Why are people ashamed of writing fanfic? I just saw someone who is writing a fanfic for NanoWriMo – who has dedicated themselves to writing 50k words of fanfic this month – say that fanfic was their ‘secret shame’ on a forum entirely made up of fanfic writers.
And you know what? That’s not at all uncommon. I can’t even count the times I’ve seen fanfic disparaged as something for teenage girls or unworthy all together and I think I’ve finally worked out why. And the reason irks me just as much as the fact that this happens.
But do you know what I think? I think that shame comes from being bold enough to dare to have a voice. I think we’re viewing our own perspectives as somehow less, unworthy in comparison to the ‘norm’ of ‘real’ storytelling that we see validated by being put on television and movie screens and bookstore shelves. While we might, as a culture, tolerate such daring activity amongst teenage girls, we also view it as childish, something women are meant to outgrow, something shameful to hold onto as adults. But it isn’t just fanfic we’re shaming. It’s our voices, our validity, and that makes me sick.
So be a fanfic writer. Be the best goddamned fanfic writer you can be. Use your voice and be proud of it because it’s yours. There is nothing ‘less’ about fanfic. And there never will be.
Not to mention, a growing number of professional writers were and sometimes even still are active in fandom in this respect. I’m one of them.
Fanfiction taught me how to write and gave me the courage to start submitting my stuff to places. I’ll scream it from the rooftops.
Fanfiction is often touted as a training ground for writing of original, professional work, both within fanfiction culture and outside it. But it doesn’t have to be. Fanfiction might be your endgame, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Okay it isn’t actually self-aggrandizing, it just feels that way because I hate blowing my own trumpet. BUT I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE COOL to do a meme where everyone looks through their fanfics and picks out the five best lines they’ve written and posts them with commentary! Does that sound good? I’ll start, as you may have guessed…
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5. “I am not a solid creature,” said Grantaire. “I need many hands to mould me.”– Stone
God I miss Grantaire. I mean, you know, he hasn’t gone anywhere, but I miss him. I miss how everyone used to talk about him. This story was for a ficathon! And I actually had kind of a blast writing it, even though it deals with some extremely crappy stuff. I think I got Grantaire in-character, because he keeps saying seemingly meaningless-but-actually-meaningful stuff. Which is just the sort of thing I like to write!
4. “Many Of Them Were Killed. But I Can Say With Absolute Certainty That They Did Not Die.”
– Garnet to Mayor Dewey, Don’t Ruin It
With a gimmick (I mean that in a honestly adoring way) ripped off from Terry Pratchett, Garnet sums up my Thoughts On History. Also, I absolutely adore Don’t Ruin It, if only because “a Terry Pratchett-inspired Steven Universe/Les Miserables crossover that explores the relationships between Enjolras and Grantaire, Pearl and Rose, Pearl and Mayor Dewey, Mayor Dewey and his son, Garnet and Pearl, and humans and stories” is something that sounds nigh-on impossible to pull off. But I hope I did it.
3. “It’s very likely that this Amy was a prostitute,” said one of the men. – Amy
This line delights me on several levels, most of them sort of meta-y re: the treatment of women in art, be that art the paintings of Vincent van Gogh or the episodes of Doctor Who. Also that whole section of the story is I guess is a kind of – nod to? statement about? – the fact that Amy was indeed created by a man who has problematic views on women, but right now I’m creating her. I get to say what she is! Or perhaps she does? I would need a lot of time and effort to follow any of that through to its natural conclusion, but yeah. I like that line.
dear GOD, TTTAITP. It’s still the fanfic I’m proudest of to this day. (its concept was, basically, ‘take all that icky stuff that happened to Amy during the pregnancy arc and actually RUN WITH IT, just like the writers didn’t’.) This is, um, a line. But a very very important one considering the fanfic’s subject matter. It shouldn’t have to be, mind.
1. I AM AFRAID OF WAR AND WEAPONS. I AM AFRAID OF THE LICH. AND I AM AFRAID OF YOU. – Death (that Death? Sure) to Simon Petrikov, Humanity in the Abstract
Death from Adventure Time turns out to be the same Death from Discworld (it’s vaguely explained, don’t worry) and he pays Simon Petrikov a visit. They have a discussion about life, death, mental illness, Marcy and monsters, and then this line happens. It is important to me for Reasons. Hey, maybe they could be your Reasons too!
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If you’re a fanfic writer and you want to do this, you should totally do it!
Title: A Summary of Events Rating: PG13 I think, since it involves depression and murder and swearing and many unpleasant real-world scenarios, many of which are happening right now in fact Fandom: Thunderbirds/Thunderbirds Are Go
Summary: This is best described as ‘a look at how IR might function in the real world’ except obviously it’s not quite the real world because it’s several decades in the future and also after a war. I also hope it’s not Dark And Gritty, but rather Pointed And Vaguely Satirical.
Features a bit of fourth-wall breaking, which starts…..now.
YEAR: 2070 DATE: 28 JULY
This summary of recent events has been put together as a voting aid. It is based on your social media activity, your browser history and your work profile…
THIS IS FINALLY DONE! It also has a proper title now, which I will edit into the previousparts.
Contains what is hopefully some mild satire as well as some fourth-wall breaking. Is an attempt at putting the whole concept of Thunderbirds into a ‘real’ future world, but hopefully isn’t Dark and Gritty with it.
Will also be on AO3, with some slight edits, later.now
Hey! I did go back to it! And it’s nearly done now! (Here’s part one. It hasn’t got a title anymore though.)
Anyway, this continues to be a look at how IR would function in the ‘real world’, with some hopefully-satire thrown in. All the trigger warnings from Part One apply here too, I think.
PS: All the newspaper headlines mentioned in this fic are real.
I’m in a writing group with around 40 people and one of the common reasons people don’t post their work is because “no one ever comments on it, so no one is reading it” which blows because their work is amazing and instead it’s sitting in storage.
Comments lead to posting more fic. Trust me.
Tbh this is why I have like 50K unposted fic hahah it’s so disheartening.
That Steven Universe/Les Miserables fic is done! Who wants a read?
Rating: PGprobably
Fandom: Steven Universe/Les Miserables, sort of Summary: In order to impress Pearl, Mayor Dewey attempts a one-man production of famed musical Les Miserables.
Exactly what you would expect to happen, probably, happens.
Here’s what fanfiction understands that the Puppies don’t: inversion and subversion don’t ruin the story – they just give you new ways to tell it, and new tools to tell it with. Take a platonic relationship and make it romantic; there’s a story in that. Take a romantic relationship and make it platonic; there’s a story in that, too. Take a human and make her a werewolf; take a werewolf and make him human. Don’t try and sidle up on hurt/comfort like it’s something you’re ashamed to be indulging in; embrace the tropes until you have their mastery. Take a gang of broken souls surviving the apocalypse and make them happy in high school; take a bunch of funny, loving high school kids and shove them in the apocalypse. Like Archimedes, fanfic writers find the soul, the essence of what makes the characters real, and use it as a fulcrum on which to pivot entire worlds, with inversion/subversion as their lever of infinite length.
Today’s meant to be Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day! So I picked out three fanfics that I love (and have loved for a while), from three different fandoms, to rec to you!
Star Wars: Family Portrait by Fernwithy
Obi-Wan and Anakin,
along with Siri Tachi, are assigned to impersonate a family to
investigate a crime on the world of Malkiri, where the Jedi are hated.
“Watch out,” Siri said, “Obi-Wan is about to be dull.”
“A cover story really ought to be dull,” Obi-Wan told her patiently,
but in a pointed tone of voice. “We don’t necessarily want people
asking a lot of curious questions. And, Siri, if it’s all the same to
you, the Code forbids me to take more than one padawan at a time, and it
is more productive for me to be instructing Anakin than instructing
you.“
Siri recognized the insult well enough, and fell silent. Anakin
didn’t know exactly what to do; Siri was his friend and he knew he
should defend her honor, but Obi-Wan was his Master, and it would be as
big an insult to correct him.
This is the best Star Wars fanfic I’ve ever read, still, and I read it years and years ago. It’s full of incredible characterisation and great details and bone-chilling hints to the future. I love it. It’s basically canon to me.
*
The Lord of the Rings: The Care and Feeding of Hobbits by Baylor
Ruminations on the Little People, by Boromir, Man of Gondor
“Oh,
certainly, Frodo has Took blood, but his mother was a Brandybuck, of
course, so he and I are related several times over through both lines,”
Merry replies. “He is first cousin to my father, making him my first
cousin once removed, coming down from Gorbadoc and Mirabella. But since
Mirabella is also my maternal great-great-aunt, as well as my paternal
great-grandmother, Frodo also is my second cousin once removed, and
because Rosa Baggins, one of old Balbo’s granddaughters, married
Hildigrim Took, we are also third cousins once removed, again on the
Took side.”
I really could not come up with an adequate response
to this recitation if my life depended on it. Beside me, Gandalf mutters
in my ear, with unseeming delight at my bewilderment, “We will expect
you to recount all of that later, Boromir, so I hope you have committed
it to memory.”
This is a beautiful little fanfic about Boromir and his relationship with the Hobbits, especially Merry and Pippin. If you turn it down because you don’t like first-person fic, screw you!
*
Les Miserables:And Yet Are Orphans by ryfkah
For lack of anything better to do, Azelma pays a visit to her brother.
Gavroche was regarding her now with a little more attention. “Where’s ‘Ponine? Still in lockup?”
“Eponine’s
in love,” said Azelma, morosely. “She trails around after a mad student
looking like this –” She gaped with her mouth and used her thumbs to
pull down the hollows of her eyes.
Gavroche rocked with laughter. “Poor ‘Ponine! Her belly’s rumbling, that’s all, and she thinks it’s her heart.”
This is honestly one of the best fics in the fandom I think, and made even better because it’s about characters who are written about so rarely. There are sibling relationships that feel heartbreakingly real! Feuilly shows up! The last line is devastating! (Or it was to me.)
It is not surprising news that fanfiction writers are highly underappreciated.
There’s something wrong with the numbers: let’s take a popular fic with almost 4k hits. For let’s say 700 readers, it will get about 50 comments and 300 Kudos (those numbers are just an example, sometimes it’s worse than that). Maybe I’m being too kind, maybe not, but things stay the same; there’s something wrong here. Can you see it?
It takes us days, weeks, sometimes months to write a story for you. We write for ourselves yes, but we also write to share. We write to offer you content about your favourite characters. We write to bring our and your ships to life. It takes you a fraction of second to leave a Kudos, ten seconds to one, two or a few minutes to leave a comment.
And here lies our problem: there’s no proper sharing if there’s no proper feedback. An author not getting comments is generally a sad author. If I didn’t get feedback I’d wonder what’s the point in keeping on writing. A comment makes a writer’s day, most of the time even motivates them to write more.
Another important thing thrandythefabulous and I noticed: why on Earth do so many readers don’t comment (even kudos) if the fic has been up for a little more than a week or two? Why? Your feedback is still welcomed and much appreciated.
We write for ourselves, but also we write for you. And sadly, many readers are being quite… ungrateful, when giving feedback is the least they can do to thank the people offering them stories for free.
So, before we get started on our little day, let’s talk about comments:
It doesn’t matter if other readers already said what you wanted to say, we’ll still love reading it again in your words.
It doesn’t matter the fic has been up for weeks or months or years; comments on those ones are unexpected and so, it makes them ever better.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have much to say, we’ll be glad anyway.
Most authors leave the comment section open to people who don’t have an AO3 account, which means you can still… comment! How amazing is that.
That brings us to our little Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day.
The point of this day is simple; on August 21st, writers and readers alike would go on AO3 (or any fanfiction website really), on Tumblr, and leave a comment on their favourite fics (even the fics they enjoyed!) and/or send their authors a message about their works.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve already or never commented. It doesn’t matter if the author doesn’t know about this post. It doesn’t matter if the author already knows how much you love their work.
Just let writers know you love the fics they write for you, simple as that!
And well, don’t forget to keep leaving a Kudos and a comment in the future, and make writers happy!
I think this is a great idea! Also maybe we could rec our favorite fics on our blogs that day too? Mass sharing!
I’ll probs queue up fic recs to post that day. Sounds good?
