Chapter 9 “Types of Writers” – Section 6 “Fan-writing”
With Links to Supplementary Material
When I was about seven years old, I wrote my first story—a short “book” about an island completely inhabited by velociraptors, and a hero who could have been Dr. Grant's (my childhood hero) twin. While I didn't know it, my first work was loosely a fan-fiction of Jurassic Park. Most of us, perhaps all, become writers because at some point of our life we fell deeply in love with a story. Today, I'm going to talk about how we can make fan-stories serve us as best as possible. Please note that while fan-fiction is included in this segment, I will be using the term “fan-writing” to also include original stories with original characters that closely resemble or are in some way related to preexisting stories.
Tip 1: Know why you are writing a “fan-story.”
There are many reasons why one would write fan-fiction or a fan-story. For many people, fan-writing provides a way to fix the flaws in the plot that caused the story to be less than the excellence that it could have been (I'm looking at you, Frozen). For others, it is simply a joy to be in that beloved world after the story is over, or likewise spend more time with beloved characters. Know your motivation and write it down in concrete detail before you begin writing.
Tip 2: Turn your fan-writing into a powerful writing exercise.
No matter what your motive for writing fan-fiction, you are ultimately taking the first steps in learning how to be a writer of original works. Once you have written down your motive for writing your fan-story, make efforts to achieve your goal with excellence. If you want to explore the world more, tell a story that will allow the audience to see the world even more clearly than in the original. If to spend more time with characters, tell a story that explores and develops their personalities to the same extent. If you just want to have fun, focus on telling a story that is simply more fun than the first. By taking the time to write strategically and with purpose, you will be teaching yourself invaluable writing skills that you will be able to take over into your future original works.
Tip 3: Copy your favorite chapter (or scene) word for word.
Another great benefit to fan writing is that you can study the practiced, professional style of an author in great depth. One of the best ways to do this is to open a blank word document and copy your favorite chapter or scene word for word. By doing this, you will gain a great appreciation for the way they organize sentences, paragraphs, word-choice, and how to make a flowing and living dialogue between characters. This will also allow your to write your fan-writing closer to the style and feel of the original story. It may seem like a daunting and useless task, but as a writer who did this and then diagrammed every word of a scene in “Silence of the Lambs” let me assure you that it is invaluable and can even be fun.
Tip 4: Take full advantage of fandoms and the fact that you have no rights to your fan-story.
Especially when writing fan-fiction, there is little to no hope of it being published and little to no threat of people wanting to steal your work. Take advantage of that! Post your fan-writing into forums and websites where fellow fans can look at your story, read your intent for writing the story, and then give you criticism that will be less personal and easier to get than when you are writing an original work. By doing this, you'll be able to practice taking advice and trying suggestions blindly, to see how they will help or hurt your story, even if you do not agree with them. Such a story gives you a test chamber where anything goes, everything can be attempted, and where there are minimal stakes.
Tip 5: Make as many mistakes as possible.
Yes, get all of them out of your system. Write something sappy, something stupidly erotic, something melodramatic, even something preachy. Write the worst, over-romanticized characters and amusingly despicable villains. Write stories that are little more than thinly veiled autobiographical stories of things that happened to you, that you need to write to help process your own emotions. Write a bizarre plot with little to no structure, and mostly aimless meandering. Write whatever bad writing, tropes, cliches, and mistakes that you know that you probably shouldn't write in a professional story, and allow the release of these desires to purge you of your pressing need to write them.
Tip 6: Identify and fix your mistakes.
After you write your bad fan-fiction, go back and identify your mistakes. Like an athlete watching videos of him/herself and evaluating his/her strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies, you will be able to go back and evaluate your tendencies in writing—what mistakes and bad habits you are prone to. Then, figure out a way to fix your mistakes. Because you have purposefully written something bad, self-criticism can be done with ease and without emotional difficulty. This is very important because one day you will have to brutally critique something that you consider to be well written and which is close to your heart; and the easy critique of your fan-writing will have provided you with not only strategies and experience, but also with experience tearing up your own work so that it will not be as emotionally devastating.
As a concluding note:
Until shortly before writing this article, I considered fan-fiction to be a waste of time. Not because there were so many bad ones but, to the contrary, because there were so many good ones. It upset me greatly that so many talented and hard-working writers were writing stories for which they would never receive the credit they deserved. However, in a previous article, I had a in-depth discussion with PoesDaughter in the comment section, and she gave me many insights into fan-fiction that helped inspire today's article. And so a special thanks goes to her for her insight and her kindness in being willing to talk with me in-depth about the topic. Please shower llamas and watches upon her.
As a secondary note, I will be returning to my regular schedule of posting by Wednesday!
Feel free to comment with other suggested resources. Any questions about writing? Things you want me to discuss? Comment or send me a message and I will be glad to reply or feature my response in a later article. If you enjoy my reviews, please feel free to share my articles with friends, add it to your favorites, become a watcher on my page, or send send a llama my way!
When I was about seven years old, I wrote my first story—a short “book” about an island completely inhabited by velociraptors, and a hero who could have been Dr. Grant's (my childhood hero) twin. While I didn't know it, my first work was loosely a fan-fiction of Jurassic Park. Most of us, perhaps all, become writers because at some point of our life we fell deeply in love with a story. Today, I'm going to talk about how we can make fan-stories serve us as best as possible. Please note that while fan-fiction is included in this segment, I will be using the term “fan-writing” to also include original stories with original characters that closely resemble or are in some way related to preexisting stories.
This was extremely helpful, I’m writing a Diakko fanfic rn and it’s my first time writing a fic of my own I’m usually a reader not a writer so this has been great in informing me of things I should know :3
