I think there's also a certain element for me of, "If you can write well enough for fic, why not write your own cool stuff?" I got back into writing after a long absence thanks to fic, so I get how it gets people's feet wet, but there's nothing like the rush of writing your own thing, figuring it all out as you go along, seeing how the pieces of your own puzzle come together...and if you never progress beyond fic, you'll never discover that for yourself. To me, that seems like an awful shame.
Just to offer an alternate POV from someone who hears a lot of "you should write a novel" from RL folks: Fic and original stuff are wildly different, and for me, fic is a hell of a lot more fun to write. I like writing short little character-illuminating pieces, often ones which make considerable reference to canon, as well as cracky fun things that rely on canon knowledge to get all the jokes, and you just can't do that with original fic. (Well, maybe if you were writing fanfic of your own original series? What I'm saying is there has to be a mass of canon extant before I can get to the kind of stuff I like to write.) Plus there's the aspect of "I can slave over a novel (which is a format I hate writing in; my heart belongs to the 10,000-word-and-under set)*, and maybe, if I'm really lucky, after I revise it to fit what a publisher wants, something resembling my original concept might get seen by the wider world" versus "I can pour my heart into this fun little thing, have an audience already there--mostly composed of people whom I not only know, but who know the canon and can bring their own background with it to my fic--and we can enjoy it communally." In a sense, fanfic for me is a way of engaging and discussing the canon, and as such is closer to literary analysis than to storytelling.
Um. Okay, sorry, that just hit a nerve. Basically I'm saying that original does not necessarily equal worthier in some people's value systems, including mine, and so that's why some of us who write well enough for fic don't write our "own cool stuff," or go back and forth. Though I agree with you it's good to try both, just to see which one prefers, and I certainly don't want to try to force my own preferences on you. :)
* ETA: Okay, so there's a short story/flash fiction/etc. market out there, somewhere, but my understanding is that it's pretty dead.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 01:53 am (UTC)Just to offer an alternate POV from someone who hears a lot of "you should write a novel" from RL folks: Fic and original stuff are wildly different, and for me, fic is a hell of a lot more fun to write. I like writing short little character-illuminating pieces, often ones which make considerable reference to canon, as well as cracky fun things that rely on canon knowledge to get all the jokes, and you just can't do that with original fic. (Well, maybe if you were writing fanfic of your own original series? What I'm saying is there has to be a mass of canon extant before I can get to the kind of stuff I like to write.) Plus there's the aspect of "I can slave over a novel (which is a format I hate writing in; my heart belongs to the 10,000-word-and-under set)*, and maybe, if I'm really lucky, after I revise it to fit what a publisher wants, something resembling my original concept might get seen by the wider world" versus "I can pour my heart into this fun little thing, have an audience already there--mostly composed of people whom I not only know, but who know the canon and can bring their own background with it to my fic--and we can enjoy it communally." In a sense, fanfic for me is a way of engaging and discussing the canon, and as such is closer to literary analysis than to storytelling.
Um. Okay, sorry, that just hit a nerve. Basically I'm saying that original does not necessarily equal worthier in some people's value systems, including mine, and so that's why some of us who write well enough for fic don't write our "own cool stuff," or go back and forth. Though I agree with you it's good to try both, just to see which one prefers, and I certainly don't want to try to force my own preferences on you. :)
* ETA: Okay, so there's a short story/flash fiction/etc. market out there, somewhere, but my understanding is that it's pretty dead.