Margaret McDonald |
The world of fanfiction is a strange and dangerous place. To some.
Many view fanfiction as cheap, amateur and often explicit stories online: badly written, grammatically incorrect and published by fans of a TV series, movie or book, who are simply fantasising what it would be like for their favourite characters to actually exist.
But if you step inside the world of online-writing, you’ll find things are a little different to how they first appear. Novel-length and novel-worthy literature is being published by young people across the globe every day, who take a beloved character and drop them inside their fully fleshed, completely unique story. Fanfiction is an opportunity for writers all over the world; a platform for them to publish their work, to receive criticism and acclaim, but more importantly – gain confidence and improve. It isn’t a myth that practise makes perfect. Reading the work of others as well as writing your own inevitably leads to your writing style having more flair, your vocabulary expanding and, to top it all off, you’ve gained creativity and inspiration. Your stories will widen in scope, you’ll find yourself creating new ideas and plot-lines every day. Writers from everywhere are welcome, and are encouraged to find their voice inside a world of possibilities.
As a member of Archive of Our Own, a “fan-created, fan-run, non-profit, non-commercial archive for transformative works” I’ve gained experience, compliments, friendships and courage. I’ve even started writing two original novels I plan to publish. The confidence you gain in yourself is unexplainable. Comments on my work, such as, “This is amazing!”, “I cried,”, “OH MY WORD this is wonderful” and so many, many more, make me feel like the published author I want to become. My total statistics read: 2632 kudos (likes), 297 comments, 645 bookmarks, 1171 subscriptions and now 45,868 hits (views) and counting.
I can never repay what fanfiction has given me, but I can try to change its reputation. So come join us up here. We don’t bite.
