[ SECRET POST #3297 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3297 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 030 secrets from Secret Submission Post #471.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 2 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[kallanda_lee]

Write anyway! Fanfic is actually what broke my last case of writer's block.

[(Anonymous)]

This! At least, you're writing something and it might just remove your writer's block.

[elaminator]

Not a writer but I definitely agree that writing anything in OP's situation would probably be beneficial. Any talent takes work and practice, so maybe OP just needs to get back into the swing of things.

[(Anonymous)]

I disagree. Writing fanfiction teaches you lots of "bad" habits that, while common and valid in the fanfiction community, will harm your chances at managing to write something publishable. If the OP wants to get serious about publishing their original stuff, they should try to slowly wean themselves off fic, so to speak. I'd suggest trying to write AU stories involving their favorite characters and trying to avoid fanfiction tropes and conventions while doing so.

[kallanda_lee]

That's only if you can't actually differentiate between fanfic tropes and other writing. The practice is good either way.

[(Anonymous)]

Knowing that you use fanfic tropes, or even being aware of them, doesn't teach you how to write without relying on them. There's a reason why the few fanwriters-turned-published-writers usually write stuff that feels derivative and is worse than their own worse fanfic.

Fanfiction can teach you how to write up to a point. If you want to get published, eventually you have to move on.

[(Anonymous)]

wow i should not comment on f!s on five hours of sleep. Look at those typos.

[kallanda_lee]

If you're a good writer, you're a good writer. You can write pulp and still have the ability to write well when you need to.

[(Anonymous)]

While I agree that fanfic can teach you some terrible habits (I still have to pull description out of my brain with a pair of tongs, and I haven't written fanfic in something like five years), I think that writing something is better than writing absolutely nothing, which is where OP is right now.

>>There's a reason why the few fanwriters-turned-published-writers usually write stuff that feels derivative and is worse than their own worse fanfic.

[citation needed]

[(Anonymous)]

Cassandra Claire? EL James?

[(Anonymous)]

They were not good fan writers that just happened to feed the id of many tho

[(Anonymous)]

*snort* Weaksauce. Clare is a wanker from way back and James just catered to the lowest common denominator. Those two examples do not a "usually" make.

[(Anonymous)]

I know both Seanan McGuire and Ursula Vernon are open about the fact they write/wrote fanfic and they've both won awards for their writing.

[(Anonymous)]

Of course you have to move on if you want to get published. Nobody is going to publish your 200,000 words of MLP porn since they tend to publish original works.

I agree that fanfiction teaches bad habits but look around at popular fiction, READING teaches bad writing habits. You have to write at all to write well and for some people, writing fanfiction makes sense because it has an actual audience and some impetus to finish a piece.

[(Anonymous)]

Naomi Novik was a fan writer before her original fiction was published, and Uprooted is one of the best novels of 2015. James and Clare didn't write original fiction really, they filed names off AUs and published those. OP isn't doing that, so, not to worry.

[a_potato]

There's a reason why the few fanwriters-turned-published-writers usually write stuff that feels derivative and is worse than their own worse fanfic.

...that you know of.

I don't think it's incorrect to assume that there are some fanwriters-turned-published-writers out there who were not well-known in their fandoms and who haven't advertised their beginnings. Fanfiction is generally looked down upon; you don't tell people you write or have written it unless you've already got an in.

[(Anonymous)]

Or you can file off the serial numbers and publish your fanfic! Now easier than ever.

Sorry if I sound trite, but this post reeks of "fanfiction is inherently inferior". There's a lot more bad fic, yes, but a good writer is a good writer all the same.

(Published author here who doesn't switch between "original fiction" and "fanfiction" modes. I feel the main difference is the amount of editing/reworking/rewriting involved but c'mon, 50shades is pretty different from Masters of the Universe...)

[(Anonymous)]

"There's a reason why the few fanwriters-turned-published-writers usually write stuff that feels derivative and is worse than their own worse fanfic."

My guess is that you have no idea how many famous writers today dabbled or started in fanfiction in the past. Did you know Lois McMaster Bujold wrote Star Trek fanfic before she became a bestselling sci-fi/fantasy author? I guarantee you she's not the only one, but people who did fandom old school didn't have the internet to immortalize their work.

If you base all your knowledge off a handful of infamous examples like Cassandra Clare and E.L. James, then at least understand you haven't even begun to skim the surface of writers with a fanfic past, and that those people are infamous because of their bad writing, so your sampling is biased.

[a_potato]

If they're writing AU stories involving their favorite characters, they're still technically writing fanfic.

In any case, OP is in a place where they aren't writing at all. They need something to jump start their drive, and fanfic sounds like it would be just the thing to do that at the moment.

[elaminator]

Eh, I can believe that, to a point. At the same time if a person is a good writer, I don't believe writing fanfic is going to ruin that. Those habits aren't necessarily ones that OP will pick up, and if they don't find their fic being appreciated for whatever reason (Not “fandom" enough, I guess), it isn't the end of the world, and they can still decide to move on.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree that fanfiction can teach people some bad habits and writing it isn't the same as writing original fiction. But what people are trying to get at is that the very act of writing anything can be helpful for someone who has the writer's equivalent of stage fright. Haven't you heard of writing exercises where you set a timer and just write whatever comes into your head, no matter how bad or dumb it is? That exercise is trying to break people out of the bad habit of staring at a blank page and not doing anything.

I say write fanfiction if that's what's calling you at the moment. It's far better than letting all your writing muscles atrophy, and you never know when it might shake something loose for your novel, OP!

[a_potato]

Exactly this! The best cure for writer's block is to, well, write.

OP, if you're not actually writing your original fic right now, then writing fanfic isn't going to sap energy away from that. What it is likely to do, however, is warm up your writing muscles and get you back into a groove. Give it a shot!

[dharkapparition]

Agreed. Every time I get stalled, I pull out a WiP and dust it off. sometimes, just reading through notes helps.