Do you think writing fanfiction will get in the way of a real writing career? - Comments

I just want to take the time and say that Fanfiction is just the same as writing your own fiction--just with a little kick to it. I mean, ljust at E.L. James! 50 Shades of Gray started at a Twilight fanfiction! You back up your ideas beautifully, by the way!

So, really, where is the difference? All you need to do is change the names and such and then boom! You have a fantastic original story. At least, that's just how I seem to look at it. I also like to think that when I write fanfiction, because I enjoy it, it's giving you ideas for an original plot for a future story. Isn't writing fiction about living in another world, something make believe? I mean, if I truly went through what half of my characters went through...haha. I would be amazed at how I could pull through myself.

Another way to look at it is this way: I read to get lost in someone else's story. Sometimes I just cannot deal with my own, so reading is a way to escape. I also believe writing is the same way--you're creating a life, but metaphorically speaking. And maybe you dream about meeting your favorite band/actor/singer/performer/sport players. I like to write it down, that way it's a little more believable! So, really in the end I agree with what you wrote! haha.

Enjoyed reading this blog, by the way! Very informing! Considering I am a huge Cassie Clare fan, and I didn't even know this blew me away! haha. Not to mention the tidbit about S.E. Hinton

I don't agree with the concept of fan fiction requiring more creativity. You would be working within the world created by the author and thereby would also be taking it for granted. Everything the original author worked very hard to detail is one more thing a fan fiction author doesn't have to worry about. In my mind, original fiction is plot + characterization + building the world while fan fiction is plot + characterization + maybe some alterations/additions to the world. Building a world from scratch is much, much more difficult than altering it or adding to it.

@ Haylie Jaed
I don't even know why people hate on fan fiction. There's definitely no need to. There's still alot of work that needs to be put into writing one. That's like telling a man he's unimportant because he isn't a doctor or a teacher.

@ tnd437
I'm not sure about the all stories are fan fiction part. Though I get what you mean. But for a story to be fan fiction the author has to have written their story with the original story in mind.

Just because I might use a vampire in my story doesn't make it a Twilight fan fiction. Hell, I don't even have to be a fan of vampires for my vampire story to be vampire fan fiction.

If you write just fanfiction, then yes, it will get in the way of a writing career. You can't simply be an actual author by taking other author(s)'s ideas and writing it into "your own" story. It isn't a terrible thing to write fanfiction. I used to write fanfiction a lot. But now, I'm taking a writing career seriously and I really want to publish a novel of my own ideas, so I've dropped the fanfiction for a bit.

Of course, there are those talented people who can write many things at once and you may choose to write a fanfiction story while writing an original novel that you wish to publish. So, maybe writing fanfiction won't get in your way of publishing your own novels. It depends on the person. I, for one, can't write many stories at once or I simply drop all stories.

I think writing fan-fiction is harder than actually writing your own stories just because you have to stick to the rules the author made.

And, in some form, aren't all stories fan-fictions? I've heard time and time again that there are no original stories out there anymore. That even Twilight was just a version of Romeo and Juliet.

My stories also have a hint of a lot of things I like! My TND story (not posted on here) is more or less a fan-fic of Avatar the Last Airbender. Though, I made it original. But there are certain things I like from other movies and books and I take those small ideas and incorporate my own. Heck, there's even something from watching Power Rangers as a kid that I liked and sort of put in my stories. (PR lost in space)

I just don't care for fan-fics because most of them are based off of something I don't know, or I'm not interested in. Like Harry Potter fan-fics. I never even read the book. I have watched Avatar the Last Airbender and I know someone on here who has an AWESEOM fan-fic on it. It is EXTREMELY well written. I always read the newest updates!

http://www.mibba.com/Stories/Read/383642/Playing-With-Fire/ By JustScribbles92

This is a topic that I'm pretty passionate about, because I'm sick of watching people throw fan fiction into the mud.

As a child, I never wanted to be a writer. I didn't like reading and I never even kept a diary, so when a classmate recommended I read the Harry Potter series when I was ten-years-old, I was a little hesitant. But I managed it - all four books that were out at the time - and it opened up a whole new world for me.

I'd always had an active imagination and when I grew tired of waiting for the next Harry Potter book to come out, I turned to fan fiction. I was eleven and had never used the Internet - I didn't even know that fan fiction existed. All I knew was that I was writing for fun, for myself, and I was learning from it.

Skip through to two years later. At thirteen, I discovered fan fiction online. I started posting. I started getting feedback.

Let's face it, a majority of people who read online are reading fan fiction. At least, that's the way it seems to me. So fan fiction for me became a way to both gain feedback and gain dedicated readers that are still with me today, almost ten years later. They helped me develop the necessary skills that I would need if I wanted to write a novel, and I can never thank them enough for that.

I started writing original fiction at sixteen, and I never would have if I hadn't been into fan fiction first.

And to everybody saying that fan fiction will never be published, I think we're seeing more and more that it can be. 50 Shades Of Grey is obviously the most well-known example of this, but I know of another.

There is a website called Movellas that, like Mibba, accepts all types of fiction. At the moment it's predominated by One Direction stories. There was a story on there called Loving The Band, being written by an English girl in her last year of high school, I believe. It was your typical story of girl meets band, and two of the guys fall in love with her. Or something along those lines. My point is, a representative from Penguin Publishing read the incomplete story, liked it, and now that story is published - with names and such changed, obviously, but it was still published.

So people can hate on fan fiction all they like. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. This isn't a debate that anybody is ever going to win.

@ Sara_K
Yeah, that's something I forgot to say. Though writing fanfics doesn't hinder you in any way, getting a fanfic 'published' is basically impossible. If someone really wants to have a writing career, then just writing fanfics is obviously not the route to take.

I don't think it will, but what I've found (I'm a Green Day fanfic writer) is that I get too comfortable with it and lose a lot of confidence when I try to write original fiction. All of the authors I've heard speak to my classes (and as an English Lit. minor, I've heard a lot) say that to become a better writer you need to constantly practice. Fanfiction is writing practice.

Like I said, though, just avoid letting it be the only thing you write. Try to expand into other genres, because as the below comment said, fanfics don't get published. I see them as something that are strictly for fun. But that's just my opinion.

I don't think Fan fiction is easier than original and I don't think original is easier than fanfiction. My opinion is that each has their own set of difficulties.

And no, I don't think fanfiction will hinder anyone's writing career. At the end of the day, they're still writing, they're still being creative. There's no way that could be hindering one's writing career. Only bettering it.

Creativity isn't stunted because you use a set of characters and backgrounds that have been created for you. There's still the issue of adding everything else to that to make it enjoyable.

@ hephaestus
I think everyone is different. Some think fanfiction is easier, some think original fiction is.

I'm with the latter.

I think fanfiction is harder to me because I'm stuck within the limits of the story. I don't have any creative freedom. All the rules, all the settings, all the characters have been created for you and you have to follow them unless you want to make an unbelievable story. Some people manage to create believable oc's but I think a majority of them fall into mary sue territory.

@ Stormborn
Okay, yeah.
You're not scum if you write fanfcition. As you pointed out, some great authors even started out doing so. And I didn't try and make it seem that the subject is most important. If anyone can produce a full-length novel, I applaud them. I just feel that it takes a bit more... something, y'know? To not have a predetermined world? I don't know, it's just an opinion.

@ hephaestus
I'm not saying that anyone would get their fanfiction published, the blog isn't about that. Or trying to give people hope about that.

I'm merely saying that the fact you've written fanfiction at some point in your life doesn't make you the scum of the Earth like some people make it out to be.

I think writing makes you a writer. Not what you write. What you write is irrelevant, if you can churn out a full length novel, I think that's an accomplishment, if it's an original fiction or fanfiction doesn't matter.

I think you can write fanfiction all you want, but there is practically zero chance of it getting published in that form. It will build the writing skills, if you work at them, but I agree that writing your own characters and your own worlds/settings are what really make you a writer. I'm not dissing fanficiton, I write it as well, but it really makes you a writer when you can write your own worlds, characters, and concepts and make them believed. It takes a lot of talent for that.