An Education in Fanfiction: the Conclusion

I learnt to write by writing fanfiction: deal with it, OANST!

I didn't want to write rubbish stuff, silly 'hook up characters who totally should be hooked together', 'insert character strongly resembling myself so I can meet/save the life of/make out with the hero/heroine of the story' and so on. I wanted to write good stories, and it happened to be that so many of my favourite works, including Oddworld, inspired me, so I built stories around the source of my inspiration.

Many years have passed since I wrote the story that inspired my username (first thing I wrote), and many stories have appeared in that time, many of them fanfiction based on various sources.

I'm writing this on a whim, in the middle of the night when I have an early start and a busy day tomorrow, so I'm not going to take my time with this (saying that I'll still be here typing in an hour) but I'd like to draw some simple conclusions on how this choice of beginning has led me.

I am now 22 years old and hoping to write a story good enough for publication some time in the near(ish) future.

I enjoy writing a lot; I still get lots of ideas from fantasy, books, films and games, folk and fairy tales and myths, even religion, but I'm now trying to work these ideas into something original, something new. When I see something I like, I ask myself 'how can I work this into a new world?'

Without meaning to boast, I think I'm a good writer. People who read my stuff say they like it and I'm usually pleased with the results myself.

I've written a 25,000 word story I really like; it's very simple, has a simple setting and only three characters who appear more than once or twice. It has a lot of backstory and setting left mostly to the imagination, but it works like that. The only problem with it is it's shortness, so I'm thinking of writing a second and maybe third part to it and sticking them together as one novel.

I struggle to create settings that satisfy me. This is something writing fanfiction never taught me; I find it hard to create a contained universe that feels complete and seems to run. I struggle to satisfy small details like how classes, castes and careers interact. The sorts of things that define Oddworld and the other early sources of inspiration are the things I struggle with, because they were so clearly set out in my source material and I never had to build them myself.

I struggle to create a world myself; I get over-obsessed with research, trying to make what I'm writing match real life or historical life, and the story gets bogged down in my own awkwardness and discomfort. I'm fantastic at creating characters but struggle with worlds.

I think fanfiction helped me learn to write, made a very idle hobby into something I think I'm good at and could potentially be really good at. But it has left gaps in my abilities and knowledge.



...
Also, Adam Malkovich should totally be cloned like Ridley and raised from the dead so he and Samus could get together.