Category: Fanfiction

Five reasons any writer might want to write fan fiction.

The past few weeks, the existence and prevalence of fan fiction has come to the national media. A lot of people still aren’t familiar with fan fiction and what it is, though most online readers are fairly familiar with the phenomenon. (For a thoughtful exploration of the history and culture of fan fiction, I recommend this excellent article in Time by Lev Grossman.) Some fan fiction is published by big publishing houses (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Wide Sargasso Sea) but the vast majority is published online. Some television shows (I’m looking at you, True Blood) can be considered fan fiction of the books that inspired them. Feel free to call it derivative fiction if it makes you feel better, but I’ll still call it fan fic.

I’m not writing today to debate any publishing issues or the ethics of fan fiction. Other, smarter people can do that and have. Most of you who are reading this blog know that I got my start writing creatively by writing fan fiction. I’ve never hidden it or been ashamed of the fact. And my opinion on the ethics has always been this: If an author objects to fan fiction and states it, fans should honor their wishes; otherwise, have fun. That’s really it.

And please spare me the tired argument that all fan fiction is un-edited crap. Yes, a lot of it is. But, a lot of it is fantastic. I’ve read fan fiction that has made me weep from the delicacy of the prose. I’ve read fanfic that has set my heart pounding and kept me up hours after my bedtime. Frankly, I’ve read fan fiction that’s better than things published by big publishers. More than once.

I’m writing today to tell you—the aspiring writer, the published writer, the practicing writer—you should spend some time writing fan fiction. Continue reading “Five reasons any writer might want to write fan fiction.”

The week in links and such

It’s hot at my house this week. Really hot. Like, I’m past the point of trying to get cool and just looking at this heat is if it was a type of Native American sweat lodge ritual kind of hot.

I have sad news. Tragedy touched the Hunter household this week with the death of my hard drive. Thankfully, I’d backed up both my books, but I did lose about a week’s worth of editing work on A Hidden Fire, and even more on Tracing Shadows.

 Note to self: back up every week from now on. Maybe every day. Also, steal husband’s Macbook Air. I love typing on this thing.

So, I’m not feeling much like writing, but I wanted to link to a few things that caught my interest this week:

Margaritas! (Just kidding … kind of.)

Hot weather = E with a short attention span, so I’ve been rereading a lot of Eudora Welty’s short stories. She’s sparse and intimate and is just an amazing short story writer. If you haven’t read any of her work, get crackin’!

Fleet Foxes are my new musical crush. I bought their album, Helplessness Blues, a few weeks ago and I love it with lots of exclamation points. Great sound, interesting song-writing. Check them out if you haven’t already.

Dipped my toes in the whole indie publishing debate this week, and it all started with an interesting post from David Gaughran about misperceptions about independent publishing in the traditional publishing world. He expanded on some of the real positives that indie publishing has brought to readers and writers. I love positivity, so I’m linking to it again. Also, I bought David’s If You Go Into The Woods this week on Amazon, and I’m looking forward to reading it.

Also read a very interesting first chapter from Stephanie Simmons. She’s publishing her book, Voodoo Dues, this fall and from the look of her first chapter, I’m looking forward to reading more.

Sex.

Got your attention, didn’t I? I contributed to an interesting article over on the Sookieverse this past week called A Gracious Plenty of Opinions on Writing Sex. It’s a round-up of some of your favorite fan fiction authors talking about writing sex in stories. Why write it? How do you write it? Does the phrase “throbbing member” make you think of antibiotics?

Also, I would be remiss in not mentioning this truly excellent and well researched article in Time, The Boy Who Lived Forever, which tracks the growth of fan fiction from its beginnings (Gasp! Fan fiction existed before the internet? No!) and its impact on readers and writers. It’s a very interesting and balanced article about fanfic in a mainstream publication. Amazing.

So those are the things that kept me busy this week. I have written a couple of chapters for the second Elemental Mystery, This Same Earth (oh, did I just announce the title there? How about that.) I’m holding off on editing for a while since my computer is still being operated upon.

Hope you have a great weekend, and let me know what’s keeping you on your toes lately.

Thanks for reading,

E