After I finish a good story—whether a book, show, or movie—I usually end up asking a lot of questions. What happened to the characters afterward? Or what led up to the events of the story? I think almost everyone has asked those types of questions at some point. One way of answering them is by writing fanfiction, original stories that use the characters or setting from an existing story.
Recently, the Eastern Iowa Review decided to publish an “All Things Anne” edition featuring poetry, non-fiction, and fanfiction related to Anne of Green Gables. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am a huge fan of that series, so I decided to write a piece to submit. I am excited to share that my story, “An Ever-Growing Family” was selected for publication. You can read it here.
“An Ever-Growing Family” is a fanfiction story that focuses on Anne’s youngest daughter, Rilla, a few years after her marriage to Kenneth Ford. If you’ve only watched the Anne movies, you can learn more about Rilla by reading my previous post, “20 Amazing Characters You’ll Only Meet if You Read the Anne of Green Gables Series.” I had fun writing “An Ever-Growing Family,” and if you choose to read it, I hope you enjoy it, too.
I have been writing fanfiction stories for years, though I generally don’t try to get them published. Any time I watch or read a story that captures my imagination, I tend to write a story featuring the characters. For me, this serves two main purposes. First, if I have a book/show hangover (where I don’t want to move on to another story because I can’t get the last one out of my head), writing fanfiction helps me get over it.
Second, writing fanfiction helps me relieve writing-related stress. As much as I love writing, I sometimes get overly concerned about writing what publishers are looking for, deciding if my characters are compelling, and choosing when to stop editing and submit a story. When I write fanfiction, especially if I don’t plan to submit it, all of these concerns go out the window, and I can simply enjoy writing.
There are a lot of websites where people can post and read fanfiction online. Personally, I have never posted any of my fanfiction online, but I have read a few that I found quite entertaining. Whether you want others to read it or not, I encourage all writers to try writing fanfiction at least once. If you’ve never done it, you might be surprised how fun it can be.
Do you enjoy writing fanfiction? Let me know in the comments. If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to see more like it.
