abyssclockworker:

Hello! I created this post to help my fellow fanventure writers. I do not claim to be an expert fanventure writer, but I hope you find worth reading. [Note: This is most probably unfinished! I will be going back to this post to make changes and add things, so stay tuned!]

1. Have fun. Writing a fanventure is for you to be able to express yourself as well as to reach out to your readers. If you are not having fun making your fanventure, you should not be making one at all.
2. Stay motivated. Your readers may find it a bit inconvenient if you update your fanventure every once in a blue moon.
3. Have an even number of players. This makes it easy to incorporate the traditional “==>” symbol in your story. For example, if your session has six players, it would have “===>”, while a five-player session would have “==->”. Which seems easier?
4. Try to stick to the traditional player number. The kids have four, the trolls have twelve, the cherubs have two.
5. Make the number of squares in the Sburb symbol correspond to the number of players, but also make it aesthetically pleasing. Going back to my six-player example, don’t stack the squares underneath the bottom. Try putting them at the sides, in between the top and bottom squares (sort of the like the trolls’ Sburb symbol, but smaller).
6. Try coming up with your own suffix for Sburb. After all, there’s the entire Greek alphabet. If you really want to be creative, find a letter that rhymes with “beta” or “alpha”.
7. Find an image-hosting site that works. I recommend Photobucket or Imgur. They are both quite handy.
8. Put effort into the art. The panels are at least one third of the webcomic experience! (The other half being the text and the sound.) You are extremely lucky if you possess Paint Tool Sai, which has a nice Binary tool that creates pixel art.
9. Put effort into the writing. Like I said before, the text is one third of the webcomic experience. You can copy Hussie’s style, use your own, or do a little of both!
10. Try making animations. I know a lot of us are not that good at using Flash (myself included), but I’m sure the effort to make an animation can be worthwhile. Even a single animation can make your fanventure very memorable to those who read it.
11. Work on the content. Your fanventure may have flashy pictures and writing, but if the content itself sucks, people won’t read it. Know what you are trying to create here. Be in touch with your readers’ expectations.
12. Add humor. Without humor, Homestuck would not be as popular as it is today. Unless your fanventure is a serious one, crack a joke once in a while. Even a corny or nonsensical one. Your readers will love it.
13. Balance out your humor with meaningful moments. Homestuck is not all about gags and puns. There are some scenes that can make fans literally tear up or drop their jaws in awe. Make scenes that your readers will want to remember.
14. Make your readers savor the dialog. Whether pesterlogs, spritelogs, or whateverlogs, conversations are the meat of your fanventure. They are opportunities for you to add suspense, show another side to your character, or reveal important information.
15. Include your own characters. While making a bloodswap or kidswap is totally cool, people also like seeing new kids, new trolls, new characters in general. Creating characters is a huge step for writers.
16. Develop your characters internally. Don’t make a shallow, easy-to-overlook fantroll. Make one with a history, a central theme, a personality people won’t soon forget. If you make a run-of-the-mill angry one, your readers may dismiss it quickly. That is what you want to avoid.
17. Develop your characters externally. Give your fankid or fantroll a memorable appearance. If you just take say, a sprite of Karkat and slightly change his horns, that’s not very original. However, there’s another extreme. Try to avoid making sprites that have the eyes and other facial features placed incorrectly. Also try to avoid making fantrolls with multiple horns for no reason (remember, Sollux has four only due to his duality theme) or horns that are too big or flashy. Most horns (and haircuts) are simple and easy to draw.
18. Think well about your character’s shirt symbol. For kids, what interest of his or hers does it represent? Is it original, and does it sum up my fankid as a person? For your fantrolls, research well on possible symbols you can use. You could try maybe alchemical symbols, or symbols of the planets, or symbols of minor constellations! The possibilities are meaningless, and so there is no excuse for you to use a cliche heart or star.
19. Think about your character’s central theme. If you’ll notice, the twelve canon trolls of Alternia are based on the Zodiac signs. Your own fantrolls can be based off of Internet/blogger stereotypes (highly recommended!), the planets, or the gods of any mythology. Use this as a base for your fantroll’s personality, appearance, weapon, quirk, as well as other defining traits.
20. Think of a typing quirk that suits your character. It should have something to do with their personality or theme. For example, Rose types in perfect grammar and syntax because she is intellectual and sophisticated, while Karkat types in all caps because he is often shouting or irritated. And for fantrolls’ quirks, please please make them readable. Conversations loose their appeal when they can’t be read. Don’t make it incomprehensible, 71yyEk +#115. Also, make their quirks have meaning. Don’t choose a quirk just because it looks cool. Often, this will tempt you into plagiarizing or slightly modifying canon characters’ quirks! That is a no-no.
21. Let there be relationships. Quoting from The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, “For who so form that cannot be seduced?” (Okay, that was horrible and inappropriate. I apologize.) But seriously, there is no person on this earth that is incapable of emotion. It doesn’t have to be love love. It can be friendly love, or any other type of love you can think of (remember the four troll romance quadrants?). Having relationships between characters makes the story very interesting.
22. Use big words. Okay, that sentence sounded pretty unsophisticated, but you know what I mean. I mean, who here does not have two to three tabs of Dictionary.com open whenever they read through Mindfang’s journal? Using big words is like poetry, and I’m pretty sure Hussie knows this.
23. Use appropriate screen names/chat handles. A character’s screen name, like their symbol, should sum them up as a person. Don’t use simple ones like greatGuy or anything. Personally, I savor those fanmade screen names that are over fifteen letters long. In canon, each constituent word of the screen name is at least four letters and at most eleven. Also, if you are willing, try to follow the ACGT pattern Hussie uses for his characters.
24. Don’t be afraid to use resources from the webcomic itself.Homestuck is like a fanventure gold mine to those who know how to use it. If you yourself are not in possession of any ripping software such as sai, ring up the lovely mods at homestuckresources.tumblr.com! They are very helpful and very nice.
25. Remember to mirror Homestuck itself. In Homestuck, a rule of paradox space is that nothing new every happens; everything that happens is just a mirror of something else that has happened or will happen. Try to incorporate this rule into your fanventure. Make your characters have identical poses, sayings, references identical to the characters in Homestuck! After all, this is what having a fanventure is about.
26. Get inspiration from other fanventures. Aside from Homestuck, there are tons of other fanventures you can draw inspiration from, such as the titans of MSPFA, Guidestuck and Ke$hastuck. Looking at other fanventures, seeing the good points in them, and applying it in your own adventure is all a part of the creative experience.