huntersseries:
I was going through my writing groups today and stumbled upon someone asking how a fanfiction of a popular book managed to get published and why people would either bother writing fanfiction in the first place.
The responses on the thread ranged from curiosity to unbridled hatred of the ‘crap’ and ‘horrendous quality’ of fanfiction out there. No one defended fanfiction on the post and it bothered me. A lot.
I love fanfiction, and seriously, honestly, can I just put out there that it’s not the end of the world if you write fanfiction? You are not cheating! In fact, fanfiction can help you practice and can be used as a tool to become a better writer.
Seriously, hear me out.
1. Fanfiction can help you write. You’ve joined a fanfiction community, you start writing and nearly all communities have ‘review’ functions. There’s a ready made option for people to read your work and critique it. Even the little comments help, even with no substance. They build thick skins, they may you think and they make you consider how to draw an audience and more reviews. You can only pass your story to so many friends, but posting it on the internet for all to see, opens the door to anon critiques that can improve your writing.
2. Fanfiction can help you write characters. The show/book/movie/fandom gives you set characters and the point is to remain ‘in character’ or true to who those characters are. That’s a challenge! Because the minute that Captain Kirk, or Sherlock or Bilbo acts differently readers will call you out. It forces you to think about the character - or ignore them and justify why you did what you did.
3. Fanfiction can help you create your own characters. Mary Sues and Gary Stews are the horrible horrible things about the fandom right? Putting your own original characters into a story is the way you’re not supposed to go. But step back and realize that the Mary Sue is a practice of putting your character on stage with the others. They are ‘horrible’ because they aren’t as well thought out. Putting them with the other characters can force you to add more detail, to flesh them out and make them fit in. Sure the critics are mean, but that too is helpful. It’s very easy to learn from your ‘Mary Sue’ and develop her until she fits in and is accepted as a simple “OC” (or original character).
4. Fanfiction can help you create a world and give it a test run. Creating a whole universe for your characters is hard and it takes a lot of work. However coming up with a plot and universe and putting fanfiction characters in it as an AU (Alternate Universe) can be a way to give that universe a test run and make sure it works. You want a world where characters deal with war and death? Sure, use fanfiction to take characters you know really well (after all you watch them every week) and make them deal with that world. You want to explore sexual fantasies that you yourself might not be willing to try? Fanfiction lets you do that and it lets you expand your horizons. This lets you learn about that world and test it out. So the next time you create a universe it’s better and better.
5. Fanfiction can help you build self confidence. There is nothing scarier to a introverted teenager then putting themselves in the front of a room and expressing a new idea that’s their baby. Believe me, I know. But fanfiction lets you do this, from a safe area. Your original idea is couched between well known characters and ideas and can be handed out to the internet as a whole or a couple select fans. This lets you hand your idea out and get feedback. Done enough times and survived through enough ‘flames’ and ‘trolls’, you can come out the other end confident in your ideas and your ability to express them. This can give you the confidence to stand in front of people and present your original work for others to see how good it can be, without you even realizing it.
6. Fanfiction can help you network. In the publishing world, you have to send off your stories to thousands of people and hope someone likes it. You need to edit and you need to sell yourself. Fanfiction presents you with a world of feedback (reviews), editors (beta readers) and fans across the world that couldn’t be more readily available. Use this to your advantage. Seriously, it can become a secure support for jumping into the world of original fiction and sometimes, that’s what you need to get your story right, especially if it’s not readily available next door or down the street.
I know there are other good things about fanfiction, but these are the ones that meant the most to me. These are the ones that have helped me get to this point and I’m not ashamed of it.
I am not saying that all fanfiction is good. Just as not all first drafts are gold. But they are stepping stones and they can be used to create better things or they can be amazing on their own.
Do not judge the entire subject by a single book that got just a bit more attention then the rest. Fanfiction isn’t evil, it isn’t stealing and it isn’t crap. There are fanfictions out there that are better then some of the best published works and there are plenty of writers who started in fanfiction, whether they admit it or not.
I admit it. I started in fanfiction. And it made me the writer I am today. I am proud of that fact, thank you very much.
Let’s be honest with ourselves. At some point, in our lives, we’ve written a fanfic, or pretended to be in someone else’s universe. We’ve played pretend, or wondered, “What if this happened at the end of the movie/TV show/anime/video game/comic/whatever instead?” There’s this stereotype with fanfiction being terrible, or, “Ugh 50 Shades was a fanfic,” and suddenly it’s this terrible thing.
People don’t seem to realize what fanfiction does for writers. If it weren’t for fanfiction, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Fanfiction kept me writing when I stopped. Fanfiction kept me writing when I thought I couldn’t get anywhere with writing. Fanfiction showed me that my “hobby” could actually be a “career.” The writing degree and the classes helped, but fanfiction helped too. I’m not ever, ever going to deny that. I treated it like practice, be it keeping characters in character, trying to write their motivations, trying to flesh out the AUs or even the canon universes in ways that the series didn’t. Not only did writing fanfiction help, but reading it helped, too. Seeing other people’s writing styles, leaving reviews, talking to the writers, all of that is part of the writing community.
It kills me when people treat fanfiction like this terrible thing. I, for one, wait for the day when one of my books has a fandom, has people writing fanfiction, or drawing fanart, or cosplaying, or whatever. Is there bad fanfiction out there? Of course. Just like bad movies, or bad video games, or bad books, it’s part of the community. Does that mean every aspect of that community is bad? No, of course it doesn’t. Not every book you read is good, hell, not every book by the same author is good, and not every book in the same series of books is good. But do you bash books in general? No.
And let’s talk about the reviews you get. Nothing prepares you for the reviews your book will get like fanfiction. You get a wide variety of reviews, from one sentence, to paragraphs, to pages, and not all of them are good. They prepare you for the good and the bad, but especially the bad. Sometimes you get that “ugh why is this character gay” review, and sometimes you get that review even with the 700 warnings of, “gay characters ahead, don’t read if you don’t like.” Other times, they’re well thought out negative reviews that actually help you improve your next fic, and the next one, and the next one. There’s no way I’d be prepared for the “not everyone will like your book” road without fanfiction and the reviews I’d receive.
Everything starts from something. Everything is inspired by something. There’s nothing wrong with that. You see people say it all the time. ”I use to read/watch this thing, and it inspired me.” ”I created this character because I was inspired by this.” ”This is based on this.” Fanfiction is no different to me. Fanfiction means that I’m so invested in a character or series that I feel the need to write more for them, beyond what the creator has done. To be able to inspire people in such a way with my writing is a dream. That means they’re still thinking about your book, or movie, or whatever you create. That means it’s still on their mind. The reason why Persona 4 is still popular for being a game from back in 2008 is because we still love the characters, we still want to continue their story, we still want to take that journey with them. The reason why Night Vale has taken off so quickly is because the fandom took to it. Once upon a time, CLAMP was a group of doujinshi artists, drawing comics from other series. Now they have a bunch of series of their own that people love. The reason why Free: Iwatobi Swim Club even EXISTS is because fans clung to that 30 second promo video. Had they made that promo and we hadn’t given a shit, it wouldn’t be going right now. Had the fans not taken to Harley Quinn in Batman: the Animated Series, she would’ve just been a random Joker henchwoman. That’s it. It’s because of fans that she has her own comics, her own following, be in the video games, none of that would’ve happened without fans.
Without fans, your story will never live on.
And that is what we, as writers, want.
And if my creation inspires someone else’s creation, by all means. Let the creativity flow from person to person. If I ever go to a con and see fanart or cosplay from one of my books I will absolutely die of happiness. If the series my partner and I are creating ever has a section on ff.net, or any other fanfiction place, that means that our books have left that much of an impact. Do I want to write? Yes. But I also want my books to mean something to people. I want them to mean so much to people that, 5 years later, there’s STILL a fandom for them. People are still talking about my characters, or a scene, or anything I wrote.
Fanfiction means that this has happened, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Fanfiction is not garbage, it’s not a cop out, it’s a part of the writing community. Don’t ever be discouraged because you write fanfiction, or use to write fanfiction, or anything like that. Ever.
The part where I encourage fanfiction, because it’s important to the writing community.
Anonymous