Today I am writing a blog post about why I write fan fiction. I’ll also talk about how I think writing fan fiction can improve original fiction.
My Fan Fiction History
I have written fan fiction for many years now. In fact, I started when I was twelve, writing fan fiction for Doctor Who, Star Trek and Marvel. My writing mostly consisted of reader insert fics and stories where original characters found themselves in these fictional worlds. I also had characters I created within those worlds that fit in with whichever fandom rules there were.
Like my blog here, my fan fiction was written under a pen name. When I started, I was twelve years old posting online and didn’t want anybody (including my parents) to know. Also internet safety was drilled into my brain in school. I didn’t have many popular fan fictions until I was around sixteen and writing in smaller fandoms or for niche characters that people wanted to read about, and I happened to be the person doing so. Even then, my stories weren’t massively popular, but the audience I had was so much more interactive and gave me great feedback.
Why I Write Fan Fiction
I write fan fiction because it is fun. I like writing in other stories, imagining how characters might interact, or how my original characters would impact the story. Like with my actual writing, it helps me deal with emotions and even life events in a safe space. If I was angry, so were my characters. If I wanted to pretend I was a popular mutant who was part of the X-Men instead of an awkward teenager dealing with problems, I could do so in the way of fan fiction.
While I have many original stories, most of my writing for years were fan fiction. And while I use all of my stories to express my emotions and other things, fan fiction is still my main source of escapism. With fan fiction, I don’t have to worry about planning the rules of magic, or how certain things work. All that is done for me when writing fan fiction. It lets me focus on the escape and the joy of writing without worrying about details.
How Fan Fiction Can Improve Original Stories
My stories would have taken far longer to write it I had never written fan fiction. Fan fiction has allowed me to practice writing characters and keeping personalities consistent. It taught me how to confine to the rules of the world (or break them if it fit the plot). Fan fiction can also be a pressure free way of just practicing writing skills without worrying whether the plot or characters are good enough because it can just be for fun.
It also let’s you practice the fundamentals of writing, whether that is punctuation, dialogue or description. A lot of my early fan fiction was short and mostly dialogue and I like that I can see that over the years, I can see the improvement in my writing. it also helps you develop a writing style, again, without dealing with all the aspects that come with writing original fiction.
Posting fan fiction one chapter at a time while writing in has also let me have feedback. Even now, people still comment on how they liked things, or how things didn’t make any sense. All of those people have helped me improve my writing, even if it is just to read through the chapter and decide that it does make sense.
Overall, fan fiction has had a big impact on my writing journey. I think that fan fiction can help people become better writers and maybe ease the perfectionism people might have while writing.