August Seminars: How to Plan a Story

When it comes to writing a story, the number one, most important thing you can do...is planning. No joke. Planning is the most important thing. Now, I've discussed creating characters, and that is a great thing to start with, but once you have those characters, you need to know what to do with them. If you don't, you can have the best characters in the world but they will fall apart in an instant. This is where planning comes in.

So, for this post, we will talk about that planning process, particularly mine, why you should do it and how you should go about it to craft an excellent story!

August Seminars: How to Create Good Characters

Characters are ridiculously subjective. What I might hate, my best friend might love. Maybe there's even someone indifferent to that same character. It can really run the gamut. However! That does not mean there aren't "good" characters and "bad" characters. While each can still have a measure of subjectivity to that particular point, there are certain things to look for and certain things to avoid when it comes to writing a good character.

In this post I'll be discussing those particular things, including some (hopefully) good characters of my own.

August Seminars: How to Receive Reviews and Criticism

In my last post, I spoke about how to craft a summary, and while I'd love to get into the nitty-gritty of all that other writing stuff, rather than the end result of it, I feel it's very important to talk about what happens when you get your story out there: feedback.

When you eventually post your story, you're going to be getting plenty of feedback (hopefully), but the thing is that not all of it is good. And not all of it is positive. In fact, it may be harsh. To that end, it's important to discuss how to spot the good from the bad. That is what this post will be talking about.

August Seminars: How to Write a Fanfiction Summary (Or Any in General)

Summaries. Those wonderfully tricky things that cue a reader, player or viewer into what they are about to experience. It's a short thing that makes or breaks the entire thing for whether or not that product will be experienced.

Thus, it is one of the most vital parts of publishing any story, or fanfiction. Without it, you are lost. So here, as someone who has written over 30 of the little things, I'm going to help craft an amazing summary with little tips. I hope you'll all enjoy the first of this August seminar on writing!

Review of the Arc: Alvarez Arc of Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail is finished. At 545 chapters, it finally ended. Not that it was the easiest of roads.

Like any story, Fairy Tail had its series of missteps. High points and low points combined. However, this series holds a rather special place in my heart. I found Fairy Tail when I was at a very low point in my life; or rather, that was when I really got into it. I didn't consider it that great until around the time of the Tenrou Island Arc, and it was the Grand Magic Games that made me fall in love with the series. Without it, I wouldn't be who I am.

And that includes the Alvarez Arc. It's this arc, the final arc of the series, which I will be reviewing below.

Why You Should Use Fanfiction.net and NOT Wattpad

As a fanfiction writer (and writer in general, I suppose), I've had the great pleasure of posting my works online and sharing them with the public of like interests. In particular, I've used the site fanfiction.net. At the time I started posting, around 2007 or so, it was pretty much the only one that I was aware of. Obviously, as I emerged as a more prominent Amourshipping writer, I became aware of other sites, namely Archive of Our Own (AO3) and Wattpad. Now, I'm not an expert on AO3, so it will not factor into the post here, but I am familiar enough with Wattpad to a degree.

And to this point, I came to the conclusion that Wattpad...shouldn't be used. Not for anyone looking to have a well-written story, which everyone should ascribe to. So, in this post, I'll give the various reasons as to why I prefer Fanfiction, and why Wattpad shouldn't be used, particularly within the Pokèmon fandom.

Why Serena Is the Best Written Pokemon Anime Character

Serena, of Pokémon XY/Z fame, is a particularly controversial character inside the Pokémon anime fanbase. Some view her as utter shipping trash bait, others view her as a goddess, giving things such as #SerenaSaturday (a concept I find ridiculous, but it proves my point). Regardless of your thoughts on her, there is also an in-between ground: those who find her character good, but not goddess level. I mean, let's face it, no one can be as well written as certain other anime characters.

That said, this particular post will delve into my own personal opinion about why Serena is the best-written character. To do so, I'll be offering comparisons to characters old and new, tackling some criticisms I've heard and overall giving an analytical view of her. Note, this will leave behind my shipping preference entirely. Yes, I am an Amourshipper, but that's only a part of Serena's character, one that must be discussed, but definitely not the whole, and thus will not play as large a part.

That said, let's get right to it.