hey! i've been reading your fics lately and i absolutely adore your writing style.. i was wondering if it was alright to ask how you managed to get that good? honestly you're such a big biig inspiration for me and would love to hear any tips that's helped you grow in writing fics over time!! ^^
great question, and thank you for the compliments!! if you ask me, when it comes to writing, there are two primary ways to improve.
sounds simple, you've probably heard these same answers a thousand times before, but it's true.
as a kid, I was a big time reader. I got my start with R L Stine's Goosebumps series, which I still hold dearly to my heart to this day (my cats, carly beth and sabrina, are named after the haunted mask's protagonist and her best friend, and a previous cat, bim, was named after an alien featured in one of his books). I was also very into Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne. as I got older, I picked up some thicker novels like Seekers by Erin Hunter (Warrior Cats, but bears instead of cats), Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, Harry Potter (unfortunate, I know), and many more I'm sure I've read and forgotten in time.
all of this to say, read books that interest you! you'll learn a lot by taking your time to digest a couple distinct paragraphs from different authors, dissecting what makes their unique styles so interesting, and learning to adapt and mimic what parts of it you like. sometimes you'll fall in love with a comparison someone draws; with the artful way they phrase a certain sentence; with how they illustrate an action-packed fight scene without dragging it on too long or missing out on the important bits. it really opens up your mind to the things you can do with your words.
dead horse has two different fics linked that it's inspired by: better luck next time, a my hero academia fic which the author is actually in the process of turning into an original piece of fiction, and 13 Students Remain, which, if you haven't read it as a Danganronpa fan, then you've probably at least heard of. however, there are MANY other fics and entirely separate pieces of media which made dead horse come to be. the concept of time loops is not a new thing. that's alright. the joy of fanfiction is that the point isn't necessarily to be original. people will happily read about the same two characters meeting in the same coffee shop time and time again. even still, it's just as legitimate of a type of literature if you ask me, with its own trials and tribulations that you wouldn't face with original works.
I've been writing stories since learning how to hold a pencil, even before my teachers taught me what a quotation mark was and how to use it. I have distinct memories of my favorite app on my first phone—a tiny little iPod touch, given to me when I was around nine years old—being the notes app. it was full of big, clunky, poorly spaced paragraphs where two characters would speak one after another with no quotation marks to separate the dialogue, cliche tropes and admittedly cringe self-insert characters, plots blatantly ripping off my favorite shows and movies at the time... yeah. none of those stories ever saw the light of day, but they most certainly paved the way for future improvement.
it's okay if your work isn't perfect. it's okay if you never share some of it. but to get better at writing, you need to write! I personally enjoy writing in a grittier, too-detailed sort of style, so some of my inspiration also comes from Edgar Allen Poe. others would prefer more simplistic descriptions and faster-paced storytelling, which is also totally fine. try both, see what works for you.
I think it's also worth mentioning that I worked for my high school's newspaper for two full years as the head writer AND head editor, and that for four years, I led the school's creative writing workshop. writing can absolutely be a community activity, informative or otherwise, and I 100% recommend finding a community of likeminded people to share your stories with.
• after going years without it, I've recently started roleplaying again, and I've had a blast! it's a good way to get yourself to write lots without the pressure of perfectionism, bouncing back and forth off of a partner.
• learn more punctuation!! I became infinitely happier with my writing when I started using em dashes and semicolons for some more variety. thank you, AP Language & Composition.
• if you have an iPhone (maybe android has this too, idk), I recommend downloading the app Vocabulary and putting the widget on your lockscreen. it's free (with an optional subscription), and it'll give you a brand new vocab word to learn every day. you can even quiz yourself on it if you want. as a writer, you're always learning fun, fancy new words to include in your stories.
thanks for reading my blabber!
