R.M. Archer's Blog, page 49

Snippet Sunday: Silence

Since this is a short story, it’s tricky to pick out a piece that can work passably by itself, particularly when I’ve already posted two scenes of it in the past (here and here), so this is short and semi-boring. If you enjoy the snippets, though, you can get the full short story along with three others in my Short Story Collection Vol. 1. :)

The rumbling of an eighteen-wheeler vibrated through Fiona’s entire body, a feeling she’d grown accustomed to in the past week. So far there hadn’t been any incidents, and she hoped her parents would be able to figure out what happened. She imagined her room was probably ransacked. Hopefully her parents wouldn’t think she’d been kidnapped. The absence of her backpack and purse would probably tell them that.

The truck pulled to a stop in a gas station parking lot and the driver turned to her. “How much farther do you plan on going?”

She turned to him, brushing a short piece of grayish-brown hair behind her ear. “I can get off here.”

“Are you sure?”

Fiona nodded. “I’ll be fine.” She climbed out, sliding her backpack onto her shoulder. She came around the front of the truck and extended a hand to the driver. “Thank you.”

The burly man nodded, his arm tattoos shifting as he shook her hand. “You’re welcome. Take care of yourself.”

“I’ll do my best.” Fiona adjusted her backpack and headed into the gas station, looking for a bag of trail mix.

Snippet Sunday: Scarlett and the Wolf

This story started sometime in late 2015, apparently beginning with a synopsis (that’s unusual for me), and then I worked on it more in-depth as a gift for a secret Santa short story swap that my NaNoWriMo writing group does every year. (Spoiler alert: It didn’t end up short. I never finished it, which I feel bad about to this day because the person I was sending it to never got the whole thing. Although, looking back on my writing, maybe that’s something of a blessing for her? She didn’t have to read too much of that awful writing, lol.) Anyway, I haven’t done much with it since then, but since I’m picking stories randomly for Snippet Sundays now, this was what I ended up with, and I had some fun rewriting it. It’s still pretty cheesy (and somewhat info-dumpy), but the writing style is at least better than it was, and I did trim down the cheesiness, lol. Enjoy. :)

Grey trees rushed by in a blur and Scarlett’s red cloak snagged on rain-soaked branches. There was a single goal in her mind: Get to the treehouse. Don’t think about him yet, don’t think about anything, just get to the treehouse.

She stopped at a gigantic oak and climbed up the rungs into the treehouse they’d built together and, upon reaching the top, leaned against the back wall, rain drizzling down on her. From here she could see everything, a vast expanse of rain-soaked trees and grey sky. Thunder rolled and Scarlett closed her eyes. Why was she even here? He never came. Did he even remember? Eleven years she’d stood in this treehouse, waiting for him just as he’d asked. But he never kept his promise. He never came. Why did she still hold to the shred of hope that he’d show up? Did he really have a reason to come back?

The sound of hoofbeats caught Scarlett’s attention and she looked down into the forest, hoping it wasn’t Susanna – the seamstress – coming to fetch her. A black horse stopped at the oak and the rider dismounted, climbing into the treehouse. It couldn’t be…

He looked at her across the treehouse and her eyes widened. It really was him. Square face, chestnut eyes that had always seemed to be able to see what she was thinking, and cropped hair indicating nobility when he was just an orphan like her.

“Kaysar?” Her voice was quiet, as if speaking would make him vanish.

“Yes, it’s me. But we have to go. I’ve been followed.”

“I didn’t think you’d come-”

“Now.” Kaysar grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the ladder.

“Where are we going?” She followed him down the ladder and he hoisted her onto his horse before mounting himself. She looked behind them, trying to see their pursuers.

“Anywhere but here.” He flicked the reins with a yell and they galloped away.

She grabbed his waist and held on for dear life as they tore through the trees, her cloak snagging and ripping on the branches. This was not how she’d imagined their reunion going. “Who’s chasing us?”

“You know I was taken by The Pack,” he began, referring to the troops of the neighboring kingdom, Dale. “They took me straight to The Wolf’s castle. He told me I’m his son.”

“What?” She was sure the wind in her ears had warped his words.

“I’m his son. He disowned me before I knew him and now he wants me back. I worked for a long time on figuring out his plans and finding a way to get his troops out of Feanor, but they found out and arrested me. I escaped, obviously, and they’re not too happy with me.”

Scarlett realized her cloak was probably serving as a beacon for the Pack and struggled to remove it without falling off the horse, balling it up in her lap. She leaned forward, resting her chin on his shoulder, and watched the trees speed past. “How did you remember me, through all that?”

“How could I forget you?”

An Unscheduled Announcement

No, this isn’t an announcement about me. This is an announcement about my awesome friend Melody Jackson and her book, Dragon’s Hope, that’s coming out this year! It’s the third book in her dragon series, and she just revealed the cover and asked if we who follow her and who are in her writing group would share it and of course my answer was a resounding yes. This cover is absolutely GORGEOUS. Like, it got me to use the heart-eyes emoji for the first time level of gorgeous.

But of course I have to keep you in suspense, so here’s the tagline of the synopsis (the rest of the synopsis is apparently SPOILERSSSSSS), and a few short snippets. ;)

Tagline: How can you stand for something when you don’t remember who you are?

Excerpts!

“Do it, Tiel.” His voice was low. Too low. “Save your friend, and me the trouble of coming up with a charge against you. I might not have power over my sister here, but you…” His grin widened. “We both know there’s more to you than meets the eye.”

**************

She was made of stone, not in the same way that he was. His walls kept people out; hers kept people in. They were a fortress protecting those she most cared about, shielding them from the outside and the pain she felt in her inner being.

How different it would have been, if they had met years earlier. Would they have still recognized the same things in each other?

**************

He hadn’t meant to get attached to this group. They were as ragtag and disjointed as he’d expected them to be, and yet they hadn’t been the only ones to die that night. A piece of him felt painfully, brutally missing, like his capacity to breathe had been stolen away, twice, and he didn’t know how to go on without it.

They had crept into his heart, just partners in this impossible scheme at first. He had been skeptical, but they were all as disillusioned as he was, and yet willing to give it a chance all the same. None of them thought they would be heroes. All of them still considered this a worthwhile pursuit.

It had happened slowly and unwittingly, like tripping over a brick and taking a path you never intended to. Joking words slowly became the entrance for something more, teasing rivalries giving room for a fondness and sincerity that he hadn’t expected from them.

And now for the cover… Drumroll please!

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Isn’t it gorgeous??? :D :D :D I need to get my hands on the first two books, because if I wasn’t hooked before I am now.

*uses Jedi mind trick* You must go out and buy Melody’s books right now. (I’m totally kidding. You shouldn’t need a Jedi mind trick to convince you.) The first two are Dragon’s Bane and Dragon’s Might (and they have super cool covers too, even if Amazon tells you otherwise. Check out her Instagram account if you need proof.)

Also, go follow her everywhere.

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/melodyjauthor/
Facebook: http://facebook.com/melodyjacksonauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelodyJAuthor

And if you want a few more snippets and her own fangirling, go check out her original cover reveal post.

About Melody:

Melody Jackson is a young “crazy dragon lady” and a lover of all things geek. She resides in the rainy state of Oregon with too many books and not enough time to write (or read) them all. When she’s not spinning the tales in her head into stories, she can be found working undercover at a grocery store or gathering intel for her next stories, and food for the dragons.

Dragons need pizza too, you know?

Book Review: Iron Core by Rebekah DeVall

Everything will be okay.

Deep in Brancaleone, a prison carved from the mountainside, eighteen-year-old Lunetta plans her escape. Raised behind iron bars, all she wants is freedom – and to take her mother with her.

Iron Core is the first book in a series about Lunetta, and it’s more of a prequel if I understand correctly. It’s somewhere between a short story and a novella – only five chapters – and it does what it’s intended to do in introducing Lunetta and the key people in her life.

My first comment is that it gets a bit tell-y in places, where the author told something that would have been more effectively shown, particularly in regard to Lunetta’s history with Erec.

The dialogue also didn’t feel particularly natural to me in a lot of places, like it was too on-the-nose or didn’t quite fit the relationships between the characters in some spots.

I also felt like it was clipped in a few places, like there could have been more time spent describing places or there could have been more action amidst the dialogue sometimes, and the ending transition felt awkward to me, more like there is no transition. I feel like we needed more lead-up specifically to the transition than there was.

However, I did enjoy this book (I’m just better at pinpointing what I thought was wrong with a book than at pinpointing what was right with it. It’s annoying.) and I’m interested to see more of Lunetta and the world she lives in. I think the characters could probably gain more depth in a longer work, so I’m interested to read the longer stories in Lunetta’s series.

About the author:

Rebekah DeVall prides herself on being the girl who wrote 200,000 words in 21 days. She’s a Christian author with a penchant for killing characters and a love for writing real female protagonists described as “the example of a Christian hero that young readers need to see.”

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rebekah-DeVall-Author-217931808704713/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebekahdevall/

Blog: http://www.rebekahdevall.wordpress.com

Book purchase link

Blogging Questions Answered

I’ve seen a lot of people ask how to start a blog and get it running and stuff, so I thought I’d put together a post where all of the common questions I see are answered in one place. I hope this helps, and if you have additional questions I’d love to answer them in the comments. :)

1. What Platform Should I Use?

Okay, I actually don’t feel super qualified to answer this one since I haven’t done any research or anything on different platforms. I use WordPress.org (which is different from WordPress.com, which is free) and I always have, so I’m not even familiar with the free version. I personally love WordPress.org, but the best advice I have for you here is to do the research and ask some people who have more experience with multiple platforms. I know a lot of people who use Blogger, Wix, or… I think SquareSpace is fairly common? But yeah, there are several options and I only know about one of them. XP

2. What Should I Write About?

Whatever you’re passionate about. Pick a broad topic (for example fiction writing, or pop music), and if it’s something you’re passionate about then you should be able to keep coming up with post ideas. Don’t write about something just because you feel like you should (don’t start a blog just because you feel like you should, either) or it won’t come out well and you’ll quickly run out of ideas. Try to stick to your topic as much as possible, though, so that followers know this is what they’re getting and aren’t put off by frequent posts on some totally unrelated topic.

3. How Often Should I Post?

Post as frequently or as infrequently as works for you. You will want a set schedule so that readers know when to expect a post from you and you don’t want to just post every three months or people will likely forget you exist, but probably anywhere from once a month to five times a week is safe, so just pick whatever works for you and whatever you can keep up with without burning out.

4. How Do I Get Traffic?

Pinterest. I actually have plans for writing a whole post on how to use Pinterest to increase blog traffic, but the basics are these:

Make a Pinterest account if you don’t already have one and set up boards for your writing (I have storyboards, character boards, setting boards, inspiration boards, etc.) and a board for your blog (mine is just called My Blog: Scribes & Archers). Then start pinning. Consistent pinning is best and gives your pins a better chance of being seen, but the important thing is to pin to all of your boards and not just your blogging board.

Make sure your blog posts have pinnable images. Taller pins are better for Pinterest, but square works okay. Set up a template for all of your images, so that they look like a cohesive whole when they’re all together. Include the post title in a readable font and your blog name smaller somewhere so that people easily know where the pin came from. Then, obviously, pin the images to your blog board.

Other than that, ask friends you know would be interested in your content or who you know would want to support you by following (people who are following just because you asked them to aren’t going to interact with your content as much and might not read your posts at all), and share your posts on other social media that you’re active on.

Higher traffic doesn’t necessarily mean more subscribers, unfortunately, but your content will be read and enjoyed/learned from.

5. How Do I Stay Consistent?

Step 1: Make a running list of blog post ideas. This way you’re less likely to run out, and you almost always have a list to draw from. I like to schedule mine in advance on Google Calendar and then shuffle them around as necessary depending on how capable I feel of writing that post at the time, but you can just keep a list if that works better, or do something else entirely.

Step 2: Know your posting schedule. Know how often your posting and one what day(s) so that you can have your posts ready in advance.

Step 3: Schedule a writing day. For me this is Saturday. Ideally I spend Saturday writing my posts for the next week so that they’re out of the way and I’m not scrambling to write them last minute or getting images made. (I usually do my images at the beginning of a month so that they’re all ready to go.)

6. What Do I Name It?

Um… there are kind of a lot of ways to name a blog. It should probably relate to what you’ll be posting about, but it should also be fairly personalized and unique. Scribes & Archers got its name from writing (Scribes) and my pen name (Archer from R.M. Archer), plus it has kind of a fantasy feel to it in my opinion, like it could be descriptive of a clan of wood elves or something. I have friends whose blog names were drawn from their favorite poem, or favorite quotes. There’s a really broad range of ways you can choose a blog name.

Have you considered starting a blog? Was I able to answer some of your questions? Again, if you have any additional questions let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them! If you already have a blog, feel free to share it in the comments; I’d love to follow you!

Character Interview: Wisterin Larn

Wisterin is a character from The King’s Paladin, and she grew up with Coraline and Toril (she’s also featured in The Paladins, so if you decide she’s interesting you should consider checking that out in my Short Story Collection Vol. 1). She’s a spy, and you probably don’t want to get on the wrong side of her because she could kill you while you sleep, though her flirtatious exterior might indicate otherwise. Enjoy her interview. :)

Wisterin: *comes in and takes a seat across from the interviewer, wearing lavender like she knows she’s not supposed to. Again*

Interviewer: Hello. *sees the purple* I thought I heard that purple was a color reserved for royalty. Are you royalty and I don’t know about it? I know I did my research. *chuckles a bit*

Wisterin: *smirks* Maybe I am.

Interviewer: You’re going to be fun to work with. Can I start with your name?

Wisterin: Wisterin. *her lavender eyes will be perpetually twinkling throughout this interview*

Interviewer: I don’t get anything more than that?

Wisterin: *shakes her head, smirking*

Interviewer: Okay then. How old are you?

Wisterin: Nineteen.

Interviewer: Do you have any siblings?

Wisterin: No.

Interviewer: Do you have a job?

Wisterin: I’m the palace spy.

Interviewer: *arches an eyebrow* And you’re okay with just telling me this? But you won’t tell me even your last name?

Wisterin: *rolls eyes, smirking* Fine, it’s Larn.

Interviewer: *laughs* You know that’s not what I meant.

Wisterin: It worked for you anyway. *shrugs, still smirking*

Interviewer: Okay then, what is your favorite food?

Wisterin: Chocolate. Preferably the dark kind.

Interviewer: Favorite color?

Wisterin: Any shade of purple, since I’m not allowed to wear it. *grins* But especially lavender. Or, as the shade may be called, wisteria.

Interviewer: Is that why you like it, then? Because it’s similar to your name?

Wisterin: Oh no. I just like subtly asserting dominance. *grins*

Interviewer: Do you have a favorite book?

Wisterin: Prince of Shadows.

Interviewer: Does anyone on Themar read anything other than the Kersir novellas? (Hey there, buddy, that’s a breaking of the fourth wall…)

Wisterin: *laughs* Yes. I guess you’ve just talked to all the wrong people to hear about anything else.

Interviewer: Do you have a favorite animal?

Wisterin: Hm… Griffins. I’ve only seen one once, but I’ve heard a number of stories. They’re really majestic, strong, powerful, beautiful, and free. *smiles* If I could become any animal I’d be a griffin.

Interviewer: What are your hobbies, besides spying?

Wisterin: Playing chess – that’s something I’ve been trained to play since I was little – doing acrobatics around the castle, flirting… That’s about it.

Interviewer: You consider flirting a hobby? *laughs*

Wisterin: It’s fun and it takes up a significant portion of my time, so yes. *grins*

Interviewer: Which of these is most important to you: Kindness, intelligence, or bravery?

Wisterin: Intelligence. Life’s no fun with stupid people.

Interviewer: *stifles a laugh and disguises it by clearing his throat* And honesty or selflessness?

Wisterin: *frowns* Neither. Honesty means no secrets, but I like keeping secrets. Selflessness is boring, not to mention exhausting. Can you imagine how much energy it would take to do things for other people all the time? No thank you. I’ll keep my secrets and my energy both, please.

Interviewer: *his excitement kind of fades* What’s something you can’t leave home without?

Wisterin: My knives.

Interviewer: How many of those do you have?

Wisterin: Have? Quite a few. Wear regularly? About a dozen. I always like to be prepared. *grins*

Interviewer: Prepared for what?

Wisterin: *grins and stands up, kissing her fingers and waving at him as she leaves without so much as a ‘goodbye’*

Farewell to April

April’s Writing

My Camp goal was to edit every chapter of The Heart of the Baenor that I’d already written and then write the remainder of it, while keeping up with my Alphabet Blogging Challenges on here and on Our Mind Palace. I did get all of the chapters edited, I finished on Sunday, and I did keep up with my blogging challenges for a long time. With blogging I fell off the rails roughly when my laptop lost the ability to connect to the internet and thus I could no longer work at night (my productivity on everything went downhill), so I tried to keep up with it and then in the last week I just decided I was going to pick and choose then which ones to keep planned and which to just not do. (Apologies that you didn’t get a V, X, Y, or Z. I didn’t have the brainpower.) But since that was planned on the last week I decided to count that goal complete.

In the last week I also formulated an idea for a new resource that I’m working on for the resource library. It’s gonna be huge, that’s all I’m going to say about it. I’d like to make it as helpful for you as possible, so if you’d let me know down in the comments what your specific writing struggles are I’d appreciate it. And if you’d like to get access to that as soon as it goes live, you can sign up to my newsletter right now in the form on the sidebar and you’ll see it first.

Altogether I wrote 41,674 this month, which is an improvement over recent months. It was almost entirely blogging, but I’m pretty proud of what I blogged this month so I don’t feel too bad about that.

April’s Reading

Hahahaha haha ha ha. Yeah no. I have been doing so little reading lately. XP I finally read one more chapter of The Hobbit and I started rereading The Secret of the Desert Stone (book 5 of The Cooper Kids series by Frank Peretti) for the billionth time, but I’ve made no significant progress on my reading goals. I’m hoping to at least finish The Hobbit this month.

How was your April? Did you participate in Camp NaNoWriMo? What have you been reading? And don’t forget to let me know what you’re biggest writing struggle is! I’d love to tackle it in my new resource. Have a great month!

W: Wizards’ Keep Opening Scene

I’m sorry I didn’t get a post up yesterday. I’ve been struggling to find motivation and focus lately and excerpts are proving much easier than articles.

Today’s excerpt is from a high fantasy novel I started on a whim and wrote about 4k of before stopping to focus on something else. I think I got it off to a pretty interesting start, but I’d need to formally plot it and further develop the characters before I could do a full novel justice, and this story – like The Elementals – has a case of “I mentioned something important and now I have no idea where I was going with it.” Anyway, I hope you enjoy this first scene. :)

Safira crept through the old underbrush, careful to keep from snapping stray branches underfoot. She could sense her two companions a few feet away on either side, but her attention was focused on one thing, a fascinating find from their last scavenging trip. After a moment she stopped, peered through the overgrowth, and smiled. There it was. The legendary wizards’ keep.

She gestured to her companions and they nodded, approaching her. They stepped out of the forest and walked up to the wall of the keep, watching for animals. Safira rested a hand against the chilly gray stone, still smooth after so many years.

Safira glanced at the other girl, who was brushing copper curls out of her face. “See anything?”

“Nothing aside from that.” She pointed to a heap of weeds and flowers with the ends of wooden somethings poking out of it in all directions.

The two of them walked over to the heap while their male companion admired the architecture of the keep. Safira pulled away some of the weeds and took a soft breath. The plants were entwined with at least a hundred staffs. “It’s real,” she muttered.

The red-haired girl nodded.

Safira pulled a white staff from the pile and admired it, the feel of the smooth wood pleasant in her hand.

“Edmund,” the redhead called, “come here. We found something.”

Edmund came over, brushing a hand through his tousled brown hair, and his eyes widened upon sight of the staffs. He rushed over and grabbed a brown staff, looking it over before swinging it around a few times.

Ferara gave in and grabbed a dark red staff, only looking at it a moment before swinging it around. It cracked into Edmund’s and in a moment they were engaged in a sparring match.

Safira ignored them and walked over to the keep’s gate. The portcullis was closed, but it would provide excellent hand- and foot-holds, she thought. She tucked her staff into her quiver strap and started climbing. In moments she was on the ramparts, walking over to one of the towers. The old door opened easily and soundlessly and she stepped into the dark room. There was a window across the room, covered over by heavy curtains.

She crossed the room carefully and pulled the curtains aside. Golden sunlight spilled in and showed that she stood in an armory. Swords and bows hung on the walls and sat in stands, untouched by decay or even dust. She stepped over to a bow and ran her hand along it. It was masterfully engraved and shaped, no doubt by her people.

Brushing a hair behind her pointed ear, she headed to the steps in the corner of the room and started down. The next floor had a small hallway of sorts and a door to what was likely a bedroom. She opened the door and stepped inside. Like in the armory, everything was in pristine condition, giving no hint to the fact that the keep had been abandoned for centuries.

Her hand brushed against the bedclothes as she reached for a small leatherbound volume on the nightstand. It was the only thing that seemed to have been touched by age, and she brushed the dust off it reverently. A page fell out as she opened it, and she stooped down to pick it up and tuck it back inside.

Safira smiled upon reading the first page, finding it was a wizard’s journal. She took a seat on the bed and started reading the elegant handwriting.

Grevan 12th, 3145

Here begins the first entry of Alabaster Graves’ journal.

Today was quite a day. My first day of Academy, and I’m almost certain that I’m a teacher favorite. Cedar Elderwood gave almost every question to me and seemed immensely pleased when I answered every one correctly. I suppose that being born into the Keepers does give me an advantage over the transfers.

Safira skipped ahead.

Tellemor 17th, 3153

Edana accepted my marriage proposal. My anticipation cannot be contained. I’ve been awaiting this day since that first day of Academy. Our wedding is scheduled for the 22nd of Serdan.

She skipped about sixty more entries, until her eye finally caught on something interesting.

Serdan 22nd, 3153

Today was supposed to be my wedding day. Instead it was something entirely different. I hesitate to speak of the matter, but future generations of Keepers will need to know what has happened, and I don’t trust spoken accounts.

The Grinders have arrived.

U: Unstoppable Rain Scene

Today’s excerpt is a short one from Unstoppable, the first of a four-part sci-fi series Allegra and I are writing together. This scene is the first from my character’s point-of-view and for some reason it always stands out in my memory of this story, along with the prologue and a few scenes from Raina/Dagmar’s point-of-view (Allegra’s POV character). I hope you enjoy the scene. :)

After the encounter with the guards Nyssa had been put back up to guard and the rest of us had gone to sleep. Only two hours later I felt someone shake me awake. I rolled over and opened my eyes to see Trey.

“What is it?” I asked. “Is something wrong?”

“No, it’s just time to move.”

“Right.” I moved my quilt aside and collected my things, wrapping them in the blanket.

In less than five minutes, everyone was ready.

Raina made sure we were all set before declaring it time to move out.

We headed down the iron warehouse steps to ground level, our feet reverberating on the metal, and stepped out into the cold city air. Street lights glowed through a drizzling rain and fog and I pulled my hood up over my head.

“Any plan as to where we’re headed?” I asked.

“Nope,” Trey replied. “Just somewhere we haven’t been yet.”

Arenda took off and flew several feet above us as we traveled the surprisingly empty streets. My guess was everyone was scared of the military. I didn’t blame them.

We walked slowly and quietly, even Kreel remaining at a walk instead of his supernatural sprint. Gaden’s witty remarks were strangely absent. I was probably nearly invisible, given my power.

There was no sign of military in the streets; just an eerie silence, the soft pitter patter of the rain, and the sound of a car kicking up water now and then.

We walked to the edge of the city, never once encountering another human being, and headed off at a slant away from the highway and into the countryside.

Fanfiction vs. Original Fiction

Two weeks ago I talked about the benefits of fanfiction, and this week I’m going to talk about how it compares with original fiction.

​Pre-Established World vs. Creative Freedom

With fanfiction (classic fanfiction, in which you write in the existing world) you don’t have to develop a whole new world with functioning societies, cultures, wildlife, history, religions, etc. All you need is already developed to one degree or another. You may find as you’re writing that something needs shoring up or further development, which allows you a bit of space to work with, but in general you don’t have to do a lot of development because the world has already been written. Of course this also means you don’t have a lot of flexibility, which can feel constraining, depending.

With original fiction, you create everything yourself, which means you get to totally unleash your imagination and make something totally knew but it also means that you have the responsibility of creating a deep, layered, engaging world, which is kind of a tall order. With great power comes great responsibility.

There’s always going to be a trade-off either way, so you have to decide what’s more important to you of the options.

​Pre-Established Characters vs. Creative Freedom

Basically identical to above. You can work with the existing characters in a fandom (which I personally would find incredibly stressful because I’d feel like they have to be just right and I would just be terrified I’d get it wrong) and already know what they’re like or you can create your own characters from scratch and develop their quirks and make them real and deep and flawed. Again, with great power comes great responsibility.

​Learn From the Greats or Learn From Your Own Mistakes

When you write fanfiction, you can learn what works by basically copying well-written worlds and characters, and likewise what doesn’t. When you write original fiction, the only person you have to learn from (in your own actual writing) is yourself. Obviously you learn from what you read and watch and whatnot, but when it comes to actually writing your own stories you learn from yourself through trial and error and learning from your mistakes. This applies to all parts of the writing process, from outlining to marketing.

My advice is to work with both and practice in all areas, using fanfiction as a learning tool and then turning your focus to original fiction or working on original fiction at the same time and applying lessons from each to the other. But obviously it’s ultimately up to you what you want to try and what you think will work for you.

Have you written fanfiction? How does it compare to original fiction, for you?