Writing Fan Fiction

Fan Fiction Writing the written art of Fiction by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, movie, etc.

Since I was a little girl, I have loved to write. Everyone who knew me was always supportive and loved my ideas. Like any child, I often looked for my parent's approval when something seemed of interest to me. So when I wrote a creative story for school or as a gift for family, I was advised on how to make my writing better and not change my story. I took their advice when I was creating an original story, but like any fan of anything in the fictional world, I had a story or two to add on.

Fan Fiction. I didn't know it was actually a thing until a friend introduced me to a website while I was in high school. I thought that it was the best thing ever! When I had an idea within a fandom, I wrote about it. Granted, it took time to write my first Fan Fiction Novel (FanFic), but I believe it to be worth all the hard work I put into it as well as any FanFic I write. Despite what some people believe.

I wrote a Fanfic mixing two of my favorite games, Skyrim and Dragon Age II. It's been two years and it has 4.5K views. However, I ask my mom to read it and she says that it's unreadable after barely making it past the Prologue. So I go back to try to fix it myself with the help of Grammarly. I do this at least three times and my mother still hasn't given it another chance.

Recently, I have posted the first chapter of another Fanfic of mine made from the video game Fallout New Vegas. I was super excited. I read through it five times to make sure that it was clear to read. I processed it through Grammarly just as much. I was thrilled when my mom told me that both she and my dad read my chapter. However, that excitement came to a quick end.

I asked what they liked about it. In return, they asked if I wanted to hear what "my parents" think versus what a "reader" thinks. I got nervous and said that I wanted my parents' opinion. The best thing they could say was "At least you finished it." I was stunned.

I didn't understand and seeing how uncomfortable I was, my mom decided to tell me as a reader what she thought. You see, my mom is a Librarian Teacher of an Elementary School and she loves books. So when she sees something wrong with grammar or sentence structure or even tone, she makes a big deal out of it. My mom freaks out so much, I almost expect it now even though it hurts when she says that she can't read what I write when I know very well that others can.

Then there's my dad, who hasn't read anything of mine since high school. I love and respect him and my mom, but when I was told that he read the first chapter of my new FanFic, I was through the roof. However, when I talked to him specifically about what he thought, I was a little sad about his answer. You see, I got my love for video games from him. Especially video games like Skyrim, Assassin's Creed, Destiny, and Fallout. I was confused when my father said that he could barely follow what I wrote and that I had made things confusing for a normal reader.

Throughout my life, I have been told two main things about writing:

1. If you want to be a writer, be a reader.

2. Write to a specific audience.

I read other FanFics so that I didn't accidentally copy another FanFic author, I could understand how other writers told their fan-made stories, and so I could remain inspired to write my own. I read FanFics to be a FanFic writer.

When writing an original story, you are traditionally writing for a specific age group and/or genre. Take Harry Potter for example. It is for all ages, but with the slight cursing, most likely for adults since everything is super monitored now. It is about magic adventures, so someone who strictly likes Sci-Fi is not going to like it.

When you write a FanFic, on the other hand, anyone can read it, but each FanFic is specifically made for fans like the author. Let's take Harry Potter again. If someone makes a FanFic of Harry Potter, the writer is targeting Harry Potter fans, not Hobbit, STAR WARS, or Narnia fans. My Fanfic is mainly for Fallout New Vegas fan girls and that's how I wrote it. If others read it and liked it, maybe wanted to try the game themselves, then fine! I love it!

Fallout New Vegas was my dad's favorite game, so imagine the pain I felt when he said that he couldn't read it. Then when he tried to quote my book to point out my mistakes but failed miserably, I had doubts that he had actually read the chapter. My father said that I failed to explain how a character rushed to catch my main character from falling when in the game, he was somewhere else. I argued, explaining that I wrote in previous chapters on how it was so, but he did that thing that people do when they believe that they're right and "give up" the argument. I went back over my chapter to see if pieces of my story vanished when I copied and pasted from a Word document. When I saw that it was all there, I was furious.

I felt like my parents were pretending to be supportive, but quickly shot me down. All I could hear the next day was their negative words about my story and how I'll be sued for my story and the picture that I used as a cover for my story. Some of you have already seen what I've written and others don't know what I am talking about.

Like the picture above, you cite it to make it legal to use when you don't change it. However, plenty of FanFic writers take pictures off of Google and tweak them for their stories. Whether it is changing the original colors and drawing on top, or merging it with another picture from Google to fit the story, FanFic writers do it. I mean, who cites pictures that they change for an online book cover for a FanFic? It should be fine. But no, my mother thinks that I'll get sued and that the excuse "everyone else is doing it and not getting sued" is not good enough.

For a whole day, I heard nothing but negativity. I even doubted my ever-loving boyfriend who has read my writings and loves what I do. I doubted that he was telling me the truth. I felt no motivation to do anything, even as I worked hard at my job. I didn't watch my shows, read any FanFics, or even listen to music because they all inspired me and once the inspiration came, my parents' negative voices became louder. I was depressed all day and my coworker saw how it was affecting me. Especially after I gave him an example using something he loves to do for fun that he worked hard to achieve. He did his best to make me feel better, but I just felt like dead weight.

It wasn't until my boyfriend and I finally were able to talk to each other that I finally started to feel better. He loved my work and knew others would love it too. My boyfriend told me how much he loves how I tell a story and control the narrative. He reminded me that I love to write and the FanFics are for fun and to sharpen my writing, making me better slowly. I know that my writing isn't perfect off the bat, but I know that there are people who read past the imperfections to see the story.

Yesterday, I was tempted to take down all my writing platforms from writing websites. Today, I was inspired to write how all this makes me feel. Fanfics were first a hobby. As soon as I finished my first FanFic Novel, FanFics became a passion. And I will never let anyone, including my parents, make me feel like they are a waste of time again. Please tip me if you like this.