Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-1294345-20140428025054

Hey guys! Since this community is growing, having new writers make new fanons by the day, I decided to make another post about how to make kick-ass fan fictions. Here is a list of things I do when I write fanons, and I'm more than happy to share what I know:


 * 1) Brush up on your knowledge of the resource material. This should be easy for every writer here on the fanon wiki. Assuming that every Fanon Wiki writer has seen the resource material (the real Survivor TV show) before, writers should already have a grasp on how the real contestants act and feel whether they win/lose challenges, how they do live their island life (from camp chores, dealing with pesky tribemates, strategy, complain about bug bites, etc) vote someone out (especially if they get blindsided). With that settled, think creatively as to how you're going to make a story that will give the material justice.
 * 2) Decide on your location. Think of locations that are uninhabited and could house a massive production team. That makes your fanon somewhat close to the real deal.
 * 3) Plan on your cast. Have a diverse cast, perhaps with interesting (or odd) jobs, such as former athletes/politicians, garbage collectors. Give each of them the best profiles possible. That makes them more rootable. Give them a good backstory, not necessarily sob stories.
 * 4) Decide on your boot order beforehand. Make a complete voting history chart (perhaps on MS Word) that reflects your boot order. Vote charts, in a way, tell a story on how the season panned out. For example: A group of five people with the same voting histories is definitely an indication they are an alliance. Conversely, if a player's votes do not match up with the majority, it's very telling that this person is on the outs.
 * 5) Once you're finished with the boot order, prepare a timeline of events from Day 1 to 39. Good storytelling grabs readers. Also, give time to give all players a balanced edit, unless they are so irrelevant to the season, you can just write them off a la Purple Kelly. Plan your story beforehand as that will prevent you from having loopholes and oversights.
 * 6) Review the drafts you have so far. Again, for the sake of preventing loopholes.
 * 7) Lastly, review your readers' feedback, so you'll see your strong and weak points. Consider your comments as constructive, though some readers would comment, "your fanon" sucks. Unless they give a valid reason to say so, ignore them. But if your bad comments have something substantial, such as your plot formula getting predictable (i.e. the "Under the Radar" player always wins over the bruiser, or the obvious villain makes it to the end)
 * 8) This is optional. If you're good at photoshop, you can make your own logos and buffs (like me LOL). Creating your own props gives your fanons a more realistic feel to it! If you have Adobe Photoshop and you're interested to make your own logos and buffs, you can proceed to this link.

For more fanon tips, this is my most favorite reference. 