Post on January 2, 2025 Fanfiction is hard to write.  Or at least, it's hard to write well.  The reason for this is something I believe many people don't understand. Fanfiction requires a great deal of personal humility. Well-written adaptations require humility too, but fanfiction requires even more.  Adapting a story to a new medium requires you to put the good of the story above your own wishes, and if you love the original story, that isn't necessarily hard.  But fanfiction requires creating new things to match somebody else's desires and wishes, and that's extremely difficult.  It requires a much deeper level of submission and devotion to the original work. It's easier to figure out why you love a particular story and then create something new with the same touchstones, which is more perfectly matched to your tastes.  This is something that I think all artists do, in all mediums, and wonderful things can result. For instance, I am reasonably sure W. R. Gingell's book A Time-Traveller's Best Friend and its sequels (which I love) were inspired by the new Doctor Who TV show.  The story is a hilarious romp, and it's a joy to read precisely because she didn't try to force her heart into somebody else's story.  Instead, she figured out what she personally loved about that story and created something fresh based on those touchstones.  It's terrific.  It's original.  It's unique.  It shines. Writing a good new arc of somebody else's story is much, much harder.  This is probably why people who do a particularly good job of writing official fanfiction of TV shows (tie-in novels) frequently seem to be hired to write actual episodes of the show.  They have demonstrated that they have learned the difficult skill of submissiveness, and are therefore an appropriate fit for a writing team in an inherently collaborative storytelling medium. Submitting to the will of another creator is hard for me.  Perhaps that isn't universal; there are obviously people who enjoy collaborating.  I am not one of them. Every so often, though . . . there's a story I love that feels like it's missing something crucial by the end.  (Sometimes the existence of any ending at all.)  When it's a story I truly love, I may choose to take months to immerse myself in that story, to dedicate myself to learning what that story wants and needs.  Then I am ready to serve the story.  That level of submissiveness and humility comes only through pure, deep, unselfish love. I think that's what fanfiction should be.

About the Author Hi!  I'm Emily Martha Sorensen!  I have a wonderful husband, seven kids who are often a handful, a madcap eccentric swarm of characters in my head, and I'm a devout Christian who always prioritizes loving God and loving my neighbor. I write fantasy and science fiction that is full of whimsy. I write clever characters who charge straight through my plot and spend it spinning wildly off the rails.  (Those brats.) I write magic systems with strict rules and surprising limitations. I write plot twists that will make your jaw drop. I write romance after the happily-ever-after.  That's where the relationship starts! I write darkness that exists only to help characters grow towards greater light. I write — Wait, where did those uncooperative protagonists put the plot this time?  They just ran off with it, cackling maniacally! Well, I hope they'll leave you grinning.

Can I write to you? Sure!  Fill out this form, and I'll probably reply.  :) I'm probably going to abandon my old e-mail address (which was UnicornEmilydiespambots@doglover.com, with fewer exhortations for the extirpation of spambots), so I don't recommend contacting me there.  But you can try if you'd like.  I may check it every once in a while.