Design inspired by “Fanfiction is LITerature” — The Rosette
First of all, everyone, welcome to The Smiling Pen!
My name is Dani and I will be your host for this reading!
Now that I’ve introduced myself, let’s get down to business and talk about fanfiction.
Is it just me, or does fanfiction have a pretty big stereotype?
It almost feels like there’s an age limit, doesn’t it? Like, once you graduated high school, you almost feel like you’re doing something wrong if you’re writing a story set in Hogwarts at one in the morning.
Or maybe you just feel like a giant dork.
But let me let you in on a little secret, something I didn’t learn until about two years ago and wish I’d known soooo much earlier in my life.
Who is the writer and who is the the story? Riddle for the ages.
Photo courtesy of Picsea
Fanfiction is actually an author’s best friend.
(Insert epic plot twist noise here!)
How so, you may ask?
Well, the short answer is: PRACTICE.
Writing a story is HARD. You’ve got your characters with all their personality traits and backgrounds and relationships, you’ve got your setting with all the rules and locations, and then you’ve got your plot points and details and somehow it’s all supposed to come together coherently and engagingly.
It’s a lot like building a puzzle. The only catch is, if you’re doing an original story, you have to find the image, print the puzzle, cut out all the pieces, mix them up, and THEN you can start building.
You have to figure out EVERYTHING for yourself, and for a new writer, that’s pretty daunting.
Especially since new writers are still trying to figure out their tone, their style, their voice, whatever you want to call that intangible energy that brings a story to life and draws in the readers.
That’s the hardest part, probably because capturing that energy and infusing it into your work is not something that can be taught.
You have to PRACTICE, and that’s where fanfiction comes in.
Maybe some of you have other tactics you like to use to practice your skills, and by all means, do whatever works for you, but if you’ve read this far, my guess is you DO like to write fanfiction, or you’re considering it, so stay with me just a bit longer.
Writing a fanfiction story is like building a puzzle that already has the pieces sorted into borders and like colors. You HAVE your characters and you HAVE all the rules of the world (like what spells you can and can’t cast in Harry Potter), and all that’s left is pacing your story and giving it that extra spark.
If you look at my older original works, you’ll see a lot of plot and dialogue and not a lot of internal characterization. You can see the characters and know what they were thinking and feeling and saying, but it’s like there’s a barrier, something that prevents you from being pulled in and going on the ride with them.
That’s my spark. That’s what makes my stories feel complete and it wasn’t until I wrote ‘Perspectives’ using Tatl from Majora’s Mask as my narrator that I truly understood that.
Fanfiction helped me learn it.
It takes a lot of the initial pressure off and lets you practice the important stuff, like making sure your characters stay in character and balancing action versus reflection. It helps you learn what makes a great story so one day you can do it with characters of your own.
Design inspired by Pop Culture by Dictionary.com
So go ahead.
Write a fanfiction.
If you’ve already written one, do another!
Don’t worry about originality, don’t worry about being unique or doing something that no one else has done before right away. Because, first off, there’s nothing new under the sun. And second off, originality does not equal quality.
Think about all the young-adult dystopian literature out there. SO many similarities between the worlds from a distance, but up close, SO. MANY. DIFFERENCES that make each book memorable.
So what if you’re using characters or a world that isn’t you own? I’ve read a bunch of fanfictions that I connected with better than published books I’ve read for class, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.
And maybe when you get more comfortable, you’ll move on to adding in original characters, doing an alternate universe, or focusing on different character. Something that IS a little more unique. Only by then, you’ll have stronger skills and be able to live up to your full potential.
I know it’s hard, but please, PLEASE don’t let any haters get you down. Yes, there are some fanfictions out there that…aren’t that great. Sometimes the characters are acting totally unlike themselves or the plot makes absolutely no sense or there are so many spelling mistakes you wish someone sent the author back to grade school.
But that’s not you. You’re trying to work on your skills so you can write a story that gives the characters (and the authors who created them) the respect they deserve.
So write, and have fun with it!
You wouldn’t be writing fanfiction if you didn’t love the movie, book, game, or show that inspired you. So embrace your nerdiness and be proud of what you’re doing!
Because writing may be hard, but it is so worth it.
Photo courtesy of Reuben Juarez