Podcast 002: The Bodies of the Girls who Made Me (commentary)

I was really excited to record this particular podcast because I had read this essay online before I even thought of starting this business and it charged me up so much with excitement about the idea of using fanfiction to inspire writers that it seemed inevitable that one of my first podcasts would be about this essay. It’s Seanan McGuire’s “The Bodies of the Girls Who Made Me: Fanfic and the Modern World” that was published at Tor back in April.

McGuire is a great writer and I enjoy not just her books but reading her Twitter account from which this particular essay she wrote was built. She went on a Twitter rant one day about the impact of fanfiction on her as a writer — and I say rant because it was a tweetstorm response to the knee-jerk attitude of some people to dismiss fanfiction and fanfiction writers. She took time to really address how fanfiction impacted her as a writer and, most importantly to me, how it helped her overcome issues like inhibition, shame, and fear of criticism.

In this podcast I dig deep into the importance of fanfiction, particularly for women, and how it has helped me and other writers become not only better writers but even professionally published authors. I touch a little bit on writers shame, which is something I discussed in episode one of this podcast, and dig a little bit into ideas such as what a ‘default character’ is and the ever-popular, controversial subject of a Mary Sue.

It might be odd to think of fanfiction as a tool to use for writing development, both technically and psychologically, but that is in fact what it can do for people who want to write more and expand their skill set as writers. If you think it’s odd then I invite you to listen to this podcast and then let me know what you think.

Has fanfiction helped you? Have you ever tried writing fanfiction at all? Does the very idea scare you? Or does writing in general scare you? Please leave your comments and feedback here, because I would love to know what you think.

Links:

Seanan McGuire’s “The Bodies of the Girls Who Made Me: Fanfic and the Modern World” https://www.tor.com/2018/04/09/the-bodies-of-the-girls-who-made-me-fanfic-and-the-modern-world/  

Seanan’s website: http://www.seananmcguire.com/

Seanan’s excellent Twitter: https://twitter.com/seananmcguire

What is a Mary Sue? https://fanlore.org/wiki/Mary_Sue