Fanfiction

I’ve never really given any thought to writing fan-fiction. But, when I was younger, I did used to continue the stories of my favourite characters from books and TV shows in my head whilst trying to sleep. Who am I kidding? I still do that. So, the other day when I was really in the mood for being creative, I decided to write a story based around a peripheral character from one of my favourite books.

This is a really great creative writing exercise to try out if you’re completely stuck for ideas. Someone has already figured out the setting and the character for you and all you need to do is write what happens to them next. And if you don’t want your story to sound like fan-fiction all you have to do is pick a character so peripheral that nobody would recognise them as a character from that book. His or her story could be so separate from the main story line that it could easily be a character you thought up by yourself.

On top of that, it’s a really fun exercise. Especially if you’re really enthusiastic about the book you snatched the character from. You could explore Middle Earth in a way that Tolkien never did through the eyes of a relatively unknown hobbit. Or you could find out what happens to Neville Longbottom when he goes home for the summer.

Of course, that’s only if you’re a fantasy nut like me. This exercise could work just as well if you pick the character from a realist novel or a historical fiction. I recently read a fantastic book called ‘Longbourn’ by Jo Baker. She writes from the perspective of a servant in Elizabeth Bennet’s household from ‘Pride and Prejudice’.

I picked it up in a book shop because I thought it looked like a bit of fun. But it was a genuinely good read. There are constant reminders of what’s happening in Lizzie Bennet’s life so you always know where you are in Jane Austen’s novel. But Baker also explores many of the societal issues that Jane Austen completely ignored such as slavery and the horrible realities of working as a servant.

And that’s why I love the idea of this exercise so much. You can take a book like ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and show the other side of that society that you don’t get to see in the original novel. There’s a whole world for your character to discover that the author who originally created that character may never have thought of. You don’t necessarily have to pick a character from a book either. You could pick them from a game or a movie.

So I just thought I’d promote this particular exercise. I know it’s not exactly ground breaking but it’s a lot of fun to try out and I love the possibilities it offers.

Thanks for reading.