Warriors Fanfics: Specialized Writing Guide

Editing & Revision

June 15, 2019

This section covers the editing and revision process, should you choose to do so before you post your fanficion around the internet. Here I assume you are your only editor. Rather than giving specifics on how, it goes over the process as a whole.

You have done it. You finished your super awesome Warriors fanfiction... now what? For the sake of your story, I hope the next step is not to hit the publish button. All of us have read bad fanfiction. Most fanfiction is bad fanfiction, and that is not limited to our fandom. In all fandoms, most fanfiction is bad. But that is what happens when superfans, shippers, and cosplayers try their hand at writing, a task that still has professionals for a reason. That is not to say they cannot write great things, though.

In this section, I am not specifically discussing bad fanfiction only. Nor do I mean parodies or trollfics like Starkit's Prophecy. Nor do I mean the arguably "only good because they are popular" ones, nor the one-offs or bizarre ones. In fact, most of my time will be spent on decent fanfiction. Why talk about the decent ones? Because one of the reasons good fanfiction emerges from amateurs is because of editing. Simple editing. Just looking at the words you have written more than twice. Let us go deeper into it.

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WHAT IS REVISION?

Revision is the process of going over your work again to create an improved version of it. It is that process that lets your search for those character arcs you completely forgot about, or that subplot you finished but never started. Most Warriors fanfictions are not revised or edited in any way (I have gone over why in other sections). But usually, it is not what you wrote that matters but how you present it. And, when writing fanfics, we do want our readers and fans to like it and want more of it.

Keep in mind that revision is not necessarily editing. Editing is the process of changing things, whether that change be good or bad. Editing would be changing our main character's fur from white to gray tabby, or fixing some grammar mistakes here and there (and there, and there). Revision is going over our story with the intention of producing a better version of it when we are done. Like how your teachers in school would have you turn in rough drafts and final drafts of essays, your revised story is the final draft (or second, depending on how many revisions you do). Revisions tend to change large aspects of the story, like a character's personality or changing the writing's tone. These, again, are done with the intention of making things better.

Both are important. And they are not too different, just two parts of a greater literary whole: an improved story. Your goal is to be your own critic for once. Target your work, unsheath your claws, and put it through its paces. If you manage to tear it to pieces and say "this is trash," then you probably need to edit and revise.

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EDITING AND REVISING A STORY

Do not panic if you do not like what you have written after giving it a read (who does). We would all love to keep tweaking this mess until it is perfect. But that is both impossible and something to avoid. If you are even reading this section, I assume you want to know what the best way to go about revising is. I will not go over taking and analyzing criticism here because I am assuming the only person to lay eyes on your draft is you.

There are many ways, and many guides, that go over how to edit your work. Almost all of these guides were written by people who use editors or show unfinished work to friends. We are on our own. And the only way you can edit and revise on your own is the way that works for you. There is no end-all answer I can give you. Editing spelling and grammar has an obvious process. Changing minor character details is straightforward. Altering the setting or thinking about plot points to change is not so easy when thinking of the task as is.