When You're Caught Writing Fanfiction or Drawing Fanart

Very few people know I write fanfic. My boyfriend does, and closer family members, but that's it.

I honestly can't understand all the fuss about the zombie story. Or, sheesh, what karebear said - I just can't see how that could happen. I live in the UK, and maybe English teaching is just different, but I still can't understand it.

I wrote a story about three years back which ends with the lead character dying horribly in a car crash. That went on the classroom wall. My cousin turned in a piece - written in the 'I' voice - about a schizophrenic whose mother murdered her father, for English coursework one time. She wasn't called crazy, or ordered to have counselling - in fact she scored full marks, IIRC.

Making someone have counselling for writing a story is ridiculous.

 

Yeah, the American education system is getting paranoid. One of my friends got arrested for writing death threats to herself on the bathroom stall... *tries to figure that one out* She didn't do it, she was with me when they were supposedly written

 

The only story I ever passed in at school was a fabricated narrative about falling out of a tree. It got an A, though. I would never pass in my other work, because they'd send me to guidance for sure and I'm terrified of what the teacher would say.

My dad actually made me cry about a week ago when he insulted my fanfic. It's very personal for me.

 

That sucks smuggler. I don't know why writers tend to have the bad misfotune of geting those who demean and talk trash about their work in their lives. At least we put more than 2 minutes thought in what were doing. I once had a relative tell, in referenc to me be a writier, that ir'd be better if I dranked and smoked cause that'd be "normal"

 

I agree that it is awful how some people react, and I also agree that we, as independent, knowledgeable people should not be dependent on the opinions of others to find worth in ourselves.

I've dealth with these issues, and my best advice is to analyze why you do the things you may be embarrassed of doing. Is it because you need compliments on your writing, an ego boost? Do you consider it a stress reliever? Is it practice for your future career?

Or do you simply enjoy the characters and the basic storyline and wish to spend as much time in this wonderful world as you can?

In my opinion, I always come back the last one. I write original fic, but sometimes writing Han or Leia or (sometimes) Luke makes me feel comfortable and can take me away from DRL for awhile.

Be confident in what you do, because no one can make you feel embarrassed without your consent (Lol, I'm subconsciouly channeling Eleanor Roosevelt now. Geez . . . ).

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to follow my own advice . . .

*KR*

 

Here, Here, KR Well said. (BTW, love your siggy)

Truthfully, that's why I write fan fiction. Yeah, i do it as a stress reliever, but why do you think I picked this particular story? I could be writing something original (wrote original stuff in High School and college) but I love Star Wars!

I get no support in RL, but I dont' care. I wrote for along time without showing it to anyone cause I loved it. Now you nice folk read it and tell me it's interesting, but that only gives me an ego boost, it doesn't really change anything. if you hated it, I would just stop posting it.

Sorry, that's all off-topic, I guess. still, i felt compelled to say it.

 

I write because I absolutely love writing, and I write fanfiction because I love the SW universe. However, my father's opinion has always mattered a great deal to me, and to have him condemn one of my passions hurt a great deal.

*sighs* Oh, well. I've got wonderful friends and reviewers for support and my writing notebooks... what more could a girl want?

 

What amazes and stuns me is how often people in life that are usually pretty cool with anything suddenly change and get all serious and paranoid when they found out you're a writer. I actually had someone tell me they were worried about saying stuff around me because they were afraid it'd show up in a story.

 

AlphaTrion You are not alone. Each time I find out that one of my friends writes, I go nuts because I write and I'm kinda alone in it at times. My friends write ff, so sometimes entire conversations center around what our reviewers say.

 

I'm not much of an artist, so drawing fanart is not an issue for me. Since I do write fanfiction, I am very self-conscious about it. Some of my friends think it's cool. Some don't have an opinion either way. My brother isn't all that supportive - of anything I do. He thinks I am just some stupid sci-fi geek, so I don't really put too much stock into his opinions of how I live my life. As far as doing fanfiction in public? I generally keep it to myself. Like last night I was at my favorite restaurant and instead of working on this short little screenplay thing I've been doing, I turned my notebook to the back and just started doodling. Sometimes I am able to draw things that don't look half-bad. I'm running on a tangent here... but bottom-line is that I keep my writing private for the most part. Because I am very self-conscious.... and insecure with who I am. To be honest, I care more about how people see than being open about my writing interests. Just because I would rather not be labeled as a freak or a dork or anything like that - especially if it is some hot waitress that I am hitting on..... :-S

 

Gotta be with ya there. I find it strange that while I'll let my friends know my fanfiction.net name and any other username they ask for, I do whatever it takes to keep my parents from knowing that I write ff. It's very unfortunate that most Asians don't look kindly upon this fun stuf.

 

Acceptance hasn't ever been a problem for me either. My mother is the one who strted me into Star Wars; she too loves it. She reads my Wicked fics too, and is the only reader we can ever really count on. However, she doesn't know I wrte Star Wars fics yet, but I don't plan on telling her either.

 

My mom is very supportive of my writing fan fiction. Even though she doesn't always understand (since she's not a writer herself), she always listens when I brainstorm outloud, and she always reads my stories and gives me positive feedback. She understands that writing is important to me.

My dad and brother on the other hand think that if you don't get money by writing something, it's worthless. Needless to say, they think fan fiction is a waste of time. It hurts sometimes because it means so much to me and they don't even try to understand.

 

I really don't announce it, but everyone I know is aware I'm a Star Wars nerd anyway (do we have a term, like Trekkies do?), they've seen all the novels in my home, and know when the films come out, I'm taking my vacations from work. Most people don't know I write on my own though, except my wife, brother, and a couple of friends. My brother used to write also, and we'd trade to critique; he was into the military aspects (like Clone Commandos), while I was more drama, and character driven. We'd review each other's stories, then trade back and write some more.
Somewhere along the line he lost interest though.
My wife tries to be supportive, but isn't a Star Wars fan ,so she admits to having no idea what she's reading about, but says it's good.
I had a friend that would write fiction (non-ff) but he was so good I never admited it to him, in case he wanted to read it.
I'm much happier here!

 

I've gotten in trouble a few times for writing fanfic in class, but I really don't care.

Also, like some of you guys in here, my parents are always telling me to write original stuff. However, I took great pleasure in turning around earlier this year and showing them an award I had won of one of my viggies that I had submitted in a storry contest in my area.

That made them be quiet for a little bit.

 

I have some friends who write anime fan fic, so I read their stuff (even though I never know what's going on), and occassionally they read mine. My mom wanted to read my notebooks, but I refused to let her read the rough drafts; I had to approve the writing first. I told her to read it online like everyone else....

I write everywhere. A couple minutes left of class when I'm not doing homework, in the line when we were waiting to see ROTS, in the lunch line, on the bus.... I have so little time during the school year that sometimes that's the only way it gets done. Most people don't question me.

EDIT: Lol Targeter.

 

I think most parents (actually people in general) see it as "playing with toys" when someone writes fan-fic. They just don't get it. They've lost their imaginations...

 

I've taken to telling people, "It's a hobby. It's supposed to waste time."

It's not the whole truth, but it keeps them from asking those annoying questions.

- lazy

 

Personally, I would never tell ANYONE I know in my life that I read and write fanfic (phew, it makes me shudder just to type that). It would be quite the shock I think to them because it is something completely out of character for me to do. I've never liked Sci-Fi, still don't w/ the exception of SW, and until a few months ago the SW movies were nothing else other than mildly entertaining movies that I have half-heartedly seen.

Even if people I knew knew about me writing, I think I would still hesitate over showing it too them. Like many have typed before, the writing can be just to personal sometimes. I try my best to really document the thought processes and emotions of the characters I am writing about, and being a guy who naturally holds in check any outside displays of emotions (with the exception of when I am trashed), it would make me feel really uncomfortable if anyone I knew were to read them.

The trickiest thing for me is browsing through these boards in my room as I have a roommate. It's somewhat of a dead giveaway of what I am doing when on my screen is "The Saga" banner with Anakin Skywalker's giant mug staring out at it.

 

I just prefer to discuss it with the friends I've made on the boards because they are as into it as I am.

You took the words out of my mouth. I'm caught writing it all the time, but I just brush it off as "working on a story". It helps that I did about 3 years worth of (read: really, really, REALLY bad) original stuff before I discovered fanfiction.

My little brother knows I do and thinks it's really funny, my mom keeps telling me I should get it published (dispite my constant insisting that I can't get it published) and my dad and other brothers all just think I'm obsessed. My three RL "sisters" know I do, but only Elora reads them (and very rarely) and doesn't mock me for it. Kristin just kind of looks superior because she hasn't seen any of my writing since I was about... oh... thirteen.... And as for Abbie, well, she'll write selective fanfiction (her computer just ate her Zekk/Tahiri fic though so I don't know if she'll keep writing) but then whenever I tell her I'm doing something on the JC, she'll start to be snide and tell me that since I'm writing fanfiction, it must be a sign of a lack of talent. I try not to mention the JC to her anymore...



[edit]

finished reading the thread....


My dad says that my love of Star Wars is escapism. I politely ignore him.

It is escapism, but what the heck is wrong with that? At least some of what you write is PG (well... maybe you tone it down muchly, but you know what I mean) and it isn't horrible and it's usually really well written and it's usually about Good vs. Evil and.... realistically, it's probably one of the best things you could do for escapism.

I sort of feel like those people with a shoe fetish or something. I can't help myself, but I don't want anyone else to know!

My sister-in-law has a shoe fetish, and all of a sudden I'm seeing parallels between us.

 

I have to say that I feel luckier than most people, because every one in my family has an interest in Star Wars, even if it's not to the degree I do.

My mom was the first one to find out purely by accident. I had to tell her what I was doing to keep her from thinking I was doing anything wrong on the 'net. After that, she was supportive of my writing, and even asked to read some of it (though there's no way I'd let her). Though she still doesn't fully know where I got the idea of becoming an editor either...

But this summer I found out, also by accident, that most of the people I worked with wrote fanfiction in some form, or roleplayed. So whenever we had a break, we would be sitting around and discussing our fics (though one of my friends was writing original stuff), and even beta-ing them.

I write during class in school too (what better way to spend a boring class than trying to make your OC -or canon character- behave?), though I always hide it when someone looks over my shoulder. Strangely enough though, my assisstant principle is the only one who understands my Star Wars obssession.....

 

I don't understand how people can be so judgmental. Well, I understand, I just don't know why they can't mind their own business. We all have hobbies. Maybe they should find one that suits them instead of making comments.

As far as acceptance goes; A couple of my friends know I write ff. They enjoy reading my Harry Potter fics...and I'm gradually trying to get them into SW. It worked for Harry Potter...so who knows?

My family with exception of my Mom and brother know I write (they don't really read any of it though). I also have two younger cousins who love to read and write and we always share bunnies and stories with each other.

It's nice when you have that support.

 

Freshman year, I allowed one person who had no clue about Star Wars read mine because she was bored. Another friend of mine wanted to read them, but I would let her. I always wrote in school, while I was SUPPOSE to be working, paying attention, taking notes, etc. I did send one story to a friend to see what she thought three years later. I got a oh that nice. Another friend beta'd one one time. A couple of my friends know I write some, just not how much. My brother is the only member of my family who has read any of mine and knows I write.

When people asked what I was writing at school, I'd just be like a story, leave me alone.

As for fanart, I cannot draw. Even my stick figures are bad.

 

I've always been kind of secretive about my creative writing and art with my "close" friends. I don't get a lot of support from them, one extremely close friend told me point blank that I am wasting my time and that the whole idea of fanfic is stupid. My family tends to be more supportive with visual arts--my mummie d is an artist--but occasionally I'll get an email from one of them that they've found one of my stories. My parents actually watched The Matrix so that they could understand one of my Matrix fics. The funny thing about that was that my mother read the story out loud to my dad (he's severely dyslexic, the man can do engineering equations in his head, but The Cat in the Hat throws him for a loop) and she censored some of my choice language (I have a character who has a nasty habit of dropping the F-bomb) with more acceptable expletives.

When I've been "caught" doing fic or fanart (something I'm relatively new to, I prefer to paint as opposed to cg) I usually toggle windows on my computer and use my ever so famous phrase "I'm just screwing around online", which translates to basic as "I've been sitting here for the past seven hours writing fanfic".

 

Typically, I'm very closed and protective about when and what I'm writing. Everyone knows I writ, they just don't know that I used/sort of still do write fanfic. Then again writers don't get a lot of respect in my family. My grandfather was really supportive, though he wasn't interested in reading any, by my mother and father were like "well that's nice...you need to learn a real skill and stop playing pretend." So it was years before i let them read anything.