Anatomy of a popular one-shot

Yes I'm aware I'm tooting my own horn. 

No. I don't care.

Anatomy of a popular one-shot

I've written many one-shots. Not exceeding a hundred yet mind you, but I've had my fair share of them - thirty plus if you count the stories from my inactive account, and ten to fifteen on my current. 

For those of you who don't know what a one-shot is: It's basically a short story, the shortest short story ever. It can really only count as a one-shot if it's a single chapter so word count is relative. 

Some people find it easy. Others not so much.

I write one-shots as experiments and mainly to scratch the writing bug that pops up. I don't have the best track record with long running stories, so one-shots and collections of one-shots are my safest bet which would explain the number of them that I have.

I'm no expert at it, but I've come to recognize a few things once the story has been posted. An example being the two one-shots that spurned the creation of this post.

Before I give away any misleading secrets, it's important to note a few things: 

A story's popularity depends on a number of factors, these include, but are not limited to:

• The fandom you're writing for
• The pairing or main characters involved
• The genre you categorize it under
• The rating of the story

As you may have noticed, the actual writing isn't mentioned because those are internal factors and what makes a story attractive to potential readers is the bare minimum they see which in fanfiction is limited to a 455character summary, a title, and the above already mentioned. 

Note: Readers will notice any spelling and grammatical errors in your summary and it could be held against you. A good first impression is important.

Now, as I said, I recently posted two one-shots three days apart (they're practically twins), here they are, their first picture outside of my brain -

Despite the fact that the stories were three days apart they had nothing else in common: Not their fandom, not their rating, not their word count, nothing. 

But what's interesting is that I felt exactly the same when I wrote both. I was suffering from writer's block about another story and I wrote those two to make them better. They were written practically the same day but released seperately because I felt like it (no joke, I didn't think either of them were particularly good so I was reluctant to release them onto the internet).

As you can see from the reviews though, the stories garnered different responses. 

The first, my shot in the dark - first Fairy Tail one-shot was me writing away my obsession with a pairing that isn't particularly popular. I thought it was the better of the two so that's why I posted it first. I didn't expect a miracle, if anything I'm surprised I got any reviews at all. 

The second was posted under the excitement that my Fairy Tail one-shot survived without a flame or troll in sight, and I hoped I'd get the same response. 

If you're on the Facebook Group Fanfiction Writers Unite you'd know how it was received: I got eight reviews within two hours of posting, and the numbers kept going...

I still think it's a joke, and I honestly laugh about it because it's so unbelievable. 

Looking back, the stories are pretty different. 

Fandom and pairing:

Fairy Tail, though popular as a fandom, didn't have a big community of Laxana shippers.

Pride and Prejudice on the other hand, is quite active, and its  DarcyxLizzy/Dizzy ship definitely takes up the entire harbor.

The up would go to the Pride and Prejudice story.

Plot wise: 

The Fairy Tail one-shot was my version of a Laxana trope: the pairing being drinking buddies. 

The Pride and Prejudice one-shot was a complete out of the box: the pairing in the same economic situation (a trope that is rarely ever explored though I've yet to figure out why). 

It would be a toss up, but since the trope was more uncommon in one then the other, the up would go to the Pride and Prejudice story

Rating:
The Fairy Tail one-shot was rated T for safety (Cana's a big drinker, plus the trope was drinking buddies so there was that).
The Pride and Prejudice one-shot was rated K because it was still regency, no one swore and no one did anything mildly inappropriate (for our time period besides a kiss)
Both ratings show up without having to fiddle with the filters, but the more G rated it could be the better chances the story has of being read (safety first). The up would go to Pride and Prejudice story.

Word count:
The Fairy Tail one-shot was 3k
The Pride and Prejudice one-shot was 1k
One-shots are usually read because they're always complete and because generally, they're short so the up went to the Pride and Prejudice story.

Genre:

Both were categorized under romance, with Fairy Tail having the added Friendship thrown in because the actual romance was more implied. 

In that, there are no differences. In fact, having another genre can attract more readers, so the up might have gone to Fairy Tail if I wasn't so unsure of how obvious my preference for Laxana as more than a friendship pair.

Summary: 

I've changed the summary twice for the Pride and Prejudice story while the Fairy Tail one has remained the same. For the most part, both stories seem relatively simple in the trope they present - 

The Fairy Tail one-shot was clearly going to be about drinking (Cana and alcohol always go hand in hand) and I had it easier putting into words what exactly it was about while the Pride and Prejudice one-shot was a little more vague, but implies the pair are in the same situation, though it was difficult to word it in a way I was happy with (I'm still not by the way, but what can you do). 

Content: 

I liked the story more in Fairy Tail because it had a clear beginning, middle and end. I got to play around a bit with headcanons. It also read more like a one-shot despite it being 3k in length. I struggled with the tenses though, and people did notice, but overall, the response was the best I could've hoped for.

The story for Pride and Prejudice was a bit more muddled, the only thing really clear about it was the fact that it was happening in the moment - the beginning and end weren't particularly clear, but that seemed to have an appeal to people as they reviewed to say they wish there was more to read.

The thing I was most worried about was how completely out-of-character I thought everyone was, but the readers disagreed.

Also when I reread it a few hours after I posted just to make sure the readers and I were reading the same thing, I found a multitude of errors and missing words, none of which was present in the Fairy Tail story. No one seemed to mind.

So here's what I got from the responses of the two one-shots:

Write what the plotbunnies tell you to. You don't have to put it in a box and organise it. Get what you want to say out and then rework it to make sure it meshes. You'll miss the story if you're too worried about how it'll look.

Content is king. Don't worry too much about the spelling and grammar as you write (though don't post it if you haven't corrected the mistakes), the plotbunnies don't have time for proper English. Let them do what they do and then clean up the mess.

Be bold. Like this font. People want to read something new, just because it's been tried and tested doesn't mean it'll be popular. 

Also, just because a fandom or it's pairing isn't in demand, doesn't mean you shouldn't write that story your plotbunnies have been nagging you about. You could be the start of that ship's popularity. I know, because I've been one too ;-)

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Ships that sail themselves - An Introduction

A brief history of how ships came to sail themselves 

do you see how glorious it looks? SHIPS!

Ships that sail themselves - An introduction

Like most things, fanfiction takes simple words and gives them entirely new meanings. The most important words to take note of when wadding through the Romance genre (which is arguably the most popular in any fandom) are related to pairings and couples. Such words include: Slash (subdivided into yaoi and yuri), Harem and Canon Compliant. 

A word often used to describe a pairing regardless is the word "Ship". 

Taken from Wikipedia: 

"derived from the word relationship, friendship or worship, is the belief of (or desire for) two (or more) people, often fictional, to be in a romantic relationship. It is considered a general term for fans' emotional involvement with the ongoing development of romance in a work of fiction. Though technically applicable to any such involvement, it refers chiefly to various related social dynamics observable on the Internet, and is seldom used outside of that context. The methods of shipping can include creating images of two characters a fan wishes to be shown in a loving relationship with one another or writing fan fiction stories on web-based boards in this same context."

Further, ships themselves can be subcategorized:

• Ship - The idea of a relationship between two or more characters or individuals
• Friendship - The idea of a non-romantic (friendly) relationship between characters
• Sailed Ship - A ship that is canonically true
• Crack Ship - A ship that would be unlikely to become canonically true because of many fictional barriers between the characters.
• Joke Ship - A ship that is paired for fun, and not taken seriously.
• Sunken Ship- A ship that one once supported (and perhaps still does) that went down in the ocean, drowning all on board; essentially a hopeless relationship
• Ghost Ship- A ship where one or more of the characters has died either canonally or in an AU (Alternate Universe). It may be dead, but it's still sailing.
• Cannonball (also wrecking ball) - An abrupt course of events
• Shore - A happy ending to a ship
• Thunder - Foreshadowing events of a ship losing momentum
• Slash - A homosexual ship (sometimes 'femslash' for two females in a relationship)
• OTP - Short for "One True Pairing"; to deem a ship OTP, one is declaring their deep emotional investment in it; perhaps he or she feels that the characters involved in the relationship are meant for each other above all other relationships they may be put in by others
• BROTP - Related to OTP, except that instead of a romantic relationship, it refers to a friend relationship; the term "BROTP" is a combination of bromance and "OTP". A bromance is a relationship in which two men are close friends, but not romantically involved.
• TTP - Two True Pairings; sometimes a fan of a show, book, movie, etc. cannot decide on an OTP and is left with two options. TTP is used to express this.
• There are also several variations of OTP besides BROTP, which include but are not limited to: NOTP - a ship that one viscerally dislikes and is strongly against; OT3 - A ship with three participants (the numeral may increase with the number of characters involved in the ship); and depending on the ship itself and what is considered a staple of thatménage à trois, a term which mixes "ship" with another word of some meaning to the fandom.
• Shark - A person who is against a particular ship
• Ship Wars - The sometimes bitterly contentious disagreements between fans who favor different pairings of characters

 Some of the above are not used as popularly as others, but you get the point.

The reason I'm compiling this information is because when I discovered fanfiction I was quite literally, walking in blind. I had no idea what the hell a "ship" had to do with romance or what the hell "slash" was, and dear gods, could someone tell me what the ratings mean?!

So I'm compiling all this info for you lovely people who may also be just as lost as I was, so here it is: a brief, never official history of fandom shipping:

There are many ways to categorize the shipping ways of a fandom, which depends solely on the fandom in which you'll decide to lurk, but let's start with something we know.

Grandpa Hank, telling it like it is.

• From Friends: Chandler and Monica, Ross and Rachel, Joey and food. 
• From How I met your mother: Marshall and Lily, Ted and Robin
• From Bones: Booth and Brennan, Hodgins and Angela. 
• From Game of Thrones: Drogo and Dany, Ned and Catelyn, Jon and Yrgitte 
• From Wall-E: Wall-E and Eve
• From Harry Potter: Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione, James and Lily, Remus and Tonks
• From Mortal Instruments: Jace and Clary
• From Hunger Games: Peeta and Katniss
• From Fault In Our Stars: Augustus and Hazel
• From Supernatural: Dean and pie. 
• From Twilight: Bella and Edward (come on, there was no real competition pfth), Alice and Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie, Esmee and Carlisle. 
• From Doctor Who: The Doctor and more often not, whoever his partner is for the season
• From Avatar: the last airbender: Aang and Katara, Zuko and Mai, Sokka and Suki

All the above are considered "canon" because they've been stated, by the source material, that they are the real deal - the end game. (Note: Obviously those aren't all the canon pairings in a single fandom, but those were the ones off the top of my head)

If you like anime or read manga, you may wonder why I haven't put any up considering I'm an anime fan and I should know at least one canon pairing. Well, see, in anime/manga it's a bit harder to label a pairing canon because more often than not it's more suggested than it is stated. Only animes/mangas that are short (24 episodes or less or are less than a 100 chapters) generally have a canon couple such as "Beyond the Boundary" and "Angel Beats", in general I think most animes/mangas only reveal their real ships towards the end of the series such as with "Sailor Moon" or "Card Captor Sakura" despite the fact that most people knew they were going to be together in the end doesn't necessary mean that they will be (Hint: Avatar the last airbender - that shit hurt me in my heart).

For big animes/mangas like Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Fairy Tail, etc. It varies from being implied and suggested to being teased.

Implied/ suggested -  one character shows signs of romantic feeling towards another, however, it is either not returned or the characters in question are oblivious. The author of the original material would have done it on purpose and leave behind a lot of symbolism in the wake of it hinting at the existence of the pairing.

From the manga

i.e:

• Bleach - Ichigo and Rukia, despite not playing as big a role as her counterpart, Rukia finds her way sharing pages or shots with Ichigo. In the opening credits, they are also seen wearing matching/complimenting colours or on opposite backgrounds (he on black and she on white). In the anime and manga, they are sometimes portrayed as being tied together with a red string which in Japanese culture is referred to as "The Red String of Fate" that binds two people that were destined to meet.
• Fairy Tail - Gajeel and Levy, despite their rough start, Gajeel becomes protective of Levy and when he gets his Fairy Tail mark it's the opposite colour of hers (his is black and hers is white). His gruff exterior means that people aren't generally at ease with him and that he isn't particularly easy going around people himself, however during the series he doesn't mind getting Levy's support either after a battle when he can't walk anymore or when he leans casually on her during a normal day.
• Fairy Tail - Natsu and Lucy, of the long years Natsu has been in Fairy Tail, his only partner has been Happy and then Lucy. His team up with Ezra and Gray doesn't necessary count as he doesn't refer to them as partners, though he refers to everyone bearing the Fairy Tail mark as nakama. During the series, Lucy and Natsu have always taken to wearing matching outfits/accessories, and no surprise, as partners they are often saving each other, getting each other in trouble or running away together (sadly,not like that).

As you can see, this stuff is usually more visual than it is verbal. Some could easily argue these things away, while others will hold it as evidence.

Teased: both characters shows signs of romantic/not so platonic interest in the other, though this is also interpreted differently by different people.

I.e:

• Bleach - Ichigo and Rukia - When Rukia got taken back to SS, Ichigo went right in there and blew some shit up to save her, plus he reached an insane level of strength to duke it out with her brother for her honor (sadly, not like that). Despite claiming he was saving her as payback for her helping save his family, the other characters weren't so believing. She is often called the person who made the rain stop, and during the manga and anime after she leaves, Ichigo wonders how he's going to keep up to the speed of the world without her. When Ichigo's powers are taken away, his goodbye to Rukia is the most heartbreaking thing in history, ask anyone.
  

  

  Screenshot from the episode with true commentary 

• Fairy Tail - Gajeel and Levy - When he first joins Fairy Tail, the first order of business was making it up to Levy by saving her from Laxus, further, he speaks only to her and Juvia (without demanding to be fought with like Natsu and Gray). During the S-class exam, he told Levy that he'd make her big, an important thing since she didn't feel that she was strong enough to have been chosen to participate.
• Fairy Tail - Natsu and Lucy - Natsu's habit of cuddling with Lucy in the morning before she wakes up and kicks him out is no secret. He has also shown signs of being fiercely protective of her (when he thought she went home, when her father died, when her future self was killed,etc.) particularly the last example as he says, "You've taken something dear before me, right before my eyes." During the Grand Magical Games, he had her back when she was being blackmailed to not fight back and even when she lost, he was there to pick her up. Plus, when the baddies were trying to kidnap her, he lost his shit way more than everyone else did.

(Note: Both terms are interchangable, I just like to show some love for my ships)

Those are just my perspectives, and I'm limiting myself to Bleach and Fairy Tail because I've actually watched/read them and I support the three above mentioned pairing myself (biased I know, but hey, it's my blog).

The above examples as well as other pairings such as HarryxHermione, DracoHermione, DracoxGinny, HarryxLuna, RonxLuna, RonxLavender, NevilleLuna [Harry Potter], GendryxArya [Game of Thrones/A song of fire and ice], ZukoxKatara,AangxToph [Avatar: The last airbender], etc. Are all examples of canon-possibilities because they were suggested or implied and had built up a fanbase, however, they're either currently unexplored, wish fulfillment or have not yet happened.

(Note: left out slash to avoid confusion, but those exist in the same capacity too)

And now said slash:

Slash is subdivided into Yaoi or Yuri, but is called plainly "Slash" outside of anime/manga. Slash is basically LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) I don't read these types of fic as they aren't really my cup of tea so I can't really give in depth analysis on this, so I'll try to make it quick to lower the amount of stuff I could be wrong about:

If my research is right, the term slash actually developed from the Star Trek fandom.

When deciding on the main characters for a fic, in the past it was simply separated by "/" to indicate a romantic relationship. Even then though, the most popular genre had been romance (albeit still growing and not as popular as it is now), so when non-gen pairing was indicated people simply referred to it as "slash".

Yaoi/ The G in LGBT, is all about male on male goodness. The most popular I know of is Sherlock and John and maybe Dean and Castiel, others include Harry and Draco, Snape and Harry, and so on.

Yuri is the female on female equivalent. I'm not too knowledgeable on this one as it isn't as mainstream in fandom as its counterpart, but that could just be the fandoms I lurk. I have, however, come across Hermione and Bellatrix, Alice and Rosalie, Lucy and Levy, etc.

The remaining LGBT is self explanatory, like I said I don't know much about this topic, so let's move right along...

The next part is separating what makes a pairing (gen or otherwise) crack.

Crackfics are a different topic entirely as a fic can be regarded as crack regardless of whether it's a romance or not. Crack fics are usually as its name implies, as if the author was on crack and the story they've posted just some huge joke (which, oftentimes it is, but some people genuinely support their crack ships).Crack pairings are about the same. They are pairings that have no foundation whatsoever, and they quite literally do not make sense and have no basis for a relationship at all.

Lion King and Iron Man - Crack.
Sasuke and Ramen - Crack.
Thor and an ice giant - Crack (though I'd probably read that...)

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I came to understand all the funky terms that the fanfic community comes up with. These are by no means, everything, it'll probably be updated over time and other posts may pop up expanding on it. But this is my brief guide on how ships came to sail themselves.

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