As the title suggests, I stopped writing for a year. From Nov 2016 - Nov 2017. When I say writing, I mean own works aka "originals". I have consistently put out fan works in the past aka "fan fiction" and no, it is not anything like 50 Shades of Gray, which unfortunately put a bad light on fan fiction but I'll speak about that in a later post.
For those that don't know, fan fiction are stories fans write of a show, movie, cartoon, anime, you name it. The characters are from the media source but the situations are up to the fans. The stories can be Canon Divergent, Alternate Universe, a Slow Burn, or Slice of Life to name a few. Don't worry, if you're confused by any of those words, I have the definitions of them down below at the end of this post. I got into fan fiction in middle school but really got into it around high school and college. It is a way for me to get my writing out there and see how people respond to my description and writing style. I see it as practice for my own writing with instant feedback. I started to get into writing in middle school, save for a few comics I tried to make as a kid while I was really into anime/manga like Sailor Moon and Digimon. I think it was around high school that I started to have goals about becoming a published author. English courses were always pretty easy for me with the exception of analyzing novels. I didn't do as well on those components as I could have because I had to read the books and being forced to read and analyzing novels takes the fun out of it, in my opinion. But, I'm digressing. Whenever there was an assignment to write a chapter for a book. or write your own Canterbury Tale, or something along those lines, I was ecstatic. Anyone who is a writer or dreams of becoming a writer has head "write the story you want to read". That soon became true for me. As I got older, Young Adult stories just weren't doing it for me anymore. I think it's because they all revolve around relationships, as if that's the only thing going on in a teenager's life. Eventually, I got tired of reading the same clichéd thing so in my spare time I began to write what I wanted to read. I wanted friendship stories more than romantic relationships, I wanted a different take on high school stories. I just wanted something different. In Oct 2016 a family member passed away. She was my biggest supporter when it came to my writing. In fact, I'm pretty sure she was the first person to support my writing. Whenever I mentioned wanting a writing career I was asked if I wanted to be a journalist or inquired about what real job would I have while I worked on becoming a writer. But, this family member never questioned me, she just said to do what I wanted and to send her a copy of anything that I published. I stopped writing any original work because I knew that when I get something published, she wouldn't be around to get a copy. She wouldn't be around to hear the good news. She wouldn't be around to continue to push me to do what I want to do. Working on my originals would make it more real that she's actually gone. The year off gave me time to think about what I want out of my writing. It helped me reflect on the stories I've written, the stories I want to write, and the stories I would like to read if someone else were to write them. Next month is NaNoWriMo aka National Novel Writing Month. The overall goal by the end of the month is to have written a novel or 50,000 total words. Save for last year I participate every year. This year I can't wait for November to come to get started. I missed the creative process. I missed creating my own world and my own characters. I missed google searching baby names to come up with that perfect name for my character. I missed looking up idioms to come up with a punny title. Plus, i have too many ideas floating around in my head that are fighting to get out. I now have the excitement back to work on my originals like I do with my fanfiction. I can't wait to see what my characters have in store for me. And maybe, just maybe, one of them will be named after my family member. -SJ ---- Fanfiction Definitions Canon Divergent: a story that does not follow a specific plot or choice from the original media. Example: Sirius Black re-appears on the other side of the veil. Alternate Universe: a story taking place in an alternate universe. Example: Lord of the Rings taking place in modern times. Slow Burn: a story that takes a ridiculously long time to get the two main characters to become a couple, and numerous hints and angst filled moments are shown along the way. Slice of Life: a story that follows the characters through every day life ie going to the grocery store, dealing with bills, doing laundry at a laundromat, or going to school/college.
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