I wrote a scathing article nearly two years ago (that I cannot find, of course) that lit into fan fiction, and fan fiction writers. I was still caught up in that mindset that it was important for me to get my original work formally published. Myself and several other authors would talk and then complain about how no one ever, EVER commented on our original work. Take a look at my story archives — some of my most popular posts are the stories and poems in there, but barely 1% of the people reading those stories ever bothered to comment.

This is an old complaint, and a mystery. It isn’t just me. I have my original work, some of my best pieces, published at Fiction Press where I’ve met many authors who are trying to figure this out.

Well, I bowed out on that mystery as it is one that will be debated and dissected long after I am gone. Leaving that behind also set me onto a new path (that really was an old one).

When I was a kid growing up, I told stories to anyone who listened to me. Some were made up on the fly, never to be heard again, but very much appreciated by my audience. Some I wrote down, and those were also appreciated. I also told stories that were inspired by shows (Star Trek, The Addams Familly, The Munsters) and books (Treasure Island).

It didn’t matter where the story came from. What I enjoyed was telling the story to an audience that showed their appreciation.

As I thought about some recent creative efforts that were coming to naught, and generally gave me more of a headache than new visions, I stayed away from the computer for a long while.

Then I read Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling. I was not saddened by Snape’s death, I was angry. I had no problem with the character dying. I had expected that would happen. What I didn’t expect was the way in which the character was killed and how it was so easily brushed under the rug. (There is so much about that book that chaps my hide, but that’s a post or rant for another day).

Choosing to deny not just Snape’s death, but the deaths of so many loved characters, I sought out fan fiction to give it another chance. I found, literally, hundreds of stories that kept Snape and other characters alive and gave them new adventures and fascinating lives. I began reading the stories I enjoyed the most: romance stories that used a created, original character for Snape to fall in love with, or the genre that has Snape becoming mentor to Harry, adopting him, or even turning out to be his real father.

What I found was that there were some very good fan fiction authors out there who wrote in the Harry Potter universe better than Rowling herself did. It was, to say the least, an eye opener.

After reading for some time, I decided to try my own hand at writing a story. Long story about another story, short… I not only wrote a 91 chapter fan fiction story, but it was longest, most continuous and finished story I’d ever written. But, the cream on that was the feedback I have received during the writing of Back in Time, and after it was completed. Here is some absolutely wonderful feedback I received yesterday:

Story: Back in Time
Chapter: 91. Epilogue

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for writing about Eowyn’s fear of going off
to Hogwarts. I’m a Freshman at a huge college in a city several thousand miles
from home where I know only my 3 roommates and a girl at another college. Your
description of Eowyn sounds just like me: quiet, a bookworm, afraid of seeming
‘uninteresting’ to people, everything. I’ve been called ‘weird’ and ‘too
quiet’ by many people.

Snape’s words of comfort to Eowyn really struck something inside me. When I
read his dialogue with his daughter, I felt like someone had heard how I felt,
how afraid of being friendless, how intimidated I was by the vast amount of
new people I had to meet at school, and decided to comfort me; when I read
“but we all must bear many things we don’t like in order to attain that which
we desire” and “You are different, though, and you may not appreciate that
this moment, but you will sooner than you think. All of us are different,” I
cried.

I just want you to know how much I love your handling of Snape as a father. I
don’t often read fics where Snape adopts Draco and Harry, or stories where
Hermione and Draco get together. I wasn’t sure if I liked the pairings at
first, but they have grown on me. Lyrica sounds like someone we all wish to
know, a good mother and friend, Snape the somewhat-scary, protective father.

Again, -thank you- for all the time and effort you have put into this.

This makes whatever I write, original or fan fiction, worth the time I put into it. I told a story, folks appreciated it, and for some people, it touched them.

That’s a helluva lot more satisfying than putting myself through the wringer to please an editor in order to publish one, original story.

-+-+-+-+-

My completed fan fiction can be found here.
My original stories and poems can be found here and here.

Famous Storytellers –

Tim Burton & Vincent Price