I find myself in my 50s rediscovering writing. I did it as a teen and then the academic narrowing of subjects at school and then uni suppressed it and I kept my writing to local political newsletters.
I am now one of those dreadful AO3 fanfiction writers and having two base characters and some semi-crafted scenarios is allowing me to put …
I find myself in my 50s rediscovering writing. I did it as a teen and then the academic narrowing of subjects at school and then uni suppressed it and I kept my writing to local political newsletters.
I am now one of those dreadful AO3 fanfiction writers and having two base characters and some semi-crafted scenarios is allowing me to put flesh on the bones and write for fun. and some people seem to like it.
I wonder how much AO3 is part of this. It's a great way for writers to practise & get feedback. I started reading one person's fanfic a few years ago, & the following year she published her first novel - in her 50s. #4 is out in August, all of them firmly in the 'bodice ripper with humour' category (or as my favourite description said, "as if someone blackmailed Georgette Heyer into writing smut').
Definitely and there are a few authors who IMO are as good as, if not better, than the mainstream published authors, writing longform magical realism, crime and/or romantic comedy stories.
I 'discovered' fanfic (in that I overcame my erroneous long term assumption that it was not good, weird, and not to be taken seriously) quite recently and there are writers on AO3 whose skill at world building, plotting and characterisation would make some mainstream authors feel quite inadequate.
I was discussing this with one of my favourite AO3 authors and she likes writing fanfic because she thinks it's fun, and (most) people understand that it's a low stakes free thing and leave their critiques at the door. Can't help but feel a lot of what could have been brilliant literature has instead emerged in fanfic because of the gate keeping of the publishing industry for anyone other than middle aged white men as JB mentioned in his article. Her horror of critique also came from being an academic, so it's not just students whose creativity gets snuffed out.
I find myself in my 50s rediscovering writing. I did it as a teen and then the academic narrowing of subjects at school and then uni suppressed it and I kept my writing to local political newsletters.
I am now one of those dreadful AO3 fanfiction writers and having two base characters and some semi-crafted scenarios is allowing me to put flesh on the bones and write for fun. and some people seem to like it.
“and then uni suppressed it” - Oh testify Sista!!
I wonder how much AO3 is part of this. It's a great way for writers to practise & get feedback. I started reading one person's fanfic a few years ago, & the following year she published her first novel - in her 50s. #4 is out in August, all of them firmly in the 'bodice ripper with humour' category (or as my favourite description said, "as if someone blackmailed Georgette Heyer into writing smut').
It’s definitely part of it. There’s probably a hundred different moving parts.
Definitely and there are a few authors who IMO are as good as, if not better, than the mainstream published authors, writing longform magical realism, crime and/or romantic comedy stories.
I 'discovered' fanfic (in that I overcame my erroneous long term assumption that it was not good, weird, and not to be taken seriously) quite recently and there are writers on AO3 whose skill at world building, plotting and characterisation would make some mainstream authors feel quite inadequate.
I was discussing this with one of my favourite AO3 authors and she likes writing fanfic because she thinks it's fun, and (most) people understand that it's a low stakes free thing and leave their critiques at the door. Can't help but feel a lot of what could have been brilliant literature has instead emerged in fanfic because of the gate keeping of the publishing industry for anyone other than middle aged white men as JB mentioned in his article. Her horror of critique also came from being an academic, so it's not just students whose creativity gets snuffed out.