One question of writing that troubles many fiction writers is how to find out if their ideas are not only good ideas but if they will be well received and understood by readers. Thankfully, there is a way for writers to have a beta test done of their idea to judge how well it would be received and understood by readers. This method is known as fanfiction. Fanfiction is when a writer takes the story and/or characters from a movie, TV show, book, comic, or other work and repurposes them in their own story. By using fanfiction, a writer can test out an idea using characters that already exist in other fictional stories and find out what readers think of the idea.

How To

The first step would be for the writer to choose how to use fanfiction for his or her beta test. In considering this, the writer would ideally select a work that is within the same genre that he or she plans to later write in. It would be hard to beta test the idea of Earth magic being used to heal people in a fanfiction that takes place in outer space; instead, a better choice would be a work of fiction that already has magic in it like Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings.

Second, it is important that the writer does not get too caught up in the fanfiction that he or she puts too much time or effort into it when the end goal is to become a published author and not a well-known fanfiction writer. One way to avoid this would be to stick to writing a type of fanfiction known as one-shots. One-shots are never more than one chapter long and are like short stories. These typically make use of characters and settings that already exist while adding a new plot element or character to the mix. These types of works are ideal for writers to beta test ideas prior to writing their own original work using their idea.

The third step is after the work is published as fanfiction to wait a week or two and then check out the comments and reviews written on it. It is important that the writer understands the writers of the reviews and comments could be almost any age so that he or she does not respond harshly to any negative comments. Instead, the writer should take any negative comments or reviews as constructive criticism and ignore any that are simply insulting without any constructive criticism.

However, not every work will have comments or reviews written after a week or two and this does not mean that the writer had a bad idea - it could just mean that not many people read fanfiction. The writer sharing their fanfiction on social media fanfiction groups and requesting feedback from the group members can fix this. An example of a social media post would be:

Hello Fanfiction Lovers,

My username is FicWriter108 and about two weeks ago I posted my first Harry Potter fanfiction and so far I have gotten no reviews or comments. I am looking to improve my writing so I would greatly appreciate it if some members of this group could read over my work to share any constructive feedback that they have on it with me. This feedback should not just be on my writing ability, but rather on my plot elements, characters, and settings.

Thank you for your time,