Everything Wrong With HARRY POTTER Fanfictions

DON'T NO 18: Word For Word Narration

Another big let down of reading fanfiction...

The Word For Word Narration.

Alright guys, I know I myself told you that it is better to keep the same timeline as the books (considering if you've just begun writing) because it saves you a lot of trouble but that doesn't mean that you have to narrate all the books and just add one character to the narration.

Following the plot and narrating everything as it is with no visible changes, are two completely different things.

Keep in mind that readers come to read fanfiction because they want something different not because they wanted to see a replay of the entire book/movie. It can get really annoying.

And following the book plot means that you keep the major events same, but if you can fiddle a bit with characters and add in a few of your own events, it is perfectly fine.

The narration, however, is the author doing a complete retelling of the series just with the addition of one OC who is a love interest/protegee of the main canon character and basically replaces the original female lead.

For example, you come across a story which is set in Harry's fourth year so that the Triwizard Tournament is held and different schools are coming to participate. And from Durmstrang, a girl named Sarah Mable arrives and captures everyone's heart and attention. She is the only girl studying at Durmstrang because she is so magnificently flawless. She gets chosen as a Triwizard champion instead of Krum and ends up with either Harry or Draco (depending on the author) and basically replaces Hermione/Ginny such that you do not even see their existence in the fanfic. It is just all about the Mable girl and the Chosen One. All the events happen in the same order such as the three tasks, the Yule Ball event etc etc but you do not see Hermione/Ginny anywhere.

This is what word for word narration is.

And let me tell you that it annoys a reader more than a story with grammatical errors. And trust me, bad grammar can piss off the majority of the masses yet this is one thing which pisses them off even more.

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What you can do to avoid this, is to come up with an original plot. Select a suitable character on whom you want the story to be based. Choose an appropriate timeline and add your own events too along the way to make the story interesting.

Do not make your character save the day all the time but do not make the character just stand away in a corner doing nothing.

Assign your character good scenes, think out the dialogues yourself instead of just copy pasting from the Internet, assign a few victories to your character but also give him/her the balancing share of defeats.

Make sure your story stands out and is not just a retelling of the show or the books.

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Hope this chapter helped.

Stay tuned for the next update.