Why I love writing fanfiction.

Now this may not conform to most people's depictions of me, but I do love writing. Now there is a reason why some people don't know this. I differentiate between writing assignments and writing for fun. Writing assignments are not that fun (cue all of highschool and some of college.) Writing papers is necessary to get ahead in life.

But I am talking about writing about thinks you are fanatic about, fanfiction. Now I do know that fanfiction gets a bad rap for plenty of reasons. (using an already established world as your starting point seems unoriginal to some, the rabid shippers- or people who enjoy making romfantic pairings probably seems creepy to others, and the just sheer amount of awful, awful messed up fanfics turns off a lot of people.

But I love writing it.

It all began when I was the ripe old age of nine and I found this game called Fire Emblem on the Game Boy Advance. I loved that game. It had dragons and plot and magic and strategy, etc. It was a realized world and just a different experience than what I had been playing at the time. (Pokemon.) And I liked the world so much that I wanted to try my hand at writing something that would be so glorious that my eyes would melt because of reading it.

I only got a few pages in before I got bored of it. (Blame my shorter attention span and desire to go outside. I was nine. Outside was fun.) So I let it down. Then my computer got fried and it was corrupted so I couldn't continue it ever. It was a sad day.

Fast forward nearly a decade to May 2012. I had just graduated high school and I was hating being bored. I had nothing to do. I almost didn't want to go to college because I thought my life was over (which seems to be a very pervasive and constant feeling- but I digress) and I just  sat waiting for something to change.

Now I had become a fan of My Little Pony a few months back and had read some fan works. And I enjoyed them immensely and I wanted to throw my hat in the ring. So I did on that May something or other. I wrote and I submitted the first chapter to a story, that in all reality, was average to good quality and I got good feedback and even got a few followers out of the deal. People actually wanted to read what I wrote, my life actually held meaning to someone outside of my general family and friends.

It actually made me happy.

So I've been writing away on fanfics involving pastel colored equines in a land that rivals Strawberry Shortcake with the sweet and cute names of the characters. And the puns. (Which I personally find ways to get around because I despise puns with all the power of ten thousand suns.) And I liked it until one day when I thought that I could branch out and not limit myself to just one thing . And while I do still adore My Little Pony, the overall fandom really does get old, seeing stories get hyped that are just distasteful and just copy and pasted multiple times and called 'creative.' So I've drifted from the fandom- so that means I have pretty much stopped writing for that (except one story- you always need a magnum opus for a last hurrah.)

Does this mean I am done with writing fanfics? No- since they are one of the few things that keep me happy enough to not hate myself completely. It just means I shifted towards other things.

I mean I just started a Pokemon/ Fire Emblem crossover this week and plan on a Sailor Moon/ Neon Genesis Evangelion crossover for this summer if not earlier. I need something to make my life suck less to my eyes and hold some sort of intrinsic value.