I was asked a question the other day that touched on something I
hadn't really thought about.  A friend asked me "Why do you write
fanfics anyway?"  After a while, I'm pretty sure I have my own
answer.  But I'd be interested in hearing others.

Why do you write fanfics anyway?

  Again, this is probably something that others have commented on before,
but I do it for several reasons.

1.  Practice.  I, amongst many of the authors out here, want to be a
professional writer.  Using fanfics, it's one manner of being able to
improve your skills, work out any bad habits you may have in your writing,
find a style and genre that you're comfortable with, and to develop those
little trademark touches that every famous author is known for.

2.  Love of Anime.  I'm by no means a graphic artist, by which I mean my
drawing is not good enough to have my own art page.  I am (arguably
^_^;;)good at writing, so that's what I do.

3.  Sense of Community.  I've met a lot of people doing this, some of which
I consider very good friends.  Surely, if I hadn't done this, I would never
have gotten to meet such noteworthy writers and pals as Lurker Zen, Droo
Huang, Ukyou, Delany Brittain, Doug Murphy, Josh Holmstrom, Libby Thomas et
al, seeing that they live in various places around the globe, and I lived in
Japan when I first started writing (later, Hawaii, but that's obviously
still not close enough).

4.  Inspiration.  Take this as you will, but mainly I got into fanfics
because I saw some good stuff out there, and some bad stuff, and I knew I
could do better.  Hopefully, when someone reads my works, they might come to
the same conclusion, and write a fic themselves.  And if they succeed in
coming up with a masterpiece of fanfiction, then we all benefit.  And it
could be the key to bringing in yet another good writer....  Art begets art,
as they say.

There are other reasons from each of us, but those are mine.

Mata ne,
Rob
"And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
With no problems."
--Kate Bush
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