Fellow Fanfiction Authors?

Me! I got into fanfiction back when my mother had cancer. I needed to write in order to function, but the emotional turmoil in my life made it next to impossible to write anything with original characters.

I wrote over 350000 words of CSI and Criminal Minds fanfic until my mother recovered.

There was no pressure, you see? No real stress and I always got positive reviews.

I have since made the big move to original fiction, but in doing fanfic I could practice the skills I was learning in my Fiction class at college (was enrolled during my mother's illness). Particularly, staying in character. I'd put the fanfic characters into situations and would try to keep them true to the characters on the actual episodes. I practiced building suspense and tension and longer story lines.

I also wrote my first novel-length pieces in fanfiction.
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Bridget--aka fotobridget2 on ff.net

I wrote m/m slash fanfic in some obscure and not-so-obscure fandoms about ten years ago, more as an exercise in writing character interactions, sex scenes, angst, and cozy humor. (And yes, sometimes all in the same fic.) Using prefabricated characters and settings let me concentrate on story. It was enjoyable, and I still get email comments from people to this day.

I'm glad of the skills I refined while writing fanfic, but now I'd rather put that effort into my original fiction.

But I do agree that there are four or five fanfiction writers out there who would instantly have my dollars, if they published professionally. Because they're that good.

I wrote fanfic many, many moons ago. I cringe looking at a lot of what I wrote now but I remember having fun while doing it so that's really what matters.

I always enjoyed fanfiction that was more-or-less true to canon rather than recreating a character or universe into something that the author would not recognize. The fun in fanfiction for me was taking a template form, so to speak, and then extending the boundaries of canon rather than rewriting them.

I don't read or write it anymore, though. I eventually started to realize that if I wanted to take parts of characters and make them more in line with what I envisioned, then I should start writing my own stuff.

DavidCrue said:

I still write fanfic, in the Supernatural fandom.

I use fanfiction as an educational tool. Years ago, when I was new to fic, I just did my best and scoured the feedback/comments for anything useful to help me improve. Now, all my fanfiction is stuff I think is a couple steps beyond my actual abilities. I try new things, employ technical skills I've never mastered. I'm free to get overly ambitious in fanfic because if the story flops, I'm only out some fandom cred. If it turned out great, I've learned something of value I can carry over into commercial writing.

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Yay! Supernatural fandom!

I don't usually comment on the fanfic threads, but I'm in a mood tonight.

I think fanfic is great practice. I've used it in a few fandoms (SG-1 and Supernatural, mainly) and it's really honed my skills and my self-confidence. I'm more focused on my own stuff now, and I think that is a natural progression for me.

I do think, though, for people who want to go pro fanfic can be a blessing and a curse. It's nice to get some recognition. Let's face it. If you're told over and over that you're writing is amazing and you win fan awards, etc., it can be hard to say no to that. Instant gratification. Plus, it's nice to be loved.

But it can hold people back. Certainly not everyone. Some people never want to write out of fanfic or try to publish their own stuff. There's nothing wrong with that. I just find there is a danger for some people who might use it as a crutch.

Legalities aside, I do believe it's a great way for people to have fun and express themselves.

Becky Black said:

In my genre - m/m romance - you can't swing a cat without hitting an ex-fanfic writer, usually of slash, though not always. It's almost like an apprenticeship for many writers.

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*Gets hit by cat* Who swung that?!

But yeah, I used to write fanfic-of video game characters, mostly, in very small fandoms (Fire Emblem, anyone?). Once I started writing my own original stories, my fanfic writing really died down, to the point where I still have unpublished fanfics floating around. I feel kind of bad for leaving the readers with no conclusion sometimes, but I don't really want to continue with fanfic-It feels like a waste of time now.

*raises hand*

I started out writing fanfiction not only to sharpen my writing chops but also because I truly loved some fandoms. Most of my fandoms are anime and video games, like CLAMP (mostly Clover and Legal Drug) and Final Fantasy IV. I also wrote Lord of the Rings fanfic and still have a big one in hiatus.

However, I'm still writing fanfiction and trying to finish part 1 of 3 in a huge story I got quite underway in. That baby's clocking in at 65,000-67,000 words the last I updated, which was yesterday. Interesting thing coming from writing my own original fiction was that it was so much easier to write the fanfic. That epiphany was quite cool.

I have written for years, and still write, fanfic. Harry Potter, LOTR, GIJoe, X-men, Firefly, some star trek and a great dollop of Superman. What can I say.

Another fanfic writer here. My first? Forever Knight. Something with a horrible self-insert Mary Sue working at Janette's goth club. I still have it on floppy disk somewhere. *cringes*

I've written in the House, Lost, BSG, True Blood and BDB fandoms but didn't post that much. I never wrote about fan favorite characters or ships and when I did a bit with favorite characters it always ended up as femslash. Talk about low demand!

I don't read or write it much anymore, but there's a boatload of scenes from all of those fics that are getting a new lease on life in my own original stuff.

Fan fiction is where I started out I had no clue what it was at the time I started but now i do I still have som wip stories lying around that people wants me to update, and maybe I will, someday.
Lately I have been to focused on my original work though.

but fanfiction got me started, gave me the tools and generally have given so much to me in the art of writing.

I still read fanfiction on occation someweeks more than others.

I had been writing with an eye toward publication for almost twenty years and had four novels under my belt but was too chickens--t to query any of them by the time I stumbled on fanfic.

It's given me an opportunity to try out a bunch of things I'd never try in my professional work. I write in a very small niche in my fandom, and I don't have huge audiences. But if the fandom were a real audience, what I write wouldn't "sell" and I'd never find a home for it. In fic, I can get away with writing something that isn't popular to the general audience and still have a satisfying (to me, anyway) number of people read it.

So for me it wasn't an introduction to writing, it was something I brought years of experience to. Count me among those who puts serious effort into her fanwork--as far as I'm concerned, it's still published work and someday, someone might find out I wrote it, so I'd like it to reflect my full ability as a writer. I think of it as swimming to train for a marathon. If you want to run marathons (i.e. write your own novels), the bulk of your work is going to have to be long distance running, and no amount of swimming will make up for that. But swimming can be a good change of pace that keeps your muscles moving and injects some variety into your training routine.

Sheryl Nantus said:

Strangely enough none of my fans followed me to my original fiction. At least, none that I know of.

I'm not sure why...

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What is your genre?

This must be one of my posts that got eaten.

I got into writing Daria fiction while in grad school for creative writing. The fanfic probably saved my love of writing, because grad school was killing it quite dead.

Since then I've written Dexter, Witchblade, House and In Plain Sight. I try to offer something that makes it a worthwhile read, and I'm grateful to borrow the characters and premise.

I don't know if it makes me a better writer. But it preserves the sense of play that can get killed in the daily work of writing, rewriting, marketing and networking.

*raises hand*

I wrote some when I was twelve for the Maximum Ride series and Noughts and Crosses. I now write fic for the British show Misfits. I think I'll focus completely on originals once I'm done with the latter fic. But, yes I love fanfic. Reading and writing.

Totally used to write fanfiction. Kingdom Hospital, Harry Potter, LOTR, The Ring, Batman, X-Men. It's a good time. And I stumbled over some original characters in the process who turned out to be awesome. I saved a few for future projects.

I did! I did! Harry Potter, where I got started on m/m by getting challenged to write a Ron/Draco. I learned a lot about writing by doing it with the training wheels on. You learn to be true to a character once it's created, for instance, while still being able to have them surprise themselves. Too, there's nothing like modding a fanfic site and trying to tell other writers why their effort isn't getting posted to really improve your own skills.

I was lucky enough to be on a site where some of the reviewers took their duties very seriously, too, and told you if they found something implausible, non-canon, or just plumb hard to read. Thanks, good reviewers!

I learned that I love to write from fanfiction. I started with Days of Our Lives stuff, then came to hate the show. Then I moved on to That 70's Show, which was fun because the characters are so interesting (to me, anyway!). I played around with Harry Potter but that never went anywhere. Back before I knew what fanfic was, I wrote some Beverly Hills, 90210 stuff that I never showed anyone. But before I did fanfic, I didn't think I could write creatively. And now I've got tons of stories just waiting for me to get to them.

So I'm grateful to fanfic.

I never really wrote fanfiction- I had about three short one-shots I'd written over the course of five years, but when I saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean film in May, for some reason the story of Philip and Syrena completely fascinated me- might have had something to do with the fact that I was a teensy bit drunk at the midnight showing. It was my 21st birthday - and I decided to try my hand at writing fanfiction for the first time in years.

I like that it's giving me the chance to try writing in the first person, since most of my writing is in third person. It's an exploratory ground for me, and even though I'm not getting much feedback (might have to do with the fact that there's more introspection in my piece and very little wish fulfillment), I'm having fun playing with language and narrative techniques, especially as it's in present tense.

I used to write Harry Potter fanfiction. In fact, that's where I first got involved in a writing community of any sort. Everyone was so nice and helpful! Through their site, I learned how to take in reviews from people and write reviews. Fanfiction really let me explore what it was that I wanted to do with writing. I had never really written seriously before (unless you count writing random stories as a kid), and fanfiction helped me focus my energies on how a story is created. I don't write fanfiction anymore, but it certainly was a great step off for getting into original writing.

And Because, I LOVE Noughts and Crosses! Seriously. I want to see a movie made out of the first book. But I digress...

I used to try writing fan fic but I found that I kept deviating from the rules of the universe.

I think it's an excellent way to get started, because the world-building is already done for you. But I would not want to read someone else's fan fiction piece.

DanielAnuchan, are you a clone? Our pics look very similar. : ) I'll look for another one.

I don't tell anyone that I want to write.....especially the trash I think of.

I write fanfic. None of it goes online -- it's either in my journals or my morning pages -- but I find it a useful exercise at times. I tend to write it, not for my favorite books/shows/stories, but for the ones where I think there are one or two aspects of the plot or character interactions that are good, but there are more than annoy me or outright piss me off.

I have written fanfiction in the past, but ultimately it frustrates me that it will be dismissed by a great majority of people not because of what it is, but what they assume it will be.

I have dabbled a little in fanfiction over the years, but haven't put anything online as of yet ...

Just stumbled over that article which is about fanfiction ...

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2081784-1,00.html

Yep, I started with fanfiction, and I would encourage beginners to do it because you get to play with writing styles and ideas without any pressure. I started with little comic scenes and mashups, building up until I was writing novel length stories with original characters. When the original characters became of more interest to me than the fanfiction characters, I crossed over. There I started small again; flash fiction first, building up to novel length.

At no point was I bogged down with wondering if what I was writing was publishable, or whether I was safe to put it on the internet. I couldn't do anything with it, and neither could anyone else. It was just fun, great practice, and a great way to make friends.

A few years down the line, I also realise that it was a service to publishing that my beginner mistakes weren't contributing to some poor soul's slush pile.

Provided it's in the fandom of a writer who doesn't mind, I think it's a great way to build up your skills.