I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that a lot of my practice in writing comes from fan fiction. I spent some formative years on FanFiction.net with my brother, reading, writing, and roleplaying in our favorite worlds. My most common fandoms were Warrior cats, Sonic the Hedgehog, My Little Pony, and The Legend of Zelda. And my tens of thousands of messages spent roleplaying are still out there somewhere. Good luck finding them.

I can confidently say that my skills in writing and grammar would not be the same without this practice. I still remember when the difference between ‘were’ and ‘where’ hit me. Wanting to be as accurate and impressive as possible, I would look up the differences between ‘lay’ and ‘lie’ when my OC went to sleep. And I got to engage in plotting and world-building, something that I still enjoy to this day. I would roleplay scenes with a friend, and she would take our messages (with permission and credit) and use those to write chapters of her story. It was a wonderful way to study without realizing it.

Reading fan fiction is another way I got to train without even knowing. An important part of writing fan fiction is avoiding anything OOC (Out of Character). If a character who, in the books, is normally soft-spoken suddenly starts speaking out and calling attention to themselves, it’s OOC. I’d be studying character personalities and actions without even realizing it, both when I read and wrote. It even works well for writing OCs (Original Characters) that you insert into a world, since you want them to mesh well and seem like a part of the pre-existing team.

One of the biggest ways that my brain would train was with creating AUs (Alternate Universes) or crossovers. Finding common elements, making new comparisons, and forming new interactions between wholly different characters really makes you think. My dad and I to this day will still create Warrior cat crossovers when discussing media (most recently was a Warriors and Wheel of Time crossover).

Another common and fun way to write within a pre-existing world is to create a self-insert character. I spent a lot of time figuring out what I would be like in the Percy Jackson universe (daughter of Athena), how I would fit in The Stormlight Archive (Windrunner scout), or what my cutie mark would be as a resident of Equestria (probably a book and a quill, surprise surprise). Making OCs is similar to this, creating characters that explore the limits of a world.

Fan fiction is also commonly used to add to an original piece of media. This could be to explore a pairing in a variety of ways, creating scenarios where characters experience hurt then comfort, or writing epilogues to add more satisfaction to the ending of a piece of media. While I don’t really engage in fan fiction writing too often, I still find myself thinking about scenes I could write, like what happened to Link and Zelda after the events of Breath of the Wild, or cute moments between Trevor and Sypha from the Castlevania Netflix series.

Often times, ideas like these can become works of their own. A famous example of this is with Fifty Shades of Gray, which started out as Twilight fan fiction. Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis was Star Wars fan fiction about Rey and Kylo Ren. And Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunters books got their start in Harry Potter fan fiction. Fan fiction can sometimes get a bad rap about being silly or purely for fun or engagement, but there are many examples of how it can grow far beyond that.

I think that the best thing to come out of fan fiction is the practice and indulgence. So many get their starts from this artform, or learn about their tastes in genres and troupes. And a lot of writers can channel their interests into smaller scenes or collections to explore without the pressures of writing long-form works. It’s a great way to dabble in all sorts of ways. And while it may be very casual, it’s still very valid as a form of writing and representation.

While I don’t write too much fan fiction nowadays, I can’t deny it’s affects on my own writing, and the influence it’s had on me to this day. I wouldn’t have gained such an interest in writing if I hadn’t indulged in something so fun and carefree to start. I think that online published stories are a great way to practice, meet like-minded writers and readers, and explore all kinds of styles and scenes. A lot can come to pass when you’re inspired by a piece of media, and we’d be missing out on a ton of great works if it weren’t for the ever important art of fan fiction.

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