WARNING: This Profile May Cause Insomnia and Impaired Concentration!

“I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else.”

-Cromwell

FAVORITE GAMES: "Total War: Shogun 2," "Rome Total War," "Napoleon Total War", “Empire Total War”, Medieval II Total War, Starcraft I and II, and "Men of War"

PERSONAL INTERESTS: Videogames, History and Fantasy

*Message to all Writers*

So I figured I may as well throw out some tips for people who are trying out writing for the first time. Now, I'm not trying to sound pretentious. I'm not that great of a writer on this site. In fact I wouldn't even consider myself a good writer. I only started writing last year and I'm still pretty inexperienced. They're are hundreds of writers that are better than me out there. These are just things that happened to work for me in the past, I can't guarantee they'll always work but I'm just throwing it out there. Whether you choose to actually use them or not is completely up to you. This does NOT count towards one-shots and Crack fics.

1) First of all, before you even begin writing, try having more than just an idea for a fanfic. I see this alot in this site and what usually ends up happening is that the story becomes too loose, too far fetched to actually be brought to a good conclusion. Usually these kinds of stories end up being discontinued or in some rare cases, the main character just ends up randomly dying. This happens so much to otherwise potentially good stories by writers whose skills so obviously surpasses mine, it's almost tragic. I mean, I can understand if you discontinue a story if you find out that you're too busy with life, but it's kind of depressing when I see an author with more than 70 stories and not a single one of them managed to get past the third chapter before being discontinued. Even more so when that same author had writing skills that were practically godly in comparison to mine Now I'm not saying you need have every specific detail written down on a piece of paper. Most of the time, just having a rough outline of the plot in your head will suffice. Plan key events and such. And most importantly, ask yourself: How can I tie this story together into a satisfying conclusion which WON'T piss everyone off? And PLEASE don't say "It was all a dream!" Cuz then as a reader I feel like I just wasted hours of my time. Because as a reader you make too much of an emotional investment in the main character while reading the story for it all to be a freakin dream.

2) Do not overpower you main character. Try avoiding making your main character into some kind of invincible god, unless that's exactly your intent. If you do,make sure his/her enemies are equally if not even more powerful. Otherwise it kind of takes the excitement out of it. cuz if you know the main characters already won so really, why bother with the rest of the plot? It's one of the reason I tend to stay away from Naruto fics. My favorite character in that series is actually Rock Lee. Why? cuz he's a talentless loser living in a world full of overpowered characters and you see him struggle. Let's face it, we know Naruto isn't going to lose because he has the strongest tailed beast inside of him. He physically can't lose. Rock Lee on the other hand doesn't have shit other than pure grit and determination which is why watching him is so enjoyable. That episode where he was fighting Gaara was just heartfelt. I'm sure many manly tears have been shed watching that lovable idiot keep getting back up after being pounded into the ground, trying to prove himself to the world. Could that have been possible if he was an overpowered god? I don't think so. Make you character work for his happy ending. Watch him crawl through the mud. It only makes the conclusion more satisfying.

3) Now unless you're going to go for some really dark themes with your story, I'm going to assume that most stories will have a somewhat of a happy ending. When creating a happy ending, remember to make sure the ending isn't Utopian. Basically throwing your main character inside a perfect world where he won't have to worry about any other problem for the rest of his life. Inherently as human beings, I think we all realize deep inside that life will always be struggle and we will always face challenges until the day we die. Having a ending where you remove all that, well we all know that's highly unrealistic, if no downright impossible.

4) Summaries: Oh yes alot of us in the fanfic community hate summaries. But if you actually care about people reading you story then the summary is very important. I don't read every new fic that pops up on the on this site, though I can't say this is how everyone does it, I usually read the summary and then look at the numbers of reviews before deciding on reading it. But if your story is new then you better hope you have a damn good summary or that I'm bored enough. And don't try to brush it off by saying that you can't make good summaries cuz let's face it. If you can't even write a simple summary, why would I believe you can write a full story? Harsh but that's how it works. Feel free to take time in writing you summary. If you're going to write a story that can be anywhere from 40,000 words to 300,000 words long, I'm sure you can take some time to write a 30 word summary. Remember that it should be informative enough to give potential readers an idea about the plot so they can become interested, but vague enough so you won't reveal the entire story as to keep your readers curious enough to actually read it.

5) Details, Details Details: When you're writing a fanfic don't just throw in dialogue. All good fanfics can describe the events that are actually going on. As a write you are try to paint a mental image in your reader's minds. And a picture is apparently worth a thousand words. (Though that's debatable). And while I honestly don't have the right to be lecturing people about this, cuz I suck at describing scenes in a story. The only way I can think of at getting better at this, is reading other people's stories. See how they create a mental image in your mind. That's how most human beings learn, by imitating others. And some of you will be like "Oh, General RTS, you get you ideas off other people! You're so unoriginal!" Well yes you're right. I'm not original AT ALL. No one is and anyone who tries to say they're original is a liar. I am not original, I am the collective effort of everyone around me.

now I'm not going to say these rules are going to work all the time. They're just general guidelines I go by and they happen to work for me. You don't HAVE to work with these rules. Don't ever let me, or anyone else limit your imagination! EVER! Well I honestly hope this helps and inspires people to write fanfics, and if you're first fic didn't turn out that good. Don't feel discouraged. Learn from your mistakes and try to do better next. Human beings can only progress! Good luck!

*General RTS does not encourage underage drinking or alcohol abuse. He encourages all readers to drink wisely and safely. Please read the following with that in mind.*

The Fanfiction Drinking Game: Start reading a random fanfiction and take a drink every time you see a grammar or spelling mistake! (Don't actually do this if it's going to kill you!)