Hello, and welcome to the Q&A, you're likely wondering what purpose this stupid thing can even serve. 'Hobo already has a FAQ, so why are you here?' Well I'm glad you asked (sort of) this Q&A is less about general grammar rules and spelling as English is one of the most contentious languages on the planet, and more about giving general advice and tips towards writing the story itself. This is less of a 'here's a shitton of professional resources and a college lecture course' and more 'here's how I learned to do it from general experience and taste.' You get the idea now, yes? Let us begin. Q: Okay so who the hell are you? And why should I listen to anything you have to say? A: I'm Coughing Fit, author of Nights Of Firefall, which judging by the reactions around the threads has been a big hit. Now I'm definitely not new to the story writing game, I've been running stories in my head since I was just a wee lad. I started writing in middle school, and I won't lie, it was fucking terrible. I look back on those days and shudder. I continued writing throughout high school, and it was still kinda shit, but I was getting better and better as I kept on going. My old works are trash and I ended up burning them so I can better forget about them, but if they did lend me one thing, it was lots of practice. It's thanks to that shitty old edgy animu OC trasheap that through trial, error, and aping the writing conventions of actual quality works that I'm good at writing today. So, no. I don't have an english degree, because those are a complete waste of time. Just fucktons of practice and self teaching. Q: Hi, I'm writefag x and your opinion on this is wrong, and where's question y you dolt? I should kick your ass. A: Oh thank fuck a dissenting opinion! I won't pretend to know everything, so if you feel like a question needs to be added or if you would like to offer your own answer to a question (provided it's not just advanced shitposting) then go ahead and shoot me a message, I'll try to add to this when I have nothing better to do or I'm procrastinating on writing proper again. Q: How 2 /HmoFa/? A: The title of the general should tip you off to the basics, Human Male on Female Anthro. Anthro basically meaning a furry. To that end what you need to write an /hmofa/ are two characters, your human male lead (usually named Anon out of tradition, though I don't follow that) and your female anthro lead, which is where you have lots of fancy options to pick from. You'll also need the basics of a plot, even if your story plan is only for a single scene, that's fine, the general appreciates oneshots too. It can be about practically anything you can think of, but the big sticking point is that the two leads should be in, or form, a relationship of some sort. Now it doesn't necessarily have to be romantic, as exampled by a few stories, but the vast majority is romantic. Q: I can't think of anything good, help? A: What are ya looking at me for? Go to the thread! A lot of anons will be happy to spit a prompt or idea at you, or even just a request as to what species to make the girl. If you're wanting to write a story but stuck on the actual conception bit, go trawl the thread for a prompt that catches your fancy. If you want to do it yourself, inhale media like a data hivemind, listen to some music, watch a movie, go take a walk you fat fuck. Just try anything really to jog inspiration, sometimes it comes from the strangest places. Q: Prose or greentext? A: Either is fine, just make sure that shit is legible. The general accepts both, and if you prefer to write in prose, that's fine. If you prefer to write in greentext, that's also fine. As the drunk uncle says: 'You do (you)'. Q: Should I characterize Anon Y. Mous #X/ [insert actual name here]? These stories are supposed to be self-insert aren't they? A: Ultimately that choice is up to you, especially with shorter works, where you can afford to leave the male lead as more of a blank slate to imprint on. But if you're going for any sort of length, it's a safer bet to actually give your male lead a living, breathing character to play more strongly off of his counterpart. It doesn't even have to necessarily be self insert despite the general leaning towards second person. Just make sure the male leads character isn't overpowering the story, it's supposed to be driven in tandem with the waifur (female lead, if you're old and don't know the slang). Q: How to avoid the mary sue? A: Write your characters with flaws and weaknesses. Give them shortcomings and fears. Having either of the leads just bowl through every obstacle with minimal resistance gets boring to the audience right quick. There should always be some sort of conflict or struggle preventing everything from just immediately flying into happy ending territory. In terms of direct fight scenes, if your character is winning, think about what he's doing, how could an opponent exploit a mistake or opening on his part (or her part, the waifur can kick ass too). Think about how something could go wrong and result in injury or even loss, the most important counterbalance to a competent and skilled lead is a legitimate enemy. If there is a threat in your story, do not trivialize it, and do not pretend like the MC is just a normal joe when they kill the deathstar. Once mcjoe kills the deathstar, he's not just a pilot, he's the motherfucker that killed the deathstar, and everyone knows it, and a lot of people will be gunning specifically for him. Whether it's relatively competent rivals within mcjoe's ranks seeking and getting close too outperforming him, or a squad of assassins that ambush joe where he's vulnerable: out of the cockpit. And mcjoe won't fight off the assassins and survive a point blank shot to the stomach, no joe is going to get his ass kicked and then rescued by another character far more competent at not dying to assassins. You avoid the mary sue by acknowledging they're far from perfect, they can't do everything on their own, and by kicking the character down a flight of stairs when he thinks he's invincible. Q: Okay so I want to write this thing, but something like this already exists. Should I just quit? A: TwoCakes.jpg... Okay but seriously, no you shouldn't quit. Write what you want to write, if you're doing it just for attention or because it's a new idea, then you aren't writing what you want, and your quality will suffer for it. Just take a look at Socks, half of his stories are about grey wolves getting with humies, and are well recieved, but one of his most popular greens is about a deluxe snekdog as well, he writes what he wants, even if he writes things that may be similar, but not the same, to other things. If you want to write something unique, do it. If you want to write something that's been done before but putting your own spin and direction on it, do it. Just don't go outright plagiarizing stuff. Q: I need feedback to help improve, but there's no framework for review and editing, and the thread isn't an option. What do? A: My advice? Get in touch with other writefags that would be willing to help, if you can get someone willing, you can send them a wip and ask for feedback on your work so far, so you know better what you're doing wrong, and what you're improving on as well. So far me and deco have been bouncing ideas and feedback off of eachother, and I even sent a scene wip towards Mous for his thoughts on it. Usually I can do this over pastebin since I have pro and can message, but if you don't have pro, it couldn't hurt to ask for a writefag with pro to message you via thread when it's quiet or past the bump limit. There's also pm's over discord if you don't want to wait an hour for someone to check their paste. You can't rely on the thread for good feedback most of the time since most people don't really have anything to say beyond what they felt about it: 'this is gud', but rarely I've seen legitimate criticism pop up. Going to other writefags is just far more reliable however.