Someone recently asked me for tips on how to get feedback on their fanfiction.  Simple question, but a not so simple answer. I wrote this person back, giving her the following "treatise" on writing in general and writing fan fiction in particular. I don't know if this will be of interest to anyone else or not, but here, for your consideration, is my answer to the question:

<< Any tips on how i can some feedback from my stories? >>

The most important thing you can do is write well. If you write well, and you touch people's minds and hearts, they will write back to you.

Learn how to format properly (bad format loses you readers no matter how well you write). Learn proper grammar and spelling. If you're not a good speller (and even if you are), use spell check. That's what it's there for.

Learn how to structure a story. Learn to start right in the middle of the action and keep up the tension. End scenes with a question--what will happen next? How will Mulder and Scully get out of this mess? Who is knocking at the door? (I don't mean literally end your scene with a written question; I mean end your scene in a place where the reader has the question planted in his mind). Learn about the rhythmic flow of tension and release, more tension, more release. This isn't something you can learn about in a "how to" book. This is something you learn by reading good writing and assimilating it into your own way of thinking.

Learn how to write from the heart. Dwight Swain, who wrote a wonderful reference book on the craft of writing (Techniques for the Selling Writer), once said, "Feeling is where every story starts." This is essential, I believe. You have to write something that speaks to you on an emotional as well as cerebral level. You have to care about your characters, care about the events you're revealing to us in your story. If you don't care, the reader certainly isn't going to care. And more than just caring, you have to tell the story in such a way that the reader's emotions and senses are engaged.

Learn how to write Mulder and Scully (or whatever characters you write) with consistency and attention to detail. This I cannot stress enough. Know the show. You have a big head start on writing in fanfic because the characters are already created and developed for you. So before you do anything else---go to a website that has detailed synopses of each X-Files episode. Read those synopses carefully. Commit the events of those episodes to memory, especially the events that reveal something about the characters. Make them a vital part of your concept of the characters.

Try these sites to get started:

The Official X-Files Website

The Haven for the FBI's Most Unwanted (Note: currently down)

Watch your tapes of the show, especially the shows that most folks consider "classics."  My "must see" episodes include all the mytharc eps (even the sucky ones), plus the following:

Beyond the Sea
Ice
EBE
Irresistible
Dod Kalm
Grotesque
Pusher
Wetwired
Paper Hearts
Leonard Betts
Memento Mori
Elegy
Unusual Suspects
Pine Bluff Variant
Folie A Deux
The Movie
Drive
Monday
Milagro
Field Trip
The Goldberg Variation
X-Cops
all things
Je Souhaite

I think you get my drift---to write the characters really well, you have to know them. And that means getting to know them through the existing episodes and the back ground information that's available.

So, Mulder and Scully's relationship is somewhat ambiguous---does that mean that you can't write romance? Of course not. But write the romance true to who Mulder and Scully are. They're not sappy, overly emotional creatures. They're intelligent, emotionally conservative, wary. They say more with action than words---so they're not suddenly going to become flowery and poetic just because they've become lovers. They're not suddenly going to toss away years of calling each other by their last names, either. Mulder is Mulder and Scully is Scully. They're not suddenly going to become Fox and Dana.

So Mulder has never been shown to be homosexual or bisexual on the show---does this mean you shouldn't write slash? No, it doesn't. But if you write slash, don't make Mulder some simpering boy toy---that's not who or what he is. Keep him in character. Skinner's not suddenly going to become a power-crazed sex freak, either---keep him in character, too, if you expect people to read your stuff and love it.

Now--there are those who will say, "But it's fanfic---can't I write them however I want to?"

Sure you can. Write them however you want to. You'll probably find a lot of people who like them the way you write them. But I think that you tend to limit your audience if you venture too far from the show canon, character-wise, anyway. For the most part, people start reading fan fiction because they want more of the show, not necessarily because they want an alternative to the show. So if you want the widest possible reader base (and the most possible feedback), then try to be as true to established show canon as possible, even if you're taking the characters to places they've never been (and probably never will be) on the show.  And if you prefer to write a different Mulder and Scully, then do that. The "Iolukus" stories are a good example of a strongly written Mulder and Scully who aren't the Mulder and Scully we see every week.  And  that series has a good following.  

Have I made writing sound like work? Good. It is. Writing isn't a game or a hobby. It's a craft. It's worth doing well. And not everyone can do it, either. Some people will never be good writers, just like some people will never be good painters or good pianists or good baseball players. Talent comes into play. But even a person without great talent can learn to be a better communicator of ideas. You can learn proper grammar, proper word usage, proper spelling. You can learn new ideas, new concepts. If nothing else, you can learn to be a more appreciative, informed reader, as you learn exactly how much work goes into a good piece of writing.

© 2000  Anne Haynes

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