Such a fan...

Have you ever read fan fiction?  If not, I recommend you sample some. I'll wait while you do:

fanfiction.net
Wattpad fan fiction
Fan fiction on iTunes
Fan fiction on Goodreads
Fan fiction on DeviantArt

Aw heck, just google "[your favourite fandom] fan fiction".  B'lieve me, there's plenty out there. Rule 34c states, "If it exists, there is fan fiction of it."

Anyhoo, fan fiction are stories written in the imagined worlds of other authors.  Frex, Harry Potter, Star Trek, My Little Pony and more. While much of it is written by some very amateur writers, some of it is amazingly well-written. Masterfully so. (More of my thoughts on fan fic.)

The one thing that unites these apprentices and unpublished pros is a solid love for the world in which they write. This love definitely shows in their work. Some of the best writing out there is found among the fan ficcers. These writers are writing the books they want to read.  Granted, they're writing in the universes of books they already love, but writing more of the books that they want to read.

I had a brief conversation a couple of months ago with an agent. She was looking for writers who say about their own works, "It's the book I've always wanted to read."

Yeah.  We've all got books like that. We've all got favourite books, ones we read over and over and over, of which we never grow tired.  (Then we write fan fiction of it.)

But sometimes an author wants a particular kind of book. They want a book that scratches all the itchy spots. When the itch becomes too great, they write That Book, the book they really want to read.

I feel like that about Of The Dark.  I feel like that about Her Endearing Young Charms and Let Sleeping Gods Lie.

They tick all my boxes. They quench all my thirsts. These are the books I love so much I had to write them.

Does that mean I write self-fan-fiction?

_____________________
Her Grace can't wait to see what kind of fan fiction gets written about her stuff, and what kind of angles the fan ficcers (fictioneers?) will take.  Meanwhile, go read others' fan fiction. It's fun.

P.S.: Happy EOFY, fellow Australians.

Motivated by Other Peoples' Success

State of the Union: so, currently I have one novella out for your reading pleasure. (Please leave an honest review, if you've read it.)   I've got another one with my editor (a tale for another time).  I'm editing a full-length Regency Romance novel at the moment and have a full-blow Fantasy Trilogy out with beta-readers.

Love letters from my Guilty Conscience.

I've got a lot of work to do.

Yet what have I done this morning? Perused Facebook and Twitter.  My flists and feeds are full of other professionals, sharing their professional successes and pictures of their cats.

Every time I read social media before I've done Proper Work for the day, I get a good dose of Guilty Conscience.  I shut down the social media and I dig in to whatever project I'm scheduled to work on that day. (Today: editing my WIP.)  Yes, this happens Every. Time.

I guess it's good that I don't get too sucked in to the glittering world of social media, and I am getting some work done.  After all, isn't that how all my successful peeps out there got successful?

Okay, sometimes I do get too sucked in. I read more, and more.  This peer has this book out, that peer has a cover reveal, the other peer just got a starred Kirkus review...  Then I look at my own efforts and heave a great big sigh. It can be depressing seeing so much success out there, and so little happening in here.

Then I realise that I'll never have that sort of success if I don't go Do Something.

And that thought alone is enough to drive me to close down those open tabs and get yWriter up. Works every time.

What pricks your Guilty Conscience?


__________________________
Her Grace sometimes wishes she could tap into her motivation more often without relying on social networking. Still, it's good to keep up with the industry.  Meanwhile, here is a picture of her cat, lasers fully charged:

Wherein Her Grace Gets All Twittery

By Hdepot (Own work)
[CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons
Attribution length: 107 characters.

Okay, I'm trying to wrap my head around this Twitter thing. Along with Facebook and Tumblr and a whole slew of social networking sites, it's one of the It Things, apparently.

I'm not so sure how I can make it work effectively for me.  Especially professionally.

No, I don't have my own Twitter account. I'm not game. Reasons why:

• It's rather short.  Rawther.  I'm not confident I can squish significant meaning into 140 characters every tweet, and I have no wish to sound trite the rest of the time.
• I'm not impressed with its signal-to-noise ratio.  Many tweets seem to be vague three word replies stuck to multiple hashtag conversations. Kind of hard to follow, really.
• The tweets that are interesting usually consist of a tiny url leading to something that is, actually, fascinating (and definitely more than 140 characters).  Almost makes Twitter little more than a redirection service.  Maybe that's its best use.
• I don't have the timely time to participate in a meaningful conversation.  My internet usage is sporadic. By the time I get around to reading Twitter, I'll be woefully out of date. Alas.
• Not convinced it's usefully more than a time-waster and another incarnation of gossip-around-the-watercooler.  (On the other hand, word-of-mouth networking (aka "gossip") is useful in the writerly community.  Especially if it uses the words "nice deal".)

Though I confess, I sometimes follow a couple of interesting people, sorting through their LOLs and other bits of lopsided conversations to find some really fascinating things.  Platform aside, they're charming no matter what social networking medium I read them on.

Also, some people claim it has value. As they have more experience than I with Twitter, I'd love to know how they make it work for them.

Things I would say, if I was tweeting:

• Humour for writers.  Ya gotta laugh.  http://www.epublishabook.com/?cat=10#axzz2cIpoGNEn
• Nobody with Internet access has any excuse not to research.  Go work on your Google Fu.
• Being a writer means that you are giving permission for someone to misunderstand you.

Everything else I say is long-winded.