Fanfiction Help

Lesson 3-Purpose In Actions

Like I said in the last lesson, The only action that should be done are those that serve a purpose. I've seen a lot of fanfiction who have an unnecessary amount of description. We don't want to read them randomly walking down halls, taking showers or getting ready for bed or to go somewhere, unless something out of the ordinary happens during this time or it serves a purpose later in the story.

I mean think of movies. When a person is walking down a random street at night and decides to turn into a underpass, isn't that a red flag that a jump scare will happen and something bad will happen to the main character, unless it's a trick to release tension there is no need for that scene. Or when the main character just so happens to have/finds the item that solves whatever problem they have and they have either walked past it or had it on their person already and has been twiddling with it in previous chapters.

Those previous chapters, I should say scenes, should be your set up, they are the ones where they can be 'boring' with a lot of filler description. They just have to be important later somehow.

Example:

Hitoshi looks over to Denki who is fiddling with his necklace as he listens to Aizawa teach. He ends up putting it into his mouth then he takes it out and flips it over. He does this a few times then twirls the gemstone around his thumb. He is so caught up in watching that he doesn't hear his dad call on him to answer the question. When he relays that he has no clue what they were even talking about, he is saved by the bell and together with Denks they make their escape.
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Later that night the two are hanging out in the dorm living room. They do this before the bakusquad comes down for movie night every Friday for alone time. They enfold themselves together, doing their own seperate things. Denki on his phone with a charger in mouth. Hitoshi trying to get some well needed sleep on his boyfriends chest. His eyes drifts up to look at his boyfriend who sets down his phone and carts one hand through his hair while the other plays with the necklace he always wears.

"Hey Denks," the insomniac asks. With a hum from his pikachu he continues, "What's the necklace? You always play with it when your thinking. Why is that?"

"Oh, um... you could say that. It's a... Family necklace, everyone has one."

The purple haired teen squishes his brows in confusion while the other goes back to his phone. He has met his parents and doesn't remember them having the same necklace. Sleep consumed him at that moment though so he let the thought pass.

(He will regret that. For later that necklace is the key to prove the blonde a traitor.)

With that long example, notice how I started with a boring thing, one watching the other play with a necklace. Very boring but relatable gesture, especially with someone in love. Then in the next scene I explain the necklace and that Tosh was skeptical that that was the correct answer. I just added the last part so you will know what'll happen.

But remember that description has to be useful somehow. You can have a  paragraph of boring stuff but not at the end of the chapter and not a whole scene worth. We are smart readers. We can assume what isn't being said. Spelling things out causes the reader to think your not on par with their cognitive level. We know that the character probably got dressed, brushed their teeth, showered, and peed before they exited the house in the morning, we just don't have to read it.

If it needs to be in just remember short and sweet. Like "he grabs his stuff and leaves." Not "he grabs a backpack and throws in his clothes and laptop. He grabs his earplugs and turns it on to... " yeah no one likes lists unless it's important. Like within that list is something he'll end up losing but then again, you could always have him searching for it later instead of telling he had it chapters back.
Short and sweet. That's the motto.