Confessions of a Geek. . .

I enjoy fan fiction. There, I did it. I revealed a dark secret of mine. I confessed something that will once and for all, show me for the true geek that I am. Of course, the biggest hit to my ego will be when all of you stare blankly at the screen, scratch your heads and guffaw, "What is fan fiction?" Here I am, almost ready to send myself into Fan Fiction Anonymous Help Groups and none of you even have the slightest idea what it could be. You can all feel safe in knowing that you aren't even the slightest bit of geek. I applaud you. As for the two other people who have a clue what it is, now you know that I share your burden.

Fan fiction is basically the writings by a fan of a particular television show, video game, book series or comic book. Basically, a fan of a series writes events and stories involving already established characters. It's tales about already trademark and copyrighted characters thus it can never be formally published. It's a fans way of progressing stories that they love and maybe turning the tale in a way they would have preferred. The stories can be found all over the internet. You name the series and I will bet my pinky there is some fan fiction out there about it.

Most of it is absolutely horrendous. The grammar is bad and the stories are unorignal. It's funny I'd harp on unoriginality when it is writings based off someone else's idea. Yet there is some really good stuff out there. Obviously, you need to enjoy the series they are writing about or you'll probably be drawn into a coma. Believe it or not, some of it can be incredibly creative and orignal. They take known characters and put them into totally unusual situations. I even know some now published authors that where once guilty of being fan fiction writers.

I don't spend my entire days reading the stuff. Like I said, I do find most of the writings a waste of time and I quit reading after a paragraph (probably, just like the majority of you did with this post). I still find myself hunting out the occasional piece of fan fiction. It's fun reading about the stories of characters that you no longer see because the film is over, the television series is cancelled or the book series is completed. You get to see those characters for one more time.

I think the thing I enjoy most is the 'What If'. I've always been a big fan of 'What If' something elese happend instead of what really went down. Probably one of the reasons I also like historical fiction. I like to play out scenerios that didn't happen in the world we live. Oh man, I'm really confessing to some major geekhood here.

The final question you may ask is have I ever written such stories. Have I ever been guilty of fan fiction. I have to admit that if I was dragged off to trial then I would be found guilty. Maybe not given a life sentence but no jury would find me innocent. It may be the final nail in my geek coffin. Though, all traces of said fan fiction will be buried under 600 pounds of dirt and locked into a unbreakable, sealed vault if anyone ever comes hunting for it.

That is my confession for the day. Hopefully, you can all still look at me with a straight face. Or maybe you will all open up your Microsoft Word and type up a story about 'What If Chris Spicer wasn't such a geek!'

Or maybe my geeky side makes me that much more adorable? No? Well, you can't fault me for trying.