5 Reasons Why Fanfiction is Good for Writers
Fanfiction changed my life as a writer - here's how
Copying others is fundamentally how we learn. We copy our parents when we start to speak. We do what our friends do in the playgrounds at school. We try to imitate our favourite authors when we start to write.
I’ve been a life-long fanfiction writer. I have a distinct memory of my first published work (printed, stapled, shelved in the library) being a spin-off from the 1997 cartoon Li’l Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers. It was called Li’l Elvis and the Baby and followed the titular character’s baby sister as she discovered her love of drumming by hitting pots and pans. I had to only have been about 7 years old.
As I grew up, I was in and out of the fanfiction world. But in 2015 I made the decision to take my writing seriously and have novels published, and when I read Cassandra Clare had been a fanfiction writer before City of Bones, I realised I could use the medium as practice for my own work.
I don’t actively write fanfiction anymore, but those few years taught me so much, and I don’t think I’d be the writer I am today without them.
Here are my top five takeaways from those years (in no particular order):
1. Community
If you know me, you probably understand how important community is to me. Joining the forums of a fanfiction website in 2015 was my first real foray into what a writing community looks like and offers. These people got me. We played fandom-specific games on the forum, we shared favourite moments from books and movies, and we gushed over each other’s work. Those funny little usernames became real people, and while I’m not active on the forums or in fandoms anymore, I’m still in contact with those people. I even met a few when I went on my semester exchange in England, and I’m co-writing a novel with another. These are the people who have watched me grow as a writer and helped me do that, and I’m forever grateful to them.
2. Writing practice
Fanfiction is a sandbox. All the toys are already there: characters, settings, plot. You just get to go in and play with someone else’s world. The thing about fanfiction is that everyone is already familiar with the world they’re reading. If you’re writing for Harry Potter, all you have to say is ‘Great Hall’ or ‘Gryffindor common room’ and everyone will automatically have a vivid picture in their head without you having to describe it. I feel like this allows you to target specific writing techniques and experiment, without having to start with a blank page. So you can focus on plot without worrying about setting, or play with voice without worrying about developing characters.
(Obviously I realise an original novel needs all techniques, but it’s nice to get isolated practice in sometimes.)
3. Creating characters
In 2016, I started a new fanfiction novel where the main character was a prototype of the protagonist in the original novel I was also beginning to write. This allowed me to develop the character’s voice and explore his actions and reactions in different situations, as well as gauge how readers responded to him. It was this particular novel where I actually developed my writing voice - where something clicked for me. It’s also just fun - you have a bit more freedom to play with dynamics between characters or explore different parts of the fictional world through its characters.
4. Reviews
One of the more obvious benefits when you think of fanfiction is the reviews, but they really are so helpful. The forum I was a part of was filled with kind and supportive people who always left really thoughtful and personal reviews that were often constructive but mostly reactive. They really spurred you to keep writing and remember why you love it.
Just the other day I looked back over some reviews and one said “…you are perfectly cut out to be a fantasy YA author because just look at your writing. I’m in love.” You can imagine how much that meant to me, and still means to me.
5. Schedule
I’ll be honest - this is still the dream. But by uploading chapter-by-chapter, you get a sense of accountability, as readers - who you know are actively reading by page counts and reviews - are waiting for the next installment. There’s instant satisfaction in fanfiction - you don’t have to wait until you have a complete novel before sharing it with people, and once that chapter’s uploaded, you can obsessively check for read counts and reviews. Because you generally write and upload a chapter at a time in fanfiction, you feel more spurred on to complete them within a certain time frame.
Did/do you ever write fanfiction? How did you find it helped you? I’d love to know!
I'd never heard of the term "fanfiction" until I heard Amie Kaufman talk about it - I believe it was at an Inky Awards ceremony (brief pause to remember those important awards that we lost . . . sigh) and the way she spoke about it was very much as you're doing now. It occurred to me later that I'd done a lot of my own version of fanfiction as a child - solitary, but still exercising those skills you mention by using someone else's characters and concept.