl, first names and special meanings. (http://parenting.ivillage.com)
+This is a more unique list of names, with many that would be very appropriate for hoity-toity 09’er parents to choose for their children. They’re sorted by letter of the alphabet, with boys names separated from girls names on each page. (http://zoope.com/)

Quotes - Looking for Logan’s latest voice mail? Want to find a good quote to set the mood for your fanfic? Any of the many online quotation databases should be able to get you started.
+Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations has over 11,000 quotes on all topics through 1919. If you are looking for something to set a scene or tone you should find it here. (http://www.bartleby.com)

San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau - Want to know about an activity or event in San Diego to weave into your story? This site has an event calendar and lots of information on various aspects of the town. (http://www.sandiego.org/)

Thesaurus - Looking for just the right synonym for sarcastic? Trying to work on improving your word variety? With a thesaurus, you get a definition, description of the part of speech, and just the right word for any piece from lists of synonyms and antonyms. ( http://thesaurus.reference.com/)

Translator - Need to put something into Spanish for Weevil to mutter under his breath but don’t speak the language? A free online translator will help you get a basic translation. (http://dictionary.reference.com)

Looking for something else? Doing a Google search is usually a good place to start. And, of course, if you find a great new resource, be sure to post here and tell us about it!

Original Characters in Fanfiction

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 05:17:52 GMT

by herowlness

ORIGINAL CHARACTERS IN FANFICTION

What are Original Characters?
Original Characters, sometimes referred to as OC's, are those that come completely from the imagination of the author. They cannot be found in any other published or broadcast work. For example, if a character from, say, Angel were written into a Veronica Mars fanfic, that would not be an original character, as that character was not created by the author.

Why write Original Characters?
While the major characters on a given show (especially one like Veronica Mars) should be interesting enough to cause the plot bunnies to multiply like crazy, OC's can allow for different sides of these characters to be explored.

For example, if an OC quickly becomes Veronica's new friend, how will those close to her (Wallace, Weevil, etc.) react? What if Trina's mother comes back to Neptune and tries to mother Logan? Using original characters opens up avenues that might not have been available to you, as an author, before.

Additionally, it's a great writing exercise for authors to create original characters. Everything about them comes from the author's imagination – their personality, appearance, mannerisms, background, and more. After all, there's nothing in canon about these original characters. (That would be why they are called original characters, of course.)

While fanfiction is largely about borrowing characters and situations from the original creators and adapting them into something completely different, using an OCs allows authors to test their limits and stretch their creative writing muscles. Plus, if you've ever dreamed of being published, using original characters in your pieces is a good stepping stone onto that path.

How can I write a good Original Character?
If you're writing a longer piece and/or one that involves an OC as a major character, you will probably want to do some character mapping before you get started. The better that you know the character you're creating, the better you will be able to write said character.

If you're only writing a short one-shot, it might not be necessary to write out tons of information about your original character ahead of time. However, it's usually helpful to have a ready resource about your OC (largely what you've written about them thus far), so you don't contradict yourself later on in the piece. After all, you probably don't want to go searching through your story trying to remember what color her eyes were!

What should I all map out for my Original Character?
Really, you can "map out" whatever you feel is essential for your piece. However, what follows is a brief list of some details you might find helpful.

Name - first, middle, last, any nicknames
Age or date of birth
Appearance - How would you describe them? Include hair and eye color, skin tone, height and weight, and any other descriptive words you think you might find helpful here. Sometimes it's useful to use a real life person as a model of sorts. I wouldn't recommend using someone overly well-known (for example, fashioning a new character after Jason Dohring probably isn't the best idea), but even if you don't tell anyone who your OC looks like, it could be a handy reference. Good online photo resources include the Actor Archives, the Actress Archives, atPictures.com, Celebs Central, Perfect People, and Scantastic - along with many others.
Family and Friends - Include the names of their close family members, as well as their friends.
Class - In VM this one is especially important. Is your character an 09'er or a jock or a nerd or a biker? What is his/her relationship like with the other main characters in fandom (or at least in your fanfic)?
Strengths and Weaknesses - This one seems somewhat obvious, but you really need to be sure that your OC isn't absolutely perfect. Otherwise, you're likely to end up with a Mary Sue or a Gary Stu on your hands. (See here for more information about Mary Sue and Gary Stu and how to avoid them.)
Motivation and Dreams - What does your character want? What is it that drives them – at least through your fanfic? Does she want to be the Prom Queen? Does he want to date Meg Manning? Does she want to go to NYU and be a filmmaker?
Backstory - Sometimes this can be the most interesting and important part. What happened to your OC before we meet them in your fanfic? What happened to make them who they are. Little details about life growing up can certainly affect characters themselves. Just look at the impact Logan's childhood abuse had on him and his character!

And, certainly, you can find more important points to add yourself, as needed to fit your story. Elaborate on whichever ones strike you for your own original character – and with time, you'll likely learn which ones are most helpful to you, as a writer.

Challenges
-coming soon!

Mary Sues and Author Stand-Ins

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 05:15:07 GMT

by sinaddict and herowlness

MARY SUES AND AUTHOR STAND-INS

Mary Sue is, without a doubt, one of the most hated universal characters in fan fiction. No matter what fandom you write for, she always ends up popping up somewhere along the line.

For those of you who aren't aware of what a Mary Sue is, she is the epitome of everything the author wishes he or she was in real life. Mary is beautiful, smart, multi-talented, and always ends up saving the day; she never goes through PMS or mood swings, either.

Her twin brother, Gary Stu, is often a handsome loner who broods about things he blames himself for, when he had no control over whatever situation occured. (For example, his girlfriend was struck by lightening and he blames himself for not walking around wearing an antennae strapped to his head.)

Here's a rundown of ways to identify Mary Sues, problems with using her, and ways to fix her.

A note: Throughout this article, I generally refer to Mary and 'her', but everything said also applies to Gary.

About Mary
If Mary is younger, she might be a new student at Neptune High. Or, maybe she's an old friend of Veronica's from her Pep Squad days who has been wronged by the 09'ers and wants revenge. If Mary is slightly older, she likely has some kind of a past history with one of the Neptune adults. (For example, Keith's last girlfriend before he met Lianne.) As such, the young Mary has automatic ties to the characters, which is a great way to introduce a new character. Of course, she's more often than not immediately loved by Veronica (or Logan, or Duncan, or Weevil, or … whoever the main character of the fanfic is) despite any external conflicts. (For example, Weevil has repeatedly shown an overwhelming disdain and distrust for the 09'ers, but all Madeline Cartier has to do is bat her eyelashes, and he's hers.)

Or it's quite possible that the author's favorite male character falls for her almost immediately after meeting her. For example, Lilya Kyle is the daughter of the Neptune DA prosecuting Aaron's case, and five minutes after meeting her, Logan is saying "Veronica who?" while locking lips with her. By the end of the story, Mary usually ends up sleeping with the author's favorite character too.

Also, given the mystery-based feel to Veronica Mars, it's quite possible that Mary's presence won't have have these more emotional or romantic effects on the fanfic. After all, I'm sure that Mary Sue was the only one to witness the murder of Lilly Kane. After being scared into silence after all these months, she finally tells Veronica the truth – it was Backup! Even if such a far-fetched situation doesn't take place, if the same character is continuously contributing the final piece needed to solve the mystery, if not solving the mystery for Veronica, her name is likely Mary Sue.

In original characters, Mary Sue's name is usually either very similar to or the same as her creator's. Often, Mary Sue's name becomes some exotic, extremely hard to pronounce variation of the author's name. For example, Kelly will become Kyelle, Jessica will become Jsikah, etc.

Obviously, when one of the characters on the show is used in place of Mary Sue (Veronica Sue or Lilly Sue), she keeps her name.

Mary's appearance is always of the utmost importance to the story. She's always extremely beautiful; her eyes are usually a very distinct color, and her hair is always flowing and shiny. Her outfits generally take up paragraphs of description in the story that serve no purpose other than trying to give the reader an abundantly clear picture of what she looks like.

If Mary isn't uniting the author's favorite couple, she's sleeping with the author's favorite character.

Why People Dislike Mary
The problem with Mary is that the only person who finds her fascinating is her creator. Since Mary is everything the author wants to be, she is completely perfect and is the author's gateway to get into the lives of everyone in Neptune. But to everyone except the author, Mary is the author's ego speaking; people see Mary as the author's way of saying, 'I'm perfect. Love me.'

Mary is fascinating to the author because she is living out all of the author's fantasies; to everyone else, she's just pushing the other characters out of the picture to wallow in her own excellence.

In fact, Mary is more often than not the focal point of the story. Everyone else in Neptune is just there to prop her up or seek her advice; the men all fall instantly in love with her and the women all want to be her.

Because Mary is the point of the story, she is in almost (if not every) scene. Veronica, Keith, and the other Neptune citizens only appear to praise her for her talent and intelligence, or ask for her help with something before they disappear into the background.

Mary's perfection means that she has no human flaws, or if she does, they are never things that affect her ability to be the savior of Neptune. Authors sometimes try to compensate for her lack of flaws by giving her an abundance of trauma and suffering to have to work through, making her the martyr of the story. Mary will end up sacrificing herself to thwart the bad guy's evil plan to kill Veronica, and will watch everyone mourn her as she dies a heroic death, while the author sniffles at the keyboard.

And all the readers cheer and say "It's about damn time!"

The problem with making Mary the sacrificial lamb or the ever-suffering martyr is that it only serves to make Mary even more perfect. We're so annoyed by how incredibly perky and cheerful she is throughout everything bad that happens to her, we just can't wait to see her die.

Veronica and Lilly Sues, along with Logan and Duncan Stus
Mary Sue doesn't necessarily need to be an original character. In Veronica Mars fan fiction, it's generally easier to spot a Veronica or Lilly Sue than a Mary Sue.

Beginning authors generally tend to live vicariously through either Veronica, Logan, or Duncan because they are the characters that the majority of the audience can identify with. Everyone at one point has had a goal that they felt they had to reach at any cost (like Veronica), or has lost someone they thought they loved (like Logan … twice), or has had troubles getting over an old flame (like Duncan).

The canonical Mary Sue is often considered worse to deal with than an original character Mary Sue because of the way the characters are altered to fit the writer's needs. For example, in Veronica Sue stories, Keith might be portrayed as so cartoonishly villainesque for keeping Veronica form finding Lilly's killer that the story can't be taken seriously. Or Celeste becomes an evil dictator telling blatant lies to keep Duncan from having being with Veronica just because she doesn't like Veronica.

Following are a list of common plot devices and cliches that are often found in canon character Mary Sue stories.

1. Poor Veronica. Her friends/family just don't understand her.

In these sorts of pieces, Veronica is vindicated and restored to her popularity after she discovers who murdered Lilly. All the boys want to date her, and all the girls want to be her best friend. And she lives happily ever after.

2. Poor Logan. His family doesn't care about him.

While this is true to some extent, there are some stories that take this to extreme. I think, more appropriately, his family cared about him but doesn't know how to show it. (Aaron was disciplining his son, Lynn was too weak to defend her son, Trina cared enough to come get him at the dance, etc.)

Still, in some fanfics, Logan is shown as being the moral center of the family – standing up to his father about the abuse, helping his mother get clean off her drugs/alcohol, helping Trina become a contributing member of society, etc. In still other pieces, Logan and Veronica run away together (as high schoolers) and just live together, apart from their families. Because, um, that's logical.

3. Poor Duncan. [Insert derogatory comment about Celeste here.]

Again, this is definitely true to some extent, but authors go so far as to say that Lianne's presence at the Camelot in the pilot was a complete misunderstanding, that she and Jake never slept together after their respective marriages, that Celeste knew that Veronica couldn't possibly be his sister, yet told him that anyhow. While arguments could be made about Celeste's thoughts about the validity of the story she told her son, the evidence is canon. To ignore it is to create a whole new universe.

4. As soon as the newly made-over Veronica got back from her Victoria's Secret modeling shoot with her rich, handsome new lover, Duncan realized exactly what he'd been missing after they broke up.

Often, in this type of story, Veronica is magically transformed from Kristen Bell into Jennifer Lopez. She's got the perfect figure, long flowing hair, and every girl in Neptune suddenly envies her.

Not to mention that Duncan finally realizes how much he still loves her, just in time for her to laugh in his face and tell him how stupid he was and run off with Weevil or Logan. This is the classic revenge moment that everybody wishes they had with an ex who dumped them.

5. Naturally, Madison was consumed with jealousy at the sight of Veronica in a stunning prom dress, especially since her own gown was so ugly and unflattering.

Obviously, Veronica Sue has to be the most beautiful of all the characters, and since Madison is one of her archrivals, Madison must conversely look horribly out of place in the social scene she was raised in.

6. Suddenly Logan had enough, and spouted off cutting observations about everyone in the room, which, had any other character done, would have been deemed obnoxious and self-centered, but because it was Logan, was perfectly justified.

Also known as the "these are the characters the author doesn't like" speech. Even though Logan Stu is the fount of all that's good and holy (hee hee), when he deigns to yell at the other characters for their faults, it's perfectly alright because the other characters are so cruel and selfish, and Logan is only pointing out what everyone (read: the author) is secretly thinking.

7. Even though Veronica and Duncan were both virgins, their first time together was absolutely perfect.

Now, I can't speak from personal experience about this one, but from everything I've read, if you and your partner are both virgins, your first time isn't going to be all magical doves flying and Julie Andrews bursting in song. If you're unsure how to write sex scenes, at the very least, do some research! If you don't, then people are just going to assume you're a teeny-bopper attempting to sound adult.

8. Out of nowhere, Logan kissed Veronica passionately. Seconds later, she responded with just as much passion. They were so lucky to have ended up in an isolated bathroom or vacant rooftop, alone.

This is the one Veronica Sue cliche that I see everywhere, especially in PWP stories. Veronica and Logan end up somewhere alone, and being the lusty, hormone-driven animals they are, can't keep their hands off of each other.

9. Poor Lilly. Good thing she isn’t really dead.

There is the occasional (yet rare) Lilly Sue, who is somehow able to escape death, have her murderer thrown into prison for the rest of eternity (after helping Veronica solve the case), and move back to Neptune with Logan (or Weevil), where they live a fabulous life spending all of the Kane money.

How to Avoid Mary Sue
First of all, give your heroine real human flaws that stand in the way of her ability to accomplish her goal. For example, if your heroine is Veronica and you want one of her flaws to cause problems in her search for Lilly's murderer, use her marshmallow insides to cause her to overlook an important suspect that's right under her nose.

Make sure there are things your heroine can't do, and make sure that they are things that affect your story in some way. Having your heroine unable to type with her toes or run while jumping rope aren't flaws that will make her seem more human. Having your heroine unable to be completely truthful about her thoughts and feelings might be better.

Need help writing an original character? Check out this resource!

So where did this idea come from?

Mon, 25 Jul 2005 04:30:30 GMT

Almost a month ago now, I [herowlness] posted a rant against various items in fanfiction that were driving me crazy. It started as a way for me to blow off steam and educate some of the authors on my Flist, but after exchanging comments with some others, the idea to form a fic resource community [vm_ficresource] and a beta/ConCrit community [vm_betas] was born.

I don't know as many people in this fandom, so I don't always feel comfortable offering constructive criticism to authors, as I don't know if they'll be receptive to that sort of feedback. If they/you aren't - that's completely okay. We all have different motivations for writing and posting our fanfiction. However, I thought that this community could be an asset to VM fanfiction.

Through this journal, I'm hoping that authors will notice some things about their own writing that maybe could use some improvement. And that, in turn, will hopefully only further improve the already high level of quality writing within this fandom. Further, I'm hoping that maybe some of the resource articles will challenge authors to try writing fics in a different style than they are used to - different POV, different character/pairing, different style, etc.

If you have any suggestions for resource articles or know of any VM-specific fanfiction challenges that are going on elsewhere, feel free to leave a comment for the moderators or send an email to mousebumples [at] gmail.com.

Thanks!