A Shwetzy Guide: How to PROPERLY write an OS/SS/FF

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-ForeverYours-

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Joined: 10 April 2012

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Posted: 18 November 2012 at 4:33pm | IP Logged

{How to PROPERLY Write an OS/SS/FF}

A guide by Shweta Shah (aka Shwetzy)

Hello beautiful people! This is Shweta! And today, rather than an OS/SS/FF/VM, I am writing a post to the benefit of us all!

Quick confusion clearer:

From what I know an OS is a One Shot (has only 1 part), an SS is a Short Story (has a quite a few parts) and an FF is a Fan Fiction (which has multiple parts). Although I think all of these come under Fan Fiction because that's what they all are, fiction written by fans! LOL

I realized that there are many stories being written that have great potential just poor execution.

So here, I'm not saying that some stories are terrible, no not at all. Here I'm just helping all the writers out there improve.

So lets get started shall we? I'll start with the broader topics and then get a bit nit-picky.

Writing Style:

Alright so the first thing that I feel needs to be fixed is the writing style. By writing style I mean is it like "MB waz wlking dwn da stares n RK hold her sari. *BLUSH BLUSH BLUSH*" or is it written like "She descended down the stairs, slowly and gracefully as RK got a hold of her palu causing a crimson red to spread through her cheeks."

Please for the love of God, do not write in "texting lingo". Because readers are taking time out of their lives to read your work only to see that you put barely any effort into it.

It's a shame to see a story with so much potential going down the drain because it takes 5 minutes to figure out what the writer is trying to say.

Not acceptable in any piece of writing: dat, da, coz, becoz, plzzz (z's here are used like there is no tomorrow), etc.

Here are some major pointers associated with writing style.

1.) Quotes

Are we reading a script? Tell me, when you read a book does it say,

Mr. Darcy: Elizabeth, my dear, I love you.

Elizabeth: I love you too! *hugs Mr. Darcy*

No right? Well then any piece of writing unless it's supposed to be a script isn't supposed to be like that either. It is NOT ok and readers should stop letting writers go for this.

You would write,

"Elizabeth, my dear, I love you," whispered Mr. Darcy.

"I love you too," she responded as they went into an embrace.

I understand some people might not know how to use quotes so here's a simple lesson.

The quote goes at the beginning of the dialogue and after. If you are splitting it into two parts then you would put 3 periods at the end and then 3 at the beginning where you pick up. If not you just put a comma or a punctuation mark at the end. And then you would describe the action that is taking place.

Examples:

Ex. 1.) "Bella..." he took a deep breath, "...I love you."

Ex. 2.) "I love you Bella," confessed Edward.

And please please please do not write the dialogue as part of the sentence. It just confuses the readers.

For example:

Madhu I am missing you. I am missing you too she said to phone. Madhu please come back. I can't RK she says then Padmini comes into room.

No! Please it is very frustrating and I think the readers deserve better. You don't even always need a quote-tag like 'he said' or 'she said' after it so it's not even that hard!

Here's how to write that example:

"Madhu, I am missing you."

"I am missing you too," she spoke into the phone.

"Madhu, please come back."

"I can't RK," she replied helplessly as she heard Padmini walk into the room.

See! It's not even that much harder! So please, use quotes. And each quote goes in it's own line and the line is continued when the the rest of what you are trying to say goes along with the character that said the last quote.

For example don't do this:

"Madhu I love you." "I love you too," she replied.

Write it like this:

"Madhu, I love you."

"I love you too," she replied.

Exception of the space rule.

"I love you too," she replied. This feeling was so new, so foreign to her, and yet it felt amazing. "You have no idea how long I've waited to here this from her."

The second part of the above quote can be continued in the same line because the same character said it.

It's a bit confusing at first but once you get the hang of it, it'll be as easy as breathing.

2.) "Mature" writing and sensuality:

Mature writing has to be exactly what it's called. Mature.

If your going to write, "OMG! AND THEN HE KISSED HER ON THE LIPS!" then clearly my dear, you are too young to be writing anything near sensual pieces.

Try to make writings sensual not vulgar because there is nothing sensual and romantic about a rape which half of the situations written about are in which the male protagonist force themselves upon the female protagonist unless of course that is the situation in the story. But please don't make it seem as if the character who is being raped is enjoying it! That goes against all laws of ethics!

But even more so, the fact that some "mature" writings are not even sensual and all there is, is just physical interactions. When describing their kisses describe the love and passion that is within each kiss.

Refrain from using the cliched words like "mesmerized by her beauty". There is no need to use big words that you are not comfortable using or using the one big word you know over and over again to the point where every other word is mesmerized or mesmerizing.

And please, I repeat please do not describe love-making as hot. Words like hot and sexy are used when you want to pick up a few chicks at the bar not when you are trying to describe an intimate moment between two characters whom are in love.

3. Mechanics

Well to be quite honest I'm not too fussy about spelling, if you have a couple (2-5) spelling errors on fairly confusing words, it's ok. Breathe. None of us have a personal editor like book authors do but the least we can do is spell check our work. Copy and Paste it into Word and fix the misspellings.

Occaisonally and Occasionally, alright I understand, might have escaped your eyes but.

Romantic and Romancetic, no. I can't even begin to explain my dismay of such mistakes. Are you saying Romance or Romantic because last time I checked there is not combination of the words.

Another simple thing,

Capitalize the beginnings of sentences.

It's not even that hard, just press Shift with the letter and wola!

I just find this ridiculous and so I'm writing it out for the people who need it for future reference.

Shift + A (Can be subsituted with any letter on the keyboard.)

"i miss you RK."

No.

"I miss you RK."

And the second part of mechanics, grammar. And yes I am extremely fussy about this and I think it is one of the most important parts of a story.

1. Bella walk down street with purse.

Bella was walking down the street with her purse in her hand.

2. He made friends with Shweta.

He became friends with Shweta.

3. He buy her two candy.

He buys her two candies.

You don't make friends you become friends, so in this sense you have to understand the action you are describing and if it can be properly associated with the noun.

Grammar is a very broad topic of which I cannot go over completely here but for assistance you may refer to the following website:

http://www.grammarmudge.cityslide.com/page/page/1725233.htm

3.) EXCESSIVE USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS.

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF I WROTE THIS ENTIRE THING IN CAPITAL LETTERS? CAPITAL LETTERS ARE LIKE SCREAMING ON THE INTERNET AND DON'T USE THEM LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW.

Capital letters, when not being used for an abbreviation, etc. should only be used for emphasis and that too occasionally.

Acceptable:

She was dying. In front of his eyes. No, No, NO!

Not acceptable:

SHE WAS DYING IN FRONT OF HIS EYES. NO, NO, NO!

4.) Hmmm...

This needed it's own section. I cannot tell you the number of times I've come across this monster in pieces ruining the glory of the piece.

Don't use it.

Please?

Use something like,

She was scratching her imaginary beard whilst thinking, "Fine, but only one dinner date."

As opposed to,

"Hmmm... fine but only one dinner date," she responded.

5.) Hindi vs. English

Now the argument that must come up at this point is, "Well what if we have difficulty in English?"

My answer to that would be, please then, write in hindi (don't cut up the words though or I will find you LOL

). And by Hindi I mean phonetic Hindi where the words are written like they sound using the English Alphabet

Example:

"Main tumse pyaar karta hoon."

Hindi is such a beautiful language and sometimes things just sound better in Hindi as opposed to English.

I'm not saying write a bhajan. Use English words in between or wherever you need it because sometimes we are just so used to speaking in "Hinglish" that it seems impossible to just write in just one of the languages.

In short write however you are comfortable writing, just be yourself.

6.) Not important but still,

A piece of writing looks more professional if writing in a uniformed font and size. Don't write something in size 3 or beyond, it doesn't look like something to be seriously taken. So other than your title, make the actual text similar to a book's font and size. It's not important but hey, the point of this post is to enhance your writing.

7.) Uniqueness

And finally, make your work unique from others. There should be a trademark about your work, be it how things are described, how you always write you title (that would be me LOL

), or just about anything. Something that tells us that this is Pritt's work (yes I used you cause the purple font screams my lovable Preeto Di to me) or that this is Shweta's work.

Make it something special and unique.

Concluding Message:

Before I conclude, I would like to repeat this post was not to make anyone feel bad as some people just might be at the disadvantage of not being aware of these things. So think of it as a guide and write some awesome work!

In conclusion, I would like to say that although the story may be the hero of a piece of work, no hero would be able to do its job without its sidekicks which all these pointers are. This is just a basic overview, if you guys want I will later on sometime write up another guide which goes in depth into points like Character Development, Choosing a Storyline, etc.

I hope this really helps, tell me if it made any difference because I am dying to read some new stories on RishBala! And of course, I'm not some perfect god writer so let me know on what I can improve on because guys, the compliments are just too sweet!

Fan Fiction is a literary art, treat it as such.

Shweta <3

-For PMs on my work add "Mrs.SidMalhotra"

-And if you have any questions feel free to comment and ask or even PM!

Edited by -ForeverYours- - 09 December 2012 at 9:00am

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Problem_Child

IF-Sizzlerz

Joined: 14 May 2011

Posts: 11185

Posted: 18 November 2012 at 4:45pm | IP Logged

Hello Ji

Wonderful thread Thumbs Up

nice tutorial

it was quiet funny bt ur points were very true

sometimes a gud story is wasted coz of bad writing

nice idea ji

This thread makes me feel like even i can write one of these OS LOL

Edited by Problem_Child - 18 November 2012 at 4:57pm

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PrittB

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Joined: 29 May 2012

Posts: 9034

Posted: 18 November 2012 at 4:51pm | IP Logged

Great points Shweta!

I admit, I do the script writing in one of my FFs and some of my OSs. Confused

I'll try to keep this post in mind!

Edit:

Nevermind! Shweetoo wants me to keep my script writing as it is!

Also, loved how you used me as an example in Uniqueness. That made me happy. <3

Edited by PrittB - 18 November 2012 at 4:59pm

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MG.Creations

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Joined: 15 May 2007

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Posted: 18 November 2012 at 5:26pm | IP Logged

Thank you SO much for this Shweta!

I'll admit as soon as I read one of your tips, I went back to think whether or not I made one of those mistakes.

Nonetheless, this has been helpful.

And if you don't mind, can you do a little session on the one that you proposed? I.e., character development, choosing a good storyline etc.

I feel I will be able to improve my writing skills immensely with that little session.

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Carabelli5

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Joined: 03 February 2012

Posts: 3365

Posted: 18 November 2012 at 5:32pm | IP Logged

Thank you Ducky Momo...I will definitely follow this guide. And I really do.love your writing and can only aspire to let my thoughts be penned as well as yours. Much needed post. Love ya

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Prabh.DDian

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Posted: 18 November 2012 at 6:52pm | IP Logged

thank u

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DANGGG

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Posted: 18 November 2012 at 8:04pm | IP Logged

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mariya354

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Posted: 18 November 2012 at 8:09pm | IP Logged

wonderful post

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A Shwetzy Guide: How to PROPERLY write an OS/SS/FF

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