Hi there. My name is Mikel Butler. I'm a novice novelist.

Most of those (so-called) traditional writers bear a negative perception with regards to the writing of fan fiction. That it is either somehow lazy or stealing. I don't hold to such notions. Like any other medium, to write is to exercise certain muscles. To endeavor to bring to life some internal concept. And in the medium of prose this is no different. We use language to communicate an idea. So naturally, the questions follow: what is the idea we wish to communicate, and how can I best-communicate this idea?

To write (like to draw or paint or compose music) is to flex certain muscles.

To me, this is what gives the writing of fan fiction its power. It is an opportunity for the writer to disabuse themselves of certain obstacles and responsibilities and to work solely on the flexing of certain muscles in order to tell a story. At least, that has been my experience.

EXTRAORDINARY is my first-ever attempt at writing a novel. And its concept had first begun as a television series (a reboot of the X-Men). I had this story cooking in my mind for years, asking certain questions of myself as to how best to adapt and reboot the X-Men franchise for a modern audience, how best to tell that story. And it's a common dilemma that we've seen play out numerous times over the years, in the rebooting and adaptation of a variety of franchises, and it's a common question that people have, regarding the frequency in which stories are adapted and rebooted (as opposed to these storytellers pushing to tell "new" stories and not the old). So naturally, the question follows--why do we continue to do this, to retell and reboot stories? Why not tell new ones?

This plays at the very heart of the nature and history of storytelling. These ancient traditions predate even that of language. We have always engaged in the passing-down of beloved fiction. And in a time where written language did not exist, those stories which have survived the test of time could only be passed down by way of those oral traditions and the integrity of the teller's memory of it, when first they heard the tale. Essentially, these stories would change in some subtle way in each effort of their telling because the teller had only their memory of the story at their disposal in the crafting of the narrative and its characters and its conflicts. And because these stories were meant to embody the depiction of some moral standard, the story was likely to change in this regard to better reflect the present age and to better exemplify the tellers understanding of those moral notions which might drive the heart of the story.

Stories evolve as they are told and retold.

This is what we do, here, with fan fiction. We take the stories of our "elders" and refashion them in our retelling of them to our own "youth". We change them in such a way to better illustrate some concept or notion that had stuck out to us when first we encountered these original tales, and through our fan fiction, seek to spotlight those elements or characters or conflicts.

It's a healthy practice and one that might teach us how best to craft our own characters and their developments and their conflicts. At least, that's what happened to me as I began the work of crafting EXTRAORDINARY.

I was free to take these characters and their world and rearrange them like Legos in order to build a new structure tangential to that of the source material. I didn't have to create from scratch a dozen characters or the central premise. I even open the novel with essentially the same sequence as the pilot episode of the original X-Men cartoon, but put my own little twist on it, in such a way as to better highlight the conflicts around which I want this experience to revolve. And the more I wrote, the more empowered I became at this notion of becoming a storyteller, because I was doing it! I was writing! And people were liking my work! And after a hundred pages, I knew it: this is what I wanted to do.

And I would have never made that achievement, arrived at this resolution, had it not been for fan fiction.

So I want to champion this practice. I want to encourage those who might find themselves here, who might endeavor to write their own fiction. I want to empower people in this community that they, too, can transition from the writing of fan fiction to that of their own creations. I want to chronicle my own journey down that path and give back whatever I can. Because I believe that you can get whatever you want out of life by helping others get what they want. I've seen it happen, many times and for several people in other artistic media. I want us to embark on that journey together. And what better place to start this adventure than here?

Let's rise up and show that writers of fan fiction can become "serious" writers of original work. Let us band together, let us push each other, let us tell grandiose and glorious stories and build majestic things and evolve into beautiful artists.