Any tips on writing fanfiction?

I'm thinking of starting to write fanfiction just as a little hobby or way to keep my mind occupied when I have nothing else going on. But I'm not great at writing real stories. Headcanons and character development ideas? Absolutely. Brain is full of those. I spend all day coming up with those. But writing dialogue, being as descriptive enough to describe a setting or construct a scene? POO. Brain dumb. Help?

When I'm in "what do I even do" mode, I just start writing down what I do have even if its just describing ideas. I'd recommend starting with describing (even random) scenes (even if its done poorly, doing it at all is better practice than never doing it!). Even writing it out like its a script is better than nothin. Back when I wrote fic all the time I'd take note of how other (general) writers wrote and kinda just learned from that. 

It also helps to remind yourself why youre doing it as youre doing it. Did I write fanfic to be good? No, I wrote it for fun and love of the game. It doesn't have to be good at all it just gotta have heart honestly. 

My credentials for this is I was a fanfic writer with a small following back when I did it lol. Back when song fics (are those a thing anymore?) ruled certain fandoms. 

Currently working on something as practice

imo tumblr has lots of helpful tips (it's literally one of the main early fanfic websites i think?) so maybe check there? they have a strong writing community ^^

write first, fix mistakes later. do it that way and you won't spend more time rewording or fixing stuff than actually getting it down on paper - just an idea :D

always keep in mind that this is a hobby, and fanfiction spaces online are known to have all kinds of writers and readers with varying standards when it comes to writing; it's a hobby first with many kinds of people who like different things in writing. there's no pressure to improve or to be "highly" skilled as a writer from the jump: keep at your level, or improve on your own pace. just do everything while having fun!!

I've written fanfiction for years, though have written it less in years. To start with, I've found that much general advice on writing can apply to how you write fanfiction. Except of course, you're writing (or reading fanfiction) with the knowledge of the characters (or setting) already, which means you don't have to focus on establishing them. Look into different perspectives or tenses to use, and basic grammar--there are guides online to be consistent on those matters, like on reddit, tumblr, or youtube! Additional little tips for specifically dialogue + being descriptive: 

- To get a sense of writing dialogue, make sure to look up the characters' scenes online. Whether it be the script, videos, audio snippets, or even their quotes on wiki. Just enough to get a general sense of what makes their word choices, vocabulary, or word choices distinct & how formal they are to make their dialogue unique from other characters. How good dialogue is very much depends on if it fits the character, but is still at least readable for readers, more than if it uses standard grammar or perfect speech (< since characters, and we, don't use this in real life). For dialogue tags specifically, you don't always have to to depend on a fancy adjective. "said/say" is Okay sometimes! You can so write dialogue descriptions before a quote, just for the sake of varying sentence structure. 

- On being descriptive: often there are various ways to be descriptive (or write prose)--even being simple can be effective as well along with ornate prose, and a writing style that is entirely simple is also its own art form (and is sometimes a preference). Description is something to be built; put the idea down first, rather than immediately focusing on how to make an idea intricate. You can always edit later on. Also, you can research vocabulary lists to find varying, or interesting, words & adjectives help build your writing. There are articles, youtube videos, tumblr posts or even pinterest photos of vocab lists you can save. Be mindful while reading, and take note of any vocab you'd want to use for the future. + a personal recommendation from me: I love using the onelook reverse dictionary to find words from researching descriptions.

- Think about how there are conjunctions to make a whole scene, like how trees can reach into a sky, a river can stretch into in a forest, or a person walking into a beach. You can go throughout one or a few senses (touch, sense, smell, sight, hearing) to create a bigger picture. Think about how a character frames a scene, thus its description. A character can walk, but maybe a carefree character will stroll in. maybe a river is just a river, but maybe to a vain character it's a second mirror < Poor example, but yeah. 

practice for a bit! be nice on yourself. i'll say that writing as a beginner sometimes just feels like putting down ideas down, over and over, until you find your voice to polish your idea into something that's really your idea yk. naturally, it can take time to get use to writing, but you can get there eventually. i hoped i helped a little bit! have fun!!!

When it comes to actually writing it, I very very very strongly recommend just writing it and making it better later. If you feel the need to be perfect all the time, you'll never write it, because nobody starts perfect.

I also recommend writing about things that interest you, or that will convince you to learn about something you want to know about, or learn about yourself. For example, if you have mental issues, give them to a character and project onto them. If you want to learn about a certain religion, then give a character that religion and study it to portray them accurately.