twilight

"I want to hold you in my arms until all the bad things go away."

"Well, then I don't know if you'll ever let go."

A bunch of resolutions for writers and people who want to try writing this year. It's in no way something you must do, these are just ideas how you can set out to improve your writing in 2022.

Try something new

Try to write something you have never written before.

Write something silly, write something serious, write in a different genre, try to write characters that you haven't explored yet.

Write consistently

Writing consistently will not only give you exercise to become a better writer, it can also keep your voice as a writer consistent.

If you have a first draft, write it down quickly and without big breaks inbetween.

Don't wait for inspiration

Waiting for inspiration to come can take forever. So don't wait for inspiration: search for it.

Make writing into a habit that comes natural to you every day, look up writing prompts, read a book you like, get yourself into the mood to write and do it!

Do your research

As a writer, you need to know about a lot of different things.

You can do research by reading books, listening to podcasts, watching movies, talking to other people, etc.

Take this year to learn something new and then tell your reader all about it.

Edit that draft

We all have that one story we wrote a while ago and then stopped at the first draft.

Take it and reread it and then rewrite it. You have a new perspective on it now and maybe this will be the year you turn your idea into a book.

Set yourself a goal

This explicitly doesn't have to be a goal about how many words or pages you write.

Your goal can be to finish something, to edit something, to write a few sentences every day, to share more of your writing or to publish something.

Don't compare

Try not to compare your writing with that of someone else.

Writing is about finding your own voice and telling a story that only you can tell. Also: other people's accomplishes don't diminish your own!

Write!

Whatever the outcome of your writing may be and whatever you want to do with it, if you want to publish it, if you want to share it with friends, or if you want to keep it to yourself: just start writing!

Do what you love to do.

To all my lovely writers, I wish you a great year, may everything work out in your favour!

A small guide to writing fanfiction.

Why write fanfiction? (as a fan)

you like the characters and the stories and you want to expand their adventures

you want to fix the canon

you want to be part of a fandom and contribute to it

you want to keep the characters and their stories alive, even if they no longer formally exist

Why write fanfiction? (as a writer)

it's good writing practice

it makes you more confident in your writing

you can learn how to take critic and how to implement it

you can learn how to write different characters and situations

you can find your own writing style in a familiar setting

it helps you gain an audience

Familiar source material

your readers will know the story and the characters, so you don't have to repeat the plot or introduce the characters again

find new ways to present the characters to the reader

but avoid making them OOC (out of character)

Format

it doesn't have to be high-class editing, but try to stick to a format that looks clean and most importantly: that is easy to read

otherwise people who are interested in your story in the first place, can become turned off by the formatting

especially your dialogue should be easy to detect

use a beta reader who can help you with grammar, etc.

How to attract an audience

use tags: they help the reader to find your story, to see if they like it, and if there is something they might not feel comfortable with

if there is something in there that can be harmful to some readers, please let them know beforehand (you can do it in the notes, if you don't want to spoil)

try to update regularly

interact with other people in your fandom

Different kinds of fanfic

Multi-chapter

One-shot

Snippet

Imagines

Self-Insert

Drabble

AU

Crossover between fandoms

Canon

Fix-it

Fanfiction sites

Just a few places where you can post your work:

Archive of our own (AO3)

Fanfiction.net

Tumblr

Wattpad

deviantArt (mostly fanart, but also some fanfiction)

Twitter/Instagram (for smaller works)

For the readers:

Please like and comment!

Fanfic authors write for fun, but it can become less fun if it seems like no one is interested. So if you like something - tell them!