Once I realized there were places on the Internet where I could share my fanfic, and get support and positive feedback from that community of fellow writers and readers, I was hooked on fanfic as a hobby. I wrote a lot of Tortall fanfic and Harry Potter fanfic before I even knew fanfic was a thing that could be shared and posted online with other people. Especially authors like Tamora Pierce and JK Rowling. So it felt very collaborative and supportive.īut I think the biggest inspiration for me to write was just authors who had written stories I loved as a teenager. We also helped each other do things like come up with character names and develop our settings.
We even designed covers for each other's works and edited each other's writing. I did have a good friend from elementary school through high school, and we encouraged each other to create our first fantasy worlds and write our first fantasy novels. So when they do ask about my writing, I just give vague answers, since I know they aren't actually interested in what I write since I'll never make a dime off it. As a child, I experienced family members violating my privacy to read my journals and stories in order to mock what I had written and then as a teenager and adult, I got a lot of criticism from my parents about writing fanfic that I can't publish for profit because apparently only writing that is for profit has any value at all. I think a lot of writers get encouragement early on from their family members, but that sadly has never been the case for me. The question of who inspired me to write is an interesting one.