This is it. This will be why you write. Forget readers. Forget reviews. Forget ‘because I have time on my hands.’ This is it. Close your eyes and imagine a scene.

The climax of your story. The final confrontation. It all comes down to this, where every one of your characters is walking the razor edge between triumph and disaster.

It doesn’t have to be clear in your mind. You may not be sure of characters, or setting. All it needs is one sharp vision.

Your character being hurled by an explosion. Being spitted on a sword. Lying half unconscious on the ground, as blood trickles into their eyes and their enemy stands above them taunting. The thin, wavering silhouette of your character facing the raging wall of a tidal wave, laced with electric blue tendrils of chakra.

A harsh laugh, a low threatening voice, a defiant cry.

Then there is the atmosphere. A storm lashes the skin with pelting rain. Violet forks of unnatural lighting and the boom of thunder like hooves over head amongst angry red clouds. Or maybe in a deserted hallway, where the scuff of shoes and the buzz of phosphorescent lights is the only sound. Or the roar of the wave as a wall of water rushes towards the coast, the screams of civilians, the crash and crumbling of brick and mortar.

And music. Gowon, imagine the music. Building around the scene, rising and throbbing as tension and urgency grows. With the clash of cymbals is another splinter of lightning. With the explosion of an electric guitar your character shoves herself to her feet for one last attempt, despite the gushing wound and fading consciousness.

Now freeze. Imagine that moment. Imagine a movie poster with a catchphrase. Imagine a soundtrack. Imagine all that you have worked towards that shining, exciting, nail-biting moment as you and readers walk the razor edge, lighting, blood, and a scream of triumph as your character overcomes.

This is what you work for. Not readers, not reviews, not boredom. You want others to feel that gutretching tension you get when you lay in bed at night going over that scene. It will take a long time to reach that scene, lots of work, lots of revision to get everything perfect, but believe me when I say it is worth it

Most of all....

I expect there you are two reasons you have joined me today and the foremost of these will be curiosity.

Having been hanging around fanfiction in general for some time I know a couple of you will be thinking 'What does this smug person have to say and what do they have to offer. Why are they so good to be telling me how to run my fic! It my writing and its only fanfiction so I can do whatever I want, ect, ect.

Whoa mate, carry on soldier! This is just me offering the advise I have to give after, ooh, must be a decade now of writing fanfiction.

Consider this part as quality control and an easy checklist to take before each post. By ensuring you've done these things, the very, very least you can do to make your fic the best it can be, it shows you have pride in your work and it quickly wins the respect of a reviewer. By getting these things right it means the reviewer doesn't waste time on the basics and can direct attention and compliments to where they deserve.

These are also the small things, if you can't take the time to get the small things right, its unlikely your going to take the time to get the big things right. By not at least attempting these things, what is shows to the reader is laziness. If they don't care about their fanfiction, why should I?

Bye bye reader, and don't you want every review you can get your hands on?

The good part is that once you know about these things, they'll become second nature so you don't even have to think about them, promise! Think of this as the start of a wonderful hobby and a wonderful source of fun and happiness.

In this section I should also warn you, I've never taken more than high school English. These are just thetidbits I've picked up through copious reading of published and fan fiction. I should also mention that my interests lie mostly in OC fanfictions so that's where my examples will come from and tutorials will be directed towards, but I think what you find here will go across the board.

Get in, get around, review, rewrite, talk to fellow authors and get the basics right!

Welcome to Naruto Fanfiction! Whether you’ve just got into Naruto or have been here since the first batch, whether you are on your first fanfiction or your twenty-first, I welcome you! You’re in for so much fun!

Mate, of all the fandoms to join you’ve probably picked one of the largest. It’s a double edged sword.

On one hand you have a multi-tiered collection of authors growing daily especially with the anime's and manga's explosion in popularity.

There are the experienced, who picked up the pen the moment Naruto hit their shores, posting chapters and distributing their pearls of wisdom wherever they go. Their stories are so realistic they make reality seem dreamy and putting them down feels like coming up for a gulp of air. Admittedly they're rarer in this fandom than others but that just means there's a lotta room at the top for those willing to put the time and effort into something they can be proud of now and five years from now.

There are the middle tiered authors who are struggling to get out of the rat race. They form groups, supporting and reviewing those of similar persuasion, there to help and listen with plots and characters and ideas. This is the dominant caste of Naruto fanfiction at the moment. It means they've been there long enough to know what they and the readers want and have taken the time to get the necessities down pat like the Golden Triad, required description, Mary-Sues, but need a bit of crit to hone their skills and bounce ideas of the the more expirienced to be given the leg up.

There are the newbies who are bright eyed and bushytailed, eager to worm their way in, and yet still have no clue as of how to get there. New to the fandom and fanfiction in general, they don't know what a Mary-Sue is, they don't know the cliche of the Uchiha sister or 10th bijuu, but just need a bit of salt on their skin and a bit of constructive critisism to know the perfect, talented and beautiful OC winning the hearts of canon's isn't the way to go about it. They're willing to get all the help they can.

Then there are also the noobs who post pointless reviews, accuse others of stealing their 'utterly unique' ideas, can’t be bothered spellchecking and chuck a tantrum anytime someone says something the least negative.

All these people, all these thousands of people averaging two stories each are competing for the reader’s favour. You only have to glance at the combined efforts of TONFA and Fanfiction.net to get a sense of awe and gloom of how you could possibly become one of those legendary, long talked about fictions and authors. That is the other size of the mirror, the sheer enormity of your competitors.

With all these fanfictions, the chance of you coming up with something new, original and attention grabbing is buckley’s to none. The regular 'Graduate Academy -> Forth Member of Team Seven -> Win Sexy Canon' formula just doesn’t cut it anymore with readers anymore, especially the veterans. Nor does the 'Ultimate Ten Tailed Bijuu Wanted By Akatsuki' or 'Other Uchiha Seeking Revenge.' Been there, done that, never buying the T-shirt.

But authors will always find a way to outdo themselves. They can put a new spin on the boring cliche and turn it into something fantastic! At the top they are coming out with masterpieces the likes I couldn’t have dreamed of when I started in 1998. These writers all have qualities that are easily achievable.

Persistence, dedication, imagination and the ability to admit nothing is perfect, but to keep on trying anyway. Reread, Rewrite, Review, the three R's of fanfiction. If you get the hang of these you're bound for good things!

Wrong! Before you even touch the submit button the first thing you absolutely need to do is reread the rules.

The main reason is because its a common courtesy to everyone involved, not the least myself and my fellow mods who spend at least an hour each day emailing people who have trangressed rules for no other reason that they were to lazy to click on the link. And trust me, after a long day at work there's times I feel like making this a shooting offence.

What's more is that the staff are always underappreciated and cop a good lot of abuse for the necessary job of enforcing them. Its customer service without the benefits of being paid. For those of you who have worked in a video store or a burger hell, or those who are about to, you'll all get to know the member of the public who threatens physical and verbal abuse for the cost of a 99c refund. Take it easy and know we're not targeting you personally.

These rules are the way we don't play favourites, these are the clear cut lines so we know how to act and so do you and we don't get into a pissing contest over something as simple as 'how big is too big'. Everything has a reason, and everything is to benefit the wellbeing of the archives. The fact is the better quality the writing, the more people it will attract and the more reviews YOU will get.

Relax, most of these are just common sense and that most people follow these kinds of things unthinkly. On the other hand there's always one, and he's the reason for the 'This suit does not enable you to fly' clause on a children's Superman costume.

In the end, let's all save on the abusive letters and read the rules!

Break the rules and
Your story may be DELETED
Your account SUSPENDED
Everything you worked hard for GONE

Finding and Using a Title

This is something that will stump even the good writers, and I can't really tell you what makes a good title, but I can tell what doesn't make a good title and some steps to take which will open your mind up to some better possibilities.

Poor Title Choices

A poor choice of title is any title which bares a similarity to any other fic currently housed at the same archive. It is a good idea to use the search engine to your advantage and see what competition your tentative title has. It's up to your discretion to decide if something is too close, but remember a key to drawing a reader is originality. When in doubt, toss it out.

That said there are some reoccurring titles that occur in all fandoms so don't touch them with a ten-foot pole. These are recombinations and paraphrasings of the titles The New Girl/Genin/Team/Rookie, The Lost/Forgotten/Sister, The *Canon Clan* Sister or The Beginning, or named after the main OC character.

Finding the Inspiration

My first suggestion is to go have a look through your local video store to put you in the right frame of mind. Wander the aisles, think carefully and roll potential titles around in your head. Sometimes the perfect title will hit you there and then, or strike up the inspiration for a plot or chapter if your lucky.

If you don't think you have something don't despair, there's other ways to find titles.

Sometimes a popular phrase, idiom or saying will work.Trial By Fire, Zero Tolerance, From Here to Eternity, Silence is Golden, A House Divided, Face the Music... Idiom Site is a random place to start but looking up the terms in any search engine is bound to find similar quotes with greater variety.

Perhaps try looking up a jargon specific term that has similar tones to your story. For example Serendipity, a scientific or important discovery purely by mistake or accident. Adytum, an architectural term for the most sacred room in a temple. Adagio, a musical term that for music that is slow and expressive. Probertency Encyclopedia or The Phrontistery are  excellent sites but if you look up any topic of interest, meteorology, geology, medicine, Greek Myth, something is bound to pop up.

My last source of inspiration is the same as many peoples, music, but you have to tread carefully.

Avoid any title after a song that is currently in your Top Fifty charts at the moment. These songs tend to be fads and one month later you've got a new favourite song and you'll want to change it. Changing your fic title means some constant readers may get lost and any art you've got is suddenly out of date.

Staying away from song titles in general is a good way to avoid cliché, except in case of classics or obscure ones. For example Going Under, after Evanescence is like a burning pitchfork to the eye that screams wangst to any veteran reader (as do most Evanescence songs. I quite like them but they've been abused too much by twelve year old cutting OC's to not make me flinch). Meanwhile, Chandelier of Stars written by an Australian country singer named John Williamson isn't going to send of sparks of recognition except a favoured few, plus it sounds pretty.

What I like to do is leave my CD collection alone and go look at someone who has completely different tastes than I do. Right now at random I have gone to my parents collection, it makes me shudder but everyone needs to suffer for their art. Closing my eyes I pull out a CD at random and stab my finger. Creedence Clearwater Revival's Bad Moon Rising. Not bad. I don't choose Bad Moon Rising, instead I look up the lyrics on the internet and I suddenly see somethings I like.

I hear hurricanes a blowin'
I know the end is coming soon
I feel rivers overflowin'
I hear the voice of rage and ruin

That actually sounds cool. Perhaps if I was writing an Apocalyptic fic where the fate of the entire world is at hand I could use The End is Soon, or even, The End is Now. It's blunt and arouses curiosity. What might be even cooler is Rage and Ruin. Alliteration sounds good on the tongue.

Let's use another example, I go to my brother's, pick a CD, oh... Black Sabbath, okay. Fortunately it has lyrics so I look through and here's some things that catch my eye... Who worship you are blind....You'll just cast our souls... Sunday's star is Monday's scar...Rotting in decay...Seperating Sanity....Spiral Skies

From those I may get the titles, Blind Worship, Souls Cast, Today's Star-Tomorrow's Scar, Decay, Separating Sanity, Spiral Skies.

One last time, I know my auntie listens to Enya, so I look her up on the Internet and I find... Anywhere Is. Here's some things that catch my eye. Maze of Moments... I Walk to the Horizon...I Wonder if the Star Sign...Spark of Constellation...Echoes of Their Story...To Leave the Tread of All Time...It could be on reflection...Near the End...

Which could turn into, Maze of Moments, Horizon, Star Sign, Star Shine, Echoes, Tread of All Time, On Reflection, Near the End.

The key to this is looking at something you've never heard before or hear very rarely, and not apart of your usual listening genre. If you listen to pop try grunge or rap, or if you listen to Linkin Park try Monty Python or Buddy Holly, it'll keep your mind open.

Also by jabbing randomly around this site, DarkLyrics.com, I found some good ones.

Found It!

Now that you've found your title, time to put it in the submission form. You must, must, must have it spelled and capitalised correctly because this is the first thing your reader will see and you only get one first impression. If you can't get the spelling in your title right, the reader can't expect much from the rest of the story, except perhaps smug superiority.

A title shouldn't really require punctuation (apostrophes are fine). Exclamation points have a manicness about them that can be tacky, a comma may indicate the title is too long and there's no need for a fullstop/period at the end. Under no circumstances are there to be ellipses ..... or brackets (). Ellipses are the punctuation equivlient of 'he trailed off.' while brackets are kind of 'by the way' and will lessen the impact of a title. A title is to be short, sharp, and draw attention.

People also tend to use puctuation as a decoration which gives a cluttered effect. <||><|Blind Worship|><||>

Never put AN in your title eg Blind Worship- A SasuNaru Fic. It’s a Duh moment and should be clear in summary and story sorting.

Correct capitalization is pretty much the capitalization of everything except small words, like of, the, a, to and will be in the middle. There are exceptions. A fic called the end will be capitalised as The End. Don't type entirely in capitals either, the effect is like shouting rudely at the author.

If in doubt, feel ask questions in the review box.

 

Using a Banner

Banner's are fantastic! The beautiful ones will draw the eye and accentuate a story, the ugly ones will at least draw the eye, but its always better to have a nice one.

A bad banner is one that's cluttered, heavily pixellated and badly edited with unreadable fonts. They're taller than they are wide and are so big they exceed the length of the page. People hate that second scrollbar.

I recommend the size 450*160 pixels but at most 200*700 as designated by the rules and if you're not confident of your banner skills there's no harm in going to a request artist on the TONFA Forum. I myself have a thread there at the moment and am looking for customers. Feel free to set up your own banner request shop for other authors who don't have your skills, or browse the threads to get your own banner.

Writing a Summary

Remember, this is another window into your fanfiction so you want to show it off and make it gleam!

When you're selling a car, it has to look good before it gets a single look. Even if the car is in perfect condition no ones going to care if it’s got mud streaked across the side and a shattered headlight. If you won't take the time to do the easy stuff, they're hardly going to expect you to keep the rest of it in good nick.

That's why the most important thing is to give your summary the same attention you would your fic. This means things like correct spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, grammar and so forth. It should flow and reflect the story within. Random internet speak, blatant misspellings and excessive punctuation are only good if you want to give the reader the impression you're an eight year old high on red cordial that doesn't give a damn about their story.

Wording your summary can be difficult, but take your time. You can rewrite it if necessary but make sure it's going to do its job, which is pull the reader in. Like titles, a summary should be unique, evocative and use emotive language. The reader is always looking for something new so skim through the top five of pages of the category you intend to submit in and as you go through you'll notice patterns. In OC sections there tends towards Mysterious new girl turns up. Why are the Akatsuki after her? What's her mysterious bloodline? Why does *canon character* have these strange feelings. Blah, blah, boring.

Try not to talk to your reader, This is the story about my OC who... because it reminds the reader that this is just a story, when the goal is to immerse them in a whole new world. You want it to be more like the voice over in a movie preview, not like the commentary on a DVD which is beginning to irritate you but you can't turn off for some reason.

It's not just the summary itself that reflects the story inside, but also the AN's and Tags you use. Keep these below and separate from the main summary, perhaps in italics to differentiate it. Tags are required to make sure you don't hurt the kiddies, you don't offend, and to attract the people who are most likely to read it. All AN's should always be short and concise without giving away any more than necessary, because a reader loves a mystery and curiosity will make them at least peek.

Tags

Shipping tags are common and in a fandom with such a large variety of characters. It's great if it's an obscure one and isn't made clear in the summary. However, keep your take to the bare minimum, leaving more to the imagination is best. Simply adding (TemShika) does the work. What ruins it is if you add AN commentary. No Ino-fans! Nya-nya, I can if I want cos they make a cute couple. These are kind of redundant because if you've filed it right categories the right readers will find it, and you can avoid sounding like a selfindulgent kid.

R&R Stands for Read & Review and this is another kind of redundant one. If you didn't want it read and reviewed, you wouldn't post it.

Warnings: These are necessary and should be made clear and concise whilst not giving away the plot. Uchihacest, PWP, Lemon ect. These should already have been mentioned in the Warning tags so when you're putting it in your main summary, you're repeating yourself and cluttering things up.

Sequel/Prequel: Unlike the others, I suggest putting this clearly at the start of your summary, perhaps bolded because there's nothing worse than finding the second in trilogy without being able to find the first!

Spoilers: Again keep these to the end, short and concise so you don't give away any more than you have to.

No Flames/Flames Welcome: I think when people say 'no flames' what they really mean is, 'Don't say anything bad about my fic at all or I will yell and scream and cause a scene like a child in the supermarket.' People who can't tell the difference between a flame and a crit will often use this one. Instead, try to learn the difference and use a No Critical Analysis/ Crit Welcome tags in its place.

Timeline: If useful to the reader, it's a good idea to point out where in the timeline this story is set, eg before or after timeskip, before Series, Episode 180...

No Mary-Sues: Being a well rounded OC is like being popular, if you actually have to tell someone you are then you probably aren't.

A Mary Sue is a subjective term, and to bastardize Peter Beagle, What is Sue no two men know. One of the common features of a Sue is a repetitive theme within that fandom and that depends on what you read and where you read.

You may think it's a fantastic and interesting blood limits, but I don't because I've actually read of three characters with similar ones. I can tolerate cousins of background characters but other readers think any relation to a canon character is like clumsy prosthetic limb. In other words, being a Mary Sue is an opinion. Everyone has a right to an opinion so don't tell a reader what to think. Believe me, word will get around there's a good OC-character out there.

If you think you need AN in your summary, this is where it should actually go. If the reader has come this far it means SCORE! they're inside your story. This is the place for all your AN's, tags and random commentary.

Category, Characters and Genre Options

Choosing the right categories is essential when winning readers, it's already discussed in the Rules tute and it’s up to you to decide where it belongs. There's no good in being cheat and submitting it to one it doesn’t below, readers roll their eyes at the cheap ploy. Ditto with genres, do yourself a favour and get it right.

Next up is selecting the right characters to represent your story in a search engine. The rules now state that you can only choose 8 from box and I’ve made it clear that the search engine has been stuffed by people highlighting indiscriminately. Don’t add to the problem because 1) These days I’ll just get pissed and delete all of your characters selected, 2) You send the wrong message to your reader.

By highlighting every name available to you tell the reader 'I don't know who I'm writing about but shucks! I'm gonna turn up on a lotta searches even if Kiba only has three lines!' and they're thinking 'I want to find a Shikamaru and Choji fic and while this bloke has them listed in his summary, so is everyone else! Clearly he doesn't know this bloke doesn't know who he's writing about!'

How do you chose your eight? Let's assume these are the people in your story, Asuma, Baki, Chouji, Gaara, Gai, Haku, Hinata, Ino, Kakashi, Kankurou, Kiba, Kurenai, Lee, Naruto, Neji, Sakura, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Shino, Temari, Tenten. How can we reduce them down to eight?

You could chose the eight that contribute the most to the story. Perhaps its focused on the Jonin, revolving particuarly around Asuma and Kuranaiso I would chose- Asuma, Baki, Gai, Kakashi, Kurenai, PairAsumaKuranai, TeamAsuma, Team Kuranai. This encompasses the characters people will search for, the main characters for that particular fic.

If however it was a fic about the students, focusing on Kiba becoming a chunin, with hints of KibaHinaNaru triagle. These would be my eight- Kiba, Hinata, PairKibaHina, Pair NaruHina, Rookie Nine, Team Kuranai, Team Kakashi, Team Asuma.

Choose carefully as these are who will turn up in the search engine.

Warnings & Ratings

Warnings and ratings are of the utmost necessity. No matter how good the summary or story is, its extraordinarily rude to be whacked in the face with a visceral fight scene or a sex scene. We'll catch you and give you a warning, or if we're particularly irritated change it ourselves. It also means you'll be under the mods scrutiny for stories to come

Your Checklist

• I have read the rules of TONFA Archive- Yes/No
• I have chosen an appropriate and evocative title for my fanfic- Yes/No
• I have used the search engine to check how original it is- Yes/No
• The banner I've used is under 700*200 px- Yes/No
  
• I have written an evocative and tasteful summary with correct spelling, punctuation and paragraphing that meets the criteria of TONFA rules- Yes/No
• I have used appropriate tags and warnings- Yes/No
• I have selected no more than eight characters/pairs/groups - Yes/No

Answered yes to everything? Let's move on!

It is assumed that before you've set up your summary you have your first chapter! I know the feeling, that sense of pride and satisfaction welling in your heart. Once you post, all you have to do is sit back and wait for the reviews to roll in. But before you press submit ask yourself, Is this my very best work?

By doing everything to the best of your ability the reader sees you're a worthwhile investment for a good review, ie, one that goes beyond "I wuv yr fic! It rox!". The more effort you put in, the more effort your readers will go to leave a review and to become a constant reader.

A good reviewer will know that good imagery, plot, and characterisation are things that come with time, expirience and effort. The Golden Triad however are things you can master and the reader appreciate straight away. What does this this mean to you? Well a) You can score some easy compliments and points with the reader and b) These things are so easy to get right that if you don't it makes you look lazy and careless.

What are the Golden Triad? Spelling, Paragraphing and Punctuation, and there's nothing worse when you're in the middle of a really exciting or emotional scene and finding one. It's like hitting a pothole at 100km and hour and completely wrecks the mood. Wanna avoid it? Let's get too it!

Paragraphing, like punctuation is another thing that will come instinctively with time and similarly its difficult to explain and much better to show off with an example:

Kiba advanced on the would be chunin from the Land of Lightning, a thin streak of yellow that had been trying to seperate Hinata from the team for who knew what purposes and the result had nearly got her killed. “But I didn't mean to!" he quavered. "Just shuddup! I'll mash you to a pulp and let Akamaru gnaw what's left." "It was an accident!" "I don't care if it was! What if she was hurt!" Kiba lashed out, chakra sharpening his nails to points as they bit effortlessly through the bark above Nobaru's head. Nobaru staggered, eyeswide and threw the scroll he held at his attacker's face and spun wildly to flee but Kiba was too fast. His arm snaked out and gripped the hitai-ite around his neck. The tearing noise of strained material jerked Nobaru back and kicked his feet from under him Crack! His head kissed the dirt. Dazed he stared glassily at the forest canopy, focusing on mottled shadowing rather than Kiba leaning over him menacingly. "Alright you little coward," Kiba hissed. He thrust his knee down heavily on Nobaru's stomach and his eyes bulged with the forcefully exhaled air. He scrambled feebly to get up but Kiba maintained the pressure, then clamped around his throat. He wasn't constritictuing just yet, but the knotted brows convinced him it was definitely an option. "I," he wheezed but was cut off with a look. "You're going to keep away from her. And if you so much as sneeze in Hinata's direction, your life will be defineed by the words, extra crunchy."

 

Alright, let's assume this is the first step to enlightenment. Imagine you're scrolling through the recent updates page and you see a fanfiction. You click on one and this is the first thing you see. The fact is you have three paragraphs to impress a random reader before they decide whether to continue reading or if it's going to be too much work to read let alone enjoy.

If I found that I'd automatically wince. A bit wad of text that will make my eyes water if I try to read for more than two minutes at a time. Even if I tried hard to read it there's no way I'd be drawn in, there's no way I'd care about plot or characters- I'd just keep thinking, "Oh god the paragraphing is horrible, my brain is melting."

Now is the first step to seperating this wad into something readable. The first thing you need to know about paragraphing is that everytime a new character speaks, you need to start a new line. This is the organisation and so at a glance you don't have to puzzle out who is speaking. One character = one paragraph

Kiba advanced on the would be chunin from the Land of Lightning, a thin streak of yellow that had been trying to seperate Hinata from the team for who knew what purposes and the result had nearly got her killed.
“But I didn't mean to!" he quavered.
"Just shuddup! I'll mash you to a pulp and let Akamaru gnaw what's left."
"It was an accident!"
"I don't care if it was! What if she was hurt!" Kiba lashed out, chakra sharpening his nails to points as they bit effortlessly through the bark above Nobaru's head. Nobaru staggered, eyeswide and threw the scroll he held at his attacker's face and spun wildly to flee but Kiba was too fast. His arm snaked out and gripped the hitai-ite around his neck. The tearing noise of strained material jerked Nobaru back and kicked his feet from under him Crack! His head kissed the dirt. Dazed he stared glassily at the forest canopy, focusing on mottled shadowing rather than Kiba leaning over him menacingly.
"Alright you little coward," Kiba hissed. He thrust his knee down heavily on Nobaru's stomach and his eyes bulged with the forcefully exhaled air. He scrambled feebly to get up but Kiba maintained the pressure, then clamped around his throat. He wasn't constritictuing just yet, but the knotted brows convinced him it was definitely an option.
"I," he wheezed but was cut off with a look.
"You're going to keep away from her. And if you so much as sneeze in Hinata's direction, your life will be defineed by the words, extra crunchy."

There we go, there's our first bit of relief. If I was flicking through stories and I came across this one I'd give it a chance to warm up because I can see the first attempts at paragraphing. However this isn't where we stop.

The second time you start a new paragraph is with each new topic. One topic = one paragraph. This is the hardest one for newbies to understand so don't worry if it doesn't become clear right away. If you know you lack in this area, the key to beating it is reading and practicing. Find a book on the shelf and see where they start a new paragraph then look at your work and reread it and put linebreak where you think it belongs. Let's put this new rule to work:

Kiba advanced on the would be chunin from the Land of Lightning, a thin streak of yellow that had been trying to seperate Hinata from the team for who knew what purposes and the result had nearly got her killed.
“But I didn't mean to!" he quavered.
"Just shuddup! I'll mash you to a pulp and let Akamaru gnaw what's left."
"It was an accident!"
"I don't care if it was! What if she was hurt!" Kiba lashed out, chakra sharpening his nails to points as they bit effortlessly through the bark above Nobaru's head. Nobaru staggered, eyeswide and threw the scroll he held at his attacker's face and spun wildly to flee but Kiba was too fast.
His arm snaked out and gripped the hitai-ite around his neck. The tearing noise of strained material jerked Nobaru back and kicked his feet from under him Crack! His head kissed the dirt. Dazed he stared glassily at the forest canopy, focusing on mottled shadowing rather than Kiba leaning over him menacingly.
"Alright you little coward," Kiba hissed. He thrust his knee down heavily on Nobaru's stomach and his eyes bulged with the forcefully exhaled air. He scrambled feebly to get up but Kiba maintained the pressure, then clamped around his throat. He wasn't constritictuing just yet, but the knotted brows convinced him it was definitely an option.
"I," he wheezed but was cut off with a look.
"You're going to keep away from her. And if you so much as sneeze in Hinata's direction, your life will be defineed by the words, extra crunchy."

 

Kiba advanced on the would be chunin from the Land of Lightning, a thin streak of yellow that had been trying to seperate Hinata from the team for who knew what purposes and the result had nearly got her killed.
“But I didn't mean to!" he quavered.
"Just shuddup! I'll mash you to a pulp and let Akamaru gnaw what's left."
"It was an accident!"
"I don't care if it was! What if she was hurt!" Kiba lashed out, chakra sharpening his nails to points as they bit effortlessly through the bark above Nobaru's head. Nobaru staggered, eyeswide and threw the scroll he held at his attacker's face and spun wildly to flee but Kiba was too fast.
His arm snaked out and gripped the hitai-ite around his neck. The tearing noise of strained material jerked Nobaru back and kicked his feet from under him
Crack!
His head kissed the dirt. Dazed he stared glassily at the forest canopy, focusing on mottled shadowing rather than Kiba leaning over him menacingly.
"Alright you little coward," Kiba hissed. He thrust his knee down heavily on Nobaru's stomach and his eyes bulged with the forcefully exhaled air. He scrambled feebly to get up but Kiba maintained the pressure, then clamped around his throat. He wasn't constritictuing just yet, but the knotted brows convinced him it was definitely an option.
"I," he wheezed but was cut off with a look.
"You're going to keep away from her. And if you so much as sneeze in Hinata's direction, your life will be defineed by the words, extra crunchy."

 

There's the basics of paragraphing but you're still not done! You see looking at that would still give me a headache because of the way TONFA formatting works. To me it still looks cramped and if two paragraphs both meet the side of the page it's difficult to tell wereh one paragraph end and one begins. So before you submit anything do this last thing, double spacing. This makes every paragraph and line of dialogue crystal clear. If I saw this final stage had been completed I'd have no reservations about diving in!

Kiba advanced on the would be chunin from the Land of Lightning, a thin streak of yellow that had been trying to seperate Hinata from the team for who knew what purposes and the result had nearly got her killed.

“But I didn't mean to!" he quavered.

"Just shuddup! I'll mash you to a pulp and let Akamaru gnaw what's left."

"It was an accident!"

"I don't care if it was! What if she was hurt!" Kiba lashed out, chakra sharpening his nails to points as they bit effortlessly through the bark above Nobaru's head. Nobaru staggered, eyeswide and threw the scroll he held at his attacker's face and spun wildly to flee but Kiba was too fast.

His arm snaked out and gripped the hitai-ite around his neck. The tearing noise of strained material jerked Nobaru back and kicked his feet from under him

Crack!

His head kissed the dirt. Dazed he stared glassily at the forest canopy, focusing on mottled shadowing rather than Kiba leaning over him menacingly.

"Alright you little coward," Kiba hissed. He thrust his knee down heavily on Nobaru's stomach and his eyes bulged with the forcefully exhaled air. He scrambled feebly to get up but Kiba maintained the pressure, then clamped around his throat. He wasn't constritictuing just yet, but the knotted brows convinced him it was definitely an option.

"I," he wheezed but was cut off with a look.

"You're going to keep away from her. And if you so much as sneeze in Hinata's direction, your life will be defineed by the words, extra crunchy."

 

Okay, time for the checklist!

• I have started a new line with every new speaker- Yes/No
• I have started a new line for each new topic- Yes/No
• I have started a new line when I want to use emphasis- Yes/No
• I have used double spacing in my fanfic- Yes/No

Answered yes to everything? Let's move on!

What are the Golden Triad? Spelling, Paragraphing and Punctuation, and there's nothing worse when you're in the middle of a really exciting or emotional scene and finding one of these typos. It's like hitting a pothole at 100km and hour and completely wrecks the mood. Wanna avoid it? Let's get too it!

No, I’m not going to teach you how to spell. That’s up to your teachers and your own responsibility but I know more than 40% of the fictions I’ve read in research have had terrible spelling. Consistently bad spelling makes it difficult to read and if the reader has to sit there and puzzle out what the actual sentence is, they aren't going to bother empathizing with the reader or focusing on the plot no matter how interesting it is.

Then a author will complain about reviewers ‘not being able to get past spelling’.

Just like real life, a lazy person will make excuses where as the great writers will strive to better themselves.

Foremost among these are I'm only ??? and I'm no good at spelling. Age really doesn't have anything to do with it, especially in this day and age where you have so much technology and so many people willing to help.

Next horse out of the starting gate is I have a learning disability. This may be but over the years I've known eight or nine authors who have had dyslexia and similar difficulties but they had fewer spelling mistakes in their final draft than others without it. That's because they know their downfall and do everything they can to make up for it.

Blatant and repetitive spelling mistakes are an eyesore and warp your fanfiction. It is a reflection of your pride in your work, you should be aiming for zero, zip, nadda, spelling mistakes. Admittedly everyone makes typos but a typo is in a completely different ball park. They are accidental slips of the finger, teh instead of the, and are missed because of familiarity with the work. Spelling mistakes are published because ignorance and laziness.

Spellchecker

The first weapon in your arsenal against typos, bad spelling and grammar is your Spellcheck!

Microsoft Word most definitely has one so use it. If you don’t have a Spellcheck in your writing program it's easy to download one of the web or even use an online site, either download one of the web or use an online site such as Spellcheck.biz.

Don’t tell me you don’t have the time. If you have the time to go through TONFA's rigmarole to submit your fanfiction, you have the time to spellcheck, one way or another.

 

Rereading

Don’t trust SpellCheck alone! No! *whacks with rolled up newspaper* Bad!

A spellcheck will rarely pick up all spelling mistakes in in most cases only the obvious ones. It won't know if names are spelled correctly, so Sukura and Sakura may go unnoticed. Neither will they pick up homophones and often confuses their, they’re and there if the programs grammar checker is really shody.

That is why it's in your best interest, not only to reread once but twice. I also recommend leaving it a day apart between rereadings. Yes, it does take more time and effort but isn't it worth it for what your putting your guts into? Isn't it worth it for that one extra positive review. Believe me, its easier than fending off flames and patching up broken hearts.

Don’t rush it. Sit back, relax and read. Reading aloud (or mumbling if you’re self conscious) will pick up grammar and punctuation nuances. Perhaps while you're rereading you’ll think of a better word or more emotive phrasing to drive a scene home or conduct the proper imagery. You may even think of an alternative ending that would fit better.

That’s the beauty of rereading and waiting a few days before posting your chapter.

 

BetaReader

A betareader is a proof reader on the web who will pick up those last typos you’ve missed out of familiarity with the writing.

You know how it goes, you've read it so many times while writing and then rereading that your mind skips over the mistakes without you realizing it. The good news is that by this time there should be very, very few, thus the role of the betareader should always be turning something from near perfect to perfect.

I was, still am, a betareader, but there was just one lad who wouldn’t learn. I was betaring six other fictions at the time as well as his but they made an effort. I would fix up five spelling mistakes a paragraph, improper punctuation and shocking capitalization. Chapter after chapter (twelve was the last count) I would patiently fix up and send off with advice so he had no excuse about not knowing how to punctuate dialogue or that names needed to be capitalized.

He repeated the same mistakes over and over until after a miserable day at work I exploded calling him lazy and inconsiderate. I regretted it the moment I rashly pressed Send and tried to apologize but I never heard from him again.

Don’t do this to your beta reader, appreciate them and don’t take them for granted because they are doing you a favour.

Okay, time for the checklist!

• I have started a new line with every new speaker- Yes/No
• I have started a new line for each new topic- Yes/No
• I have started a new line when I want to use emphasis- Yes/No
• I have used double spacing in my fanfic- Yes/No

Answered yes to everything? Let's move on!

 What are the Golden Triad? Spelling, Paragraphing and Punctuation, and there's nothing worse when you're in the middle of a really exciting or emotional scene and one of these typos. It's like hitting a pothole at 100km and hour and completely wrecks the mood. Wanna avoid it? Let's get too it!

Okay, I’m going to admit this straight away, I can’t explain punctuation.

Punctuation is like driving a car. You can learn the steps, (slowdown, glance over shoulder, mirror check, clutch in, change gear). The more you learn the more natural it becomes. You don’t think about where a comma goes, (or glancing in the mirror if you want to continue with the analogy) you just do it. The more and more experienced you become you find you’re doing all the steps automatically, and you find it difficult explaining just how the steps go again.

It’s difficult to describe to others unless you’re trained which I most certainly am not. Mine became automatic because of the sheer amount of reading I did as a child. That’s the best advice I can give on this topic. Read. Read published work and take note of how often they use exclamation marks and where their commas go.

However, here’s my attempt at explaining punctuation.

The rules of TONFA say to use standard spelling, punctuation and paragraphing, but don't let this be your main motivation. If you want your reader to get any kind of enjoyment from your fic, to feel the right kind of tension, to hear the significant pauses or the tones in their voice you need to have consistent and accurate punctuation. They're the stop signs, the giveway signs, the speed signs and the direction signs of your story and without them everything is chaos. Frankly, we readers are lazy and if its too much trouble to read it's so much easier to give up and find a better organised story.

Do yourself a favour and get it right!

Over time you will know naturally where commas(,), semicolons(;) and fullstops(.) belong but some of you may have to think about it. The easiest trick to knowing where to place them is to read aloud and listen for pauses.

If it’s a short pause it’s a comma, if it’s a long pause it’s a full stop.

If you are rattling off a number things, there’s a comma between each item, eg Sakura picked up her kunai, medikit, headband and an apple off the counter.

Then if it’s a conjoined sentence, which is rare, use a semi-colon. Mostly you won’t need to know about those.

Exclamation marks (!) and question marks (?) speak for themselves, as do brackets () and quotation marks (“ ”).

Dialogue

Lots of people get their punctuation when it comes to dialogue mixed up. Look at the following sentences and take note of the position of the capitalization (Sakura, Amble, I) comma (,) and the full stop/ period (.).

1. “That’s not true,” said Naruto.
   
2. “That’s not true.” He turned his back, shaking his head. “I don’t believe it.”
3. “That’s not true,” he said turning his back.
   
4. “That’s not true!” exclaimed Naruto, shooting to his feet.
   
5. “That,” said Naruto dangerously, “is not true.”
   
6. “That,” said Naruto, picking at his fingernail and gazing around, “is not true.”
   
7. Naruto frowned. “That-”
   “-Is not true,” interrupted Sasuke.
8. “Is that true?” asked Naruto.
   
9. “Is that true?!” asked Naruto.
   
10. “That’s not true…” he trailed off, desperate for some other answer.
    

1) In this sentence we notice that the comma is at the end of the dialogue. Even though “That’s not true.” Is a sentence if spoken aloud in conversation, when writing the sentence doesn’t end until Naruto completes his action, eg said so only when the action is completed is there are fullstop(.).

2) Here we notice that there is a fullstop (.) completes the dialogue sentence and so the action, turning his back is separate.

3) Here Naruto turns his back as he speaks, they are a combined action so commas are used at the end of the dialogue, the he is not capitalized because it doesn’t start a sentence.

4) Here the exclamation mark and again in 8) does not complete the action, so exclaimed and asked aren’t capitalized.

5) In five the dialogue is split up for a dramatic pause. Because the sentence isn’t complete there is a comma (,) after “That,” and a comma after Naruto for the pause. However, even though there is no fullstop (.) “Is” is capitalized because it is at the start of the dialogue.

6) Six is just the same as five, even though the bit in between is longer. It’s used mostly to indicate a meaningful pause.

7) Traditionally a hyphen is used join words but in this context it indicates being cut off abruptly. If he’s cut off there is no pause, so no fullstop or comma. Sasuke finishes of the sentence but much like Naruto in 1) the action is complete, there is a comma after true and a full stop after Sasuke.

8) Ahh, the double punctuation of ?! It is curiously known as the interrobang, cool huh! This is not technically correct but it is used in published writing and becoming more and more common. You often picture it as a shriek of disbelief. The thing is, use these buggers rarely because if you use it too often it loses its effectiveness to provoke the reader.

9) … Are referred to as ellipses and is the punctuation equivalent of he trailed off or his voice died away. Again, use sparingly or they lose their effectiveness. The standard is to use three (...), any more is untidy and excess.

What are the main mistakes I see in punctuation?

The first multiple punctuation. "No way!!!" or "What???".

This is wrong because you're going to get exactly the same effect in the readers mind with one exclaimation mark as you would with one, so it's overkill and gives your story an untidy look. Also writers who do this are crippled, they're using the punctuation as a crutch to get across imagery and emotion to the reader rather than adding description. The description will do a far better job for the inner eye of the reader. Eg:

"No way!!!" Ino shrieked.

or

"No way!" Ino shrieked in disbelief, breaking into mad giggles and leaning against a wall for support.

What are the differences? In the first we hear to tone, and that she's laughing and we can see actions. With the first we can only hear a squeal and we don't know what she does next. Which do you prefer, which gives you the better mental image?

Also, to quote Terry Pratchett's character from Discworld, Rincewind the Wizzzard as he reads a letter,"See, more than one exclaimation mark. A clear sign of a man who wears his underpants on his head."

The second punctuation mistake I see new writers use is overstimulation.

"What!" yelled Sasuke.
Sakura gasped! She threw her body in front of the kunai as pain tore over her ribs, opening a gash like a pair of lips bleeding. The agony! Grunting she fell to her knees and panted as another explosion ripped overhead! Shrapnel buried itself in the dirt around her!

Be careful how often you use an exclaimation mark(!), your ellipses (...) and other emotive formatting like bold because the more you use them the less impact they have on the reader.

Imagine it like someone popping a balloon. The first time you scream and leap away. The second time you gasp and flinch. The third time you're so used to it all you do is shrug and walk away.

Use your punctuation carefully and your reader will be so drawn into your fiction they'll feel like they're really there!

Your Checklist

• I have reread my chapter to ensure I have corrected all punctuation to the best of my ability- Yes/No
• I have not overused punctuation throughout my chapter.- Yes/No

Answered yes to everything? Let's move on!

Ladies and gentlemen, shinobi and kunoichi! Congratulation to you author's who've gone the extra distance! By completing these few things- reading the rules, completing your summary, rereading, spell checking, paragraphing and punctuating you have given yourself a huge boost ahead of your competitors. You deserve to be rewarded for the extra time and effort you've spent on your fic

*Chuckles* Yes, Chuuko is an ugly little bugger but if you Contact Me and show me how you've applied these tutes to your story you get a free certificate such as above with a canon or OC character of choice.

With that I also recommend adding this little icon to your summary or story notes.

I intend for this little fellow to become synonymous with quality on the archives so at a glance the readers will know you're worth a read and worth a review.

Cheers & Inspiration guys. Stick around as there's more to come including tutorials on perspective styles, point of view, tense and lots more!

(BR) I practice Boomerang Reviewing. Review me and I'll review you.
(GT) This story has quality spelling, punctuation and paragraphing.
(CC) Constructive Crit always appreciated.

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