three primary classes fanfiction taught me and 5 fanfiction prompts so that you can strive
Do you enjoy writing fanfiction but are having trouble getting started? Do you enjoy using fanfiction prompts to practice writing? Or are you wondering if writing fanfiction is even benefiting your writing?
Fanfiction gets a bad rap.
Anyone can write something and make it available for people to read. For this reason there is often a misunderstanding that this widespread and poorly regulated writing style also suffers in quality and contributes little to the literary world. Some even say that people who write fanfiction are not "real writers".
That's not true!
Fanfiction can actually make your writing a lot stronger. And it might be worth it to understand what fanfiction is and use fanfiction prompts to try it out (before you beat it up).
Fanfiction Definition: What is Fanfiction?
Before you wonder if you should write fanfiction, you should understand what fanfiction is.
Fanfiction is by definition:
Fiction written by story fans with characters and attitudes already present in a work, e.g. B. a book, a TV show or a movie. It mostly arises from a love for certain characters or concepts and is far from a modern concept.
With the freedom and accessibility that the internet offers, fanfiction is everywhere these days. There are over a million fan fiction stories for Harry Potter alone, and many classic literary works are actually fan fiction.
Did you know that Dantes inferno was Bible fanfiction actually?
Did you know Shakespeare Othello was actually based on an Italian story called The moorish captain?
did you know The three musketeers actually started with a book called Mémoires de Monsieur d & # 39; Artagnan, Which Alexandre Dumas checked out of the library and never returned?
I spent the second half of high school, all of college, and the first year or two after college writing fanfiction.
Some of my stories were only a page or two in length, while others were novel in length. I wrote them with zeal and ruthless devotion, with no other end than pleasing myself by putting my daydreams on paper.
At the time, I never considered it anything other than distraction and entertainment. What did it matter if I was just enjoying myself?
It wasn't until years later, when I started to take my writing really seriously, that I realized that the years of writing fanfiction were far from wasted.
In fact, fanfiction taught me valuable skills that I still use regularly to this day. For this reason, I encourage every writer to try it out (and you can try one of the fanfiction prompts I include at the end of this post first).
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Fanfiction has a bad rap, but it can teach you basic writing lessons. Try one of these five fanfiction prompts to learn and practice these writing lessons on your own.
3 basic lessons you can learn from fanfiction
Why should you try to write fanfiction? You may also learn the three big lessons I learned from it.
1. Characterization
Most fanfiction stories are about existing characters. To write a story, the writer needs to get to know the character, study their behavior and backstory, and write in a way that accurately reproduces them.
While other kids were busy between high school and college doing productive activities like summer jobs, getting into college early, or taking one last chance to party, I decided to take on the very "useful" project of writing my favorite movie from the point of view of the supporting character – the view of love interest instead of the hero. Scene by scene.
This project sounded fun and easy on my mind. However, in practice it was quite difficult.
I quickly realized that telling every scene from the character's point of view was not enough, because to convincingly connect the scenes I had to create other scenes in between.
Not only that, a story isn't just a dialogue – I had to explain why this character said what they said, why they acted as they did, and the thought process that led to that point.
It was the first time I really dissected a character to understand what was under the surface – the first step in character development.
This project took up most of my summer that year and was a little over a hundred pages. I can't remember doing much else in those three months. No regret.
Writing fanfiction has taught me so much about characterization.
2. Structure of the universe (or the world)
Building a universe (or a world) can be a pretty daunting concept.
I think this is another reason why the idea of fanfiction is so enticing to a lot of people.
Writing with an established universe is similar to playing on a pre-built playground instead of having to design and create your own equipment before you can even descend a slide.
Every writer has his own interpretation of the same subject. The rules of vampirism vary between Dracula, Salem's lot, and dusk.
Frankenstein is just one of hundreds of interpretations of the undead, but that doesn't mean the many versions of it can't be as interesting.
Writing fanfiction enables the author to find his way around these rules and at the same time to apply the "rules of the universe" in a certain environment and to embed them in stories.
For most of my college years, I've been pretty obsessed with a certain and obscure universe of vampires and undead (not dusk). I wrote stories about different characters in the universe and made up my own a few times.
I got a better understanding of how stories and characters are shaped and bent by the rules of their universe. Because of these rules, events take place, as well as cause and effect. A vampire who turns to dust in the sun and one who sparkles produce very different stories and conflicts.
Experimenting with building a universe is less stressful when it's for fun, and writing fanfiction has fueled my imagination in the area.
3. Build trust
All authors need trust to finish a book.
This was perhaps the most important and fundamental need that fanfiction taught me.
Writing original stories, or rather writing in general, had been very daunting for me before I started writing fanfiction, despite my lifelong love of writing.
I didn't know how to structure a plot or how to stage a story, and most of the things I've written before were bad imitations of Stephen King.
Little did I know what steps to take from novice to novelist (this also took some time before strong writing communities like The Write Practice became available online).
But fanfiction was easy and fanfiction was fun.
I wrote my first fanfiction in 2000 and was amazed at how much I learned about writing by just writing a story. After that, each story got a little bit better and a little bit stronger, and I approached the next one with more confidence than the previous one.
Fanfiction was the "gateway drug" that really got me into writing, and I haven't stopped since.
Fanfiction gave me the confidence to write more stories
5 fanfiction prompts to try
I mentioned earlier that some writers want to write fanfiction but don't know where to start. If you are, don't stress! Here are five fanfiction prompts you can try to stretch your fingers:
- Write a scene from your favorite movie from the perspective of a supporting character. Make sure they have their own goals! To find out, you should write a premise.
- Write a blurb about an element that is critical to the existing universe of your story. For example a new Harry Potter spell that is needed to accomplish something important in a scene, like Alohamora helping to open doors at crucial moments.
- Reinvent a favorite character from childhood. For example, how could they be rewritten in the modern world? Then find out what makes her ironic in her story. (Try again to write your premise.)
- Write a blurb about how an existing story could be different if it took place in a different time period.
- Take the backdrop of your favorite fairy tale, just make the villain in the story the protagonist. For example Disney & # 39; s Maleficent.
Fanfiction skills and prompts will make you a better writer
Whether you're writing a 90,000 word novel based on your fanfiction idea or just a scene, writing fanfiction gives you the basics of imagining how a story could work.
Sometimes the hardest part begins in writing a story. However, if you're writing fanfiction, which you can do by choosing one of the fanfiction prompts in this post, you don't have to do all of the character building and setting work on your own – which means you can really experiment with the plot and structure!
I think you'll learn a skill or two by practicing writing with fanfiction.
Do you have experience with fanfiction? Let us know in the comments below.
WORK OUT
Now that you have five fanfiction prompts to choose from, choose one that excites you the most!
Spend the next fifteen minutes working at this prompt. When your time is up, share your practice in the comments below and leave feedback for your note takers. Can you tell what stories they write fanfiction about?
And if you really love where your fanfiction is going, keep writing!
J. D. Edwin
