Fanfiction: The Free Writing School

The most valuable writing advice I ever got was "Don't give up your day job".

As such, I didn't spent my post-high school years chasing a Creative Writing degree. I did an apprenticeship, followed by 6 - 12-month Trade School courses, interspaced with years in various Care and Retail industries, as well as a brief stinit in Education. Nothing glamourous or news-worthy, but that was never the goal. I just wanted a job that paid the bills and let me write.

My true education as a writer came from a source that has only just become acceptable to speak about in public: fan-fiction.

For Gen Z and others who are discovering the phenomena now, giggling over the latest MCU found-family fic, or having a moral crisis over whether or not they can still ethically enjoy Harry Potter fanfiction, it seems a no-brainer. Of course fanfiction is a thing. Why shouldn't it be?

Gen X and older Millenials shake their heads wisely. Oh, Sweet Summer Child, how quickly the Internet forgets...

In the late 90s and early 00s, fanfiction was like Fight Club; you didn't talk about fanfiction to anyone who wasn't already in the know.

That was how sites got shut down. That was how fanzines recieved Cease and Desist Orders, and in some cases even legal action. Some Authors even gave notice that they did not permit fanfiction of their works, and woe betide anyone who thought they were joking...

We plastered disclaimers over every chapter, and received warnings and account suspensions if we forgot even once. We begged creators who might, possibly, one day come across our work, even by accident, not to sue us, because the majority of fanwriters were unemployed students, or stay-at-home parents, or disabled or otherwise unemployable, and fanfiction was the one joy in our dismal lives.

Despite it's comparatively recent emergence into the public eye, fanfiction is not a new phenomenon.

Virgil's Anaeid was inspired by Homer's Illiad and Odessey. Dante's Inferno is the epitome of Self-Insert Fanfiction. The vast majority of Shakespeare's historical plays can be considered RPF (Real Person Fanfiction) and several his other plays, including Much Ado About Nothing, A Winter's Tale, and even Romeo and Juliet, were inspired by recent fiction by other authors.

(While we're at it, the vast majority of Rennessaince artwork can be considered Biblical Fan Art, and you will not change my mind on that.)

I discovered fanfiction as a teenager, shortly after the Y2K bug stopped being a concern. If nothing else, it was cheaper than saving my allowance to buy a new book every few weeks. Shortly after that, I started writing my own.

I've never been particularly loyal to any one fandom. My first fanfiction (that I didn't delete after a few chapters for being self-indulgant crap) was a one-shot for the live action Peter Pan. It was shortly followed by two more, because I am trash for reviewers asking for more.

Avatar: the Last Airbender, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, assorted random musicals, Underworld, Disney... if it caught my imagination, I wrote it.

Fanfiction sustained me through some very difficult periods in my life. From the death of my twin, through my Autism diagnosis and dealing with it, leaving school after being told I wasn't smart enough to graduate mainstream, bad break-ups, and everything in between.

My first attempts were nothing to brag about, but we're all newbies at some point. Eventually, I got better, and writing fanfiction taught me a lot of lessons that, at the time, I didn't even realise I was learning.

From fanfiction, I learned how to develop characters. How to keep them consistent, or justify and foreshadow changes. How to make them individuals, rather than stereotypes.

Using Canon and a pre-established universe as a crutch, I learned how to create and maintain a storyline, seperate from establishing and developing characters. I learned what events were required to make change, and what kind of change.

I learned how to take a well-worn storyline (tropes exist for a reason...) and put a unique spin on it. I learned how to expand on ideas and when to throw in a twist without going over the top.

Most of all, I learned how to deal with feedback.

I won't lie and say that I haven't left the occasional harsh review in my 20+ years of having access to the internet. I have. Some have perhaps been harsher than the recipent deserved, but I flatter myself that I do try to find something nice to say about anything I leave a review on.

Fanfiction, available on a public forum for anyone to comment on, taught me how to take constructive criticism without getting offended that someone on the internet didn't love the story like I did. It taught me to ignore the comments looking for something to attack, and to focus on the good bits. I learned to seperate the constructive from the flames, and to look at my own work critically.

I write less than I used to; one-shots or short fics of a few thousand words, maximum.

I no longer have the time that I used to as a teenager, or even in my early 20s. Part of it is that I don't have the frantic drive to write anything that I once did. Now that I'm an Indie Author, I have Original work to focus on, with actual deadlines.

There's also the old, unfortunate truth: the more you learn about something, the easier it is to see the mistakes. As with most free things, you already have to dig past a lot of junk to find the valuable ones, and having unconcious standards makes it even harder.

Fanfiction may not hold the appeal that it used to, but it's still a valuable experience that I don't regret.

If you liked this story, leave a heart or a tip, and follow me on Vocal and Medium!