marcherwitch: online home of writer Holly March

A huge amount of authors today came up through The University of Fanfic. Whether it was secretly written in notebooks, on livejournal or myspace, or on the megalith that is AO3, more and more of us started out in the People’s Literature.

And while I am an unequivocal supporter of fanfiction and those who write it…

…even I have to admit there are tribulations on the path!

Pros:

• You can bring an audience with you. The biggest fanfic to fic examples have not been the best advocates for the form but having people from your comments cheering you on must be glorious!
• You get great practice in character expression, since boy howdy will people tell you when you get it wrong!
• You can use other people’s worlds and characters to grow so, just for a totally hypothetical and totally not autobiographical example, you can start out with less than a limerick’s worth of badly formed prose and nit be put off something you’re creating because it’s just a bit of fun!

Cons:

• It is very easy to get lazy depending on an audience that doesn’t require worldbuilding or character introductions. Like with Arthurian or fairytale retellings, everyone does a Kramer-entrance-cheer and you do not need to take time to explain why Mordred entering stage left means danger for Arthur.
• When you are used to the traditional English language literature approach of posting a chapter – be it to a newspaper or a website – and getting immediate feedback, the act of writing a novel can be agonisingly lonely. It’s a little like walking along a steel girder while it is winched ever higher. You don’t know if your writing’s shit til the reviews pop up. The constant, friendly adulation, the building excitement, it makes you want to write more to get that validation fix. There’s nothing like watching people in your comments make guesses about what’s going to happen, or lose their shit after a twist! Beta readers can help but it is just not the same.
• It’s easier to shake off ScyvingWork69 saying “lol this is dogshit wtf” than Arabella Jones with a photo saying “if I could give this less than 1* i would”. It is also more socially acceptable to say “fuck off, if you don’t want to read it, don’t” than, well… to say that to someone on the cesspool of bullying that is goodreads!

My personal issue was sidecharacters. I was of the era of long, sprawling fics that have ADHD in their own right. No plot, no plan, just start writing and see what happens. Whole chapters doing in jokes with Allan A Dale while Maid Marian was in gaol, yuh know? And transitioning to not allowing my side characters to Backdoor Pilot was difficult!

But these musings should not be considered discouragement, more a heads up! I’d love people to add their own pros and cons to warn future baby writers!

My debut came from the RP that came from fanfiction! This path is only mocked by priveleged assholes who are bitter they can’t get their generic by the numbers Litterature Novelle published. Fuck ’em!

But luck, timing, and networking are still the top dogs for getting yourself published.

But hey, there’s always self publishing, right my Cinderella adaptation Fairytail Romance Ashwolf ?