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I love fanfiction

Fanfiction Brought My Dream Back


I’m thinking fanfiction today, and not only because of my interview with Denny S. Bryce for her Happily Ever After column on USA today, but fanfiction as a gateway to a dream. When Denny asked questions about the fanfiction I love to read and write, I couldn’t help but think back about how it’s been a catalyst to where I’m going with my writing. A TV show couple inspired me to get off my butt and start writing again.

It reminded me that I have a dream and gift that needed to be honored.

Before I started watching The Vampire Diaries, I had a long writing drought. I hadn’t written a story in years. Life, work, and all the blah things that come with adulthood had distracted me from what I wanted to do.

animated image of Caroline and Klaus smiling at each other I kept telling friends about this book I wanted to write. The story would play in my head but I would sit in front of my computer and…nothing. Then watching the Vampire Diaries, the inspiration for a story based on the two people on the screen came to me. Klaus and Caroline were sharing yet another stellar moment where she was basically leading him by the neck and this bad-bad-bad guy, with a sexy smile and killer British charm, just allowed her.

And thus sweet inspiration started to flow and I began to flex my then EXTREMELY rusty writing muscles. There was a lot of over-telling vs showing, shouting from every character’s head in the same scene, and fuzzy writing that shot for mysterious and landed dead-smacked on vague. But…

I was writing again and I was happy.

A writer that doesn’t/can’t write always feels empty. Something huge was missing from my life. Fanfiction gave that something back to me again. It gave me the opportunity to feel good and whole again. I am sure that sounds cheesy to some of you. It doesn’t make it any less truth. Ask anyone who knows me.
With my book, Boss, coming out on March 6, I’m on my way to living my dream. Yeah, Jay Klaus saying, you brought me back, Carolinegot her writing groove back! Thanks to Fanfiction. Thanks to Klaus and Caroline.

Has something simple (like a TV show couple) ever brought you back from a nasty writer’s block? Or a period in your life where you felt stuck? If so, what was it?