Writing Wednesday (5) - Writing Fan-fiction vs. Original

Disclaimer: I'm not an author nor am I an editor or any kind of expert. I only can share my aspiring adventures with you, but I do hope, it'll help many other aspiring writers and we can go along the road together. :)


I haven't posted Writing Wednesday in a while (the first week it was because of the Internet deficit then last week I literally forgot it ((silly, senile me))), and it was a little hard to pick the line up, thus it's a bit different topic now. Today, we're talking about writing fan-fiction vs. original.

First, let's have a closer look at the pros and cons of both.

Fan-fiction

Pros

1. There's a ready-to-use world you can exploit as it is, or temper with, add and take away if you like.
2. The characters are already created and made up.
3. You have a writing style pattern to follow. (Though you definitely should write in your style. Always.)
4. There's a basic idea and plot therefore you don't have to plan anything on your own. Also, it can be a call for creativity.
5. Most of the fans of the certain book/movie/etc. will read it.
6. (You can't publish it.)

Cons

1. What you do with the characters might not be true to what they are like in the original story.
2. You may not get a good critic. Fans tend to write they love it even if it's not that good, because they love the book/movie and they rarely give you any kind of real review.

Original

Pros

1. Your can shape your world as you like.
2. You can make your own characters. (I love this one. It's so exciting to create a living character.)
3. It makes your writing voice stronger and lets you develop your own style.
4. You can do whatever you want with the plot and story, because you plan it.
5. You might have the luck to get real critic.

Cons

It's definitely a lot harder. You have to build up everything and that's a difficult and way longer task. There are many things that might not work out, for you need to improve it yet, but it's surely worth it. To write something on your own is a matchless experience.



Bottomline: Personally, I think it's the best to do both. As you can see, they develop different skills and so they both add something you need to be a better writer. Because you can always improve.