I love, love, love reading Shadowhunters fanfiction. The amount of talent this fandom has is unbelievable. In order to consistently post on my side blog, I usually have to finish at least one or two pieces per day. I love reading all of them, but there are those select few that absolutely stand out because the author goes above in beyond in developing their world and I can’t help but get sucked into them. Fanfiction is a pretty beautiful thing. You get swept up in the imaginings of someone you’ve never met before as they explore characters you both already adore. As you read their words, you get to share something so close to both of your hearts. In that way, these characters’ stories  – and your journeys with them – never really end. It’s a pretty amazing feeling and one that helped inspire this blog. To all of the amazing authors who continue to work their magic and share their fics, I’ll never be able to thank all of you enough for that.

My favorite thing about writing fanfiction is the fact that, for me, it feels real. I personally don’t read AU’s, and that is because I prefer fanfiction that is just like the show. Cause then I feel like it actually happened. Post and coda fanfictions are my favorites! When the writer stays true to the character and write it in the right elements and environment. I just imagine that those actually happen. And I love that! I love that we can just write our own stuff and see it as a part of the show in a way. I also just love sharing something I keep so close to my heart with others who do that as well. It’s amazing and I’m so grateful to be in a fandom that values and cherish fanwork so much!

I don’t personally see a divide between myself and those who read my fics; at the end of the day, we’re all fans of the same thing, and I hope that nobody feels too nervous or intimidated to talk to me, about my fics or anything else for that matter.

As a fic writer myself, I know how much work you put into your writing. I want to thank you all for creating absolute masterpieces that keep me going when I’m bored, sad or angry. Fanfiction is my whole world. I get lost in the stories but I cannot let my stories go too early. I need to relive it over and over again. And thanks to you, I can just sit and read stories, even whole books! about those characters. It’s the most beautiful form of sharing – because it’s creating something brand new with characters we’ve come to know as well as family or friends, allowing us to stay with them and escape into their world over and over again. And it’s all free. Thank you.

I am a fanfiction writer, but I didn’t even consider writing until I started reading other authors. It’s amazing what some people can create and I hope to someday be as talented and hardworking as them.

Writing is an outlet for when things in the real world become too overwhelming. Sharing my writing shows a more vulnerable side of me but it also gives other writers and readers a different perspective. I always enjoy reading comments on my fics where a reader will tell me that they really enjoyed my story or they enjoyed how I changed something the writers of a show/book/movie wrote. Writing fics is a reminder that a story does not have to end, and that you always have the chance to change it.

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I have trouble expressing myself and my thoughts verbally, so even aside from creative writing it’s just always been a form of communication I’m most comfortable with. When it comes to fanwriting, the vast majority of my experience is actually through roleplaying, not fanfiction – as a result, I’m highly character-oriented rather than plot-oriented. I think what makes fanfiction so amazing, both as a writer and as a reader, is that it empowers fans to explore topics, relationships, dynamics that the original content creators simply aren’t able to because their work is beholden to commerce and their production’s stakeholders. Without the pressure of needing to generate revenue, of needing to please people who have little to no involvement in a product, of needing to support needs which exist outside of and sometimes unrelated to the content itself, fans enjoy a special kind of creative freedom, and are able to breathe new life and possibilities into the characters, places, and worlds they love. Being able to simulate these scenarios in a way which allows us to explore each other’s imaginations breathes new life into not only the IP itself but also other areas of our lives. Related to this, the work which means the most to me personally is a piece I did for the one-year remembrance of Pulse – through that work, people all around the world could visit the memorial through the shoes of Magnus, Alec, and Raphael, where normally they could not. Being able to provide someone with that kind of experience through this shared connection – through Shadowhunters in general and Malec in particular – still to this day brings an immense warmth to my heart. I continue writing with the hope that other works can bring this same kind of experience to readers, enabling them to explore settings, scenarios, and relationships they otherwise could not.