Writing Fanfiction
The Day Senpai Noticed Me
Let me just throw this out there: I can be a total geek. I grew up living somewhere between reality and Hogwarts, have been an avid consumer of anime for the last seven years, and I love to participate in the many aspects of the world of fandoms; the shippings, the conventions, even the wars. But mostly, I love fanfiction.
And I think this love stemmed from a need that, at the time, I wasn’t fully aware that I had. It was my friend Kat that introduced me to fanfiction, an art where fans of a particular show, book, comic, whatever, write a story about, within, or around the canon story (or sometimes completely outside of it, just borrowing the characters!) of their chosen obsession. Anyone can write fanfiction, and anyone will. Here’s another thing to throw out there: some fanfiction is pretty terrible. The experienced fanfic reader learns tricks to sift through and find the gems, and the wise fanfic reviewer learns how to give constructive criticism without trampling anyone’s toes. Some people actually make a name for themselves in the world of fanfiction, and it is one of these people who is the reason I’m sharing this story.
I started writing short, one chapter fanfics (called one shots) back in eighth grade. I had been reading fanfics for quite a while and had been learning a bit about how to separate the good from the bad, but I was ready to try my hand at writing something. So, I made myself a pen name, which I won't share here. I, like many, guard my online fandom identity closely because serious fandom dedication remains somewhat taboo, even in our current world of obvious digital obsession and connection.
Why was I doing this? Why was I so intent on writing a story on top of all of the writing that I needed to complete for my classes? Why did I want to put myself out there in the vast world of the internet to have my writing judged by whoever came across it? Well, I think it was because I was craving something more out of my writing. I was seeing all of these great writers online sharing their stories, working hard on a piece of writing that meant something to them, and meant something to their fandom. And here was me, writing my five paragraph essays for school on subjects and books that, frankly, I didn’t care about. I was engaged in the stories of my fandom, I was not in the literature and writing forced upon me by my school system.
But the biggest draw for me was the feedback. In class, we sometimes had to peer review each other’s papers, and I would get comments from my classmates like “nice,” “needs work,” or “cool”. Comments that suggested to me that my classmates were not truly invested in reading what I had written, probably because they also were not particularly interested in the topic on which we had to write, and they had most likely written a very similar essay to mine on the same boring subject. I wanted someone to really look at my writing and value what I was trying to express with it.
So after I wrote my first fanfic, I was both pleasantly surprised and sometimes disappointed with the feedback that I would receive from other fans. Some reviews were like this:
good story
-Jazzy Girl kataanglover
Ok, thanks.
But some were very encouraging:
This was awesome! I just loved the way you described everything! Dude you have got to write more of this! I just loved it!
-Lillith Evanson
Hey, you can write! Awesome! And I don't mean 'write' as in letters plus words make sentences, I mean 'write' like... write. As in you ROCK! Yay for description and imagery and all that other good stuff that few bother to include!
-JadeRabbyt
On my second story:
Oh! That was really sweet! It was simple, but that's what I like about it. I don't think I've read any of your other stories, but I'll be sure to now!
-Getsurei
Much more gratifying. And the more I wrote, the more positive comments started coming in, encouraging me to keep writing. I started wondering how I could surprise readers, how I could push myself to try new writing techniques. Could I use first person in a story? Could I structure my story to switch between past and present? Would my readers understand what I was trying to communicate to them? I had to be careful, because suddenly I was writing for a large audience, so I wanted to make sure that my ideas were clear and that my writing was clearly labeled so that nobody would be reading something they would rather not (a common fanfic problem). I started to invest a lot of time into my personal writing, while the structured writing that I was being assigned for school was becoming a chore, just something to get through so that I could get to the writing that really meant something to me.
I continued to read fanfics throughout high school, and I would drabble in writing whenever I had time, but the number of stories that I published online dwindled as I got busy with school and friends. However, I found that some of the skills that I was learning through my experiences with online writing were of use to me in the classroom. I was becoming an all-around more descriptive and attentive writer. I began to realize that even academic writing could have a very personal flavor, that it could tell a story or argue a point in a voice that was all mine. And I started to gain a new appreciation for peer-reviewing. All of the reviews that I had been leaving on peoples’ online fanfics gave me an idea of what kinds of constructive criticisms were appropriate and, more importantly, helpful to a writer when they went to revise their writing. I am sure that some of these skills were being reinforced by my teacher in the classroom, but I feel that, for me personally, much of the foundation for these skills came through my experience writing, reviewing, and being reviewed in the online fanfiction community.
Further down the road I got into a new fandom, one that was a little older and had writers who were a little more mature. I really wanted to challenge myself to join the ranks of these more devoloped writers, so I spent some time really working on fine-tuning my writing, and earned this really nice review from a writer for my fandom who is very well known for her stories, and who I had singled out as one of the more talented and admirable among fanfiction writers:
This is gorgeous! Don't be tentative about reaching out into the fandom, even if you haven't written fanfics in a while. Your style is beautiful and your message is strong and clear.
Hope you write more soon!
-Individually Packaged
I was pretty ecstatic to be receiving a good review from someone that I admired so much, and was further pleased when she messaged me to ask for some advice on a story that she was writing. These interactions have since inspired me to push myself even further in my writing. I have spent some time examining my previous stories and identifying aspects of them that I would have liked to improve, and then working to create new stories that work out these identified kinks. I’m even challenging myself to write a multi-chapter fic, a huge commitment when you plan on really doing it right!
For me, fanfiction has been more than just a way to have fun participating in my fandom. It has been a way to escape the monotonous writing required for classes. It has taught me about effective constructive criticism and what writers really want to hear about their writing: that the reader paid attention and was engaged with the message of the story. It has given me an outlet to practice writing, and the motivation to examine my own writing and determine how I can improve it. Is it geeky? Yes, yes it is. But it has been a huge influence for me to improve writing in all aspects of my life, and I have seen that I am not alone in feeling that writing as a part of the fanfiction community is a very rewarding experience.
Can you guess which fandom I'm in?
Here are a few fanfics that I find really exceptional:
Your World - by Individually Packaged
The Breath of an Outside God - by Shantih
Ningyo - by Tenshi no Toki
An interesting article examining the legitimacy of fanfiction:
The Fan Fiction Phenomena
And I think this love stemmed from a need that, at the time, I wasn’t fully aware that I had. It was my friend Kat that introduced me to fanfiction, an art where fans of a particular show, book, comic, whatever, write a story about, within, or around the canon story (or sometimes completely outside of it, just borrowing the characters!) of their chosen obsession. Anyone can write fanfiction, and anyone will. Here’s another thing to throw out there: some fanfiction is pretty terrible. The experienced fanfic reader learns tricks to sift through and find the gems, and the wise fanfic reviewer learns how to give constructive criticism without trampling anyone’s toes. Some people actually make a name for themselves in the world of fanfiction, and it is one of these people who is the reason I’m sharing this story.
I started writing short, one chapter fanfics (called one shots) back in eighth grade. I had been reading fanfics for quite a while and had been learning a bit about how to separate the good from the bad, but I was ready to try my hand at writing something. So, I made myself a pen name, which I won't share here. I, like many, guard my online fandom identity closely because serious fandom dedication remains somewhat taboo, even in our current world of obvious digital obsession and connection.
Why was I doing this? Why was I so intent on writing a story on top of all of the writing that I needed to complete for my classes? Why did I want to put myself out there in the vast world of the internet to have my writing judged by whoever came across it? Well, I think it was because I was craving something more out of my writing. I was seeing all of these great writers online sharing their stories, working hard on a piece of writing that meant something to them, and meant something to their fandom. And here was me, writing my five paragraph essays for school on subjects and books that, frankly, I didn’t care about. I was engaged in the stories of my fandom, I was not in the literature and writing forced upon me by my school system.
But the biggest draw for me was the feedback. In class, we sometimes had to peer review each other’s papers, and I would get comments from my classmates like “nice,” “needs work,” or “cool”. Comments that suggested to me that my classmates were not truly invested in reading what I had written, probably because they also were not particularly interested in the topic on which we had to write, and they had most likely written a very similar essay to mine on the same boring subject. I wanted someone to really look at my writing and value what I was trying to express with it.
So after I wrote my first fanfic, I was both pleasantly surprised and sometimes disappointed with the feedback that I would receive from other fans. Some reviews were like this:
good story
-Jazzy Girl kataanglover
Ok, thanks.
But some were very encouraging:
This was awesome! I just loved the way you described everything! Dude you have got to write more of this! I just loved it!
-Lillith Evanson
Hey, you can write! Awesome! And I don't mean 'write' as in letters plus words make sentences, I mean 'write' like... write. As in you ROCK! Yay for description and imagery and all that other good stuff that few bother to include!
-JadeRabbyt
On my second story:
Oh! That was really sweet! It was simple, but that's what I like about it. I don't think I've read any of your other stories, but I'll be sure to now!
-Getsurei
Much more gratifying. And the more I wrote, the more positive comments started coming in, encouraging me to keep writing. I started wondering how I could surprise readers, how I could push myself to try new writing techniques. Could I use first person in a story? Could I structure my story to switch between past and present? Would my readers understand what I was trying to communicate to them? I had to be careful, because suddenly I was writing for a large audience, so I wanted to make sure that my ideas were clear and that my writing was clearly labeled so that nobody would be reading something they would rather not (a common fanfic problem). I started to invest a lot of time into my personal writing, while the structured writing that I was being assigned for school was becoming a chore, just something to get through so that I could get to the writing that really meant something to me.
I continued to read fanfics throughout high school, and I would drabble in writing whenever I had time, but the number of stories that I published online dwindled as I got busy with school and friends. However, I found that some of the skills that I was learning through my experiences with online writing were of use to me in the classroom. I was becoming an all-around more descriptive and attentive writer. I began to realize that even academic writing could have a very personal flavor, that it could tell a story or argue a point in a voice that was all mine. And I started to gain a new appreciation for peer-reviewing. All of the reviews that I had been leaving on peoples’ online fanfics gave me an idea of what kinds of constructive criticisms were appropriate and, more importantly, helpful to a writer when they went to revise their writing. I am sure that some of these skills were being reinforced by my teacher in the classroom, but I feel that, for me personally, much of the foundation for these skills came through my experience writing, reviewing, and being reviewed in the online fanfiction community.
Further down the road I got into a new fandom, one that was a little older and had writers who were a little more mature. I really wanted to challenge myself to join the ranks of these more devoloped writers, so I spent some time really working on fine-tuning my writing, and earned this really nice review from a writer for my fandom who is very well known for her stories, and who I had singled out as one of the more talented and admirable among fanfiction writers:
This is gorgeous! Don't be tentative about reaching out into the fandom, even if you haven't written fanfics in a while. Your style is beautiful and your message is strong and clear.
Hope you write more soon!
-Individually Packaged
I was pretty ecstatic to be receiving a good review from someone that I admired so much, and was further pleased when she messaged me to ask for some advice on a story that she was writing. These interactions have since inspired me to push myself even further in my writing. I have spent some time examining my previous stories and identifying aspects of them that I would have liked to improve, and then working to create new stories that work out these identified kinks. I’m even challenging myself to write a multi-chapter fic, a huge commitment when you plan on really doing it right!
For me, fanfiction has been more than just a way to have fun participating in my fandom. It has been a way to escape the monotonous writing required for classes. It has taught me about effective constructive criticism and what writers really want to hear about their writing: that the reader paid attention and was engaged with the message of the story. It has given me an outlet to practice writing, and the motivation to examine my own writing and determine how I can improve it. Is it geeky? Yes, yes it is. But it has been a huge influence for me to improve writing in all aspects of my life, and I have seen that I am not alone in feeling that writing as a part of the fanfiction community is a very rewarding experience.
Can you guess which fandom I'm in?
Here are a few fanfics that I find really exceptional:
Your World - by Individually Packaged
The Breath of an Outside God - by Shantih
Ningyo - by Tenshi no Toki
An interesting article examining the legitimacy of fanfiction:
The Fan Fiction Phenomena