Tears of the Fallen

Fan Fiction

Recently another designer I know told me about an announcement a girl in one of the groups she's in made. She told everyone that she was going to stop writing fan fiction because she now felt she was too old for it as she had matured and grown up. This girl is in her late teens early twenties. Honey, I'm 49 and I still write fan fiction. I love it and I will keep doing it. Hell, a friend of mine I sometimes write with is older than me and she writes fan fiction too. 

You are never, ever too old for something you enjoy doing and that makes you happy. No matter what it is.

If she'd reached a point where she no longer enjoyed writing it, fine then stop writing it. But too make excuses for quitting? That's ridiculous. 

I will continue to write fan fiction because it's fun to create characters and make them fit into a world that is already fully realized. To do it in a way that it is possible they could have been a part of that original work. The most popular story from the start on my writing profile has been my X-Men fan fic. It is the most ridiculous version of that world possible, but it was meant to be humorous while still portraying the world of the X-men as well as I could. On the profile I share with Holly, we have both a Ranger's Apprentice fan fic and a Supernatural one and we're currently writing a Stargate one with plans for a Stargate Atlantis one as well. 

Fan fiction is not a throw away genre. It takes planning and research to create characters that are believable in that already existing world. 

While Holly and I are both huge fans of the Stargate universe, it still takes research to write the books. You have to make certain you're getting things correct. Especially considering it's a Sci-fi series. The science has to be right as well. So yes, the world was already created by someone else, but it's still work to write a book based on it. So, if you consider fan fiction childish don't write it or read it, but don't discount it as something meant only for children. 

It that was the case cosplay would be non existent, it isn't exactly the same but it's in the realm of fan fiction and it's done by countless adults who want to be a part of those worlds. That is what fan fictions allows. It lets both writer and reader be a part of that world. And it's damn awesome to read a extremely well written fan fiction. To see new characters become a part of that world or see it completely reimagined in a way that is completely possible. 

Get out there and write. Do what makes you happy and share it with others.