Here are some tips that will help you become the Shakespere's, Rowlings and Wordsworth's of the pokemon fan world.

Tips and Tricks
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1.Proper Use of the Keyboard.
There are several useful keys on the keyboard:

Enter/Return: This is one of the most useful keys. Use it whenever you have finished with one idea and are ready to move on to the next paragraph. Use it when one person has finished speaking, and another is about to start. When doing so, hit it twice, to produce a blank line between paragraphs. This makes it a lot easier for your readers to tell where your paragraphs start and end. Large blocks of uninterrupted text are hard to read.

Shift: Another important key. Hold it down when typing the first letter of a sentence, the first letter of a name, or the letter 'I' when using it as the first person singular subject pronoun.

Caps Lock: Often used as a substitute for the 'Shift' key. Don't do it. Text should not be in all capital letters unless someone is SHOUTING!

The Spacebar: Hit it once after every word or comma, twice after a period.

2.Tips on Composition
Paragraphs: Use these as your basic unit of composition. Each paragraph should be used to set forth a single idea. If a paragraph seems to long, it probably contains multiple ideas, and should be split up for clarity. If it seems too short, expand on the idea.

Sentences: A sentence should contain exactly one action or statement of existence. If it contains more than one, split it into two or more. If it contains less than one, finish the sentence. Run-on sentences are often confusing, while fragments make the reader feel that something is missing.

Description: Make sure that your reader can visualize what is happening. Don't just say something like "Joe walked along enjoying the scenery". This gives no indication of whether the scenery he is enjoying is a redwood forest, a beach at sunset, or the Grand Canyon.
A description is not just a list of attributes. When describing a character, don't just list their name, age, height etc.

3. The Plot
a) General:Of all the possible plots please dont have a, Joe goes on his journey to become a pokemon master. Its so old and overused that its not even funny. You can have journey fanfic but dont make them redundant. We have the anime for that

b) Legendries: Please dont have a trainer start with a legendry. He would be too inexperienced for that. Thats why the professors give new trainers the starters. Easy to train, obedient and later on become very powerful.
If a trainer catches a legend or already has one, please make sure you make him very experienced/a vetran.
The loop hole to this is that if the legend is a baby like a 3ft tall baby Zapdos, then even an inexperienced trainer may have one but make sure it is caught in a special way i.e. saves it from Team (insert word)

c) Charecters: Whether it is the hero himself, the rival, gym leader or anybody. Please make sure that your charecters are believable. Inherently strong trainers who always win, incompetent members of Team Rocket are all boring. Make them real, Give them strenghts and weaknesses. Like, Joe is experienced and strong but he fights with his life.

d) The games and anime: When writing fanfics try to be as close to the anime as possible. It makes better sense than the games. I dont want you mentioning any stats like attack, defence etc. No HP'S and PP's. All this doesnt make sense. Also the legends excluding Mewtwo, Lucario and Deoxys are neither singular in number (ala games) nor uber-frekin powerful. Consider them the best of their type. eg. Articuno is the best Ice/Flying type you can get

4. Charecters- How to make a good one
a) Stregnth- The most important thing for you to remember is that nobody in this world is perfect. Infact if you look at the anime itself you will see that the chareceters there are also not perfect. Try to copy that. I want beliveble charecters, I dont want SUPER-MEN! A normal kid would not start with several legends similarly dont give vetran trainers a Bulbasaur with just Tackle. Doesnt work.

b) Pokemon Protagonists: Sometimes you amy be interested in writing a story from a pokemon's point of view. In that case, like you give a human a personality give the legend a personality too. Also, try to visualise how the pokemon would see his world, remember it would be totally different to our way of looking at things. Here's an example:
Human: Jackson was walking around town looking at the beautiful fountains with his Ratata
Pokemon: Ratata was walking along with his companion looking at the large stone structures some of which spouted water from their tops

c) Alternate Views: When developing a charecter make sure you consider the point of view of all the protagonists. Let us say that the main charecter is a fellow named Jhon who considers himself a jolly and a carefree person with childlike qualities. Now what if another charecter sees this in a different way.
Eg. Julia didnt like Jhon at all. She considered Jhon a careless and immature fool. She thought that he was the kind of person who would always get pushed around by others and would suffer in life.
See! Now the reader will decide Jhon's true charecter

d) Good/Bad: Often it is very interesting to have charecters who conflict with the world around them. You can have a good cop who shoots every baddie he sees (Nana Patekar from 'Ab tak 36'...lol!) or an evil minion/henchman who wants redemption i.e. wants to escape from his world of evil and darkness. Try this with names too. eg. Angel (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) used to be an evil Vampire but when he meets Buffy he changes his evil ways. How's that!

5. World Fluff
Ok! Lets face it. The world is not all sugar coated and fluffly. Get over it. The recent mumbai bomb blasts are proof of this. I want a beliveble world with beliveable charecters. Though i dont want absolute darkness nor brightness. Try to keep a balance between the two. Corruption, crime, evil should be mixed in with hope and happiness.

6. The Climax
When all is said and done, The most important part of a story/fanfic is its climax. The Sholay style shootout. The 007 style great escape from the madman's lair. The Lord Of The Rings style large battle. The Godzilla/King Kong style final fight which ends in death.
These are all good examples.
Now, here are some of the worst possible endings:

1. Happily ever after: UGH!!.... This takes the cake. Like i said before the world is not at all fluffly and sugar coated. Though there is no harm in Victory, dont forget to remind the reader that evil still exists and will always be there. Then again if you follow the LOTR route then you can show a world which has no evil but leaves it boring and uninteresting.

2. Cliffhanger: Holy Cow! This one's a mixed bag. The cliffhanger is one of the most popular endings there is. However its considered bad beause it makes the reader feel cheated. Unless you are planning a sequel or even a triliogy dont give a cliffhanger. eg. I lost my footing, I slipped and started to fall. It seemed that my whole life was flashing before my eyes. The last thing i saw before i hit the ground was a black shape............. THE END! If you doo this then please continue the story, how? Let the black shape be a pokemon that saves him.

3. Pokemon Master Ending: Seriously??!! You must be joking if you end like this. We have the endless anime for this one. Plase dont do it.

4. Anti-Climatic: lol! My pet peeve. Wether its in the movies or in books. I cant stand the anti-climax. Picture it. You are reading one of the greatest fanfics ever written and it gives you the lamest ending ever. Makes you feel cheated doesnt it. If every charecter gets killed by an uknown entity then please make it something sensible.
I dont want.... Jhon lay on the floor bleeding. The monstrous beast had finally got them. They tried everything to stop it but they failed. Jhon realised the end had come. The last thing he saw before he closed his eyes was a green shape. It was a.......
CATERPIE!! DONT DO THIS! Let the green shape be a Tyranitar or a legendry.

5. Everyone dies: This is another mixed bag. Dont do it just because you dont like the charecters or you dont want to write a sequel. Though you can kill one or two charecters, find another way to write the charecters off.
Also, make sure that the deaths were heroic i.e. they died while trying to commit a good deed. It makes the sacrifice worth it. Otherwise give a good reaseon for the deaths. If you want more examples then you should read my upcoming fanfic... Dark Starters. In it i manage to write off all my custom charecters with one of them getting killed.

6. It was a dream: I wont even say why its bad. Basically its just an excuse bad authors use to finsin a story quick. Infact at one point of time, people were saying that Ash's adventure is a dream. We know is not but how would you feel if it was true

7. Riding off into the sunset: Read 1. Both are practically the same. Though this one is better because it gives you the best chance for a possible sequel. A good example would be my Enter the Mew 3 in which Mewtwo goes of to find someone in the epilogue. The sequel is called Gaurdians

7. Grammar and Writing
a) Adjectives: The words that tell the reader what something tastes, sounds, smells or looks like. You can have a fanfic wih no adjectve use but that would make it boring
Eg. Instead of: Charizard came out of the pokeball
Say: A magnificent red dragon came out of the pokeball.
Makes the reader go "OOH!!!'

b) Metephors and similies: These are words that compare something to something else, the difference between them being that a simile simply says that something reminds the author of something else eg. "as cunning as a Vulpix", whereas a metaphor suggests that the two things are more or less one and the same. For example,
Jhon is a bit of a Caterpie which means that he is small and timid in nature.

c) Said: The most overused word in the english language used to convey what somwone is saying. Dont be afraid to use it but try to use its synonyms. Like retorted, shouted, blurted out etc.

d) Onomatopia (sp?):This is a very important tool for creating sound effects - try saying words like "click", "hum", "rattle", "yawn" and so forth out loud and notice how the pronunciation imitates the sound they represent. For eg: "The bushes were rustling" Notice how the word 'rustling' seems to convey the sound almost as if you can hear it. The purpose of this device is to help the reader create an atmosphere and keeps him glued to the screen.
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Well that's all I can say. The rest is up to you all.
Happy Fic Writing!
:shinysuicune: says, "WOOF WOOOF!"

Hmm......... Very Interesting.
Your tips are quite good. I originaly wanted to write fanfics but decilned from it. LOL! Now thanks to you i'll shortly begin writing my first.

WHAT IN THE NAME OF..........!! I was ROFL!! hahahaha!
the guy who actualy does this must be a complete n00b.
Overall the tips are quite good

:shinymew: :shinycelebi: :shinyjirachi:
The uber shiney's go: YAHOO!!! COOL!

Gr8 instructions.
Especially I liked the use of Shift, Spacebar and Caps Lock
and
Caterpie...

Cool.

lol good one!

You can also type " é " (Pokémon) from your keyboard.
Just press, Alt+ 9(then)+ 8(leave 9 and then press 8)+ 5(Leave 8 and then press 5)+ 8 (at last).

Note:
1. Alt should be pressed during the whole process.
2. Sometimes this trick works when NUM LOCK light is on and sometimes it works when NUM LOCK light is off.
So be careful.

Oh this thread is WIN.

Have you tried the trick?

It works. I know that, and it ain't a trick.

I think we should have an option to type é here, like we have option to do text bold, italic and all.
This would promote the use of é

I wud prefer e'

But e' does not make any sense, does it?

Of course it does!
Its got same meaning!
Atleast as far as I know!

Yeah, but i was stucked in finding a right word for it. That's why i called it a trick.

*cough* stuck *cough*