Fan Fiction, or fanfic, is treated as a bit of a dirty word in some circles despite lots of people writing it. I don’t think it’s a dirty word at all. In fact, a lot of people came to my writing because of the fanfic I’ve written over the years. Because of that, and because some of the older works are difficult to stumble across sometimes, I’ve made them available here for your enjoyment.
I’ve been a part of four fandoms: Star Trek, Highlander, Xena – Warrior Princess, and Terminator – The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I didn’t write fanfic for any of the Treks, but I did enjoy reading the works of others when I found them at conventions or via the grapevine (this is back when blue dittos were the norm, and copies printed on a Xerox® machine were fancy-schmancy). I did submit scripts to Trek back in the day, but I don’t consider those in my list of fanfic material.
Highlander was my entry into the fanfic-author world of fandom. I’d been writing scripts for a while, but I could see that the landscape was shifting away from spec scripts (this is cyclic in Hollywood). I figured that it was time that I begin learning how to write prose. As I was a fan of this syndicated show, I thought it would make a good first vehicle: allowing me to focus on technique and story while removing the need to create a convincing universe/rules with brand-spanking-new characters. Learning a new writing style is tough enough without trying to learn everything all at once. Both of my Highlander stories were well-received and each were printed in HL anthologies.
I hadn’t planned on writing any more fanfic. When Xena came along I felt the urge to write — not fanfic, but for real. I tried to submit a script to the production company, but was stopped early in the process being that I was based in NM and not the L.A. area (or at least southern California). Since my location wasn’t going to change, that was effectively that for Xena. Since I now had a script I couldn’t use, I posted it for the fans. One thing led to another and I ended up penning a few more stories as well as articles for the Xena fanmag, “Whoosh!”.
Then I decided to try to set the bar higher: a Xena fanfic novel. Because of my training with scripts, I knew I could construct a story. With prose, however, I still had that novel-length word barrier to overcome. It can seem daunting, but as my experience with my very first screenplay taught me, once you break through the mental barrier of how much material you have to write, that stops being a problem. So I started writing…and posting the chapters online, unedited, just as soon as they were finished. Despite the crude result, this effort, too, was very well-received. It likely will never get buffed up all nice and shiny. So many tweaks I’d love to do to make it better and more consistent. Oh well.
After Xena, I thought my fan fiction authoring days were long past. Fandom is time-consuming in and of itself without the added exercise of scribbling some unauthorized, and necessarily free, creative works. But then there was TSCC. At some point in the second season, despite all of my fannish blogging, I wrote and posted a few script pages. These were the first script pages I’d written in about a decade. Then I wrote and posted a few more. Then I did a half-episode, and so forth.
Although I suspected the series’ cancellation was a fait accompli, the strong season finish gave me hope that this bubble show might be the recipient of a last-minute reprieve. At the end of the 2nd season finale, I had a creative flash that was so impressive and stunning, it wouldn’t let me go. The Muses are whimsical in this way. BTW – this flash is, essentially, the first 22-episodes of The Connor Wars, with astonishing detail…I just had to copy it down onto paper. So I wrote up a quick bible and rushed out two quick episodes so the powers that be at Fox could see some fleshed-out possibilities. As the series had already been shuttered over a month before, it didn’t pan out.
Even so, there were rumors. I resolved that I’d continue writing scripts and stop if a rescuer arrived. No rescuer arrived. So, in the span of 11-1/2 months, I wrote 27 1-hour teleplays and 1 2-hour screenplay. This was The Connor Wars. Its world-wide popularity took me by surprise (it’s been translated into Russian) as has the still-arriving stream of fan mail and comments. I’ve made a number of friends because of it. The combination of the amount of work required for this labor of love with the amazing fan response will keep TCW in a very special place in my creative heart, with a candle always burning. (And I still have a couple of story ideas I still want to do with it if I ever get the time.) I just wish I could do something with the material as an added thank you for all the fans. They really love this show, and TCW was a welcome salve. Unfortunately, it’s not up to me.
It’s been an interesting road, this fan fiction thing. Every time I thought I was out, it sucked me back in. There is a terrific allure to speculating on a show you love, in exploring unvisited possibilities. If you check out the fanfic here, you’ll see that I always try to be respectful of the show, the characters, and the fans. No “slash”. Nothing so out of character that it couldn’t appear on the show in question. It’s both learning/practicing of technique and playing around with supposition — not so much flights of personal fantasy. I honestly can’t think of a better way to play.
