You know, an R-rated Deadpool film is well and good, but I kind of want to see Wade show up in one of the regular X-Men films, too.
I want to see him hastily catch himself every time he’s about to say “fuck”, because he knows that the film - being rated PG-13 - is only allowed one F-bomb, and he wants to make it count.
I want to see him throw the ugliest tantrum when, after he spends the whole movie saving up that one allotted “fuck” for the perfect moment, somebody else uses it up before he has a chance.
And that someone is Wolverine.
I so love that this is completely possible in upcoming films
Wade: Everyone knowns PG-13 mean you only get one f-bomb. Gotta use it wisely.
I’ve written more than 200,000 words of fanfiction across multiple fandoms under multiple names. 100,000 of those words were in the last few months.
And I’ve consequently taken a ton of crap for it.
Other writers who tell me I’m not allowed to bear the name.
Friends and family who ask when I’m going to do serious writing.
Readers who ask for stories churned out like clockwork because its ‘just fanfiction’.
And that gets to a girl. Because I do want to write. I love telling stories. I’ve always worked on my own stuff in tandem with the fanfiction.
So, in order to be a writer, I gave up the fanfiction. I stopped my two ongoing stories and peaced out to write real fiction. I stopped reading it. I dropped out of the forums and boards where I’d made fanfic writer friends.
I wrote more ‘real fiction’. For three years.
And the result was nothing more than a string of rejection letters. Not even personalized letters (the holy grail of rejection letters). Just ‘sorry this doesn’t fit our needs’.
I bought the biggest nail the hardware store sold and skewered them one by one.
And there is a moment that perhaps some will recognize, where you stare at the pile of rejection and just. Stop. The stories trickle off and you slowly stop submitting until you can’t remember the last thing you wrote.
I gave up. Plain and simple.
If I couldn’t learn to write with three years of focus and reading all the right books and trawling literary boards then I just wasn’t cut out. Just wasn’t a writer. The stories would have to stay locked in my head. I didn’t have the talent to get them out. I wasn’t going to learn.
Eventually I fell into a smallish fandom with an OTP that I loved and not a lot of pressure. I figured, meh, why not. So I wrote a story, gave it a few chapters. And it did okay, couple of comments, couple of kudos.
But those comments. Oh those comments. All maybe 6 of them in 7 chapters. They spoke of tone and snark and sass and how well I wrote it.
And I got a stupid idea. One last hurrah.
30 weekdays straight. One new story a day.
An insane pace.
But screw it, I’d started with fanfiction. I was going out the same way. And so began the experiment in insanity. 30 days. 30 stories. Ended up being 100,000 words.
I wrote first person and third person and straight AUs that required intense re-watches of the actors and dialogue heavy pieces and pieces drowning in description and sassy tones and sad tones and crazy tones and train of consciousness and letters and I turned music into words without losing the emotion.
I aged the characters up and aged them down and wrote love stories where the key couple never interacted once and wrote fluff and heartbreak and situation comedy and I tackled issues like commitment or lost music or lgbt or religion or the meaning of a hero or the ways love means giving up ourselves and hoping to get something back.
I watched the show a hundred times to write about the time between the snapshots we saw and I stretched character voices to be believable as the same characters in multiple situations and I learned to write happy and I learned to write sarcastic and I wrote dialogue that didn’t sound like everyone spoke the same and i took the characters made by another through their paces as superheroes or fake married couples or fairytale characters or cops or door-to-door salesmen or with clockwork companions.
None of it was edited and it was published as quickly as it was written. I didn’t have time to think, only to keep going, keep writing, look at what I’d written yesterday and try something new, something fun.
And people responded. 30 Days. Almost 800 comments. 700 bookmarks. 8000 kudos. I responded to every comment. Nearly in a daze as I tried to comprehend what had happened.
eighty thousand hits.
And I finished. I took a long nap. And i cried.
I cried because I’d given up on writing and somehow this magical thing had happened and people had responded to my writing and I had 800 comments telling me that they liked my work and wanted more chapters and some had truly constructive feedback that I could use to get even better. (also, i was so tired)
So I went back. Tentatively, I decided to try again. I wrote a brand new short story. I severely dismantled and redid my favourite of the old pieces.
And I sent them out.
One market each.
The new piece came back 20 days later with a request to hold the story because they were moving it to their second round of consideration. Something I’d never had once in the 3 years previous.
Two weeks later, the same thing happened to the edited piece. They sent real feedback, two paragraphs of it, and said they were seriously considering it for publication.
About a month after that, I got a second email that unfortunately, they weren’t going to be publishing my piece. But they sent more feedback. This wasn’t just a rejection. This was progress. So much progress. Feedback twice to help me improve and finally getting to that second round, something I’d never done before. Nearly published.
Over the moon does not describe my emotions.
And then yesterday.
And then yesterday.
Yesterday I got an email. An email about that new story I’d written right after finishing the crazy 30 days. The one I’d first thought up in the haze of 20 days in to the madness.
IT WAS ACCEPTED.
They’re going to publish it. They’re going to publish it. They’re going to publish my story.
THEY’RE GOING TO PUBLISH IT IN A PROFESSIONAL MARKET not semi-pro or token BUT PRO.
I went from a pile of form rejection letters to a personalized rejection and an acceptance.
And that’s why I had to write this long post (sorry, I’m too excited to moderate my word blab). Because I was thinking about all those people who mocked the fanfiction I wrote and who told it was stupid and pointless and a waste of time.
I disagree. Fanfiction taught me how to write.
Playing in ‘someone else’s sandbox’ gave me the chance to write freely and quickly without having to constantly devise characters and personality and backstory. Without the overwhelming task of writing those traits, I could learn how to write. Snappy dialogue. Cut the fat. Keep it in character. Theme without overbearing.
I’m not a writer because I’m getting something published. I’m not a writer because I got a bunch of comments. I was a writer way back when I wrote that crummy self-insert Justice League fanfiction.
You’re a writer because you write. Doesn’t matter what. You get better when you keep practicing.
I’m going to be a published writer because I wrote a butt-ton of fanfiction.
So please stop giving fanfic writers crap for simply writing. Please. And your support and comments and constructive comments really do matter.
If only because of my incredibly red face of happiness and nose squeeze reflex when I got the approval letter.
Now this part, this part here is for my creampuffs and cupcakes. The wonderful Carmilla fandom for whom I wrote the 30 days of fanfiction and who responded so amazingly:
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
I cannot thank you enough. I mean, I’m also super thankful for the cast and the crew and the amazing writers whose show and talents I analyzed within an inch of its life and I’d happily take out for lunch or buy a pizza or something.
But mostly, right now, I’m thankful for you, creampuffs. Because you are amazing. Your comments and your kudos and your clambering for more was simply stupendous and you had no idea that the stories were supposed to be my last hurrah and you saved me anyway.
I learned what worked when you quoted your favourite lines or told me that I nailed the characterization here or the dialogue there or that this resonated or that this didn’t or that the subtext was great here.
And I am so so so honoured that you took the time to do that.
You saved me.
You taught me to write and then gave me the courage to take a second shot. And I will forever be thankful to the tiny fandom that could. To every comment and tumblr stop in and kudos (yes, even kudos. I love them too. Those emails saying ‘x y and z and 56 guests gave kudos’ are amazing). And it’s been amazing getting to know you through your comments and on tumblr.
So, unlike the cast/crew, there are so many of you that I couldn’t possibly buy you all pizza. So I asked myself, ‘what can I do?’
How about 10MoreDaysofCreampuff ?
Two week revival. 1 story a night, every weeknight for 10 days. Just like last time. Work is crazy cause my boss quit and I don’t care. I’ll make it work. It’ll be a mix of chapters 2s to the original stories and more one-shots and maybe I’ll even fill some of those prompts I didn’t get to for prompt week. Assuming this is something you want (y/n?), we start Monday, September 14.
It’s the best way I know to thank you.
Because I am so thankful and I’m still sitting on a haze of pure joy. And when it comes down to it, it’s all because of you. I wouldn’t even had thought of the topic of the soon to be published fic if I wasn’t a part of this fandom.
If people are interested, I can post a link to the story whenever we finish contracting and it finally goes up.
My brother jokingly asked if ‘when I become famous’ (he’s a dreamer) I’ll credit my success to him.
Unfortunately for him, the truth is that I’d probably have to say that it’s credited to a ‘lesbian vampire fanfiction fandom’.
And I’d say it proudly.
Stay stupendous cupcakes. <3 Aria
This is moving and wonderful and you deserve every last bit of success Aria.
And I’ll give you one more thing that I’m not sure I ever mentioned. I wrote my first piece for this fandom because I was missing 30 days of creampuff. Your writing has inspired other writing.
You’re an inspiration to us all and I hope everyone reads this.
This said a lot of what I have wanted to type out myself a few times…I stopped writing myself before I got into this fandom. I’d never written anything more than 40 pages.
Then I had this silly idea for a Carmilla drama club AU and I looked at it one day and realized it was a novel-sized fic.
Do you realize what that meant to me? The fact that it was fanfic didn’t change the fact that I finally broke through that barrier. Fanfic is so, so important for young writers.
Time spent writing fanfic is never wasted. Every word is a lesson, and the communities of fanfic are so supportive and educational.
Congratulations, OP. You rock.
Congratulations, OP! Whenever people ask me for advice on getting started writing, or say they want to write a novel but aren’t sure how to go about it, I always advise them to find a fandom that speaks to them and try writing fic. For exactly the reason you describe–writing a LOT makes you a better writer. You learn things. And you may also well meet people while writing fic who continue to support you throughout your writing career!
OP, you also had the guts to send out your work for consideration – to risk those rejections. I never did.
A publisher found me because of my fanfic. Someone in the sales department was a fan of Johnlock, and I wrote a lot of Johnlock a few years back. This person read one of my big AUs and immediately passed the link on to an editor. She read that AU and another one (a Kushiel crossover), and then she got in touch with me via Twitter. Within the hour, I had a two-book contract.
All because of fanfic.
I learned more writing fanfic than I did in the previous forty years.
I’m a huge advocate of writing fanfic. Write fanfic for practice, before you submit anything for publication. Write fanfic as stress relief when your story is in the gray fog of “Do they like it? Do they hate it?” Write fanfic to experiment with plot twists or new techniques. Write fanfic to connect with your readers. Write fanfic because it’s fun.
A couple of days ago on Last Week Tonight, John Oliver did an amazing job explaining the basics of civil rights for transgender people. This aired after the marriage equality decision came out, taking advantage of a huge moment where we had everyone’s attention to talk about something else that’s really important. It’s funny and witty but also full of information and powerful stories, and I’m certain it got a lot of viewers thinking. It’s 16 minutes long and worth every single one. What do you think?
If you watch/read/hear ONE piece of news this week, THIS one is it. John Oliver humorously covers Trans 101 + How to be a Trans Ally 101 + “None of your Business” 101
A couple of days ago on Last Week Tonight, John Oliver did an amazing job explaining the basics of civil rights for transgender…
