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Writing Fanfiction to Practice Writing :marseyreading:

Anyone else write fanfiction?

I recently decided to get back into writing, and wanted to do something low stakes. I really only wrote technical documents, design or worldbuilding docs, and like 500 words of an original story that never went anywhere. I finished a short fanfic story (not lewd) the other day, and was able to keep a 1k words a day pace. Been a good chance to learn about how I write, and I'm starting to see where I have a lot to work on. Maybe it is the fact I like the original work a lot that it motivated me to actually complete it, but I do feel like I'm improving at how much I can write in a day. Unrelated, but org roam in Emacs has been a pretty good ecosystem to write in. I am a vim-strag so I have to use evil mode, but I like the built-in tooling and the nodes system that roam has.

Not having to worry about describing certain relationships or settings is nice. Especially when you aren't writing a whole series out of it, just a short scenario. Also, I definitely pulled punches on how I wrote the scenario because I want the characters to end up in a good place. If I had written something original, I'd have probably let my cynicism take over. It's a good opportunity if you just want to practice getting words on a page, especially if you are like me and can't even start writing because your worldbuilding or something is not absolutely perfect.

Bad part is you can't really share that shit with anyone you know to get feedback. I'm going to post it on AO3 at some point, once I do some edits.

Also, I've been reading a shit ton of fanfic for this fandom as a consequence. That shit is a rabbit-hole. It's all just pure slop, but there have been some gems here and there. I really had the impression that most fanfics were just excuses for smut, obviously that's a lot of it, but I was actually surprised how much were just pure romance. Female-dominated fandoms probably have way more lewd writing than the male spaces.

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Link me your AO3 and I can give you feedback

There's nothing wrong with writing fanfic, it's how most people get into writing. Even if it's not outright fanfic work everyone learns to write by aping someone elses style and using their ideas.

especially if you are like me and can't even start writing because your worldbuilding or something is not absolutely perfect

It doesn't have to be. You only enough need motivations/reasoning to satisfy the reader in whichever scene you're writing.

Trying to iron out all the minutiae is a fool's errand.

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Even if it's not outright fanfic work everyone learns to write by aping someone elses style and using their ideas.

I think that's a better way, use some author or saga you like as a base but add your own touches. I think the problem with fan-fiction is that many fan-fic authors don't evolve beyond it, so it's important to add some original ideas since the beginning even if they look bad.

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Fanfic is the best practice an amateur writer can get. It's the only way you'll ever get anyone to read what you write and review it. Unless you're serious enough about writing to build an irl circle of peers and buy ads / shill your stories on every site you can find, it's the best way to do it.

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Which way !writecel

https://i.rdrama.net/images/17210940382184021.webp

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Friends don't make friends beta read :mar#seyyikes:

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https://i.rdrama.net/images/17210956681918075.webp

!writecel it's joever

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Fanficstrags are worse than furries

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add your own touches

Wasn't 50 shades of grey a fanfic? And there was a super successful Supernatural one where they were mermaids :marseyxd:

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Yes, Twilight fan-fic.

E.L. James wrote it on a Blackberry btw, it was originally an erotic story about Bella and Edward but she changed the names to Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, and made him a tech (or something?) billionaire instead of a vampire.

In other words she added her own terrible touches, that book series was a black swan though. There are thousands of stories and books like those but she hit the right buttons at the right time.

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Rate me my neighbor; I have nothing to hide.

Link

I know I write like a strag

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https://archiveofourown.org/works/41324415/chapters/103618323

The prose is quite good. I really like the voice and it's quite well written. If it werent so well crafted it would be purple but you pull it off.

That being said, there is no narrative. The storytelling is poor. It's just visuals, monologues, metaphors. The opening would have made a good hook if something happened in the junkyard.

I understand the desire to set the pieces before the story but it's just frustrating when you are given too many loose ends. I feel it's a typical beginner's trap (not meaning this in a mean way) to eschew the traditional narrative structure for something more complex

Do you have something more cohesive? I would enjoy reading it.

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What's on that account is what you get tbqh; I haven't had much time for writing, and even then much of my writing is done when I'm in a bad way.

The longest, and by far most cohesive project is on there under the walking Dead category.

I mainly just write about things that yank my interests,and that's getting more rare

Warning it's not very good.

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https://archiveofourown.org/works/27410305/chapters/66996091

This is really good. It's a stand alone work and there is a narrative. Definitely good enough to leave the fanfic realm and my only gripes are stylistic

Write your own book, you can absolutely do it

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Thanks for the kind words. I'll slot the novel in between starting a career in engineering, starting a family and not dying of cancer. Lmfao

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It honestly doesn't take much, I write 1600-2k words a week now and it will take me about 2 years to finish

No reason not to, though

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Hmm does alcohol help the words flow?

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Nah

When I was a full time stoner getting stoned would help quite a bit, for a bit. Booze is honestly detrimental to writing because the peak is so short. Weed was okay, but the productivity follows the peak and after that you're burnt out. Lots more editing that way.

What helps most rn is really strong gong fu style pu erh tea. I can edit a chapter and churn out about 2k words with a tea session. No jitters either.

I storyboard throughout the week in my head though

!writecel whats ur process

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Atleast finish your stories before moving to the next one :marseypipe: One must learn to finish one's business.

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Home dog I can't even finish a book before moving on, these days

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you should write anime fanfiction

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I am still waiting on my AO3 invite to get processed. I had already finished the initial story by the time I registered. In the meantime I've been writing an extra scenario, less of a sequel more of an epilogue.

And I realize the perfectionism comment is just me being a fricking procrastinator lol

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How many words are you into this?

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8k on the first story, 2k on the extra bit.

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