Introduction
This guide is aimed at new, relatively inexperienced writers, or those who want to improve their writing skills. It covers the basics of story design. The purpose of this guide is to help you make your stories as good as possible without resorting to services of a beta-reader or co-author, and perhaps getting them more publicity. I'll try to provide helpful tips and tricks that might come in handy. By no means am I claiming that they will be useful - we're all different, after all. But hopefully, you will find at least some of the tips useful. So, without further ado, let's get started! Oh, and sorry if this is too much text...



Know your story!
While this may seem trivial, it actually isn't. Yes, you may have a good idea of what your story is going to be about, but the question is, is that enough? In many cases, authors (myself included) start working on a story driven by their inspiration. They know what they want their story to be about. They have a rough idea of the theme and the plot. But some time later, after they get some stuff written, they get stuck, and they ask themselves, "What do I write about now?" So, let's start from the beginning of the process, so this won't happen to you.

First of all, you need to know the theme of your story. Is your story supposed to be a 'happy' or 'sad' story? Is your story a love story or a tragedy? Is your story a comedy or a dark fic? Is your story talking about jealousy or friendship? You need to know exactly what you want to write before you start writing. Often, I read stories that are written very seriously, when the plot itself is about the wonders of new love. Then, I think to myself, "this author probably didn't know what they wanted to write in the first place." Knowing your theme is very important, because it affects your writing style, and your writing style affects your readers.

Second, you need to know your message. This is often directly linked to your theme, but doesn't necessarily have to be. What is it that you want to tell your readers? What do you want them to get from reading it? Many stories out there have a very poor message, which I really hate. Let's say you have a story about  an arranged marriage to your idol. So what? What do you want to convey? That everyone can get a chance to marry their idols? That idols are also just humans? That love can blossom even between enemies? Without at least one of these messages (or other similar ones), your story is bound to fail.

Third, you need a good title for your story. Your title should be directly linked to your message/theme. It should also be eye-catching and not-too-overused. Titles like "Love" or "Hate" or "My First Love" or anything like that don't really work anymore. They used to be cool like 10 years ago, when the whole fanfiction community was still in diapers. These days, it's increasingly more difficult to come up with a creative title, because frankly, most of them are already in use somewhere. But it doesn't hurt to try. As long as your title relates to your message, it should be alright.

Last but not least, you need to know the scale of your story. Do you want to write a one-shot or a chaptered story? If you want to write a chaptered story, how long do you want it to be? "As long as it needs to be" isn't a very good answer. Yes, it works for some people, but for most of us, not having a clear finishing line can turn into a huge obstacle. You write and write and write, and at the end of chapter 10, you're still in the introduction. And then you realize that you ran out of ideas. That just .

To illustrate these concepts, I'll give you an example of my story, Mr. Perfect. I wanted to write a light-hearted comedy about idol fans, school life, teenage love, and bonding. These are my themes. Some of the messages that I wanted to convey are that idols on stage are different than idols in real life, that love hate is just one step away from love, and mainly, that no one is perfect. Which is where my title comes into play - "Mr. Perfect." It signifies that the story will be about perfection. I want to convey that yes, no one is perfect, but that doesn't mean that you can't be perfect for someone. And lastly, I had to think about the scale of the story. How long should it be? For my story, I've decided on 30 chapters or less. 10 chapters for introduction, 10 for rising action and , and 10 for resolution. It's just an approximate, but it gives a clear idea of what I want to write about.



Know your characters!
Now that you have a solid basis for your story, it's time to think about the characters. Since we're all fanfiction writers, it's kind of obvious that one of our characters will be an idol. You might think that writing an original character is more difficult, but it actually doesn't matter. Because the moment you introduce someone into your story, you're making them your own. Yes, idols exist outside, so they're not ours, but the characteristics that you give them in your stories definitely belong to you.

First thing you need to know about your character is their personality. What are they? It never hurts to write down somewhere what you want your character to behave like. Is he/she a snob, an idiot, a party animal, a humble person, ...? What do they like or dislike? What do they fear? What do they love? You don't need to know everything, but you can't now nothing, either. If it is an idol, you need to remember what their personality is like, so you don't go out-of-character too much. Like making Taemin a super-masculine figure like Jonghyun (actually, this isn't that far-fetched these days, since Taemin has grown into Taeman...) - you get the idea.

It would also really help if you knew your character's visual appearance. I'm not really talking about hair length and eye color (although that always helps, so you don't write blue-eyes once and black-eyes another time), but more like, are they fit? Are they short or tall? Do they give off weak or strong image? y or cute? Stuff like that. It's definitely easy if you write about an idol, since everyone knows what idols look like.

Another important factor is your character's background. How were they raised? What about their family? All of that influences their personality a lot. If your male lead grows up in a family of 5 sisters, then he's probably going to be slightly feminine and open around other women. If your female lead grows up in an orphanage, then she's probably going to look up to adults and crave for their love - or she's going to be spiteful. All of that shapes your characters behavior, so be sure not to forget it.

In "Mr. Perfect," my main character is INFINITE's L. He grew up with his sister, who's 15 years older than him. Their parents died when Myungsoo was young, so his sister had to raise him on her own. She works as an announcer, so she's away pretty much all the time. So Myungsoo's alone most of the time, and because of his trauma from his parent's death, he's sort of socially awkward. As for his personality, I made him very smart (because he IS smart - how many people can name SNSD's performance date and place just from seeing their stage outfit huh?), but very hot-tempered, just like he is on variety shows. And visual? Well, he's visu-L, after all, so he's very handsome. Though his past looks...



Know your plot!
So now we have characters and story developed. It's time to tackle the storyline. What exactly is this story going to be about? What is going to unfold throughout the story? There are two general approach to this - plan out the entire story, or write as the story unfolds itself. I have used both methods before, and I think they both are equally good. The first approach is definitely good if you want to keep on track. You know what is bound to happen, so you don't side-track too much. The negative side of this is that sometimes, you feel forced to write something. But then, you can always change the plotline! The second approach is good if you want to write really freely, without any limits. You can write anything as ideas come to your head, and the story flows like real life - it's not scripted. However, the bad thing is that sometimes, you get too far off-track, and then you can't seem to get back.

One thing you need to keep in mind no matter which approach you take is plot-hole-proofing. Your story should be consistent no matter what, and your readers should always feel that the story isn't just running in random directions. Also, if you introduce a subplot into your story, don't forget about it. Readers hate loose ends. Or at least I do. Always predict what your readers would say about your story, so you are prepared to deal with it. If you write a story about magic, and then your character dies because of a wound, then someone is bound to ask why no one healed the poor guy.



Know your writing style!
Now that you have everything planned out, you should start thinking about your writing style. Believe it or not, style is one of the most important, if not the most important factor of writing fanfics. No matter how good your plot is, if you can't deliver in style, a lot of people will turn away from your story after just a quick glance. But if your storyline is poor, your writing style can still get people to read it. So let's discuss this a little bit more in detail.

One of the first things you need to know is what point of view you're going to write in. First person's POV is when you defacto are one of the characters in the story. You use the word "I" in the narration to refer to the main character. Second person's POV is when you address one of the characters in your story as "you." If this blog post was a story, then it would be a great example of second person's POV. Third person's POV is probably the most common one, when all characters are addressed as either he or she. Point of view has a tremendous effect on your readers, so let's talk about each of them in more detail.

First person's POV is one of the most powerful story-telling tools. The narrator is one of the characters in the story (usually the protagonist), and as such can express his or her thoughts in detail. One of the pros of writing in FPPOV is that you have nearly unlimited control over the expression of the main character's thoughts. There are stories out there that happen entirely in the narrator's head. If you think your story will deal a lot with one character's inner thoughts and feelings, then FPPOV is a very good choice.

Second person's POV is the least common out of the three. It also happens to be my absolute least favorite one. While it is the most interactive form of writing, it is also the one that is most likely to fail. There's a definite advantage that your readers can completely immerse themselves in the story. However, in many cases, if your reader fails to connect to the "you" character, then they cannot and will not enjoy the story. For some reason, it is very commonly used in fanfictions - I do realize that by addressing readers as "you," they might feel more attached to the story, but because I can almost never identify myself with any of these "you" characters, I have never found any "you" stories even remotely enjoyable.

Third person's POV is the most common and also very powerful tool. Unlike FPPOV, where the writer gets immersed in the story, and the SPPOV, where the reader is, TPPOV is completely detached from both sides. As the narrator is someone outside of the story, they can objectively narrate the story without getting too immersed in the emotions of the characters. The limited TPPOV is a powerful narration tool that lets you follow one character and tell the story from their perspective. It is very similar to FPPOV, but retains a little bit of distance. It is one that I most frequently use in my stories. You are still limited to what the character you follow feels and sees, but thanks to the small distance, neither your readers nor you feel that you absolutely have to relate to that particular character.

Another form of TPPOV is the omniscient TPPOV. It is perhaps the most commonly used and misused POV in the fanfiction realm. Many new writers use this POV without even knowing. This is when the narrator is completely outside of the story, and can see thoughts and feelings of all the characters. They frequently narrate through several person's POV throughout the story. A clear pro is that you can tell your readers about everything that is going on in the story - a clear con is that your reader also feels completely detached from the story. If executed correctly, omniscient TPPOV is the most powerful narration tool; however, it is very often misused, and instead creates a huge mess and confusion instead, as readers don't know what they're supposed to follow. Also, if you reveal too many details while using this POV, your readers might feel bored as there are no surprises in for them.

Another very important factor in writing style is the narration tone. You should always match your tone to the mood of the story. Joking around in a tragedy kind of defeats the purpose of the tragedy. Similarly, if you use overly-formal language in a comedy, not many people will laugh. You should always think of your story as a conversation with your readers. In order to get them in the mood for your story, you need to pick the right pace and the right words to narrate.

Last but not least, you need to consider the narration tense. The two most common tenses used for story-telling are present tense and past tense. Usually, the use of both depends on the preference of the writer. Some people prefer to write in past tense, while some prefer present tense. The same goes for readers. However, they do have their strengths and weaknesses. Present tense will make your reader feel more engaged in the story, but is limited to what is happening right at that moment. While narrating in past tense, you may skip in the timeline. Your readers will feel more at ease reading, but it is difficult to build up suspense with it. Whichever tense you may choose, be consistent! Many writers accidentally interchange tenses, and it's a real pain to read.



Description vs. Action
This honestly depends on what type of writer you are. Some people love describing, some hate it. I'm honestly more of an action-writer, and I choose to describe things through dialogues, not narration. I personally prefer it if there is not that much description, because then my mind can fill in the blanks with my imagination and not feel like I'm forced into someone else's vision. Some other people are the exact opposite - they want the writer to provide as detailed descriptions as possible. Either way, too little or too much description is not a good thing.



Grammar
There's not much I can do about your grammar. If you know you're bad at grammar, then a beta-reader wouldn't be a bad idea. However, you can always ask for a review of your story. If the reviewer is good, they will point out what mistakes you often make, and you can always improve on that by yourself. Subject-verb agreement errors are easy to fix; prepositions not so much. Run-on sentences are also easy to fix, though the commas might be a little challenging (I still confuse the comma rules from time to time). And don't forget; grammar is one of the few things you can always fix on your own!



Proof-reading
This is a very sensitive topic for me, because quite honestly, I at proof-reading. I know that I make typos, but I never catch them, even as I re-read. I don't see the words that I typed, but I see words that I wanted to type. Nevertheless, it never hurts to proof-read your work before submitting!



Layout & Design
This is more for publicity than making your story better. It is always advisable to have a nice poster for your story, as well as a non-default layout. People tend to think that what looks pretty is also good - which is not always the case. Imagine if this blog post was just a huge wall of text - no one would want to read it, right? With this simple layout that I employed, at least some of you might be still reading all the way down here...


Other guides: Basic Grammar Guide, Publicity Guide