Writing Advice: Fanfic: Yea or Nay?

Okay, cards on the table; this column felt like a piece of harmless fun when I picked it, and now that feels like a mistake, because there are a lot of opinions out there on the subject of fanfic and whether or not it’s artistically valid or even morally acceptable.

Some of these opinions come from some very high-profile authors, such as Anne Rice, who has stated that “It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters,” or George R.R. Martin, who “[doesn’t] wanna read it and I would not encourage people to write it.” Diana Gabaldon colourfully expressed the desire to “barf whenever I’ve inadvertently encountered some of it involving my characters.”

Clearly, emotions run high when fanfic is under discussion.

And yet, AO3 processes 6 000 invitations per day. That’s the population of a village seeking an account from which to post or view fanfic, every day. That’s an awful lot of people for the folks mentioned above to be annoyed with.

On the other side of the fence, Neil Gaiman has stated that “all writing is useful for honing writing skills. I think you get better as a writer by writing.” Meg Cabot concurs; “I think writing fan fiction is a good way for new writers to learn to tell a story.”

Me personally – and I’d like to state for the record that this is JUST AN OPINION, DON’T SHOOT – I do find fanfiction artistically valid, although I can definitely see why others would feel differently. For one thing, I have no idea what it would be like to come across fanfic involving my own work. I imagine I’d be blown away at the idea that something I’d written had made such an impact on someone, but I don’t know that. I can also imagine wanting to avoid such works wherever possible, for the usual legal reasons and to avoid my vision getting tangled with someone else’s. But its actual existence means someone really engaged with your work, and isn’t that what we’re going for?

Finally, writing fanfic is fun. Let’s face it, writing can be tough. It’s not something anyone does because it’s easy, it’s something we do because we love it, and if you want to be able to maintain your writing then it’s important to keep touch with the fun.

I’ve made no secret lately that I’ve been struggling. Covid took a baseball bat to my immune system in the spring, I keep getting annoying little bugs and my brain keeps getting stuck on low-power mode. None of this is making it easy to keep writing, but I’ve found that if I take a break, it becomes even harder to start again. I tend to side with Gaiman and Cabot on this topic, because one way I’ve found to work with my brain is to write fanfic. It’s fun, there’s very little pressure which makes it easier, and best of all it keeps me writing.

Just, y’know, don’t expect it to advance your professional writing career or anything. I hear the copyright holders can get snippy about that sort of thing.