Want to start writing fanfiction

[chomper94]

Very recently, I’ve been wanting to write a fanfiction for a cartoon I’ve been watching lately, but I don’t know where to begin.  Does anyone on here who have experience writing fanfictions know where to begin?

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

I know it probably sounds flippant for me to say ”Open a Google document and start typing the first scene” but that’s truly how to get started. If you really want, you can create a design document first where you just spill all your ideas and concepts freeform onto the page, I like to do that to keep my thoughts in order, but some writers hate that step and it’s perfectly skippable.

For your first story I also recommend the “one word minimum” challenge; require yourself to write at least one word of your story every day until it’s finished. Under no circumstances are you allowed to go a day without writing at least one word continuing the story. Obviously writing a single word doesn’t sound that hard, and it’s not, but the act of forcing yourself to open the document, figure out what the upcoming sentence is gonna be, is gonna trick your brain into likely writing more than that single word, and prevents writer’s block from kneecapping your project before it even began.

[Ducky123]

LBT's advice is definitely very solid for keeping a story going, I can only second all of it.

Excuse me if I misunderstand this but do you actually have a certain idea in mind already or is this more of a "I want to write a fanfic for the sake of writing a fanfic" thing?

If it's the former, write that idea down. First super rough (summary of the entire story in a paragraph or two) or try to write a synopsis. You need to know how it starts, you need to know how it ends. Now there are probably key scenes you already have in mind "like an important fight or a character death). Write all of that down and then all you need to do is: "So how do I get from A to B without any plotholes?" Ideally, you'd write a chapter plan (just really short summaries of scenes and chapters you can use as a guidelines so you'll always know what's next) Your characters are making decisions, taking action, have feelings and emotions that play into why they act the way they do. If you want to write a decent story, you'll have to think at least this far about your setting and characters, otherwise you'll likely end up with something neither you nor your readers will be satisfied with. Writing takes preparation, keep that in mind. I wrote my first stories with almost no planning and they all eventually got stuck along the way because I hadn't thought things through.

If it's the latter: A story without an idea isn't a story. Unless you have a concept in mind, writing a fanfiction will be futile. Not to discourage you but a harsh truth is sometimes better than a sweet lie. And a story you write just for the sake of it rather than because you're really invested into that idea, is going to yield similar results. Please keep that in mind.

Good luck with your project.

[somerandomfangirl]

Okay, I spend most of my free time writing fanfiction, so here's what I've learned over the years:

Firstly, if you haven't already, read other fanfictions (or even books if you're happy to delve outside of your chosen fandom), especially if you're finding you lack ideas. They may provide inspiration.

So you get an idea. Time to expand on it!

What story are you wanting to tell? Who's is/are the main character(s)? Who's the antagonist (if any)? Who is in the supporting cast?

The genre? Is it an adventure, a romance, a horror, a mystery?

Are you planning to follow canon or would you like the characters to explore an alternate universe?

The good thing about fanfiction is that you've already got the setting and the characters, so you can save a lot of time developing characters as your readers are most likely already familiar with them. But you may have to design and develop OCs if you want them in your story.

Once you have the basic idea and characters sorted, write a skeleton plan - the bare bones of the story. What happens in the beginning? What happens at the end? What are the major events throughout the story? You can then add more details as you go!

If you are writing a long fic, write a chapter plan like Ducky said. Think about the aim of each chapter - what is the main event, which characters are involved, and how does it move the story forward?

And finally... Write! Don't worry too much initially about how it sounds or flows - get the main ideas in there and then you can go back and edit the details and proofread later on.

The most important thing is to have fun with your story. The beauty of fanfiction is that it's a hobby. You don't have to worry about writing some literary masterpiece. Write what you want.

Then you decide if you want to publish or not. There are lots of platforms out there to publish fanfictions such as AO3, fanfiction.net or Wattpad. Some fandoms are more active on different sites. Most fandoms I know are more active on AO3. LBT is an exception, being more active on Fanfiction.net.

So.... yeah. Plan, and have fun! There are some great communities out there dedicated to writing fanfiction where you can brainstorm with people, find beta readers (people who will proof read and give constructive criticism) and just chat it all out.

Good luck! 

[chomper94]

Thank you guys for all the tips!  Just to answer some questions, I do already have a good idea for what the fanfiction will be about, I’ll definitely take the advice Ducky123 and abbicus said and make sure to write it down.  It’ll be long, so it’ll probably be in the form of a chapter plan.

And yeah, I pretty much have a good idea for what the characters will be, and who is the main focus, so I think I might start small, and when I’m ready, I’ll start taking it a few words at a time.

Once again, thanks for your help!

[Ducky123]

No problem!

I'm actually stuck in a similar situation right now but with an original story writing challenge I'm taking part in so yeah, gotta follow the same steps myself + all characters are OCs, it's quite a pain haha. Again, good luck!