Graham Gardner | Sasha Cameron

Well, technically it has been a year and one month but let’s not quibble. In ~~November~~ October 2012 I launched my first fan fiction effort. This was on the back of having fallen under the spell of Fifty Shades of Grey, subsequently discovering that it started life as Twilight Fan Fiction and having that moment of temporary insanity that said, ~~“Well, if she can do it, why can’t I?”~~ “I’ll give that a go.”

That first effort was Investing Elliot the title of which was a play on the 2003 novel by Graham Gardner. (It’s okay, you weren’t the only one who didn’t get it). While the book had very little to do with my story it has huge resonances with my journey as a writer.

The original book description says that Elliot is “young teenager who decides to become a different person and ends up being invited to join a secret society which is orchestrating a reign of terror at his new school” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventing_Elliot). In many ways, that is exactly what my journey has been. Well, okay, not the reign of terror bit (not really) but certainly the secret society. And I have loved it.

Writing fan fiction has been ~~tiring~~, ~~demoralizing~~, ~~a waste of time~~, great. It created discipline when I didn’t have any (I can now spend hours on facebook avoiding work without breaking a sweat), it helped me to push past writers block (with a cricket bat) and to fit things in when life gets to busy (like ending up in hospital with a stress related illness). Blogging the journey has also helped to hone my thinking (I have more ideas for my exit strategy now than just being a world famous author with a movie deal). Of course, I had plans to stick to a proper blogging schedule but…

Now, I could go on about everything I learned about doing things wrong, or what I learned about my own sexuality, or what it means to write in this genre, or the nature of fan fiction creativity. I could tell you about how I became a celebrity reporter, or getting a my first bloggasm award. But I won’t bore you with all of that.

Instead, what I want to share with you are a set of challenges that I created for my friends and fellow fanfickers. I would love to know your responses to any or all of these challenges. So they will come out for you in a series of posts over the next few days. Please participate. I would love to hear from as many of you as can be bothered.