Fatigued By Flat Fiction? Focus On The Feel.

I was recently asked if there was any advice to be offered to a new writer to make storied captions on DeviantArt.

Oh gosh. LOTS.

Many points are dually applicable to just about any form of fiction writing, but the focus here is long captions.

It's an advantage to read a variety of different artists' work. You get a sense of what's overdone already, what's cliche, how to develop your own "voice," or a certain tone or set of characteristics that make your art unique even if you write about the same event or subject as someone else.

Keep the format professional. Some writers are self-satisfied by throwing one massive blob of text next to a picture and calling it a day. Paragraphs matter, visual appeal and being easy to look at or read are just as important as writing an interesting caption. In truth, this concept applies to any amount of text, because almost no one would prefer to stare at a flat, featureless wall of text. It's just ugly.

An amazing picture is nice, but not always key. Sometimes realism, surrealism, or relatability are worth more to a reader.

Know your audience. Some people are just looking for something within one tiny niche or another, and that's fine. Others need a little more, or just want a bit of story that moves their heart or shares something they relate to. I try to cater to both, but some stories feel more partial to one crowd or another.

Characters should feel like real people whenever possible, instead of random names associated with some events. Real people have internal conflict to some degree, or insecurities, or strengths and weaknesses, or life stories whether or not those stories ever get told to the reader. They grow or they grow stale. They suffer and they feel joy, depending on what dynamic you want them to serve. They speak like real people, who in most cases don't know how to communicate their feelings efficiently. We say too much, or hold our tongues at times when we shouldn't. We don't like flat, monotonous, boring conversation in real life or fiction, and the way we speak will always have more than our own words to tell others where we come from or where we might go.

Protagonists and antagonists are often portrayed simply as hero or villain, but people are just people, and sometimes we're noble, but other times the same person can be a real asshole. Other times it's just a matter of conflicting perspectives or differing values. An interesting villain is every bit as vital as an interesting hero or victim.

Length is not a starting detail to consider. Instead, it should depend on how complete it feels to the author or reader. Does this paragraph or scene feel like there's more within it worth exploring? In other words, it will be as long or short as it will be when it's done, and until then size should be an undecided variable.

The only partial exceptions to this are commissioned work in which you are being paid for in expectation of a certain size of a story, or captions in which you wish to stay within the appropriate size ranges dependant on the image being used and upon your ability to manipulate the image.

If images are being used, sometimes it's better to find one that fits after writing. I'd advise that it should feel like it expresses a focal aspect of the text instead of just being some random, arbitrary image serving as nothing more than shallow eye-candy. On the other hand, lots of images you might find just seem to have their own story waiting to be told, and you're the one to tell it, so the image is your starting point in the process.

Backgrounds and color schemes matter, because it affects the overall feel of the work, but more importantly because they greatly affect the legibility of the work. A plain white background won't cost you much effort or audience approval, but it won't impress anyone either. You have to explore for yourself what works.

In addition (not replacement) to your own understanding of the language used (I assume English in this case), you should use two levels of checking software as well. I write my stuff with Microsoft Word, where I pay attention to the spell checker. When I paste it to anyplace online before submission or before assembling the caption, I let my Grammarly browser extension check it as well. It's free. Both programs spot different changes to be made, but neither one is as good as personal skill and linguistic comprehension. They do make a big difference, and you'd be surprised how many readers HATE seeing lots of errors but don't want to be that annoying person who complains about spelling, punctuation, or grammar.

There's plenty more to consider, but just these points will put you above a large majority of writers out there.

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Here's what I'm jamming to as I write. Hopefully, you'll come to love this band as much as I do. I originally found them while researching punk music for an ongoing series of commissioned captions I'm writing, but I quickly realized they had so much more depth than many of their contemporaries.

Hot Water Music: Radio

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((I claim neither credit nor ownership of the above images or videos.))

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