: Re: Fan Fiction: a crutch or a good start? Writing is writing, but I am not confident enough to take on creating a whole world from scratch. Will writing fanfic or writing in other shared world

@Samaraweera193

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I know many people who started out writing fanfiction and then turned this into the basis of a professional career. Off the top of my head, both Paul Cornell and Una McCormack both started by writing fanfic and are now professional authors.

Unfortunately it can be all too easy to spend all of your time there. If you think you'll enjoy it, write fanfic by all means. You'll certainly learn lessons from it and be able to take that knowledge forward into your later, original work.

I'd urge you, though, to remember what your aim is, and that's to write your own worlds.

Fanfic can be a great training ground for a writer; but it can also be a seductive echo chamber. Good fanfic, like good everything, is rare, and will receive a lot of praise. And leaving the nest can be a harsh experience if you're used to praise in the fanfic world, and find that you need other tools in your writer's toolbox to make it on the outside. Many people never write anything other than fanfic, and that's fine, but from your original question it seems you're aiming for something more than that.

At some point you'll need to start writing original stories anyway. Whether you decide to write fanfic to get some experience first or not, I'd urge you to start on your own work sooner rather than later.

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