JAN 13: Mind the Gap...

[clarelondon]

Good morning to the fabulous author erastes, writer of quality, best-selling homoerotic fiction, Director of the Erotic Authors' Association and Blogger Extraordinaire on Speak Its name, The Macaronis and Unusual Historicals, amongst many other appearances.

Erastes' website is HERE

Comments

[clarelondon]

I identify with so much of this, having come from fanfiction myself. It was true for me also, that fanfiction was a blast of fresh, stimulating, exciting air that provoked me (i) to start writing again after some time away, and (ii) to expose it online!

I still wrote original fiction at that time, but that's when I started moving over into specifically m/m. I'm not sure exactly what prompted me to make the change back. I know I started to get restless with fanfiction: although I still love reading and (occasionally) writing it, I started to find it restrictive as an author. Especially with the lack of villains (!) and both original characters and motive. So I started up an original fiction website and posted some short fiction. And yes, the first thing I noticed was the lack of feedback! LOL But when someone *did* respond, it was heady stuff.

The things I've noted most about Bridging that Gap are * less immediate feedback, particularly hard if you're writing a novel * the fact you may never have a piece of work published, and not necessarily because of its quality * the courage to submit in the first place as a newbie all over again! * to cope with rejection AND acceptances, keeping your spirits either up or properly grounded * the different standards expected of your writing style (and that's both good and bad!) * the 'politics' of the industry, in what they expect to see and will 'buy', as opposed to what you want to sell...

etc etc

But you're right, the rewards are astonishingly good. Not necessarily financially (at least not yet, for me) but as far as self-esteem and personal satisfaction goes.

Now I *am* getting pretentious...LOL

Great post, thanks!
^____^

[erastes]

One thing that I loved about fanfic was not having to waste too much time introducing a character. After all - I only need to write "Lucius Malfoy swept in," and that's it. Whereas if in an original book, i write "Robert Allwood marched in," you pretty much have your reader thinking "oh, yeah?"

And of course using another person's world made it easier to create plot without having to world-build.

Yes - the rejections and so forth are hard to deal with in original-land - but hopefully the small network one builds around one (thanks god for the interwebz because it would be horrible to write a book without blogging) will be a great support base. And is, in my case, definitely.

[mylodon]

Lovely post.

Erastes, you know I identify with so much of what you say. Different fandom, but very similar experiences. (Although you as a Mary Sue? Gaaarn!)

I still dabble in fanfic partly because it gives me freedom to do daft things, to experiment with settings or styles. Partly because it's just such fun.

[erastes]

With me I think it was too much of an addiction--I fear that if I went back to it I'd not come out again, and also JKR deliberately closed a lot of the fanfic outlets, killing off characters - I didn't have the heart to write heart broken Lucius over and over again.

Yes, Violetta her name was. She even had violet eyes. Long auburn hair in corkscrew type curls. She was the heir of Slytherin. oh the shame...