You never know where the door that will lead you to a writer’s paycheck is until you pitch a bundle of manuscript over the transom.
Are you a fan of a major franchise? I am an unabashed devotee of the Honorverse, the Ring of Fire universe, and Star Trek, not necessarily in that order. I’m also old enough to love real TV westerns — Wagon Train, Bonanza, Big Valley, Laredo, Cimmaron Strip, Cade’s County … and while I never really understood the appeal of things like vampires, sparkly or not, I’m enough of a sixties-child to grok how a big orange Dodge or a super-hotrod Mustang not only can have a TV show, but should.
So where I started writing is … well, today it would be called fan fiction (or fanfic, for short).
Don’t knock it: David Gerrold started out that way. Yep. One of ST: TOS’ best-loved episodes is fan fiction, bought and brought to life by the show itself. So, when you investigate a bit, did a goodly proportion of today’s novelists, game-writers ( and it’s tabletop-gaming as well as video-games where this holds true. Tell me Magic, The Gathering isn’t fanfic of LOTR!), graphic novelists, comic authors, and screenwriters.
Now, a screenwriter’s stuck in a way a plain old writer isn’t: a plain old writer’s budget’s as big as her (or his, being fair) imagination. That lesson hit Gerrold square between the eyes with his first sale: “The Trouble With Tribbles.”
But fan-written fiction is a place to explore. Like any other kind of writing, the best way to learn how to do it is to read, first — widely, and sometimes outside your own comfort zone). Then try writing it yourself, and pay attention to the feedback you get.
Sometimes, as happened to me, that feedback might include a check.
Challenge:
Find an existing fictional universe and write — keep it to 250 words if you can — a “show opening” or “show teaser” for either your Callow Youth and Stout Companion, or ongoing characters. Try putting them somewhen they’ve never been before, or having them encounter an alien.
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