Confession: In middle school, I was deep into the world of reading Tumblr fanfictions.

More specifically, I was reading a lot of MCU “x reader” fanfiction. And I’ll admit, I wasn’t just reading it. I made my fair share of poorly written curtainfics about a certain long-haired, metal-armed super soldier. But as much as I enjoyed to read the coffee shop AUs and movie nights with the Avengers, most of my favorites were novel-length fics with complex story lines that weaved a whole new character into the world of the MCU. And while fanfiction couldn’t take the place of published novels, (I still remember my mind being blown by Six of Crows as a fourteen year old,) it still played an important part in my writing journey. Below, I have included nine things that I learned and gained from my journey into the fanfiction world.

1. I began writing almost every day. Ray Bradbury said, “Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write fifty-two bad short stories in a row.” I’m pretty sure I wrote way more than fifty-two bad stories, but I was still writing. I learned that writing was something that I enjoyed, and something that was worth spending my free time on. It wasn’t long before fanfiction turned into “inspired by,” and “inspired by” turned into original ideas.

2. I learned that writing purely for pleasure isn’t what makes you money, but is still important. When I’m in the middle of a serious project, sometimes I have to put it down and work on something simple to avoid burnout. Sometimes I need frivolous side projects to remind me that the things that I love aren’t supposed to be a source of stress.

3. By being exposed to a multitude of authors each day, I learned a lot about different styles and techniques. I slowly developed mental lists of what I liked and wanted to incorporate into my own writing, and what I swore that I would never include.

4. I liked the way the women were written. In the world of the MCU which was a (mainly) male dominated universe, these writers created realistically flawed but endearing female OCs that had unique and captivating stories. And though these stories were almost always centered on romance due to the fact that the genre was romance, both the main character and the love interest had their own separate arcs. That was a lesson that couldn’t be taught by a lot of popular media.

5. I loved the fact that most authors on Tumblr included trigger warning lists. That was very helpful for me as a young teen to avoid topics or themes that I was uncomfortable with, and is still helpful to me as an adult who personally avoids certain content. While this is beginning to gain traction in the publishing world, I would love to see it become the norm.

6. I didn’t like that these stories were often written second-person present-tense perspective. “You walk across the room and sit down on your favorite chair,” just doesn’t sit quite right with me. It made sense for an “x reader” story to be written in that style to draw the reader in, but I quickly switched to first or third-person perspective for my own stories.

7. Though this was something I started learning before I read fanfiction, I began to understand the true importance of proper formatting and grammar as I started regularly reading unedited content. If an author didn’t know how to separate paragraphs for dialogue during a conversation, it wasn’t worth trying to read.

8. I discovered phrases and concepts that were over-used, especially in romance. (Please, find a way to describe his eyes other than “blue orbs.” Just please.) There was a time in my writing journey where I was guilty of using these cliché descriptions, but those old stories are locked away in order to drown out their threats of embarrassing me to death. And because of this, I reworked my description style to keep my readers and myself from cringing at my work.

9. I learned the importance of original content. While it was fun to read and write new stories about my favorite characters, at the end of the day, it all belongs to someone else. I saw so many incredibly talented authors who may never write a novel of their own, and that was so disappointing to me.

As a kid who didn’t grow up on the internet, the world of fanfiction was a crazy new place for me to discover as a teen. (Shout out to my best friend for being the one to introduce me to fanfics in the first place.) Though I’ve left it behind as I work towards my publishing dreams, the influence that it has had is not something that can be left out as I share my writing journey. Just as creative writing workshops and theater classes created significant advances in my career, (another story for another day,) fanfiction has taught me more than I can fit into a single blog post.

While writing this, I thought maybe I should be embarrassed to admit that this is a part of my roots. Especially while other authors are showcasing their master’s degrees in creative writing. But then I remembered, some people learn best from lectures and classrooms, while others learn best from observing the work of others, and a lengthy process of trial and error. Two different methods, but both lead towards the same end goal. I enjoyed every part of the crazy adventure that has taught me all I know about writing, and fanfiction was one of many stops along the way. In coming posts, I hope to share more of that adventure with all of my readers.