Amanda Meuwissen's Blog - Posts Tagged "saiyuki"
Fanfiction Binge
It happens every so often that I either 1) suddenly want to devour every piece of fanfiction about a fandom that I can (like after seeing Captain America: The Winter Soldier) or 2) suddenly want to reread all of my own fanfiction about a particular fandom (like what recently happened to me when someone reviewed an old Saiyuki fic of mine).
For the uninitiated, fanfiction is just that, fan written fiction. The example I love to give is Harry Potter. Say you love Harry Potter, but you wish there had been more about the Marauders when they were younger, so you decide to write some stories about that yourself – that is fanfiction, and it can take many forms.
I started writing fanfiction long before I delved into original fiction because it helped me realize stories better and reach natural ends to my ideas. It taught me how to write, just as reading does.
So a few weeks ago, I got a new review on a very old fanfic (about a decade old), and it made me go…huh. And before I knew it, I had devoured the entire 3 story series, all 62 chapters worth between them. And wow, it amazes me every time as the years pass how there are scenes I just love, and wouldn’t change a word on…and then scenes that make me cringe, and whole paragraphs starting out chapters that I would literally delete and start, well, maybe even three paragraphs down if I were to write it again, because that is all driveling filler.
But it’s fun because it reminds me why I love to write, amazes me at some ideas that I’d forgotten I had, and inspires me toward my next endeavors.
As The Incubus Saga draws to a close, and I continue into the first few chapters of Life as a Teenage Vampire, which I am already fully in love with and cannot wait to share with the world, my next project after that is already stewing, and all because of a single thoughtful review.
The lessons learned? Readers, comment, review, let your authors know how much you love their work, whether original fiction or fanfiction, because it might just inspire their next masterpiece.
And writers, don’t knock your old work. Go back once in a while and read it again. Some of it will be crap, some will make you laugh or sneer, but some will capture your imagination and heart just as it did the first time, and it’s important to let ourselves fall in love with our own writing.
Ah, Saiyuki, a manga and anime that was one of my first literary love affairs.
For the uninitiated, fanfiction is just that, fan written fiction. The example I love to give is Harry Potter. Say you love Harry Potter, but you wish there had been more about the Marauders when they were younger, so you decide to write some stories about that yourself – that is fanfiction, and it can take many forms.
I started writing fanfiction long before I delved into original fiction because it helped me realize stories better and reach natural ends to my ideas. It taught me how to write, just as reading does.
So a few weeks ago, I got a new review on a very old fanfic (about a decade old), and it made me go…huh. And before I knew it, I had devoured the entire 3 story series, all 62 chapters worth between them. And wow, it amazes me every time as the years pass how there are scenes I just love, and wouldn’t change a word on…and then scenes that make me cringe, and whole paragraphs starting out chapters that I would literally delete and start, well, maybe even three paragraphs down if I were to write it again, because that is all driveling filler.
But it’s fun because it reminds me why I love to write, amazes me at some ideas that I’d forgotten I had, and inspires me toward my next endeavors.
As The Incubus Saga draws to a close, and I continue into the first few chapters of Life as a Teenage Vampire, which I am already fully in love with and cannot wait to share with the world, my next project after that is already stewing, and all because of a single thoughtful review.
The lessons learned? Readers, comment, review, let your authors know how much you love their work, whether original fiction or fanfiction, because it might just inspire their next masterpiece.
And writers, don’t knock your old work. Go back once in a while and read it again. Some of it will be crap, some will make you laugh or sneer, but some will capture your imagination and heart just as it did the first time, and it’s important to let ourselves fall in love with our own writing.
Ah, Saiyuki, a manga and anime that was one of my first literary love affairs.
