This is just a little topic where I'll post advice for making your stories the very best that they can be. The more you follow these tips, the more people will enjoy reading your writing. I will try to update this as often as possible, at least once a week. More often when I can. So...let's get started!

Tip #1: If you can't spell, use spell check!
I can't possibly say this enough! In fact, I'd go so far as to say that you should use spell check even if you're the best speller in the entire world! No one's perfect, and everyone makes typos every now and then, but it's easier to read if as many of them as possible are removed prior to posting. If you can, use Microsoft Word or another program with spell check built in. If for some reason you can't, search for a spell checker using google. It's not that hard. Plus, it's easier to read if your writing dosen't luk liek tish.

I wanted to continue this. It seems so helpful! ^_^

Tip #2: Brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm!

If you're wanting to write, set yourself a timer for five minutes, come up with what you want your story to be about, and start the timer. During this time, come up with ideas for the plotline and such. Once the timer beeps, look at your list. Do you see any ideas you really like? If so, try to come up with a first paragraph and some characters. If not, then brainstorm again! I'm in the middle of writing a book, so sometimes I find this helpful when I have writer's block. ^_^

Why not keep it going?

Tip #3: Fancy it up a little!
Not only should you use spell check, you should also try to make your story look neat and not stilted. So what if you have to put in an extra few keystrokes? It won't make your hand fall off! Fancy stories are usually the best. Think "business casual." You don't have to load your story with dozens of descriptive words if you don't want to, but just don't make it look spammy. For instance, your story could be choppy and get bad reviews if you used the "&" key. It's worth the trouble of adding just two keystrokes every time you write the word "and." Two important rules are below.
1. NEVER SHOUT IN YOUR STORY!
2. Ch4tr00m l1ng0 & l33t w0n'1 h3lp j00r st0ryx0rx.

If you follow this rule and write fully and carefully, your story could become a manic feature of the site! You'll be on the stage...

Tip #4 Don't forget anything!
When you're done, read over your story. Forget a capital? Forget to turn of your bold and underline? If you do forget your periods and other important things, don't be afraid to edit it. And always remember. A story 1,000,000 lines long is just as good as a story 10 lines long.

Extra tip!
Stay on the same story. If your story is about pokemon, don't talk about naruto for 1,000 lines.

Wow. I never imagined that other people would take up the task of continuing this in my absence. I had more posted on UGT, but with that down...I'll try to add more to this soon. In the meantime...

Tip #5: Perfection is impossible, but practice does cause improvement!
Really. It sounds like a cliche, but it's truth. None of us sprung fully grown from the head of the writing god, born suddenly able to write perfect prose. Er. Greek mythology reference; sorry. In any case, most of us sucked once upon a time. If your writing is the most terrible stuff you've ever seen, oh well. Do your best and post it. Don't be afraid to get a little constructive criticism. You'll be better in time, I promise! (Looking back to my first Pokemon fanfic, written when I was thirteen...I was terrible. :XD: )

I concur-

"WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?" roared Bob.=>He actually sounds angry.

vs.

"What did you do that for?" roared Bob.=>Nope, definitely not as good.

Well, you could always put:

"What did you do that for!?" roared Bob. Adding the exclamation point changes everything.

Um. "Concur" means you agree.

Also, it's a stylistic thing. You can indicate shouting like Hei did, or with ALL CAPS, or in italics, or even in bold or underlined, as long as you try to be consistent with what you use. Also, try not to overuse it, as it kind of ruins the effect (and looks bad) if the ENTIRE STORY IS IN CAPITAL LETTERS or whatever.

Tip #6: The more originality, the better
Be original! Don't change the characters names and what their goal is, and then go through the same plot line as another story. You can take your favorite elements and change them around (with permission), but don't write a pokemon story where the first gym is rock, with the leader Brian, the second gym is water with the leader wave, etc. If you love misty, have one of your characters friends or somebody they meet on the journey, at least have her be the 8th gym leader, just not the 1st 2nd or 3rd. also if you have original characters, an original storyline, and an original setting, your story will be much better (but this is no excuse to not abide the other rules, they are all more important.)

If you go to fanfiction.net, you can download OpenOffice, which contains OpenOffice Writer.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, it contains Spell Check.
EDIT2:
Tip #7: We Are Crammer Jammers!
Try to give the facts all at once, but don't just say something like, "There was a bike. He got on it and rode to Guatemala." Then again, I'm not sure why you say that, but you get what I mean. Give it time. For example:
"The boy came out into the yard seeing the grassy area's swingset, hula hoop, swimming pool, and a bike. He knew he had to find a way to get to Guatemala. The boy then turned to the bike and climbed on. He balanced, then began to pedal, ready to make it."
Do you see what was done? The point was the same, but made more interesting and more easily able to be put into the person's head.

(Gasp! She's actually posting! This tip, and the continuations, are written as applying to fanfiction, but they're just as important in original fiction, if not more so.)

So. This isn't so much a problem I've seen here as it is with fanfiction in general, but I thought I'd nip it in the bud.

Characterization and You – How to Overcome Generic Character Roles and Stereotypes

Part one: General overview

Okay. You've gotten this wonderful idea for a fic, be it AU (alternate universe) or otherwise. You want to cast your characters in roles other than the ones they fill in the canon (original source) for whatever reason. Maybe you want to write the cast of Pokemon (the humans from the anime, anyway) in a normal high school, or the Digimon humans as Pokemon trainers, or (God help us) Captain Jack Sparrow as a hacker/modern (Internet) pirate. Sounds great so far, right?

Stop for a sec.

No, I mean it. Stop. Step away from the keyboard and listen. I want you to overcome the temptation to make Misty a goth with a preppy Ash as a boyfriend, for example. This is something we call out of character behavior (or OOCness) in fanfiction. And it is Not Cool.

You see, it's all too common for fanfic writers to try to bend characters to fit a certain role instead of bending the role to fit the character, and it generally doesn't work very well. After all, if we like a series' characters enough to write fanfiction, it seems pretty pointless to write stories about people who have nothing but names and maybe (if described) appearances in common with the canon characters. Why not write original stories instead? Also, when you're writing about generic roles rather than characters (I.E. a goth rather than Misty,) it usually provides a very flat, uninteresting characterization that relies on stereotypes alone. And face it, stereotypes are silly things.

Reading a good story is like a crime investigation, I think. You see all the details that the writer's spelled out and it's up to you to figure out the character's motivations, since the story often works better when the writer doesn't say explicitly “He did such-and-such because he was bored/hungry/didn't like so-and-so.” (Although it's definitely a good idea for the writer to set up enough of a background so that the reader can figure it out.) But for a writer, it works from the other way around. What would the character do? Why does he/she do it? And, drawing from that, what are the consequences? In an investigation, it's important to establish what happened, and from there, you can try to discover why, and the latter can affect how well the case is presented – but it's the less important part. When you're a writer, it works the other way around.

Expect Part two: Heroes/Protagonists soon.

(Also, Open Office is great. This computer doesn't have Microsoft Office, and I'm too poor to spend $60 on it. :XD:)