Today can jump off a cliff into shark-infested waters already. Holy shit. It’s been dreadful. I could easily go on about why today was one of many miserable Mondays I’ve experienced as of late (I still maintain we revoke Monday’s status as a day of the week until it gets its act together). I’m going to focus on the positive instead.

For instance: I replaced the handle set-up for my downstairs toilet today. I realize this doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the first time I’ve ever had to do such a thing. Problems like that had a way of fixing themselves at home, or so I seemed to think (the joke is my stepdad got stuck dealing with all of these issues). I’m one minor home repair closer to being a proper, responsible adult. Sort of.

Time for real talk. I’m really freaking hungry, and today was almost bad enough for me to justify using the word hangry. Almost. It sounds too stupid to really justify. Instead of dancing around, I’m getting to the topic now. And then I’ve got an actual fiction writing project for while I wait to hear back from Cary Press in regards to my latest round of what I assume are stupid questions.

Day Thirty-Four

Let’s talk about fanfiction. I know, I know. This again. It’s a topic the internet has plenty to say about, and I’m sure I’ve contributed my two cents regarding these fan iterations of more famous works. For as long as new content pops into existence that manages to generate a following, there will be fanfiction. Honestly, I don’t think this is a bad thing. Before anyone starts an angry mob, hear me out on this.

There’s good fanfiction and there’s evil fanfiction. The kind that spends its days in a secret lair, finding ways to completely ruin something people love in such terrible ways that fans will turn against its source material just out of spite. I’ll get to that in a bit. When I say good fanfiction here, I don’t mean well-written prose. I’m actually talking about fanfiction that serves as a means to help writers find their own voices. I’m not (completely) ashamed to admit, many years ago, I wrote fanfiction here and there. Very, very few people were allowed to read it, as it was quite terrible. However, it contributed to my interests in writing, and that’s not an entirely uncommon side-effect of writing fanfiction. The progression in such cases is a writer creating content based off of another story, show, comic, or whatever. With the right encouragement and enough motivation, the fanfic material gradually becomes original content. I realize this is a bit idealistic, as it’s not always the case, but it’s really great to see someone move from fanfiction to creating their own, original art.

I would argue that fanfiction can be used as a gateway art-form to original content, if used right. Continued writing practice, even in this form, will gradually help develop a distinct narrative voice. Usually. I’m not saying this is a sure thing for everyone, of course.

Evil fanfiction, on the other hand…Well, I start to take issues with fanfics when their creator fixates solely on recreating something with a personal twist without any attempts at personal growth. I realize that not everyone writing fanfiction is doing so with the intention of eventually creating something new and exciting. That’s fine. It’s the people who keep doing the same thing over again, expecting to become a part of something already established (example: people writing their own versions of Adventure Time in hopes of one day writing for Adventure Time) are really just wasting their time and efforts.

Like any other starting point, fanfiction can be a tool for great good or horrible evil (with an obligatory nod to Fifty Shades of Grey here).

Honestly, I’m thoroughly bored with this topic and no closer to eating dinner. So that’s unfortunate.

I’ll come up with something less god-awful for tomorrow. Probably.

Sixty-six days remaining.