Hello, fanfiction-ers.

This is my third attempt at writing fanfiction. I usually read for about 3 months, and then suddenly remember that I want to write for a living. I, keeping with procedure, then say something along the lines of, "Hey, I might as well give it a shot." I then write a few chapters of some epic-length story. The perfectionism then kicks in, and I spend weeks editing a few paragraphs. Once I, finally, put up one of my chapters, I get a handful of reviews, most of them positive. At a certain point during the writing of the third chapter, I get bored, thinking, "I could be writing something to actually get published, so why am I on Fanfiction?" I then write a play, or a handful of short stories, and then get bored with that.

Thing is, that was back when I wanted to be a professional author. I still do, except I've finally found something I don't get bored by doing, and it isn't writing fiction. It's non-fiction. Which means, in my weird little head, there's no internal pressure to do well anymore. Which actually enables me to do well.

So, now, fanfiction isn't some sort of training ground for me to, "practice novel writing." It's just for fun. No pressure. I don't have to answer to anyone. There's no schedule. If I get a following, great. If I don't... peh. I shrug at it. As I say, It's just for the fun of skillful crafting, like people who make pottery on the weekends.

--naaman.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Just for fun, here's a few tips stemming from my... 4ish years on FFnet:

1.) Maintaining canconicity = boring piece of crap. If your characters are the same exact way they were in the original material, you've failed. Point blank. Grammar, spelling, internal-pacing of your wording, and measuring out your whitespace is also incredibly important, but the "AU" setup, even including slight changes in characterization (personality flaws, history, supported OOCness, etc...), is what keeps me around to read, even if everything else isn't perfect.

2.) Breath/Breathe. There's a difference.

"I took a breath."

and...

"I breathe in."

See?

This comes up more often than anything else.