"And the question I would like help with is that, as a excited writer I am, when I am finishing a piece of work mine, I tend to rush the ending, since I can't wait for the future feedback and other times I get too tired to think of more,because either I have been too much time on the same story or I just can't think of more. Do I have a way to solve this?"

Oriole Says:

I completely understand what you mean; I have a problem with finishing the story as well. In the last chaptered story that I finished, I also rushed. I think the problem for me, and I don’t know how you felt, was I was so excited, my fingers were shaking and heart was racing.  This is anxiety. Authors get this very often, and there are a two ways I’ve felt that you can deal with it.

1.      Relax. Take a step back from your computer, and do something else. Take a shower, go for a walk, check your email, do something. The ending you have in mind will not be lost if you make a note of it. Your readers are just as excited as you are, but in order for you both to be happy, the end needs to be clear and well-written.

2.      Think about the story’s end. While you are relaxing, conversation and detail need to be going through your head. Play the scene out in your mind, so when you feel the jitters, just remember what you’ve thought about before, because I’m sure you’ve thought of the ending before.

Another thing you can always do is hide the chapter. Put your writing down, hide the chapter, and read it. You can also have a friend read it; I know Rima always reads my things, particularly if I’m too excited to think clearly. I know it’s hard, but the denouement of the story needs to have the same flow as the beginning, so if it helps, read the beginning again, and try to match the flow. Working with soft piano music that matches the tempo of the beginning will not only relax you, but will also put you in the mood.

Rima Says:

I can understand rushing the end of a story, I myself have a tendency to do this as when I write a chapter or oneshot I for the most part do it one sitting and toward the end I'll rush myself because I am anxious to get it done with. Some ways to curb this are:

a.) When you are done writing a chapter that you feel you rushed don't immediately put it up. Go to sleep and look at it the next day and you will see parts that you rushed and fix them before putting it up.

b.) Toward the end of a story when you are rushing yourself just stop writing, take a deep breath and exhale, and calm yourself down before writing again. Maybe watch a short show or listen to some music.

c.) I suggest also when you get to the middle of your story to plan out how you want the end to happen in advance. If you do that it helps with rushing because you know what you need and where you need it. Then when you are entering the final chapters you don't have to think too hard when you feel as though your brain is empty of ideas because you will have already set up it up beforehand!

d.) And I'm not sure if this entirely applies to you but for me when I'm finishing a larger story and get antsy toward the end because I want to write about the next story in my head I simply do that. I will take breaks between writing out my conclusion and write on my next story a little bit. When I do that I feel more excited and less hasty to finish the end of my current story because I regained some energy from writing my next one. If that makes sense.

I really hope these tips help you slow down like you want to.

"I'd like to ask a question myself : about the characters. I often wonder how to make them interesting, original and attractive, since they're the main reason a reader continue to read your story. I find it especially difficult in the fanfiction world, since we try to get closer to a person's personnality, but at the same time we have to present him in a somehow new light because if we don't it feels like deja vu."

Oriole Says:

Good question!

Haha, Bonjour. It’s really, really hard to make up a character for a story, particularly when it is so easy to go by the idol’s stereotypical characteristics. I treat every story as its own, I use the same characters in the story, but they each have different characterizations. It’s important to remember that idol’s in stories are just names and faces; you have no idea what they are like in real life. I think that it should be the author’s decision on how “close” the characterization is, because really, all that is, is a shot in the dark.

Here are some characteristics each character must have:

1.      A flaw. Something that makes them weak, or vulnerable to conflict, which drives the story. When I say “a flaw” I mean many. This can be physical, mental, or emotional, but it has to be something.

2.      A lesson in morale that they lack. The character needs to have a whole in them that is fulfilled within the story, most of the time this is emotional, but it can be mental and physical as well.

3.      Room for growth. A character needs to be flawed in a fixable way. Throughout the story, the character needs to grow, and take the reader on that journey with them. The growth needs to be relatable in some way on a basic emotional level. We can start getting more complicated with the maturity of your writing.

No character is perfect. You need to realize this as you begin writing, and your readers need to see this as well. The character should have bad and good sides, like being too y or dramatic. One of my personal preferences is to make them have one characteristic that is unique, for example:

1.      Owning a pet apple.

2.      Wearing two different color contact lenses.

3.      Walking around barefoot.

4.      Dyes hair every three days.

5.      Can’t touch things with ring finger.

6.      Talks to ceilings.

Things like that are weird, but relatable because we all have weird things that set us apart.

The character should also, in some way, be a reflection of you. It is your creation; let it say something about you. I have never in my life written a character that didn’t reflect me in some way. Make it you, but not completely. Pick an aspect, and elaborate on it.

Make the character a human being. give it a past, a present, and a future, unless you’re like me, who kills people ^^. Give it hobbies, interests, likes, dislikes. Make your character your best friend.

I hope this helped.

Rima Says:

Characterization, particularly in fanfiction is very hard and requires a lot of thought and effort. I understand your dilemma and here are some things that I've learned to make a character original and attractive:

a.) Something many people forget is that characters are people, albeit not humans, but they are fashioned after people, and as people we are made up of so many things. Little quirks such as someone can rub their ear lobe when feeling pressured or giggle when trying to tell a lie.  It is these little things, stomping your foot when frustrated, twirling your hair when trying to figure out a problem, that while mostly unnoticeable build up a great character. Write down a list of quirks your main character should have and apply that to your writing.

These little things go beyond habits of your character and extend physically as well. Does your character have a mole on their back that they hate? A scar that is hidden? A tattoo flaunted for all to see? Although on their own these have no impact when adding them to your character it gives said character life. Makes your character easy to relate to and that is a step to having a fantastic character.

b.) Since, as I've already said our characters should be human as that is often their species, include faults. Maybe your character has a habit of making up stories about themselves or has a habit of stealing other people's erasers. Sometimes it is even more dramatic than those examples but, flaws are what we are made of. I personally am really stubborn, I don't like being wrong and have a habit of being argumentative when someone even mentions I might be wrong. So I put that into some of my characters. And there are people who are too nice and let people walk all over them, that's a fault that makes for a good character. So remember, there is no mary-sue's in this world and there shouldn't be any in our writing because even is someone looks perfect and acts perfect they aren't. Perfection is impossible and that's what makes things as wonderful as they are.

c.) Just as flaws are important so is overcoming them. When reading and seeing a character try and improve their self, maybe by having your character stop dating every man/woman they see, or doing their best to be more honest, it is endearing and makes me as a reader want to improve as well. It is inspiring and draws the reader in because we want to know if the character makes. We want the character to meet their goals and cry when they don't and smile when they do.

d.) All throughout this I've mentioned that characters are people and should be just as complex. So just watch people. Go to a park and observe how people are, what they say, how they react physically and vocally. In observing people you gather new ways to have characters act and make it so you can have more diverse characters with more diverse actions and reactions.

Now I can go on and on, really I can, but these are things you can do to make your character stand out. Particularly in fanfiction it is hard to do this but I believe by adding small quirks and showing the flaws of your character you will be able to have more complex characters who shine like gold. I sincerely hope what I've written helps you.

We hope this helped, if you have any more questions, feel free to ask us.

With Love,

Oriole and Rima