As someone who is incredibly picky when it comes to what I read, and also as someone who is rather well-versed in grammar and proper formatting, I find that while fanfic writers are passionate and creative, a lot of them are, to put it bluntly, amateur writers. Don't misunderstand, there isn't anything wrong with that, everyone has to have a beginning and beginnings are oftentimes awkward and a little sloppy. However, I would like to start a short blog series for writers on AFF, mostly aimed at those who have little to no education or training in the fields of literature and want to be able to express themselves more adequately, thus writing more successful stories. 

1. Incorrect Understanding of Dialogue in Paragraphs
Now this is one that I mostly see a lot of young, middle school writers do. However, since many fanfiction writers begin during their middle school years, we can address this. 

For those of you that don't know, what I'm mostly referring to is this: 

*Never put two different character dialogues in the same paragraph. 

Not only is this just plain confusing for your audience, as they have to try and remember if the dialogue is still coming from the first character or the character before, but it's also very incorrect. Always, always, always start another paragraph when a new character is speaking.

This is how the above text should have been written:

 2. Too much dialogue, not enough description.
This one I have seen quite frequently around AFF, actually. Dialogue is a great tool and is often where character personalities can really shine, but if you don't couple it with enough narrative description, the dialogue falls flat; it becomes weak and leaves the reader with a jarring feeling as if they're floating out in space with no idea which way is up or down, left or right.

Example:

The dialogue is doing great, but as a reader I actually have no real idea what's going on. What's the weather like? Are they smiling, laughing? Is it awkward? How is their body language? What kind of tone is in their voices? I'm mostly left with a bunch of words in my head but no pictures to go with it. 

*Don't rely on dialogue to tell your story. Body language, emotion, and setting is just as important, if not moreso, than dialogue.

This is a much more complete piece when the following revisions are made to the above text:

3. Incorrect uses of the there's, yours, and to's.
This one is common even in writers who have been doing this for years. It's better to crack down on it as soon as possible to get the true uses of these words etched into your mind. Simply read below to learn the proper usage of each one.

There, Their, and They're

 Your and You're

To, Too, and Two

4. Random Self-Insertion
I have a feeling a few of you have either seen this happen quite often or are guilty of it yourself. It often comes with really wanting to engage your readers and leave comments on your own stories (and I see this on quiz websites, as well), however it just takes away from your story completely. By doing this, you pull your readers out of the world suddenly, and you make them realize that they're reading a story rather than being immersed in a whole new world. 

Here's an example of this: 

The random insertion of comments made by the author only distracts from the story, even if it's written well. If you have something you want to say to your audience about the story, save it for an Author's Note section to be left at the bottom of the chapter where it can sit on its own. 

5. Random insertion of Romanized Korean
This is one of the biggest no-no's and I cannot express that enough. Not only does it show that you may be izing an entire culture, which is a faset of racism, but it's entirely grammatically incorrect and totally pulls away from your story and only gives it a sense of chaos rather than a sense of cohesiveness. You're telling a story in English, so keep it in English. 
The only time you should be using a Korean word is if it's: 

• A name of a person, place, or thing (that doesn't have an English translation)
• The usage of a word that has absolutely no equal English translation
  (This does not include words such as Unni, Noona, Oppa, or Hyung)

You may be thinking: "But Lully! I'm writing about Koreans that live in Korea! Doesn't it make sense if I use some Korean in my fanfiction?" The answer is still: absolutely not.  Unless you're fluent enough that you can write about two characters having full conversation like this (please note that I'm still beginning level so those of you who do speak Korean very fluently will know that this is the most basic usage of the language to prove a point): 

This is one of the very few instances where having words in a different language actually makes any sense. Again, I cannot express how bad it is to randomly insert words like: hyung, saranghae, noona, oppa, eomma, jinjja, etc etc into your writing when you're writing an English language fanfiction. It's so incredibly cringe-worthy to see butchered, broken Korean in a story that's being used more as a prop than as a place-setter, which is what randomly inserting Korean into your writing does. Why would you write your character saying: "Saranghae" when there is an exact English translation of this word? There is no reason why you would do it other than to use it as a prop to prove how much you know about Korean culture, when the truth of the matter is that you obviously don't. 

This piece of advice goes for all languages. Do not randomly insert words from other languages into your writing unless there is a very real reason it is being put in the story that will add to it rather than serve only as a prop. 

This concludes my first post in a short series I would love to continue! Please comment if anything here has been helpful to you and if you would like some insight on anything else in the future! Thank you so much for your time, and happy writing!