Honest Nonsense

Writing fics takes humility, of a sort that essay-writing doesn’t require. On the base level you’re meeting the original story where it is — in the world of story — not from up above, as literary critic. You are taking the story’s substance from a thing that already exists. You are freely admitting (or ought to be!) that it isn’t yours, that it rests on the things that came before. In a sense this is true of all our stories; they derive from the created world, what Tolkien called “sub-creation.” But here you are engaging in a sort of “sub-sub-creation” if one may coin the word.

I used to wonder, why write a second derivative if you could write a first? Isn’t original intrinsically better? What original is, is intrinsically different. Original is a wider conversation; fanfiction is a targeted conversation. The thing to keep in mind is that what is of eternal significance is people’s selves — their hearts, minds, souls, bodies. Stories matter as far as they impact these selves, whether readers’ or writers’.

If fanfic readers, as others have said, tend to be exhausted, then fanfic writing is an opportunity to minister to exhausted people. (Which we know Jesus cares deeply about, with his call to “all you who are weary and heavy laden.”) We have the unique honor and privilege of such an audience, one which wants the guide rails of a known world/characters/etc. but also wants something new; and we have the new wine of the Gospel. Whether that comes through in the writing itself, or in our conversations with readers or writers, the opportunities are there.