I first got into fanfiction a couple years ago, got bored, and left it for a long time. Eventually I came to Dokuga, lurked for a bit on the site, read fanfiction, and tried to participate in the Art/Story exchange at the end of last year. I overan the due-date, so I didn't end up completing my ficlet. I then eventually decided to participate in some Dokuga Fanfiction Challenges, and wrote oneshots, drabbles, and eventually a couple in -progress ficlets that are ironically still in progress XD.

I've only had mild cases of Writer's Block with one ficlet, which I broke through a little while ago and have since updated. I continue to participate when I can in Dokuga challenges, but RL keeps me fairly busy. I find that the best time to write is when I'm interested in it, and I have plenty of free time. Public Disinterest well, I don't really mind so much these days. I enjoy writing and if others enjoy my stories too than that's a bonus.

~ Pyre

I'm not sure if this subject has been in discussion before, but I would love to hear tales of mature fanfiction writers here, how they started out with their first story many years ago, how they survived through writer's block and flames and public disinterest etc, and what inspired them to become a great fanfiction writer that they are today?
It would serve as real inspiration to newbies, I'm sure!

Hello everyone!! It's heartening to see how much support and help you guys have tipped in within such a short time! Thank you for sharing these wonderful tips that will undoubtedly stay with me, and keep me optimistic!!! Love you guys!

I am not an experienced writer, but I do have advice for you anyway.^^

Enter in writing contests, such as Dokuga contest at Livejournal.

1. You write on a regular basis and thus you will improve automatically.
2. Your works will be read by more users; thus the chance of feedback will by higher.
3. Prompts may help you out of a writer's block.
4. Challenges will inspire to come up with new plots.
5. In order to vote, you will need to read other entries and they are mostly superb.
6. Winning at a contest will not only boost your moral, but others may take notice of
your works as well.

Public disinterest. I guess we all have to live with that. I mean, sometimes it can't be helped.^^

I once wrote a poem, which won first place in a writing community at livejournal. However, as it is being part of a story that focuses on Jaken, it is not very popular on FF.net. Not many people interested in it, but it was still worth it! I know that a least a handful of readers liked it and I mainly wrote this poem to improve my skills and to have fun. Then again, my writing skills are still not very good and this could be the main reason...

Anyway...

What I mean: First, write for yourself, for your amusement. People will either read or not. And in my personal belief: Even if a story has only one reader, but who actually enjoyed reading it, it was worth all the trouble.

Hope this helps!^^

Wow, great tips Hedda! I've always been nervous when it comes to entering contests or challenges, because I'm not sure if i'm up to it. BUT i will take your advice and give it a try. Thanks!

I wouldn't say I'm a great fan fiction writer, but I've been around the block a while so I might be able to give you some tips

I really have to second Hedda's suggestion - write, write, write! As with any art or craft you need to put in the hours to improve your skills. Some people are born naturally gifted writers, but most of us have to work at it.

Definitely don't be scared to join the smaller writing communities on LJ. They can be a great way to get feedback from a community of like-minded readers and from my experience they are incredibly supportive. The dokuga_contest community on LJ has weekly drabble challenges that I would definitely recommend checking out. Writing there helped me to bust through a writing block wall on more than one occasion.

My only other advice is don't get discouraged. I remember when I first started out I would get really bummed when I posted a new chapter and no one reviewed it. My thoughts were somewhere along the lines of "My writing must suck." It's really easy to give up at that point, but please don't.

Instead, go read some of the stories that draw your interest or that you have on your favourites list and think to yourself - What makes me love them? Is it the writer's narrative style? How they've depicted your favourite character? Is it the plot devices they are using? Go back to those stories you love and take notes. See what's working for them and try to figure out a way to adapt it to your own fic. I am NOT saying to copy (which I don't think you would do anyway haha) but use them as a learning tool. I got that advice from one of my favourite writers once. She said read read read and take notes on what you love. If you love reading your story when it's done, chances are others will enjoy reading it too.

That's all I can suggest really. If you put in the time, you will succeed - it's the whole "build it and they will come" philosophy. You have to be patient though. It can take years to build up a following or get your name out there. It did for me at least. But it's all worth it in the end And you've come to a really good place to start.

I've been writing in, what I guess you could think of as, a 'serious' capacity since sometime in '06 (which includes both a novel series & story collection that I'm currently working on getting off the ground) , but have actually been playing at writing since I was about 14 and that's about 20 years ( ). I got into fanfiction writing because I wanted to hone my writing skills and have confidence in what I was writing and it seemed like a great way to post and receive feedback relatively annonymously which, in some cases, is the only way to guarantee honesty. Now, my first experience with posting fanfictions was on ff.net, and I know it can be a harsh first-time-out for some, but I received words of support and glowing reviews and it really went far to bolster my writer's ego. I suppose what comes from that is simply to say: don't be intimidated before you've even tried it, because you never know. We're all our own worst critic as it is, don't let your trepidation be a stumbling block. Use this level of writing as what it is- a tool to help you improve. I used to always panic that I was going to be shot down 'cause some of my first ideas were kind of . . . rom-com cliche, but I clung to the notion that if I didn't start somewhere, I'd never get anywhere.

Writer's block? Well, sometimes you just get slapped with it, and you try everything you can think of and you realize you just have to let it crack and crumble away on its own. However, sometimes it can be that you're blocked with 'that' story, so what I tend to do when I'm blocked on one story is shift gears and focus on another, even if its only for a chapter or two, just to give the mind a break from the blocked story. Other times, it can be a simple as finding a muse- whether it be sound-boarding with a friend, watching movies that are in the same vein as your story, reading books that are in the same vein as your story or even just listening to a certain band or type of music that really speaks to you as you type or think over your story.

That being said- yes, in agreement with Langus, read, read, read! Everything that captures your interest, be it novels, fanfiction, manga, what have you, because the more literary work your exposed to, the better it is for you particular writing style. We all have different tastes and different ways of perceiving things, so you could read exactly the same things as another writer, have exactly the same tastes in what you want to write and still have completely different stories expressed in completely different styles. I don't read very much while I'm writing, but when I'm not writing, I'll tear through several books at a time, different styles, different perspectives.

I'm also going to agree with both Hedda and Langus and say: write write, write, because writing anyone can do, but writing well is a skill that must be honed, like anything else.

Public disinterest . . . we have to remember is a matter of perspective. You can't simply look at reviews, you also have to look to your readership- many readers do 'lurk', afterall, so you may have people following the story that simply don't voice it. Another thing is that it must be said that not everyone is into the same thing, so it may not be your writing style, it may be that the subject your story is about simply doesn't have a big following in the fandom you're writing in. In some cases, it's even that you're a new writer. It's sad to say, but an established writer is more likely to draw those that have read their previous work to a fic based on something they wouldn't normally read because those readers 'trust' (I don't like to use that word, just trying to find something that would properly portray the rapport a reader develops with their favorite authors on sites that allow communication between reader & writer) the style and literary voice of an author they're familiar with so they're willing to give the new material a chance. The only thing to really do is keep writing, keep posting, keep getting your voice out there.

When you're going through the story listings and you see a story that looks like it's got oodles of reviews . . . don't get disheartened and say 'OMG, my story has nothing' (I used to get like that). Look at how long the story has been out- you can have a 5 chapter story that's new and has only been written over the space of a few weeks, but that against a story that has that same number of chapters . . . but has been out since '05 and took about a year to publish the existing chapters. We all know which fic is going to have a greater number of reviews. This doesn't mean the older story is any better than yours or your story isn't good, simply that the other story has had more time to be experienced by readers. You may also want to check the profile of the authors when you see a story that is relatively new and seems to have a mountain of reviews, you will likely find that they have been around for a while and that they've written either many stories for that particular fandom, or that they've written several for a few different ones, which has, by its nature, gained them a more expansive readership.

Okay, I've babbled a whole lot, but finally we get to flames. Flames never ever feel good and no matter how many of us say 'you gotta toughen up and not let them get to you', very few of us actually feel this way when we receive a flame. This is another thing you need to put into perspective. I know sometimes people trying to be helpful don't phrase things the correct way, so sometimes constructive criticism can be taken as an insult, especially by new writers who may be sensitive to anything that sounds remotely negative. That's not what I'm talking about (ground rule, I guess you could say, is if it sounds like a boss advising you, even if its a mean boss, then it might be someone trying to help that simply doesn't know how to speak to people). If a review picks on the story, picks on you as the writer, picks on a cliche of the fandom that you've used simply as a jumping off point to get your story going, ignore it. Most flames are left by people that have an issue with the fandom you're writing for- they don't like the fandom so they want to make those writing stories for that fandom stop. Sometimes it's people that aren't writers themselves that find so many things that they wouldn't do 'if' they were writing the story . . . but have no clue what it actually takes to craft a story, so they have the freedom to lay into you and say whatever they like 'cause they really don't get it, and yes, in that way it can even be said that some flames are left out of plain and simple envy- people that wish they could write, but don't have the courage to try, so they're more comfortable being a critic. What you'll find more often than not is that flames are left annonymously, and all I can say to that is that if the review is left by someone without the courage let you know who they are, are let you have a way to contact them so you can verbally defend your work, then they, and their opinion, are not worth your time.

Simply put, when you receive a flame, try to keep in mind that as painful as they can be, and as much as tney can be an unpleasant shock to your system, they usually reflect more about the person leaving them than they do about anything in your writing.

Well, I've been writing for about six years(fanfiction) twelve years(original stuff), bouncing around in different fandoms, and some original stuff. I don't know If I qualify, but...

When I started my first story a long time ago, it was terrible. I didn't know how to put the ideas bouncing around in my head into a story. It was messy, all over the place, and my plot was not coming out right. Still, I didn't let that stop me. I kept going for a while with it, and I personally decided to not finish it. Of course, there would have been nothing wrong finishing it, it was my decision. After that terrible beginning, I began taking my time, sitting down, and thinking. What length? What kind of length do I like to read for a chapter? And then, instead of posting quickly, I started to force myself to calm down, and write more before posting. Doing that helped me organize my thoughts, and plot better. It was tempting to post right away, but I held myself back.

Writer's block? I do two things. Either I force myself to write, and even if it comes out terrible, I keep writing as if to get to "bad" out of me. Then, 90% of the time, I erase almost the entire chapter, and then I feel better, and I can write the real chapter. The second thing I do is write other things. Either new stories, or just stuff going on in my head that nobody will ever read. Yes drabbles and whatnot is a good way to distract your mind as well.

Frankly, Flames can get to me sometimes, but you can't let what one person think change the good comments you got, or what you think of your story. You have to remind yourself that you can't please everyone. Sometimes it might sting, but hey, if you like your work, who cares if one person decided to be rude, and is displeased with it? The first person you should please is yourself. You write because you like it, and that's a priority.

Public disinterest happen, but much like with the flames, you write for yourself. Maybe there will be time where people are less interested, and you can't change that. You keep writing what you do, and eventually they'll come back. Write because it's your passion.

With every story we all learned something, no matter how long we've been doing this. If you enjoy writing, the only thing you can do is write, write, and write some more.

Speaking as someone that has been writing original fiction for over a decade and fanfiction for almost that long, I can say it can be tough, especially fanfiction. I left the fandom for a couple of years because people insist I 'grow up' and it's something I still keep to myself, my boyo being the only one that knows about it.

As for original fiction, I gave that up too, in an attempt to get a 'real' job. It made for a pretty miserable few years. My best advice is to listen to your heart, your mind. Flames come and go, and generally they don't bother me, because the flamers generally don't stick around. I will lose my $#!7 if I see someone being hardcore flamed though, especially over a difference of perspective.I'm also insanely defensive of new writers, because writing is just as intensive and intricate as painting, and takes practice. No one starts out writing as well as say, Neil Gaiman (an example).

Writing is a vehicle for you to take someone along for a ride you've planned. It doesn't matter if you end up seeing different scenery, or even end in different places mentally, because that's the beauty of the human mind. How we write reveals a part of ourselves, but how we read also does (imho). That being said, even if people don't review, or you don't have a lot of hits on your story, don't be discouraged. It should always be enough that you're writing you characters, that you create a world for them, and that you cherish both them and the world, because ultimately they are you and your imagination. And an imagination is an awful thing to neglect.

My last bit of advice is to put yourself out there and to write beyond your comfort zone. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Warning: This is a massive post. I am a writer of lengthy works. You don't have to read it if you wish not to.

I've only recently become what I would consider a decent writer. I'm sure I won't be a great writer until I'm dead - as is the life of nearly every writer.

Still, I've been through a lot as far as writing goes.

I was told from an early age that writing was not a "real job" and that I should focus on more important things. My love of words and languages, paired with my love of classic novels and great fantasy stories only pulled me deeper into the world of storytelling. Finally, after begging (on my hands and knees) to be included in the Honors English course at my high school, I was introduced to the woman who would change my life. When asked what I wanted to be I explained that I wanted to be a philologist and possibly a lawyer - she asked me why I was wasting my talents. I had never considered writing as a serious possibility. Writing was for some mysterious other person floating out there who had the ability to not be responsible and ignore society while they played all day. It wasn't work, it was fun! Even so, she challenged me to give it a try and improve my writing.

I had been writing poetry since the age of 6. I wrote a few short stories in school but had not seriously sat down and approached writing until that point. I started my first novel in mid 2000 - I was 17. In early 2001 I started writing fanfiction for the Sailor Moon fandom. It was terrible. (Don't believe me? It's still up on my fanfiction.net account.) In 2002 my hard drive failed (the boot sector went bad) in a massively depressing event where it literally cried as it died. I lost everything.

I was ready to give up. I wasn't that good. Why bother with all the heartache and struggle? There was a chance I could lose it all again and then where would I be?

Around that time I met someone on livejournal who introduced me to A Single Spark - I was a fan of InuYasha but wasn't really a fan of the Sesshomaru and Kagome pairing. Still, I decided to give it a shot. I read a few - I don't even remember what the first one was at this point - and I was hooked. The challenges behind the paring were too enticing. In 2005 I posted my first SessKag story. It was better than my earlier Sailor Moon works, but still rough (as one Dokugan kindly called them) and full of my uncertainties.

I began to take writing far more seriously. With each story I worked to improve something. Better characters, better dialogue, better scenery - anything to hone my skills and become a better writer. I held ficgames on my live journal where I wrote for pairings I had never considered and wrote all kinds of genres. I learned to take flames and praise equally, ignoring those which taught me nothing and taking from those that could point me in the direction I had to take to improve. A review that said "your characters suck!" told me that I needed to work on my characters. A review that said "the dialogue was flat" told me I should make more realistic dialogue. I didn't take them as painful stabs, but as my due lumps on the road to being a better writer.

Every day I devoted myself to writing something - anything - for an hour. Every single day. No excuses. Lost a lover? Writing. Hobo spider bite? Writing. Abuse from family? Writing. Writing became the bandage for my life. I poured my soul into it.

In 2007 I lost the one person who had been with me my entire existence. I suffered through a 2 year long writer's block. It was suffocating. I was out of bandages but not out of the struggles and pain of life. That blinking cursor and I had constant battles.

I let go. I gave up. I told myself it was a pointless dream. I lied to myself, just to mask the pain.

Then one day I wrote a joke on a friend's facebook page. The dam broke. It has been nearly a year since that day and I have become more determined than ever to never return to a time when I could not breathe.

To me there is a huge difference between writing and storytelling. Anyone can put words on paper and string them together to tell someone an idea, that's writing. Telling a compelling story is a totally different matter. Showing someone what a character is doing, how they feel, what they think... that is magic.

We all want to be the magician who has endless air.

My suggestions are:

1. Don't compare yourself to others - writing is a battle against yourself. You are trying to be better than who you once were. Comparing yourself to others will only create self-doubt which is pointless and destructive.

2. Keep writing. Don't stop. No matter what! It doesn't matter what you write. Just write something. The more you repeatedly do something, the better you will become at it.

3. Use reviews - all reviews - as leverage to be a better writer. Ignore flames and praise equally. Praise is great, but it can get to your head and leave you with an overinflated sense of ego. You must stay vigilant in order to continue to improve.

4. Every work you complete will be a great accomplishment and an absolute failure. Every single one. You will always look back and wonder what you were thinking or why you ever thought that piece was worth sharing with the world. That is not because you are a failure but because you are still on the road of a writer - which is always forward.

5. They say that the definition of insanity is when one expects different results by doing the same thing repeatedly. That's also an accurate description of writing.

6. No idea belongs to you. Ideas, concepts, plots, characters - nothing is unique. The world is full of so many possibilities, stay open to the fact that someone else may come up with a similar idea as you by pure fate.

7. There is no right or wrong way to write. There are as many ways to tap into creativity as there are writers. Everyone is unique. Do not let anyone tell you that your style is wrong simply because it does not agree with theirs.

I think the most important thing to remember is this: There is no love without knowledge of pain and suffering - and writing is the greatest expression of love we can share with complete strangers. It is a journey of strife and a hard road to travel but those who travel this road are never alone.

I started writing fanfiction in 2006 when I was still in high school. I had been dabbling with original stuff before that, but those were all short stories, not long works. Furthermore, they were all in Finnish which is my first language.

I started with a bang, I suppose, as I jumped right into a chapter-fic. It was also the first time I ever tried my hand at writing fiction in English.
I was lucky to have a lot of support from the very beginning. A close friend of mine was my plotting partner and always encouraged me. My readers gave supportive feedback and I got surprisingly many reviews for a total newbie.

I did have issues, though. Although I kept getting steady A's from English at school, there were plenty of language issues I encountered. Vocabulary, grammar, phrases and expressions gave me trouble. I still often need to have a dictionary and a thesaurus at hand when I write.
My writing itself needed work; especially the flow of the story.
Still, even with its failings, my first fic was a valuable lesson for me, it taught me a lot about writing - and writing in English.

Two years into my fanfiction "career" I got the writer's block. I didn't update squat for almost a year, even though I had an on-going chapter fic at the time. I'm not sure what was the cause for the block - becoming an university student and moving out to a new city to live on my own, finding love or falling out of touch from my dear plotting partner. Anyway, there were a lot of changes in my life that year, but eventually I got back into writing.
I had changed somewhat during my absence, though, and so had my writing.
But that is life, we are supposed to grow, and keep growing.

Writing is by no means an easy road to trot. It can be laborous, frustrating and painful, but still in the end, it somehow always is worth all the trouble.
Always remember it's you who is writing the story. If other people enjoy it, that's great! If they don't, that's their loss!
Keep in mind that you can't please everyone - and you shouldn't have to.

Just keep writing. Do not feel discouraged from the very start. Give yourself and your story a chance! With practise you will gain experience, and with experience the obstacles in your path become easier to tackle.
Never give up!

I wanted to add this earlier but had to find a functioning video:


An inspirational video which can apply to both writers and artists alike.

Link

Please note: This is approximately 20 minutes long.

I, too, am a newbie out here. I began my writing journey (I couldn't call it a career because I'm not yet good at it) because I needed an outlet for my personal problems. It helped so much and so I was extremely grateful to Dokuga and their readers for being so supportive. I think I bled my own issues in my current story and I don't think that's bad. My first story was kinda lame in my opinion though it garnered positive reviews. Write what's interesting for you and try not to copy other people's work (that sucks major time!).

I'm not exactly new to fan fiction writing, but I have never put my work out there. Maybe one day I will but not now. I do have some advice though.

* Don't let anyone try to belittle you or your work.
* Keep your chin up and stay positive.
* Don't become too arrogant - constructive criticism should always be appreciated.
* Last but not least, stay inspired. There's nothing as bad as losing your inspiration for a story and upsetting many readers by not finishing your work.

I find that if I ever need inspiration for a story that I'm working on, I listen to music or I go take a walk. Watching movies you haven't watched before also helps, as it gives you ideas for a character to act out or something along those lines.

Also, just allowing your fingers or your pen to glide across the surface and letting your imagination take you where you haven't been before is a great thing to do.

The best advice I can give is to WRITE. Just start spitting out whatever is in your head and eventually you'll find an idea worth developing. It may help to focus your writing exercise around a particular literary element, like a character, the setting, dialogue, theme, etc.

Professional writers write every day. They don't believe in writer's block. Writer's block is just all the garbage you type before you finally land on something beautiful. Set a goal - 2-3 pages per day. And if a lot of it turns out to be garbage, don't be frustrated; the pros would tell you that's just part of the job. I once heard a famous writer say he cut 60 pages out of a 200 page book, and even though writing those was a lot of work, they were only useful for getting him to write the other material that he felt was worth keeping.

I hope any of this helps.