Fanfic, How I Love Thee!

Someone on my forum wanted to know why I write fanfic, when I’m “good enough to be published.” As if the one precluded the other.

Here’s a great thing about fanfic: it can never be published. It’s not yours, it never will be. All pressure off. You can make all the mistakes you want, try new genres, write the worst smut you can think of, all the WAFF (Warm And Fuzzy Feeling) sap you care to…

Two years ago I stumbled on fanfic while avoiding writing Keen. I read a lot, and some of it was incredible. Lots of it was not. I got bit by that classic bug–I could do so much better.

So I did. In one day I wrote a thousand word chapter, ran through it once, and posted it. And I got a review. Instant (almost) gratification. So I wrote another one. I wrote a chapter a day for a week, and then I slowed to every few days. I was addicted–people loved me. But to keep getting reviews, I had to keep posting chapters. I couldn’t wait till I was done and then go back and edit.

On the fly I learned to write a chapter at a time as opposed to “just keep adding to the book.” Suddenly I was working in scenes, looking at my pacing, trying to keep the chapter-lengths close, end on a cliffhanger or smart line…and learning marketing. I stopped posting chapters as soon as they were done, I dangled them.  Before I took Nothing Ventured down, it had over 13,000 hits, and some forty reviews.  The sequel, Shades and Hues, had over a hundred reviews.  That’s incredible, at least for the site I posted on.

That first fanfic ended up at 45K, and the sequel at 75K. For both I posted a chapter a week, without fail. And learned writing to a deadline.  I learned to write smut, I experimented with comedy, I even wrote a pirate story.  All with no pressure, no sense of wasting my writing time on stuff I might screw up.  Because I was using my fun time to do it.

Some writers study writing from the start, but I wasn’t that bright. I wanted to jump right in. I still do that–I get hit by a character and start writing, then when I run out of ideas I start trying to plot. So I owe fanfic bigtime. It was so fun, I didn’t notice I was learning stuff.