There are three things I am a very huge fan of: one is Doctor Who (and other fiction related to it), another is The Waltons (and other fiction related to it) and the third is Donkey Kong (and other fiction related to it). These are just three things I really, really love and I find a lot of new things to enjoy by following through chains of crossovers which stem from those three. To be honest, that encompasses basically everything and I am quite pleased when there is overlap between these things.
    Anyway, I really get into the fanon for all of these big three things. For those who don't know, fanon is fan explanations, or theories, for things in a series, based on evidence in the text. I like to make connections between two parts of the same franchise which were never really planned to be connected, to think of ways that apparent contradictions can actually be reconciled. It's especially fun, I find, to take small pieces of media, things which were never really intended to have any significance (and which won't have had much thought put into their creation) and take them wholly seriously and come up with ways that they impact the later pieces. Some people may ask "Why?" but the simple answer is that it's fun!
    The longer answer is that it's also a worthwhile creative exercise. When writing, small connections between things often prove to make interesting plot points, and making these connections in the works that others have created is good practice. I think it's probably the kind of thing that more creative people are inclined to do, while less creative fans may be confused by the appeal of such actions. But, yes, basically I think fanon is good, and if it's an activity you take part in; have fun!

(Don't miss today's Finger Puppet Show!)

(Don't miss my latest article for Rice Digital!)

I’d stayed up quite late. It was 2:30 a.m. I don’t like to be up that late, but I was working on a creative project and it’s easy to get carried away when doing that. But I was done at 2:30 a.m. and then it was time for bed. I got comfortable, started listening to some peaceful music on my iPod and was just drifting off to sleep. My mind wandered around the different areas of my life, just as I might walk through the streets of a town. It passed the metaphorical building of the Trusty Water Blog and saw on display in the window “Monday’s Blog Post” and all that was there was an empty space. There was nothing there but the sign. I did a mental double take and realised I hadn’t written anything on my blog today. So, of course, any idea of sleeping disappeared and I found myself wide awake.
    Since I started this blog, I have missed one update (during the first few months) and I was determined not to do so again. I’m very surprised by how many successful sites regularly miss updates and wanted to be sure I never did that. Yet there I was, about to sleep without posting! Awful. Of course, after that, I immediately grabbed my laptop and wrote this nonsense. I know it’s technically Tuesday, but I think I just about made it. The worst thing is I even had a planned anecdote for today, I just somehow didn’t write it. A thousand apologies, I am shocked at my own carelessness.

Recently, the author of Irregular Webcomic wrote a very interesting blog post about including politics within his work. He explained that he made a conscious effort not to include anything of that kind because he wanted his work to have a universal appeal and, also, because he didn't want his work to become 'preachy'. He explained that he often felt extremely guilty about it because he felt he should be 'fighting to change the world' or something along those lines. Despite the fact that I like to make my political beliefs clear in my work, it's a feeling I completely relate to. While I do promote my views, I often wonder whether or not I'm doing enough. Perhaps every writer feels that way, no matter how much or how little they do for their cause?
    In the end, I don't think that it's something writers should worry about. You can have a masterpiece which really pushes societal expectations, or you can have one which does nothing to comment on politics. Though, having said that, when we look to the past we find that it is the progressive pieces, the one which challenged their societies, which are the ones which have remained popular. But I'm not sure whether this is because the author is being very progressive, or because the novel is doing something new ("A woman doing X? What an interesting story idea!" for example). Perhaps a progressive attitude is more likely to produce original artworks? I'm not sure. But, either way, I don't think writing needs to have something to say about our world in order to be of value.

(Don't miss today's Finger Puppet Show!)

Today I'm going to tell you a little about a fun little writing game that I thought of. What you do is list ten random things from your fictional writing with the goal of making it seem like you write the most bizarre stories around. It's obviously best to do this this socially with a few other writers, but you could always just post it for everybody else to see on something like a blog. So, to give an example, here are ten pieces of out of context nonsense about my own writing:

1. A volcano erupts and then molten cheese comes out; a mystery which is investigated by a female version of Sherlock Holmes. (Read more here)
2. One story has five brutal murders, two nude scenes and one attempted rape. (Oh dear).
3. I have characters named: Johnnannis, Scawnnannis, Zedxclon and Gregtopher.
4. A man loses his family in a terrible car accident, only to have them brought back via a fantastic musical number a few days later.
5. The embodiment of evil is a fan of The Muppets and becomes inspired by it to eat people whole just like they do.
6. A middle aged, balding man in a beige blazer materialised in space before there was any life in the universe.
7. A couple of homeless people find out how to win the lottery every time and become the two richest men on Earth.
8. The embodiments of good and evil have a scooter race through a small town in Wiltshire.
9. A nuclear bomb was launched during the cold war, but it didn't go off and nobody realised until somebody found it in his garden twenty-seven years later.
10. Characters who have died and been brought back several times discuss how it's silly when fiction is criticised for having that happen.

Don't forget, I am intentionally making it sound very weird, these are all out of context! I do write seriously as well. I'd be interested in seeing what things other people might have on their lists.

One time, in a Writing for Young People Class, I had a lesson on how to write as the opposite sex and, quite frankly, I thought it was nonsense. It boiled down to things like: well boys like to be rough and messy, while girls are nice and clean (bear in mind this was a class about writing for children). So, for today's entry I'm going to give my own advice on how to write as the opposite sex.
    Put simply, when writing the opposite sex, don't write somebody as 'Jessica the woman' or 'Gordon the man' just write them as 'Jessica' or ‘Gordon’. It's an inherently sexist notion that there is a certain way to write males and a certain way to write females, why should there be any difference? They are all humans after all. Sure, if you picked a random woman and a random man and put them beside one another, they would probably be very different, but this difference has nothing to do with their sex, it's just down to the natural diversity of human behaviours; the personalities of the randomly picked male and of the randomly picked female could very easily be the reverse of what they are and it would be completely unnoteworthy.
    Another thing is, writing a character 'as a male' or 'as a female' will severely limit the types of people you create, because you'll doubtlessly find yourself writing them as (potentially damaging) stereotypes and archetypes. One thing to try is this: not having a character's sex be the first thing you decide. Create a character, plan out their backstory and their personality quirks, and once all that's done, THEN pick their sex, that way you're bound to avoid any potential bad writing.
    Hopefully that was interesting to anybody who does find they struggle writing the opposite sex. There's also the fact that there are many people who don't fit the two gender binaries, which my method takes into account, but I shan't go into that now...

(Also, it's Friday, so don't miss today's Finger Puppet Show!)

(This week on my blog I am posting an entry every day, and each entry will be written by somebody other than me. Today's entry is written by Emma Darcy. Emma studies the same Creative Writing course as me at Bath Spa University. If you enjoy this entry, you may like to head over to YouTube where you can find her vlog.)

One of the reasons I love fandom so much is because of the huge diversity of relationships portrayed in the work it produces (mainly fanfiction and fanart). There is something for everyone, no matter what the kink. You want Arthur/Merlin? Not a problem. Asexual!Sherlock/John? We’ve got it covered. Gender or racebent Avengers fic? Sure thing. You want to see Harry initiate a consensual threeway relationship with Ron and Hermione? I can get you some of that. I could also find you some excellent genderqueer and trans fanfiction, not to mention the fantastic true-to-life BDSM fic I’ve read over the years. And that’s just the more niche stuff. There are plenty of simple erotica fics out there as well – porn with and without plot – and while romantic relationships make up a large portion of fanworks, there’s plenty of stuff featuring platonic and family relationships as well.
    It’s not untrue to say that many fandoms are dominated by slash (male/male) fiction, sometimes at the expense of the female characters. Fandom can also engage in ship wars and bitching sessions to rival anything on a celebrity gossip site, and it’s a fact of life that some of the fanfiction out there is just plain bad. I should know – I’ve written some. It’s rare that a fourteen year-old ever comes out with anything particularly wonderful, after all.
    But fandom is also a great place to experiment with these things. Fandom can be a place to discover whether you like the idea of Dom/sub interactions, or if spanking turns you on. Maybe one person patching another up in the aftermath of a fight tickles your fancy, or the revealing of an embarrassing secret hits your emotional buttons. Because it isn’t all porn, though of course a hell of a lot of it is.
    If you can’t find what you’re looking for, fandom is the best place to try writing some of your own. And if you feel like you can’t do that, there are kinkmemes where you can ask writers to fill your prompts. You can even do it anonymously if you don’t feel like attaching your name to a comment asking for someone to write a Snow White/Sleeping Beauty crossover with choking, breathplay, and orgasm denial, or for an exploration of the mother/daughter relationship of Rapunzel and her mother after they’re reunited in Tangled. Somewhere out there, there is a writer only too happy to fill that prompt, and a bunch of people who will read it and praise you both for your time and imagination.
    Fanfiction, and its sexual side in particular, has been thrust into the spotlight over the 50 Shades phenomenon. What people unfortunately don’t seem to realise is that there’s so much more to fandom than borderline dub-con het fic. Fandom can be the most satisfying and safe place to explore your own cravings and learn about other peoples’, especially the sort of things that are rarely, if ever, touched on in the mainstream media. Things like asexuality and polyamory, and kinks that are heavily shamed, like watersports and humiliation. I’ve learned more about people’s desires from fandom than I would ever have from mainstream media, and the acceptance and compassion in many of these online communities is simply beautiful.


Where to Go

- Fanfiction.net and AO3 (Archive of our Own) are great places to look for fanfiction. You can narrow your search by fandom, pairing, genre, length, and all sorts of other things. If you become a member you can subscribe to the writers or stories you like and even post your own.

- LiveJournal and Dreamwidth are blogging sites with ‘communities’ members can join and post in. Communities can contain fanworks of all kinds, from icons to fanmixes, and this is primarily where the kinkmemes can be found.

- Tumblr is a bit of a mixed bag that can have a bit of a bite on occasion, but as long as you’re sensible it can be a lot of fun.

Glossary

AU: alternate universe. E.g. au where Neville Longbottom is the chosen one instead of Harry Potter.
Beta: the person who essentially acts as a fanfiction author’s editor.
Canon: what has occurred in the original book/movie/TV show/etc. Facts of the universe as set down by its original creator(s).
Crackfic: fanfiction that reads like it was written while the author was on crack.
Crossover: one fandom’s universe crossing over with another. E.g. the Doctor flies the TARDIS to Hogwarts.
Drabble: very short fanfiction, similar to flash fiction. Usually under 500 words.
Dub-con: dubious consent.
Fanart: art of any kind with the chosen fandom as the subject.
Fancast: fan-made casting choices for characters.
Fandom: the community of the fans. There are different fandoms for different things, such as Harry Potter, Star Trek, Gossip Girl, and even bands like One Direction and Fall Out Boy.
Fanfiction: fictional stories set in the universe of a particular book/TV show/movie/etc.
Fanmix: a collection of songs chosen to fit a certain fandom, character, pairing, etc, arranged in album format.
Fanon: headcanons accepted by a large percentage of the fandom.
Fanvid: a music video of sorts of clips from a TV show/movie/etc.
Femslash: female/female.
Fluff: cutesy interactions between two or more characters. Doesn’t have to be romantic, but usually is.
Gary Stu: male OC who reads as a (usually poorly-written, but not always) self-insert by the author.
Genderswap/genderbending: changing the sex of a character.
Headcanon: fan-created events or theories that they adopt as canon without proof in favour or against it.
Het: male/female.
IC: in character.
Mary Sue: see Gary Stu, but the OC is female.
Meta: analytical, academic-style discussion or essay focusing on a fandom-related topic.
Mpreg: male pregnancy.
Non-con: non-consensual.
OC: other/original character invented entirely by the fanfiction author.
Oneshot: one-off fanfiction, usually quite short, not intended to be multi-chapter or part of a series.
OOC: out of character.
OTP: one true pairing – the pairing treasured above all others by a fan.
OT3/4/5/etc: one true threesome/foursome/moresome/etc.
PWP: porn without plot.
Raceswap/racebending: changing the race of a character.
RPF: real person fic, where the fanfiction is about the actors in the movie/TV show, not the characters they play.
Ship: a relationship between two or more characters. Can also be a verb, e.g. “I ship Dramione” = “I like the idea of/support/believe in the romantic relationship between Draco and Hermione”
Ship war: where fans of one ship engage in online warfare with fans of another ship. E.g. Aragorn/Legolas vs. Gimli/Legolas.
Slash: male/male.
Trigger warnings: warning of something that may trigger a negative response in a survivor of unpleasant experiences (e.g. rape, suicide, incest).
UST: unresolved sexual tension.
WIP: writing in progress.