A case for fan fiction
I'm a writer working on an original novel that I intend to try to get published. Here's why I think writing fan fiction is an excellent exercise for writers at any stage of their career.
- It's GREAT practice. If you do more of something, you get better at it. And if you have an idea for a fic that you keep thinking about, why would you actively stop yourself from writing something you actually WANT to write? They say to write what's at the front of your brain, and if that's a fic idea, just write it! Visual artists sketch existing characters all the time for inspiration or for practice, and one could argue that writing fanfiction is essentially the same thing but in literary form.
- Specifically, it's great practice at writing character voice. Trying to match the speaking style, mannerisms, and personality of an existing character is a unique challenge, and it forces you as a writer to become more aware of and intentional about these things! It's definitely strengthened the way I think about and characterize my original characters, and helped me make them each unique and consistent.
- It's like decorating a house versus building it from the ground up. Since the characters, scenarios, and world-building are often provided to you ready-made, it's an opportunity to practice simple things like prose, dialogue, and characterization without having to worry as much about creating the entire scaffolding to support it.
- It's an opportunity to try things you may not put in a piece of writing you intend to publish. Smut scenes are the obvious funny answer here, but another example I can think of that I've encountered in writing my own fic is that it's made me much better at writing and describing action scenes! And just generally, because I know from the get-go that I'm not writing my fic to publish, I allow myself to try things and experiment in ways that I wouldn't necessarily do in my original work.
- It can help you reconnect with your love for writing. There's something liberating about writing something purely for its own sake. Knowing going in that there's zero or limited potential to publish, the only remaining reason for you to be writing fanfic is because you just genuinely enjoy the act of writing, creating, and sharing it. Speaking personally, it's made me get back into the mindset of thinking of writing as something I do for fun, which means that I've now created the habit of defaulting to writing as my go-to activity during my pockets of free time throughout the day.
- The feedback you get from sharing it is great motivation to keep writing. The instant gratification of comments and readers' excitement for the next chapter are an excellent way to keep the momentum going! And the community I've discovered with other fic writers has become almost like a writers' workshop group of sorts. A lot of talented writers write fic, and it's an amazing community of people who write for fun that can help you grow and improve and challenge yourself as a writer.
- Sometimes you CAN publish it! We all know about 50 Shades of Grey, but that aside, often times elements or ideas or even the entire premise of a fanfic story can be adapted fairly easily into original content, especially if you're writing an AU or something more distantly removed from the canon. Of course, this isn't always possible, but that still doesn't mean its wasted effort - the things you learn from writing fic or writing tricks and tools you develop will almost inevitably be carried over into your original writing as well.
Basically, if you have aspirations to publish and are hesitant about writing fic for any reason, my advice is to stop overthinking it and just hecking do it! Writing is writing, and creating art from existing stories is something as old as art itself. There's zero shame in it, and the experience you'll get is well worth it.
Legit some of the most beautiful writing I've ever read has been in fanfic, and I've encountered some staggeringly talented writers in so many fandoms. I'm hopeful that the stigma surrounding it is lessening slowly but surely, because it really is as valid a form of creating as anything else is.
