Why do you write fan fiction?

[Snowman37]

I don't understand the concept of fan fiction. Could someone clue me in? As a writer, I am writing a science-fiction novel revolving around a time machine. I am working on the outline and notes. I plan to finish the first draft by Christmas. I'm hoping to find a publisher and get the process started some time in 2012. Why write fan fiction, considering you can't get it published? That's what puzzles me. Is it just a hobby? Are you a writer, and it's just something on the side?

[Goose]

It's a hobby! I love the Stargate shows (well, not so much SGU, but that's a different story), and I always imagined that there was much more to the (fictional) Universe than what the show could portray. Writing fan fiction gives me an outlet to shape and share that imagination! I don't want to get it published, because it's just something I do for fun. It's enough for me to write a little bit and then posting it online. I know that some people like writing really long pieces of fan fiction, but that's not the way I do it. Personally, I could never write a full-length book based on fan fiction. That's not what it's about; it's about a small hobby that I occasionally practice.

[Akamaimom]

There are a few fanfiction writers who are commercially published authors in their own right.

I write because it's fun. Because it allows me to finish storylines that I feel that the PTB left unfinished, or write stories of my own using these characters that I feel that I know so very well.

Also, it's allowing me to find my voice as a writer, and practice a craft that I've always been interested in honing.

It helps that the fandom is accepting and nice and that my readers also give me feedback on plot, character development, and style. This is valuable information that helps me to get better at what I do. Also, it's nice to get little notes encouraging you to keep writing. Some of my readers have actually become my friends.

There are many reasons why people write fanfic, and there are no "right" answers. Everybody writes for their own reasons, these listed above are just some of mine.

[LC_]

I really enjoy writing the characters and their interactions.
And yeah it is possible to get fan fiction published...that's basically what the Stargate novels, published by Fandemonium, are...altho, granted they don't accept unsolicitated manuscripts.

[WraithRichard]

I like to write moral gutpunches, especially when I see so few and so many common things to turn on their heads.

[SF_and_Coffee]

I write it to keep the Stargate 'verse alive, even if only in my own imagination and that of my readers. (Of course, if you subscribe into the metafictional version of the Many Worlds theory, maybe I'm doing more than just that.)

My current work-in-progress was conceived as a means of scratching an itch, so to speak. I'd seen a character created and used in just one single episode of SG-1, and found him to be sympathetic and compelling enough to deserve a future, whereas the show's writers never gave him one. Fortunately, when they supposedly killed him off, they'd done it in such a way as to leave a loophole that might well mean he survived. I exploited that, and ran with it. (See my sig for links!)

Oh, and for the record, I've been writing original science fiction for over thirty years. I haven't even tried to get it published yet, because I'm a complete perfectionist about my craft, and my current fanfic WIP was intended, in addition to the reasons described above, to function as a writing exercise. It appears to be working, as I truly think it exhibits some of my best work to date. Eventually, I hope to carry what I've learned from it over into my original work.

[s09119]

I don't understand the concept of fan fiction. Could someone clue me in? As a writer, I am writing a science-fiction novel revolving around a time machine. I am working on the outline and notes. I plan to finish the first draft by Christmas. I'm hoping to find a publisher and get the process started some time in 2012. Why write fan fiction, considering you can't get it published? That's what puzzles me. Is it just a hobby? Are you a writer, and it's just something on the side?

Because Stargate is a show that changed my views on sci-fi quite radically and because I love the world and characters its writers have created. A chance to play around with them in new and ways unique to my thought process is a lot of fun and very relaxing.

Plus I love writing anyway.

[AllyCat]

As I have not wrote anything, be it fan fiction, poems or what not in a very long time it is hard for me to come up with the exact reasons I did so.

I enjoyed the freedom that writing gave to me, regardless if it was fan fiction or not. There was a simple guilty pleasure in being able to be free of oneself for a time. I would become lost to myself when writing and when I finally would come back, so to speak, I would find minutes or perhaps hours having gone by and this beautiful piece of work before me. It was self expression at its best.

Movies, episodes of my favorite shows on T.V, or beyond became an extension of myself. Perhaps if only to keep the magic that I felt while watching alive. It is one thing that I do miss, being as I still have this horrible case of writers block.

Perhaps one day I shall write again. But for me those are some of the reasons I wrote.

[sbz]

Not everyone who enjoys writing aspires to publish (and of those who do, very few will be successful so I wish you luck). For those people, fanfic is, in my view, the logical thing to pursue to scratch the writing itch. Fanfiction gives you an instant world, characters, and most importantly a built-in audience. It takes out a lot of the work and still provides the satisfaction of telling a good story and having it appreciated by readers.

That said, for me personally, I started writing fic many years ago... hmm. Now that I think about it, it's hard to articulate. I think it developed from reading fics and thinking "I can do that." And then I started enjoying writing more and doing it more.

Specifically, I started writing in Stargate fandom because I wanted to write the kind of story I'd always wanted to read but never found, and I wanted to cut loose with something totally fun and frivolous (I was a bit burnt out from academic writing and other projects).

Some people do it to improve through practice and feedback. The reasons will be as numerous as the writers.

[thekillman]

fan fiction is the desire to see something on paper that the writers won't write. i write fanfiction for a collaboration world building project (also known as the Gateworld Virtual Fleet). it's fun because you get to think over what happens to the SG universe, how, why, and you write stories about that.

in fact, we got to a 3.0, where earth had moved (through stories) to a large power. time is around 2060 and later, and we fight a war in another galaxy (andromeda) and we meet more races.

it's fun. it's fun to write. currently into an unofficial 4.0 where we have reset the universe for various issues (like containing the amount of uber + realism of dozens of wars) .


and i write the Lucian Alliance. and it makes you think. it makes you wonder who make up the LA, and why.

[Sapphire_Jade]

I write fan fiction for Shippy purposes... If my ship is non canon then I write my stories as if they were the canon couple.. or if they are canon I write it to get more out of the relationship..

oh and what other's have said it's fun to write it.. and very rewarding when people actually like your writing.. I would never want to be a professional writer heck no! but writing fan fic is a great way for me to continue stories of TV show and books and movies that I love

[Skydiver]

I started to write because, way back when, I'd read all through Heliopolis (they had like 2,000 stories back then) and was desperate for more SG1 fix, but there was nothing there. I like Sam, but most of the early fic was Jack or Daniel focused, which really did nothing for me.

So, after reading some fic, i was like 'dude, I can do that', and I started writing. I'd come up with stories and write them down and then type them up (at that point in time, I didn't even have a computer at home, i wrote it out long hand at home and typed it up at work every day.

Much to my surprise, I'm good at it. I have about 370 fic out there, and have gone beyond just Sam or what I call 'real team' fic. (amongst some 'team' writers, the word 'team' is code for 'daniel and his support staff')

Would I like to be published? who wouldn't? However the stargate fandom isn't an easy one. The one approved and official company uses criteria for accepting their writers that few can meet, so that door is largely closed to anyone without an invitation. (when they started they had open subs, 3-4 years later most people that subbed never got replies to their subs. I finally got one after - in a bad mood - i ranted online about how flipping long it was taking....had my denial within 72 hours )

I don't know if I'd ever venture into original fic. I think because everyone gets so bogged down in 'create this universe, create this, spell out that, define this.....' and there seems to be years of prep work before you can even write a story.

but....I started to write fan fic because I loved the characters, and there weren't enough fic out there about my favorite character, so wrote them. and it's a great hobby. I run into people at work all the time and we'll tell them 'you need to write a script' for some promo or the such, and they get this deer in the headlights look, and i'm like 'it's a 3 minute video, ain't tough'. Writing isn't tough to me. It seems to come rather naturally.

[thekillman]

my problem is, i can easily think up stories. but when i've thought it up, it feels like it already exists, making the "Writing it down" process extremely boring

[Falcon Horus]

I write, therefore I am.

It's a hobby. Gives my chaotic mind means to express itself... I write in English, though my native language is Dutch. I learned a lot through writing, both in spelling and grammar, as in new words and expressions. When I look back on my earlier days... oh dear...

I have written original works (unpublished, unless you count that one poem I did ages ago, which I can't even remember what it was about and for which I never got my prize - I did win first place though). Maybe some day, who knows, I'll chase that writer-dream. For now, however, I'll settle with fanfic and other writings.

[mathpiglet]

As someone who just recently joined the forum, my fanfiction writing has been mostly done for a different franchise. When I joined the Highlander forum, I had never heard of fanfiction and was attracted to the wonderful stories I found there. It took the characters I loved into new situations, adding to my pleasure. I read and read and commented. I got dragged (literally) into a chain story, then another and another. I learned my writing from many different people: a retired English prof, a published author as well as talented amateurs.

Finally I struck out on my own, especially after seeing the one season of The Raven and wanting more. People enjoyed my stories which encouraged me to write more. When I started watching Stargate, a crossover formed in my mind, so I wrote that too. Now I'm working on a second crossover.

I approach my writing in a mathematical fashion. It's problem-solving. What if? What would happen when? If these two characters met, would they like each other? How did those two meet? People would contact me and ask me to write certain scenarios and I would comply.

At my age, it's good to keep the mind firing on all cylinders and learning something new is a good way to accomplish that.

Thanks for asking!