August 8, 2008

Prior to taking the writing plunge, I was a voracious reader of any Bonanza fanfiction I could find.  Main character wasn’t an issue for me and I happily read stories focused on any Cartwright, prequels, What Happened Next, and so on.  I thought there was no way I’d ever be brave enough to even try to write fanfiction for others to read.  Guess I was wrong.

A couple of years ago, a co-worker died unexpectedly, which left the entire office reeling with grief.  At the time, I was a member of only one Bonanza site and I’d only read the offerings of others on the weekly writing exercises.  The topic shortly after my co-worker’s death was about grief, and I composed a very short story about Ben in bed after Marie’s funeral, deeply inhaling the scent of her perfume which still lingered on her pillow.  He could hear five year old Little Joe crying for his mother but couldn’t muster the will to get out of bed and comfort his child.  The feedback was positive and I thought that little exercise would be a one-time only deal.  Again, I was wrong.

As the weeks went on, I found myself participating in the weekly exercises more frequently.  The majority of the feedback I received from well established authors gave me the confidence to try a full-length story.  So, I decided to let the ink flow and see what happened.  Then, I decided to post it.  The feedback was pretty decent, so I decided to write another story.  After that, writing fanfic was really like eating M&Ms—I couldn’t stop.  Lately, I’ve become more of a reader than writer and hopefully I’ll finish one of those darned stories I’ve been working on for a while.

6 Comments »

1. What an interesting story Patina, it’s an amazing story as to how you dove into writing.

   I hope that you and the others who have ‘in progress’ stories get the bug to finish them soon and let us see them here!

   Comment by DonnaB — August 8, 2008 @ 11:14 pm

2. Thanks, Donna. Writing certainly became a great outlet for the grief.

   Comment by patina — August 9, 2008 @ 2:15 am

3. Thanks so much for sharing this story, Patina. I LOVE hearing about how people get into writing fan fiction. And your M&M analogy is great—it’s a hard habit to break, isn’t it? Looking forward to more posts from you!

   Comment by southplains — August 10, 2008 @ 1:48 am

4. Thanks, Southplains. It’s hard to stop after just one story, isn’t it? lol I hope you’ll stop by to visit!

   Comment by patina — August 10, 2008 @ 9:56 pm

5. The writing bug is a strange one isn’t it Patina, but rather nice at the same time. I love to read how other people became ‘addicted’. I find even if I don’t write much I’m OK as long as I have a few unfinished stories to think about, but if there is nothing in the pipeling I feel desperate for a story to keep me occupied.

   Comment by territell — August 12, 2008 @ 10:15 pm

6. Thanks for stopping by, Terri. I’ve got several story ideas written down but haven’t done much to develop most of them.

   Comment by patina — August 13, 2008 @ 1:16 am

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