The next major topic I’d like to go into is plot structure. A well-structured plot is often the key to every good story, fan fiction or otherwise. Once again, I merely stating my opinion, but I feel it is educated and comes from experience, so take my advice how you may.
- Try to avoid writing entirely off the top of your head. Instead, plan out the storyline. The best way to do this is create an outline of sorts, summarizing at least the most significant events of your story. With an outline, you can minimize plot holes and inconsistencies and keep your story on track.
- When writing your story, think about your characters, especially your main protagonists and antagonists. Ideally, the plot should focus on a goal or set of goals the most important characters. These goals should correspond to two things: their wants and needs. I should point out that wants can be entirely opposed to their needs. For example, an anti-social character might want to be left alone, but actually they need companionship and friends, and one of the goals of the character is to find companionship and friends. But it is important that at some point, the goals and wants of your characters should be indicated somehow, optimally through dialogue and the way the character acts.
- The goals mentioned above, while they are important, do not necessarily have to be achieved. But it is important that you make it clear whether those goals were achieved or not by the end of the story.
- A story, especially a romance or adventure story, should have a satisfactory ending. Unless you’re leaving things open for a sequel, you should try to tie any and all loose ends in the plot by the end. Keep in mind that a satisfactory ending does not necessarily mean that it has to be happy. As long as the reader isn’t left with a lot of unanswered questions, your ending is probably satisfactory.