RE: Serious Question...

["Parise, Charles"]

Gary,
The best advice I can give it to go ahead and WRITE. The only way
to ever improve is with experience, and you can't get any unless you start
writing. If you like other combo's besides Buffy/Willow, find a list and
post to it. You might get no feedback (which doesn't really mean anything
other than people are busy) or critisism (hopefully constructive) or you
might get someone who really likes it a lot, but until you post, we can't
judge it. Maybe you are feeling shy, or thinking 'oh this is stupid and
everyone is going to see it and think I'm an idiot'. Wrong. Look at it
this way, if you are writing B/W fic, there are only 124 people on this list
all of us joined because we are interested in reading what ever Buffy/Willow
fic is out there and we want more. Remember, you are always your own worst
critic.

So go ahead and write it. Spell check it. Have somebody beta check
it. Then post it.

Fan fic writing is a nice easy way to start as you have characters
that have already been created for you. You just need to devise a situation
for them to interact and let it go from there. As you get more comfortable,
you can start designing original characters to add to your stories and
eventually you might begin writing original stories unrelated to BTVS.

For me, I am a slow writer, but I am always thinking up or revising
a scene that I am going to write down. I ocasionally get inspirations of a
particular scene that I would like to see, and then I jot it down. As time
goes by, I start to have other ideas that might fit in with that sceen or
modify it. Eventually, I have the outline of a story. Next comes the
hardest part, the dialog. I don't know to help you on this part. Sometimes
dialog flows easily but most times it is an uphlll battle to get it right.

The one suggestion I do have is 'Don't disrespect the characters.'
Unless you are purposefully writing 'Badfic', writing the characters in such
a way that they are being continuosly bashed is something that can offend or
put off some readers who may happen to like that character even if you
don't. This is not to say they need be treated like they can do no wrong.
But a continual harping on Xander being insensitive/a jerk, or Joyce being
stupid/over motherly or Dru being crazy get boring realy fast.

Well, thst's my ramble
Chazzman


-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Thompson [mailto:gettps@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 1999 5:02 AM
To: buffyloveswillow@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [buffyloveswillow] Serious Question...


From: "Gary Thompson" <gettps@xxxxxxxxxx>

I have a question for all you awesome authors out there.

I've been reading the stories here... and so far they are ALL incredible!

How do you do it? I mean, I've always wanted to write. It's been this
secret fantasy of mine. But I was never any good at it. I love these types
of stories so much and I've always wanted to write them but I am not any
good.

Were you any good at first? Or was it something that just took time to
develop?

I was able to write one good thing. A poem. It's terribly sad and it was
ripped out of me after a breakup I had. If I have to go through that in
order to write something good then I'd much prefer to never write again.

If I can write something good without feeling the pain then I'd love it.
Any advice?

==================================
Gary Thompson
"The Psycho"
http://psycho.simplenet.com/fanfiction
==================================