Siri here. We have a special post-Easter treat for you today. Because it’s the fifth Tuesday of the month, you’re getting a guest post from fellow writer Dianna Bell. Dianna is an Aussie who writes primarily fanfiction, and she’s here to share some ways in which lessons from fanfiction can apply to writing original fiction as well. Pleeeease welcome…Dianna!
This guest post feels like all my writing: I have a plan, but no idea how to start so that the words in my head hit the screen. How about I just wade in? I write fanfiction, and there are things I’ve learned from it that could apply to all writing. (Supposedly I also write original stuff, but I’ve had more luck in the last few years with fanfiction, and in any case that’s probably another blog post. Which may be a while coming, because I’m a guest. 
)
Dismissing fanfiction as ‘not writing’ is wrong.
It’s true that characters, locations and more come ready-made; however, I’d note that I’ve never seen this argument made against people who redo fairy tales. I believe, whether fanfiction or original, a story boils down to a “what if” statement. No matter how much they started with or had to create from scratch, each writer has that moment when the “what if” comes to them, and they write down the story which follows from it.
Uh, what’s a fayth?
I’m writing a Frozen Fantasy X fanfic currently; I’ve replaced the Final Fantasy X (FFX) characters with Frozen/Disney characters. I am obsessed with love the game so much I own it across four consoles. A key part of FFX’s plot is the existence of fayth,1 so I’m forced to include fayth in my fanfic. I know what a fayth is, but my guess is that very few of the audience will, and adding explanation opens the story to a wider audience.
Adjust, anticipate, and subvert.
Rehashing the canonical plot is boring (see Harry Potter redo fics), and in crossovers like mine, unbelievable. In my story, Jane Porter from Tarzan is replacing Tidus from FFX; that Jane would act comparably to Tidus in all instances simply doesn’t hold water–she just isn’t that stupid. By virtue of acting differently, things will happen in ways they didn’t in FFX.
Given FFX was released in 2001, it takes almost no effort to find even the most general of outlines that spoils everything. Add that to my prior statement about rehashing canon, and the solution seems clear: find some other way to have a twist. The readers expect ‘x’; build up to ‘y’ instead.
A minor spoiler: Tidus is the star player of a underwater sports team. Jane is a highly-lauded local photographer. This isn’t quite as earth-shattering a change as some other changes that I’ve decided to make, but it does make a difference.
Write it from start to finish, THEN do something with it.
I should have known that posting the first chapter of Hopeless Desire was a mistake. Actually, posting chapters of anything I have in progress appears to be a mistake for me. Writing isn’t consistent enough for me that I can reliably produce a chapter of anything. So it’s far better if I complete it, and then do something with it.
In a looser way, this also applies to editing–finish the thing so you HAVE something to edit. There’s no real point in editing the first sentence until it’s perfect, especially as the first sentence could change several times as you work.
Siri here, popping back in to say thanks, Dianna! Check her out on Twitter at @moredibell and Tumblr at moredibell.tumblr.com.
1. A fayth is a person whose soul is entombed in stone. They can join with a summoner, and through that joining create a powerful beast for battling enemies.