Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related You Know You're a Fan Fiction Writer If...

I was sent this list in an e-mail. How many of these items apply to you?

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REPOSTED: You Know You're a Fan Fiction Author If...


You assume one character and carry on conversations with another in your head, typing as you go.

You know of at least fifty ways to describe the color brown.

Every place you go is a potential setting and every person you meet is a potential character.

You love long commutes on public transportation because you can use the time to think about your stories.

You space out in the middle of conversations with your friends, assuming you have any.

You don't have a significant other, or your relationships are always long-distance because when you're not doing your day job, your writing takes top priority.

Your entire family, your friends, and even your family pet have been written into your work in one form or another.

The letters on your computer keyboard are wearing off, or they already have but that's okay because you have learned to touch-type.

You don't notice that the sun has already set and you can't see the keyboard anymore. As long as the letters come out on the screen, you can write and edit just fine.

You growl, laugh, and cry in front of your computer screen, sometimes all at the same time.

You are livid when your story is marked as a favorite, but no feedback is left.

You have a love-hate relationship with your beta reader/editor.

You pass up GLEE when you're hot on a story.

You resolve your personal problems by having your characters live them out and resolve them for you.

You live vicariously through your favorite character.

You go, "WTF?" when your the story and/or its characters slip out of your control.

When your review count is low, you find comfort in tracking reader traffic. Then you growl in anger because hundreds, if not thousands, read your work but did not even leave a comment. The bastards!

You have a template of responses for reviews you get. "Thank you" and "You're very kind" are the top two that you copy/paste.

You have little to no control over your own life, so you enjoy playing God to your characters, only to find that they often outsmart you and go where they want to go.

You know that fanfic writing is a total waste of time and that you will never make any money off of it, but you write anyway.

I think many of them could apply to any writer.

YES! All the time. My family have learnt that a sigh doesn't mean I'm annoyed with them, a laugh doesn't mean they did something funny, and abject despair just means I've written Lois and Clark into a corner and I have no idea how to get them out of it!

Corrina.

Some of these rang true, but some of them… just no. <g>

I've never used my family or friends in a fanfic. I've used the last names of distant co-workers, but I try to keep a very fixed line between real and fic.

I don't have a template for answering feedback. That's seems so impersonal and I take my feedback personally (sometimes much too personally).

I have adored every beta I've had. I've often writhed with jealousy when they write something so amazing that my own work seems like gibberish in comparison, but I console myself that I'm very lucky to have access to their insight.

If the characters had my personal problems, no one would care to read it. Unless you guys really want a story about trying to lose weight or nagging your son to get his homework done.

I will agree, though, that the characters and/or story sometimes take on a mind of their own. Is writing fanfic a waste of time? If I was writing in a vacuum, then maybe it would be. But writing fanfic is my entrée into the world I share with the rest of this board and it's well worth the price of admission.

How do you track reader traffic?

You can't do it on these boards (so far as I know), but some boards show how many people have viewed a particular post. I believe Zoomway's new boards have that feature.

ML

Well, I don't watch "Glee," but I have been known to hold off on watching something else if I am in the middle of writing. If it's something I am just watching for background noise, I can do both. But sometimes I want to fully immerse myself in the scene. So I can relate to that one, as well as the laughing/crying/growling at the computer screen.

Some of these make me cringe because I'd like to think a good, honest person wouldn't behave that way -- but I know it's not always the case. I personally don't believe in "thanks, you're so great" feedback without giving any details -- as both a writer and a reader. I strongly feel that if someone takes the time to write a story -- or leave you feedback about your own -- that you should take the time to be gracious in return. But that doesn't always happen.

And I know of people who have fired their beta for them not being a "yes m'am/sir" type who tells them there's nothing wrong with their story, so yes, I'd say that love/hate relationship definitely exists.

But do I believe that fanfic is a waste of time? No. I think it can provide a valuable escape or vacation from the tasks and tribulations of everyday life. And I, for one, am grateful for it.

I bumped into this thread when looking for something else. I know I'm hugely behind.

Hey! I thought this was a generalized list, not just about me!

It's healthier than drinking, I've heard.

You know you're a fan fiction writer if...

...you keep yourself awake during boring meetings by plotting your stories.

...your OC villains bear a remarkable resemblance to your least favorite people.

...you deal with Seasonal Affective Disorder by writing tearjerkers.

(Not that I've ever done any of these things. Of course not. *whistles*)

Maybe I do, maybe I.... What was I talking about? Clark just said a good line in my head.

And that about sums it up. The love of the art is greater than the monetary outcome... somehow... I just gotta figure out a way to balance both....

I'd like to add another:

You know you're a fanfiction writer if you spend as much time trying to make up excuses as to what you were doing with your time (instead of whatever it was you were supposed to be doing) as you do actually doing what you're supposed to be doing. The rest(majority) of your time is devoted to writing, reading, researching and thinking. *coughcough*Sorry Ross*coughcough* Hand to God, one of these days I'll turn in a drawing on time....

As it happens I bought my laptop from a fairly well known pro SF writer; he'd written four or five novels and a bunch of other stuff on it in a couple of years and the vowels and some other keys, especially the A, E and S, were worn enough that it was difficult to read the logo.

I replaced that keyboard a year or so later when there were occasional glitches where keys wouldn't work reliably; fortunately it's an iBook G4, one of the rare laptops actually built so that the keyboard can be replaced by the user without special tools etc. That was seven or eight years ago, and I'm still using the replacement keyboard today, and the keys are less worn than they were in two years of pro use. Which I think proves that you don't have to write fanfic to be hard on keyboards...

Doesn't only happen to fanfic writers. I need to type a lot of stuff for other purposes, and, well, my E and R are as good as gone from my keyboard. The H, I and G miss about half of themselves. S, L, N, U, C and V are about 25% gone. And, of course, you can't only see, but actually feel where I always hit the space bar. There's this very shiny and smooth spot on its right... Then again, I did learn typing during my last years at school. And even my 10-year-old daughter knows where to find which key - even without any kind of typing class.