Something from “Ergo Writing” blog which was written on March 23rd 2007:

When I first heard about fanfiction I thought it was a travesty and that I would never do something like that, but then I realized growing up most of what I wrote was fanfiction and bad Mary-Sue fanfiction at that. I was eleven and had written a story about me being the long lost half-sister of Brain from ‘Thunderbirds’ and falling madly in love with Virgil, the second eldest brother. What was that if not fanfiction? I’m glad that story has been lost in the transatlantic move and will never see the light of day again because it was, I’m sure, absolutely horrendous.

Several years later I wrote a story about someone who turned out to be Clark Kent’s sister. My idea on the origin of ‘Supergirl’ given I hadn’t read or seen much about it, and I was watching ‘Lois and Clark’ obsessively. I wrote something else around the same time about the Red Dwarf crew finding another hologram on an abandoned ship and she and Rimmer falling in love.

More bad Mary-Sue-ing.

Yet, when I was in college and someone told me about Fanfiction.net I freaked, and spat and hissed and thought it was the most horrible thing ever created. Now I have an account there and semi-regularly update it with random things. I’m not overly popular but I have a few ‘hardcore’ fans there. I think the problem is that the one thing I generally steer away from is romance in my stories, and romantic stories are by far the most popular there. I think I’m afraid I will have a Mary-Sue relapse, and no one wants that.

I’ve come to realize though that writing fanfiction is a good exercise. At least for me. It helps me to come up with things that I can use for ‘plot bunnies’ in other things I write. It helps me to just write random fun things that I won’t necessarily put into anything so I can get them out of my system and move on to better fictitious pieces, and sometimes you just get these whacky ideas when you’re watching a show. I treat writing fanfiction like the writing exercises I used to do in primary school. The sort where the teacher would write a paragraph up on the blackboard and have you finish it in a two page story.

The major thing it’s helping me with is ending things. I have such a hard time with ending stories, and they shouldn’t drag on forever that’s the worst thing possible. All the stories I have are beginnings and middles without ends. Hopefully now that I’ve seen even if I make things several chapters, with regards to a fanfic I can in fact end it, this will help me to find the ends to my own works, and the important step after that: finding a publisher.

I also have some things published on fanlib.com and the specialty site PGSM Fanfiction. Thus are the way your outlook changes. I have written anything fiction or non-fiction for a few weeks now. Since before we moved I’ve had a problem where things are sticking in my head and refusing to come out even if I have the idea and it seems good.