How Far Can You Go?

First of all I'm new to writing, and I had this fan fiction stuck in my head for months now. So to get it out I began typing the story. I also want to make this popular in PC. I am really close to posting the prologue. I just need to do some more editing. Anyways, before I start writing more chapters I have some important questions to ask.


1.How far can you go before crossing the line when it comes to:

a. Length- how long can the whole fan fiction be(not in words per chapter but number of chapters and volumes in a fan fic) before getting too big? I estimate that my fan fic will be around 9 to 10 volumes with over 10 chapters in each. Is that too much?

b. Violence- how much blood shed can I use before making readers vomit. I don't want that to happen. I mean limbs flying off, someone exploding into pieces, and screams in agony. This is important since violence is huge in my fic.

c. Romance- how passionate can romance get before offending readers. I don't mean the kind of romance where two characters admit there feelings and hug, I mean the kind where two characters admit there feelings and then minutes later they do thier business behind the bushes. Can I use words like mate or mating? Also, is it okay to make a scene about there business as long as I don't use any really bad words and I leave a fair warning to readers? This question has also been bugging me, can you use certain words to identify a pokemon being a male or female? Example: "I noticed he was a male when I saw his genitals". Thats okay right, it's just like dogs? In my fan fic, romance can become very passionate if you know what I mean, so any answers will help. This is very huge and I'm worried about this since I don't want to get banned from PC.


2.How do you make links to a chapter thats located in a different thread? I find this more efficient instead of clogging up one thread with chapters 1 through 30 and comments in between them. Example:

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
...
Then you click on the link and it sends you to the chapter. I want to do this without changing the name. I also want to know where or how you make the chapter in a seperate thread without posting it somewhere else.


I need the answers so it can help me with my fan fiction. I would really appreciate it.

Absol Perfect Distaster said:

First of all I'm new to writing, and I had this fan fiction stuck in my head for months now. So to get it out I began typing the story. I also want to make this popular in PC. I am really close to posting the prologue. I just need to do some more editing. Anyways, before I start writing more chapters I have some important questions to ask.


1.How far can you go before crossing the line when it comes to:

a. Length- how long can the whole fan fiction be(not in words per chapter but number of chapters and volumes in a fan fic) before getting too big? I estimate that my fan fic will be around 9 to 10 volumes with over 10 chapters in each. Is that too much?

b. Violence- how much blood shed can I use before making readers vomit. I don't want that to happen. I mean limbs flying off, someone exploding into pieces, and screams in agony. This is important since violence is huge in my fic.

c. Romance- how passionate can romance get before offending readers. I don't mean the kind of romance where two characters admit there feelings and hug, I mean the kind where two characters admit there feelings and then minutes later they do thier business behind the bushes. Can I use words like mate or mating? Also, is it okay to make a scene about there business as long as I don't use any really bad words and I leave a fair warning to readers? In my fan fic, romance can become very passionate if you know what I mean, so any answers will help. This is very huge and I'm worried about this since I don't want to get banned from PC.


2.How do you make links to a chapter thats located in a different thread? I find this more efficient instead of clogging up one thread with chapters 1 through 30 and comments in between them. Example:

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
...
Then you click on the link and it sends you to the chapter. I want to do this without changing the name. I also want to know where or how you make the chapter in a seperate thread without posting it somewhere else.


I need the answers so it can help me with my fan fiction. I would really appreciate it.

Click to expand...

A. Length is almost never an issue unless it is too short. I am not quite sure what you mean, but are saying like a total of 90 chapters? If so, you might want to aim for 40 Chapters. Unless of course they are different "parts" but the same character, which would mean it would be a different thread (as in a different plot or region, just same characters).

B. I would say stuff like that would make me barf :P If you rate it accordingly, no one will get mad, but you might get less readers with more blood and guts.

C. I personally like a heavy amount of romance. Just make sure you rate appropriately. [You might get more readers for this ;) ]

2. It is a hyperlink thing. Do you see the Globe with the paperclip thing up top with all the buttons (when you make a post)? That is the hyperlink button. Highlight the Chapter name (AKA "Chapter 1") then click the hyperlink button. It will request the URL of the post/thread you want to link there.

I think you can link specific posts by clicking on the number in the top right hand corner of every post(very very top of each post). (Mine is number 2. The 2 underlines when you drag your cursor over it - right next to the reputation and report post buttons)

EDIT: Oops, didn't see that part about putting it all in one post. Just make each chapter a post(it also bumps your thread up) and then link it in your first post(like before the Prologue/Chapter 1)

Hope that helped ^^

P.S. Make sure to listen to Xanthine - She has much, much more experience than I do and likely knows much more about certain Fan Fiction "rules" about the "Romance" part (as in, what rating equals what "amount" of romance)

Absol Perfect Distaster said:

1.How far can you go before crossing the line when it comes to:

a. Length- how long can the whole fan fiction be(not in words per chapter but number of chapters and volumes in a fan fic) before getting too big? I estimate that my fan fic will be around 9 to 10 volumes with over 10 chapters in each. Is that too much?

Click to expand...

There's no such thing as an upper limit, so long as you finish the story. A friend of mine (Alakazam17) wrote an epic that's over eighty chapters long and 350+ pages. And it's not finished. If you have regular readers, this isn't a problem because your readers will keep up with you.

b. Violence- how much blood shed can I use before making readers vomit. I don't want that to happen. I mean limbs flying off, someone exploding into pieces, and screams in agony. This is important since violence is huge in my fic.

Click to expand...

I would suggest looking over the rules, but really, any violence as long as it's not mindless. For example, killing someone for the sake of killing someone isn't cool. Shooting someone in the back of the head and describing it with appropriate detail for the moment (i.e., just enough to make the reader take it seriously but keeping it from being over-the-top) is perfectly fine.

c. Romance- how passionate can romance get before offending readers. I don't mean the kind of romance where two characters admit there feelings and hug, I mean the kind where two characters admit there feelings and then minutes later they do thier business behind the bushes. Can I use words like mate or mating? Also, is it okay to make a scene about there business as long as I don't use any really bad words and I leave a fair warning to readers? In my fan fic, romance can become very passionate if you know what I mean, so any answers will help. This is very huge and I'm worried about this since I don't want to get banned from PC.

Click to expand...

As long as you're reasonable about it. For example, "Hi nice to meet you can we bang now?" moments are a bit unreasonable and hard to believe unless the character happens to be Brock. In other words, make sure your romance is true to your characters. Don't have your characters shag in three minutes if they're not the kind of people who feel lust at first sight. Draw the romance out until your characters would logically fall for each other and trust each other enough to get in bed together (assuming the relationship isn't just based on sex to begin with).

Also, it's perfectly okay to use the word "sex" with regards to people. In fact, it's probably okay to use the usual words in general. You may want to check with Astinus about how far you can go (as in, smut scenes -- i.e., the porn -- or not), but unless these are Pokemon or animals, please don't call it "mating." And please, whatever you do, don't use the absurd slang for genitalia (like "member"). It's just harder to take scenes like that seriously.

Alternatively, you could probably just say "and then they had sex." Or skirt around the actions (by not mentioning part A going into part B), which would be called a "lime" (as opposed to "lemon," which is the hardcore, "I can see everything!" kind of scene). Only, you know, worded a bit better.

Edit on this point: Up to R ratings, apparently. Which means you probably can only go up to the lime method because that's not really explicit sex. If you still want to do it or are uncertain as to whether or not your scene crosses into NC-17 territory, I'd still recommend checking with Astinus.

In general, if you want to up the rating, don't assume your readers are sweet and innocent. If you want to go all the way and have your characters swear, have sex, and commit ugly acts of violence, do it. Personally, even if it's a Pokemon fic, I really don't think that the sense of creativity should be limited by a supposedly naive audience, as sappy as that sounds. Basically speaking, don't underestimate the ability of your readers to handle touchy subjects. Feel free to test the boundaries. They might be cooler with it than you think.

But yes, you can probably get away with everything short of porn as long as you make sure you include a warning at the top of the first post. You can test your audience, but you can't let them read something they might not feel comfortable with without warning them first.

2.How do you make links to a chapter thats located in a different thread? I find this more efficient instead of clogging up one thread with chapters 1 through 30 and comments in between them. Example:

Click to expand...

This is against the rules anyway, I believe.

Edit on this point: Never mind. This is only an FFNet rule. But I strongly, STRONGLY suggest you don't post chapters in separate threads and just link them. Why? Because you're basically spamming up the forum with all kinds of threads. First off, it's not all that much of a problem to post all your chapters in one thread and simply link to each individual chapter in the first post of the thread to create a table of contents. You can single out a post either by copying the URL as soon as you make a post (because the URL will automatically redirect you to the post you just made) or by clicking the number in the upper right-hand corner of the post you want.

Secondly, you've got around 90 to 100 chapters in total. Imagine all of our stories surrounded by that many individual threads. Drowning our stories = not cool.

Third, unless you're an exceptional writer, you'll probably only get five or fewer responses for each chapter. It's not really necessary to keep posting individual threads if you're getting fewer responses than you can count on one hand.