Introduction
1) Research
2a) Style 1: The Sugar-Free Fic
2b) Style 2: Emotional Men
3) Spelling
4) Checking Things Over
5) The Beta Reader
6) Helpful Links
 
 

elcome to the revised fanfic rant, part one of two, actually. The second is Fanon and Writing Fallacies and can be seen as a companion piece to this one, a sort of addendum. This essay touches on a few problem areas in Hercules-Xena-Young Hercules fan fiction, and the second essay expands on a few points as well as covering a bit of new ground.

I won't be ranting on the specifics of grammar here. I have no room to lecture anyone on that subject -- a quick glance at my fic will prove that beyond a doubt. However, there are a few things I do want to throw out here. Some of these suggestions I'll be making may seem like common sense, but unfortunately many authors don't seem to be aware of them. I'm hoping that by putting up this page I can do my part to remedy that.

In each section below, the examples I'm using for demonstrations are my own work. I'm more comfortable ripping apart my stuff than someone else's; plus it's a good reminder to me that despite all appearances to the contrary, I'm not perfect. ;-)
 
 

f you're just starting out writing in this or any other fandom, research the show! You don't necessarily have to watch every episode ever made, but do try to see a few. For supplemental research, there are mailing lists you can join where the shows are discussed and there are always web sites devoted to the shows.

One thing you don't want to do is completely rely on other fanfic to shape your opinion of the shows and their characters. There are so many badfics in this fandom these days that unless you hit on the perfect website/author, you're likely to get wrong information. (See Fanon and Writing Fallacies for more on that.)

You also can't rely solely on mythology for your information because the shows were only loosely based on the original Greek mythology. Most authors do use they myths to supliment canon (the information from the shows), but many things in the shows directly contridict the mythology, and vice versa. In those cases, you have to pick and choose what you want to accept for your story.

Below is a list of good research sites and mailing lists.

Encyclopedia Mythica

The Encyclopedia Xenaica

The Perseus Digital Library

Whoosh!

or the most part writing style isn't a big concern of mine. We all have our own and that's just fine. It'd be pretty dull if we all wrote exactly the same way. However, there are two problems I want to address and they're not limited to the Herc/Xena fandom. In fact, this first one happens much more in The Sentinel fandom than anywhere else I've encountered, but we do have our share of it here.

I'm talking about style when writing sex scenes. Or more to the point, a style you should really try to avoid. Now, some of you may want to write just a little bit of foreplay and then cut to the next scene, or others of you may prefer to describe in minute detail, every touch, lick and thrust. That's great. Whatever turns your crank. But whichever way you do it, please try to remember that you're writing a slash sex scene and not a romance novel!

What exactly am I talking about? Here's an example:

His hand caressing the turgid flesh, Iphicles worshiped with his mouth, the tip of Ares' rampant manhood. His tongue touched with awe, the wondrous spear of desire, rewarding him with the briefest taste of ecstasy. Lowering his mouth along the throbbing rod, he heard Ares' moan of desire, felt hands on his head, their touch a burning brand that urged him to more fervent homage.

Bringing an end to the passionate torment, Iphicles caressed Ares' blazing tool with his mouth and teeth, sending the god above him careening towards the edge of that ultimate abyss of rapture -- and then sending him soaring over, like a bird winging its way over the crashing waves of bliss. He nearly joined Ares in the conflagration just from the caress of those adored hands in his hair, the marvelous taste of Ares' divine seed spilling in his mouth, hearing Ares' breathless exclamation of his name....

Now am I making more sense? Difficult to tell if I was writing about sex or a nature program there.

As you can no doubt tell from the above example, I myself used to read romance novels. I think that's how many of us started out on the road to slash writing. The trick is learning to break yourself out of the habit of flowery writing and overblown metaphors.

How do you do that? First comes the biggest step: if you're still reading the romance novels, stop! Once you can write a story without using all those overblown expressions, then you can pick up a nice, sappy bodice-ripper and read away. But for now just cut yourself off.

Secondly, take a look at other fic on the web, at the authors who don't resort to those phrases. There are some excellent work out there and you can get an idea of what good writing styles look like.

Now here's that sex scene again, this time without the romance novel style:

His hand working the thick shaft, Iphicles sucked lightly at the head of Ares' cock. As his tongue moved over the heated flesh, he tasted the salty drops of precum leaking from the slit at the tip. Moving his mouth down further, slowly taking all of the long, hard cock deep into his throat; he heard Ares moan, felt Ares' hands on his head, urging him on.

Abruptly ending the teasing, Iphicles sucked hard. He began sliding his mouth along the Ares' cock, never letting up on the hard suction, the light scraping of his teeth driving the god above him straight to the edge -- and then pushing him over. He nearly came himself just from the feel of those calloused hands clenching in his hair, the taste of thick semen spurting in his mouth, hearing Ares groaning out his name....
(Written specifically for this article.)

Notice the difference? This time Iphicles' actions are clear. We know what he's doing, how he's doing it, and what he's doing it to.

One further note here: even when you're writing a simple PWP (Plot? What plot?) sex can be used to convey more than just plain fucking. You can use the characters' actions to demonstrate how they really feel about each other. For some characters this may be the only way they know how to show their true feelings.

Below is a short list of words and phrases you'll want to avoid when writing your fic:

Euphemisms for cock:

• member
• manhood
• manroot
• tool
• rod
• blazing [insert euphemism here]
• sword/spear of desire/destiny

• milky white substance (if you're not going to say it then don't describe it.)
• rapture
• any soaring/flying metaphor
• any metaphors involving beaches and oceans
• references to bursting/blazing/all-consuming lights
• ecstasy (not when you're talking about an orgasm. Way too clichéd.)

Here's links to two of the best writers I know in the Hercules/Xena fandom. Check out their work to see more examples of what I've been ranting on about:

Fugue by Candace (Note: Candace is as much of a Joel Tobeck fan as I am so I may be a bit biased, however her writing is vivid and the sex scortching.)

Odysseys and Ecstasy (Note: Thamiris is the listmistress for the Ksares mailing list and a goddess when it comes to grammar and sex scenes. *g*)
 
 

his second problem didn't used to be a big one in this fandom, but that's changed over the last couple years. It seems that these days we're plagued by teary-eyed guys, sobbing out their love for each other, cuddling, cooing and generally behaving like bad clichés of women.

Of course men have all the same emotions as women, no one is denying that, but within the Western culture (most cultures, actually), they don't express those feelings in the same way. Sure, some men are more comfortable saying "I love you," than others, and there are even some guys out there completely in touch with their emotions, not at all afraid to cry. But none of that describes the male characters from the Hercules-Xena-Young Hercules shows.

I know most of you are aware of that, but sometimes it's hard to translate that awareness into your fic. The temptation is constantly there to write the characters the way you wish men were, that is, more communicative and caring, etc. But that's not the way the characters behave on the show -- and remember, the goal here is to write a fic where the characters are still recognizable as the ones we know.

So how do you stop that from creeping into your fic? Well, there are a few ways. If you think you might be straying from the proper characterization, then go back and watch a few of the eps, talk it over with other authors, or maybe read a good fic or two. (See Research for more on that. And see Fanon and Writing Fallacies for fic types to avoid.)

Another good way is to take a step back, figuratively, look at what you're writing and ask yourself: "would any guys I know actually say/do/act like that?" That's a pretty decent guide to avoiding those overly emotional scenes that probably would never occur in RL.

Of course I'm going to give you some examples here. *g*  The first two are demonstrations of how not to handle an emotional scene and the third is one way you might choose to handle it. (I'm not saying it's the only way. There are plenty of options out there.)

"Oh, Cupid!" Strife clasped his cousin tightly against him. "You've got no idea how much I've been dying to tell you how much I love you! You're my life, Cupid!" Strife began sobbing, tears dripping down his cheeks.

"Strife, baby!" Cupid hugged him just as tightly, tears welling up in his own eyes. "I've been in love with you from the first moment I saw you! My heart beats only for you, sweetiepie! I want to marry you and have a family with you and adore you for all eternity!"

"It's so perfect!" Strife said with a ragged sob, cuddling closer. "I just wanna be your sweet little hubby for all time! I love, love, love you, Cupie!"

Two words here: Yeah. Right.

Be scared folks, because that scene is a very popular form of writing right now.

"Yo, Cupid." Strife nodded to his cousin as he leaned back against the marble column. "You're like, my favorite dagger, know what I mean?"

"Dude," Cupid agreed. "Ditto."

"Cool."

"Yep."

Strife nodded again, then pulled out a knife and started cleaning his nails. "So, how about those Spartans, huh?"

"They're going all the way this year, man," Cupid said as he looked critically at an arrowtip.

It may be funny, but it doesn't exactly convey that emotional depth, does it? Now, for an idea of what you might want:

"Heya, Cupid." Strife rested his crossed arms on the headboard of the bed, staring down at his cousin with a smirk.

"Strife?" Cupid raised an eyebrow. It wasn't unusal for Strife to show up, but to have him standing behind the bed instead of lying in it was...odd.

"Was just doing some...thinking," Strife drawled the words, eyes roaming freely over Cupid's mostly naked form.

Cupid fluffed out his wings, appreciating the attention. "And...?" he prompted.

"I was thinking you'd look better in my bed." Strife's smirk widened.

"Is that right?" Cupid grinned, seeing where this was headed. "Are we talking a permenant move?"

"Uh-huh. Just you, me, satin sheets, and tons of lube, babe." Strife winked and Cupid felt something go suspiciously soft and mushy inside of him. Who would've thought that Strife proposing could be so...romantic?
(Written specifically for this article.)

Like I said before, this isn't the only way to do it, but it's one of the more believable ways. No overt, in-depth discussions of emotions, no teary-eyed confessions of undying love. Just two guys trying to communicate within the limited capacity of their gender. ;-)

One last note here: this has to be one of the hardest things to get right in a fic. I know I've messed it up in at least one of my series. The only way to get it right, though, as with other things, is practice.
 
 

hy is good spelling so important, and why do so many people rant about it? The main reason is that no one wants to wade through a fic riddled with spelling errors. It's annoying, and insulting to the reader. Plus it makes you, as the author, look uneducated, or at the very least, like you don't care enough about your own fiction to proof it.

I for one am not the best speller in the world and I'll freely admit this. So, unless you won the national spelling bee or something, I certainly don't expect anyone out there to be flawless either. However, the computer age has gifted us with this wondrous invention known as a spellchecker. Learn to use it, people!

There's no excuse for not running your fic through a spellchecker! It doesn't matter if you're answering a challenge with a time limit or you're just in a rush to get your fic out for the world to see; take the time to check the spelling!

Spelling mistakes occur, not just because you don't know how the word is spelled -- in cases like that there is this ancient but highly useful device known as a "dictionary" -- but because you simply made a typing error. It happens all the time. I've placed a small example below of an unedited paragraph demonstrating some of the more common typos: missing letters, switched letters, etc.

As Iolaus figured tings, Sparta could be reached in under two days -- assuming they did'nt run into any more trouble. Sleep would have to be cut to a mininum, but they'd both done tha tbefore. They could handle this.

See the problems here? It certainly wouldn't make me look very good if I posted it like that. Here's the same paragraph after running it through a spellchecker. Corrections are in green.

As Iolaus figured things, Sparta could be reached in under two days -- assuming they didn't run into any more trouble. Sleep would have to be cut to a minimum, but they'd both done that before. They could handle this.
(From "Against All Odds.")

Reads much better, doesn't it?

It doesn't take that long to run a spellcheck, so do everyone, yourself included, a favor and get into the habit of it.

One last thing here: many people will look at this and wonder why they should bother with a spellcheck since that's what beta readers are for. Wrong! It's incredibly rude to hand off an unchecked piece of fic to a beta reader. They're there to double check your work for you once you've already checked it yourself. Their job is to find anything you may've missed on your own, not to be a one-stop fixit-all for you. Most experienced beta readers simply won't accept a fic that hasn't been spellchecked; they'll send it right back to you. So don't waste theirs or your time. Use that spellchecker!
 
 

kay, so you've researched your fic, written it, axed the romance language, and run it through spellcheck. So you're ready to post it, right? Wrong. You can still do three more things to insure it looks even better.

First, run it through grammar check. Yes, I know, that program is a real pain and not always useful, but sometimes it can catch things you missed because you're too involved in the fic. Simple things like "its" instead of "it's" or "their" instead of "they're". The grammar check will suggest those to you and while it's not always right, sometimes you realize that you've misplaced an apostrophe or something along those lines. The point is, it's worth the extra few minutes it takes.

Secondly, read it over yourself! I'm not talking a quick skim of the story here. After you've run all the checks on your fic, go back and read through it thoroughly. You'll be surprised at what you find when you do that. There are some things spell and grammar check won't flag, but when you read your own fic, you'll catch a few of them.

Third, read it again. Personally, I try not to send anything off without having read through it at least twice. And don't immediately reread it after the first time. Put it aside for a while and come back to it later. Taking a break from it gives you a fresh perspective when you start again. You'll catch more of your mistakes like this, the ones you have the ability to recognize anyway.

What do I mean by that? Simple. I'm no expert on grammar or punctuation. I still have a difficult time seeing comma splices even when they're pointed out to me. So obviously I'm not qualified to proof my own work in those aspects. I realize that, so I recruit outside help. For more on that go to my next rant.
 
 

hat is a beta reader? That's the person who graciously agrees to read through your fic and let you know where the mistakes are. Beta readers can do more than proof your spelling, punctuation and grammar, they can offer suggestions on sentence structure, plot points and characterization. This is a good thing! I know that especially for new writers criticism of any kind can be very difficult to take, but what you have to realize is that it's not meant as a personal attack! It's simply a statement of what could use some tweaking in your fic.

In your search for a beta reader, you should probably consider finding more than one. Having two, or more, perspectives is very helpful. If one beta reader misses something, the other might pick up on it. Consider it a safety net of sorts.

How do you find a beta reader? If you're on a mailing list chances are just posting a request for a volunteer to beta your work will get you plenty of responses. However, if you're not comfortable with that, or if you don't belong to a mailing list, then there is one that exists specifically for that purpose of finding beta readers. Click on this link for more information: Beta_Unlimited.

In your search, it's a good idea to get references. Try to find some fic s/he wrote or fic s/he betaed for someone else. You want to make certain you're getting a good beta reader because, believe me, there are some out there who shouldn't be doing it.
 
 

All-Purpose 'HOW TO:' Queer SexGuide : Exactly what it says. Tips on things every writer of graphic slash scenes needs to know.

Daily Grammar : This is a new one, and a great idea IMHO. "Daily Grammar is a free service of Word Place, Inc.  Much like A Word A Day (no affiliation), which teaches you a new word each day, Daily Grammar sends you e-mail messages with a writing lesson five days of the week and a quiz on the sixth day."

The Greek Mythology Link : Research that fic! Here you'll find biogrophies on the gods, immortals, and mortals from Greek mythology, as well as information on places and events. Canon doesn't tell us everything, so sometimes it's good to go to the source.

Minotaur's Sex Tips For Slash Writers : Not only a great place to pick up pointers for your sex scenes, but he also has a few good rants on writing style.

The Transitive Demigod : An easy to read, detailed guide to many common mistakes in Hercules fan fic writing.

Tham's Sexed-Up Guide To Grammar and Punctuation : Learn the ins and outs of grammar and punctuation with Ares as your guide!

T'Mar's Slash Page : See T'Mar's "Common Mistakes In Netfic" for more good rants on grammar, punctuation, etc.
 
 

Thanks to Thamiris for betaing this!