Adding Fanfiction to Your Writing Tool Belt

Image by Lexi on We Heart It

Pick a fandom, any fandom, and there’s probably a community of fanfic writers and readers camped out there and having fun.  For those that haven’t heard the term before, fanfic is short for fan fiction and refers to written stories of any length inspired by books, movies, video games, television programs, music and/or celebrities. That’s a broad spectrum of fiction and the internet is riddled with it.

But why would an author writing original fiction want to consider reading and writing fanfiction as well?  Fanfic is actually a useful tool you can add to your arsenal. There are two broad areas where fanfic is useful: first as a creative catalyst and second as a research tool.

Fanfic And Creativity

Almost every writer has had moments when you hit a wall on your work-in-progress. Call it writer’s block, call it brain fog, call it a momentary blip in your creative genius. Either way – the words aren’t flowing the way you’d like them too. Fanfiction can be a great way to take a break, but still flex those writing muscles.

Pick a fandom you love, or even better, one your target readers also love, and write a flash fiction piece. Write a short story. Have fun! Indulge every ship, every pairing, every dramatic or romantic or ridiculous thought and potentiality that you like. Write until you’re smiling so big your cheeks hurt. Then take a step back and read over your work. What about it makes you happy? Yes there are characters and worlds that you love in there, but beyond that – what themes do you see? What situations? Would any of those work in your original writing?

You can use fanfic as just a break, a chance to blow off creative steam. Or you can use it to find what sparks might reignite your passion for your own work-in-progress. Either way, if you’re having fun, it’s worth every moment. Just make sure you do get back to that work-in-progress before too long!

Fanfic As Research

As of this article, An Archive of Our Own (one of the largest and most active fanfiction communities online) has close to 25,000 fandoms represented, over 115,000 users and over 300,000 works posted. More are added every day. That’s a lot of information in one place and if you know who your target readers are and the fandoms that appeal to them, it’s a great way to get a peek inside what they’re passionate about!

Head over, pick any fandom you like, and sort the results by the most popular. Look for common themes. Go read the comments on a few of the most popular pieces – what are the readers saying? What are they most fired up about? What storylines seem to get the most interest? Why? What do you think makes those stories stand out (beyond good writing)? Read a few fanfic pieces and see if they spark any ideas for your own work.

Whether you use fanfic as a way to shake off the writing-blahs or as a jumping off point for your next big idea – it’s definitely worth having a look!

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Adding Fanfiction to Your Writing Tool Belt

Agency, Fairy Tales & Brainwashing the Younger Generation

Recently, I took my son to see a puppet show theater adaption of Hansel & Gretel. The sets were phenomenal. The puppets were not as emotionally-scarring as they might have been and the production value overall was fantastic. What wasn't so fantastic, however, was the play itself. To say the script writer took a few liberties with the original story is like saying a dirty limerick version of War & Peace captures the full scale of the original novel.

Just in case you aren't familiar with the original story of Hansel & Gretel (WHO ARE YOU!?) here's the Cliffnotes version: A woodcutter with questionable parenting skills and his murderous wife lead their two resourceful kids into the woods and leave them there to die. The starving kids stumble across a gingerbread house and decide eating someone's home is no big deal. The witch who owns said sugary cottage objects, tosses the little darlings into a cage and makes plans to eat them. Ultimately, Gretel saves herself and her brother by tricking the witch and shoving her into an oven. The kids live happily ever after. The end. Girls kick butt. Okay there was some crying in there, but ultimately, Gretel took action and saved the day. Woohoo girl power!

Now let's take a look at the version my son & I saw. First, the kids get lost in the woods rather than being led there because no way is that murdering your kids crap going to get past CPS. I'm willing to let this slide. It's a small change.

Next, the kids fall asleep in the forest as some crazed sandman imp cavorts over their heads like a slighter more terrifying version of Chucky and a host of angles forms a holy bridge to protect the kids in the night from ... well not Sandman Chucky 'cause they arrived with that guy. To be fair, the kids were eating berries just prior to this scene, maybe they grabbed some bad mushrooms as well. I'm still okay with all this, if really, really confused.

Fast forward to the gingerbread house. The witch strikes and tosses Hansel into a cage! Eek! She freezes Gretel with a spell, then goes off to get cooking supplies because apparently she doesn't keep that sort of thing around (her being a kid-eating witch and all). Gretel weeps. A lot. Her tears undo the spell and she can move! That's right, Gretel's super power is crying. Alrighty. But wait, the witch comes back before Gretel can do squat and Gretel pretends to still be frozen. That whole proceeding scenes was pointless because two seconds after she arrives back, the witch unfreezes Gretel.

Here it comes, the big oven scene. You can feel the anticipation. Gretel is poised. And yet ... she isn't. Gretel is genuinely mystified and saying she can't see any cookies in the oven. The angry witch peers into the oven and HANSEL TELLS GRETEL TO PUSH THE WITCH IN. *This is the point in the play where my eye started twitching and I began having the urge to stab things.

In geek circles in recent years there's been a lot of talk about something called agency. Basically, agency means being able to act on your own behalf. Far too often in fiction, comic books, fairy tales, and popular media women and girls have a distinct lack of agency. Women are not masters of their own fate. They are not in control of anything. Needless to say, quite a few women, myself included, object to that portrayal.

What makes me utterly furious is seeing a fairy tale that otherwise featured a female character saving the day rewritten to take away any agency she might have had. Her super power was crying for heaven's sake! What sort of message does that send to kids, girls and boys, in that audience? Boys are clever. Boys solve problems. Girls take orders and do what they're told. Girls cry a lot. Argh!

I read my son the real version of Hansel & Gretel last night and we talked about how clever both kids were in the story. Because that should be the real takeaway from Hansel & Gretel - that children, regardless of gender, can be clever, tricksy little creatures who defeat the bad guy and save the day.

My kids and I will be skipping future puppet shows at that theater. Maybe we'll stage a few of our own at home and my daughter and my son can both play the hero.

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Agency, Fairy Tales & Brainwashing the Younger Generation

Read To Learn

The best writers are also enthusiastic readers. It’s an old adage, but a true one. It’s important to remember, however, that while you read for pleasure, you should also read to learn.

There are so MANY things you can learn that will improve your writing each time you read a book. Pay attention to pace, conflict, character development, dialogue. All the little nuances that bring a story to life. Even if you’re not enjoying a book - that can be just as helpful. What is the author doing that’s turned you off? How would you improve the narrative?

As you read, ask yourself questions: how different would this book be if it was in a different point-of-view? What if the point-of-view character was different? What do you love about the book? Write down phrases and descriptions that sing to you. What is it about them that makes you sit up and pay attention?

If possible, keep a reading log and jot down notes about the books you read. What worked, what didn’t? Make a shelf of your favorite books and when you’re stuck in your own writing, take one of those books down and see how that author approached the same problem. Struggling with your opening? Study the openings of several books you love and see if it sparks any ideas.

You don’t have to analyze every book you read, but if something occurs to you mid-story, jot it down. I often read a book two or three times. The first time is for pure pleasure, falling into the words and reveling in them. The second time is with an eye to structure, pace, and all the little tools we use as writers. I want to know how authors I admire bring a story to life so that eventually I can make my own writing just as strong.

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Read To Learn

Collaborative Writing As A Learning Device

My daughter has a lot of challenges in her life, both health-wise and school-related. Reading and writing are two of her major trouble areas. Cassidy is Dyslexic and also has something called Irlen Syndrome, which makes it very difficult for her to read. Spelling is a grand mystery that constantly eludes her and proper sentence structure and paragraph construction might as well be foreign languages.

Despite those challenges, Cassidy adores books and is a voracious reader and audio book listener. She's an imaginative writer who comes up with some really advanced ideas for a kid just entering fifth grade. My challenge has been helping her get her practical skills inline with her mental abilities.

In order to improve her writing skills, I insist that Cassidy writes a full page for me once a week. She has all week to do it, but inevitably waits until the last second to frantically put pencil to paper. That single page is an unbearable burden according to my daughter.

Today I proposed a new strategy for the both of us. A grand experiment. Starting tomorrow Cassidy and I are going to undertake a collaborative writing project. I began by writing a story title and a first paragraph. Tomorrow Cass will add her own paragraph. Then I'll add another paragraph and so on, trading back and forth, paragraph by paragraph, as our story grows.

Cassidy is excited at the prospect of sharing her writing time and breaking up the work. The idea of writing a story together really caught her interest. Hopefully this translates into more time together, more willingness to work on her writing skills and a touch of fun for both of us.

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Collaborative Writing As A Learning Device