Other Fanfic Writing Basics

by Aadler

1. Apostrophes. These are probably misused more than any other single point of grammar/usage, and most of the offenses can be avoided by remembering one single thing: the ’s tag at the end of a word is NEVER used to denote a plural. It can indicate a contraction — it’s, he’s, and so on — or more frequently a possessive — Buffy’s house, the demon’s claws — but never, absolutely never, for a plural. More than one vampire is vampires; more than one spell is spells; and if you write crossbow’s, it had damn well better be short for crossbow is (i.e., “The crossbow’s broken, we’ll have to get by without it.”).
   On the other hand, while the possessive is the most common usage, this doesn’t hold true for pronouns. It’s is short for it is (or possibly it has); for a possessive, no apostrophe. (Ex: “It’s about to take off!” Xander warned as the gryphon spread its wings.) The use of it’s as a possessive is frequently seen but perhaps understandable, but for something like her’s there is just no excuse.

2. Tenses. Keep them straight. I once set a story in present tense, feeling that it lent an immediacy that suited the central theme, so which tense you use overall is a matter of preference and judgment; consistency within that choice, however, is mandatory. This is so for the spoken words of the characters, of course, with a certain leeway for individual idiosyncrasies, but it’s vital for the narrative itself. Switching from past tense to present in the middle of a paragraph (or even a sentence) may have some thematic or artistic purpose and justification, but more often it’s a sign of sloppiness, ignorance, indifference, and/or lack of respect for the story and its readers.

3. Conversation. When two or more persons are speaking in alternation, certain practices need to be followed.

Keep them separate. Avoid having two parties speak within the same paragraph. Furthermore, try to link a speaker’s words with his/her actions. Example:

Willow looked at her friend and shook her head sadly. “Sorry, it’s just, after all this time I kinda thought you’d know better than that.” Buffy frowned.
“Better than what?”

The preceding is awkward at best, and could easily be confusing. A tiny change, and:

Willow looked at her friend and shook her head sadly. “Sorry, it’s just, after all this time I kinda thought you’d know better than that.”
Buffy frowned. “Better than what?”

That reads much more clearly, and leads into the next point, which is —

Identify your speaker. This doesn’t have to be done every single time (a line-by-line repetition of Xander said, Willow said, Xander said, Buffy said, can easily become mechanical), but something is needed to allow the reader to follow who’s doing the talking. With the right technique, an occasional anchor will provide all the necessary guidance.

Something to note: when two persons of opposite gender are talking, he said / she said works fine, but if two persons of the same gender are in a conversation — and especially if it’s a multi-gender group such as Buffy / Giles / Xander / Willow — a reader can’t always know which he and which she are on deck at any given moment. Use names.

And finally: any time the same person speaks in two consecutive paragraphs, he/she must be clearly identified in both. Failing to do so will throw a reader off-track almost instantly.

Mix it up a little. Talk, talk, talk gets tedious quickly, but conversation is made of more than words. Nods, sighs, gestures, turns of the head, fidgeting, looking away and back — in sum, all the things actual people do when speaking to one another — can bring a conversation to life. And authors have an advantage ordinary mortals don’t: they can see, and show, what the characters are thinking and feeling as they speak.