The Energon Pub

[Nico]

Ok...not trying to look like a total noob (Even if i am) but is there a good tutorial that explain how to write a good transformer fanfiction???

[Neko]

Never heard of a Fanfic tutorial, but it you need some help on anything specific like plot items and such, you could just ask.

What kind of fic are you trying to make? Like what Genre? Action, mystery, what? Personally I mull over a fic idea for days or weeks, playing it out in my head like a movie, developing dialoge and such along the way.

[Nico]

Mmm...ok ill try this!

[Sunstar]

if it's a mystery, I would recommend locating the steps on how to write a mystery. I tried one once, it was okayish.

When I write fics, I don't always write from start to end. If I get a burning idea to write a scene, I will. Then when I write the fic, I will go back and include that scene and change it until it fits into the actual story.

If you have an idea, start to write it. It's good to have a gist of an ending or what you want to accomplish in it. Easier said than done. I have stalled on a fic because I wasn't sure where I was going with it and it was a interesting story.

Characters in a story can be left to do their own thing or develop in their own way. With cannon characters, it is best to maintain their speech patterns. for example Starscream would never say something like "Yo! peeps, lets kick some booty."

sometimes it is good to sit in the tub and let your mind become the character. think like the character until you get a good idea of the character. I would avoid writing using characters you are unfamiliar with. But, if you do, it is advisable to do good research into that character.

Write what you want to read. This is what I do. I write for myself because I enjoy it. It does not matter too much to me what other people say or think of it.

With that said, if you write and want to publish it for all to see, be prepared for feedback, both constructive and destructive. Try not to let the destructive and pointless comments hurt you or break your desire to write. If they don't like it, then it's time for them to write something they want.

I do recommend that you find a person who is willing to beta and proof read your work. I am not very strong in grammar and a few other things. I would choose a person who understands my style. I would also choose a person I can trust to be open minded. If you are good in grammar and whatnot, it does not hurt for the second or third set of optics to look it over. Spell checkers are good in text editors, but they fail when it comes to picking up misspelled words when they are spelled correctly. Ie two instead of too or to. One I seem to do a lot is "if" instead of "is".

One final note. When you write, its better to have some description to break up dialogue.

Anyway... those are my points. Take them or leave them.

[Zombie Starscream]

Don't be afraid to be creative. Some of the most fascinating fanfics were ones that weren't afraid to stretch the characters. One example was of one TF fanfic where Starscream turned out to be female. There's a fanfic site you can post your stories on and get reviews and contructive feedback from your readers, its called fanfiction.net. Its pretty good.

[Tom_Servo]

One example was of one TF fanfic where Starscream turned out to be female.

TURNED OUT to be?!

Seriously though, like Sunstar said- what do you want to see happen in a fan fic? I'm not that into fanfic myself, but I know this: the best use of it is to show things happening that would never happen in the cannon material. Buffy' fans who are still broken up about the death of Willow's girlfriend Tara write fan fic where to two of them live forever lighting candles and eating each other's... brownies.
"WHAT IFs" are always fun. What if Unicron ate Cybertron? What if the Matrix was really evil? What if Ratchet touched the other Autobots in bad places when they were under anesthesia? Ok maybe not that last one, but I think you get my point.