September is here: school is right around the corner.
Normally in Ontario, classes would begin the day after Labour Day, but thanks to the craziness that is 2020, the new start date is Tuesday a week later.
Despite the schedule change, I still feel the electric rush of excitement that comes with the changing of the seasons and the (relative) return to routine.
All the emotions hit me at once: eagerness for the final section of the year, fear at the eventual close of summer, sadness at the loss of free time.
The last one doesn’t hit quite as hard as it used to, but when I was a kid, I’d be sad to go back to school, because it meant less time during the day to devote to writing fanfiction.
I can’t recall how many fanfics I wrote while in high school, but I do remember writing A LOT. Like, hours upon hours.
Somewhere nestled in my storage is a red binder containing hundreds of pages of handwritten content for story ideas to be used for fanfics. Some I took and posted online, some remained unfinished and unpublished, never to see the light of day.
Even though a lot of this writing never went beyond my own personal enjoyment, I don’t consider the time spent on the fanfics “wasted”.
However, I’m aware that I’m in the minority. There are a lot of people that don’t value fanfiction and consider it waste of time as a hobby.
All fanfics are bad.
Fanfiction will never be considered serious literature.
Fanfics are written by horny teenage girls.
You can’t make money off your fanfics.
You can’t publish fanfics.
I get where the dissenters are coming from…with MOST of their arguments.
But writing fanfiction a waste of time? I couldn’t disagree more. Sure, some of the stuff I wrote was bad and unreadable – maybe even downright cringe-worthy – but the fact is that it’s still written work. It’s something I created.
Even if those pages in my red binder are never meant for human consumption, I can still consider it time spent on my craft.
The only way you can get better at something is to do it consistently.
You may have a natural aptitude for something – say, writing, ballet, saxophone or tennis – but even if you have said talent, you can’t expect to improve unless you put in the time and learn to get consistently better.
And the naysayers will try their hardest to tell you that writing fanfiction is bad or pointless, but if it’s how you get your start and practice your craft, then who the heck cares?
I stopped writing fanfiction in 2018, but I still consider that chapter in my life one of value, a pivotal step in my growth and progression as a fiction writer and, eventually, a published author.
What do you think? Is fanfiction a good way to learn how to write, or is it a crutch that hinders more than helps? Let me know in the comments!