#learning to write

[w4rningbugz]

I need toothrotting fluff about me and this man immediately. GIVE ME FANFIC IDEAS

[whoipretended2b]

YouTube has been serving me videos about the fanfiction to published pipeline. (This is what I get for watching a bookbinding video that used a popular HP fanfiction that was recently published as original fiction.)

I get why people talk about fanfiction as a place to learn craft because you do! You absolutely learn about pacing, dialogue, structure, characterization, revision, audience awareness, and how to finish a full narrative. A lot of writers learn by doing, and fanfiction gives people a low-barrier way to do that.

Hell, I am a much better writer today than I was five years ago and I’m better today than I was even one year ago.

But I hate in these videos that that becomes fanfiction’s value.

Because then the value of fanfiction is still being measured by how close it can get you to “real” fiction. Fanfiction becomes valuable only because it might someday be original fiction. It becomes something you outgrow.

And IMHO that misses the point.

Fanfiction is not valuable because it teaches you how to write original fiction.

Fanfiction is valuable because people love characters and worlds enough to keep talking back to them. Fanfiction is a conversation. It is your interpretation. It is desire, grief, anger, repair, obsession, devotion, and community. It is our way of saying, “This mattered, and we are not done with it.”

It is valuable because it gives us community. People who see the characters in the same and different ways and feel like there’s more to explore or learn.

Sometimes fanfiction is technically excellent. Sometimes it is messy. Sometimes it is indulgent. Sometimes it is better than the canon. Sometimes it is twenty thousand words of two characters finally having the conversation canon denied them (hello all the fic-it fics)! Its value does not depend on whether the writer eventually publishes it as an original work.

I think the “file off the serial numbers” conversation reveals the problem. If a fic can be stripped of names and setting so easily that you can no longer tell what source material it came from, then maybe it was not actually very good fanfiction. Maybe it was original fiction wearing borrowed names.

IMHO good fanfiction leans into the source. It understands the characters, their emotional logic, the absences, the contradictions, the things canon said and the things canon could not or would not say.

I’m not saying fanfiction has to be a copy/paste of canon, but you should be able to recognize the characters. The point is the characters.

That does not mean fanfiction can never become original fiction, because of course it can! Writers transform things. They take skills from one form into another. But “this helped me learn craft” is not the same as “this was only worthwhile because it helped me move on to something legitimate.”

Fanfiction is not lesser.

It does not need to justify itself by becoming something else.

Anyway, I literally wrote a fic called Filing Off the Serial Numbers. It is about fandom, writing, collaboration, AO3, and storytelling. I wrote it because my feelings about fanfiction changed since I was younger.

I love fanfiction because I love the characters and I love the community.

[whispersinthequills]

Just Another Saturday Night…

“She doesn’t need makeup,” Happy thinks to himself as he watches you get ready for the club party. A beer in one hand and a joint in the other as he sits on the corner of your bed. He would never tell you not to of course. You needed to look good on his arm, you’re his Ol’ Lady; but he preferred you without, bare skinned and buck naked. Shut away from the world outside where he had your undivided attention and he could keep you safe from harm.

Hes been watching you for twenty minutes now and you’re still not finished. Hell, you hadn’t even started on your hair yet and that was a whole other world of over complication. You were currently working on a thick swathe of black eyeliner that came to a sharp point at the outside corner of your eye and the concentration on your face is adorable. Occasionally you’d stop and tilt your head as you examine your work with a critical eye then begin again, fixing some imperceptible imperfection that will be running down your face in a few hours anyway.

Forty minutes in and you release your hair from the comically large rollers and begin to style your hair. Again, you didn’t need to. A messy bun, piled haphazardly on your head with wispy tendrils framing your face was his favorite but of course you would rather die than be seen like that. Especially not in front of the club girls. Fuck no, he smiles. You needn’t worry about them, they couldn’t ever compare to you.

An hour has gone by and still transfixed; he watches you stand and drop your robe. His cock twitching to life in his jeans when you walk over to the bed, tits bouncing and hips swaying as you approach. His posture changes as you arrive, he sits up a little straighter, caressing your hip as you pass by and begin to dress in the clothes you had set out and judging from your outfit; skinny jeans and a cropped tank, tonight was gonna get messy.

“Can you fasten this for me, Babe?” Her voice brings him gently from his reverie and he stands and takes the silver chain from your hands, the electricity of your touch still rushes straight to his cock. It's why you still have a hold on him. He fastens the cool metal around your throat and revels in the sense of pride that puffs out his chest when he sees his name on the pendant. You’re his.

You finish dressing and look yourself over in the mirror and he shakes his head as you start tweaking your hair and makeup again and he rolls his eyes and walks towards the door. He waits, leaning on the frame as you finish off. The last thing you do before you head out for the night always makes him smile. You check your phone case and make sure you have cash and your atm card stashed then you stuff it into your left bra cup, in the right goes your dab pen and your front door key. As you reach the front door you stop again and check the mirror, spraying a liberal amount of his favorite perfume on your neck and chest before he drags you out by the wrist to his bike.

[dreamingofstars97]

So… I was supposed to start writing Chapter 20 of my fic, but in true procrastinator fashion, I ended up rereading the first few chapters instead.

They were my first-ever attempt at writing anything creative—and HOLY SHIT, it shows. It really does.

Now I’m torn. Do I keep going and write the next chapters, or should I go back and rewrite the early ones first?

Any advice?

[idkagoodonesoanythingiguess]

Tbh I’m too scared to post on ao3.

Sometimes I wished that I started younger so I can build a thicker skin and have more writing experience instead of starting as an adult with responsibilities.

Like I know it’s never too late and it’s basically like a passion thing, of course it’s a passion thing, one don’t just write few thousands words untill 4 am on a weeknight without passion

But still!!

[girlsfirstplaywright]

"What's poetry? It's not real but maybe it's more than real. It's dreaming while you're awake."

- Caryl Churchill, 2008, Plays: 4

[authorkarajorgensen]

No, You Shouldn't Use AI, Even on the Small Stuff

If you’ve followed me on social media for longer than a few days, you know I hate AI. I am morally opposed on every level to AI because it not only destroys the environment but is a tool of fascism. As much as I would like to word vomit about that, instead, I would like to speak about why writers shouldn’t use AI, even for seemingly minor details as so many AI-using authors claim to do. Here’s…

No, You Shouldn't Use AI, Even on the Small Stuff