A love letter to fanfiction
Or at least, writing for you first - thoughts on writing fanfiction and writing for you.
Those that have ever followed me on other social media may remember when I started writing it was fanfiction at night because this momma needed a little time to herself. I’d originally discovered fanfiction back in college and secretly wrote little bits here and there, but I never thought of myself as a writer. I tried to take a writing class to learn more but dropped out and stopped writing for so long after critiques that I never thought to pick it back up again. But as a stay-at-home mom, I needed something for myself. Something that made me more than just a mom since I’d left my career to be home with my kids.
I had a laptop. I had a love of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And I had an idea. It started one night as a lark. Something to do to take time for me. I thought I might write for a couple of days and, like most hobbies, get bored or distracted, and that would be the end of it. However, a few months later, I had something along the lines of 100,000 words written and was writing nearly nightly (and any parents out there would know that’s a feat in and of itself). And it was all fanfiction. I never expected to post it (and honestly, that story is still one that I need to go back and finish). But it was a labor of love for writing and for myself.
Why bring this up? Recently, Mo Willems, acclaimed author of LITERARY MASTERPIECES (I stand by what I said) like Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and every AMAZING Piggy and Gerald book under the sun released his first adult book (technically, the Pigeon wrote the book and Mo just, you know, made the book for him).
In an interview on tour about Be the Bus, Mo’s new book, he said something that struck a chord. He said, and I paraphrase (hopefully I’m not too far off), that as children are young, they play sports and have activities and draw and write. But as they get older, many lose the drawing/writing, which in and of itself is a form of play. When we write or draw, we are using our imaginations. That play is important. Parents of young children know that part of pre-K and kindergarten is learning through play. But the idea goes deeper than learning life skills through play (who didn’t play house and pretend to cook or clean and not pick something up from that play time?).
As Mo said, “To write and draw… to draw is a physicalized form of empathy. You are thinking about that character or thing. You empathize with it.”
Later he says that children don’t continue to draw because parents don’t do it for the fun of it but that you should write and draw for the fun of it because it makes you a happier person. And it’s a shame that the thought is we must write or draw only if we are good at it or going to make money at it.
As a writer, I feel that pressure. I started writing for the fun of it. A way to relax, destress, and have something that is mine that I created (that wasn’t screaming at me for more snacks, that is). There is constant pressure to make art a side hustle and make money. But fanfiction is inherently the opposite. Fanfiction is a love letter to the fandom, of course (and that’s a separate article entirely), but it is also a love letter to myself.
Writing fanfic is entirely for me first. Sure, I post it (and get dopamine by the buckets when people like it), but since I can’t sell fanfic, it’s a project purely of love and fun. As a parent, I can see now why Mo’s words resonate so much. The pressure of life is so great, and in our world, there is so much emphasis to make something to sell that the act of writing fanfic is an act of love for me. It’s a story that makes me so happy. There’s so little pressure, as fandom is generally more forgiving, and there’s no worrying about formatting or hardcore editing. There’s no worrying about sales numbers and taxes. There’s only, “When can I sneak away to write the next chapter?”
And don’t get me wrong, I actually feel the same way about my original projects. The fantasy novel I have been writing since NaNoWriMo ended is also incredibly fun to write and is a “for me first” project as well. But in the back of my mind, there’s all those other pressures kind of weighing me down too.
I wish, to all of you, that whether you write, draw, paint, craft, or whatever you do — you do some of it for the fun of it. A project just for you. Make it a love letter to yourself. Find the fun in that project. Whoever sees it will know how much the creator invested of themselves in it. Don’t lose the fun and play in life, no matter how old you are.
Interested in fanfiction?
I usually get the question, what is fanfiction. Fanfiction is a story written in an existing property that you do not own. Many people publish their fanfiction, for free, on websites such as Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own.
This Camp NaNo has been taken over by a D&D Honor Among Thieves fanfic that I have been writing. Check it out here. There’s a joke going around in my writing group about how long it will be, and the guess keeps growing. The first guess was 20k, but I’m about to blow past 30k.
Spring Into Second Chances - Anthology
A new romance anthology with everything from sweet to sizzling! Six stories about second chances in romance.
All proceeds from this anthology benefit Home of the Sparrow, an Illinois organization helping homeless women and children.
Spring Into Second Chances Anthology featuring Lia Violet, Katrina Bauer, and me (J.M. Guilfoyle) and three more authors!
Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. Paperback coming soon!
I love this, and I totally agree. Fanfic is for use. No selling allowed. It ruins it.