Fanfiction

For beginning writers, Fanfiction is an incredible way to test the waters and get your writing out there. Nervous that people won't like your ideas? No problem! Pick your favorite book, TV show, comic series, or video game and try writing a story. The great thing about fanfics is that they can be as short or as long as you like, no one expects 100% perfect quality, and lots of people are interested in them. You can develop a steady fanbase of readers by writing fanfiction.

Before I ever finished a novel, I wrote fanfiction. I will not dare to divulge my original pen name, which is still floating around fanfiction.net, and which I still receive positive reviews from on occasion. Suffice to say, the writing I did back then pales in comparison to the work I do now. There were spelling errors, odd comma splices, poorly thought out plots, and weird descriptive adjectives. The worst part is that the pairings were straight, since I wasn't out to myself back then. But people still ate it up. Fanfiction readers aren't picky, so they're great fans to have and wonderful people to ask for feedback from.

Now that I'm older and a lot wiser, I've resumed writing fanfiction again. Although I have moved on from Justice League (I had a crush on Wonder Woman), X-Men (I had a crush on Jean Grey), and Teen Titans (I had a crush on Raven), I decided to give it another go with Law and Order (I now have a crush on both Alex Cabot and Olivia Benson). You can find my new fanfiction account (Rae D. Magdon) on the sidebar link if you want to check it out.

Besides, you never know when your fanfiction might become the jumping off point for a novel. You can steal scenes, bits of dialogue, and descriptions without anyone being the wiser! And if they notice, they will probably just smile to themselves and feel clever for recognizing the transplanted section. Jae, a favorite writer of mine, even managed to turn her Law and Order fanfic into a purchasable Original fiction novel! (I've discussed this in a previous post)

I'm going to bed now, but I just wanted to rant about the virtues of fanfiction before I fell asleep. So if you're shy about writing, or stuck on a novel, go watch some trashy TV and start writing! It's a lot of fun and a great stress reliever. Besides, then you have fans to read your original novels and short stories.