You might heard the jokes from around the net from people who sort of know of it, fanfiction is just badly written self insert porn with tons of grammar mistakes and done by angsty twelve year olds.

But those that had been in the community for a while would laugh, and wish they had it that good.

I started writing back when Fanfiction net allowed pictures within the story, and A Moon Romance archive was still active, so it's been a long while.

I wanted to bring up the topic of the “Mary Sue Limitus Test”, and how it negatively affected my ability to create anything because I was so worried about being attacked by "good“ authors even to this day I freeze up when trying to make something, it kind of dawned on me that there is a lot more to this.

When I say ”good“ I meant their grammar was perfect, their plots structure followed all the rules set by Hollywood screen writers, they did everything mechanically right. The thing is I never liked their stories because of they were very, very boring.

And it was nothing but down to earth romance, every single one of them!

Sailor moon, down to earth romance. Digimon, down to earth romance. Shaman King, down to earth romance. Tiny Toons, down to earth romance.

I wanted to branch out into action, adventure and even horror (which I gotten some praise for when I use to write). I even got some complements that it was a breath of fresh air, though I had to work on my grammar.

Funny thing about grammar, everyone commented on it but no one ever offer advice or pointed out the mistakes I was making. It was like somebody broke down on the side of the road, only to have people driving by while pointing out the car is not working.

I quit writing fanfiction after a few years when a lot, and I do mean a lot of ”good“ fanfiction writers were engaging in a whole genre of torturing other ”lesser" fanfiction writers in very gruesome detail. It gotten worse and worse and it seem like the authors actually wanted to hurt people for writing Mary sues, crack pairings and other “bad things”, and at times it felt like I was actually being stalked by these people.

Well that and those over at Moon Romance where becoming very, cult like, and I mean an actual cult treating the manga as this holy bible, and quoting like it complete with “ACT I Proverb 13” structuring.

It was just unreal.

I posted one fan fiction over a decade ago and it still gets “likes” and praise. It was written as practice doing a battle scene. Every time I completely forget about it a comment shows up in an email.

I wrote a couple parodies but they were only on message boards for the works. Readers were too busy laughing to pick up the errors.

Skewer a work just the right way and critics tend not to be so picky.

Then there's the Star Trek tribute comic I posted here. Probably my personal favorite of the comics I've done.

I've never joined a fan fic group, and until recently I've never gone as far as writing any. Generally I have a low opinion of fan fiction, most I've come across is exactly what it's mocked for. That said, as some of you have seen I've started a star trek fan comic. Well I prefer the term unofficial spin off…

I think usually the best fan fiction comes from when an author has something they want to say with it, or expand on an aspect of it, rather than just a desire to play in that world or imagining kinky sex between the characters.

Furwerk -

I relate to what you're saying about the culture of criticism and how it can make you doubt yourself as far as writing your own stuff. I've struggled with self doubt and worrying about what others think for most of my life.

Slowly I'm getting better, but even after many years it can still get to me. My confidence took a hit lately, not with writing or comics, but just life in general, with perceiving people not liking me or something and letting that have too much influence. I'm working my way out of that though - it's a constant battle.

We can't do anything about the culture or other people. They're gonna do what they're gonna do. But it's important to do what you want to do regardless of that!

I struggle with these things in life but I've gradually gotten better with continuing with my own projects regardless of not being perfect (it never will be) or at the standard I would want (gotta DO it to get to that point someday).

I hope you can do your stuff, writing or comics or whatever, and not let other people's opinions or what you imagine their opinions might be to stop you! Time goes by, man! Don't let too much of it be wasted!

My first writing attempts were Trek fanfic, lo these many years ago. Thankfully they're lost forever. I still remember what fun they were, though. No regrets.

I always thought the main reason fan fiction even exists is for people to play and explore.
YES we criticise it for Mary Sues, self inserts, crazy grammar and spelling etc, but none of that matters a jot because the style is all about just doing what you want and having fun. It's fan fiction so can't be used commercially in that form so you're free to do whatever!

Plenty of famous professional writers have started out as fan fiction writers and I'm not talking about 50 shades of Grey or Twilight, I mean properly famous classic authors like Isaac Asimov or Emily Bronte. Just do whatever you like in fan fiction, get the bad stuff out of your system and use the experience to learn how to write better. It's meant to be fun.

You shouldn't BE a “good” fan fiction writer because by the time you've improved enough you should be moving on to doing your own stuff.

Wow I was wise to write that, hahaha!

This post is up here in the main part of the forums again because some loser spammer commented on it as a way to sneak in a link to their lame essay writing service. Those and the online casino dickheads need a barbed wire catheter.

Ozoneocean wrote:
I always thought the main reason fan fiction even exists is for people to play and explore.
YES we criticise it for Mary Sues, self inserts, crazy grammar and spelling etc, but none of that matters a jot because the style is all about just doing what you want and having fun. It's fan fiction so can't be used commercially in that form so you're free to do whatever!

Plenty of famous professional writers have started out as fan fiction writers and I'm not talking about 50 shades of Grey or Twilight, I mean properly famous classic authors like Isaac Asimov or Emily Bronte. Just do whatever you like in fan fiction, get the bad stuff out of your system and use the experience to learn how to write better. It's meant to be fun.

You shouldn't BE a “good” fan fiction writer because by the time you've improved enough you should be moving on to doing your own stuff.

I like this point of view- a lot.