I read a lot of fanfic – that's
fan-created fiction based on someone else's work, for the
uninitiated. There are people who are relaxed by reading a novel,
something new and different, but I'm not one of them. I don't mean
to say that I don't like new
novels, or reading something new that I've never read before. I only
mean to say that often it's not
relaxing. It's enjoyable, of course. But I do a lot of writing for
business clients in the daytime, and by the time I get to read, it's
often something I do right before bed. I'm tired, my eyes are tired,
and having to remember new characters and what they look like and
what they do and all their mannerisms, etc., etc., is . . . well,
tiring.
So, when I'm tired,
I read fanfic. It's like reading reruns. You already know the
characters. You know what they would or wouldn't do or say. You
understand their relationships with other characters. It's just a
new story in an already-familiar universe, whether that's Scotland in
the 1700s, on a space-station, or in the basement of the FBI.
There are a great
many people who will say there is no value to fanfic, or to reading
it, especially for writers. But I disagree. Most fanfic – I would
guess about 95% – is written by people who never claim to be
writers, merely people who want to imagine their favorite characters
continuing on when the book or TV show ends. The other 5% (if that
much), is written by writers who have the same desire to see
their favorite characters have new adventures, and though they know
there's no money in it, they write it anyway, for a variety of
reasons aside from just love of the characters. The fanfic writers I
know who write publishable-quality works do it when they are between
their own work, when they need to escape, or simply because they've
built a fanbase of their own, and those fans are waiting for the next
installment. In fact, I've read excellent works of fanfic by writers
who can and have written their own original works.
Those are the works
of fan-created fiction that I enjoy the most, because they are
usually like reading franchise-approved and published novels. Like
the various series of novels in the Star Trek
or Star Wars
universes, these writers put out professional-quality work, only
without getting paid. But, unlike the sanctioned novels in such
franchises, they have the
freedom to do things with characters that would never be allowed to
happen in a Paramount- or (now) Disney-approved book. The
interesting part is that the very skilled ones are able to take the
characters past some invisible line that we, as readers or viewers,
know must never be crossed, and bring them back unscathed. They find
inventive ways to get around various taboos, and then return those
characters without
permanent harm, right where they should be for the next episode, or
else invent an entirely new, alternate universe for them to live and
work and play in, while leaving the ones
in this
universe safe and sound where they belong (see the J.J. Abrams' Star
Trek movies). The most
frequent example of this is the consummation of a relationship that
hasn't, and probably never will, happen in the series of books or TV
shows or films. But there
are many other examples.
But
aside from sheer
enjoyment, there is actual
value to reading these labors of love. I have learned more
about writing from reading fanfic than I have from reading
Shakespeare.
Have you ever
watched an Olympic or World Figure Skating competition? Everyone
knows names like Kristi Yamaguchi or Michelle Kwan, and perhaps you
even know the current Olympic and World champion, Kim Yuna. You
watch them, and they make it look so easy, don't they? That's
what it's like reading good, well-written fiction.
Reading
well-written fanfic is like reading a lesser-known, but promising
skater, like Georgian Elene Gedevanishvili, who currently is ranked
at 10th place in the world. You love her style, her
attack, her desire to skate her best. But she still hasn't
reached her full potential. And you can't wait to see what she's
capable of.
But reading the
other 95+% of fanfic is a little like watching a local or regional competition. You watch as one young skater after another makes
errors in basic technique that result in falls or stumbles, or simply
just looking awkward, like they don't quite have their feet under
them. You suddenly realize how very difficult it actually is
to make it look easy. You develop instant appreciation for
the Kim Yuna's, the Mao Asada's, and the Elene Gedevanishvili's of
writing. Like their writing counterparts, they present a piece of
work that is so smooth, so flawless, it's hard to imagine it isn't as
easy to them as walking is to you.
And you realize
that it takes an awful lot of practice to get to that point.
But as a writer, it
also shows you other things as well. It shows you what can go wrong.
Like watching a novice figure skater and seeing her drop her
shoulder in mid-air while doing a jump, knowing that she'll never be
able to land that jump because she's too tilted, a writer can see
techniques gone wrong and devices inexpertly used. You often know
what the author is trying to do, but for whatever reason, it doesn't
work. But as a writer, you can take in that information and learn
from it.
And I'll go into
specific examples in a later article.
