Fans & Their Fiction
I was meandering around the internet when I stumbled across some articles for and against writing fanfic. It's funny because I've lived through both sides of the lens for equal amounts of time.
When I started writing as a teenager, I was really against fanfic. My 15-year-old self is throwing all kinds of shade at me right now, and my revised stance on fanfic is probably not in the top ten grievances. Back then, I thought fanfic was a perversion of what the writers' wanted for their stories, it was using other people's ideas, etc., etc., etc... I was really caught up writing my own works and I didn't like the idea of someone else using my work in their own ways. It's everything that's ever been said against fanfic. Until I was about 22, fanfic did not exist to me, and it was the equivalent of blasphemy.
So what changed?
I had come across an old TV series, Dark Angel, that I was a huge fan of back in the day (no kidding). Unfortunately, the series ended on a cliffhanger in 2002. So on a whim, I decided enough time had gone by that I could see if anyone wrote an ending to it. In 2008, my world changed and I suppose it was a catalyst for me to do the same. I thought about what a shame it was that the story wasn't complete, and maybe it was okay if someone else took a chance on making it work. Luckily enough, I had arrived during an upswing in the fandom (from what I could tell, the teen generation that watched Dark Angel in its original run had been hit hard by the economic recession, so I'm not sure how lucky that was). As I began reading, I realized that none of the stories satisfied how I imagined the story ending, though I had a lot of fun reading the ones that I had read. Also, I was particularly heartbroken over my career situation, and I used it as a place to escape reality. I decided to publish my DA fics because I remembered how reading other people's work made my days better, and I imagined that my story would be a nice little escape for someone else. It was also a way to practice writing when I hadn't been inspired for any original ideas. As of today, the last DA fic update was on June 13, 2010 for an outtake scene from Against Time, which was meant to be the finale that the series never had, and likely never will. I planned to return to my original works, so when inspiration for DA faded, I decided to let it go.
However, in the interceding years between 2010 and 2014, I didn't make any notable strides when it came to writing. For 3 of those years, I was in grad school and I didn't have much time for anything. Due to my work and school situations, I was mentally worn out, but I was lucky to have a great set of friends to keep me going.
By the end of 2014, I had graduated from grad school and found a new job. Things were looking up... until this time last year (2015), when the organization decided to restructure my division... It's hard to imagine that it was a year ago, because it feels like an entire lifetime passed between now and then. Around the same time, I had been watching El Internado: Laguna Negra. To prevent myself from becoming depressed, I threw myself into writing scenes for the series as an outlet for my stress. I ended up with a ton of one-shots and snippets, which I've been progressively posting since last year. I didn't really decide to return to writing fanfic, it was a fluke more than anything else. And why lock away my writing? Wouldn't it do more good shared with the world than locked in a drawer with some dried out pens? Besides, I'm not turning any benefit from it besides sharpening my writing skills (the show was great to help me with an old story I wrote about a mysterious boarding school back in the day).
I think there's more sides to the world than what you're supposed to do. I write because it's how I express myself, it's how I function as a person. I share that writing, because I've seen the good that sharing experiences and ideas brings.
When I started writing as a teenager, I was really against fanfic. My 15-year-old self is throwing all kinds of shade at me right now, and my revised stance on fanfic is probably not in the top ten grievances. Back then, I thought fanfic was a perversion of what the writers' wanted for their stories, it was using other people's ideas, etc., etc., etc... I was really caught up writing my own works and I didn't like the idea of someone else using my work in their own ways. It's everything that's ever been said against fanfic. Until I was about 22, fanfic did not exist to me, and it was the equivalent of blasphemy.
So what changed?
I had come across an old TV series, Dark Angel, that I was a huge fan of back in the day (no kidding). Unfortunately, the series ended on a cliffhanger in 2002. So on a whim, I decided enough time had gone by that I could see if anyone wrote an ending to it. In 2008, my world changed and I suppose it was a catalyst for me to do the same. I thought about what a shame it was that the story wasn't complete, and maybe it was okay if someone else took a chance on making it work. Luckily enough, I had arrived during an upswing in the fandom (from what I could tell, the teen generation that watched Dark Angel in its original run had been hit hard by the economic recession, so I'm not sure how lucky that was). As I began reading, I realized that none of the stories satisfied how I imagined the story ending, though I had a lot of fun reading the ones that I had read. Also, I was particularly heartbroken over my career situation, and I used it as a place to escape reality. I decided to publish my DA fics because I remembered how reading other people's work made my days better, and I imagined that my story would be a nice little escape for someone else. It was also a way to practice writing when I hadn't been inspired for any original ideas. As of today, the last DA fic update was on June 13, 2010 for an outtake scene from Against Time, which was meant to be the finale that the series never had, and likely never will. I planned to return to my original works, so when inspiration for DA faded, I decided to let it go.
However, in the interceding years between 2010 and 2014, I didn't make any notable strides when it came to writing. For 3 of those years, I was in grad school and I didn't have much time for anything. Due to my work and school situations, I was mentally worn out, but I was lucky to have a great set of friends to keep me going.
By the end of 2014, I had graduated from grad school and found a new job. Things were looking up... until this time last year (2015), when the organization decided to restructure my division... It's hard to imagine that it was a year ago, because it feels like an entire lifetime passed between now and then. Around the same time, I had been watching El Internado: Laguna Negra. To prevent myself from becoming depressed, I threw myself into writing scenes for the series as an outlet for my stress. I ended up with a ton of one-shots and snippets, which I've been progressively posting since last year. I didn't really decide to return to writing fanfic, it was a fluke more than anything else. And why lock away my writing? Wouldn't it do more good shared with the world than locked in a drawer with some dried out pens? Besides, I'm not turning any benefit from it besides sharpening my writing skills (the show was great to help me with an old story I wrote about a mysterious boarding school back in the day).
I think there's more sides to the world than what you're supposed to do. I write because it's how I express myself, it's how I function as a person. I share that writing, because I've seen the good that sharing experiences and ideas brings.