Update 2019/2020: So "The Dragon Prince" is now probably my favorite show alongside "Merlin" and everyone should go watch it... Seriously such a beautiful show. The wonder and wholesome story/characters intriguing plot and gorgeous artwork in the animation is so inspiring. This year has been worlds away from the last couple... In the best sense. I can finally breathe and I've created more for the joy of creating than I have in forever. Not much to add other than I'm grateful to finally be in a better state of things mentally and emotionally. Wishing you all an amazing new year and a new decade of adventures. It's the 20's again people let's do this! (Minus '29. We don't talk about that year.)

Update 2018: The farther along one gets in life the harder it is to sum thing up. Strangely, I find myself returning to the things I thought I had grown beyond even as I embark on new adventures. Like Bilbo Baggins, I don't like leaving the comforts of my current life, but exploring does build character.

Fanfiction has remained a constant in my life though I spend most of my time over at Archive of Our Own now. Maybe someday I'll dabble in writing my own fics again.

So to anyone who visits this profile... Whatever you want to do, do it. If it's reading awful fanfiction (which are the sugar to the spice of life) or starting a new part of life, do it. Life is short and is often depressing. Find what makes the days go by a little faster or the people who make the darkness retreat a little. Then hold on to those things and make a happier life for yourself.

And there's my little bit of encouragement for the day. Maybe it's corny but I always like to look back at my profile's from the past and right now that's kind of who I am.

As an aside - I've been tracking down and saving all of my old favorite fanfictions to keep. You know, in case the internet melts or the site goes out (still sad over the lost fanfiction section of ).

If anyone has a copy of Hikari Urania's fic "Lost Memory" I will love you forever. That was the very first fanfic I ever read and it's very dear to me. It was from the Inheritance Cycle and in it, Eragon died. And then he sort of came back but his memory was completely gone.

Good luck with you writers muse!

Update from 2016:

Lord of the Rings is my favorite story of all time. That's the big one... All other stories I love... I'm going to assume you have a life, and so do not have the time to read such a list.

For now know that Doctor Who and BBC's Sherlock are genius; Harry Potter is beautiful; and the world of music - profoundly touching.

And I'm still not over the ending to Merlin.

A Song of Ice and Fire - There are so many twisted characters it's ridiculous and the noble ones all die. What's not to love?

Favorite couples:

Callum/Rayla- My darlings. From The Dragon Prince which is one of the reasons I still have hope for this world.

Leafpool/Crowfeather- From the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. They were the first couple I loved before I knew what shipping was.

Faramir/Eowyn- One of the most beautiful couples ever created.

Eomer/Lothiriel- Although she is not physically present in LOTR she is mentioned. I deeply enjoy the many fics people have written for them on here.

Loki/Sif- Umm... Yes. From Thor. Thinking only of the Marvel Movie world primarily with the comic history. :)

Sansa/Jon- The embodiment of Oh The Pain. My affection for this couple is not without a lot of baggage.

Mostly I just lean back and enjoy what an author does with his/her characters. If the characters are happy together then I'm happy. Go canon! But I like to look at the possibilities if something else were to develop between two characters not canonically put together.

The (first) Three Laws of Fanfiction:

Rule One: If you do anything to increase the protagonist's power, or make their life easier, you must also amplify their opponent or add extra difficulties to their life. You can't make Frodo a Jedi unless you give Sauron the Death Star. Otherwise, even if it is well-written in all other ways, your story will suck because the reader will know to expect an unending string of easy victories, leading them to neither wonder or care about what happens next. The Mary Sue is not defined by her power being too strong, but by her challenges being too easily overcome.

Rule Two: Originality isn't easy, but it is simple: Just don't do stuff that's already been done. Even if all of your other characters are going to be absolutely true to canon, you still shouldn't have Harry Potter facing the same three challenges in the Triwizard Tournament because we've already read about them a thousand times. Put in three different challenges. Seriously. It can't hurt. Don't just go through the same events everyone has read about a thousand times before. Writing fanfiction lets you borrow the characters and the world; it doesn't exempt you from needing to surprise the readers and give them something new to read.

Rule Three: The premise of a story is a conflict and its resolution - someone with a goal, which they take action to achieve, and severe obstacles that they must replan to deal with (not just speedbumps along the way), and some ultimate resolution of the conflict in which the people and their situation have changed. "What happens if the Terminator is sent back in time to kill Voldemort" is not a story premise, just a fleeting mental image. "What happens if Harry Potter is under constant attack by shape-changing robot assassins" is still not enough of a premise. "Harry Potter is under constant attack by shape-changing assassins, and by the time he manages a spell to wall off the future he's already learned not to trust anyone" could maybe be a story's premise (though you wouldn't put that in the summary, or tell any reader that until the story had ended). You can change this plan later - but you should at least have one to start with.

So if you have a lovely mental image of Frodo with a lightsaber:

1. Figure out how to make his life more difficult, to make up for the lightsaber.

2. Decide what's going to happen differently in your fanfiction than in the other ones you've read.

3. Know what Frodo wants and what's going to get in his way, and have a plan for how it will all end.

The Do's and Don'ts of FanFiction:

DONT'S:

Summaries:

'better than it sounds' typically makes the reader think that it "isn't better then it sounds." Also that "you're too lazy to take up a few minutes to make a summary that fits, at the very least, your standards."

'please give it a try' occasionally accompanied by 'first fanfic!' gives the reader the impression that you know your story is shite that you could have done better, but will try to pity/manipulate your way to a review anyway.

Any excuse such as 'sorry, i suck at summaries' is not an excuse. If you're going to take the time out of your own life to write a chapter of a story you can take two minutes to jot down a few sentences about that chapter. It isn't cute.

If the summary does not have proper spelin, caPitaliZatiOn, and pu,nctu.atio!n the story will not either. If the story actually ends up having proper spelling, grammar, etc. no one will know because after that thing you called a summary they're not going to read it.

Canon:

Straying from canon in the universe is not acceptable.

If you are in the Lord of the Rings universe (or an applicable universe) then Bilbo cannot manipulate the weather around him with his pure willpower.

Mary Sue's:

Possibly the most overused fanfcition technique. PLEASE try to make your original characters original.

Do NOT write yourself into the story. Do NOT write your friends into the story. Just do not do it! No one likes a story where the author lives their fantasies through their characters, or their friends fantasies. It just doesn't work.

Be aware of what a Mary Sue is and attempt to avoid her in your stories, she's nothing but a nuisance.

Just because your character is a male he can still be a Mary Sue, just named Gary Stu. Beware.

I'm writing ... what again?:

Don't avoid knowing facts about a story and in turn write one that will cause you much embarrassment just because you too were too lazy to look up a few things.

It's "hannon le" not "hand on lee".

It's one thing to be unable to write in character it's another thing to not know your character enough to get in character. OOC is not cool. If you start to notice that most of your character's/characters that you're using start acting out of character, control and fix it! (For example; every chapter I write for my Dear Writers of FanFiction story I do a little research on the character beforehand so I have something to fall back on - just in case!)

The English Language:

Alot is not a word. Allot is, but has nothing to do with a lot.

You never get something from 'over their' or 'over they're', you get something from 'over there'. It's not: 'your happy', it's: 'you're happy', this list goes ever on.

If you're on fanfiction.net you have internet. Do not use the word 'happy' over and over again because you cannot think of something else. Use an online thesaurus to come up with words even slightly better like 'cheerful' and 'jovial'. Use the internet to your advantage, my young grasshopper.

If you haven't heard of a word, or are unsure of its absolute meaning, LOOK IT UP before you use it.

A word may not mean what you think it does, for all you know senile can mean rotten fish stomach. (It doesn't that was just an example.)

If you have spellcheck available, don't avoid using it!

Reviewing:

You made a choice to read their story and no author deserves to hear that their work is dirt. Flaming is not cool, so don't do it.

Being judgemental helps no one, be helpful instead and give advice.

Reviews:

Laziness is not an excuse when you don't respond to a review on one of you stories!

If someone takes the time to write you a review even if all it says is 'nice' respond back with a 'thanks'. It allows the reader connect with the author and in turn has them coming back for more.

Profile:

You have the option to have a profile, you should make one!

People will be interested about you, just because you don't think anyone is doesn't mean you should skip that part.

Even if all you say is that you love chocolate ice-cream with cherries and rainbow sprinkles write it down!

Don't NOT write a profile!

Stories:

Don't update stories once every six months.

No one is going to read your stories if you handle them that way, it's just way to long a wait.

Over seven days is too long a wait!

DO'S:

Summaries:

The whole point of summaries is to give the reader an idea about the story that they may or may not be reading depending on said summary. It doesn't have to give away the whole plot line, but it doesn't have to conceal to much either.

It's always a great idea to include a small part of the plot line, (let the reader wonder) some details and maybe even excerpts from the story. Keep it short, sweet, entertaining and enigmatic!

A great example summary would be: She was just a normal, Tolkien loving fan girl. That is ... until nine of the most charming males in all of literature whisk her away into a new world, or should I say, their world - Middle Earth? With nothing more to go off on then a rushed promise from one Peregrin Took, she leaves behind everything that she has ever known and sets forth on an adventure she never conceived as possible. ( If I ever end up writing this, which probably won't happen, I might end up posting it. But honestly, I hate 10th Walkers and I don't see the fun of walking for what feel like forever. Not bathing, etc. Besides, girls going into the Tolkien World is soo overdone it's not even funny.)

The things that made this summary what it is was that the length wasn't terribly long. It let you know that there is a girl who somehow gets put into the world of Middle Earth and it's going to be a definite adventure. Not only that, but Pippin Took has made a promise to her that she thinks he won't keep.

Canon:

Definition: To differentiate between the official storyline that the written fiction is based off of.

Basically, that means just sticking to the rules that the original story set.

Frodo Baggins/Brandybuck does not have purple hair in the Tolkien world. Thus to stick to the canon he can't have purple hair in your story.

You can differ from the canon storyline by tweaking it that is okay. If you think that Haldir and Legolas "should, like, totally get it on!" you could write them getting together from the point that the Fellowship goes to Lothlórien. (Though that plot line is so used and recycled now it's better to come up with something more original.)

Another example is re-writing the part [spoiler alert] where Fili and Kili die in The Hobbit and making it so that they don't die.

Mary Sues:

Definition: A fictional character, usually female and especially in fanfic, whose implausible talents and likableness weaken the story.

That basically sums up the term Mary Sue to a T. But don't let the fear of writing stop/silence you as an author. Just because your character is a girl doesn't mean she's a Mary Sue, and don't let anybody say so.

The easiest way to avoid writing one is just make sure you know what the definition is!

I'm writing ... what again?:

When writing a story there are a few things you should keep in mind;

Pre-planning; Have the general plot figured out already.

Research; Make sure that you have the information that you need to write this story. (Ex. Knowing that Merry's real name is Meriadoc and that Harry Potter lived with his cousin, his Aunt and Uncle before going to Hogwarts.)

If you keep those things checked you will be well on your way to writing a fantastic story.

The English Language:

You don't have to be an English Professor or a High school Language Arts teacher to know anything about the english language.

Avoid common mistakes in your writing, make sure to use punctuation, grammar, spelling, etc. correctly and you're all good to go!

If it doesn't sound right when you say it out loud it probably isn't written right either!

Betas:

Have one.

Have ten. They can and will help improve your writing and give you advice.

If you know you are a mediocre author or your beta has been dropping hints (maybe not so subtly) about your work, it might be time for another beta. Just make sure you tell your beta's if you have more than one!

Really, there are people who would just love to edit your work for you. Let them.

Reviewing:

If you read the story you should let the author know what you thought of it.

He/She probably spent hours or more writing their story and revising it, for their hard work give up two minutes of your day to tell them what you think.

If you have some criticism for them make sure to give it easily. Don't call them an idiot because they spelled "bacon" like "bakon", even if that is quite idiotic.

After telling them about some spelling, grammar, etc. errors soothe the burn by telling them the things in the story that you really enjoyed reading.

Reviews:

When someone goes to the trouble to give an honest and helpful review to a struggling author, then you give them courtesy by checking them out and in turn giving honest helpful reviews to their work. What goes around comes around, my friend. You might just get more reviews that way.

You MUST reply to all reviews on your story. Make it as simple or as exquisite as you like.

Profile:

It's yours to do with what you wish. It should have something about you on it, even if all it says is that you have auburn hair, chestnut eyes and have sickly pale skin.

Favourites are a select few, the best of the best. These are authors/stories you really enjoy reading and model your work after. Too many takes away the purpose, these are your favourites.

Stories:

Should be updated continually.

Should have general plot line planned.

Writing the whole story before posting is a good idea.

Write something that you would be interested in reading!

The GOSPEL

G God created us to be with him.

O Our sins seperate us from God

S Sins cannot be redeemed by good deeds

P Paying the price for our sins, Jesus died and rose again

E Everyone who trusts in Jesus will have eternal life

L Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever!