~~what i learned writing fanfic, and why i'd actually recommend it to other writers.

re-reading the comments left on my workshopped original stories from last year, i kind of smirk. everyone's problem was that i was too confusing, my plot was unclear, my characters lost among the pretty words. not to mention the pretty words were repetitive, and i said the same thing (according to them) in many different ways, so that they got tired of it and wanted something "different". they wanted to know what in the world was going on. and it's not that i'm completely cured. i'm still churning out pretty weird stuff. but in other ways, i've gone back to my sillyfic ``wouldn't this be an amusing/sexy/interesting idea" roots, and i'm actually being told my characters are alive, and i seem to have some sort of plot-- sometimes. sort of. right?

i thank fanfiction for this.

before, i wrote a number of stories based on semi-obscure myths, fairy-tales, and so on, kind of assuming some things were known and forging ahead and changing them. no one in the class-- not even my professor-- had read `the snow queen'. argh. everyone said i should've had the plot summarized in a prologue.
    at least i don't have to worry about that with hp fanfic. on the other hand, it seems to be forcing me to conform to certain guidelines, moreso than writing myth-based fiction. i have a clear-enough picture in my head of what draco is like, for example, and i strive not to deviate too much from that. there's a limit to the sort of things he would think or say.

while in original fic, i get lazy-- and my characters have pretty much unlimited possibilities, and i quickly lose track of exactly what they were doing, in the first place-- if i ever knew. i never actually -create- characters-- they kind of coalesce out of the words i put in their mouths and into their heads. i never set out to construct any particular thing-- sometimes i have an idea, but that's just a seed from which things grow. in fanfic, i have a definite idea of how the characters would act, and how their environment is likely to shift and change accordingly.
    i think fanfic-writing is really tightening my writing. i don't know if anyone else feels this way, but it's definitely observable in my own work. especially lately, i seem to be finding more of a voice (as i practice more), for the characters, and i'm getting more confident in exploring characters outside of harry and draco (i've written two ginny-centric fics to date, one admittedly abstract and more like my usual stuff, but the other sort of a character study, me trying to figure out how and why ginny and draco would ever get together).

i realize a number of people start out writing many characters, all with personalities, all with balanced narrative and dialogue and plot and pacing. when i think that, i realize that even though most people agree i'm "good" at this whole writing gig, i may not be an actual writer, a storyteller-- or rather, i've been so caught up in the craft, in the actual pleasure of pure writing, that i've forgotten i was trying to tell stories at one point.

i've told the first person that i write "fanfic" just a few days ago. i know him from my old workshop class last year-- he was inviting me to a fic reading he'd organized for this past friday-- and of course, my life being what it is, i couldn't go-- my mom had to visit me this exact weekend. but i said that i have been writing fanfic lately (meaning, i can't exactly read -that-, can i). and he gave me a weird look. and i said, that was supposed to be embarrassing, wasn't it. and he said, well, depends who you're talking to.

well, i'm not embarrassed. this is helping me more than someone just -telling- me that this and that and the other thing need to be fixed in a particular story. this is me actually getting a feel for what that means, through practice, as well as through careful critical attention paid to the fanfic of other writers in the fandom. i've been thoughtful and analytical (as well as just purely appreciative) of the stories i've read, and it's probably influenced my own craft, my own attempts at the same thing (in a different dress, i suppose). we're all after similar ends-- the ones who're writing mostly harry/draco romances, anyway. we all have similar enough guidelines, and we're all using very similar characters and a lot of the same plots. we can all learn from each other, and i'm sure we do. this is a unique situation, i think, unlike any other writer's workshop i've ever heard of. we're showing by doing, and learning by trying.

well, that's how -i- look at it, anyway. i'm happy with this arrangement, and i'm pretty sure my writing is showing signs of growth. i'm confident that when i return to purely original fiction, the lessons i learned with fanfic will still be with me, and the fics will be the better for it. not that i plan on stopping all that soon, heh. i have my epic to plan. we all need an epic, don't we. life just isn't complete without an epic-- sort of like the final project for my own little creative writing workshop :D
~~

ha! `best enemies' fanart..! hahaah. priceless. priceless!!
    and if you ever need cheering up-- EVER-- tier_luren's your man. presenting-- squid!draco. *snorts* this -- this is beyond priceless. this is worth body parts :D hahahahaah.

and ishuca-- your ficlet-- i could feel it, and when i read it, i believed it. so yes. if this was a war the battle's yours. but--
*sigh* well.
this is what it's like, with fanfic. die-- fail-- cry. next fanfic: get up. try again~:)