#writing is often taken for granted by fandom so us writers need to stick together and uplift each other!

[purrincess-chat]

Cat’s Writing Advice for Beginners: Do’s and Don’t’s

I mentioned a while back possibly posting some writing advice and sharing some of the things I’ve learned over the years as a writer. I’ve been writing since I was 11 years old (though not entirely consistently since then), and I have been writing pretty consistently for the past 6-7 years. I’m by no means a “professional” writer. I’ve never had anything published, but I have learned a lot writing for fandom, so if you’re looking to start writing or maybe level up your writing in fandom spaces, here are some beginner level tips that might help you!

DO create a new paragraph for new subjects. 

If you’re writing dialogue especially, follow the rule: new speaker, new paragraph. No one wants to read a big block of text and try to piece together who is speaking.

Correct: “Hey, you should read some of Cat’s writing on AO3,” Adrien said. 

“I’ve heard she has some great Ladrien content coming this summer.” Marinette nodded in agreement. 

Incorrect: “Do you think we’ll ever defeat Hawkmoth?” Ladybug asked. “Of course, m’lady! We’re an unstoppable team,” Chat Noir said. Ladybug smiled at her partner and took a deep breath. “You’re right. We won’t lose.”

DON’T swap character POVs within the same scene.

I am guilty of doing this in the past, and I think a lot of fandom writers are as well. I’ll give you an example from my own writing of what NOT to do:

His gaze flicked back down to her lips, and he leaned in once more, gently touching his lips to hers. A hand cupped her face, tenderly caressing her cheek while the other slid around her waist, and as much as she knew she shouldn’t, she let herself pretend that this was real. That Adrien loved her, and that they were really together.

For one small fraction of time, she didn’t worry about how much it would hurt later. How her heart would shatter and break when all was said and done. How painful it would be when she and Adrien went their separate ways, and she’d watch as he moved on with someone else.

She didn’t care. All that mattered to her were the soft lips entwined with her own, the gentle yet eager way he pulled her closer, tilting his head until his tongue slipped between her lips and made contact with hers. The soft moan that rumbled in his throat as she dared to reach up to curl her fingers through his golden locks that urged him to kiss her deeper until her back was against the couch as he pressed against her. The hungry way his tongue danced with her own and the breath shared between them that became heavier as they held tighter, hands knotting fistfuls of clothing and hair as what was meant to be a gentle melody evolved into a symphony.

Neither one cared to slow down. Adrien found himself just as lost in her as she was him, and he didn’t want to stop.

Marinette was a friend, a fact he knew this quite well, but something in this felt right. Kissing her was exhilarating and fun, and he had to admit, it felt pretty good. However, as was customary for his life, all good things came swiftly to an end, and when Nathalie cleared her throat forcefully, he felt the haze parting.

Pulling away, his eyes locked with Marinette’s who seemed just as dazed and confused as he did, and he realized how unconsciously entwined they’d become and quickly pushed away with flushed cheeks. Nathalie barely batted an eye as he looked up at her, wiping saliva from his mouth and fussing with his hair.

“But you just said new subject, new paragraph!” --Yes, but! When you’re writing a particular scene, it’s best to stick in one character’s POV at a time. If you must include a separate POV, use a scene break to indicate to your reader that you are changing POVs. Scene breaks can be anything from a series of dashes ------ or I personally tend to use ******* whatever floats your boat. 

As shown above, the start of their kiss is in Marinette’s POV, and the end of the kiss is in Adrien’s POV. Don’t do that. Pick one and stick to it. Jumping from character to character like that is known as “head-hopping,” and it can be jarring for the reader. it’s why idk how anyone can stand to read my fake dating au anymore it’s so bad omg 

Most importantly when you are writing a story with multiple POVs, you must establish whose head we are in immediately in a new scene. If you’re jumping from Marinette to Adrien, the beginning of your new scene should immediately let the reader know they are now following Adrien. **Note: This advice is for writing in a POV known as third-person limited. If you are writing third-person omniscient, this is a bit different, but that is a post for another day. 

DO learn the difference between action tags and dialogue tags

This is something I only learned within the past couple years. When writing dialogue, there are different ways that you can “tag” them. Dialogue tags tend to display how a character is speaking, so things like “said, shouted, whispered, groaned, asked.” Dialogue tags are usually preceded by a comma. I demonstrated this earlier in my first example, so we’ll use it.

“Hey, you should read some of Cat’s writing on AO3,” Adrien said.

This is an example of a dialogue tag. You’re simply just stating who said the dialogue. If you’re using a pronoun instead of the character’s name, be sure it’s lowercased. Ex:

“Hey, you should read some of Cat’s writing on AO3,” he said. 

Action tags are a bit different. Action tags are exactly what they sound like. They demonstrate actions that a character is taking either before, during, or after speaking. The dialogue preceding action tags is punctuated with a period. (unless it’s a question or if you’re using a “!”) Ex:

“I’ve heard she has some great Ladrien content coming this summer.” Marinette nodded in agreement. 

This is an action tag. You understand Marinette is speaking, but over-using dialogue tags can get boring to the reader, especially if your characters are having a long conversation. Action tags are often used to break up the monotony of a scene and also add movement, so it doesn’t look like your characters are just floating heads talking in a white room. (White room syndrome).

You can also opt not to tag a piece of dialogue at all, and there are instances where this is preferable. However, if you’re not going to tag who is speaking, it must be apparent who is speaking. Example:

“Hey, do you want to catch a movie with me this afternoon?” Marinette asked.

Adrien sighed, shoulders slumping. “I can’t. My father scheduled a photoshoot.”

“That’s okay. Maybe another time.”

In this example, you can infer that Marinette said the untagged dialogue. It helps break up some of that monotony as well during a long conversation. (I also moved Adrien’s action tag to the front to avoid overloading on “” at the beginning of every paragraph).

DON’T put your punctuation outside of the quotation marks. As you can see in all of the above examples, punctuation goes inside the quotes. 

Correct: “I love helping Cat demonstrate how to write proper dialogue,” Adrien said.

Incorrect: “Punctuation is tricky, but you can do it”! Marinette cheered. 

If you guys found this helpful and would like to see more writing advice from me, let me know! I’m not professional by any means, but I’d say I’m probably an intermediate writer at this point. At the end of the day, fandom isn’t going to call you out if you head-hop or make a few minor mistakes (I mean, some people will, but most people don’t care). But clean writing can make your stories more attractive to readers and help you grow as a writer if it’s something you want to continue.