Ode to fanfiction

In 1997 I attended LoneStarCon2 (which was the nickname-type thing of the WorldCon that was held in San Antonio that year). Not sure what the panel topic was, but one discussion drifted toward where writers get their inspiration, and after lots of experting and panelisting, the panelists asked for audience questions. Intrepidly stupid, I raised my hand and asked what they thought of writing fanfiction as a way to, you know, learn the basics, practice, find your voice.

Bad move, younger-me.

The pros were all a unified voice in declaring the villainy of fanfiction. Terms like "lazy" and "derivative" and "waste of time" were thrown around. I think "illegal" might have been uttered. I slunk off afterward, embarrassed...but undaunted.

See, I was already writing fic when I asked that question, and I was probably hoping for personal validation -- yeah, good start, kid! -- as much as anything. Technically I'd been fanficcing in secret since I was five and wrote a story about Han Solo. It always seemed like a natural thing to do. Like doing football at school and then going home and playing some Madden. Or diligently practicing guitar and also playing Rock Band on the XBox. One source of joy did not, in my mind, nullify the other.

It still doesn't. I still believe writing fanfiction is real writing. I mean, last I checked, writing was about making words into sentences into scenes into stories. Fanficcers absolutely do that.

There. So I'm a proponent.

This week SFF Seven asks what fandoms I'd write for. My answer: any that inspire me to read between the scenes. So far those have included Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Star Wars, Firefly, Heroes, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The X-Files, Pinky and the Brain, Farscape, and the rebooted Battlestar Galactica. Some of those fics were novel-length stories. Most were flash-fiction or drabbles (stories told in exactly 100 words). Some were poems -- I experimented with several of the major forms, including sonnets and odes and even limericks. I did character pieces, action-heavy adventures, romances, angsty weird bleak things, incredibly silly things, and plenty of "I bet you can't" challenges. Mostly, I made words into sentences into scenes into stories, and in the process, I learned.

I believe that anything you do with words is an opportunity for learning and growth as a writer. It doesn't matter if the thing you create is sellable or even shareable. In fact, sometimes it's best not to. Share, I mean.

However, despite that sage advice, I'ma break it right now. Here's a  River Tam POV Firefly (post-Serenity, but no spoilers) piece I wrote a really long time ago. I share it here because I'm not ashamed of my fanfiction past and also because this particular piece is about found family and faith in myself, two things fanfiction gave me:

"Thanks From the Inside"

God, these are my thanks,

whispered so no one else will hear

and launched into the vasty Black

like a love-bladed boomerang.

I read it all, you know, the Book,

both paper and sinew,

and understand the origin of things.

It all comes from you, apparently, so here:

Thanks for the genius 

that cushions my solitude;

for the sometime intrusion of others,

who share this strange space;

for the brother who learned to be fearless;

for the thrum of home beneath my feet;

for this family, better than the last;

and for the Captain's fierce love

that keeps us aloft.

Jeffe's Sly FanFic Move

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "If you were going to write fan fiction, what show/characters/etc would you write?"

Now, I'm not an author who got her start by writing fan fiction. I totally respect that many writers developed their chops that way, but it frankly never occurred to me to do that. I fantasized plenty about the books I read, made up stories in those worlds where I got to be the hero - but I never thought to write them down. It seemed wrong to me.

The intervening years have seen a huge growth in the world of fan-fiction writing, and a legitimizing of it. Still, I've never done it and don't think I ever would.

That said...

In my Sorcerous Moons series, I gave my heroine a winged white lizard Familiar, who breathes fire and communicates with her telepathically. This is totally my version of Anne McCaffrey's fire lizards and dragons from her Pern books - one of my favorite daydream subjects.

So ... maybe the line between homage and fan fiction is a fine and narrow one. But it's an apropos topic for me, because ORIA'S ENCHANTMENT, book #5 in the Sorcerous Moons series, just released. Buy links are going live as I type this, but you can find them here as they're available.

The Temptation of Power

No longer a princess and not yet a queen, the sorceress Oria welcomes the rush of power the ancient mask brings her—though the obsessive connection to it frightens her and alarms her barbarian husband, Lonen. But retreat is not an option. She must wrestle the magic to prevent an annihilating war, even if she must make the ultimate sacrifice.

A World in Flames

If Lonen wants to reclaim his throne—and save his people from destruction—he must return by sunset on the seventh day. What he thought would be a short and simple journey, however, leads them deeper into the mountains—and Oria deeper into the thrall of foul magic. Until he must choose between two terrible paths.

A Heart-Wrenching Choice

Struggling with conflicting loyalties, Oria and Lonen fight to find a way to be together…
lest they be separated forever, and their realms go down in flames with them.