I have heard many people say that writing fanfiction effects their skills in original fiction writing. Some people say that it effects our ability to develop our own characters and environments because we are used to having them spoon-fed to us.

Do you think that fanfiction is detrimental to our ability to write? Is it like a set of training wheels for writers and we shouldn't use it too much?

I always find it hard to switch from fanfiction to original. I find myself struggling character development and find it hard to think or new ideas.

Do you struggle to make the switch to? Or is it just me?

It might not be hard for people who write severely AU fics like Wasteland's of Time, which while still strongly HPFF oriented it still contains lots of original ideas.

 

That's because Joe basically said that Wastelands of time is where he tosses all his rejected ideas.

Which is incredibly unfair, by the way. >_<

On topic, I suck at both, so I don't know much about switching from one to the either.

 

I'm more or less the opposite to Joe - some of the ideas I put into my fanfiction are (early, very basic) versions of ideas that I one day hope to put into original fiction. I believe Shezza does something similar (literally the only time you will see my writing compared in any way to his). And I've always seen fanfiction as practise for original fiction - I once heard someone say that target practice got all the bad shots out of your system, and I'm hoping the same will apply to writing. Hoping...

That said, I haven't written much in the way of original stuff yet, so I can't really comment on switching. But I do cheerfully change characterisation in fanfiction; why stick religiously to canon?

 

Sometimes I think it's actually harder to write an engaging story in fanfiction than it is in original fiction. With the latter the writer can draw the readers in purely by describing the new situation: the setting, the character relationships, the driving issue introduced. With fanfiction you don't have that because the readers tend to know the material off by heart by the time they've read your piece, so you have to work harder to make anything that's not the biggest AU interesting right off the bat.

On the other hand, though, it's a lot easier to find what you want to read with fanfiction. Original fiction is much more diverse so it can be a little hard to find what you want especially without prior knowledge of the characters and the little things that appeal to you.

And personally I can be somewhat impatient when reading stories so unless the introduction really blows me away, a lot of original fiction doesn't capture my interest when it tries to establish the setting. With fanfiction you don't have that: the issue is either already set up or it's merely gratifying to read something new.

 

Fanfiction IS a set of training wheels for original fiction, no question about it. As authors, we're handed the characters, setting, prior relationships, back-story, tools, whatever, and we're allowed to play and twist them however we want. Basically, we get to cut to all the good stuff first without the necessary hard work.

It's good practice for writing.

It's not good practice for writing something original.

 

^This.

One hits a point of diminishing returns from writing fanfiction. Original fiction has a steeper creative burden and requires much more from one's prose (characters and setting need to be fleshed out, e.g.), so it is far more demanding. You won't learn it from just writing fanfiction.

 

There's also the opposite argument to be made - when writing fanfiction, you've got to stay inside the already-defined boundaries of the characters' personalities or everyone'll spot it real quick, unless you carefully develop them. Meanwhile, in original fiction, you can just have them spiraling every which way but as long as they don't directly contradict what you've already written, there's no problem.

Fanfiction lets you concentrate on plot, fiction in an established universe lets you concentrate on plot and characters, and with completely original fiction, you've got to juggle plot, characters, and setting. Writing fanfiction won't make you any better at developing a setting or creating characters (discounting crazy bastards that completely rewrite the verse from the ground up), but it does make you better at crafting plots and keeping characters consistent.

 

I wouldn't say no problem. Bizarrely mutating characters with inconsistent identity are a sign of bad writing, no matter what the format. In my limited experience, a writer must exercise just as much discipline in writing original fiction characters as fanfiction ones. She just has more freedom in choosing who gets to be invited to the party.

No arguments there. I just think that authors eventually get good enough at the skills exposed by fanfiction that they realize that raising their game to the next level means stepping outside fanfiction. (Plus, they get greedy and want to get paid for their efforts/be able to admit a writing hobby in polite company).

As an aside, the "one-shot" form doesn't exist in original fiction; it's not the same as a short story, since with a one-shot, you can tell a story in short story length, yet call upon all the rich backstory and characterization of a series of novels. It's a fanfiction anomaly with arguably the highest ratio of story to words in prose. Fanfiction writing is unique in letting you play with that form.

 

I think fanfiction is a set of training wheels. For any basic HP story the plot is generally already mapped out and so are the characters. The same goes for just about any fandom. For HP it's the defeat of Voldemort and who he fights, fucks, and befriends on the way there. The setting is already laid out, too.

Yet, not everyone relies on the same old descriptions. Some, like in Control, add to them. I really thought his Azkaban was pretty original, too fantasy, but pretty.

Shezza made a good distinction. It helps us learn how to write, but hinders us when it comes to creativity. Of course, many of our original ideas come from previous ideas anyway. If I recall she wrote something original involving a MiB setting but with magic?(My memory is vague on it.) Not exactly original I would say in way of setting, but characters and plot could have been.

For me personally, I've written limited in both.(Nothing published), I have little problem making the switch. I struggle a little with setting, but only because in original I have to first define it. As to characters, I have no troubles, mainly because I know my characters before I type them, original or fanfic. Sometimes I write little imagined conversations to get to know them better.

Example: the exchange in my signature. Plot is no big thing either, so long as I know where it's going.

I think there are a few writers who don't struggle with the change-over, and those are the ones that have Extreme AU's. Enembee and Joe. I'm actually curious if they find it hard to write in a standard HP set-up, Harry goes to school for seven years and beats Voldemort at the end, because they're original works are so imaginative.

 

And you've pretty much nailed my problem with fanfiction. Sometimes I struggle to stay within the boundaries JKR set down for her series. Other times, I wander right past without ever looking back.

It's easier for me to write original stuff than it is to write fanfiction. I don't like working within boxes - it's too constraining. Why limit yourself that much?

Which is probably why I like writing AUs.

 

Exactly. You can learn a lot about pacing, foreshadowing, plot structure, imagery, characterization, and so on by writing fan fiction, and also polish off your basic writing techniques. But there comes a time when you wonder, "Okay, do I actually have what it takes to do this for real?" And to do that, you have to be able to sell (figuratively and literally) a story that doesn't come with a prepackaged audience, where you have to establish everything from scratch and make the readers want to keep reading even though they have no idea who these people are and where you're going.

Fan fiction is certainly good writing practice, but I think too many fan fiction authors let it go to their heads when people start telling them, "You're good enough to be published!" Every fan fiction author who acquires even a tiny fan base starts to hear that, and in many cases, it's probably true, but that doesn't mean you're good enough to be published now.

 

Very few, and I mean very few, fanfiction authors are good enough to get published. I'm not going to point names, but arrogance is a problem with most original authors, even more so in fanfiction circles.

Inverarity, I've read some of your stuff, I'll not get into the reasons why I stopped, not the place for it, but I will say I see tons of potential. I see some of it in Joe's, enemeb's, Swim's, a little in Shezza and nonjon, and others. I think with enough time and discipline most of them could get published, including you.

To be honest I think certain people have a natural flair with words, while others struggle to a make sentences clear. I think some have natural abilities pertaining to being creative, while others struggle to bring forth something fantastical.

Rarely, have I seen both in one person while reading fanfiction, but I see tons while reading fantasy. Examples: Tolkien, Robert Jordan, they both wield words and bring life to their worlds. Jim Butcher has wonderful imagination, but is stunted when it comes to words, I think.

 

This is an interesting topic.

The only reason - and I mean only - reason I started writing fanfic was to get feedback on my writing. The only reason I write HP fanfic is because, at the time (and even now, to an extent), it was the biggest fandom. There was a large audience, somewhat dwindled now, but still going strong.

As has been said, my stories tend to branch off rather significantly from your average run through 5th, 6th, and 7th Year trilogies that are littered about the place. They are AU inasmuch as they are testing grounds for certain ideas that always seem so epic in my head, but never quite make it onto paper exactly the way I imagined it. My first story, Sword of the Hero, was a bit run-of-the-mill and cliched here and there - even seven years ago - and I had trouble keeping it in the confines of the HP universe. I think I got to about Chapter 4 before I started introducing OCs and hints of fantastical super powers, mixed within other world and universes. That's not a bad thing, but it sure ain't Harry Potter.

To answer SacrosanctSofa's original point about making the switch between fanfic and original stuff, there is a degree of difficulty there.

But more than anything else my experience and criticisms earned writing fanfic have made me a far better writer than when I started The Hero Trilogy back in '03. Not to blow my own horn (lol that's for Blaise!fag to do), but Wastelands of Time is a fantastic piece of writing compared to Sword of the Hero. It is simply better, and made better due to the lessons learned from writing those earlier stories.

I've a bunch of original novels 'in the works'. Three could be called completed, and in need of much revision, and one or two that have faltered around the halfway mark. The three completed novels total some 600,000 words, which is short for me, considering the Hero Trilogy crossed the 1,000,000 threshold and Wastelands of Time is heading over 300,000, and I wrote the original stuff as fast as I could - before doubt could set in.

Some of it is good, some of it is crap. There needs to be major cuts and revisions, for sure. Yet a lot of what I learned about writing in fanfic has crossed over into my original stuff. Cut adjectives as much as you can, be concise, don't say the same thing twice and don't underestimate the intelligence of your reader, because they will catch mistakes.

I've probably got more to say on this, but right now I gotta go to work.

Peace, y'all.

 

I've found that fanfiction writers have to try much harder in the first few chapters to catch people attention. I always give originals lots of leeway to get me hooked, roughly 80kw. But with fanfiction if it doesn't pique my interest in the first few chapters I click the red 'x'.

 

I think that writing fanfiction is good practice for writing. It helps with almost everything from descriptions of the world to finding characters voices. The only thing it will not help is creative thinking in terms of making everything from a scratch. But to tell the truth I sometimes think that most fanfiction writers has more problem with staying in the world created by Rowling without adding completely new powers that should exist in this world within its rules, making bunch of OCs and more.

Also lets not forget that there are many situation when writer is not writing fanfiction and has the same rules to follow - tv show writers, comics book writers. So I think writers should have skills to write both - already established worlds and original.