I don’t think I’ve seen any specifically “yandere” Lestat fanfic, I’m not all that familiar with that word, but, as a fandom, we thirst for all VC fanfic, so send it!
Submit it as a link if you want, like this: www(.)website(.)com, bc tumblr doesn’t like it when you try to send
(If you have it but it’s not posted anywhere, come to me off-anon and I will give you an email address you can send it to if you only want me to read it.)
So if we extrapolate from this one-off line in episode fifteen, as well as this tweet by the creator and the answers given at this comic con panel from 2014, we can infer that this character’s relationship with salad is more complex than it first appears …
*pulls down sunglasses and points a flamethrower at the source material* Death of the author, baby.
Maybe that applies to fandom in some way, too… bc the joke “When you’re motivated to write smut out of spite,” that’s being salty about someone’s sour opinion about a ship, I would guess, and OP writing smut of that ship just to rebel, that’s the sour to the saltiness?
Salty, sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, umami… all the flavors can be applied to fandom, too, and they’re all of value. We consume canon, fanon, etc… we create our own. This is probably not any kind of definitive statement on flavor (partly bc they’re lumping umami and salty? oddly?) butthis article has some interesting info on flavor interactions that could probably be applied to fiction/media/fanworks/etc….
So YEAH in the article linked above, we get these recommendations with cooking that I think applies to fanfic. Maybe this will help someone with their writing!
I’m trying to find this great graphic I saw ages ago about types of fanfic, where, say, the source text would be a continuous line, and an augmenting fanfic would be a line that takes off at at angle, or an AU would be a line separate from the canon line—does this ring a bell with anyone?
THIS. Is one of my favorite posts re: fanfic and I am so glad I found it again to reblog it here. Such accurate description of what fanfic is/seeks to achieve in its many forms. I’m sure someone out there is thinking it’s incomplete, and maybe that’s true, but I love this for what it explains anyway and so HERE IT IS.
I would add that Drabbles and Additions exist within canon, filling out interstices of the overall story.
And I also find this diagram creatively inspiring. If you’re stuck, you might find a way through by choosing a different route based on these diagrams.
Dude! Just write some stuff. 😀 😀 This is a teeny little sleepy fandom and it is so thirsty for more content, just do it! You can do it! We all want you to write fic!!!!!!
…Fanfiction is awesome to flex your writing muscles a bit and get some practice in, and it’s helpful because it invites attention and feedback. It’s also easy to apply flash fiction or drabbles to fanfic because we don’t need exposition and backstory. Like, yeah! WE GET IT, WE KNOW! Quit dicking around and just jump into the story, we already want it! This is so valuable when it comes to just getting WRITING done and you really don’t even need a plot. You can elaborate on the teeniest mental images, headcanons, goofy or angsty situations, and that’s all it has to be! No one expects it to win a Pulitzer, it’s okay if it isn’t perfect!
In fact!!!!!!!!!! It shouldn’t be perfect! And you are not going to get better if you do not start somewhere!
I still get really nervous when I post fics and I doubt my abilities BASICALLY CONSTANTLY ALL THE TIME LOL but good and bad feedback are imperative to honing your craft and learning your strengths and finding things to fix. PLUS LIKE, it can really help to motivate you if you get some people on your side who like what you’re doing! Like I am consistently sappy and overwhelmed by the response to my fics and it’s what keeps me writing. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Anyway idk man, here’s an ungraceful dismount to my post lmfao but, listen!
Write! Do it! Share it with us we are thirsty.
^*APPLAUDS* Rules are made to be broken. Write the way you want! I had a teacher who told me that to begin a sentence with “And” was blasphemy, illegal. punishable by DEATH practically, but I know Anne Rice does it OFTEN, in published fiction, so that teacher was wrong. Maybe she was just trying to start us off with the rules so we could then break them. Probably that.
Even though I write fanfic myself, I have my own tastes about it. Writing fic is an art in itself, you’re creating smtg, like sculpture or cooking, and as such it’s very subjective. There are courses taught on writing in schools at all levels, books written about writing, so while I can’t give you a thorough and objective answer in a short blog post… I can give you this much and NO CUTS WE LONGPOST LIKE MEN.
For me, writing is about 1 or more of these basic setups, sometimes combined and interwoven:
(a) presenting a problem and exploring it,
(a) presenting a problem, exploring it, and (b) offering a solution,
(a) presenting a problem, exploring it, (b) offering what the author feels is a BAD solution and (c.) showing the consequences of that bad solution.
^That’s all you really need. Everything else is in service to that. Even the fluffiest fanfic has some issue, even if that issue is just, “What shirt am I going to wear tonight?” Mundane, probably, but hey, it’s still a decision that needs to be made! 😉
~My-own-taste-based advice on writing fanfic~
Fluff tastes better with at least a dash of angst, Angst tastes better with at least a dash of fluff, etc. A friend of mine took a cooking class and was told that salt brings out the flavor in other ingredients. I definitely think that corresponds with fic. I’m not saying to use every ingredient at your disposal, but in an angsty scene, can you toss in one character trying to placate the other by doing smtg fluffy, idk, bringing them flowers?
^X A flower offering might get rejected by the recipient in the scene (or it could provide ammunition!), but just the act of doing that can enhance the scene by so much. I MEAN LOOK AT THIS PICTURE. Is there not a rich story here??
Use epithets sparingly. PLEASE just use their names if you don’t want to use their gender pronouns. I can’t tell you how far it kicks me out of a fic when I see “the elder vampire” or “the brunette” so many times in close proximity bc it fixates the reader on those characteristics, which generally have nothing to do with the scene itself. YES I KNOW SHE’S OLDER/YES I KNOW HER HAIR IS BROWN. SO WHAT?? Even when it’s two characters of the same gender in a scene alone together, your reader can usually figure out by context which “he” you mean when you write: “he reached up and touched his shoulder” One way to do it is by leading with one of the characters in the para, so it’s clear who’s doing the actions in it, ’[Name 1] tentatively went in for a hug. He reached up and touched his shoulder.’ In the next para, the other character can take over the action. ’[Name 2] batted the offending hand away. “Don’t touch me!”’
“Said” is not a curse word. Go ahead anduse other words for “said,” but too many ‘“Oh!” she cried’ ‘“Oh!” she moaned’ also kicks me out of a fic bc I become more aware of the writer sitting there trying to impress me. “Said” is just a notification that it’s a spoken word, let me breeze past it, it’s okay, really. Don’t let your “said” substitutes do so much of the work that the words of dialogue should be shouldering.
Purple prose when it matters. A fic with all dialogue and little descriptive details can read like a report. If you’re going for that, good! But purple prose adds texture and helps immerse the reader. Readers don’t need it in every para and every line of dialogue, it tends to slow down the action. It can be used to great effect, maybe describing the interior of a room gives a nice pregnant pause in the dialogue to increase the tension. Just don’t drown the reader with it unless you’re doing it for a reason.
To return to my earlier point, What is the purpose of your fic? Even if you’re just aiming for the fluffiest fic, I feel like it gives it a little extra substance if there’s some underlying thing/moment you’re exploring.
I did a fic about Louis, Lestat, and Claudia getting ready for Halloween, but I also included some exploration of Claudia getting upset and missing her mother, and that led to her being informed that Louis and Lestat also missed their own mothers.It’s one of those defining but subtle moments in everyone’s life, when you realize your parents were also children with parents of their own. So the fic was not just about the premise “dressing up for Halloween,” but what other things that could stir up, and what we can reveal about the characters whether or not it was explicitly given to us in canon. In this instance, we didn’t get this in canon, this was in the interstices of canon.
Anon, start slow, dip your toe in, look at fic you love and try to figure out what makes it so good for you! Don’t be afraid to fail.
I’ve collected some somewhat more objective things in my #on writingtag, so you might try there, but again, those are things that I probably agree with, too 😉
Chapters: 5/? Fandom: Vampire Chronicles – Anne Rice Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Santino/Allesandra, (more to follow) Characters: Santino, Allesandra, Alfredo, (more to follow) Summary:
Santino recounts his life in Rome from the moment he joined the Children of Darkness and sheds some light on his side of the encounters he has had with other vampires.
As a fellow writer I’d say to just write and practice as much as you can even if you never publish it! As for length I’d say whatever it takes to get to “the thing” as Bukowski would say. Some people need 2k or more words while some need much less. It’s all about finding your own style of writing, the people who want to read your work will show up regardless. In my opinion, as a reader I like at least 1k words but I have read really short fics too. Just find what suits you and get good at it! Sometimes I read really long fics, and when I’m done it felt short because it was that good. Just do what feels right. You say you’re new to writing fanfiction, but if you’re new to writing for enjoyment in general my suggestion would be to try to make the goal of setting up the first chapter solidly if it’s going to be a long one(multiple chapters).
YOU SAID IN YOUR TAGS TO JUMP IN WITH THOUGHTS SO HI, HERE I AM.
One of the things I love about fanfiction is that it’s the fucking Wild West and there’s so much out there and it’s so subjective. Everyone has their own standard on lengths and such and I guarantee you that no matter what the length is that someone will want it. Like yeah we all wanna read a nice novel length fic that’ll keep us occupied for a week and rip our hearts out, but there’s a huge value in finding tiny fics that you can read real quick while you’re on your lunch break or waiting in a line somewhere. I promise there is an application for all lengths of fics. 😀
I did wanna say though, as a writer, I find it super fucking distracting to worry about how long my fic is while I’m writing it. I use TextEdit to write a lot cause it’s really plain and doesn’t have a wordcounter and doesn’t show you page breaks, so you can like smash away and not have to worry about it. I try to think of my stories as having a beginning, a middle, and an end, and it takes as long as it takes to get there. Don’t let the number bug you. If you’re telling a good story it truly doesn’t matter.
those posts criticizing common writing patterns in fanfiction are so fucking harmful and they ruined me
so like yknow what??? People tell you to avoid “smirk” and “chuckle” as descriptors because no one does those things (???) but then when I need to use those words I have a ten minute crisis about how I’m a shitty writer. So heres my unwarranted writing advice: If you want your characters to smirk and chuckle fucking let them and don’t let anyone tell you that no one smirks or chuckles because I do both on a daily basis whenever I tell a shitty pun, bye
Edgy fanfiction critics can eat my entire ass.
Seriously all this. All those posts and people who decide to ‘give me advice’ on how to write make me want to write 1000% less than I already do.
This post is uhhhh bad because criticism is important and helps you grow as a writer?? However, I do agree with OP that those common writing mistakes posts are not great.
Not because they’re “fucking harmful” to you by giving general advice, but because they fall into the same pit as bad grade school teachers by giving absolute advice. Fact of the matter is, all of the advice those posts give is useful, but NONE of it is true in absolutely every circumstance. All of it has to be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s never framed that way.
It’s important to know rules and conventions when you write but it’s equally important to know when to break them. I remember my sister getting a C for a writing assignment in school because she had the sense to know that a hillbilly character would not speak in “proper English” but her 50-year-old teacher did not.
So yes, criticism can be stupid and shitty and you shouldn’t always listen to it (even if you’re 10). But um… no, you are not victimized by people online sharing writers tips’. Read the tips, absorb them, and then apply them only where they are useful. OP already had the sense to do that, apparently they were just really salty about having to do so.
The best praise an artist can receive is the long, impassioned sort that gets deep into exactly what the commenter liked about their work and leaves them feeling warm and giddy all over.
I just wanted to pop in and remind all the fic writers & RP’ers out there that you don’t have to listen to the black & white thinkers trolling this website who want to shit on you every time you bring up something sympathetic about your character.
It’s okay for “bad” characters to have sympathetic traits. It would be boring as fuck if they didn’t. It’s unfortunate that so many people out there are too salty and dense to understand a complex character, but don’t let it get you down!
If you’re a good fic writer or RP’er it’s really important to take all facets of the character’s personality into consideration. You aren’t here to write a 2D ebul cartoon. You should be taking their motives into consideration. You should be figuring out their demeanor. If they are a charming sociopath, you shouldwrite them as being charming. That’s the whole fucking point!
Fic writers and RP’ers engage in fandom in a way that unwraps characters and tries to figure out what makes them tick. We want to figure out why they feel the way they feel, we want to figure out their temperament, we want to understand. It’s an exercise in creative empathy and there are a lot of people out there who just don’t have a creative bone in their body. They’re gonna try to shout you down for acknowledging that a character can have gray morality or be a dichotomy in some way and I hope it doesn’t discourage anyone.
So get outta my face with all this purity politics bullshit, plz & thank you. Acknowledging conflicting pieces of your character is a responsible and creatively intelligent thing to do, and people who don’t get that can eat a dick.
I-want-my-IWTV 