I was recently chatting with a member of a writer’s group I attend. He was mocking people who write fanfiction- something I do. I had to sit him down and explain a few things to him.
Writing good fanfic is hard work. Not just the writing aspect of it, but the fact that you are writing something from pre-existing material. To be a successful fanfic writer, whether you just write a thousand word smutty ficlet, or novel length pieces, you need to take so many things into account.
You need to be an analytical essayist. It doesn’t matter what you write- you need to be able to portray the characters you are using well. It’s not good enough to rehash the fact that Bilbo ran off on an adventure. You need to explain why. You need to be able to understand what is going through a characters head when they say something, or do something, or just as importantly, when they don’t.
You need a be an amateur psychologist. Why did your version of Sherlock relapse into drugs? Can you explain your choice in making Dean sleep with a teddy bear? What is it about his personality that would make Gojyo feel like he’s been slapped when someone insults him? Not only do you need to understand the characters you are writing, you need to know where they are coming from. It’s alright if you want to just scribble up some smut, but to make it amazing, you need to be able to prove that you know why Dean Winchester would be the most eager to please Sub that ever lived, or why John Watson would never, in a thousand years, take a riding crop to his partner’s face.
You need to be a historian. You want to write a Victorian Era piece? Don’t forget to include the incredible nuances of language and culture. WW2 epic? You better understand the politics of the time. Your fic is set in Ancient Rome? Learn how people swore back then. This last was a mistake I made once. Still trying to live it down.
You need to know your source material backwards and forwards. This is particularly hard for writers from a long running fandom. This doesn’t just mean knowing the scripts, or the appearance of the characters. This means you know that John has his scar on his left shoulder. That Sherlock parts his hair on the left. You have to know which eye Hakkai tore out of his own skull. Which cohort Marcus commanded.
Writing Fanfiction Is Hard.
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