Bad Fanfiction and Why It Should Burn

Descriptions

SAI:

When I first joined Wattpad, I had absolutely no idea that so many people didn't know how to describe a single thing. Like, for example, so many fanfictions go like this:
'She put on her favorite outfit (it looks like this)' and then a picture of some outfit follows. Or, instead of an outfit, it's a treehouse or something (I've seen it, believe me). Anyways, you should at least try to describe what something looks like, because just putting a picture makes you look beyond normal lazy. When I see someone with pictures all over their fanfiction, it just looks like they don't even attempt to put any effort into it.

Now, if you actually do put descriptions, here's a few tips:

CHARACTERS
1) Don't list everything in one sentence. Take a little time on your descriptions, because that's what your readers are going to have implemented into their minds about the character's appearance while they hallucinate movies (or TV series, if that's your norm) of the fanfiction.
For example, a lot of descriptions go like this -
'He had jet black hair, blue eyes, pale skin, and wore a jacket, jeans, and red converse.'
This is alright for a beginner. But I don't like being called a beginner, and I'm sure that none of you do, either. You want the description to stretch out. It's also good if you fragment it a little, meaning describe the character's features while the 'scene' is continuing. Let's just rephrase the above description -
'His inky black hair hung down over his blue eyes, contrasting sharply with his pale face, the color of parchment. He wore a jacket that was evidently too big for him, from the way it hung over his frame, and his navy blue jeans bunched up around his ankles, his feet shod in converse, although this pair was in a shocking, almost crimson shade of red. 
"What do you want?" He scowled, his watery blue eyes staring at her accusingly.'
This is a lot better. It lets the reader get a grasp on what your character looks like in their own way, but while still keeping the same basic features.

2) Work on character design.
You want to associate your character with things that will fit them, instead of having them be an amalgamate of total confusing randomness (again, I've seen it). For example, the character's eye color. If the character is sharp and headstrong, you could make the eyes amber, and relate them to fire. Or, if they're sweet and kind, make them brown and relate them to chocolate or coffee. You want a character's appearance to reflect a little bit of their personality.

Emotions
1) Show, not tell
The difference between a feeling and an emotion is that emotions are more overwhelming, whereas feelings are a bit more toned down. In simple terms, feelings can be stated straightforwardly, while emotions require more description.

 One thing you have to know in writing is 'show, not tell'. I know you're probably thinking I'm a little crazy (ok, fine, maybe not a little), as this is writing . But believe me, I know what I'm talking about, in this at least. In a fanfiction, it is often told that a character is doing or feeling something. Like, let's take an excerpt from the previous definition I showed you guys.
' He scowled, his watery blue eyes staring at her accusingly.'
It's fine to tell if you're just introducing a character, but when it comes to the emotion of an existing character, (alright, alright, I admit it, I may have made a tiny mistake there) you need to show, like this -
'He scowled, his watery blue eyes digging into her, chanting about how it was all her fault, how she was the reason his brother had died and how he-'
Yeah, we're getting a little dark here, so let's leave it at that. Just remember not to straightaway tell what's happening, as it makes you lose a lot of opportunities and makes your works appear less professional.

PLACES
1) Look at actual pictures
This will help you notice small details in places and immerse the reader farther into your world. You especially need to work on describing places if your world is fantasy or sci-fi, as they have a different range of details. Another skill that is essential is for description, and not just location description is an extensive vocabulary. Which will also be covered sometime in this book.

2) Give an input of how the location makes the character feel
There may be several instances when a location makes a character feel small, unclean, uneasy, suspicious or etc. This feeling usually depends on the people that are already in that location, and how the character feels compared to them. A character is usually not that emotionally affected by a location itself, but that depends on the plot.

Extra tip:

Relate the sound, look or feel of something to another object, place, feeling, etc. This will give a more vivid edge to your stories and make them stand out.

 For example, instead of, 'Her voice was sharp and cold', you could use 'She had a voice of icicles - sharp, cold, and crystal clear'.  

Anyways, I hope this was helpful to you guys, and I congratulate you for being able to get this far with someone like me at the reins. Until next chapter.