So I think that I am going to do a set of entries on Fan Fiction. I have my own opinion about it all, but I know that my opinion is based loosely off the few encounters I have had with fan fiction and probably highly biased. As a writer there are things that I like about fanfic, and things I dislike. But I have a feeling that the writers and readers of fanfic might get a bad wrap.
So I think what I will do is spend a week looking into fan fiction…reading some highly recommended stories (because the ones I have read were pretty bad) and then spend a week looking at what published authors think about the subject. Then I will write an entry on each one or on several ones.
Why am I doing this? Part of it is because I see the appeal of fanfic. In fact in some way it was probably how I became a writer. My first true motivation for writing was finishing a book and going, well then what? What happens next? Or other times it was, no way. I would never have ended it that way. I would have done this…and then I rewrote the chapter.
Of course I quickly grew out of that phase, wanting to create new characters, build new relationships etc. Then it was that I wanted to steal bits and pieces of my favorite worlds and characters to build my own stories. I think part of that still exists inside me. When I started working on my novel I had very strong ideas about character, about setting, about what I wanted to accomplish. But part of the fun is taking that seed and helping it grow. Of course I feel like I am trying to grow a 100 year old redwood!
Speaking of novels, I have changed the structure of my novel again. I had some characters that I was going to have each do a stand alone novel in the same world, and then bring them all together in a later novel. Now I think this first novel will be the story of how these three came to become the leaders and protectors of this city. Funny how the stories morph into one another. All these ideas I had and thought had to occur in separate books keep coming back together. So I will just go with it and see what happens. Does someone want to give me a deadline for the first draft, so that I can stop floating aimlessly around. Although to my defense, typically what happens isn’t that I purposely change something but I realize that something isn’t working. I am writing everyday, so that is a start. Although I am not writing everyday on my novel. I have several short stories I am working on, which is nice because I am not in the mood to work on something I just work on some thing else. But it is a good way for avoiding my novel. I have to do something about that.
Ok. I am going to go write, now that I said all that.
