source.
Writing Tips – Rules
Whether you are writing an
original story or some fan fiction, there need to be rules to follow. As
they are rules, they can't be broken.
Fan Fiction
When
writing fan fiction, you are writing a story for a universe that
somebody else has created. They have created the rules and they are
there to be followed. You aren't sticking to canon if you break any of
these rules.
Some examples: A Naruto fan character
that has a thirteen-tailed beast sealed inside them is breaking canon
rules since there isn't a thirteen-tailed beast anywhere in the story.
There are only 13 squads in Bleach; a 14th squad appearing would break the rules set in place. In Animorphs,
staying in a morph for more than two hours will trap the person as that
animal and they can't change back unless they can touch the blue box
again.
If you want to make sure that you don't break any of the
rules, read the stories thoroughly. If there is a creature that is never
mentioned in the actual story then you can assume that they don't exist
there. It is easier to write fan fiction for a story that has ended
since all of the rules have been set and there is nothing that can
happen to change them.
Original Fiction
If you
write original fiction, you create the rules; it is your own canon. Of
course, you still have to stick to the rules that you create, people
will notice if something you have written suddenly breaks a set of rules
you set in place at the start of the story.
An example of where this has happened is in Twilight,
Stephanie Meyer stated at the start of the series that the only fluid
in a vampire's body was venom, yet in the fourth book Edward and Bella
are somehow able to have a baby.
A good way to remember your
rules would be to write them down somewhere you can find them easily for
reference, a word document in the same folder on your computer or in a
journal that goes everywhere with you. If you do this, you hopefully
won't make the mistake of breaking your own canon. If you find you have,
you need to go back and change it so it does fit your rules, and
hopefully that doesn't mean that you have to rewrite a whole chapter,
but it's better than having somebody pick up on it later once you have
finished the story.
Example: In my story, The Demon's Seal,
one of my rules is that there is only one true demon left. If I
suddenly introduced another demon like that one into the story, I would
have broken my own rule.
Conclusion
If you stick
to the rules, you aren't likely to get into trouble. Some amazing
characters can be made for a fandom without having to break rules to
make them. Original fiction is a little more open, but rules are
necessary.
