But it’s only fanfiction…

That is a sentence I did hear a lot during my high time of fanfiction writing. But is it really only fanfiction? Something to belittle and poke fun at? I don’t think so.

My little self, formerly known as Mr-Spock on fanfiction pages, see it as a form of entertainment. Sure, you won’t ever get any monetary reward for it, but it’s fun, it allows the reader to spend more quality time with their favourite character(s), always provided the author delivers on that quality.

In 2007, when I first got home Internet, I discovered the fabulous site of RickmanSnape.net with the fanfiction feedback forum. What a brilliant new discovery that was! For a few months I pretty much devoured every story uploaded there (which had to be approved by the webmaster PM each time, so they had to be of a certain standard), and after a while I thought I’d give it a go myself. My first one was about our favourite potions Master Snape and his old frienemy Lupin. (Yes, I wrote mostly Harry Potter fanfiction with a little bit of Star Trek thrown in for good measure.)

Now I can say it surely wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was the first piece I had written in a very long time and I was happy with it. From there on I went on writing and reading, and found myself a wonderful beta reader who really pushed for quality.

The clear advantage of writing fanfiction is obvious: You borrow already existing characters in an established world and throw them into different situations than the original author did. The beauty is you have already established settings to use, but you have to make sure to get the characters right, all the little details that make them special. (Or go straight for out of character and stick with it.) You learn a lot about writing. Writing well-rounded, three-dimensional characters, either with the original cast or introducing a character of your own without making it a MarySue.

You – or at least I did – learn the value of a good beta reader /editor to polish your story to be the best you could possibly write, how to deal with feedback whether it was positive or critical or plain trolls which sometimes happens. And what I definitely cultivated was the attitude towards my readers: To deliver the best reading experience possible, to respect them and the time they invest in reading one of my pieces. I learned the discipline to stick to writing a multi chapter story of 700+ pages in which I created a three-dimensional character to interact with the people from Rowling’s Hogwarts. I also learned about the dangers of the rabbit hole called research, or the dangers of falling asleep at my desk at 4 am and running late for work, because I just wanted to finish working on this one little chapter. I also learned the difference between writing what I really wanted to write about and writing for a specific audience which was not always necessarily the pairing I would normally prefer to write, but helped loads to get placed in competitions. And to be honest: I write and I do want people to read and like to read it, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Writing to the market is necessary if one hopes to make a living of writing which I hope to achieve.

So, only fanfiction?

No. Not only fanfiction. In my opinion a great way of practising your craft, with feedback from your readers and the chance of finding your style and your voice.

Thinking about it, I owe a lot to Harry Potter’s Professor Snape and the brilliant Alan Rickman who portrayed him so wonderful in the films, as well as to Minerva Mcgonagall and the great Dame Maggie Smith who brought her to life. They are brilliant to write.

Starting out with fanfics was a learning experience I really don’t want to miss.

Live long and prosper.