Benefits of writing fanfiction.

I just wanted to say that working on a fanfic of your favorite series can greatly improve, at the very least, the technical aspect of your writing skill.

I don't know, maybe that's just me.

Writing anything improves the technical aspect of your writing skill. You just need to do enough of it. Writing a fanfic in a populated fandom might help you actually go through with writing a lot, since my gut is that it's easier to accumulate an audience there than in any similarly web-published original fiction.

edited 18th Nov '11 9:58:01 AM by alethiophile

It does for me. I'd experiment with different story tones, and what I like, I take with me for future writing.

You learn how to write for fun, instead of money.

Fix Fic in particular can help you detect Plot Holes, Character Development, and thinking up backstory.

Fanfic in general makes developing your voice and writing style easier because since the characters and world are already there, you don't have to do as much worldbuilding and character brainstorming. If I hadn't discovered my writing style through several years of fanfic, I don't know HOW long it would have taken me to develop it on my own.

Don't have to do as much worldbuilding and brainstorming, right...

(This is frequently a lie.)

I did a bloody heck of a lot of secondary worldbuilding on Naruto, mostly fleshing out precisely what all the jutsus and seals and so forth actually did. An upcoming project sets it in a modern-world AU that is basically its own world. I suppose it's possible to just ride on the original creator's worldbuilding, but it doesn't seem like that would be nearly as satisfying.

Forgot satisfying: a lot of the time it's not even really possible. TV shows, animated and otherwise, offer very limited glimpses into a world. Huge amounts are left out due to the constraints of the camera. Economics, technologies, governmental systems, simple stuff like where the lighting and heat come from and where the waste goes if you flush the toilet, social effects of all of the above. What does responding to a telepathic comment verbally really mean from a social standpoint?

There are times and settings where Like Reality, Unless Noted is simply criminal because of what the show did tell (most science fiction comes to mind) so you have to assemble this stuff to make the world just feel like it's real in text.

If I believed this was true, I'd argue that it is not a benefit - it does no good to practice one aspect of writing while neglecting all others. However, I agree with Night - fanfiction, or at least good fanfiction, does not mean you're ignoring worldbuilding.

Doing the worldbuilding for an entire world of your own can be intimidating, though. I think it can be helpful to cement your confidence in your ability to simply write and get decent prose down in a situation where you don't have to be juggling worldbuilding and character-building all at once.

Writing fanfiction can help if you're looking to become a TV writer. TV writers usually don't make their own premise and instead write for existing shows. That's right, when you watch TV, you're watching fanfiction.

That's a very interesting way to see it.

You are not neglecting worldbuilding when you write fanfiction—you're just making sure things are consistent for the world it takes place in. Internal Consistency is just as important as worldbuilding itself.

You can have a great setting/plot for your world, but it's no use if your stories lack Internal Consistency.

My meaning was more that I think it's not good writing practice to just "coast" with fanfiction on the existing characters and setting.

Thank you for saying that last bit, Night. The idea that writing fanfiction requires no worldbuilding has always riled me.

This may duplicate what someone else has said, but here goes: you learn how to keep your cast in-character. If your original characters go out of character, you can always save face by saying "well, I'm the author and I think I know them better than you". When you do take established characters out of character, that excuse won't fly.

edited 18th Nov '11 4:26:10 PM by DoktorvonEurotrash

nrjxll: Annnnnnnd making assumptions that "all fanfiction writers coast on the canon details", rather than "a couple do that, some may use canon as a foundation for believable embellishments, others may write Alternate Universe stories where they actually do a fair amount of worldbuilding, and still others actually fix inconsistencies within canon" is not a good argument.

In General: It's pointless to talk about fanfiction here. Only a few people actually write (or wrote) it and participate(d) in the communities. And I can tell because 95% of people who start these threads are talking about fanfiction as if it was a serious and controversial writing tool, rather than a hobby people participate in for fun.

There are brilliant pieces of fanfiction. They are not brilliant because the authors use fanfiction as a crutch to amplify their skills, or because they are secretly the creators in disguise. They are brilliant because already-skilled writers decide to write a story featuring characters of works which happen to have already been published, and they decide they don't care about being paid to slave over thousands of words for hours.

There are terrible pieces of fanfiction. They are not terrible because it is fanfiction. They are terrible because the authors have no skill whatsoever, and there is so much of it because publishing bad fanfiction is a lot easier than publishing a bad book.

Therefore, there is no inherent benefit or disadvantage to writing fanfiction at all.

edited 18th Nov '11 4:28:29 PM by Leradny

I specifically said that I did not believe this to be the case, and that I agreed with Night's opinion on the subject. My argument was that if it was true, then that would be not be a benefit of writing it, as someone had seemed to suggest earlier.

Although to be honest, I've always been under the impression that most people here do write fanfiction, or at least got their start in writing through it.

edited 18th Nov '11 4:40:23 PM by nrjxll

I've encountered fanfics where you see the writer struggling to communicate their imagery to words, and that I really really like in spite of mediocre spelling/grammar because I sense their passion behind it.

And then some fanfics, which for some reason - the default ingredients which make good writing are solid - but I don't feel anything whatsoever there. I get the impression for those writers, writing has become strictly a mechanical habit for an end onto itself, like a perpetual word factory, instead of the means to take the imagination to their journey.

The benefit is you already have an audience waiting, you just need to take the stage. You can offer your own original takes on the canon, and it's a way for you to practise storytelling with already given characters/settings. One downside is amongst your readers, a portion of them are utterly pedantic on the canon that it may be another factor to stifle you.

And then there's the advantage that you already have an avaiable. A disadvantage is that even if it does become popular, it can't even be self-published.

Was "audience" supposed to be in there somewhere?

If so, I'd argue that's not quite the advantage it sounds like.

Oops, typo. (I wish IE has spell-check, but I don't want to interfere much with my dad's computer).

Well, with my current blog I have diffeculty getting more than ten views on the first day of posting. When I did Kira Is Justice on Fan Fiction Dot Net, I managed to get one hundred views the first day a chapter was posted during the story's prime, and fifty the day after. It's not too much, but I was only doing one series, and my writing skills were only a couple levels above the others series I liked there.

But I can see how it can't be an advantage. Reviews there tend to be shallow.

edited 18th Nov '11 5:40:09 PM by chihuahua0

The same can go for audiences anywhere else. I met a few really nice people on Fan Fiction.net, and I'm glad for that opportunity during the writings.

More then just the shallowness of reviews - which is something of an over-generalization - it's my feeling that getting a large audience because you're writing for something with a fandom really doesn't do anything to help you: they aren't really coming for your work so much as the canon work, and while it may be self-esteem boosting, it's ultimately rather futile. Eventually, unless you intend to write nothing but fanfiction, you're going to have to try and get your audience purely by your own merits.

I realize that there are counter-arguments to this, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing. But the ready-made audience that fanfiction gives you isn't really the advantage some people say it is, either.

I didn't mean that there was anything wrong with fanfiction.net's audience - this post covers more of what I was talking about.

edited 18th Nov '11 5:47:12 PM by nrjxll

Reviews of Kira is Justice. While some of the later ones are more useful, I think those were after I decided to plug it all over TV Tropes before I faced the Critique Club.

And I logged on and checked my stats...over 9600 views.

If I recall correctly, it wasn't that much when I abadoned it.

Too bad I'm not thinking of building a fanbase there, but if I decide to delve back into fan-fic writing just for practice...

Why can't it be both?

You know what's the most depressing thing? I'm putting WAY more effort in this fanfic I'm working than my original work...