I think Fantasy in particular is really hard to learn to write. Partly because at some level you need to have a universe to play with first. I think this is part of the reason that there are so many just awful fantasy writers. I’m viewing my fanfiction as a learning process, giving me a universe to work within, so that I can eventually write really solid fiction and buy a vineyard.

 

I never considered writing original fiction, to be honest. Of course, I write nonfiction for work. Fanfics were just part of my effort to be a 'free-er' writer, and to reclaim my joy in writing.

The fact that I've had a pretty positive response has been good for my ego, but I am under no illusions that I have the skill to make it as a published fiction author.

 

This might be a strange answer, but:

I don't really know.

There is no doubt that writing fanfiction has value for someone wishing to make a living from writing. It provides a fantastic sandbox, where you can play with ideas, methods and styles without feeling like the work you're doing is all for nought (or, at least, there is something more than the nebulous 'reward' of 'maybe this thing that isn't good enough to be published will eventually get me to a point where I make something that is good enough to be published'). Fanfiction, at all levels of quality, provides you with feedback you wouldn't really get if you were working away quietly on an original idea. To clarify: by feedback, I don't mean concrit, though that is a small factor. Instead I mean the kind of 'feedback' you get when you press your foot to the accelerator pedal of a car, that lets you really know that you're going somewhere.

On the other hand, fanfiction often also incentivises things which are not beneficial to a writer looking to better themselves for the purpose of creating original work, especially not works that lean more towards the grand, the sweeping, or the high-concept. Readers of fanfiction often like the works they consume to fall into neat little boxes. Fluff and Angst, Adventure and power-fantasy fulfilment, many things are expected to go hand in hand in fanfiction. I think YA fiction has started to love in this direction in recent years, no doubt influenced by the success of fanfiction-cum-original authors, but it's not ideal with you want to be the next GRRM or Sanderson.

When I started writing fanfiction, the idea of writing original fiction was simply not something I had even considered. I took up the writing lark because I wanted to challenge myself. It is not something that resides within my comfort-zone, and in all honesty I was not sure I would ever really get anywhere with it. It was an experiment in what effort and attention could get me. I loved Harry Potter, of course, but had it not been for the desire to challenge myself to do something entirely outside my comfort zone, none of my stories ever would have been.

So now I find myself in the strange position where I get asked fairly regularly if I have any original works, or, failing that, to please forward it to the asker when I do finally cross that line. There is the assumption that someone with a story as successful as SoA should be considering writing their own story, within their own world. Especially in a world where Tolkien remains such a big deal, and GRRM has brought the epic fantasy genre to such a level of cultural visibility that it is now pretty firmly mainstream. Hell, I got another of these requests just last night (fortuitous timing).

But the thing is that I don't have anything I want to say. I got into writing not because there was a story inside me that I felt needed to be told, but because I just wanted to do something well, despite feeling I was poorly suited to it by nature. Even now, there are no stories that I feel I cannot tell within the comforting bounds of fanfiction.

That's it, though. Fanfiction is comforting. Perhaps if I wish to continue challenging myself I should look into original fiction. At the moment, however, there is a great gulf of distance between 'should' and 'want to'.

At the moment, the closest I've come is the admission that making money or, even better, a living off writing would be lovely. That's not the same as really wanting to write, however.

So, my answer is, I have no plan. Currently, I write fanfiction, but who knows what the future brings?

 

Interesting to see so many votes for people writing fanfiction as training wheels then turning to original fiction. I was actually in that boat too, but stopped writing fanfiction years ago- aside from this affair I’m having at the moment between original fiction drafts.

Writing original fiction and fanfiction is definitely two different worlds. As @Halt and @Steelbadger said, fanfiction gives you an automatic audience and it’s easy to find works you like and those you don’t. This is especially true for writing characters, as you have templates for everything and usually people read fanfiction to get more stories starring their favorite characters. It’s a double-edge sword, though, because fanfiction can’t prepare you for some things.

How do you make a character likeable when you have no audience investment to lean on? How do you make your world interesting and make sense? How do you pace and plot your book, especially the first three chapters? Does your ending land and connect with the rest of the story? So many fanfictions are just canon rehashes or follow canon closely; that doesn’t teach you much at all. When I wrote my old Pokemon fanfiction, I felt more prepared because I was using original characters and my own plot that only sometimes connected with the canon plot.

@M.L. said that fantasy is hard to learn to write, and it’s true. Fanfiction teaches you how to write in the restraints of canon and use them successfully. Fantasy drops you in an ocean of no expectations and expects you to swim.

But I guess the biggest different between original fiction and fanfiction is that original fiction needs you to complete a work. You can abandon works, but guess what, you’re not getting paid for it. If you want a career as an author and unless you hit a very lucky break with your first book, it’s all about quantity. You need to reach the end of your original fiction story, and then keep going. Otherwise you lose momentum and people will forget about you. See the Dresden Files and Name of the Wind series. Dresden Files is coming back, but I was once a fan and now I just don’t care.

 

I want to write original fiction. I have story ideas, some of which I have developed quite far in terms of planning.

The problem is that I don't think I can combine it with fanfic writing. My fanfic update schedule is slow enough as it is, never mind with original fic competing for my time.

My current view is that I will push to get to the end of VP year 3, at which point I will take a break from fanfic to write my first original fiction.

 

I write original fiction (currently unpublished) and fanfiction. In a way, I do see writing fanfic as a training ground for of, but it’s more than that. The only thing really separating of and fanfic are copyright laws, which mean that I can’t sell my fanfic for money. But I take it seriously as creative art. The Aeneid is Iliad fanfic. Shakespeare wrote fanfic. The recent DC and Marvel movies are fanfic. It’s a legitimate art form, even if it’s not a financially lucrative one.