* Try not to repeat yourself over and over again, unless it's an accident, and accidents do happen. Take these for example: "I got twelve eggs yesterday." And then later..."I got a dozen eggs yesterday." I know this probably happens a lot, but if it does happen, just to let you know to proof-read before you send your final copy in, because you're always liable to catch a few quirks here and there. I catch plenty of them myself...

* When suddenly finding yourself at a point where you have to write a short sentence, at least try and go back and fix it so the sentence is longer, or think of something to add on to the sentence. These points rarely show their faces, but I'm just warning you. Sometimes you write one of those things and don't even realize it. Anyway, the reason I'm saying not to write those annoying short sentences is because it almost *always* makes the the point you're trying to get across to readers either awkward, confusing, or simply impossible. I'm not saying to do a run-on sentence, just try and make your points a little longer, because if you say one thing in one sentence and another thing in a another sentence, pretty much *everyone* will get confused.

* Personally, I believe that long stories are better than short fanfics, but that's just *my* opinion, don't go chewing off my head just yet. In short stories, not only do they cut straight to the chase, which is *another* one of my pet peeves, but authors do not take the time to go back over and see what could be done to make their story better...I'm sorry, I'm sorry to all you short fanfic writers out there, it's just my opinion, not every author does that. But, my short-living career as a critic demands that I give at least a *few* of my own, personal opinions here! :) As a writer and a reader, I tend to lean towards the longer type of fanfics, but do you know what I hate? What most readers hate? The not only long and suspenseful fanfics, but the arch-type ones, too. You know, the ones where it takes you about three hours to read it, all these horrific incidents happening in the story, and then, when you finally get to the end, it's a sad or "To be continued" ending? Another one of my pet peeves, ladies and gentlemen! And I'm quoting here:
"You read the last page first?"
"Um..yeah, I read a lot of mysteries. It's a bad habit..."
Now, being a mystery reader myself, and not only mystery, but action books, too, I'm almost *always* tempted to read the last page first....okay, *always,* but that's not the point. When I encounter fanfics that fit the description I just gave, I scroll all the way down and read the last part first. But the really *despicable* thing is, I never go back and read the rest of it....So, just to give a warning to authors out there, letting you in on one of the mysterious "secrets" of readers...what they hate and what they don't hate.

* To me, inserts contribute to a story. Short or long, background, theories, and all those things authors put into those inserts just comes as a good idea to me. Just winging it and writing and writing and writing intil you drive yourself or someone else up the wall just isn't all that appealing to me. But then again, that's just the people who think like me....it's not always that way. But if you tell a little more about what's going on in the story, instead of confusing readers, you'll probably have a better chance of drawing out the suspense, and it also adds more details on to the story, which I think contribute nicely.

* When doing a series, tell readers where they can find the fanfics preceding the second or third or maybe fourth story in the series. If you don't, and then refer back to some things from your past fanfics, or just pick up where you left off, it's liable to confuse readers, and that's the last thing you want. If you don't want to do it that way, write all of the fanfics in your series, and then send them in all at once. It takes longer, but it's worth the wait. I know you guys out there aren't getting paid to write these things, but you enjoy it, and doesn't it make you feel good inside when you know people are reading your work? It does to me, so you if it's the same for you, you want to convince readers that your fanfic is going to be enjoyable and worth reading. And this is one of the ways to do it. But you also have your editors to worry about, if you send it in to the Lois and Clark Fanfic Archive, link above. If you send it to another site, then you're a-ok, but if you send it to the Archive, which most people do, you will be assigned to an editor. You know how there's only so much you can type in one e-mail? Well, when I ran out of room on one of them, and sent the first part of one of my fanfics in, I made a mistake. I put "continued in my next e-mail" at the end. You're probably asking, "Well, why is that a mistake?" Don't ask, because I don't know. But the way I do it now, is put Part 1 of.....under the subject of the e-mail. I'm not sure if it works yet, because I'm waiting 'till I finish the whole fanfic until I send it in, but I hope it does. I'm up to 3 parts now, so it's going to pretty long, but if I wait it out, it'll be worth it. So that's my theory, but all you out there must have different ideas on how to do it, too. So you do whatever is comfortable for you.

* When writing, for those of you have watched Lois and Clark ever since it was first aired or somewhere around then, think of how Lois and Clark would act on the TV show, and not how you would have them act in your story. Sometimes I notice that authors tend to portray Lois and Clark as they would protray them, instead of how they're portrayed on the show. Lois and Clark would say something or do something in a way that totally unlike them...the way the authors would have it. But it makes some readers not want to read your story, because most, going through uncurable cases of LCWS, they want to read stories about Lois and Clark as they would watch them on TV. So just think before you write something you'll regret later, you know what I mean? And for those of you who haven't watched all that much Lois and Clark, and is not all that familiar with their peculiar antics, ask someone else how they would see them in words, or flip through some other fanfics and pick out the one that sounds best to you.

* Always clarify what you're getting at during once scene or another. Like if you say, "Lois leaned down to hug Clark gently," you have to be clear about it. Lois *can't* lean down to hug Clark, because, I'm sorry to say, Clark is taller than Lois.
Lois can't lean down to hug him unless Clark has somehow situated himself to be shorter than Lois. Tell about where they're sitting..or what they're doing..you know..just more details.