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rainwatersparkI don't consider myself a major fanfic writer; I've flitted in and out of fandoms over the years, and I haven't felt the urge to write fanfic for every fandom I've fallen in love with. (It usually has to be for a franchise that has a lot of holes in the canon to fill in.) Specifically, I've gone from writing Captain America fanfic in 2014 to The Old Guard fanfic in 2020 and now to Moon Knight fanfic in 2022; basically, I've gone long periods without feeling the urge to write fanfic.
But you know what's the great part about fanfic?
It's the fact that you only do it if you love it.
Let me rewind a little to talk about what I've been doing for the last nine months.
I got an agent at the beginning of 2021 and naively thought I was close to the end of my publication journey for Novel #3. Instead, I've been weathering rejection after rejection, many of which claimed my book wasn't commercial enough.
I'm a mood writer. I never force myself to write a story that I don't love and believe in. But I think traditional publishing's focus on a high concept did subconsciously filter into my brain. In October of 2021, I began drafting a fantasy story that was high concept and that I thought had a good shot at getting publisher interest (I mean, assuming publishers hadn't already acquired another vaguely similar Asian fantasy, because of publishing's "there can only be one" mentality regarding books by authors of color...sigh).
And again, I loved this story idea! I followed a similar pattern to when I was drafting my other stories, e.g. I drafted the first 20k-30k rapidly because I was so excited.
It took me almost seven months, working almost nonstop on this manuscript, to finish drafting and complete one round of revisions. By that point, I was feeling incredibly burned out on the manuscript. Even though I started out loving it, I was starting to feel a tremendous amount of pressure due to feeling like I wouldn't have a shot at a book deal unless this book was already perfect when it went on submission. I was also writing in a genre that I was less familiar with (genre mystery as opposed to genre romance). So I was just feeling bad about the whole thing.
Around the same time that I sent my draft off to more critique partners so I could take a complete break from looking at it, I started to watch the Moon Knight TV show and loved it. Well, up until the end, as I've detailed in other blog posts. But this was the first time since The Old Guard that I felt inspired to write fanfic again, so I did.
And...honestly, I've been loving this experience.
It felt so good to write without any pressure again. It also felt amazing to work on shorter pieces that I could polish to a shine—I do enjoy micro-editing, but I rarely get around to it for my novel-length works because I'm so focused on the plot and character arcs.
I have 3 Moon Knight fanfics posted and am planning on posting at least 2 more, though honestly, I never even dreamed I would be posting this many fics at all. And I still enjoy tinkering and experimenting with fanfic ideas, regardless of whether they come to fruition or not.
Basically, writing fanfic again has reminded me of how to fall in love with writing again.
But you know what's the great part about fanfic?
It's the fact that you only do it if you love it.
Let me rewind a little to talk about what I've been doing for the last nine months.
I got an agent at the beginning of 2021 and naively thought I was close to the end of my publication journey for Novel #3. Instead, I've been weathering rejection after rejection, many of which claimed my book wasn't commercial enough.
I'm a mood writer. I never force myself to write a story that I don't love and believe in. But I think traditional publishing's focus on a high concept did subconsciously filter into my brain. In October of 2021, I began drafting a fantasy story that was high concept and that I thought had a good shot at getting publisher interest (I mean, assuming publishers hadn't already acquired another vaguely similar Asian fantasy, because of publishing's "there can only be one" mentality regarding books by authors of color...sigh).
And again, I loved this story idea! I followed a similar pattern to when I was drafting my other stories, e.g. I drafted the first 20k-30k rapidly because I was so excited.
It took me almost seven months, working almost nonstop on this manuscript, to finish drafting and complete one round of revisions. By that point, I was feeling incredibly burned out on the manuscript. Even though I started out loving it, I was starting to feel a tremendous amount of pressure due to feeling like I wouldn't have a shot at a book deal unless this book was already perfect when it went on submission. I was also writing in a genre that I was less familiar with (genre mystery as opposed to genre romance). So I was just feeling bad about the whole thing.
Around the same time that I sent my draft off to more critique partners so I could take a complete break from looking at it, I started to watch the Moon Knight TV show and loved it. Well, up until the end, as I've detailed in other blog posts. But this was the first time since The Old Guard that I felt inspired to write fanfic again, so I did.
And...honestly, I've been loving this experience.
It felt so good to write without any pressure again. It also felt amazing to work on shorter pieces that I could polish to a shine—I do enjoy micro-editing, but I rarely get around to it for my novel-length works because I'm so focused on the plot and character arcs.
I have 3 Moon Knight fanfics posted and am planning on posting at least 2 more, though honestly, I never even dreamed I would be posting this many fics at all. And I still enjoy tinkering and experimenting with fanfic ideas, regardless of whether they come to fruition or not.
Basically, writing fanfic again has reminded me of how to fall in love with writing again.
