Category: Musings

Fan fiction, more commonly referred to as Fanfic, is loosely defined as a story written by a fan of a movie, TV show, book, video game, play, musical, or even a real person, usually a celebrity. Usually these stories explore something either not presented in the source material’s universe (or canon) or is an alternative to canon. For example, a fan could create a story where Kirk and Spock die and now Scotty is captain of the Enterprise.

Although the internet has played a huge role in the explosion and ease of publishing fan fiction, it’s actually been around for hundreds of years. According to Wikipedia,an early example of what could be considered fan fiction is a narrative poem from the 15th century poet Robert Henryson titled The Testament of Cresseid in which the poet imagines the fate of one of the characters in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde. Another more modern example is the numerous stories fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories produced in the 10 year absence of the character from his apparent death in The Final Problem and reappearance in The Empty House. For the most part, though, fan fiction didn’t really take off until the 20th century.

Personally I’ve read more fan fiction than I’ve written. In fact I’ve only written one piece of fan fiction. No, I’m not telling you which show it’s about as it’s not something I ever want to revise let alone put it up on one of the many fan fiction websites. While it’s fun to play around in my head with ideas of taking certain characters on a journey, I’m more nervous about writing fan fiction than my own work because being a nerd I know just how anal retentive our lot can be. Too easy to make a mistake about eye color or catch phrase or worse, the dreaded out of character (OOC) accusation. Also, working with an established set of characters and a world is just harder to write in than a world I get to control.

That being said, I do like the idea of fan fiction provided the story is a good story and makes sense. There are lots of websites out with the most popular and well-known is Fanfiction.net. Others include Wattpad, Archive of Our Own, and Ficwad just to name a few.

But fan fiction isn’t just limited to online; there are a whole slew of books inspired by many of Jane Austen’s characters, for example. Just a few weeks ago I went to an historical fiction panel at a conference where two of the panelists authored books centering on the character of Mr. Darcy. Go to any book store or library and you’ll see loads of books in both the Star Wars and Star Trek universe. To go one step further, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the duo that developed TV version of A Song of Ice and Fire into the Game of Thrones show, essentially are writing fan fiction. Yes, they are basing the series on the books however, there are plenty of scenes in the show that aren’t even hinted at in the books. Another example is the show Doctor Who . Throughout the revival of the show, all of the writers for it grew up watching and loving the show. Now they get the chance to live out their fan fiction dreams. How cool is that!

When it comes to fan fiction it doesn’t surprise me the top genres people write about across the board are inspired by science fiction and fantasy books, movies, and TV shows. According to fanfiction.net, the top 10 TV shows with the most stories, 50% were sci-fi/fantasy shows. For movies the percentage rises to 70% of the top ten movies are in the sci-fi/fantasy genre. On the books side the percentage is just as high. Is this because by the very nature sci-fi and fantasy are almost always set in worlds that are not our own that it provides a great sandbox to play in.

Naturally there are authors out there who discourage fan fiction. Authors like George R.R. Martin and Anne Rice vocally discourage fans from posting stories involving any of their characters because well, they created the characters and also because they feel it doesn’t lend itself to good writing. Many others, including J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyers, don’t mind fan fiction and even encourage it feeling flattered that the worlds and characters they’ve created inspire others. Art inspires other art.

If one is going to read or write fan fiction there are some things to keep in mind. Firstly, it is a great idea and a requirement on many sites to clearly state up front that you are using characters you did not create. This is a big reason why much of fan fiction isn’t published as books unless it’s been authorized.

Secondly, it is a world with its own lingo. For example, the term slash refers to a romance-based story involving the two main male characters in a relationship that doesn’t actually exist in canon. The most famous example would be Kirk/Spock of Star Trek. Another variation of this idea is shipping characters, usually heterosexual characters, into a relationship. Think of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger in a relationship. On a sillier note, the term crack means the story is humorous and outrageous in nature. Personally I like those the best just because humor is hard to write and to imagine characters acting goofy. If you see a story described as AU it stands for alternate universe. Usually in these types of stories the writer puts a character in a universe vastly different from canon. To stay with the Star Trek theme, an AU story where Kirk is dead and Spock has to deal with that. Another term is warm and fuzzy letting the reader know that the story or at least the end of the story will be a happy ending. There are other terms so if you’re curious, you can check out this link from Wikipedia.

While fan fiction can be a great and fun way to express one’s admiration there are a lot of stories out there that are either poorly written or an excuse to insert sex and violence in a world that doesn’t have it. If you are going to write fan fiction make sure you treat it like any other piece of writing. Revise it, edit it, have a friend or few look it over, and most importantly put out your best effort and be respectful to the characters and world they live in. Make sure you rate your stories accordingly. Many sites have a rating system similar to what is used for movies and TV shows and allows you to filter stories by these ratings as well as by character and story length.

Most importantly, enjoy yourself whether you are reading or writing. There are some gems out there.

Last week I not so briefly discussed the first day of my experience at the Southern Kentucky Writers Conference. This week’s post, shorter I promise, is about the second day of the event which had more panels, a book fair, and featured Charlaine Harris as the guest speaker.

Once again the day started at 9am and the first event was an hour long talk and Q & A session with Charlaine Harris. I’ll admit I’ve never read any of her books but I have watched the True Blood series and knew who she was. This was the first big author I’ve ever heard give a talk and it was fun sitting in the audience eavesdropping on people around me who were big fans. Of course as soon as she came out, the cell phones went up so people could take her picture but as soon as the talk began people were considerate enough to put their phones away.

Ms. Harris is a warm, down-to-earth Southern lady and you could tell she truly enjoys what she does. She gave a brief background of how she got into writing (her husband encouraged her to quit her job and write full time in addition to raising children) in addition to her latest book and what she has coming up.

Most of the hour, though, was Q & A. During the Q & A I learned about what her typical writing schedule is. She says she writes about an averages about six to eight pages of new material each day, edits other works, and spends a lot of time answering e-mails and other business related items. As can be imagined, most of the questions she answered were about the Sookie Stackhouse books so all those went over my head. One thing I found refreshing was when she was asked if she could go back and change anything she’d written in the series, would she and she answered yes. The most memorable question to me was when one fan asked about Ms. Harris’ thoughts about changes the show True Blood has made from the books. I’m paraphrasing her response but essentially she isn’t made aware of changes and said it’s sometimes a treat for her to see what’s going to happen on the show since it is different from her books.

That got me thinking about changes the show Game of Thrones has made from the book series A Song of Ice and Fire . I’ve read all the books and while I sometimes don’t like the changes in the show, part of me does appreciate the show taking the risk with those changes. There has to be that balance between pleasing book readers and show viewers. How do you hold the interest of both groups? Hearing from an author’s thoughts about changes from book to TV show was food for thought.

After the Q & A, she did a book signing but I didn’t go because that is when the panels for the day started. Also I didn’t have a book to sign and figured later in the day I would stop by and purchase the graphic novel she mentioned but by that time she was gone.

The first panel I went to was about historical fiction. Hooray! Some of my people! I was most excited about this panel because it’s a genre I love to read and write in. Unlike the day before, Saturday’s events were panels rather than workshops. What that means is a group of authors of the same genre, usually about three to four, sit in a room with a moderator who asks some questions before turning it over to the audience.

The authors on the panel were: Phil Dunlap, Regina Jeffers, Sharon Lathan, Jacinda Townsend, and Eddie Price . Most of the authors write about various time periods within the 1800s with the exception being Ms. Townsend whose book is set in the 1950s. Three of the panelists wrote books set in America while the other two write Jane Austen inspired books. Each talked about his or her background which was as varied as the subjects of their books yet what united them all was a love of history and the people and places that made up the past. Each also talked about what inspired them to write in those specific time periods.

A bit topic of discussion was about each of their research methods. Many of them have actually traveled to the places mentioned in their books. Each talked about taking the opportunity to immerse themselves in the food, music, and culture of the time period, as well as relying on books and primary sources, like letters, rather than the internet for accuracy. Unfortunately the moderator spent most of the time asking his prepared questions which only left time for one question and it wasn’t one of mine.

While the panels ran the gamut from sports to historical fiction to civil rights to young adult to science fiction, the only other panel I attended was one of two general fiction panels offered. Unlike the other panels this one had two authors, Angela Jackson-Brown and Alma Katsu , as the other scheduled panelists were unable to make it.

Since this was more of a general fiction panel rather genre specific, the author’s responses were more varied. What was nice about this panel was hearing the differences in each woman’s approach to her work as well as their writing schedules. Each also talked about how their own experiences influenced their work. Ms. Jackson-Brown used something from her own background in her book as a way of therapy whereas Ms. Katsu’s work as a government analyst helped her shape the villains in her books. Again I was unable to ask any questions since the moderator’s own ate up most of the time allotted.

After the panels I did some shopping at the book fest but felt too shy to approach any of the authors there. Since I really hadn’t heard of any of the authors until I picked up the newspaper handed out by the conference, I wasn’t sure what the etiquette is. Have them sign the book anyway? And of course my mind goes completely blank when I’m around strangers so any questions I had leave me.

Overall I think my experience was a really valuable one. I learned some new techniques and I brought back the big message of whatever works best for me. There is no right or wrong way to writing and the path to getting published is as varied as the shelves in a book store.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of driving up from South Carolina to attend the Southern Kentucky Writers Conference and Book Fest in Bowling Green, KY. I was nervous and while the beautiful drive helped calm me, this was only my second writers’ conference I’ve ever attended. At least at this conference I was confident I would understand things presented better since I have more knowledge of the writing profession.

The festival itself was a two-day event with the first day, Friday, devoted to 75 minute workshops presented by one author on a specific topic. Saturday was the Book Fest day filled with multiple one-hour long workshops divided by genre headed by a panel of authors. Also, Charlaine Harris , the author of the Sookie Stackhouse books the HBO show True Blood is based upon, was the keynote speaker.

In an effort to do fully capture what I took away from the writers’ conference, I’m going to divide the experience into two posts. This week I’ll cover what I attended Friday while next week’s posting will cover Saturday’s events.

Luckily for me, the conference didn’t start until 9am both days. Thank the writing gods for realizing some of us aren’t morning people. I attended four workshops that day with the first one was presented by author Virginia Smith .

Her topic of discussion was self-publishing vs. traditional publishing. At first I thought it was going to be another in a long line of discussions of the pros and cons of both so I hadn’t anticipated learning anything new. I was pleasantly surprised, though, when she actually spent most of her allotted time going over how one formats a manuscript to upload to Amazon’s Kindle store, the pitfalls and joys of designing your own cover, some real figures of how much she’s made with some of her eBook titles, emphasizing having your book professionally edited, how to determine what category your book should be listed under, and most of all, putting out the best product you know how to.

Although I’m nowhere near being ready to publish a book, it was very helpful to attend a presentation that gives me an idea of what I’m truly in for when I get to that point.

The next workshop I attended was presented by author Allie Pleiter about productivity and muse-wrangling. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this but afterwards felt this was the best and most beneficial workshop or panel I attended.

Ms. Pleiter refers to herself as ‘The Chunky Lady’ not because of any physical features but because of a method she’s developed called The Chunky Method. In it a writer determines how much writing they can effectively get done in one sitting. You are either a Little Chunk or a Big Chunk writer.

According to her, Little Chunk writers can write anywhere at any time on anything, tune out distractions, write in more chunks, but usually write less than 1,000 words in a sitting. She also compared Little Chunk writers to Dorie from Finding Nemo meaning they can be flighty, process-oriented, and are highly interruptible (oh, look a butterfly.)

Big Chunk writers tend to need a dedicated space to work in, are environment driven meaning their physical and emotional environment need to be just right, write less often because they need more time to get themselves in the zone, their space needs to be ergonomically so, but they can usually crank out over 1,000 words in a sitting. To continue with the Finding Nemo analogy Ms. Pleiter compared Big Chunk writers to the father in the movie: they are focused, result-oriented, and hate interruptions.

It’s easy to calculate one’s chunk:
1) Track how many words you write for five sessions.
2) Take the total number of words written and divide by five.
3) That number is your chunk.

What was so great about her presentation was she emphasized more than once that neither Little Chunk nor Big Chunk people have an advantage. Both types of people are successful writers and most of us are a combination of both and can even change types as life steps in forcing the change or just as a writer matures. For example, I’m definitely a Big Chunk writer however, I have worked on writing in different spots just to keep it interesting for me although I think that does affect my word count negatively.

Ms. Pleiter also showed how to use The Chunky Method to calculate how long it will take to write your book. Say you want to write a 100,000 word book. You’re a Big Chunk writer with an average of 2,000 words a session. It’ll take you approximately 50 sessions to get a draft done. You can apply this to setting up a schedule and tracking your progress each session toward that goal. If you aren’t happy with your chunk, she suggested just trying to add 50 words to each session. That comes down to approximately four sentences. Just four more sentences but those quickly add up to another page or two a week.

Another advantage she has found in this method is it allows her to be confidently tell her editor when she’ll have the next book ready as she applies this not only to first draft of one book, but editing a second book while also planning a third book.

The next session I attended was about sharpening one’s perceptual abilities in an effort to help one’s writing. The presenter was John E. Branscum and he brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm. This was helpful since his workshop was post-lunch and most of us were probably suffering from a food coma.

While I appreciated his passion, I must admit this was the only session I attended that I was confused as to what was going on and I’m not sure I got much out of it. It was fun breaking out into small groups to participate in an exercise to come up with three new words and define them. Some people came up with some very brilliant words or phrases.

There was also another exercise about time concerning looking at situations in our own lives through both the lens of when the event originally took place, how it felt, how it looked, vs. how that same event looks to us now. Do we see and understand the viewpoint of the other players involved in that incident?

Other than that, I wasn’t sure what from it I can bring to my own writing but, as one of the presenters stated, just take advice that feels appropriate for your situation and junk the rest.

The last session I attended on Friday was a presentation about how to find a character’s voice. The presenter was children and YA author Kristin Tubb . While I don’t read children’s books and very little YA, I think it was great to have a YA author give the presentation. I’ve heard from a few YA authors that since they are an adult writing from a child’s or teen’s point of view, they needed to work hard to capture their character’s voice. But this is something that all writers, even non-fiction writers, need to learn.

Ms. Tubb gave six keys to voice:
1) Character’s voice (not yours as the author)
2) The world view through your character’s eyes (poor, rich, optimistic, pessimistic, etc.)
3) A characters past + character’s future = character’s present voice
4) Making a vocabulary list of phrases and words that either describe your character or would be what your character would say or feel a connection with
5) The narrative voice meaning the tone, dialogue, pacing, etc. of the story
6) If it doesn’t feel right then it probably isn’t

It’s easy to see how this can easily be applied to children’s or YA literature but clearly this is important for any kind of character. In the past I’ve tried using character sheets but those don’t seem to be beneficial. I’ve tried ‘interviewing’ a character asking questions like ‘What’s your favorite color? And what’s in your fridge right now?’ but it just felt silly especially when you’re asking a late 14th century character about their fridge.

I like vocabulary list idea quite a bit. I also love the idea of music to associate with a character. I heard more than once during the weekend how many authors have a playlist of music they listen to when they are writing. Also many noted they use Pinterest, or other sites, to store pictures they find. Some print out pictures of people they think look like their characters as well as places and objects associated with them.

At the end of the day my head was swimming with information I’m still trying to process but it was a wonderful start to an informative weekend. I came back with so many ideas and renewed energy for writing that I’m trying to figure out where I should start.