How to Write Fanfiction

New-Age Storytelling

Creating the Deerstalker
by kaonnette

As if getting a story out of my head and onto a blank page wasn't hard enough, the thought of pressing the little button titled 'publish' had me feeling positively queasy. I love writing, even through the evenings of vanishing ideas and cramping fingers, but when it came to sharing my first short fanfiction with the entirety of the internet, I suddenly felt that I just didn't have the confidence.

I was drawn to fanfiction because it gave me a way to practice and develop my writing techniques (as well as to rediscover a world I loved). But after completing a story, it was clear what I needed next in order to improve: feedback. So after weeks of pondering, I finally clicked that daunting button and took my first step into the fanfiction community.

Creating the Deerstalker

As most things do when transferred to the internet, fanfiction grew, and continues to grow, into an ever more influential phenomenon. I've read innumerable articles ooh-ing and aah-ing over the 'surprising' spread of fanfiction and its flourishing community, but that's not something I've ever thought to be particularly astonishing. While novel writing is a professional and marketable practice, storytelling isn't. Anyone can tell a story. People have passed down stories for centuries, whether it be within a bound book or whispered word, and as these stories are exchanged, they are adapted and reinterpreted.

Fanfiction, in my eyes, follows this example. Take Sherlock Holmes' deerstalker hat. Did Arthur Conan Doyle ever write Sherlock wearing a deerstalker? No, not explicitly! The hat emerged in illustrations, was embraced by fans, and has now become as iconic as the detective himself, appearing upon even Benedict Cumberbatch's head. We, as writers, readers, and artists, are able to take stories and use them to spread new ideas, connect distinct cultures, and forge new understanding.

Reading is not simply an intellectual pursuit, it is something that is bound up in the emotions of every single reader. Books and the lessons we learn from them are precious to us all in their own particular way. This is one of the reasons why fanfiction is so precarious, as it takes characters and storylines that have had a unique but equally profound impact upon a sea of readers, but then works them into a separate and distinct concept. Things, in short, can get messy.

The thought of entering that messiness created an idea in my anxious mind, and I slipped into the fanfiction community on the sidelines, within one of the smallest fandoms I could think of. I took a book from my childhood, one originally written in the 1940s, and crafted a new story for a world where I suspected few had recently trod. The fandom was niche, and that was perfect. While unable to provide as much attention as larger fandoms, each new reader wholeheartedly embraced a new approach to a story both they and I adored. Best of all, they were more than happy to provide me with their feedback.

Our new-age storytelling

A piece of fanfiction is distinct, not only tied to its original source of inspiration but a part of a fandom's community. It is written inside that community, influenced by its culture, and uses genres and concepts created within it. Online fanfiction is not simply a writer producing something for an audience, it's a work of collaboration, where comments can be given in real-time. A type of new-age communicative storytelling.

How then do you gain the confidence to enter this community as a writer? You follow the most glittering of golden rules: to be a good writer, you have to be a good reader. Read everything you can get your hands on; online fanfiction and published novels, general fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose. Then re-read your favorites, try to pinpoint exactly what it is you like and what you thoroughly despise within a piece of writing. See if you can put that into words, and if you can, leave a comment! Giving feedback on another person's writing not only supports and encourages them, but it helps you to define your writing style, and discover how you would like to tell your own story.