I do not see any difference between the terms ‘author’ and ‘writer’. I tried to understand what earns a person who partakes in the penning of a story (yeah, I know. Just go with it) to label themselves as either of the abovementioned terms. Eventually I turned to various dictionaries and my friend Oxford was helpful enough to clarify for me:
Author: a writer of a book, article, or document
Writer: a person who has written something or who writes in a particular way.
So, I suppose the following could also be true:
An author is a writer, and a writer is an author!
Which means that, yes you are the writer of 6 books and the author of the occasional fanfiction. (See my clever mixing of the words there). And, regarding those individuals who feel the need to pass judgement on fanfiction authors…. Well, I did a bit of thinking on that too, then I did a bit of wikipedia and found that Fanfiction.net has over two million users! Two million! Any author is welcome to post their story on that forum, and even if only 5 per cent of the ff.net users read their story, they still have a readership of around 200 000! Even if only 1 or 2 per cent of the over two million users read their story… fuck-it, do the rest of the maths yourselves. So it is a bit of a broad generalisation of an opinion shared by a minority right? I mean, you have over 2 million users on ff.net alone who not only read fanfiction, but also review it. Could you then therefore say that fanfiction + constructive criticism = improved writing skills? These young authors are learning, and are mostly (from the reviews that I have read) encouraged to keep writing!
Additionally, fanfiction provides a very important service to those of us who are severely lacking in the writing skills department! (as Dad would say, I got hit with the “not good with the words” stick *nudge-nudge-wink-wink* Aw come on, it was good!). I want to hear more about my favourite TV series or even movie! I want the story to continue, or see them in an alternate universe, or finally have them doing the horizontal tango – in detail, but I lack the ability to write this myself. I am so grateful to all those brave souls who put their written work on a public forum, even though (according to certain individuals), it is not ‘real writing’’ (looks like written stuff to me though, with letters, punctuation and everything!)
And, there are published authors out there who started out as fanfiction authors. I recently read an interview with Muffy Morrigan (fanfiction writer and published author), and when asked why she wrote fanfiction, she replied that when she fell in love with a show, movie or book, she always wanted more! So she wrote more. In addition, she said that she sees fanfiction as a way of disciplining herself as a writer – or in her words: “You have to play by the rules of the verse that they have created and this can really hone the ability to create character and mood, and it really helps me define characters, it’s the ultimate exercise in writing for me!”
Did I mention she is a published author?
Finally, during the November 2010 National Novel Writing Month, Mercedes Lackey wrote a ‘pep talk’ to all writers where she also discussed fanfiction, and it’s advantages (link is below). As she said “Sometimes it's because someone else's creation got us by the throat and our storytelling demon won't let us go until we get our version down on paper or in pixels.”
So, to all those fanfiction authors out there, including my sister who is creating a fantastic Murdoch Mysteries story, especially for me (brag), THANK-YOU! And, please, keep writing!
The full Muffy Morrigan interview can be found here: http://mokisfanfictionblog.com/blog/2010/06/06/my-interview-with-fanfiction-writer-and-published-author-muffy-morrigan/
Full Mercedes Lackey Pep Talk can be found here:http://www.nanowrimo.org/node/3853430
You are welcome, and yeah we've agreed to agree differently. LOL Dude you rock at writing!!! True Story! <3 <3
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