I sort Fan Fiction in two basic forms and many varieties. Favorite Book (includes Favorite Book Series - Ex. Harry Potter) presents fans with rewrites, extensions, additional characters, and/or new plots with their favorite characters plus extras. The second form adapts a Favorite Film (includes Favorite Streaming Series - Ex. Supernatural) to present fans with, again, rewrites, extensions, additional characters, and/or new plots.
This chapter will focus on Favorite Film.
Think of the differences between words and movies. We know who's talking in movies, because the lips move, the actor voices are different, and the camera often focuses on the speaker.
Your reader has none of those clues on a written page, unless you put them there.
Rule #1: When a new character speaks, split each speaker and their actions into a new paragraph. If only two characters are talking, the reader will know their speeches are alternating, so after ', Sam said.' for the first paragraph and ', she said' on the second, you don't need to say who is speaking, though you might say what you saw in the film about their expressions changing i.e. ', Sam said, laughing.'
Don't rely on teleplays or screenplays you've access to. Screenplays are like housing blueprints and don't include, despite their name, all of what ends up on the screen. Just like owners change their blueprints, producers, directors, actors, and anyone watching the shoot might change the script (and not always for the better). Editing can cut things out that are essential to the story, at least in the screenwriter's mind.
In the Supernatural episode - Pilot, Dean talks about an 'application' that results in two credit cards. No credit card application on earth produces two credit cards (for two different people), but it's right there on the screen. Two Questions: How did that happen? and Does anyone care?
The screenwriter might have written 'applications' and Dean's script had a typo, or Dean's script said, 'applications' and Dean shortened it during the fast paced scene, or Dean knew he shortened it, but the director wouldn't waste money on a retake, or Dean didn't remember his line, and no one was bothered by it, and the Pilot was a huge success without fixing it.
Bottom line, he Supernatural - Pilot episode was made and you loved it, and so did many others. That result sort of answers the second question, Does anyone care? The answer is no, nobody cares, because that filmed scene was 99% successful.
Fan Fiction writers can't play that game, you don't have the tools or the money. You shouldn't point to the film to justify your dialogue or descriptions. So, Rule #2: Don't point to the source film to justify your dialogue or descriptions. Let your writing stand on its own. Some readers might not have seen the source film, but your writing, by itself, should make them want to.
Rule #3: Save longer descriptive paragraphs for introducing characters, or new locations. Think: Did the cameraperson have to move their camera to show me something new. If they did, it's your clue that you need to describe that thing to your reading audience too.
Rule #4: No paragraph should be longer than 150 words. Longer descriptions and dialogues should be split into two sections. Rule #5: Only use an ending quotation mark on the final paragraph of a split multi-paragraph dialogue spoken by the same character. The lack of a paragraph quotation mark clues the reader that the same character will continue to speak through the following paragraph(s). The final quotation mark says they're done.
Rule #6: Use shorter descriptive paragraphs for describing the actions (old or new) that the characters engage in.
Remember, writing can do things film cannot do. For instance, Rule #7: Use Italics without quotation marks to show interior main character thoughts.
Ex: That's really fun, I'm thinking - 1st Person or
Ex: That's really fun, you think - 2nd Person.
Film shouldn't reveal main character interior thoughts directly (narration - ugh!). Another character has to ask Dean, "How are you feeling?" to get internal thoughts externalized.
But you can open up the inner thoughts of your characters in 1st and 2nd Person Fan Fiction by using italics.
Assignment #1: Take a chapter of a Harry Potter book and find the same scenes in the movie version. Notice all the things in the book that didn't make it into the movie. When you're writing Fan Fiction, you can put similar details into your expanded story.
#
Fan Fiction based on a Favorite Film can be written in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Person, but 3rd Person retellings often lose the immediacy of film. The best case for 3rd person is Fan Fiction celebrating a Favorite Film when that film was originally based on a 3rd Person book. Then you can use the style of the original book as a model for your expanded retelling.
Barring that case, I feel most Favorite Film Fan Fiction should be written in the 1st Person which gives your rendering the immediacy of film. That doesn't mean you don't use the past or future tenses in your story, just that the main action takes place in the present.
Where do you use the past tense? You'll find film enters each scene in the middle of action, so it's natural for the reader to feel lost at first. The solution is to use a bit of past tense, as you enter a scene, to summarized what's happened. Ex. "After we sparred for two hours, Sam's next punch hit me in the nose. "Ouch!" I cry." Or "...I cried." Past tense 'sparred' summarizes the boring activity, but importantly tells the reader what activity has preceded the scene, where we are, and what kind of action has been occurring. Then the writer uses the present tense 'hit' for the action of the scene we are there to experience.
Notice "Ouch!" is a present tense interjection, but when you label it with a character, "I cry" or "I cried" you have a choice. "I cry" is better if you're keeping a flow of dialogue going, say by continuing with "Baby,' Sam says. "Am not," I whimper, as tears fall.
But if you're relating these events to the reader as in a 1st Person internal commentary use "Ouch!" I cried. "Baby," Sam said. "Am not," I whimpered and started to cry. I prefer the commentary version because it leaves more room for interior thoughts, other observations, backstories, and side stories while the main scene stays in the present.
Full backstory or foreshadowing can use other tenses was well. For backstory, past perfect tense. Ex:. "I had always wanted to be a writer, now I'm a bartender." Or future tense, "I will be a writer, if I ever stop bartending.' Or future perfect tense, "After two book, I will have written enough."
Time is tricky in the present tense. Some verbs express time. Ex: Sam felled the tree. "Good job," I said. This dialogue does not express a present tense scene. How would you film it? How boring would watching a ten minute film be until the job finished and the "Good job." line could be delivered? Solution: two scenes:
'Sam turned on the chainsaw."
#
After felling the tree, Sam turned to me. "Good job," I said.
Rule #8: In 1st Person, remove Setup Words. What are Setup Words? Ex: 'I heard the baby cry.' is grammatically correct, but your setting up the sound your main character experiences by telling the reader about it, instead of just, 'The baby cried.', Give the direct experience. Get rid of all statements like 'I heard...", "I started to...", "I felt myself..."
