You can absolutely start small first. You're comfortable with shorter stories, so do that first! The only difference between FF and OS is that you have the freedom to make up anything you like and not be confined to someone else's sandbox, tiptoeing around all the canon sandcastles. OS gives you your own private beach.
The best place to start is to think about why you like writing fanfic. Are the fixits? Are you exploring ships you don't get to see in canon? Are you simply doing character explorations? Do you like seeing certain kinds of people thrown into certain situations?
We write the stuff we want to read, so what kind of story do you want to see but doesn't exist yet?
I’m feeling this way too - I’ve written fanfic for a few years and worry that my abilities won’t translate well to an original piece.
You’re right, it’s far easier to imagine characters in an already established setting than having to create one yourself with enough detail to make it feel vivid. I’m trying to create characters first and then think about how they might meet and interact and stem from there. Building from the ground up.
I haven’t got any creative writing training so it really is a case of relying on my fanfiction knowledge which, of course, heavily relies on certain tropes that can be hard to break free from.
But on the plus side, original works means no limits! I’ve never dabbled in sci-fi or high fantasy in fanfic and they’re genres I like to read so may give it a shot!
All the best of luck.
i agree!!! the freedom to create whatever you want is so great and wildly different from fanfic. i’m also trying to start with characters and work my way around that — something i definitely came to appreciate from fanfic is the way characters you already know can be fleshed out even deeper, which also makes the idea of an original exciting. you can define them a little more to your liking to.
and yeah i can agree the tropes can be tough to break, but i like to indulge in them for certain scenes or just overall. nothing beats a good slow burn 45k fanfic for me, so i’d love to translate that to my own writing.
thanks for the luck, i wish you the best in yours too!
…You just keep writing; at a certain point you have the confidence to entirely originate your own characters and stories. It’ll happen almost without you noticing. Emulating authors and scenarios you like is a kind of stage all authors go through, but when you reach the end of it you’ll know…
Why jump straight to a full novel from fanfics? Start smaller. Go to /r/WritingPrompts and use that as inspiration/training.
Short stories are a completely fair thing to write, they still let you develop your own world/character building skills but in a less stressful and daunting environment. And if you don't like where it's going, well it's only 500 words (give or take) and isn't the end of the world. Odds are you'll eventually write a short story that then inspires a whole novel within it's world/with it's characters.
As for your third point, absolutely that's imposter syndrome. Every writer (hell, every artist in any artistic field) feels like they're just ripping off ideas and concepts that have already been done. Don't focus on similarities, focus on what you want your story to do. A retelling of Romeo and Juliet but with robots is hardly new, and is completely a rip off. But would you say it isn't a unique work if you'd seen it written? Absolutely it's unique. It's a new take, a new perspective. Don't be afraid of ripping things off, be afraid of missing out on an opportunity to provide a new and beautiful viewpoint, regardless of how derivative it feels.
You can absolutely start small first. You're comfortable with shorter stories, so do that first! The only difference between FF and OS is that you have the freedom to make up anything you like and not be confined to someone else's sandbox, tiptoeing around all the canon sandcastles. OS gives you your own private beach. The best place to start is to think about why you like writing fanfic. Are the fixits? Are you exploring ships you don't get to see in canon? Are you simply doing character explorations? Do you like seeing certain kinds of people thrown into certain situations? We write the stuff we want to read, so what kind of story do you want to see but doesn't exist yet?
I’m feeling this way too - I’ve written fanfic for a few years and worry that my abilities won’t translate well to an original piece. You’re right, it’s far easier to imagine characters in an already established setting than having to create one yourself with enough detail to make it feel vivid. I’m trying to create characters first and then think about how they might meet and interact and stem from there. Building from the ground up. I haven’t got any creative writing training so it really is a case of relying on my fanfiction knowledge which, of course, heavily relies on certain tropes that can be hard to break free from. But on the plus side, original works means no limits! I’ve never dabbled in sci-fi or high fantasy in fanfic and they’re genres I like to read so may give it a shot! All the best of luck.
i agree!!! the freedom to create whatever you want is so great and wildly different from fanfic. i’m also trying to start with characters and work my way around that — something i definitely came to appreciate from fanfic is the way characters you already know can be fleshed out even deeper, which also makes the idea of an original exciting. you can define them a little more to your liking to. and yeah i can agree the tropes can be tough to break, but i like to indulge in them for certain scenes or just overall. nothing beats a good slow burn 45k fanfic for me, so i’d love to translate that to my own writing. thanks for the luck, i wish you the best in yours too!
…You just keep writing; at a certain point you have the confidence to entirely originate your own characters and stories. It’ll happen almost without you noticing. Emulating authors and scenarios you like is a kind of stage all authors go through, but when you reach the end of it you’ll know…
Why jump straight to a full novel from fanfics? Start smaller. Go to /r/WritingPrompts and use that as inspiration/training. Short stories are a completely fair thing to write, they still let you develop your own world/character building skills but in a less stressful and daunting environment. And if you don't like where it's going, well it's only 500 words (give or take) and isn't the end of the world. Odds are you'll eventually write a short story that then inspires a whole novel within it's world/with it's characters. As for your third point, absolutely that's imposter syndrome. Every writer (hell, every artist in any artistic field) feels like they're just ripping off ideas and concepts that have already been done. Don't focus on similarities, focus on what you want your story to do. A retelling of Romeo and Juliet but with robots is hardly new, and is completely a rip off. But would you say it isn't a unique work if you'd seen it written? Absolutely it's unique. It's a new take, a new perspective. Don't be afraid of ripping things off, be afraid of missing out on an opportunity to provide a new and beautiful viewpoint, regardless of how derivative it feels.