I’m reading fan fiction. Hah! I’m writing it, too.
Here’s the thing: I discovered while I was mucking about at Glogster that to really make use of the place, I had to let go of some of my creative restraints. When I did so, I was not only have fun creating the glogs, but I was enjoying creating new artwork. I also found that I was more socially inclined than I normally am. I found common ground with people literally all over the world. It was very liberating.
Now the aftermath: I’ve eased off on creating a glog a day since the 20th, but I still wander over to check out new ones and to just browse for fun. And then I began a story. It was just a silly fan fiction thing, just something to have fun with and write for myself. It’s nearly two weeks later and 40,523 words later and I’m still writing that story. I’m not just writing and leaving mistakes where they fall, either. I’ve gone back every morning to re-read what was written at night and to edit it. As a consequence, the story is nearly finished, I’m still having fun with it, and the few folks that have peeked at excerpts enjoy it as well.
I don’t write like that. I haven’t written like that in a very long time. I write many stories, but if they don’t come out right on the first shot, I don’t edit them. I’m lazy, shoot me. I post about a tenth of what I write that’s worth posting. I might do a little editing, but not much.
What I found in writing this fan fiction story is the reason I began writing in the first place; I’m a storyteller. I was telling stories to anyone who would listen to them at a very young age. It wasn’t until my mother suggested that I write down my stories that I became an official writer.
I do and have enjoyed writing down my stories, but there were some serious drawbacks. With writing my stories down on paper there came the worry about grammar, spelling, and editing anything that didn’t sound right the first time. Then there was the push to publish the story. First in school periodicals, and then submitting to “real” publishers.
Editors of real publishing houses are, quite frankly, brutal. I chose not too long after graduating from high school that I’d not put myself through such misery ever again. A couple of time I fell off the “no publishers” wagon, but I get back on again, and begin to write again.
So why is that writing a piece of fan fiction has led me back down that path I enjoyed so long ago? There is an imperfection about fan fiction that’s refreshing. People that read fan fiction do so in order to read more adventures about those characters they love. This means, that as a writer, you can get away with writing a simple scene, and your readers appreciate it. If you want two characters to chat with each other and you don’t want to deal with description, you can get away with it.
As much as there have been times when I looked down upon the fan fiction writer, I still maintain that writing fan fiction is good practice for the writer.
Recently, though, as I was talking with a writer who has written hundreds of fan fiction stories, I had a DUH moment. Did you know that after Star Trek was cancelled in the 60s the episodes were published as novels and this spawned a wealth of writers who wrote more adventures for the crew of the Enterprise. Many of these fan fiction writers were snapped up by the publishers of the novels, and more books were published. A couple of those writers were D. C. Fontana (who has written who knows how many Star Trek novels and screenplays for Star Trek), Greg Bear, and even William Shatner.
After the Star Wars movies came out, there were more fan fiction writers that added to that universe. Many now established writers began with their Star Wars fan fiction being legitimately published. Another example is Doctor Who.
So, I’m thinking that fan fiction is not really a waste of time. It brings the writer and the reader joy in revisiting a world and characters they love. Any writer, any storyteller will tell you that when your story is read and enjoyed, the feeling is indescribable.
Skidding off into left field here, maybe that’s one reason that blogs have exploded into such a phenomena. Who knows?
So, I’m writing a fan fiction story and it’s nearly novel length. I intend to finish it and that’s going to be a big thing for me since I have never finished anything that long. For one thing, I’d just lose interest. When the story is finished, I will be publishing it at a few fan fiction sites. Not everyone will care for it, but if just one person does, all that typing is going to be worth it.
Rave On!