After reading this, and Girl Days (FINISH IT! I'M
ADDICTED, NOW!), I have to wonder... are you a professional
writer, or do you plan to be? You could rack up.
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Yes, and possibly make money too.
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Or kill thousands of people by heart attacks and ruptured
spleens from laughing too much.
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On second thought. You should stop, right now. Who want's the dreaded
"funniest joke on earth" to be released? (Joke)
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You know, that gets me wondering. How many, if any, of the people
on the
FFML are professional writers? I know that some like D.Fire, and
Metroanime, Twister, Legion, and a good many others quite probably
could be
if they set their minds to it. And I have my suspisions about
Hitomi since
I think her Spidergirl character is the same one that's recently
gotten her
own comic series. And the fact that Hitomi's showed up earlier
(though I'm
not certain about the timing because I don't have a very good comic
book
store in my area) makes me wonder.
I personally believe that the majority of the truly exceptional
writers on this mailing list have considered, are considering, or are
already writing (or attempting to write, getting published can be a
bitch) professionally.
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And probably many of the not so exceptional ones too. I know however that
professional writers can write fanfiction. My mother *is* a professional
writer (notice that I'm not) and her oftentimes co-writer writes a lot of
fanfiction. It's Startrek, but then, that's what she likes.
(The co-writer, not my mother. She doesn't see a point. Mother this time)
In any case, If she writes fanfiction and is a professional then other
people are allowed to as well.
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I myself have hopes that some day, I might turn pro. I don't like to
sound egotistical, but I know I can write well; truth to tell, it's
the *only* skill I have. I've always had my doubts though, until
recently, when I picked up a professionally written novel (by some
author I'd never heard of; it was more or less a commercial tie-in at
any rate), and realized five pages in that I could probably write
rings around that author.
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I've heard often enough that "getting published is not about skill, it's
about persistance and luck." (Never from my mother though...
she has enough persistance and skill too make up for any bad luck she might
ever have)
To qoute myself "you're good enough to sell" (again, not in context with my
mother. She KNOWS)
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This has only served to encourage me;
enough people tell me I have a fair amount of writing talent (and I'm
inclined to believe them... ^_^;;).
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You should! You write better than my mothers co- etc.
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The problem is coming up with
something *to* write...I don't want to end up cloning half the anime
and manga I enjoy in my first writing attempt, but thus far every
idea for a project I've had has pretty much come to that. (Does
anyone else have this problem?)
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Yes and no. If you try to be original, that's exactly what you're not going
to be. If you instead think about something that interests you, hopefully
outside the area where you're supposed to apply it, then you could bake that
into an idea for something interesting.
...or you could just go with unusual dreams.
In my oppinion, everything new consists of a lot of old. Which makes new
ideas that can't be traced back to anything very hard to get. Sooner or
later though a new idea is going to pop up and you're going to catch it.
It's all about 1) Readyness 2) Patience and 3) Stuffing your brain with new
info
(don't forget the third one. It's possibly the most important)
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Anyway, enough rambling. Point is, I think a lot of fanfiction
writers...the serious ones, at any rate...like to use fanfiction as a
stepping stone on the path to becoming a professional writer, or else
*are* pro writers already, and do fanfiction in between projects, or
to get the juices flowing when they start losing steam.
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Or they view it as relaxation. (not a god thing if you're currently behind
deadline)