How Writing Fanfiction Makes You A Better Writer || August 2020.

    Well, what better of a time for me to release this than now, right? Yes, I write fanfiction. I've been writing fanfiction for years. And if you know me on a mediocre personal level this has most likely come up in conversation, or at the very least, my absolute love for certain shows (fan culture is attached to me, I'm so sorry). 

    Let's backtrack- I consider myself a fairly decent writer (this, by any means, doesn't mean I still don't have things to learn or places I can grow- I know my strengths and my weaknesses), and I also consider myself an original YA contemporary (with magical elements) type of writer. The majority of the time, I'm working on a handful of projects at once, and if you're lucky (by lucky I mean terribly, terribly doomed) you get to hear me drone on and on about my idea with incoherent noises and a jumbled up plotline. 

    In case you haven't met a writer, this is how many many are like. 

    Because I consider myself to be an original fiction writer, you could probably just assume that all I write are my own stories and that's that. It would make sense, right? Well, as stated before, that isn't the case. 

    I wasn't one of the people who started out writing fanfiction. I actually wrote original fiction long before I wrote even a bit of fanfic. Many times, it's the other way around- writers start off writing fanfic, and then as their craft progresses, they progress out of fandom writing and into more original works. This is all good and well because it actually prepares you for legitimate crafting of your own story. But, let's talk about a different situation and how it can also help you improve your craft too. 

    I don't know how many original fiction writers are out there reading this right now, but if you are, you know how time-consuming it is to build characters, plot, storylines, arcs, etc. from the ground up. It's all fun, of course, so for any of you who don't write and are confused why we still do it, just know that it's actually entertaining in many ways and is something that we like to do. 

    Anyways, back to the point: because of this time-consuming effort, you sometimes end up losing track of what you want and things can become convoluted. It's your own story, after all, there's a lot of planning. When writing original works, you're worried about creating an entire totality of art, one that could have its own fandom one day, not be a part of one. 

    With fanfiction, the dynamic changes. 

    When writing fanfic, you're focused on taking characters who you know and love and wiring them into an everyday setting, or some other crazy idea you have (I'm looking at you, royalty cyborg AU's). While it still is very very similar to original fiction, there is more of an elation that comes from putting characters you love into a different world for others to enjoy. 

    The thing about fanfiction is, you're working on your craft in a more refined and detail-oriented way by removing all of the factors that make original fiction so tedious sometimes. 

    I've realized that writing fanfiction for me has been an outlet to not only share my writing and see what people like about my style (or if they like my ideas and what I come up with) but also refine details that I don't usually work on. How do I write mutual pining between characters? How do I write a found family dynamic? 

     To piggyback off of this, let's talk about tropes. In original works, you can only have so many tropes before people literally either won't publish it or won't read it- it's just that simple. The love triangle between a werewolf and vampire and a girl has been done a few times, in case you haven't guessed. You can't include all of the cheesy elements in an original work because (depending on your audience) that's not the only thing that you're writing about. You're writing the entire thing- down to the side characters and the villains, the setting and the history... you're building everything. What I mean is, there's a totally other story that's happening outside of a ship and their 'oops there's only one bed and now they have to share' moment. Also, if you're writing anything other than a YA contemporary or romance novel, this kind of thing doesn't fit (although if you can make it fit in there, I applaud you). 

    This is where fanfiction is really great. You now get to take these tropes and write them with characters that people want to see in them. Mutual pining? Hell yeah. Fake dating? Go all out. 

    I feel like for me, it allows me to have some fun with tropes that I wouldn't put into a book unless I had space (but most of the time, it doesn't even come close to fitting with the arc). Fanfic helps me express my writing in a totally 'geeking out' way. It's supposed to be fun and entertaining and experimental. 

    And by using fanfiction as an outlet to write some of my favorite things such as these tropes, I'm also able to grow and articulate my skill. I learn how to explain detail and buildup within a relationship. Not to mention, I do it with characters that I love already. 

    Then, after all of this, you put it up on a website and people actually begin to read your work. Even though it isn't original fiction, knowing that people enjoy what you write is a step in the right direction. Just by writing for things that you enjoy and taking characters that others would want to see in a dumb, maybe even a little bit cliche, the setting helps you as an original fiction author grow your audience and your craft. 

    Look, I know a lot of people shit on fanfic authors, and people who read it. It's a stigma and a known thing that doesn't seem to be completely gone. That's just how it is. But if you're someone who writes original fiction and won't write fanfiction- find some characters you enjoy from a space adventure and put them working in a mall. And if you're a fanfic writer who's scared to move on to original projects- you know how to do this, and everyone is backing you up, what do you have to lose? 

    And if you're just an outsider looking in, appreciate fanfic a little bit more. It does a lot of good for a lot of people, and it is continuing to help fuel the love for writing and reading everywhere. 

   

    Okay... well, I think that's everything! I'm not sure how I wanted this post to go, or what I even wanted it to say, but I hope it makes sense. Point being: everyone has something to gain from fanfiction, so don't be sorry about it or shy away from it because of the nature of the beast. 

    Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my entire brain dump of words and found some kind of message in there that relays to you. It's important to me, and a lot of other people, and that's what I think we need more reminders of.