I will admit it—I am a fan-fiction writer. Granted, most
of my fan-fiction was written at least a decade or two ago.
For the uninitiated, fan-fiction is where you take a
character from a movie, book, or television show and write new stories about
them. If you enjoyed Star Wars, but felt something was missing, there are
probably tons of stories to fill in the spaces. Same with popular book
characters, old and new TV shows, and movies.
Still, when I have admitted my FF affiliation some
people, especially in the writing community, I get looks like I just said “I am
an alcoholic serial killer.” Why is there such a stigma about writing
fan-fiction?
I venture a few theories. First, fan-fiction writers
are equated to wannbe writers. Can’t write a grammatical sentence to save them,
scads of passive verbs, adverbs, stuff like that. Writing too painful to plow
through. Perhaps some is, but consider that continued writing usually leads to
better writing. We learn as we practice. I read some of my early stuff and thought,
Eeyew. But I read later stories and
while I still see mistakes, I see progress.
Second, many fan-fiction writers use something called
H/C- or hurt/comfort. The heroes have gobs of stuff thrown at them, mainly
injuries, and vicariously the author pulls them through, usually through the
other characters. I will admit I have done a great deal of that myself.
After rereading most of my stuff as I put it on another site, I know I would tone
it down if I was inclined to edit again. However, I don't have time to do that with fan-fiction. I hope readers see
beyond the h/c and discover improvement in writing, dialogue, and
characterization.
Another distinction of ff is that the point of view
jumps from one character to another. It took a while for me to ease out of
that. My latest book only had two points of view, well separated by chapters.
Third, there is the thought that fan-fiction writers
are lazy, in that they are simply taking established characters in established
settings and beating up on them. I don’t buy that. Yes, I wrote about established
characters, and in their established settings; Zorro in Spanish California,
Admiral Nelson on his submarine, Buck Rogers in space. (Well, most of the time,
anyway.).
However, I have done some heavy duty research because
I wanted to have geographical and historical details right. I once wrote the
equivalent of a trilogy (160,000+ words). In it I had the hero shanghaied from
his early 1800’s setting and carried off to China. I had books about Chinese
history and culture, Chinese language, British East Indiamen (those were cargo ships),
The Sandwich Islands, Chinese medicine, and so forth. I had to change parts of
the plot at times because of the historical facts I found. To this day, I find
pride in this fan-fiction, just as I feel satisfaction in the dialogues between
a reluctant Captain Crane and a symbiotic alien who just happens to be female
and pregnant, or the description in the “seeing” Buck Rogers had to undergo to
be adopted into a clan of bird people.
Which comes to another conclusion that detractors of
fan-fiction make. If one is going to that much trouble to write something, why
not write something they can publish and thereby make money. There are some
reasons for that, too. Primarily, FF writers write for the sheer enjoyment of
writing. It is sometimes a diversion as well as a pleasure—a hobby like people
who draw or garden. They write for their readers. They are not in it to get
rich. (Believe me, most mainstream authors aren’t getting rich either!!)
I am grateful for all the fan-fiction I wrote. It
helped me with dialogue, with plot continuity, with descriptions. I learned
through creating original characters how to make them real; people that readers
empathize. By taking my FF characters out of their original settings I learned
how to world-build. I also learned how to edit.
So while I am working to become a successful
‘mainstream’ author, I will never disown what got me on this wonderful writing
path. (BTW Many mainstream authors started out as FF writers.) Whatever my background--I am an author!!
(Logo: thanks to Archive of Our Own, where most of my fan-fiction resides. Other stories are found on Seaview Stories, a private site.)
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