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On Friday I was scrolling twitter and came across a hot take that had my blood boiling. The whole thread was an affront to my functioning brain but as I am not really the right person to talk about what this twitter person (I shall call her gatekeeper here) said about queerness, what I want to focus on is fanfic on the whole and this gatekeeper’s assertion that it is in some way (any and every way apparently) less than traditional pubbed works.
Which is, of course, unequivocally false. In literally every way.
Also, depending on what kind of definition you give to fanfiction, then both my novels, pubbed by an indie publisher, are fanfic. And I started writing because I read a book that would classify as a fanfic, that took my favorite literary character and just…. effed him up and I sat there, late at night, in my bed, going, “I could do better.”
Authors such as Joanne Harris, Pretti Chhibber, Alex White, Emma Lord and many, many others took to twitter the following day to talk positively about fanfic and how it is and always has been a very valid form of writing. No, it is not the same as being a trad pubbed author, but then again neither is being self-pubbed. So, which again makes my point because people who think poorly of fanfic often think poorly of self-pub and any other way that a writer chooses to pick that isn't the way this gatekeeper thinks is the ONE TRUE WAY.
Gatekeeper’s statement about fanfic teaching you to write worse is still, two days later sitting in my gut like a lead balloon. And here is why, The Atlantic wrote a good article on it in 2019, fanfic teaches you to be a better writer. Full stop. Do not pass go.
For a writer, aside from reading, the best way to get better writer is to write, and more often than not you maybe don’t want the whole world to see those stories, but feedback from a reader like what you get on fanfiction sites? That's invaluable.
The whole thread from gatekeeper is just...wrong. It doesn't get better the farther you read and I made the mistake, in my anger, of quote tweeting the first tweet. I won’t make that mistake again, gatekeepers like this person don’t need more views. What I will do, is say, that as a woman, as an author, as a person with a damn brain;
FANFIC IS WRITING. You do not have to try for a trad pud deal to be considered a good writer, or a writer at all. FANFIC WRITERS CAN BE VERY GOOD. (I have read fanfic that is better than some stuff out there on shelves today)
Fanfic can be your endgame. Self pub can be your endgame. Getting trad pubbed can be your endgame. All valid avenues to pursue and don’t let anyone tell you different.
When I was talking to my friends about this, there was one, the lovely Amanda who had the absolute best thing to say about it. And this is what I'm going to end with; her very own mic drop.
I never questioned whether me writing fanfic made me a writer or not. I share my words with an audience; that makes me a writer.