Fanfiction Countdown

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Here are the top five reasons fanfiction is so difficult to write.

5. Building an Audience.
No one said you could only write fanfiction based on what’s popular. But if you pick a smaller fan base, you’ll have trouble building an audience to read your work. A fanfic on Fanfiction.Net for five years might only ever get 20 hits.

4. Finding an Interesting Plot.
Generally speaking, the best plot for a cast of characters was done in the original novel [or other medium]. Fanfic writers are confined to writing prequels, sequels, or tiny fluff pieces in between original scenes. For Pride & Prejudice sequels, what else are you going to write about but a happy Darcy marriage? Since they’re already together, you have to marry off someone else (Georgiana, Kitty, Mary, the Darcy and Bingley children, etc.). That severely limits your options. And I, for one, am getting severely sick of Darcy children stories.

3. Keeping Track of Canon.
This doesn’t apply if you’re trying to do an alternative reality piece, but for most of us, we like to keep things canon. But that means being up on your literature and memorizing otherwise meaningless details. If you’re throwing canon out the window, you better warn your readers up front to avoid hissy fits.

2. Mary Sues.
Those all powerful characters who ruin a good story. Whether the author is literally inserting herself into the story or has imagined an ideal person who either attracts everybody and their cousin, is more powerful than the ten most powerful wizards, or what-have-you, she is annoying, and needs to be deleted. Permanently. The problem is that fanfic writers love to use them. Why? I’m not entirely sure. They’re not interesting to read about.

And the number one reason fanfiction is so difficult to write?

1. Keeping Everyone “In Character.”
Nothing is worse than someone being out of character (OOC). Whether they’re brave when they should be scared, or funny when they should be serious, characters who are OOC will jolt you right out of the story. But accurate characters are the most difficult thing to accomplish when writing fanfiction. The trouble is that these characters aren’t your creation. If the original author put them in the situation you created, they would probably act completely differently than what you imagine. It’s tough, but there it is.

What challenges have you faced/witnessed in writing fanfiction?