Here it comes…

Now, I’m going to write a word that will most likely evoke a strong reaction in most of you, are you ready?… You sure?…

Fanfiction.

Oh yes, the word that is spoken in hushed whispers between writers.

Fanfiction is one of those topics that gets a lot of writers into a heated debate, but I’m not here to talk about fanfiction as a good or bad thing for literature. I am going to talk about it as a writing tool.

I think fanfiction is great in a few ways:

- It gets people writing who wouldn’t write otherwise, and then from there, discover a passion for writing to go on and produce their own stuff.

- It shows how much passion people can have for their ‘fandoms’ :D

Do I write fanfiction? Yes, I do.

I think I could almost feel a collective cringe from some people reading this at that admittance!

But let me explain why I write it.

I don’t write fanfiction to be read by anyone else, I write fanfiction only for me. When I was younger I posted fanfiction for the public, but haven’t for many years. Nowadays, I write fanfiction for my eyes only.

And I do it because it’s fun.

Fanfiction gives me a release, it gives me a place to just write for me, to be able to write without the thought that anyone will ever see it. It also means I don’t have to think about characters or setting because they are already done, all I have to do is write. Write for the pleasure of it. That doesn’t mean my writing ability plummets to a terrible level, I still use it as practice to better my writing.

When I did post fanfiction for the public, most of the comments I got were about the way I was good at keeping the much loved characters of someone else in-character. Taking the characters of someone else and writing them myself was amazing practice at keeping my own characters in-character throughout my works.

Obviously I get great amounts of pleasure from writing my own works :D That’s the most fun. But at the moment, as I have said, I can’t start working on a new story because I’m trying to focus on finishing my other books.

Fanfiction gives me that writing release whilst not making my head focus on starting a new story.

I can understand why fanfiction gets a bad rep, some of it is rather… interesting, yeah, let’s go with that word :D

But for me, fanfiction isn’t a guilty pleasure, it is just a pleasure. I enjoy writing it, and sometimes I love to read it. Will anyone ever see my fanfiction? No, but that is part of what is nice. It’s all for me.

How do you feel about fan fiction? Do you write it? Do you read it? Do you have a favourite fandom?

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Progress Report

Publishing status:

> Stolen- Final edits. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

> The Queen’s Jester- Final edits. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

> Third Manuscript- Final edits. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

May E-Book Review: Reading.