Fan Fiction

I admit, I read fanfiction. I write fanfiction. I love fanfiction!

That's easy for me to say as an author whose characters have yet to be put through the proverbial ringer. However, the one thing I note in fanfiction that I enjoy so much, is that characterizations remain consistent. The author of the source material wrote such well-developed characters, that their readers understand those characters and their personalities and are able to reliably place them in new situations. That is something I want to accomplish, as an author. I think that a reader being so invested in the world and characters an author has created, to the point of wanting to continue the adventure so badly that they are compelled to write, is fantastic.

Will there be fanfiction that doesn't meet the high criteria of stable and consistent characterizations? Yes. Will there be situations in fanfiction when characters are bandied about and abused? Yes, inevitably. And when characters I have created are eventually subjected to such treatment (please, God), I hope I will continue to view the efforts with grateful amusement.

Want to know a secret? Sometimes, I write fanfiction about my own characters. It could be a little puff piece with them in a weird situation that helps me develop some aspect of their personality. It might be an experiment with a romantic pairing not appearing in the book, unlocking some similarity in their thought processes.

The trick is to keep all that headcanon appropriately compartmentalized. I have dozens of little one-offs, but not all of them include material / situations / outcomes that I want to influence the existing characters. Consistency is always key. Sometimes a quick coffeeshop AU is just a coffeeshop AU.