We write a particular type of fiction, with its own rules and circumstances; fanfic published to a mailing list. That poses a unique challenge and gives unique opportunities.

The challenges. Well, they're numerous. We're writing someone else's characters; someone else drew the lines. Yet, we still create our own plots, our own complications, and they're the colour we add (I love making up metaphors like that). Hopefully we don�t go too far outside the lines. It's been noted before that none of us write canon; rather, we write to canon, to a greater or lesser degree.

So how do you work with someone else's creations? How do you take what someone else created and make it yours?

Simple; know your characters. Even though someone else has already created them, there's a great deal of room for you to work in. What sort of joke will they laugh at, what will make them frown or cry or dance for joy? Why do they do what they do? Understand their back story because what happened to them before will affect the sort of person they are now. Those previous events shaped their character and, imho, character drives action. It might suit your plot to have your shopkeeper take action against the armed robbers, but if (s)he has always been meek as milk before that part of the story and continues that way afterwards, it's going to jar the reader. All those small details may have no part in the story you're telling, but it's like making the preliminary sketch before you start painting the masterpiece.

Something else; respect your characters. Even the throwaway character with only one or two lines is there for a reason, so respect that. Treat them well. Sloppily drawn, stereotyped or badly thought out characters, even if they're only there for a couple of lines, weaken your fic.

Another challenge is the way we 'publish' what we write. Most pro authors publish in books of over 35,000 words or so; either that, or they work in short story format, which runs up to around 10 to 15 thousand words.

Short story format for us isn't significantly different to mainstream/pro authors except for one thing; word count. I can write something 100 words long or I can write something 20,000 words long. Both these lengths would be difficult to impossible to sell in conventional markets, but fanfic mailing lists aren't conventional markets. I can publish my work just by posting; therefore word count isn't such a big restriction for us.

However, there is one rider to that; in short fiction (for our purposes, I'll call it under 15,000 words or so) every word has to count. And I mean every word. If you're doing a 5,000-word short story, you don't have room to stuff around. Do it elegantly and put every word in its place. As a reader I can honestly say there's nothing that gets up my nose more than a story/vignette that could have been over and done in one thousand words being blown out to two thousand just because the author likes to flap his/her jaw. Remember word economy; when you've finished your piece, go back and edit ruthlessly. If it doesn't add to the story, the character, the reader's understanding, then turf it. Lose the excess baggage; travel light. A finely crafted short fic can have all the kick � in fact it can have even more � than a longer one because it's concentrated.

As far as longer fic goes, no-one's going to publish an entire 30,000 word fic to the list all in one honkin' great big hit (at least I sincerely hope not). So we have to deal with posting serially. If you're posting one part to one day, you don't have a huge problem with your audience forgetting your point of view. But as a writer, you want your audience to enter fully into this universe you're creating, right? If you post just little bits and pieces, the reader no sooner gets settled than they're finished and back in the real world. A sincere suggestion; instead of posting little bits frequently, wait until you've got a fair bit written and beta read before you start to post, and send out larger chunks of story.

One last thing; your first part posted to the list is your first and only chance to 'set the hook.' It's got to have a good set up, give the reader enough information to place themselves in your universe and give them something to look forward to in the next part. Otherwise, the reader simply may not bother to read part 2. Know the right starting point in your story; if you start too far ahead of yourself, you risk confusing the reader; start too early and you might just bore them. Either way, you may well miss the chance to set the hook and you may lose the reader. And that's one thing you don't want to do; after all, why else do we write if we don't want someone reading it?