30 Days to 50K: The Beginning

As many of you know, November is National Novel Writing Month, more commonly known as NaNoWriMo. Each year thousands of authors around the world take part in the challenge to pen 50,000 words in 30 days. This month Dee and myself (Nikki) have chosen to take on the challenge, and share our experiences along the way with YWW? readers. We'll be checking in here each week, talking about our progress, the ups and downs of the challenge, and perhaps even sharing some excerpts from our work. Essentially, YWW? will be our writing journal for the next...

Read More

Self Promotion 101: Pimp Your Fic, Part II

Last time we talked about five tips to promoting your fan fiction masterpiece.   To review, here they are: Tip # 1. Dedicate Accounts Exclusively to Your Fanfic Writing.
 Tip # 2. Put Your Profile to Work.
 Tip # 3. Create a Provocative Story Description.
 Tip # 4. Direct Your Contacts To Your Fic.
 Tip # 5. Broadcast Your Updates These next five tips build upon the previous five and I’m making some assumptions: you’ve got dedicated Twitter/Facebook/tumblr/blog accounts under the same name as your fan fiction identity;...

Read More

Tricky Raven presents 'A Haunting in Forks'

The arrival of October brings many things: crisp fall air, hot apple cider, the changing of leaves, and of course, Halloween.  This Halloween, celebrate the season with our friends over at Tricky Raven. The site has several fun features running during the month of October, including: The Witches Cauldron: A place for fans to share their favorite Halloween recipes. The Ghost of Halloween Past: A place where fans can share their favorite Halloween memories. Haunted Hallway: Story recs that definitely aren't for the faint of heart. In...

Read More

Self Promotion 101: Pimp Your Fic

My parents raised two computer engineers, an apparel designer, a horticulturist, and me. And what did I, the English major, end up doing when I grew up? Mostly sales and marketing, but I’ve always dreamed of being a published fiction writer. Twenty-five years ago I read a book that said if you write your dreams down, they will come true. So, I did. And I waited. Then I waited some more. Nothing happened. Then, about a year ago, we got a Netflix account and before I knew it, I got sucked into the Fox drama ‘Bones’ universe. When the current season...

Read More

Getting Over the Fear of Posting

First Post You’ve tossed the idea around in your head a thousand times. You’ve read dozen of fics; some made you afraid to try writing a story that could stand alongside it. Then there are those fics you wonder how the author ever thought to pass it off in your fandom! But you decide to take the dive. You come up with the best story plot ever! Or, at least it’s awesome to you. You’ve spent days writing the first chapter, using your favorite character as the hero and the worst characters as the villains. The Terms of Use and Guidelines have...

Read More

The Top 10 Mistakes New Writers Make

A little less than five months ago, I sat in front of my laptop, nervously chewing on my fingernail, staring at the first chapter of my very first fic. It was ready to go — all I had to do was hit ‘Post New Chapter’. A series of doubts ran through my head as I hovered over the button, taking ragged breath after ragged breath. What if I misspelled a word? What if there’s a paragraph out of place? What are people really going to think of this chapter? Of this story in general? With one last sigh, I finally took the plunge, said screw it and hit...

Read More

Fanfictionary

Wouldn’t it be nice if Webster came through, picked out all the confusing/foreign/ over-our-head fanfic terminology, and wrote up a special dictionary just for fanfic writers and readers to use? <insert dreamy sigh here> A girl can dream, right? I’m sure we’ve all wished for something to help decipher the sometimes-confusing jargon associated with a story at one time or another. While Webster may be in no hurry to help us out, there’s still some hope! I took to Twitter and Facebook to ask writers and readers alike what some of the most...

Read More

The Art of The Review

If fan fiction were its own nation, reviews would be the currency. The above statement is one I would venture to guess almost every author (and probably reader) of fan fiction could agree with. Writers love it when readers leave them a review at the end of a chapter. After all, what human doesn’t like to receive some type of acknowledgment after working hard on something? Reviews are a way for authors to know what people loved, what they hated, what stuck even after the chapter ended, and whether or not the plot bunny in question will carry...

Read More

Beta 101: How to be a Beta

Of all the inboxes, on all the sites in all the world…she walked into mine. Okay, so maybe my adventures as a beta didn’t begin so dramatically. But narratives without drama are like 50Shades of Grey without the Twilight references…they just don’t work.             My life as a beta actually began quite by chance. I read a story, and the more I read of the story the more convinced I became that the author was really onto something, if they could just push themselves to write outside...

Read More