Jiper's Child: Children of Olympus #2

Fan Fiction Tips

Hi everyone! If you're not interested in writing fan fiction, feel free to skip this part as it isn't an actual chapter. I just have gotten a lot of questions and messages asking for help on how to write a better fan fiction or get reads for your story, so I thought I'd post some tips and thoughts on how to do that (although if you have more specific questions, still feel free to message me!). I'm by no means an expert so, as with any guide on writing, feel free to ignore everything or anything I say. This has just been what worked for me based on what I've written and the feedback I've gotten, as well as what I've seen from other popular fan fictions. I'll be using examples from PJO/HoH on here, but it could apply to any fan fiction of this type.

1. On Characterization.

This may be the most important part of writing a fan fiction, at least when you are using characters from canon. I'm sure my characterization isn't perfect, but I've seen a lot of books that have failed just because the characters are nothing like what they are in canon. Refresh your mind with the books and keep their personalities in mind, especially in dialogue. Camp Half Blood Wiki is a great resource for Riordan fan fictions as there are in-depth descriptions of each character's personality. Make sure to use appropriate words when describing the characters, as well. For example, it's unlikely to hear Annabeth "giggle" unless she's getting mushy with Percy or something, while Leo probably isn't having a lot of deep conversations without first trying to cover it up with a joke. If you're writing from a certain character's point of view, keep this in mind as well. Leo will probably crack a lot more jokes than, say, Nico. 

 2. On Original Characters vs Canon Characters.

This might be the most controversial piece of advice, but I'm just going to explain what has worked for me. As I see it, there are two types in this genre of fan fiction: 

1. Fan fiction based entirely around the characters used in the books that is essentially a continuation of them (like this book);

2. Fan fiction from the point of view of an original character (OC) who is simply in the same world (e.g. Camp Half Blood) as the books. 

I personally prefer (1), but both types have an audience. While this may just be my opinion, I think the key is to not mix the two types. When an original character is introduced as a love interest, for example, to an already existing character, it starts to sound more like a wish-fulfillment imagining than a story designed to entertain. If you're purely doing it just for fun, go for it, but if you're aiming to write a story and entertain others, I'd try to avoid this. It's not to say you can't introduce any new character, but it's usually best to keep them to a minimum. People reading type 1 want to read about the characters they came to love in the series.

3. On Grammar.

I'm going to keep this short because no one wants to hear me preach about grammar, but seriously: even though it's fan fiction, people aren't going to read a story plagued with bad grammar. If you want votes, edit it, or get someone else to help you. 

4. On Style.

Feel free to write in your own style and change it up a bit, but remember that your readers are here because they enjoyed reading the original author's style. It's good to at least keep a similar mood as the author did; for example, Riordan generally has a pretty light mood despite what's going on, and often has jokes and references to keep it entertaining. The readers enjoyed it in his writing, so why not work it into yours?

5. On Content and Plot.

While you don't want to rewrite canon, it's good to keep the focus and plots similar to something that could have been part of it. For example, although pregnancy was obviously never a main focus of Riordan's books, I've focused mine more on prophecies and such surrounding the babies than on medical complications (which is something I've seen in some fan fictions). Unless your focus is the characters going back to high school or something (or even if its!), it's good to include elements from canon like mythology and prophecies. 

6. On World-building.

This is similar to characterization, but try to keep at least some of the familiar and beloved settings from canon to make your readers feel at home. In the case of PJO fan fics, remember to include mythology (and accurately!). There were a lot of different monsters, gods, and other mythology presented in the books, but there's even more out there. I did some research before writing Percabeth's Child to bring in the goddess Eirene, for example. 

7. On Updating.  

I probably can't talk here since I know I'm not the best with timely updates, but it's probably true that you will get more readers if you can manage them. But even more important than timely updates is a good base: it's fine if you want to space out your updates after you get some readers, but if you've got chapters finished when you've just started out writing a book, publish them. Rarely is someone going to start a book with only two chapters posted. I've actually seen books with just a few chapters posted that refuse to post another until they get 25 votes or something. You have to realize that you are not going to get that number of votes until you have more content published, so if you do something like that you'll find yourself caught in a nice Catch-88 (anyone?).

In then end, I think the most important part of writing fan fiction is to make the reader forget that they are reading fan fiction. They want to relive the story they loved, so give them the characters, world and grammar of the books they remember, and you'll be in good hands.